Sunday 30 June 2013

How to Use Google+ to Expand Your Business Influence

Are you looking to tap into the power of Google+?

Is your business leveraging all that Google+ has to offer?

Have you created a personal profile or business page on Google+, but want more influence?

Why Google+?

According to GlobalWebIndex, Google+ now has 359 million active users, which puts it ahead of Twitter’s 200 million active users. With that jump in numbers, it’s clear that now is the time to use Google+ to promote your brand.

Here’s an updated guide on all of the things you need to take advantage of Google+ to gain more exposure for your content and your business.

#1: Claim Authorship With Your Personal Google+ Profile

Google uses Authorship to create a visual tie between you and the content you publish. The enhanced search result listings help readers identify your content at a glance and help you build authority and influence.

There are two ways you can claim your Google+ Authorship.

You can either register an email from the domain that you contribute to (you@socialmediaexaminer.com, for example) or you can link your content with your Google+ profile. If you contribute to multiple blogs, I suggest the latter.

Here’s how:


  • First, in the author bio of each of your blog posts, include a link to your Google+ profile with a ?rel=author tag attached to the end of it. It should look like this: https://plus.google.com/118321989430962111396?rel=author
  • Next, go to the Contributor to section on the About tab of your Google+ profile and add a link to your author page for each blog that you contribute to.


Add contributor links on Google+ personal profiles.

When you’ve claimed your Authorship, your Google+ profile photo will automatically show up next to each of your posts in search results.


An example of how content looks in search results with Google+ Authorship.

As an added bonus, you can look under the Labs section of Google Webmaster Tools to see analytics for all of the posts that are linked to you via Google+ Authorship, including posts that aren’t published on your own website. This is especially helpful for writers who contribute to multiple blogs.


Viewing analytics for all your Google+ Authorship-claimed posts in Google Webmaster Tools.

Google has hinted that they are working on a system to rank content based on the influence of the author and it’s presumable that one of the ways they will do this is through the use of Google+ Authorship.

Claiming your Google+ Authorship will enhance your visibility in search results, create more authority for your content and provide valuable insights into which content receives the most attention from readers.

#2: Make a Direct Connection Between Your Business Website and Your Google+ Page

The Google+ badge allows you to link your Google+ page to your website. Using the badge will help you increase your Google+ audience from your website and from within search results.

Install a Google+ badge on your website to let readers follow you on Google+ without leaving your site.
badge

Social Media Examiner’s Google+ badge in the sidebar.

When you add the Google+ badge for pages to your site, an active Follow widget will show up next to your listing in search results.
page in search results

Google+ page display in search results.

You can also use the Direct Connect option to link your Google+ page to your website without using the official Follow badge or button. This is simply one line of code that is added to the <em>head</em> element of your website. This code can be found further down on the Google+ badge page.

Much like Authorship for Google+ profiles, this piece of Direct Connect code will help establish your blog as a publisher by tying it to your Google+ page with a rel=“publisher” tag.

direct connect

Direct Connect your Google+ page to your website.

Once you connect your website to your Google+ page, the latest status update (and timestamp) will show up in search results. Ensure the best first impression to visitors who may come across your Google+ page in search results and keep your page posts up to date.

Use the connection between your website and your Google+ page to increase your followers and establish your business as a source of quality, authoritative content.

#3: Start Using Hashtags

Hashtags are a useful tactic to get added exposure to users beyond your followers and Google+ has recognized them for a long time.

But now they are prominently displayed next to every update.


Hashtags on Google+ updates.

If you don’t voluntarily place hashtags in your updates, Google+ will sometimes suggest hashtags for you. Be sure that what it chooses is in line with the topic of your update.

#4: Express Yourself With Bigger, Better Cover Photos

If you’ve visited your profile or page recently, you’ve likely gotten the message that Google+ cover photos are now bigger. Take advantage of this great visual branding opportunity and upload an impressive design that is 2120 pixels wide by 1192 pixels high.


Social Media Examiner’s cover photo.

You can use your cover photo to showcase your new products, express your brand’s image, share your physical location, show what your average customer looks like and advertise your next major event. With a good photographer or graphics team, the possibilities are endless.

