Thursday 29 March 2012

Avoid 6 Social Media Marketing Mistakes

Social media is a medium that helps marketers to understand customer requirements while also helping customers to understand the brand. Currently it is growing by leaps and bounds. The users do try to understand the company, brand, and product through various social media platforms, but if the company hasn't established a convincing reputation on social media platforms, the chances of losing customers are very high.

1. Unfinished Profile: This shows your inability to prove your strength online. Most of the marketers are making the mistake of not filling in all details in the profile. Unfinished profiles create a poor impression of the business and one that prompts people to believe that marketers are lazy. This is not the case. Ensuring an online presence with complete profile details as well goes a long way in helping the marketer's efforts.

2. Irregularity in Updates: This is the one of the most frequent mistakes made by marketers: they are irregular in posting updates. Or, they are not ready or armed with a plan for making comments, tweets, and updates. As a professional marketer, you have to plan your social media marketing strategy. Advance planning can help you save your valuable time while being consistent and prompt to the customer as well.

3. Less or no Interaction: If a visitor leaves a comment on your updates or writes something on your wall, you, as a marketer, must be ready to respond to them politely or thank them for the feedback. If you don't, you will lose your visitors' attention from your product and business. This will gradually lead to less and irregular visits on your profile. Hence it makes immense sense to participate in conversation threads and express thanks or write a nice reply to feedback left by visitors.

4. Absence of Inter-linking: This is a common and easy-to-fix mistake by most of the marketers. Inter-linking can make every follower/fan aware that you are also available on another social media sites. You must put every social profile/page link on your blog and website; you can also inter-link the social sites.

5. Afraid of asking visitors to 'Like' or 'Follow' you: As one survey shows, visitors 'like' or 'follow' those pages more often which asked for their approval and participation, as compared to those that did not ask. So, don't be afraid of asking for 'likes' or 'follows'.

6. Content Issue: There are a numbers of marketers, who publish content without bothering about its relevance. Content is one of the biggest tools for a marketer. It must be interactive and interesting. Ideally, you should post content that is not only interesting and interactive but also related to your business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6958024

Tuesday 27 March 2012

What Is Social Media Marketing And How Can You Use It For Your Business

If you are searching for the answer to the question "What is social media marketing?" then you can find out more information here. It is simply the process of promoting different brands, people, products, or services by using popular networking sites such as YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter. This type of online advertising has done wonders for small businesses. Read more about how these techniques can help your business.

Although radio and TV ads are just as effective for promoting products or services, they can cost a lot more money than promoting products on the internet. You will have to spend your entire budget on advertising campaigns that are not always guaranteed to be successful. As competition to promote businesses is fierce, individuals must take different advertising steps to attract customers.

The quality of your service or the product you are trying to sell will ultimately be the deciding factor in the global market, but visibility is just as important. The internet offers a world of opportunities for small and big businesses and you can get global exposure at little or no cost. This is the reason why it is essential that you learn about generating leads through social media.

The first step to take for generating leads using this strategy is to build your own business website. It is best to invest some time and money in creating a professional site that represents the product or service you are offering. Include your contact details, features of the product and any other information about your company. Make sure the keywords are search engine optimized before submitting the website to popular search engines.

If you are a member of Facebook or Twitter, you can use these sites as advertising options to place ads on profile pages of other people. One of the main advantages of using these networking sites is that you can place ads on profile pages of your target audience, so that they will be able to read about your products. Make sure you include Fan or Like button feature on the site so that other users can spread the word about your services or products.

As your company website has information about your products, you should create a dedicated blog to back it up. Write about the latest developments and keep your blog updated at all times. The blog will generate leads, especially if you put videos about the product you are offering via YouTube.

Online marketers should use every opportunity for building web presence that is provided by social networking sites. The wider your exposure, the higher your chances of visibility will be. So broadening your online presence will automatically ensure that you will generate more customer leads.

So next time you are asked the question "What is social media marketing?" you can confidently say that it is about promoting your products or services on networking websites. Online marketers must analyze the market and find out all the tactics and strategies that will help them attract potential customers to their websites. Popular networking sites are the strategies that you need to become successful in your business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6944787

Thursday 22 March 2012

Social Media Marketing Can Establish Your Brand

Every business needs a secure and reliable brand that draws customers in from search engines and social sites. Without effective branding, the website that you own is just one in hundreds of thousands, and you may be losing out to a more effective marketing campaign from your rivals. The recent proliferation of branding in media and particularly in social networking sites is partially as a response to the demand for more connections between the company and their customers, and partially because the business has seen the opportunity to directly market their goods to the general public.

