How Facebook Can Help Your Website SEO

Today, SEO is critical to the success of your website's online marketing campaigns. For best results, you've got to cover every aspect of SEO, and that includes using social media the right way. Learn how Facebook can help your SEO.

When it comes to building a successful SEO strategy, you can't ignore social media, especially Facebook. When used the right way, Facebook's power to drive traffic is phenomenal. How do you use Facebook to help your business and improve your SEO?


Social Media Links Matter

Today one of the many factors that Google considers in ranking is your social media presence and chatter. Facebook provides a more legitimate means of determining the human interest in your company, beyond just how many links you may have bought or artificially built to your site. While SEO experts like to debate about how strong Facebook links really are, the truth is simple: the more people talk about your company on Facebook, the better your website will rank in the search engines. Regularly posting updates on your Facebook page will help your website earn new links even if your SEO campaign is taking a breather. Remember: the age of your links and how many new ones you have pointing toward your site is also a ranking factor!


Facebook Lets You Gather Useful Information For SEO Purposes

Probably the most important role of Facebook for SEO purposes is the supply of relevant information about your company's audience. Websites are typically a one-way platform where businesses can stand on a soap box, so to speak, and blast information and ideas at whoever's visiting. On the other hand, Facebook is much more interactive and serves as a forum where conversations can occur. Using Facebook will keep you in better touch with your clientele and help you get to know more about the people who either are or will become your customers.

Providing fresh content that your readers want and need is important to the success of any website. Using Facebook will help you a lot when it comes to creating content and coming up with new ideas. The best internet marketers are always gleaning information from their social media interactions so they know:

1. what their target market needs;
2. what their customers want to know more about and care about;
3. how customers describe their products or services.

You can translate this knowledge you gained from Facebook into marketable keywords. If you see that a certain topic has sparked conversation and comments, you can translate that into a new post for your blog.


Social Relationships Translate to Powerful Website Links

Using Facebook and social media to build relationships with others in similar industries can help your SEO efforts tremendously. When you connect with other website owners via Facebook, opportunities arise to link to each other's sites via guest posts or even interviews. Relevant links like these are some of the best links to have in terms of increasing your site's rankings and overall traffic.


Your Company's Facebook Page: a Second Website

When it comes right down to it, SEO is all about reaching your audience. Facebook is the best social media tool you can use to do that well. If you do it right, your Facebook page should work a little bit like a second website. You can use Facebook to drive traffic to your commercial website when you release a new product or promotion. While you might want to save all of your SEO tricks for your main website, using a lightweight version of your overall SEO strategy on your Facebook page will improve your page's success and strength. Make sure you use keywords wisely when choosing the title of your company's Facebook page.


See How Facebook Helps Your Website SEO

As is the case with any SEO strategy, it is important to carefully track the effectiveness of your Facebook efforts in your overall web strategy. You will find that consistently updating your Facebook page will eventually translate into better search engine rankings. Create a plan today for your Facebook use and see how it helps your SEO.


About The Author: Julie Crawford is the internet marketing director at rural wireless internet service Broadband Blue.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let Julie and myself know by leaving us your valued comments below.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Related articles:
The Recent Google Update: What This Means For You
Why Content Is Still King In 2014
7 Things You Need To Know About SEO In 2014
How Twitter Can Help Your SEO

For a full list of helpful articles on SEO, use the following links:
http://www.derekjones.co/search/label/SEO
http://www.derekjones.co/search/label/SEO%20Tips


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Until my next post on Wednesday on finding the perfect venues for your business events, best of luck with your SEO efforts! See you back here on Wednesday!

© 2014. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.

Facebook Branding For Online Business

Branding today goes far beyond logos on t-shirts, cute coffee mugs, or even expensive television commercials. The Internet has transformed the way branding takes place and businesses need to adapt. In particular, because so many people are active on the site, Facebook enables businesses with a strong branding strategy to move light years beyond the competition.


Importance of a Strong Logo

A vital part of successful branding on Facebook starts with a digital logo. The best designers keep color, visibility, and pixel-size in mind as they create business logos to best suit their brands. More than any other elements, simplicity and clarity are essential for a memorable, effective logo.

Next, businesses need to showcase their logos in the right places on Facebook to reinforce their identities. Because the profile and cover images on a Facebook page are focused on the most, the logo should be placed in either of these spaces to have the biggest impact. For example, on the Facebook page for the national restaurant chain Applebee's, what initially started as their name paired with an image of an apple has been reduced to only the apple; simplifying their brand identity for quick consumption. Importantly, the image is currently showcased as their profile image.

Although Applebee's 5 million likes on Facebook didn't come entirely from their logo, it can be assumed that the memorable, simple, red apple did help draw people in. Even for a smaller business, a strong, well-featured logo on the site will serve as an effective cornerstone to a comprehensive brand-building strategy. Good images are heavily featured on Facebook and are required for gaining new likes and user engagement on the site. Businesses that take advantage of strong logos will likely gain more followers on Facebook and solidify their brands.


Facebook Profile "Identity"

Brand identity on Facebook also relies on what is shared on a business page and the language used to share it. A business that creates a unique, relatable "voice" in their posts will be more likely to gain an identity and build their brand on the site. Applebee's, for example, recently posted, "Steak the long way home. Stop at Applebee's tonight" and featured a picture of one of their steak dishes. With the quick, humorous, enticing post, Applebee's helped build a memorable, unique identity for itself.

