LinkedIn Groups For Marketing: How To Create The Buzz And Get Noticed

It is now a well-known fact that LinkedIn is the Facebook of business community. It has become a very common practice amongst businesses to look into the LinkedIn accounts for business related or professional information on any company or individual. So, you must be careful about what you post on your LinkedIn page and the image that you portray there. Here are a few tips that will help you in creating the buzz and getting noticed.


Install the "Company Buzz" Application

"Company buzz" feature of LinkedIn allows you to keep track of what others are saying about your company across social media platforms. This is very important as the image you have on social media platforms can be a big factor in driving your business. Visit the "company buzz" application page on LinkedIn and you will get the instructions on how to add and use the application. Make sure you go through this thoroughly to get an idea of how to maximize its usage.


Use of Buzzwords

There are a few words that are called as buzzwords in the LinkedIn circle. Essentially, buzzwords are the terms that grab attention of casual browsers. For example, some of the buzzwords are organizational, creative, dynamic, innovative, etc. When a viewer looks at these words, he/she will get an impression of sophistication and professionalism. Also, while people are searching for companies, they use these terms as keywords. So, your company profile has a greater chance of popping up in the results if you use these words.

At the same time, make sure that you don't overuse these terms. Over usage of buzzwords will give an impression that you are trying too hard to get noticed, something you must avoid at all costs.


Post Blog and Twitter Feeds in Your LinkedIn Page

If your company has a twitter account and a blog, make sure that you share those links on LinkedIn. There is a feature on the site that allows you to automatically link your social media feeds and blog feeds on your company's page. By doing this, you don't have to worry about posting the same thing on LinkedIn again.


Leveraging your Employees' Profile

The type of employees that your company has projects a relevant image of your company. For example, if you have a team that is experienced and well qualified, your company's image will receive a boost. The trick here is to make clever use of the profiles to boost the reputation of your company and create a buzz. This is within ethical realms and permissible.


Building Network

Don't expect people to start connecting with you right away. You must be proactive in building a network. Send out invites to people and start a network. Once you have done that, others will also want to stay connected to your profile. Join some groups and comment actively on posts. That will help you in creating an image for your company and get noticed.


About The Author: Grace Beckett is a Content Strategist and Senior Writer with Godot Media - a Content Marketing Firm. She works with small and mid-sized businesses, helping them create a solid Internet footprint. She has also helped many online businesses develop a blog writing strategy. Her other interests, besides internet and content marketing, are fashion and technology.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let Grace 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).


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.

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Until my next post on Monday with 10 internet marketing strategies for small business owners, have a fabulous weekend!

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

Some Google Prospecting Tips For SEO's

Link prospecting - finding good quality websites that that might want to link to yours is one of the most basic tasks for today's link builder/SEO/inbound marketer (however you want to describe yourself) along with content creation and outreach, it's one of three of the main link builder's daily tasks, in the process of building links to your site.

There are number of tools out there for link prospecting: Citation Labs Link prospector is one, SEOmoz's Open Site Explorer is another. However, in my experience probably the best all round link prospecting tool out there is good old Google. As veteran link builder Eric Ward says, the only link building tools you need are "Google and your brain."

Google is a very powerful tool, but like all computers, it's only as intelligent as the person using it. In order to start prospecting, you need to first select your keywords, obviously, these are the words related to your site's niche; so if you link building for a removals company in London, then you want to include removals-related phrases, London-related phrases, plus any other phrases from related niches, that you think might work. So a query you might want to try first could be:

"list of removals companies"

Or perhaps

"list of London removals companies"

You could extend this query by including the "linurl:links" stem; this brings back queries that are related to your niche, but that also have the words "links" in their URL - very useful! So you might follow up a few searches like the ones above with something like:

"list or removals companies inurl:links" or perhaps "list of removals companies inurl:resources"

After these searches, you should have a few dozen prospects to outreach to. Another prospecting angle is to go down the route of looking for links on university or government sites. These sites get a Page Rank boost from Google, or at least tend to have good authority and inbound links profiles, meaning they make great link prospects. Try a few searches like this:

"site:.gov removal companies" or perhaps "site:.edu removals companies" which brings back US university pages. Try "site:.ac.uk removals companies" for UK university pages.