Working with social media sites is an entertaining way of spending an afternoon, but if you are seriously committed to the idea of social media marketing, then you need to seriously step up a gear, and put a committed social media strategy into effect. Developing a strategy will allow you to lay plans and work out what is the best for your website, as well as the image that you want to present to the world. The latter question is the most important, because most people just do not realise that the first impression from a social media site can have the major role in whether someone wants to use your business, or not.

Making a good impression means clean, elegant design, a website without clutter, and posts and other content which is relevant and engaging. Without these aspects, your website is not likely to be picked up by other sites, and this is at least part of what will drive clients to your own site, and make them look at the things that they are offering. If you do your social media marketing correctly, then you will not only find yourself bringing in clients from the networks, but also more from search engines such as Google, and from other sites that you may not even have heard of.

There are many ways of branding in media, such as blogging, using Facebook and Twitter, or having a forum on your website. These will all bring you customers to your site, and will encourage them to return again. Using these forms of social media marketing allows you to get the best from your website design, and will also allow you to make contact with people outside the ordinary sphere of your visitors. Extending your reach like this means that you can get a good response from many new customers who would not notice you except for your online presence.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6943400

Thursday 15 March 2012

Use Pinterest for Business

Pinterest is among the quickest expanding social networking sites out there. In actual fact, it was one in all the quickest online websites to reach more than ten million users within the shortest time, outbidding YouTube and Facebook.

Now, what is Pinterest? Well, essentially, it is a virtual pin board and it allows you to organize and share all the beautiful stuff that you uncover on the internet. It is a fantastic website to start pinning photographs and visuals which you obtain on the web or from your hard drive into an area on a social network. Best of all, you may look through pin boards designed by other people and publish those interests also.

There are numerous brands that are getting to Pinterest and using it for their enterprise. So, how can corporations apply it for their advantage?

Below are the 5 main things you ought to keep in mind when utilizing Pinterest:

1) The first thing to recall is the fact that Pinterest is graphic, which means that it's virtually like Twitter except it's executed in images. The Pinterest visual design and style, which allows you to place a entire quantity of diverse images into a collage subsequent to each other, is exactly what separates it from all the other social media systems around and certainly one of the great things is the fact that every time you see a picture on the internet, no matter whether it is your own photos from your hard disk or other pictures online, you'll be able to pin that on to your various pin boards. You may group your pin boards into several unique groups to ensure that other people can do a search for them and find them.

2) Always remember that whenever you are working with Pinterest, you have to continue to keep the end-consumer in mind, what exactly are your clients thinking? For anyone who is likely to pin particular things regarding your business enterprise or particular pictures from your business on Pinterest, you would like to make certain that you are holding your consumer in mind by knowing exactly what are they trying to find and what sort of things might they be enthusiastic about finding on your diverse pin boards.

3) Ensure that you are letting your clients take part in your pin boards. Certainly one of the good things regarding Pinterest is that people can provide feedback, they are able to share, they are able to examine pinned things so that in turn, will share your content material amongst their network. You want to make certain that you are letting your community take part. It's not merely the engagement here either, it's the opportunity to crowd source your organisation, letting your buyers contribute their own data to your boards which is going to become a really wonderful viral potential.

4) It is very important to get your brand on Pinterest to the real world. So, basically, what you're heading to be undertaking will not only be having your brand inside your personal pin boards but you will be going to be letting people use those photographs to distribute the material out to their friends who are looking at their pins.

5) Ultimately, you need to be fast be early. Pinterest is very young; in truth, it's not even a year old and it's quickly expanding. Get out there and be one of the first inside your market to use Pinterest. It is going to be pretty effective when you begin making use of it ahead of all of your competition so sign up, play and have fun with it!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6910537

Tuesday 13 March 2012

What Is YouTube and How To Use It For Business

With today's technology, we have the ability to share videos over the Internet. The most common place to do this is Youtube. YouTube is a video sharing website where users can view and post videos, comment on videos, join groups, etc. Essentially, YouTube is a social network with the ability to view and post videos. YouTube allows paid advertising for businesses, as well as allows businesses to get their names out there for free. There are millions of potential viewers worldwide (over 200 million videos viewed daily) that are able to view your videos. Later, we will discuss what the benefits of being involved with YouTube are for your business and how a certain company's profit grew over 700% with the help of Youtube promotion, but for now let's start with the basics.
Think About Your Video