As a business increases visibility with an active and detailed Facebook page, their web presence also increases. Consistent and pertinent updates will keep a Facebook page high on the list of common search engines, which is essential to business success in the Internet age. Notably, this attention to branding is useful in increasing a business's Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ranking as well as increasing viral commercial activity. Better SEO means more business.


Reputation

Facebook enables clients or prospective clients to have an interactive experience with a company. As the marketplace is flooded with new businesses, the Facebook platform provides away for clients to compare services and goods. Ultimately, maintaining an accessible presence via Facebook shows brand consistency and company vitality.

Watching the competitors has also never been easier, nor has developing creative ways for a brand to stand out. With easy access through a few clicks and scrolls, the entire competitive marketplace is available to peruse. To take advantage of this, many companies are hiring new designers and using their most effective branding teams to scour the Internet - and Facebook in particular - to scope out the competition. With Facebook, the brand can easily evolve, keep up with trends, and maintain corporate quality assurance.


Company Identity and Lifestyle Branding

Facebook branding allows businesses to not only increase site traffic, but also strengthen their corporate ideals in a fun, non-threatening, "lifestyle" based fashion. This is seen through the incorporation of not only a strong logo and identity, but also good content. A well-executed, highly visible brand presence on Facebook only heightens traditional marketing principles. For steadfast branding with a modern flair, Facebook brings virtual commerce to life.


About The Author: This is a guest post by Sarah Brooks from free people search. She is a Houston based freelance writer and blogger. Questions and comments can be sent to brooks.sarah23 @ gmail.com.

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Related articles:
Five Effortless Things Business Owners Can Do To Boost Their Social Media Presence
How Pinterest Can Help Your Small Business

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Until my next post on Monday with 5 steps to setting up your own business, have a relaxing weekend! See you back here next week!

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Use The Latest Social Media Marketing Techniques In 2013

A few years ago, social media sites emerged as mediums for sharing special events with friends and family and helped people to stay in touch with each other. In those days, these sites were more like personal sites. But now, the social media sites have undergone a transformation and they have established themselves as the most powerful strategy online business.

The social media sites are constantly expanding with already 850 million users of Facebook per month and 500 million users of Google+. We have reached the last quarter of 2013 now and saw several significant changes in the social media marketing strategies. In the process of trying to keep up with these changes, we have learnt a number of effective social media marketing techniques.

Here are enlisted some of the most effective techniques for social media marketing which should be used in 2013.

• Visual Marketing: Marketing as a whole is heading towards becoming visual increasingly, and you need to incorporate visual elements in your social media marketing techniques. While posting relevant pictures and graphics, make sure that you embed the text as well as your business information. The most widely used way of posting in social sites like Facebook, is pictures. Facebook has around 350 million picture uploads each day. When others are sharing your pictures, you have an opportunity to show them your link of website and other relevant information.
  
  
• Usage of Your Analytics: Your analytics need to be reviewed regularly to check out whether something is working or not. You can also find out if the followers are visiting a particular site greater than the others. You can discover the exact time when your pages get maximum visitors. Observe the results carefully and try to find the reasons behind such phenomena. Utilize the knowledge you gain to get the desired results.
  
  
• Usage of Slideshare: Slideshare is a social site that has been predicted as the fastest growing site in 2013. This site allows you the sharing of your professional presentations with huge number of people irrespective of their industry or location. You can even share videos, PDFs and documents. If you have a hunger for knowledge, visit this site and get inspired from the works of people around the world.
  
  
• Usage of Google+: This year, businesses should be present in Google+. In 2013, Google+ rose above Twitter and became the second largest social network having 343 million users. In spite of the fact that the site lacks a few powers of some other social sites, Google+ is Google's central part and from the perspective of SEO, you should become a part of this site.
  
  
• Usage of Fewer Social Sites: Using more social sites does not always bring the desired results in case of social media marketing. Take some time to research and find out which particular social sites are proper for your company, business or brand. It is always better to focus your efforts of marketing to a few numbers of good social sites. This would result in your message being spread more effectively as compared to when you use too many social sites. Take time to prepare yourself well and then participate successfully in those few social sites. It is vital to create a strong presence on those specific sites that deliver, instead of wasting time while trying to dominate all the sites.

Conclusion

Social media marketing grows with each year. You need to cope with the changing trends to keep up your business with the changes. The year 2013 has seen the above mentioned trends in social media marketing strategies. Following these techniques would help your business to be ahead of your competitors.

Summary: Social media marketing strategies are subjected to many changes with the changing time. It is important for businesses to follow the updated techniques to stand out of the crowd.


About The Author: Myke Thomas is a proficient writer. His articles are highly informative and useful for the readers.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let Myke and myself know by leaving us your valued comments in the comments section below.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

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5 Tips On Reaching Out To More Social Media Users
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Social Media Marketing: Are You Effective Or Obnoxious?
Engaging Consumers Through Social Media
Social Media Day Meet-ups: How Can They Work For You
5 Do's And 5 Don'ts In Social Media
Building Your Business With Social Media
The 10 Basic Rules Of Social Media Marketing
Top 14 Benefits Of Social Media Marketing
How To Use Facebook For Your Small Business
9 Tips For More Effective Facebook Marketing

For more business tips plus helpful articles on marketing your business on social media, use the following links:
http://www.derekjones.co/search/label/Business%20Tips
http://www.derekjones.co/search/label/Social%20Media%20Marketing


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Until my next post on Monday on online security for the small business, have a fabulous weekend! See you back here on Monday!