#5: Use Google+ as Your Business Page

Boost followers and exposure on Google+ for your business page instead of your personal profile when you interact with others on Google+ as your page. To make the switch from your personal profile to your page, click the dropdown arrow next to your picture at the top right of your Google+ screen; your page will be listed under your active profile. Simply click on your page and you’re ready to go.


Select your Google+ page to use it throughout the network.

Now, you should see the photo for your page at the top of your Google+ display.

Similar to how you can use your Facebook Page to like and comment on other Facebook Pages, you can use your Google+ page to +1 and comment on other Google+ pages.


A Google+ page’s comment on another Google+ page.

Use your Google+ page when you interact with people in Google+ communities and to interact with the people (personal profiles) who are following your page and people who share public updates, regardless of whether they are following you.

Find the most active Google+ pages, public personal profiles and communities to start interacting with and you will gain more exposure for your Google+ page and your business.

#6: Host Google+ Hangouts

If your business isn’t ready to invest in webinar or online meeting software, Google+ hangouts can be a great, free alternative. While you can only have 10 participants actively on video, you can stream the video to an unlimited number of viewers using YouTube, making it much like a webinar.


Google+ hangout with multiple panelists.

You can use Google+ hangouts for a variety of things including interviews, panel discussions, live webinars (with screen-sharing), private meetings and just about anything else you can think of. Best of all, you can keep the recordings to add to your YouTube channel, boosting your video content.

Head over to the Google+ hangouts page to see all of the live hangouts happening right now. You might find some open invite hangouts that you can jump into to get to know your audience better or you can create an open hangout party in hopes that some members of your Google+ audience are online and want to chat.

#7: Join and Create Communities

Google+ has a large variety of communities to choose from, similar to the selection you might find on Facebook or LinkedIn. If you can’t find the right community for your business, you can create it using your personal profile or your page.


A selection of Google+ communities formed around social media.

Like many other social network groups, Google+ communities attract spam but Google+ has the best spam management system in terms of catching spam and holding it for approval by the moderator instead of making it public. Moderators can also quickly remove and ban users who repeatedly spam.


Google+ community spam notice.

If you want to circumvent spam in your own conversations, create your community as private and invite people of your own choosing. Alternatively, you can set your community as public and moderate all requests to join the community.

#8: Get Local

Google+ has replaced Google Places and customers who are on Google+ leave reviews on your local Google+ places page regardless of whether you are active there.

Why Is Google+ so important for local businesses?

First of all, search results now show the reviews, additional details and photos on your Google+ local places page.


Google+ places page in search results.

Next, Google+ local users receive prompts to review your business if they search for it on Google.


Suggestions for places to review on Google+ from a user’s search history.

Last but not least, Google+ is looking to become an even bigger resource for local through their mobile app for iOS and Android.


The main screen of the Google+ local app.

If you don’t have a Google+ local places page or haven’t claimed yours yet, you can start by going to Create a Page, select Local Business or Place and enter your phone number. Google+ will connect you with your page if it already exists or prompt you to create one.

Your Turn

From claiming Authorship to participating in communities, these Google+ features can do a lot to help you establish authority, increase visibility and grow an audience.

What do you think? Have you used any of these features? What Google+ features do you find most beneficial for your business? Please share in the comments!


author: Kristi Hines
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/google-plus-for-business/

Thursday 27 June 2013

How to Drive More Facebook Traffic to Your Website

Are you using Facebook ads to drive traffic to your website?

Did you know that when people share your website content on Facebook, you can turn that shared content into a Facebook ad?

You can do that with Domain Sponsored Stories.

Domain Sponsored Stories are inexpensive and easy to run, and you don’t need a Facebook Page to start a campaign.

In this blog post, you’ll learn what Domain Sponsored Stories are and how you can create your own today.

What Are Domain Sponsored Stories?

A domain is a website that you control.

A Sponsored Story is a Facebook ad that promotes the action performed by a Page or user’s friend, follower or fan.

A Domain Sponsored Story, then, is a Facebook ad that will promote a Facebook user’s interaction with a website that is under your control.

What Do Domain Sponsored Stories Look Like?


As you can see, the only difference between this Domain Sponsored Story and a typical post is the “Sponsored” tag at the end.

