6 Steps towards Stunning Social Media Success

Social media is a two-way communication channel, which helps to carve a profit outline that sustain for a long time and would affect your business even in the least number. I have been receiving feedback from my readers and followers about their bitter experiences on social media, the results never did satisfy them. It was disheartening. As on my part, I am a social butterfly and love social media as a platform to hype my content.

Nothing could have been the perfect cup of coffee for my posts like social media. It engaging, scintillating and brings spanking results. No, I am not going to join a duel, people might feel distressed with social media, they are. However, my point is that there are reasons to become distressed.

You have some master keys to unlock your SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS. Do you want to know them? Hire a digital marketing consultant, or simply grab the following surefire ways.

· 

SHARE! SHARE! SHARE! BUT NOT YOURS, THE ONE WHOM YOU FOLLOW

It is not you alone who have engaging contents or has those ROFL or LOL post to burst people with laughter. Others too have cool stuffs in their wall, so share them. Share a cool infographic from your friend’s wall or may be a GIF that you find on a Google+ page. This helps to foster or bridge the gap of communication between you and your social media followers.

PROOFREADING MAKES YOU PERFECT

When you post something lamely on your social profile, you hardly think to proofread them. Check every word of the posts before you share them socially, read it backward. Then click on the Share button.

(#) HASHTAG MANIACS

You must create hashtags that are irresistible, have a wide amount of followers. Involve your community into it to have greater influence. Check out which hashtags are in trend and use them to exemplify your posts reach!

·          SHORTEN YOUR POSTS

      None will feel interested to read a long scoop or a scary paragraph on social media. Stay short and sweet. Twitter thus wins a bigger share as they keep the post short and sweet with just 140 characters. Social media is to notify what you have in store and not reveal all secrets at one-shot.

SHOW YOUR PERSONALITY

Bland, are you? Don’t be as your customers, followers or fans expect much more from you. When you are on social media, utilize every moment to show your brand personality and let your customer gain clairvoyance on the service your offer. Make them recognize the parameter that sets you out from other service providers.

·          IF DOUBTFUL, DON’T POST

If you are doubtful about the post you are going to share on social channels, then it is better not to share.

Therefore, if you think that you can take this as a strict social media principle if not Holy Grail to launch yourself on every social channel, then you are surely going to reach the success parameter.

This is a guest post from content marketing team of Unified Infotech Pvt. Ltd.

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10 Effective Ways to Increase Twitter Followers Everyday

Twitter the second most social media have taken online presence of business to a new level. With the real-time integration in Twitter, reaching out to a large pool of audience has become easier. Twitter focus on saying a lot with 140 characters. Twitter profile space is brief so the potential followers before clicking the “Follow” decide whether to stay or to click away from the profile. 

How can you increase the following?

Well, we have found many masterpiece contents that you must read to find out how twitter can help to increase followers since the inception of a business. Here is a small glimpse of those articles – 

• How to Get More Followers on Twitter | Twitip

• 5 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Presence | Problogger

• Kevin Rose: 10 Ways to Increase Your Twitter Followers | TechCrunch

• 10 Things Twitter Users Should Not Do | Valleywag

• Getting More Twitter Followers or Losing Them | Pistachio

• How to Get Followers and Interact With Them | Blog Building U

But if you spend so much time on Twitter then you are aware of the thing that all followers are not real you have a number of spam account followers on your profile. These accounts grow out strategies to increase the Twitter followers count in an unethical manner. However, quantity trumps quality in real business. Reading the above contents you can find out that by having your share of online presence in Twitter you’ll have to do more than create a few lines of code or click the ‘Follow’ button a couple thousand times. 

Therefore, we will ask our reader to follow these ten actions to optimize their Twitter presence since the day of inception. Here are a few tips to customize your profile so that potential followers stay convinced and you never miss a Tweet.

Check out this cool infographic to ramp up your Digital Marketing Services via Twitter - 

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Curtain Raiser for New Content Marketing Show in 2014

Marketers, netizens and online business owners go gaga over content marketing. We know content is KING and sharing contents on right platform is the QUEEN. If your online business needs more search visibility, you have to jump on the bandwagon of content marketing.