© 2013. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.

How Social Media Has Changed The Way Your Business Recruits

In recent years the recruitment process has changed dramatically in business. With the evolution of social media not only has our means of communication, interaction and sharing changed, but the way in which companies employ and individuals search for jobs has changed notably too. Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin have all had respective hands in this transition, each with their own new approaches to spreading the word on employment. Whether you are recruiting or job seeking for an accountancy job, a position in the healthcare, construction or media sectors, open your eyes to the world of social media to maybe find your ideal employee.


Linkedin

So, how do employers and recruiters use Linkedin in their hiring process? Linkedin is essentially a professional social media outlet, or your online Curriculum Vitae or resume that is being platformed to the wider professional industry. Recruiters are able to target candidates specifically on their company, location, industry and skill set. Using Linkedin makes it particularly easy to find the exact type of person they are looking for by narrowing their search and refining candidates by education, skill and experience. Employers are able to directly contact potential employees through InMail, Linkedin's messaging environment. The number of Linkedin members is continuing to increase and in turn the pool of potential employees deepens. Linkedin makes it easy to apply for jobs. When employers are posting jobs, they can simply add an "Apply with Linkedin" button to job postings. Individuals with Linkedin profiles will find suggestions of job offerings that suit them, Linkedin can detect when somebody is actively job hunting and more job postings will appear on their profile.


Facebook

A new era of social media recruiting emerged late last year when Facebook launched its very own job board. For now it is primarily active in the United States. However knowing social trends it is bound to expand to the wider recruitment community. Facebook alongside the U.S. Department of Labor and other government agencies came together to form the "Social Jobs Partnership" and in turn release the long awaited job board. The job board aggregates 1.7 million openings from recruitment companies and opens a pool of job opportunities to Facebook users across the US. The page allows users to search for jobs by location, industry and skill apply to them directly through Facebook and then share the jobs to their social network.


Twitter

Twitter has become a key tool in the recruitment process for employers and job seekers alike. In Ireland the hash tag #jobfairy has become an integral part of job hunting and one of the prime outlets for any individual job search. Employers simply advertise their available position on Twitter. The tweet usually consists of a short description of the position, as well as a link to their website with more details on the offering. The tweet is then concluded by #jobfairy. Job seekers can search for the hashtag and all relevant tweets will appear. The hashtag is used across all industries including healthcare jobs, corporate finance jobs and posts in the creative industry.

Traditional recruitment notices in newspapers are dwindling in favor of such easy accessible websites and social media platforms. Companies are increasingly embracing social media and recruiting. In 2012 98% of recruiters used Linkedin to find top candidates during recruitment. This year employers are expected to use social media including Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter for 80% of their hiring.

Trends in recruitment are continuing to broaden and social media is certainly assisting in this process.


Did you like this article? Please let me know by leaving me your valued comments.


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© 2013. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.

Has Facebook Acted Too Late In 'Hate Speech' Row?

After a considerable amount of pressure from campaigners and advertisers, Facebook has finally admitted it will reassess how it reacts to "controversial, harmful and hateful" content that is posted on the social networking site.

In an open letter, several feminist groups called upon Mark Zuckerberg and his company to do more to ban pages that they claim promoted violence, particularly towards women. Although it reacted to this letter in just over a week, several commentators have argued that Facebook may have already suffered irreparable damage to its reputation.

The Everyday Sexism Project has utilised social media - particularly Twitter - to highlight instances of what it deems as casual sexism, both in the media and the wider public domain. It was one of several groups that called on advertisers to boycott Facebook, informing several major companies that their ads were appearing alongside pages containing images of violence towards women that were "shared, boasted and joked about".

One petition demanding the social network remove such pages obtained more than 225,000 signatures. Yet, it was created in September 2011, which serves to show how long these pages have been permitted to exist on the site. However, the company's admission in a blog post dated May 28th 2013 that "we need to do better - and we will" has been welcomed by the campaign groups.

Marne Levine, vice president of global public policy at Facebook, stated: "In some cases, content is not being removed as quickly as we want. In other cases, content that should be removed has not been or has been evaluated using outdated criteria."

"We have been working over the past several months to improve our systems to respond to reports of violations, but the guidelines used by these systems have failed to capture all the content that violates our standards," she added.

Following the controversy, Ms Levine pledged that the company will now consult both lawyers and interest groups as it looks to update its guidelines, with particular reference to how to deal with hate speech. In addition, staff training is to be improved, with employees set to receive specialist coaching where appropriate. Facebook also insisted that it will do more to ensure posters of offensive material can be held accountable, forcing them to "stand behind the content they create".

Despite the positives, a large number of users criticised the length of time it took for the social network to take action, with many suggesting it has only chosen to do so since advertisers began to cancel their contracts as a result.

In recent months, Facebook has become embroiled in a number of arguments regarding content on its site. At the beginning of May it was forced to go back on its original decision not to remove a video that showed a beheading. It had first argued that the clip was not in breach of its policies.