Why Create a Domain Sponsored Story?
Domain Sponsored Stories are low-maintenance ad units and you can run
them in the background to constantly drive traffic to your website. Here are a few reasons to use them:


  • Increase the reach of your blog posts.
  • Increase traffic to product Pages and impact revenues.
  • Reach users who missed content the first time. Hopefully you understand why you should promote your Page content to reach fans who may have missed it the first time. Only half of your fans are on Facebook every day and even then, they’re active during a small window. The same holds true for users catching their friends’ content. Promote a user’s interaction with your website and more of their connections are likely to see it.

Privacy Clarification

Advertising through Domain Sponsored Stories does not override your privacy settings.


If you share a post from ABC.com and that share is turned into an ad, only the people who were already eligible to see the original share will see it in an ad.

The Limitations of Domain Sponsored Stories


  • Someone may share a post using an unflattering comment. You may spend money to help promote that post because you cannot choose which share to promote or not promote.
  • If you have a low-traffic website that gets very few shares, Facebook has little share activity to turn into ads. Whether you reach your daily budget or not is partially dependent upon the volume of daily share activity from your website. You need users who are already sharing your website content.
  • Domain Sponsored Story ads do not lead to increased Page likes. Depending on what’s shared, they may not lead to sales or conversions. They only lead to increased website traffic.

You’ll need to determine whether the benefits of Domain Sponsored Stories outweigh the limitations. As someone who owns a website that turns traffic into revenue, I find them extremely useful.

Results of Domain Sponsored Stories

Back in November, Brendan Irvine-Broque shared how PageLever used a Domain Sponsored Story to get nearly a 10% CTR. That means that one of every 10 users who saw the ad clicked on it. That’s insane!

How did it work?


  • PageLever started a Domain Sponsored Story campaign.
  • They wrote a controversial blog post called Fact Check: Why Mark Cuban is wrong about Facebook.
  • Sean Parker, who had 540,000 followers at the time, shared that blog post on Facebook.
  • Parker’s share was turned into a Domain Sponsored Story ad that surfaced to his friends and followers.

The trick, of course, is to get an influencer like Sean Parker to share your content. That’s not always possible, but when it happens, the share can make your promotion infinitely more effective.

Create Your Own Domain Sponsored Story

#1: Claim Your Domain

From your Insights Dashboard, click the green Insights for your Website button at the top right.

Facebook Insights dashboard.
That will bring up a pop-up that looks like this:


Fill in this pop-up to generate the meta tag to paste into your website.

Enter your website’s domain (no www) and link it with either your personal profile or your Facebook Page. If you are the only person who will need to access any Facebook Insights associated with your website, choose yourself. Otherwise, you can select a Page so that all admins of that Page have access.

#2: Add the Meta Tag to Your Site

In the step above, you were presented with a meta tag. Copy and paste it between the < HEAD > tags of the template of your site. This way, the meta tag will appear on every Page shared from your domain.

How you do this will depend on the CMS you use. I use Genesis Framework, and I can edit this area within Theme Settings or Simple Hooks. The All-In-One Webmaster plugin also provides a field for this.

Only shares from Pages containing this meta tag will qualify for Domain Sponsored Stories.

From your Insights Dashboard, your domain will now accumulate stats. Here’s an example.
Track Facebook activity associated with your domain in the Insights Dashboard.

If you don’t see any stats a day later and you know there have been shares to Facebook from your site, re-do steps 1 and 2.

#3: Create Your Domain Sponsored Story

To create a Domain Sponsored Story, you should use Power Editor, a browser plugin. It offers numerous advantages over the self-serve ad tool.

When you create an ad, do the following:


  • Select Sponsored Story as the ad type.
  • Click About people sharing links to your domain.
  • Select your domain in the destination.

Set up a Domain Sponsored Story in Power Editor.

Complete your ad and upload as you normally would (again, read the Power Editor tutorial if you need more help here). Monitor your results within the ad manager during the coming days.

Your Turn

Domain Sponsored Stories offer an inexpensive and low-maintenance option for increasing your website traffic from Facebook. The stories can be optimized and focused to promote specific content based on where you paste the meta tag in your website.

What do you think? Do Domain Sponsored Stories seem worthwhile to you? Have you tried them? What results are you seeing? Let me know in the comments below!



author: Jon Loomer
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-drive-more-facebook-traffic-to-your-website/

Thursday 20 June 2013

Research Shows Blogging a Top Focus for Marketers

Do you ever wonder what tactics, tools and strategies other social media marketers are using?