OK, so there are unlikely to be loads of prospects to found for removals firms on university sites, but you never know!

There are a number of stems that can be used to find more links pages:

1. "useful links" or "useful resources" or "useful sites" or "useful websites"
2. "recommended links" or "recommended resources" or "recommended sites" or "recommended websites"
3. "suggested links" or "suggested resources" or "suggested sites" or "suggested websites"
4. "more links" or "more resources" or "more sites" or "more websites"
5. "favourite links" or "favourite resources" or "favourite sites" or "favourite websites"
6. "related links" or "related resources" or "related sites" or "related websites"

All the phrases above can be combined with the "inurl:" stem for more options.

This is just the tip of the iceberg; there are literally hundreds of Google prospecting options out there, it just requires imagination. Of course, once you've found the prospects, you have to outreach to them - that is a whole other blog post!


About The Author: The Traveller are experts in cultural and historical tours. Start your adventure with us today.

Did you find this article helpful? Do you have any link prospecting tips to share? Please let me know by leaving me your valued comments.

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Until my next post on Friday on using LinkedIn groups for marketing, enjoy the rest of the week!

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5 Reasons Why SMBs Are On The Rise In United States

I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing weekend.

It's been quite a while since my last blog post, five weeks in fact which again was due to illness. After my bout of the flu which put me out of action for almost two weeks, I picked up quite a nasty bug a week or so later which put me out of action for a further four weeks. I'm happy to announce though, that I'm feeling much better now and it's so nice to be able to get back to my normal blogging routine. I just hope I don't pick up any more bugs, given the unusual cold weather we are currently having here in the UK. :)

As always, thank you for your patience and understanding during these absences and without further ado, here's this weeks first blog post by our guest author Matt Dyson highlighting the top 5 reasons why small and medium sized businesses are on the rise in the United States...


5 Reasons Why SMBs Are On The Rise In United States

When it comes to starting off a business venture, most people opt to start at a small scale and then moving on to bigger ventures once they have raised enough capital. According to most experts this is the right approach, as it requires minimal investment in terms of capital; both human and monetary. However, if you are wondering what type of business qualifies to be a small or medium business in the US, then you should know that there are varied views on this.

Sometimes there are businesses which may have as little as 10 employees, and there may be businesses that may have over 500 employees and they still qualify as a small and medium business. The definition varies based on the industry, the ownership structure, revenue and also the number of employees.

Of late several small and medium sized businesses have on the rise in the US. However, there is more to just the investment that is to be considered when you are looking for the reasons for this rise. This article aims to highlight the top 5 reasons for this rise.


Catering to a niche

When you narrow down your focus you know what type of customers you want to attract and the type you do not want to attract. When catering to a niche it is extremely easy to identify what the market wants and you can easily build a reputation with your niche. Also, with a narrow focus you can offer the best customized products/services to your customers, which gives you a competitive edge over your competition.


Collaboration with clients

When it comes to a SMB it works more like a closely knit community. All customers want personalized attention when it comes to getting things done, this is something that most big businesses have to forego for greater profits. With SMBs you can create products/services that address highly personalized requests from customers. Doing so, the small and medium businesses get to know the ins and outs of the business. This not only creates further opportunities but also helps gain trust of the customers much quicker than in the case of a big business.


Added agility

When it comes to meeting clients requirement, there can be opportunities where the business may have to change its business model drastically to take advantage of several opportunities that are available in the market. This is something no big business owner will do and as a result letting go of the opportunity. With small businesses making these changes is not that difficult and this aligns them with the business opportunity. This flexibility allows most small businesses to be innovators in their field. The unwillingness or rigidity of big businesses is opportunity for small businesses.