A survey in March revealed that 87 per cent of people who reported they had experienced cyber-bullying said that it occurred on Facebook. In an effort to limit the number of people who are experiencing bullying at work or school through the social network, the site as said it will take a zero tolerance stance. It launched a Be Bold Stop Bullying campaign in Australia and Canada in late 2012, but is yet to reveal how it plans to prevent what is clearly a global phenomenon.

Some of the site's staff are expected to face investigations in the coming weeks after it was revealed that a 14-year-old girl committed suicide in Italy after a video of her was posted on the site and shared among users. In what is a European first, the Italian Parent's Association has filed a criminal complaint against Facebook.


About The Author: This is a guest post from Chris Stevenson, marketing manager at Slater Gordon.

Do you think Facebook acted too late and if so, has its reputation suffered as a result? Did the cancelling of advertising contracts cause Facebook to finally take action? Please let me know by leaving me your valued comments.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on NetworkedBlogs, via Email (maximum of one email per day), on Facebook and Google+ or by subscribing to our blog feed at:
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Until my next post on Friday with a guide to affiliate marketing, enjoy the rest of the week!

© 2013. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.

Is Your Website Blocked By Facebook?

Has your website been blocked by Facebook? If the answer to this question is yes, then read on.

Time and time again I hear about websites being blocked by Facebook and given the amount of search engine traffic that I receive daily on a previous blog post on this very subject (Has Facebook Blocked Your Website?), it's quite a large majority of people that are being affected.

It's not just Facebook that is blocking websites, Google+ also has a system in place whereby your website or latest blog post will not show up in communities unless it's approved by the moderator. So why does this happen?

Apart from your website or blog being in breach of content policy, I see many website and blog owners spamming the system, even if it's unintentional. What I mean by this is people posting the same link to numerous Facebook groups or Google+ communities (even pages) within a short time span. There was a case the other day where I noticed one blogger who had posted his latest blog post continuously to over 20 Facebook groups and then did the same on Google+. Now that's just asking for trouble and hence the reason for this blog post.

Now let me be clear! Marketing on social media has huge benefits but you must promote responsibly. Posting your website or latest blog post in succession to various groups or communities is not the way to do it. My rule has always been to allow an hour between each post. Yes, it might take longer for you to get the word out about your latest deal, product or blog post for example, but it's far better than risking getting your website blocked.

Another thing you shouldn't do is post to groups or communities that have different interests to what you are promoting. For example, don't go posting a technology blog post on say the latest Smartphone to a Fashion group or community. What will inevitably happen is that the members or the administrator/moderator of that group or community will report/mark it as spam, sending a notification to Facebook or Google+.

Yes, there are cases where some websites have unduly been blocked but there are others which have been blocked for good reason, probably due to the actions as mentioned above. Don't forget that if your website does get blocked, it can take weeks if not months for the block to be removed. Facebook do have an appeal form available if you think your website has mistakenly been blocked, but given the stories that I've heard over the past couple of years in regards to response time (or the lack thereof), it may just take months before the block is removed.

Update March 2018: The appeal form is no longer available. You will now need to use the Facebook Sharing Debugger to see the information that is used when your website content is shared on Facebook, Messenger and other places.

Social media is a powerful marketing platform, so don't take risks! Promote responsibly and you will have far less chance of your website being blocked by the top social media sites.

Has your website been blocked by Facebook? Did you successfully get your website unblocked after submitting a report? Please let me know by using the comments section below.

Related articles and helpful links:
Has Facebook Blocked Your Website?
Facebook Blocked From Adding Content Appeal Form (no longer available)
Facebook Page Block Appeal Form (Zero Reach Issue)
Facebook Disabled Account Appeal Form
Facebook Sharing Debugger
Google+ User Content and Conduct Policy
Facebook Community Standards


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar on the left-side of the screen or by using the "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

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Until my next post on Monday listing top tools and tips for blogger outreach, have a fabulous weekend!

© 2013. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.

Twitter vs. Facebook: The Fight Over Instagram One Year On

It has now been 12 months since Facebook agreed to purchase photo-sharing social network Instagram for $1 billion (£656 million), more than double its estimated value at the time.

Although the final price - consisting of a mixture of cash and stocks - actually totalled $715 million because of a drop in Facebook shares before the deal was authorised, it still represents a significant investment in a company that analysts remain unsure will ever bring in huge profits.


The first year

At the time of the deal, Instagram had around 30 million users. Over the last 12 months, this has swelled to 100 million active users per month, posting a combined total of more than 40 million photos each day, according to figures published by Time Magazine.

The company has also doubled the amount of staff it employs, with a new business operations director making the move over from Facebook.

However, despite the fact Instagram chief executive Kevin Systrom has publicly stated the eventual goal is to ensure the site becomes a sustainable business, it currently earns no money at all. So why was Facebook so keen to make the purchase?


Strategic moves

Prior to the buyout, Instagram was already a seriously popular social network in its own right. The ability to apply filters to standard photos, instantly turning them into works of art appealed greatly to users and the expectation was that the site was set to go from strength to strength in its own right.

Eventually, the likelihood is it would have developed into a direct rival to Facebook. One of the most popular aspects of the site set up by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 is photo sharing and Instagram users have taken to posting pictures to represent their mood, rather than directly describing it to those they are connected with.