Regardless of how long you’ve been involved in social media, chances are you have some questions that you’d like answered.

Questions such as, “What are the best social management tools?” or “What are the best ways to engage my audience with social media?”

These and many more questions were answered in the 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, which surveyed over 3000 marketers with the goal of understanding how they use social media to grow and promote their businesses.

Here are some interesting findings from the survey:

#1: Marketers Want Most to Learn About Blogging

When asked what social media platform they wanted most to master, 62% of marketers said blogging, putting it in first place slightly ahead of Google+. This answer is consistent with other studies, which show that the appetite for blogging education is growing.

An important trend to consider is that 28% of marketers now have mobile-optimized blogs. This is highly significant when you consider that the number of smartphone subscribers in the world has broken the 1 billion mark.


Blogging takes first place as the social media platform most marketers want to learn about.

Key Consideration:

The power of blogging to reach huge audiences and prospective customers cannot be underestimated. If you want your voice to be heard on the social web, you need to have a blog.

If you’ve just started blogging for business, focus on consistently giving your audience helpful advice that solves their problems. If you’re not 100% sure what kind of content to offer, survey your customers and ask them to tell you. Asking your customers not only gives you valuable insights about what they find useful, but can help to promote your blog as well.

Here are more tips about blogging for business.

#2: Blogging Highly Valued by the Pros

Most marketers (49%) selected Facebook as the single most important social platform for their business, followed by LinkedIn (16%), blogging (14%) and then Twitter (12%). But for the Pros (marketers with three or more years of social media experience), blogging jumped to second place!

Similarly, a recent Technorati report on Digital Influence also indicated that 86% of influential marketers blog consistently, and a majority of them do not produce much content outside of their blogs.


Blogging plays a more important role for experienced marketers, compared to less-experienced marketers.
Key Consideration:

Consumers are looking for “trusted digital friends” to give them advice on what to buy and where to go. Experienced marketers know that offering valuable advice on their blogs generates trust and influences consumers’ buying decisions. If you produce compelling articles and useful advice on your blog, you’ll become a trusted source of information, and people will start to spend more time there, eventually becoming your customers.

#3: Podcasting Finally Growing Up

Marketers were asked to indicate how they plan to change their social media use in the near future. While only 5% are currently using podcasting, a significant 24% plan on getting involved this year. That’s a nearly five-fold increase!

The report shares three reasons why interest in podcasting is growing: Apple’s introduction of a dedicated podcasting mobile app, smartphone subscriptions topping the 1 billion mark, and major car manufacturers such as BMW and Ford starting to integrate podcasting technology into new cars.


Up from 5% to 24%—the numbers show that interest in podcasting is growing rapidly.

Key Consideration:

Marketing expert Seth Godin says it’s not a good idea to try to sell anything to a stranger. It’s true. But when the right people connect with your voice through podcasting, they gradually become engaged and start to pay attention.

Pat Flynn often says that other than meeting face-to-face, podcasting is probably the best way to interact with your prospects. So if you’ve been thinking about breaking into podcasting, here are the technicalities of setting up, as well as some tips for building a successful podcast with a loyal audience.

#4: Only 1 in 4 Marketers Able to Measure Social Media ROI

When asked to rate their agreement with the following statement, “I am able to measure the return on investment for my social media activities,” only 26% of marketers agreed! What’s interesting about this survey is that social media is clearly a core strategy for businesses, yet measuring it remains a mystery.


Measuring social media continues to be a challenge for marketers, as only 26% are able to do so.

Key Consideration:

Research shows that for many businesses, measuring social media ROI is still too basic—focusing on likes, followers and mentions.

During Social Media Marketing World 2013, Nicole Kelly, author of How to Measure Social Media, said business executives and funders of social media campaigns are looking for real business metrics such as sales, revenue and costs. The challenge for marketers is to learn to speak their language by showing how social media fits into the sales funnel and how it impacts the bottom line. Here’s a great piece from Nicole that explains how to measure social media.

#5: Two-Thirds of Marketers Uncertain About Facebook Marketing Effectiveness

Perhaps the most surprising finding in this study was that most marketers don’t really believe in Facebook! Sure they use it, but they don’t really think it is effective. Only 37% agreed with the statement “My Facebook marketing is effective.” Specifically, 44% of B2C marketers agreed with this statement, while only 29% of B2B marketers concurred.