Let's say the overall goal is to post a video that is going to help promote your business in some way - whether that be by posting a tutorial, a commercial, some tips for your specific business, etc. It is important to remember your main goal and your target audience because you'll need to keep them interested in your video. Remember, this is your chance to get your video and business name out world wide, so it is important to keep the viewer's attention.
How To Set Up Your YouTube Videos

So you are ready to use YouTube. You have all these fantastic videos that you are ready to share with the cyber world, but what is the next step? First and foremost, you want to visit http://www.YouTube.com. This is Youtube's website. On the top right corner there is a link titled "Create Account". Follow the steps to create your account and then you will be ready to share away with your videos.

Before attempting to post your videos, remember that there are some requirements each video has to follow in order to be posted on Youtube. The majority of the time, this will not be a problem, with the most important guideline being that the video has to remain under 10 minutes. There are also file size requirements (100MB or less). The following is a beginners guide to uploading a video onto YouTube:

Very first thing you have to do to upload a video is click the "Upload Videos" link. These are located on the top right of the page and are on almost every page on Youtube.

Next you are going to be asked to briefly describe your video. You will first need to enter a title and a description for your video. Keep these simple as people are not going to want to read a long description (they are on a video watching site, not an E-Book site). After the description section there is an area to enter tags for your video. Tags are keywords that will help your video be found based off what the user is searching for. You are going to want to use important words for this section.

Following the tags section you will have to select a category and language to place your video in. It is important to select the correct category and language, as this will also help your video be found to users who are looking for that specific type of content. Finally, click "Go Upload A File". The next page asks if you would like your video to be available to the public, or private. If you are wanting to get your business name out there, you will want to keep this public as this allows the millions of visitors the opportunity to view your video. Next click, "Upload Video". This will bring you to a page to browse your computer for the video you wish to upload. After finding the video, select it and your video will be live within minutes.
Get People To See The Video

The video you just uploaded is a hidden gem among the sea of the internet. Next, we need to get people to find this gem. One very basic way to get people to view your video is to create a link on your business website to your YouTube video, or have your YouTube video embedded on your site itself. With that said, you can also link to any sites (business or social networks) that your business is linked with. Just remember, the more exposure to the video, the better. One great tactic that many businesses use is promoting some sort of contest through their YouTube account. The draw of winning something will bring in more viewers.

YouTube also allows users many great ways to get people to your video. When you initially signed up for YouTube, you created a channel. In other words, if you signed up as "Business 1", there is now a "Business 1 Channel" on Youtube. Having your own channel allows you to create your own playlists. This playlist can consist of videos you upload or videos others have uploaded that you have viewed and want to share with others. Sharing someone else's video may in turn entice them to share your video.

On the same note, underneath all videos (unless this option is turned off) there is a section for commenting. Commenting on other videos is a great tool to promote your business. Keep in mind, this DOES NOT mean to comment on someone's video "Check out my video...". This is spam, and will most likely be deleted. What you want to do is comment on a users video that is related to the topic of your video. Also, you want to keep the comments relevant and not so generic. A comment like "cool video", '"nice job", etc. will not gain you any attention. A comment that is more conversational shows the author that you are paying attention throughout their video as well as reading the comments. This will possibly strike their interest in clicking your username, and therefore being brought to your channel to view your videos. The more you do this, the better the opportunity of getting numerous views is.

There are also the following options on Youtube to help get your video out there: emails/messages, bulletins, chat, and rating. These will help because you will be emailing, posting, and chatting on related topics will prove to be useful because you can get someone's attention who is already interested in the topic your discussing (what your video is about). This will in all likelihood nudge the other users to view your profile/videos. Just as any other social network, the more connections you have, the more the word about your videos and business will get out there.
A YouTube Success Story

As discussed earlier, the main benefit of getting your videos out on Youtube is that it give you the opportunity to "advertise" your business to millions of users, and at the rate of $0. Yes, Free 99. This gives the potential growth of your business an infinite amount. A great example of this is a blender company called Blendtec. Blendtec became an internet sensation, mostly in thanks to YouTube. Blendtec is a company that sells heavy duty blenders. They created a simple, cheap video series (first video cost them $50 total) on YouTube displaying how well their blenders work. The names the series "Will It Blend?" They used their Blendtec blenders to blend random objects such as baseballs, golf balls, glow sticks, cell phones, magnets, etc. Now, this may sound like just a simple idea it was extremely effective. The following are the amount of views a couple of these videos have received: Glow sticks: 6.9 million views, iPhone: 9 million views, golf balls: 5.9 million views, magnets: 2.7 million views, baseball: 1.4 million views. Just these five examples produced 25.9 million views for this blender company. They have many more videos out there (producing over 100 million views), but I think you get the idea. According to CEO Tom Dickinson in his interview with inc.com, the company skyrocketed over 700% in value because of these videos. The interview can be read at: here