In terms of usage, Instagram is perhaps closer to Twitter than Facebook, as users "follow" each other, rather than request to be friends and, unless you chose to set your profile to private, all other users will be able to see your photos. Perhaps this is why Twitter was also keen to buy the company.


World Wide Web war

According to the New York Times, Twitter bid around $525 billion for Instagram. Clearly, the company chose to accept Facebook's offer, which at the time was worth almost double. Although it seems a considerable sum for an entity that doesn't return profits, Facebook clearly feared the might of a combined Twitter and Instagram social network.

Indeed, since the takeover, the battle between Facebook and Twitter has intensified significantly and in December 2012, Instagram withdrew support for Twitter cards. This means that users who share their photos on the micro-blogging site now do not have them embedded and all that appears is a link to Instagram.

Mr Systrom said this move was taken because "we believe the best experience is for us to link back to where the content lives".

Although this can be construed as a transparent attempt by Instagram - and essentially Facebook - to pull users away from Twitter, it is not unusual for social media sites to act in this way.

Twitter and Facebook both regularly change their policies to limit the strength of third-party apps and while Instagram may currently find itself being used as a pawn in the battle between two social media giants, this could change significantly if it begins to bring in profits for its parent company.


About The Author: Jamie Stevenson is a specialist copywriter who writes for a variety of websites, including a number of family solicitors in London.

Did you like this article? Please let Jamie and myself know by leaving us your valued comments.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

UPDATE: I've just received news that Derek's Home and Business Blog is in the spotlight on Cision UK. As a leading public relations company, Cision UK provides PR and media solutions including software, services and tools to members of the media and communications professionals. Thank you Cision UK! I'm so honoured to have my blog listed in this week's blog spotlights. You can view my blog’s listing at: http://www.cision.com/uk/media-updates/uk-16-may-2013/


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on NetworkedBlogs, via Email (maximum of one email per day), on Facebook and Google+ or by subscribing to our blog feed at:
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Until my next post on Tuesday on why your blogging reputation could be at stake, have a relaxing weekend!

© 2013. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.

A Comprehensive Guide To Facebook Marketing

When you think Facebook, perhaps the one adjective that springs to mind is Ginormous. A social media platform that has a millions of active users with a vast majority of them that are rather diligently glued to it every single day is nothing but a cult phenomenon of sorts and you can't escape being smitten by its intrigue. If you happen to be a business owner, Facebook is pretty much a necessity for you and what may seem at first rather perplexing is in actuality simpler that you can imagine.

One of the myths that especially a business owner would hold is that facebook is for youngsters and is one of those college goers nucleus for it started out of a college by a student. That being the reality it has over the years enchanted a broad spectrum of demographics and a very mighty tool to market your enterprise. Speaking of tools brings to mind "Pages", "Groups" and "Ads" which is what you need to understand if you want to use Facebook for marketing your brand proposition.

A Facebook Page is quite like a profile, however the difference is the purpose and here it will be to promote your brand or organization and whilst there may be no limits on the number of fans you can have it may call for some hard work to build your fan base. This is by far a very simple effective and flexible way to market. The "info tab" on your facebook page is where you can lay it out and project the great things your business is into and could provide links of the company website as well, however making sure that the tone is relaxed casual and friendly at best. Keep your fan base engaged by updating useful information such as trending articles about the company or new product launches.

A Facebook Group is the same as a Forum and keeps you in sync with what's trending and is a great mechanism to reach out to a wide user base as well as enjoy an engaged audience. Groups encourage a dialogue between people and can often times serve your purpose better than a page and an active and engaging discussion is so to speak the foundation for the group to thrive in.

Creating Ads on Facebook enables you to reach a very targeted audience depending on the purpose of why the advert was made and what it were meant to accomplish and hence it allows you to create different sorts of advertisements for diverse groups.

No matter the company size you are running, Facebook allows you to choose from the very many options available to market your product and the inherent flexibility that defines Facebook is what permits it to blend well with what suits your company ideologies.

Whilst it may take some time to get to know the many features it is nonetheless a very strategic and impactful tool that enables brand consciousness and exposes you to global markets that are in many cases very difficult to penetrate. There is no point in waiting, for diving right into it and swimming your way through will get you the needed results in your marketing efforts and perfection with time!!


About The Author: Jem is fond of following the latest trends in technology especially on gadgets, Smartphones, social media, networking, internet and computers.

Did you like this article? Please let Jem and myself know by leaving us your valued comments.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Related articles:
How Facebook And Twitter Can Help Reach Your Target Audience
Traditional Marketing vs. Social Media Marketing For Beginners
5 Tips On Reaching Out To More Social Media Users
How To Expose Your Business With Social Media
Social Media Marketing: Are You Effective Or Obnoxious?
Engaging Consumers Through Social Media
Social Media Day Meet-ups: How Can They Work For You
5 Do's And 5 Don'ts In Social Media
Building Your Business With Social Media
The 10 Basic Rules Of Social Media Marketing
Top 14 Benefits Of Social Media Marketing
How To Use Facebook For Your Small Business
9 Tips For More Effective Facebook Marketing


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UPDATE 3rd April: Now that I'm feeling much better (after being unwell for the past four weeks), normal blogging will resume Monday of next week. Thank you for your patience and understanding during this absence.