Only 37% of marketers agree that their Facebook marketing efforts have been effective.

Key Consideration:

Make no mistake, Facebook IS an effective marketing platform and there are numerous case studies to prove this. It’s possible that some marketers who participated in this survey hadn’t actually tracked their Facebook marketing campaigns and were uncertain about their own efforts.

However, research also indicates that Facebook seems to work better for B2C than B2B. If you have a B2B brand, don’t be discouraged. Here’s some advice from Marketo, a B2B company that has been very successful on Facebook.

Other Significant Findings

Tactics and engagement are top challenges for marketers.

When asked what top social media challenges they are facing today, marketers said that tactics and engagement strategies were at the top of the list. No matter what kind of company you have or what products you sell, you can improve engagement with your audience on any platform including Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. Here are some great tips to improve engagement.

Increased exposure and traffic top benefits of social media marketing.

A significant majority (89%) of marketers indicated that their social media efforts have generated more exposure for their businesses, while 75% said that increased website traffic was the second major benefit. Social media is essentially a word-of-mouth tool. It’s where friends discover and share interesting ideas, including the ones on your site! Here are some tips to drive traffic to your site using social media.

More time spent on social media equals greater benefits.

If you’ve ever wondered whether more time invested in social media produces better results, the answer is “yes.” According to the survey, with as little as six hours per week, 92% of marketers indicated their social media efforts increased exposure for their businesses. More than half of marketers who spent 11 hours or more per week saw improved sales. Do you think you could put a little more time into social media marketing every week?

Fascinating differences between B2B and B2C.

As expected, Facebook dominated among B2C brands, though it was interesting to see LinkedIn and Facebook tie for first place among B2B brands. Only 5% of B2C marketers said LinkedIn played an important role for them. Twitter and blogging are also valuable platforms for B2B marketers. Another surprise was that B2B marketers showed zero interest in Pinterest.


Which platforms play the most important role for B2B and B2C marketers?

Your Turn

What do you think? How does your own experience compare to these findings? Please share your comments in the box below.

Image from iStockPhoto.
author: Patricia Redsicker
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/new-research-shows-blogging-a-top-focus-for-marketers/

Sunday 16 June 2013

Tips To Write An Effective PPC Advertisement Copy

Search Engine Marketing is one of the best ways to reach your customers online. Among the many useful methods used in Search Engine Marketing, PPC advertisement (or Pay Per Click) is the most effective way to develop your business. Ads that appear on social networks, on the sides or at the top of search engines, will only be charged when there is a click on the advertisement. In other words, you only have to pay when users land on your websites.
These days, one has to be on their toes in order to do their marketing well or impress users. PPC advertisement is no different in this regard. The activity has its own challenges when it is initiated practically.
To help you effectively write your PPC advertisement copy, here are some great tips. 

PPC Advertisement Tips

1. Keywords In The Ad Copy Has A Big Role To Play

Even though this is a well-known fact, there are several ads that do not include anything that is similar to a user’s search query. Adding keywords in text-based ads will trigger ads quickly and more frequently. It would be great if you can use the keyword in the display URL in addition to one more appearance of the distinct keyword. 

2. Let Your Ad Be More Relevant To The Destination Page

No matter if it is a website page or a landing page specific to a campaign, the ad ought to be relevant to the destination page. When a reader goes through the promotion, benefit and any kind of offer in your text-based ad, they expect to see more details as they click it. Hence if you can ensure that the destination page is more relevant to the text ad, it will help you improve quality scores, bounce rates and conversion rates big time. 

3. Make It Easier & More Effective

Here, you can take the short and sweet way by directly inviting your customers by using phrases like “Reserve today”, “Learn more” and “Order Now”. You can avoid longer phrases like ‘Click here to buy’. This might sound strange, but it is proven that such methods grab a visitor’s attention more. 

4. Using Number Details Is Crucial

Numbers are sometimes catchier than words. You can include details like percentages, pricing or dates. The more specific your ad copies are the better. Numbers help you be more specific.