As the above example demonstrates, the potential growth for your business due to YouTube video promotion is limitless. It is important to remember that YouTube allows you to promote video for FREE. Target the right audience, come up with interesting, creative videos and stick with it. Use all the tools Youtube provides for you to get that video out. Promote/Embed/Link your video with all that you can. Getting your name out there is the name of the game. Dont believe me? Just ask Tom Dickinson.

Thursday 8 March 2012

7 Ways To Stamp Your Authority on Facebook

With more than 800 million users, Facebook is no longer a platform that can be ignored, but one that we need to embrace. For any business serious about growing, marketing on this social media giant should rank high in priority. Marketing success on Facebook is never a one-off thing. The best success stories are those that combine strategies over a long time.

(1) Creating a profile

A stunning profile enhances your visibility. Lack of it makes one opaque and unattractive to friendship. In addition, people like being together with others of their kind. A profile is what makes others to choose if you are worth having as friend.

(2) Hosting an event.

An event especially one that is educating your niche is a great way to market yourself. For it to be successful, it needs to be free, loaded with valuable tips and held at reasonable times. If you live in Australia, but you target clients are in the US, then you need to hold the event at times convenient to your clients not yours.

(3) Sharing a funny video or picture

This world is never short of interesting photos or videos. You need to upload them a share them as long as they do not infringe on copyright. A great photo or video remains memorable to viewers; so is your name likely to be. What is a great photo certainly depend on your target market.

(4) Posting news articles

Post articles of interest. Direct your readers to articles that say a bottle dropped on the East coast of America is recovered on the west coast of Africa or something like that. This is the kind of story a majority of people would have an interest in. Stories about teenagers becoming millionaires or someone overcoming adversity to do something great are also a great read.

(5) Writing great posts

Putting great posts can endear yourself to readers. Perhaps it is an inspiring quote; advice about life's problems that can motivate a depressed person. Whatever it is, do with honesty and clarity.

(6) Getting quality fans.

Another way to market greatly is to have quality fans. What is quality in one area may not be so in another. Some people are known to be motivated buyers while others are not.

(7) Advertising

Thomas Jefferson once said that: '' The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.'' It is difficult to it make big in any business without advertising.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6879959

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Twitter: Now You Can Tweet By Satellite

Twitter has announced a new partnership with major satellite providers to give their subscribers access to Twitter SMS, the original text-based Twitter service.

According to a statement released Thursday, the company has partnered with Iridium and Thuraya, the world’s two largest satellite providers, to increase the number of people that can use Twitter SMS worldwide. The company said the new partnership will help guarantee greater global access to the microblogging network.

“Now, even if phone lines and the Internet are inaccessible — for example, in a war zone or after a natural disaster — people will be able to share news and stay informed via Twitter,” reads the statement.

Where cell towers are susceptible to being knocked offline by weather, earthquakes or military attack, satellite networks are often more stable.

The partnership keeps the company close to its original roots in SMS, which is the standardized text messaging feature found in cellphones and other mobile devices. When Twitter began in 2006, it was designed to utilize SMS to easily send a short message to a group of people. As the service grew, it launched its own platform aside from SMS.

However, tweets can still be sent via SMS, and it’s that feature which has made Twitter popular in parts of the world with scarce mobile broadband connectivity. Users who are on a mobile carrier that offers Twitter SMS support can make use of two-way “short codes.”

One roadblock: some cell carriers don’t support Twitter SMS. But Twitter has a solution for users on those carriers.

The company has set up a number of “long codes,” which people can use to send tweets. After setting up a Twitter account for long code use, a user can put such a code in the “recipient” field of a text, and Twitter will automatically pick up their text and tweet it from their account. That can be helpful in low or no-bandwidth situations such as political upheavals or regional emergencies.

So far, Twitter has set up long codes for users in the UK, Germany and Finland. Long codes are limited to outgoing tweets only.

What do you think of Twitter’s efforts to increase Twitter SMS’s availability worldwide? Let us know in the comments below.