UPDATE 6th March: Due to illness, blog posts have been suspended until further notice.

© 2013. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.

How Facebook And Twitter Can Help Reach Your Target Audience

Social media is the in thing today. While many companies have been using social media as an effective tool for online marketing, many were not familiar with the idea and hence, have not been using them for online marketing efforts.


Social Media For Online Marketing

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have been used for long as platforms for getting across to friends and family members, colleagues and acquaintances spread across the world. Today, one can find out long lost friends and colleagues with the help of such sites as most of the world is registered in any of these two sites. But as an online marketing tool? That is how the companies are making money through these sites and paying a lump sum to them as well.


Free Services Of Facebook And Twitter

While many companies post paid ads on such social media sites, treating them as any other website that gets high online traffic, there are many ways of reaching one's target audience through these sites for free. When you set about selling a product or service, the first part of your marketing campaign needs to focus on creating awareness. And how do you do that? Start with the base of people that you know. Paste a link on the Facebook page of your profile and let your family members and friends see what you are selling or trying to promote. Again, you could form a different account on these sites especially for the brand that you are trying to promote in order to separate the business from the personal front.


Groups On Social Media Sites

There is an option to form groups or communities in the social media sites. Thus, one can create a separate account for an event, product or service and then seek participation or inform those who are likely to be interested in such a page. You can then ask them to promote the link of your brand on their social media sites so that their friends and acquaintances get to know about it. In such a way, one can build on their followers and audience. Those who are interested in the brand, products, service, event or idea will seek out queries and actively participate in the updates and events that are posted. One needs to zero in on the target audience in such a way.


Find The Conversion Rate

There are many marketing tools and techniques by which one can estimate how many of the followers on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are ultimately landing up at your official site or are finally making a purchase, taking up a service, attending an event and so forth. The conversion rate will help one to understand the effectiveness of the social media marketing tool. There are even ways of making the response even better and increasing the size of target audience.


About The Author: Matt Anton is the author of this piece and one will find several of his articles on related finance topics written for websites like paymentsavvy.com.

Did you like this article? Please let me know by leaving me your valued comments.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Related articles:
Traditional Marketing vs. Social Media Marketing For Beginners
5 Tips On Reaching Out To More Social Media Users
How To Expose Your Business With Social Media
Social Media Marketing: Are You Effective Or Obnoxious?
Engaging Consumers Through Social Media
Social Media Day Meet-ups: How Can They Work For You
5 Do's And 5 Don'ts In Social Media
Building Your Business With Social Media
The 10 Basic Rules Of Social Media Marketing
Top 14 Benefits Of Social Media Marketing
How To Use Facebook For Your Small Business
9 Tips For More Effective Facebook Marketing


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Until my next post on Wednesday on how comment marketing will benefit your online rating, have a fabulous week!

© 2013. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.

Facebook To Offer Web Search Functionality

Most people had anticipated this move, but Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has made it official, his company is going to move into the search market at some point, although he would not be drawn on precisely when this leap would be made.

Zuckerberg was interviewed by TechCrunch when he made a number of statements relating to the search intentions of Facebook, pointing out that the site is already handling around a billion queries every 24 hours, as its users search for friends, groups and other services linked into the site.

Of course at the moment you cannot search the entire internet with Facebook, although it certainly has the resources to make this a possibility at some point in the future. If this ever does happen, SEO experts will have a whole new set of rules to learn.

Zuckerberg spoke about search as concerning the process of answering questions posed by the user, which he believes is something that Facebook has a unique window into, given its privileged position as a gate keeper of huge amounts of personal user information.

There had been rumours of Facebook's search engine intentions, with its current engineering director stating, two months ago, that he is developing something exciting and specific for his employer. Because of his background at Google, many speculated that it might be search related, although no confirmation was given.

At the moment, Facebook and Google may not be competing over search, but they are already locked in battle in the social sphere as a result of Google+. The search giant is insistent that its own social service is Google+ not aimed at competing with Facebook, but whether or not it likes it, this certainly seems to be the current state of affairs.

It is worth pointing out that at the moment, it is possible to search the web from within Facebook, but that in this case, the results that are generated come from Microsoft's Bing, rather than any proprietary service, or indeed from market leader, Google.

Whether or not Facebook's relationship with Bing will extend to a deeper integration of search or not remains to be seen, although the ambition of Zuckerberg and his team, coupled with the spending power of his company, means that going at it alone is not completely out of the question.

Part of the problem for Google is that if Facebook makes web searches more closely integrated with its business, then it could easily end up losing market share to Zuckerberg's service. This is linked to the fact that people now access the internet from their mobile phones more than ever before, with many people using social networking sites and apps, to find links and perform searches, rather than harnessing a dedicated search engine site like Google.

Whether or not this will result in the gradual decline of Google, or the emergence of some meta-social system, in which people funnel all of their queries through Facebook, remains to be seen. But those involved in optimisation will be watching carefully to see where the industry heads.


About The Author: Abbas Hussain is a blogger who talks about SEO and Social Media for Integrity SEO Experts.

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How Google Plus Listing Can Affect Paid Search

Google+ is a new social network that has now opened its arms for business marketing. It has the capability of giving good competition to Facebook which is considered the best social network. Many aspects of Facebook and Google+ are very similar.