5. Design Your Ads With The Smaller Ad Groups In Mind

Never use too many keywords in a single big ad group. Rather try to make smaller and more targeted ad groups. Again the keywords come into play. Make sure you do not adjust your write-up to match with the keywords. Rather, make them appear in the most natural way. This will ensure better CTR (Click Through Rate) or overall quality scores. 

6. The Quality Of Your Content Is Always A Huge Factor

There is nothing much to explain on this factor. Spelling and grammar errors are no longer tolerated in the online industry, more so in an advertisement of 25 to 35 characters. Every now and then we come across many websites that tend to show minor typos, grammar and spelling errors. We tend to think that they are not quality sites. Imagine these errors in short write-ups like advertisements.

7. Maintain A Balance Between Emotion & Promotion

It is important to make a balanced mix of promotions with words that provoke feelings of emotions and that will help you hook your audience better. Remember, an overdose of any of these factors can backfire. The key is to think from a buyer’s point of view. Just ask yourself ‘What would I expect as a customer?, Is this advertisement exaggerated for my liking?, Are there enough promotions to impress myself?” This will definitely help you improvise your business.
To sum up, everything goes down to the basic rule – study, practice and then execute. You will be doing wonders by studying how advertisements in the past have succeeded and more importantly, why advertisements in the past have failed to succeed.
Remember, no ladder can be climbed with your hands in the pocket. So work hard and your will taste success. Good Luck!!

 Author: Nathan Brown
http://onlineincometeacher.com/traffic/effective-ppc-advertisement-copy/

Thursday 13 June 2013

5 Creative Ways to Drive More Traffic to Your Blog Posts

Do you want more traffic to your blog?

Are you struggling to catch the attention of more readers?

Does this sound familiar? You write an amazing piece of content. You made sure to craft an attention-grabbing headline. You share the link on Twitter, Facebook, even Google+.

Then you wait in breathless anticipation for your share count to skyrocket. Except it doesn’t.

Never fear, in this article you’ll find fresh ideas to generate buzz and get your posts noticed.
two prong

Use a two-pronged approach with a variety of platforms and different types of media to get your post shared. Image source: iStockPhoto.

Promote Your Article Across a “Wider” Variety of Platforms

Everyone is using Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn to promote their content. It’s tempting to focus only on these four networks because they have popularity and community numbers on their side.

However, you get a competitive advantage when you share your content on smaller or less well-known networks. These sites often have active, focused audiences and offer less competition for attention, so your content will stand out.

Here are some examples of smaller networks:


  • Quora.com—A question/answer-based website founded by two former Facebook employees. What makes Quora unique is that all content is created, edited and organized by its user community. The user base tends to be more business- and academic-oriented.
  • Tumblr—A microblogging site that recently made headlines when Yahoo! acquired it. Its user base tends to be younger and more “hip,” making it the perfect platform to share edgier, niche-based content.
  • Empire Avenue—Part social network, part social media marketing tool, Empire Avenue uses gamification to enable users to broadcast content across all of the other social networks. The primary members of EAv are small businesses, social media professionals and bloggers.

intel on empire ave
Intel on Empire Avenue.

Grab Viewer Interest With Different Types of Media
Sharing a link to your post isn’t enough to guarantee that it gets read. You need to give users a compelling reason to click your link.

Use one or more of these outside-the-box, creative methods to promote your posts with images, audio and video.

#1: Use Dubbler to Give a Short Audio Introduction

Available for iPhone and Android devices, Dubbler offers a simple way to record up to 60 seconds of audio on your phone, and then share it with other Dubbler community members.

dubbler
Dubbler brings the simplicity and fun of audio to the social world. Record your voice, add a filter or photo and share with your friends.

The app includes voice filters and lets you add a cover image.

Spark interest in your blog post and record an audio message that communicates your excitement and passion about the content in a way that text or static images can’t.

Add an image, enter your blog post URL in the description and you’ve got a ready-made sound bite that can be shared with the Dubbler community, as well as Facebook and Twitter.
link on post

Add a link to your blog post. Record your teaser audio and share.

#2: Create a 6-Second Preview of Your Post with Vine

Vine is an iPhone app that lets you create 6-second looping video shorts. A Vine video is a great way to give viewers a 6-second teaser about the blog post contents.

For example, this bicycle blog created a short Vine of one of their bikes and tweeted it with a link to their blog post about its features and availability.


