How to Determine if Your Business Needs a Social Media Manager
Guest Post by Melanie Slaugh.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, your business has probably made the wise decision to incorporate social media into its marketing scheme. Social media and the Internet give you a chance to reach thousands of new customers on a regular basis and who wouldn’t want to leverage that to their benefit? Of course, it only works if you’re doing it right. If you’ve been on the fence about hiring a social media manager or not, here are five signs that it’s time to do so.
You don’t know the first thing about social media and you have no desire to learn
Easy. Hire someone to do it for you. It’s not worth the back and forth or the stress over if you should learn how everything works or not, nor the worry about if you have the time to learn the tricks of the trade or not. You would be better off hiring someone with the technical know-how so that you can focus on what it is you do best for the business.
You’re spending more time trying to figure out how to tweet than is monetarily feasible
If you’ve made the leap into social media marketing but you’re going into it blind then it can go one of two ways: either you’ll pick it up quickly or you will spend countless hours trying to learn to the point that it’s not worth it. When attempting to learn social media starts cutting into your productivity (and subsequently, company money) then it’s probably time to put that money to better use and to hire someone that knows what they’re doing.
Your automated messages aren’t generating the buzz you wanted
Successful social media is so much more than just scheduling automated tweets or Facebook posts, and if you go into it thinking that all you need to do is send out automated posts you’re going into it destined to fail. The reason social media is so successful is because of the personal interaction that it allows members to feel. Having a social media manager means you have someone who is capable of developing these relationships and building your brand.
You don’t have time to maintain the accounts
Social media success is a direct result of the time that is spent being active online and maintaining the accounts. If you don’t have the time to dedicate to the different social media then you’re better off hiring someone whose sole job is to promote and engage with customers via those accounts.
Not everyone needs to hire a social media manager, and many businesses do just fine passing off those responsibilities to employees who can pick up the slack. However successful social media does require being savvy enough with it to not only keep the accounts alive, but also to grow them. If you’re finding your businesses’ social media is lacking, it might be time to hire a professional to take it over.
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Melanie Slaugh is enthusiastic about the growing prospects and opportunities of various industries and writing articles on various consumer goods and services as a freelance writer. She writes extensively for internet service providers and also topics related to internet providers in my area for presenting the consumers, the information they need to choose the right Internet package for them. She can be emailed for follow up.
Read MoreThe Inaugural Affiliate Summit Central
[singlepic id=122 w= h= float=left]Another conference down, another Affiliate Summit for the record books. The first ever Affiliate Summit Central has drawn to a close. This time around, I attended as a humble affiliate instead of a vendor. Sessions galore were on my agenda for this show, with my only real goal being to get some tips for my sites and Dominic’s, so mission accomplished! I even got some work done for the good ‘ol day job while I was at it!
The mini conference, just a day and a half long, kicked off Monday night with an official welcome party at Maggie Mae’s. It was a terribly crowded joint with a muggy heat and amped up band, so I didn’t end up staying long. Instead, we wound up in the hotel bar chatting for quite some time and enjoying a glass of one of my favorite wines.
I started out Tuesday morning for a day full of sessions. I hit the second half of a session on optimizing WordPress for speed and sat in on a session for merchants on deals and coupons before a Texas style BBQ brisket lunch. After some grub, I learned more about compliance from Kellie Stevens than I knew existed and got some awesome tips from Jeremy Palmer. The day was rounded out by some great brainstorming with Karen Garcia and others on Pinterest marketing and a surprise balloon artist!
[singlepic id=131 w= h= float=right] The Austin Hilton was a terrific venue for this smaller show. It had the perfect sized conference facilities, while being just a block away from historic 6th St., with many live music venues. If you were so inclined to explore further, the metro station was right outside as well. I stayed after many folks left for ShareASale’s Think Tank at Lake Travis, so I had the pleasure of dining in the Liberty Tavern for lunch and Finn & Porter for dinner. Both great places.
Affiliate Summit would not be complete without an Under the Stars party by ShareASale, of course! Before hand, food was needed! A group of us headed to a nice place called Haddington’s, a gastropub where we were not disappointed with the upscale pub grub. Then we walked over to the party at the Hangar Lounge, a three story venue with a live band on the rooftop area. It was a grat party, complete with a photo booth. Brian Littleton does not disappoint!
All in all, I’d say I got out of Affiliate Summit Central what I wanted. A nice trip to Austin, seeing some good friends, and a lot of great nuggets of information to bring back to my personal affiliate endeavors!