There is a +1 button for Google+ which is same as the like button on Facebook; this +1 button allows you to share different types of content and also improve the quality of your own search results. They are listed at the right side of each title; so when a user logs in, he/she will be able to click on the button and show their approval for the listing.

Apart from the organic listing, Google has also added its +1 feature for sponsored listing. This +1 feature of Google has made a great impact on the paid search in the following ways:

• All the sponsored ads that are shown on Google+ have a +1 button adjacent to the ad.
  
  
• This button is compulsory and there is no way to remove the button from the ad.
  
  
• Any click on the +1 button will not be counted for the pay to the ad sponsor.
  
  
• But the best part here is that the +1 button has no effect on the quality score of the ad.
  
  
• The viewers of your ad are able to see the +1 stats for your ad.

Apart from the above mentioned points, using the Google+ for paid search marketing is beneficial in the following ways:

• Greater targeting: Google search results are the most widely used results. Therefore, marketing your business here would ultimately help you in reaching your target audience.
  
  
• Speed: Since you use paid search for your business marketing, your ad is being displayed just within few hours on the Google's search result. Therefore, you need not wait for a longer duration for your ad to be live.
  
  
• Control: It is very easy to achieve direct visitors to the relevant page on your site and with the management of Google+ you can have proper control of your budget.
  
  
• Predictability: By using this, you can get a good traffic to your site along with predictable ranking and costs associated. Therefore, the ranking and costs would be more stable and predictable when compared to SEO.
  
  
• Minimise wastage: With right matches according to Google Adwords and by using phrase match combining with negative keywords, you can make sure that your ad will be displayed only for the relevant products only.
  
  
• Greater conversion rates: Usually the conversion rates of PPC are higher than SEO and they are even much higher for display ads.
  
  
• Effect of Branding: Tests have proven that when there is branding affect associated with PPC, it will give positive results even if users don't click on the ad. This will have an impact on the brand awareness during launch or campaigns.

Using the above resources you can easily understand how Google+ is integrated into a search, so you can start managing your online marketing strategy easily for the search plus.


Article written by Kate Ford, a Tech writer from the UK. Catch her @thetechlegend on Twitter.

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5 Tips For Boosting Facebook Followers

When you attract a large base of Facebook followers, you can effectively market products and get valuable feedback from customers. Here are a few tips to help you start growing your base.


1. Use your Insights. Facebook's Insights provides important information about your page's popularity. You can see fan demographics, which is especially useful if you're having trouble zeroing in on your target audience. You can also see how your posts affect your day-to-day popularity. To build a good network of followers, you'll need to check your Insights at least once a week and before introducing any new campaigns.

2. Make sure that your regular customers know about your Facebook page. If you've just started your Facebook page, you need to promote it via electronic and traditional means. Get a short Facebook address (you can do this in your page's settings menu) and put it on business cards, promotional items, your official website and anywhere else where it makes sense. Your goal is not just to get through to your current customers, but to get their help in spreading your page.

If you're having trouble getting regular customers to "Like" your page, consider offering them a small discount on their next orders or some other small incentive. As they add your page, they'll spread the word and bring in new followers.

3. Post consistently but not overwhelmingly. You don't want to bother your fans, but you want to post regularly to attract shares and likes, which eventually lead to new followers. Try using Facebook's scheduling feature, which is only available to Page owners.

To use the scheduler, type in a status update and click the small clock icon. You can schedule a number of posts to keep your page consistently updated without spending too much time on the website.

4. Offer something through Facebook that customers couldn't get otherwise. As every business owner knows, people like free stuff. If you start a contest, offer a discount or take any other similar action via your Facebook posts, you'll compel your fans to share your page information with their friends.

They'll want to spread the word about a good deal, but you need to offer something that your followers can only get through your Facebook page.

5. Keep a consistent tone that is appropriate for your target audience. You probably know the exact demographics that you need to target. Use a tone that will get across to that audience and don't vary your tone from post to post. People will share your page if it has a sort of personality, and you can only develop that with consistent posts.

This applies to content, too. Don't post professional business-to-business posts followed by cat pictures and viral videos. Stay consistent. However, you can feel free to have some fun on Facebook. Your follower base will grow and interact with you if you keep your perspective and deliver appropriate posts that are in line with what they're expecting.


Article written by Shai Atanelov of New Edge Design, a New York Internet Marketing Company.

Did you find this article helpful? Have you got any tips to share to help increase Facebook followers and customer interaction? Please let me know/share them by leaving your valued comments below.


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Until my next post on Monday, have a fabulous weekend and enjoy the remainder of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Sunday's Closing Ceremony.

A Beginner's Guide To Online Marketing

If you're a small business owner, you've probably heard a lot about how advertising online could benefit you. Online advertising is certainly an effective way of attracting new customers, and, if done correctly, it can be an inexpensive promotion method too. However, for newcomers to the world of Internet marketing, there are a lot of pitfalls.

This guide will help you to get started with online marketing, and help you avoid the most common mistakes.


Why Market Online?

The first thing you need to ask yourself is why you want to market online. If your answer is "I got a letter from an online marketing company and the prospect of reaching millions of customers sounds cool", then maybe you should re-examine your reasons. Online marketing works really well for mail order companies, companies that offer virtual goods, and people that sell a service that can be delivered remotely. It can also work well for events, if you start marketing early enough, but it's not a magical answer for every single business.