Here is an example with the blog post URL in the video description:


Vine has an active and growing community to share with. Additionally, you can also share to Twitter and Facebook.

Since Vine is owned by Twitter, your video will display automatically when you tweet it, as well as provide a link to the blog post and specific hashtags.

There’s another benefit of using Vine. Tweets with Vine videos are four times more likely to be shared than standard video, according to research by Unruly.

#3: Create a SlideShare Overview of Your Post

SlideShare is more than a just a content-sharing platform.

With 51.6 million monthly visitors, SlideShare is a thriving community with five times as much traffic from business owners than Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

A presentation by Pam Moore, the Marketing Nut, demonstrates the cross-promotional opportunities between SlideShare and her blog. In this example, Pam created an overview of her blog post with the slides and then included a link back to her post in one of the presentation slides.

At the end of her post, she embedded the presentation, which links back to SlideShare and more of her content.
pam moore link

Pam put her links at the end of her presentation on her closing slide.

Your finished presentation will be visible and searchable from within SlideShare and you can extend its reach and share it to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and LinkedIn.

#4: Pin Your Post to a Pinterest Group Board

Pinterest allows you to pin on individual boards and collaborate by pinning to contributor boards. The benefit of pinning to a contributor board is increased exposure. When you pin to a contributor board, your fellow contributors see the pin and so do their followers. The more members and followers a group board has, the more people will see your pin.

Here are some tips for pinning your post to Pinterest:


  • Choose an interesting image from your blog post to pin
  • Make sure the title of your blog post is visible on the image you choose
  • Add keywords to the description
  • Use hashtags, if they’re relevant
  • If you mention someone in your blog post, you can @ mention them on Pinterest, too
  • Pinterest will add the URL to your blog post

blog post on pinterest
A great way to increase exposure for your blog post.

#5: Instagram an Image From Your Post

Instagram has a constantly updating feed of images that is viewed by over 100 million monthly users. Sharing your main blog image, overlaid with the post title, is a great way to drive organic traffic to your blog. You can leverage the sheer volume of Instagram traffic by using the same blog post image that you shared to Pinterest. Instagram is also very hashtag-friendly! Here’s an easy way to post your picture to the Instagram community and beyond:


  • Save your blog image to Dropbox
  • Access Dropbox from your mobile device
  • Upload the image to Instagram
  • Add any relevant hashtags and the URL of your blog post to the caption, using Bitly to shorten and track click-throughs
  • Be sure to @ mention anyone you referred to in your post
  • Remember to share your Instagram image to Tumblr, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and Foursquare

Pro Tip: Twitter no longer displays the actual Instagram. Instead, it links to the image. You can use IFTTT to circumvent this issue. Here’s the recipe and here’s what the tweet will look like using IFTTT.


Get Creative When Promoting Your Blog Posts

There are many other creative ways to promote your blog post. Don’t be afraid to try something new!

Just because no one else is doing it doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea. Some tactics will resonate with your readers. Some will not. And that’s ok. The important thing is to keep innovating.

What do you think? Have you used any of these creative alternatives? Do you have another, outside-the-box idea for promoting your blog posts? Please let me know your suggestions in the comments below.

Image from iStockPhoto.

Author: Kimberly Reynolds
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-creative-ways-to-drive-more-traffic-to-your-blog-posts/

Sunday 9 June 2013

Arnold Schwarzenegger - Mind, Power & Success



Love him or hate him, Arnold Schwarzenegger has got to be 1 of the most inspirational people for the last 20-30 years. I have always enjoyed his movies growing up and have the greatest respect for him and for what he has achieved. If you are willing to listen, you can just learn from his successes, his failures in this video..
Hope you will enjoy it.

Thursday 6 June 2013

5 Mobile Social Media Marketing Ideas to Grow Your Business

Your customers and prospects are using smart phones.

Have you figured out how to connect with them using mobile social media marketing techniques?

Mobile is not as difficult as it may seem, especially when you access it with the social media tools you’re already familiar with.

With that in mind, I’ll reveal 5 ways you can use social media to integrate mobile marketing into your business.