Well, 85% of the business has joined the show of content marketing this year and 42% have drafted a strategy to implement contents in action during the peak season of their business. So what is keeping you low?

Content is going to fill the sales pipeline to the brim if it conveys the right brand message with their formative text, visual appeal or audibility and that is enough to influence the readers. Content is no more textual, it is now both visual and audible, so you have more opportunity to share your brand stories. Contents go viral almost at any platform and it can reach any geographical barriers.

Hence, what you need is the perfect recipe and right kind of spices to look up for a rich gourmet brand story and serve it hot with eye-catching garnishing.

To know more keep look at this Infographic from Clicky:

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Google Plus Business Page – Get’s You Thinking

Google+

Do you have a social profile in it? …. If not have it now….

Let us cut to the good stuff. Here, we are going to cover some of the great benefits of having a Google Plus Business Page. Keeping up with the latest trends in social media is imperative for the business success. Google Plus at present may not have the same following as Facebook. However, it’s good to ride on the bandwagon now, than to chase later when its starts overflowing.

Here, we need to mention the synergetic effect of SEO and Social Media. Since, Google+ is going to reap great SEO benefits and web visibility, in spite of Google not being their creator.

You may be thinking:

•                    My social media marketing is complete with Facebook presence

•                    I am tweeting regularly, so I am always connected to the market

•                    I have sufficient web presence

•                    I don’t think the customers want me online

•                    I do not like to pick social media channels to publicize business. I don’t have faith in social media gibberish

People in business, you should refresh your thoughts on social media. Google Plus is no more a mumbo-jumbo. When it comes to dominate the web, you will never get to cover it 100%, but surely, you can close the gap between 100% and 10%. And Google+ does that.

Google+ Business Page is making a fast success. Is this the only reason to use Google Plus?

No, not certainly. Three more reasons are covered here, which tells why you must use Google+

1.                   Google+ has 359 million monthly active users, says Global Web Index Study, offering a market with huge potential to tap.

2.                   It’s the Second largest social media platform. Therefore, you must scoop the benefits before it rolls over for your competitors.

3.                   With the latest Google Algorithm update, all social network activity has become a great factor in determining your SERP. When it comes to SEO and social media, Google+ content will easily trump content on any other social platform.

Who May Be Using Google+?

The objective of joining a social media platform for business owners is mainly because of gathering leads. Thus, businesses using Google+ have seen a significant increase in the traffic after the platform received a major facelift in the month of May. The popular demographic user chart on Google+ shows that -

•                    63% are predominantly male

•                    They belong to the United States

•                    Mainly they are a tech savvy crowd

If you own a B2B company in the US, having tech savvy audience becomes a determining factor. It is crucial for B2B companies to get tech savvy.

Six Benefits of Having a Google+ Business Page – ‘boost your business discoverability’

Google+ Business Page works in a similar manner as Facebook Business Page. You need to be a Google+ member before opening a Business Page. With the Business Page, you will get another page that search Engines can index and will display your business rather neatly.

1.            Easy to engage with target customers - Potential customers are always on Google+, all you need is to gather them delicately. Do not shout out the marketing messages. Better, be polite. Talk to them, engage with them, and schedule the engagement time according to their convenience.

2.            Grow faster relationship - It is useless to use a bandwagon when it gets jammed. Start building relationship when the crowd is less as this will let you easily be heard.

3.            More professional in approach - Google+ is more professional and informational compared to Twitter and Facebook. Google + dominates the web world with quality content, which consumers like and appreciate.

4.            Google Hangouts and Video Chats - The Hangouts and live Video Chats make Google+ more interactive. Not only text, but you can also have talk sessions with your targeted customer. Big businesses spend thousand on marketing and survey, but you can do it in just $20 with a webcam and spending a little time.

5.            Future Integration of developed apps and tools - Google has some plans to integrate with different other tools and apps, thus you can reap great benefits.