Do you know which customers you want to reach? Does it matter whether those customers are local to you? Can you serve people in the same country? Can you ship your product abroad? Figure out who you want to reach and where they need to be located before you start working on advertisements.


Choosing Who To Advertise With

For your first foray into online advertising, there are two companies that are safe bets. One is Facebook, and the other is Google. Facebook advertising is a good option if you're advertising games, music, entertainment, or anything aimed at people in the teenage and twenty-something range.

Google Adwords can reach a wider range of people than Facebook ads, and there are lots of Google Adwords consultants that can offer advice to novices, and even manage campaigns for you. Adwords are context sensitive, so if you set up a campaign promoting a personal training business, your ad will automatically appear on sites that promote personal training. This makes sure that your ad will reach the right people.

There are other companies that offer advertising, and a good online marketing company may be able to advise you about advertising companies that are aimed specifically at your niche, but Facebook and Google are good bets for most people.


Running Your Campaign

There's more to running a campaign than just picking a few keywords, writing the ad, and funding your account. The Google adwords interface allows you to set up "negative campaigns", for example. This feature allows you to ensure that your advertisement for a personal training business won't appear when someone searches for "How to become a personal trainer", it will only appear to people who are looking to hire one.

Another useful feature is geo-targeting. This allows you to restrict the countries that will see your advertisement. This means that if you know you can ship to the USA, Canada, and America, but can't ship to Iceland or Japan, you can prevent the advertisement from being shown to the later two countries.

If you aren't confident in setting up those features, then there are lots of Google Adwords consultants that would be happy to help you get started.


This post was written by James Harper of Boom Online Marketing. James enjoys working in the busy environment of an online marketing company.

Do you like this article? Please let me know by using the comments section below.


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Google+ Launches Pages For Brands

Google announced on Monday the introduction of Google+ Pages and a collection of other tools to help businesses and brands to grow their audience.

According to Google, these pages are aimed to bring you closer to your audience, allowing you to have real conversations with the right people, connecting you face-to-face with your site's visitors and allowing current fans to recommend new ones. Giving your business a home on Google+ lets you directly interact with your users while giving them more chances to share your content with their friends.

As reported in one of my recent posts, major advertisers already use Facebook and Twitter to reach large audiences on those services. With this announcement and with more than 40 million users so far using Google+, you can now have a presence on the new social network and another platform to promote your products and/or services and to connect with your customers.

Similar to Google+ profile pages, these new pages include Hangouts, a tool that allows you to have high-quality video chats with your customers and Circles which allows you to group followers of your page into smaller audiences, ideal for sharing specific messages with specific groups of people. All pages will have access to analytics tools and support for multiple administrators in the near future.

These pages are not just limited to businesses and brands. If you're a blog owner for example, you can create a page and use it to announce your latest blog posts and to have discussions with your followers. Unlike Facebook pages, the new Google+ pages are simple to create and to setup. Within minutes of pressing the create a page link, your page is up and running and you're ready to start promoting it.

To help your users find your page and start sharing, there are two buttons you can add to your site: the Google+ icon which is available now and the badge, which will be available in the next few days. This badge lets people add your page to their circles without leaving your site and allows them to get updates from your site via Google+. You can get the icon and badge (when available) by visiting the Google+ badge configuration tool.

With the launch of the new brand pages, Google have extended the power of the +1 and brought out a new experimental feature called Google+ Direct Connect which is currently only available to a small group of publishers.

In a statement on their blog post: If you've linked your page to your site and you qualify, when someone searches for your website's name with the "+" sign before it, Direct Connect will send them directly to your page. For example, try searching for "+YouTube" on Google. Users will also be prompted to automatically add pages they find through Direct Connect to their circles.

The extension of the +1 certainly looks an exciting feature as all your +1s (from your page, your website and on search results) will get combined and appear as a single total. These totals will then be visible on your page, your website and on search results and reach all the people who use Google, including the 40 million Google+ users. For the +1 extension to work, you need to link your site to your page using the Google+ badge configuration tool.

Given this new tool, I'm pleased to announce the launch of a new Google+ page for Derek's Home and Business Blog. Similar to my blog's Facebook page, I'll be using this new page to announce my latest blog posts, post any news concerning the blog and for discussions with my followers. Now you can follow my blog on Google+ and well as on Facebook. You can access the new page by visiting: https://plus.google.com/114686242826423169197

I've also updated the blog to include the new Google+ icon that directly links to this new page. You can find the new (red G+) icon at the top of sidebar with the rest of the social icons. Note: With last month's announcement of the shut down of Google Buzz in a few weeks, I've now removed this icon from the blog and replaced it with the new icon.

With the launch of the new brand pages, I feel Google+ can now seriously compete against Facebook and as businesses and brands come to use this new online marketing tool, only time will tell how successful it will become or if it's too little, too late.

What do you think of the new pages? Do you think they will have a bigger marketing impact for your business than Facebook pages? I would love to read your thoughts on this.

Related articles:
Google+ To Accommodate Pseudonyms
The End Draws Near For Google Buzz

Using Google+? Add Derek's Home and Business Blog to your circles and stay up to date with the latest blog posts, news and resources.

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