Most are not from the conference itself, but see all of my photos from Austin:
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Read More3 Tips to Effectively Use Instagram in Brand Marketing
More and more major players in various retail industries have begun using this free picture-sharing platform to broaden their consumer base. Just like other major social venues, Instagram can be a seriously helpful tool for branding your business and ultimately increasing sales. However, like all newer social avenues out there, business owners often wonder how to use this application in the most effective way possible.
Seeking reputation management is one of the best and most hassle-free ways to ensure a quality online, social presence in general, and something to seriously consider. But for those more keen on the DIY approach, here are a few tips for using this free application to effectively market your brand.
1. Unique Content
It’s important to keep in mind that while people want to see interesting pictures, they should be uniquely tied to your brand or business in some way. Take nH Hoteles for example… This Hotel brands itself well by adding unique pictures of various sunrises from their many locations, in addition to other pictures dealing with various hotel-related items like menu offerings or nearby attractions. Keeping the pictures interesting but simultaneously related to their brand keeps users coming back while making them aware of nH Hoteles offerings at the same time.
2. Consistency
Consumers like to be entertained but not overwhelmed by your presence. By keeping your picture number consistent and relatively low is the best way to ensure a continued following. Something like two or three quality photos a day is probably enough to keep followers interested without overloading their picture wall and turning them off to your brand.
3. Consumer Involvement
Brands like Levi’s are using Instagram in a uniquely customer-oriented way. In their latest campaign to find the next top Levi’s models, they have simply asked that users tag photos of themselves wearing Levi’s products with the #iamlevis hashtag. This is not only a brilliant marketing strategy, but it’s also a great way for Levi’s to leverage the free medium to find untapped potential in new models for their clothing. Genius. Getting the customer involved is always a plus in this day and age.
No matter what your brand happens to be, Instagram offers a distinctly unique and incredibly easy way to market that brand. As the retailers continue jumping on the bandwagon, it’s becoming more and more apparent that the effects are indeed positive; the platform is proving effective. Best of all, there is virtually no cost associated with this method, and therefore, virtually no reason not to give it a try.
Read MoreAdvantages and Disadvantages of Having Your Own Photograph as Gravatar
Guest Post by Bashir Jutt.
Gravatar are the images that serve as your mask all over the Internet in general, and blogosphere to be more precise. However, while we see people paying a lot more attention to their Facebook profiles, they are quite careless towards Gravatar, which is equally (if not more) important than your social profiles. And while people will gladly put their own photographs at their FB page, they are often reluctant to use their own photographs in their Gravatar. Remember that the Gravatar will be accompanying everything you write on blogs including your posts, comments, or even guest posts, so you shouldn’t be taking it lightly if you are looking to make a mark in blogging community.
We can’t emphasize that using your own photograph is a must, because having your own image has its own advantages and disadvantages. Let’s have a look at the pros and cons to help you decide whether you should be using your own photograph or not.
Advantages
When you are using your own photograph in Gravatar, you will naturally be paying more attention to your writings, trying to be more grammatically and factually correct. Doing so will result in improved writing, as you will invest a little more time in researching and proofreading before you hit the publish, or submit button. Secondly, just like Social Networks, having your real photograph will make it easier for you to befriend with fellow bloggers, as people will be keener to communicate with someone with a real image instead of someone anonymous with a cartoon or blank image as their Gravatar. Coming back to the writing, while it wouldn’t make some poor writing appear good, but your comment or posts will be carrying a little more weight as compared to something coming from an anonymous user with no face. Lastly, having your own image will help you gain recognition and fame amongst your peers and you will end up making more friends at real life meet-ups and conferences.
Disadvantages
To start with, having your own photograph with everything you write will make you a little more conscious while writing and you might not be able to churn out posts like before, in short, you will be writing more quality stuff as compared to the quantity. At times, you might not be able to speak your heart out, since you will try to be more politically correct when posting with your real photograph, to make sure you are not infuriating people. Last but not the least, all the advantages of having your own photograph will turn into disadvantages if you aren’t using a good quality photograph with good background, since a fuzzy photograph will present you as someone who doesn’t take his/her cyber identity seriously, at all.
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Bashir is a full time blogger and an amateur photographer with a penchant for saving. That’s the reason he lists discount offers for Jupiter images promo code and photos.com promo codes at his website, that you can use to get some cool stock images from photos.com or Jupiter images, and perk up your Blog.