6.            Better SERPs - Does your business need free visibility and web presence? Then ‘Google It’ now. Get more shelf space on search engine page results with Google+.

Make regular updates to the wall, link your business page to any content that you create. All is just too easy with Google+. So, stop reading and start creating a Google Plus Business Profile. 

Diluting the article in a gulf through this image from i2mktg

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Has Hummingbird Bitten The Content Marketing Sphere In 2014?

Picture Courtesy: Wally Nussbaumer, my friend from Ottawa.

“Little things hurt” the proverb is true if we consider the latest Google Algorithmic update icon- Hummingbird, the world’s smallest bird.

In the month of September 2013, Google launched the brand new Algorithmic update Hummingbird. It was a not a change, but a new algorithm that helped Google to pull the search results from the vast knowledge database. Hummingbird was a big update after caffeine in 2010.

Hummingbird affected more than 90 percent of the search results down the lane. That is no doubt a large chunk compared to Google Panda, which affected hardly 12 percent of the rankings. Experts are of the opinion that Google never released Hummingbird in September it was just an announcement, as in reality the algorithm has been running for several weeks prior to its announcement. 

Now all the dust settled and the points on Hummingbird has cleared out. And Google gave us clues on how it works, it is our responsibility to gauge larger affects beforehand as Google with come up with more updates and those can be huge blows to search world.

Have a quick view on Google’s Hummingbird from this infographic by HubShout.com to know why content marketers should shift their focus from keyword search to user-intent search.

It’s Time to Be Semantic

Stop focusing on keywords it's time to be semantic. Semantic, what's that? Semantic refers to meaning or definition of core keywords. This is the user’s main intent or query, which they look out or search. This aspect of Hummingbird has created a long list of implication in the content marketing sphere. 

Semantic search suggest choice of pages based on searchers main query and not on keyword-based result. This has given search engine a lot of information on how to serve the results that users are looking. Smart content marketers can utilize this to mitigate more traffic.

Prepare Snacky Contents, Don’t Overcook It with Keywords

We come across websites built or structured around some basic keywords. With their title tags optimized with specific keywords and the content too written around them. Doesn't it look overcooked with too many keywords of same type? Hope you remember keyword density!

Well, keyword density is yet not obsolete, but if you like to embrace Hummingbird you have to do away with the bad habit of over-stuffing your content with keywords. Prepare content that focus on the customer intent, something build on personas. For years, contents are developing on personas and Hummingbird is just an approach to re-affirm it.

If you know the key persona of your content, it becomes easier to know their intent, so have the right spice (semantic keyword list) to make your content tastier.

The Eternal Fight Begins: Semantic Search vs. Keyword Search

With Hummingbird update, shaking the red flag, before the angry bull (semantic search) it is going to make the matador (keyword-based search) suffer a lot - this was the general thought. And, it was no wrong in it.

How?

Make a quick search with the word “burger”, Google will come back with pages that offer burger recipes, some cool restaurants and their current offers they have on burgers.  Take a ride with semantic based search it will –

1. Figure out users intent. If you mention some ingredient such as ham, beef, mozzarella or seasoned bacon, then it confirms you want a recipe on burger.
2. Even it looks for the users search history to confirm whether user is going to click on recipe or restaurant links.
3. Will make queries on the users location to trace the nearest, best-optimized website offering home-delivered burgers.

Content Marketers – What Does Semantic Search Means To Them?

When you start designing your website page content, optimize contents in this ways -

For restaurateurs - Do not insert “Burger Restaurant” in the title tags. Rather use, “Burger restaurant in Tampa’s Ballast Point neighborhood."

For Marketers - If your company sells software, create tags that will say how your software can solve problems, such as “Payroll software for better small business payroll management” or  “ payroll software offering employee self-service”, just using “payroll software” won’t work this time.

Few Words To Tell You.....

We shared what we felt about Hummingbird and its influence in the content marketing sphere of today. And we can affirm that content marketing is more a mature form of marketing rather than a buzzword.