#1: Connect With Prospects On LinkedIn Mobile

The LinkedIn mobile app brings a streamlined version of the desktop site to your smartphone or other mobile device. You’ll have access to all the key LinkedIn features, including updates, your profile, messages and groups.
linkedin home screen

An example of the LinkedIn home screen on a smartphone.

From your LinkedIn home page, tap on your profile photo to access your profile screen to see who has viewed your profile recently. If someone has viewed your profile, it’s a good indication that they might be interested in hearing from you.

With the mobile app, you can reach out to them from your phone or tablet. Just tap on their profile photo and say hello to them via LinkedIn.

Allowing the app to send you push notifications is a great way to stay in touch with your LinkedIn connections, even when you’re away from your desktop computer.

#2: Build Your Brand on Instagram

Many people think of Instagram as nothing more than a photo-sharing app for personal use, but you can also use it to promote your corporate or personal brand.

In addition to sharing photos of his own travels, Dave Kerpen, author of Likeable Business and CEO of Likeable Media, uses Instagram to build brand awareness by posting pictures of the Likeable foam hand at baseball games around the country.
dave kerpen

A picture of the Likeable foam hand from Dave Kerpen’s Instagram feed.
Shelly Kramer, founder of integrated marketing firm V3 uses humor to extend her brand’s personality when she shares Instagram photos with her clients and followers.
shelly kramer

Shelly Kramer posted “More evidence of my really bad, terrible, horrible day.”

When you post images from your mobile device to Instagram it can help you form a strong connection with your audience and build a visual representation of your brand. Consider using similar tactics to promote your brand and build awareness through this popular social platform.

#3: Use Promoted Tweets to Target Mobile Users

Did you know that 55% of users who log into Twitter every month do so at least once using a mobile device? You can reach these people by using Promoted Tweets to display your tweet to users who access Twitter from a mobile device.

Sprint uses promoted Tweets to capture the attention of potential customers who are using Twitter from their smartphones with a tweet that offers $100 to people who switch to Sprint as their mobile carrier.
sprint promoted tweet

Sprint’s Promoted Tweet is surfaced only to users viewing Twitter on a mobile device.

Mobile targeting on Twitter will let you tailor tweets to appeal to prospects and customers who use smartphones. You’ll want to keep this tactic in mind as mobile usage continues to grow.

#4: Drive Traffic to Mobile Sites With Facebook’s Promoted Posts

Unlike Facebook Ads or Sponsored Stories, which display in the right sidebar, Promoted Posts are visible to mobile users because they display in the Facebook news feed.

Below is an example of a Promoted Post that drives traffic to a landing page on the company’s mobile website. The image on the left shows an ad that’s integrated into a user’s Facebook stream. The ad drives prospects and customers to a landing page on the company’s mobile website, as shown in the image on the right.
facebook promoted post

Use Facebook’s Promoted Posts to show ads in the news feeds of mobile users.

Retailers, e-commerce sites, mobile app developers and traditional businesses have all used Facebook’s native advertising to acquire new customers cost-effectively.

#5: Use a QR Code to Increase Your Social Audience

Research indicates that 27% of all smartphone owners have scanned a QR code. And, while QR codes aren’t going to be around forever, they’re still a great way to connect with people using social media on their mobile devices.
qr code

Use a QR code to grow your Twitter audience.

Here’s a simple technique you can use to get more Twitter followers using QR codes. Copy the URL and visit Mobile-Barcodes. Paste the URL into the QR code generator and hit Submit. Instantly, you’ll have your very own QR code, which can be saved to your desktop.

Now you can add the QR code to any printed materials—business cards, brochures, posters, even T-shirts. People who scan the QR code will be driven to your Twitter page, where they can follow you from their mobile device.

Go on, grab your smartphone and scan the code.

There’s no such thing as social or mobile anymore. There’s just social and mobile.

Today, approximately 40% of all Internet activity happens via mobile devices. It won’t be long before the majority of your prospects will be connecting with your company via mobile.

These five ideas on how to use social media to connect with people on their smartphones are just the beginning.

What do you think? How are you connecting with your customers on mobile devices? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Tags: brand awareness, instagram marketing, jamie turner, linkedin connection, linkedin mobile app, mobile, mobile marketing, mobile strategy, promoted post, promoted tweet, qr code, smartphone, social media marketing



Author: Jamie Turner
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-mobile-social-media-marketing-ideas-to-grow-your-business/