Read MoreTips for a Great Product Review
What’s the most important way that most people find out about which new products to buy, and which to avoid? Whether it’s groceries, clothes, or beauty products, the opinion of respected friends and colleagues is a big factor. It’s how sites Amazon have increased conversions, turning browsers into buyers. Beyond asking your friends for their advice, the second best source sometimes is an impartial product review.
Product review is an ability to express or share one’s opinion about the product, whether it is good or bad. The essential questions that need to be answered to have a good product review are:
- What does the product promise?
- How well does it live up to this promise?
- Is it a good value? for whom?
To answer these questions first you have to read the documentation to understand everything the product can do or at least what it promises to do. Of course, it always helps to have actually used the product yourself. While you’re exploring the features, look also what the product doesn’t do – sometimes it’s easy to get sucked in with all the promises it makes, but remember that people looking to buy want honest opinions on the cons of the products as well. Revealing the downside of a particular product won’t necessarily make someone decide not to purchase it – it just depends what their personal goals for the product are in their own life.
To avoid common mistakes when writing your review, first you have to avoid irrelevant introduction and do not recite the feature list. Most of the time the merchant site will list the features, so you should only highlight the features (or lack of features) you feel are important towards the decision making process of whether or not to purchase the specific item you’re reviewing. The type of online shoppers who do a lot of product research before making a purchase are the type to read your review, so respect their time. There are usually many reviews for popular products, so keep your review succinct and include only what information might be relevant to the purchasing decision.
Keep in mind that you should also remain impartial, especially if the product was provided to you for free for the purposes of reviewing it. Just because you got the product free it doesn’t mean that it’s a gift and you should thank the vendor by providing thumbs up review. You have to consider the matters most is the reader, who is a user group like you, and not the vendors “gift” because you’re telling someone how to spend their money. In order to avoid any compliance issues with the FTC, you need to also be sure to disclose when a product is provided to you for free. Remember to consider, if not in the text of your review but just to yourself, you have to answer the question: would you spend your own hard earned money on this product?
Read MoreUnderstanding What “Deep Link” Means And How To Get More For Your Site
Guest Post by Sam Mauzy.
Deep links lead clients to specific pages that they are looking for without having through the entire content. They are quick links to various areas of interest in your web page. To understand how to use these links for your benefit, you need to take some time to consider their advantages.
Increases relevancy of the website
By using chosen keywords as your anchor text, you enable users to directly access the relevant pages without bouncing around in your main page. It’s easier to rank the pages with the anchor text instead of the whole page. This makes your web page more relevant and highly ranked.
Ease of page navigation
Deep linking provides a simple way of navigating through pages and pages of content. By giving users means of going direct to what is relevant to them you make it a pleasant journey going through your webpage. It saves them time and the search engines will return better rankings for your pages. A good navigational structure for your webpage attracts traffic and makes your web pages trustworthy.
Search rankings
Use of deep links ‘tell’ the search engines that other people are interested on the pages of your website, not just the homepage. It goes to show that they regard the content of your website highly and go beyond looking at your attractive main page. Search engines will therefore rank your site and specific pages as important and put them high in their rankings of useful sites. Of course this translates to more traffic and business for you at the end of the day.
Increase in traffic inflow
Deep linking increases traffic flow to your pages and your website. This is because search engines will rank your page high as they take your site to be important depending on the number of deep links you have. Also, when clients get what they want with ease, they also rank your site as useful and pass the word around that your website contains specific content that they want. This automatically opens your site to more clients and more opportunities. Increased traffic for any website is good business.
Domain authority
External deep links coupled with internal ones make your webpage have authority over other pages. Remember the search engines highly regard sites that have a lot of back links and they rank them high up. When other highly ranked websites have your links, the search engines are convinced that your website has authority over the others and that your content is more important. For example, Wikipedia can be said to have authority over other similar sites and that’s why it’s ranked so highly by most search engines, all these thanks to deep linking.
You will boost your search engine ranking if you are able to get more for your site. Another thing that most website owners also do today embedding back links to other pages apart from the home page, and submitting those link pages to different directories. This is a great way of having your website to have more traffic through the search engines. You don’t even need to do the job yourself, as there are service providers that can do deep link submission for you, giving you an opportunity to take advantage of this important SEO marketing strategy. You only need to look for providers who can do it in a way that does not appear as spam to the search engines.
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Sam is a contributing blogger for a site that specializes in ecommerce conversion rate optimization.