With Hummingbird, we can seek targeted set of audience, social signals from the regular sharing platforms, keeping website fresh, growing and increasing the authority. With hummingbird in action, most of the business blog has started to re-calculate their moves from the beginning of 2014.

So, off with those creases on your forehead! Just change your content strategy in the light of Google Hummingbird and diversify. Take a plunge in the content marketing pool and freshen up your website!

WAIT!!

Can you spare 9 more minutes from your jam-packed schedule, then you can have a bigger overview on Hummingbird Update and its effect on content marketing with this video from Koozai. 

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5 Blog Promotion Must-Do’s for Every Blogger

Bloggers, we do not think that there is a single day when you have stopped writing. Right?

You might take a daybreak from writing blogs, but what about blog promotion! You have to keep on sharing until it makes your traffic funnel saturated.

Blog promotion is one of the popular techniques used by search engine optimizers for internet marketing. Blog promotion is a great stage that can put ahead personal view, a picky service or everything related to a business or business hubs. And this is the main aim for every blogger or blog promotion.

An important feature about a blog is that it brings visitors with the help of a snacky content. The narrative writing style used in blog writing creates interest among blog readers. For that reason, the blogs draws more attention from visitors and help websites to fetch the maximum number of hits, a good rank and a high position in the search engine.

There are many ways to promote the blog. Moreover, we have to consider the various factors that affect blogs while promotion. Understanding those factors is helpful to make best possible use of blogging strategies.

Follow these five tips given below to promote your blogs and get more benefit from it.

Submit Blogs to Blog Directories

A blog directory is one of the great ways to promote your blogs. If you want your blog to stay visible in the world of web, then you have to submit your content to popular blog directories such as Bloggeries, OnTopList, GlobeofBlogs etc. You can also get backlinks to your blog post and it will be a great source of blog promotion for your business or products.

         

Email Marketing

You can get many applications in a blogging platform. Email marketing is another great way to promote your blog. It is done among a large pool of audience. Give out newsletters that performs the task of informing the subscribers regarding latest posts as well as various promotions that a blog is ready to offer.

Social Media

Today there are many social networking sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon, Myspace etc., and those sites take an effective role to play in the promotion of blogs. Spending some time on these popular social media sites helps you to can earn a huge visitor for your blogs or sites. You can also build a great network for your sites.

Commenting other Blogger blogs

Commenting on other blogger's blog is a good way to promote your blog at the Frontline, which really helps your blog to bring out the best. You can admire other bloggers who publish a similar kind of topic or post like your blog posts. This way your own work also is accepted and linked with the rest. Besides, it also helps to create backlinks for your blog and to convey good traffic for them. Just one thing to remember does it properly and do not go overboard.

Google+ Connection on Your Blog

Do not forget to use Google+ for your blog, switch your blogger profile to it that enables automatic sharing. Always add good quality content. The post should be 100% unique and grammatically correct with no spelling mistakes.

Apart from the above things, you can also hold some contests in your blog posts, as people will like to participate in them. This way you can get good traffic to your sites.

Image Source: Flickr

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Should we redesign our Website often?

This is a common question that I often answer my friends and visitors - how often should they redesign their website? My answer – “it totally depends on you?

You should ask yourself that does your website design really needs improvement or not. . Whether, the result generated by your website satisfies you. What is Your Thought?

If your answer is YES, then there is no need to improve your website design. Therefore, you might look at your other aspects like content, changes in gadget and improving them often. You can also add items to wish list that will increase the user experience. If SEO or search engine optimization is your main anxiety, then you may need some changes in technology, as it is the key to a successful redesign.

If your answer is NO, then you need to analyze the website and check which things needs improvement. Mostly the problem lies in the content on your website. So, check that where the problem lies whether in content or in morsel.

As per my point of view, reviewing the website quality.every year and redesigning it ensures a good traffic throughout the year.

How Much Active is Your Website?

If you have a lot of repeated visitor or customer and they connect with your website often, then they may get bored with the look of your website, but remember people also hate frequent changes. So, be very careful about the changes on your website during the redesign or makeover.

