SiteProNews |
- 10 Things That Will Make Your Tweets Pop!
- 7 Tips for Better Email Marketing – A SPN Exclusive Article
- The Skinny on Google+
- Blog Writing Tips – Where to Find Great Guest Posters
- Beyond Expectations – Getting the Most out of Facebook Like and Share
Posted: 07 Sep 2011 08:04 AM PDT   Every day we work at it: toiling away on our social media networks, doing what we can to reach our customers and broaden our client base. Twitter is one of the simplest platforms to use when reaching out to people, but you may not be tweeting to your best advantage. So, what can you do to make sure that people actually want to read your tweets and can get the most out of them?Here are ten things that you should be doing with your tweets in order to make them stand out. The only way to reach out and grab the attention of your followers (and that of future ones) is to have some interesting things to say! 1. Be Unique When you find an interesting article or video that you want to share with your followers, don’t just copy and paste the title into your tweet. Instead, try to put together your own unique spin on it and give them an idea of what is in store for them when they click on the link. 2. Keep It Short Twitter limits your tweets to 140 characters, which may not seem like a lot. But really, you’re not supposed to be writing a book here. Keeping it short lets you give only the necessary information without a lot of fluff. Try to keep your tweets to around 120 characters. That way, followers can add their own opinions when they retweet. 3. Think of Your Tweets as Headlines When writing articles, the sure-fire way of getting readers is by having an attention-grabbing headline. The same goes for your tweets. Make them easy to read and catchy in order to induce your followers to reply or click on the added link. 4. Use Interesting Facts People love finding out new tidbits of information. These can be random statistics about a topic that is related to your own business. Giving your followers an interesting fact will be more likely to encourage them to click on a link than a boring title. 5. Tweet With Your Own Voice Don’t tweet like an automaton. Readers want to know that there’s an actual person on the other end of those tweets, so write as you would speak. This gives your tweets a hint of your own unique personality, which followers love. 6. Get Your Timing Right In order for your tweets to get noticed, you need to make sure you’re publishing them when your followers are the most active. Take note of when you get the most replies and retweets. This is when you should be the most interactive with your followers. 7. Add Value There are a wide variety of reasons that people use Twitter, from how to collect stamps to the newest techniques in web design. Whatever your reasons for using Twitter, focus on tweeting about those specific topics. When you concentrate on one or two topics, followers will see you as a valuable source of information. 8. Be Interactive When it comes to your followers, think quality and not quantity. Get them to interact with you, ask questions, and make sure you’re responding to their own questions too. 9. Add Helpful Links Since tweets are limited, including a link will allow you to share more information. You can include links to your blog, an article, or your webpage. Use your tweet field to include an interesting way to lure them in. 10. Get Them Thinking Your tweets should always leave your followers wanting more. You want your tweets to be thought-provoking because that’s how you get your readers to stay connected to you and want to interact with you even more. What works for you in your tweets? Do you have any extra tips for enhancing the Twitter experience? Share with us! We’d love to know what works for you! Dawn Pigoni – Social Media Virtual Assistant http://BeSocialWorldwide.com | http://Twitter.com/dawntrenee The Social Media Marketing world is important to online businesses and I bring value to other companies by offering social media marketing assistance to those small companies that don’t have the time, knowledge or manpower to keep up with social media marketing. Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources 10 Things That Will Make Your Tweets Pop! |
Posted: 07 Sep 2011 07:56 AM PDT   In this fast paced world of ours, everyone is trying to gain a foothold on your business via e-mail. It is becoming more and more difficult to ensure that the e-mail from you is read and not tossed directly into the SPAM file or simply deleted. With the advent of social media sites, e-mails have become more prevalent and the practices have become trickier to get business owners to open them and read them. Here are a few tips that may help you improve your open rates in your email marketing program: 1. Subject Line – Imagination is the key here in getting someone to open your email based on the subject line. Often people make the subject so long that you get bored just reading it or it is too dull and lacks appeal. The trick is to use something unique that will stand out in a crowded inbox. The best approach is to be creative while maintaining relevancy to the content of your email. 2. Who It is From -For those with a name brand like Apple, you should use Apple in the From line rather than a person’s name that may be unknown to the email recipient. This is one of the most important aspects of getting your email opened. If someone doesn’t know the person that is sending the email, the chances of it being opened are much lower. Try something unusual or use your company name (unless your name is Steve Jobs – I imagine his emails get opened very frequently). 3. Less is Better -Don’t overflow with words that lose the recipient. Say it and get it over with. Less is always better. You can send another message later with more information. Remember the KISS approach (Keep It Simple, Stupid). 4. Images Turned Off -Often someone will not turn on images unless you have tweaked their interest. Therefore, make sure that the message will still be delivered without the images being turned on. This is usually a step in the review process if you use an email management system such as MailChimp. Don’t skip this step – make sure it works. 