Better experimental depth

A small business can easily grow with a customer's needs. The turnover time for the small business time when it comes to providing personalized solution is drastically reduced if compared to a big business. The small business can offer partnership to its clients, churning out the best possible option for both the client and itself. When it comes to a big corporation, they usually come with a big solution that might require several changes, leading to increased costs.


Ease of outsourcing

Through technological advancements, small business can easily manage activities like follow-ups, accounting, prospecting for a client without having to bear cost associated with overhead when it comes to departmentalization. Small and Medium businesses, look to outsource and leverage technology to its advantage, something most large organizations do not do.

The advantages of an SMB definitely outweigh those for a big corporation. The market is always open for businesses that are willing to go beyond products and services, making the experience more personalized. An SMB can deliver something that has meaning and purpose attracting both internal and external audience without being answerable to investors in search of profits.


About The Author: Matt Dyson is a blogger and a strategist who usually writes about current business trends and how businesses can get advantage from it. He also writes for US Media TV.

Did you like this article? Please let Matt 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).


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to +1 or 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 Wednesday on Google prospecting tips for SEO's, have a great week ahead!

© 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).

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Social Media Marketing: Are You Effective Or Obnoxious?
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If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to +1 or 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, have a great and productive week ahead!

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.

Blog Marketing Overview

Blog marketing is one of the fastest growing trends in the online arena today. Blogs, otherwise known as web logs, are online journals where individuals document information on particular subject areas. The topic for blogs can range from purely frivolous banter to the more gut-wrenching, hard core serious topics. Blog owners tend to have a section below the blog post for readers to post comments.

Starting a blog online is very easy to do. If you are unsure about how to go about creating the layout of your blog, ask a friend or someone who knows about blog creation. You can get started with many free platforms, such as Blogger or WordPress. Once you have your blog up and running, you need to decide on a topic. Individual bloggers may choose to talk about recipes, children, advice, experiences, stories, pictures, celebrities, traveling, hobbies, etc. Company blogs will vary depending on the niche, but may include posts about professional services, advice on taxes, marketing tips, negotiation tactics, employee recognition, operational consulting, running the business, making the most out of your finances, recent updates for the company, quarterly reports, etc.

Afterwards, you can then get started on marketing. You will need to employ a wide range of various skills in order to make your blog known and subsequently profit from it.

Unless you want to just have an online diary, the main purpose of a blog is to let others know about it. Typically when you first create a blog it is virtually unknown, unless you have given someone the link or have shown it to them. One of the easiest ways to generate viewership to a new blog is to permit RSS feeds to be taken from the blog. You can allow other blogs and websites to publish your blog. Bloggers tend to take advantage of RSS feeds, as it is a great tool for promoting and getting your blog out there.

The key strategy to blog marketing is to update your blog frequently. You may have the most interesting material on your blog but if no one reads it then you would have defeated the purpose of the blog. Readership is an important component of any successful blog. Set a goal for yourself and stick to it. If you advise your readers that you will be updating new posts on a weekly basis ensure that you do so. You want to keep your readers interested so that they can spread the word about your blog.

Apply SEO (search engine optimization) to your blogs. Similar to a website, a blog is more successful once it is SEO optimized. If you want your blog to go anywhere, you will need SEO. The topic of SEO is far beyond the scope of this post, but you'll be able to find lots of resources online about properly optimizing your individual posts by using strong titles, keywords, and tags.

Always be on the look-out for blogs that have similar content to yours. This is particularly useful, as not only are you checking out the "competition", but you can leave comments and attach a link with your blog information. Readers will now have the opportunity to visit your blog therefore generating more traffic for you. When commenting, be sure to actually contribute to the conversation.

Some marketing involves making a profit. Some bloggers choose to do affiliate marketing or sell ad space on their blogs. This is an easy way to make a profit from your blog. Not all bloggers wish to earn an income from blogging; some simply just do it for fun.

Depending on your preference there are a number of techniques available. Marketing is a lot of hard work and it takes up a lot of time but once executed properly, it will be well worth it and you will be rewarded with a successful blog.


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

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If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to +1 or 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 Monday with a comprehensive guide to Facebook marketing, have a fabulous weekend!

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