If you need to establish navigation, then do not tinker with it. It is actually something very good. Sit and discuss with your web designer about which elements are popular on your website and which elements are not. This will help you to take a good decision on how to make changes on your website without confusing your visitors.

One must also consider current website that should fit with your brand and sales strategy. If your website is giving the wrong intuition to your clients or visitors about who you are as a company owner, then it is the main reason to think about redesigning your website.. The brand users often judge your products by browsing through your website, so any negative imitation should be taken into consideration urgently. Use your own knowledge to guide your web design.

Think like “if I was a customer of this company what things might have given me the optimum satisfaction”. Think like the customers!

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Twitter Marketing – 10 Hot Tips to Steer Your Business with 140 Characters

Tweet! Tweet!

Do you want to have a sip of fresh ideas to promote marketing via Twitter?

In this last 6 years, Twitter has become the trendsetter in marketing. Since, more numbers of business owners have plunged into Twitter marketing, so you have to keep evolving fresh ideas so that the channel does not become stale.

Twitter is a great Microblogging tool that has hit the business town in 2006 like a wild storm and is continuing with similar rage. If you use it effectively, steering impossible marketing situations will become easy.

On Twitter, the tweet messages are just having 140 characters and hence your words need to creative, impactful and must add value to your customer’s life. This will help you to get the most out of the social media marketing.

If you think to be successful, then you cannot make all the tweets sent a similar marketing message. In that case, the best social media advice is to offer knowledge, fun and promotion all mixed together to encourage customers to converse with your business on Twitter.

10 Best Twitter Marketing Tips for the Business Owners

Twitter gives you the scope to share the instant thought of your business in 140 characters and thus make it popular. However, it sounds goofy as Microblogging is little tough. So, use innovative tips to build a strong presence in the web world –

·         Stuff Relevant Keywords in your Tweet

Make a list of relevant keywords that describes your business in the best way. Use these keywords when you compose your 140-character tweet messages.

·         Personalization of the profile

Customize your business profile to reflect your unique personality. You need to display the relevant information and must add your website address. It is good to craft @replies and promotional tweets that match your brand personality.

·         Draw their attention using the # (Hashtags) and curate conversations

You can give rewards to your followers by retweeting their tweets on your blog like #PUMA .They are encouraging their fans to tweet pictures of PUMA shoes.

@dimepieceLA25Jun: Our outfit of the day @ #dimepiecela thanks nylonmag @puma for these awesome Puma wedge sneaks!…

·         Strengthen your personal bonding with customers

1.You have to lighten the business tone to connect with your customer.

2.You must ask for the opinions and offer some witty tips to your customer.

3.You can add them to a private list of tweeters and retweeters.

4.Review them for great contents that you might have missed.

5.Thanks people for sharing or retweeting great things from your page.

·         You have to share a good story

People have to share web content, which are relevant to their niche. Like  sports good retailer must tweets pictures or stories on exciting sports like mountain climbing, riding etc. Share links of useful contents that are effective at growing and retaining followers.

·         You have to keep a track

You should shorten the web content in the form of Bit.ly to keep a tab on all your tweets. Like which one is re-tweeted and which got a follow. This helps you to choose the best followers.

·         Connect the right people

Remember 2 crucial twitter marketing tips: 1. Do not find people in the hope that they will follow you back automatically. 2. Try to find people who are more likely to follow you back. Use tools like Follower Wonk or WeFollow to find people who share an interest towards your business.

·         Refrain of the total automation

Twitter is not a robotic network, so you do not have to rely on the automation all the time. Do limit the social sync tools and auto-follow all the programs.

·         Maintain the standard platforms

Customers will try to look for you on other social profiles, so you must use the same social pictures to restore the same personality everywhere. You can add your LinkedIn account with Twitter account making your Twitter activities relevant to your business.

·         Use of tools to track

You need to have a good exposure, and for that, you must use tools, which helps you to know the conversion results of your regular tweets. Use HootSuite or Summify to filter your Twitter activities.

With these invaluable Twitter tips, you can hit the market with craze and dominance once more.

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