5. Provide the Ability to Control Frequency of Messages -If you grab the interest of a recipient, don’t spoil things by inundating them with messages every hour or every day. Give them a break and control the frequency and the types of messages so that they do not get upset and run to your competitor instead. This also lowers the risk of email recipients labeling your email as spam and reporting it as such. Send emails out just frequently enough that potential customers keep your name and products in mind; but don’t flood them with too many emails. Balance. 6. Personalization -Many times the personalization of the subject or even the body of the message generate more interest from the recipient. 7. Develop a Mobile Version – With the frequent use of Smartphones, you need to ensure that your message is viewable on a mobile device. Make sure folks can view your email properly from their smartphone or other portable Internet accessible devices. Email marketing has had ups and downs over the past few years. However, it’s an accepted method of marketing and will remain in use for many years to come. Hopefully these tips will help your email campaigns work their way through obstacles and help you get your emails opened and read. Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we’re eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Print Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding online business cards design or business card management. Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources 7 Tips for Better Email Marketing – A SPN Exclusive Article |
Posted: 07 Sep 2011 07:46 AM PDT   In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a new kid on the social media block. And our friendly online giant, Google, brings it to us.I’ve had a lot of questions about Google+ ranging from how to use it to is it worth paying attention to. Many people out there are calling it the “Facebook Killer”, but I don’t see it like that. The social media landscape is vast and varied enough that there is (currently) enough room for another player in the game. I say – bring it on! Google is obviously a HUGE player in the online world so anything they do – you pretty much HAVE TO pay attention to it. Google+ is offered on practically all Google products (Gmail, Google, Google Docs, etc.), and its adoption is spreading quickly. I heard recently it attracted more than 10 million user registrations in the first two weeks (more than Facebook or Twitter during their initial launch phase.) But, as a marketer – what do you need to know? What’s the lowdown on Google+ to help you with marketing and your online presence? Well, here’s what you need to know as this new player starts to emerge. In a nutshell, Google+ enables real-time updates (like Twitter) and lets you stay in touch with “circles” of friends (similar to Facebook, but with easier options for creating and viewing groups). You can also check into places with it (like FourSquare). So, what’s in it for us marketers? Although Google+ is still relatively new, we can already see what it has as potential from a marketing perspective. +1 Feature Similar to Facebook Like – it allows you to promote and share webpages and content online by ‘+1′ing’ the page. So, many marketers have already started to add Google’s “+1″ feature to content pages and websites. That means more user engagement for you from your website visitors and another method for people to spread the content and get the word out. SEO Just like with any other method of social promotion, the more +1’s your content gets, the more likely Google will consider the topic relevant to those search terms. It’s a recent SEO trend, which relies more on recommendations and people suggesting relevant content as opposed to “black and white” marketing strategies to get your content on the top pages of Google. So, over time Google will factor +1 scores into its search algorithm. When you write about a subject on Google+ and your circle (friends) Google’s that subject, your comments and links will be displayed. User Intelligence The more you use Google+, the smarter the platform gets as recognizing your usage and recommending items in your News Feed. You’ll start seeing increasingly relevant updates and content coming from within your network – meaning users most interested in what you have to say will find your content more easily, and will be more likely to refer to it and share it. Influence Google+ is another way for users to share what they’re reading and watching. Right now, the people on Google+ are people – it’s not available to companies or brands yet. So, the early adopters and users of this platform are able to establish the trend and how interactive the platform is with their network. So, the biggest influencers on Google+ will become the most active and influential sharers of content. Even though Google+ is just starting out, its reach and ease of use make its implications for online marketers worth consideration. Join today and stay tuned to see where it goes! Here’s an amazing secret to use Google as a marketer: +1 notices are posted in everyone’s Gmail inbox – meaning if you +1 something, it has the potential to show up right in someone’s Gmail inbox – which is where they are spending most of their time anyway – in EMAIL. This point alone makes Google+ a must for any marketer. Until next time… Learn It, Love It, Live it! Derek Fredrickson, Authentic Internet Marketing Specialist, is founder of the Authentic Internet Marketing System, the proven step-by-step program that shows you exactly how to authentically market your business online, in record time…guaranteed. To get your F.R.E.E. videos and receive his authentic internet marketing articles on attracting more leads and converting more sales online to multiply your current revenues, visit: http://www.derekfredrickson.com. Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources The Skinny on Google+ |
Posted: 07 Sep 2011 07:37 AM PDT   One of the best ways to keep a fresh angle in blogging is the guest blogger. They can provide good content, take some of the work load off the primary blogger and can bring new perspectives and ideas that the parent blogger can follow up on in later posts as he or she sees fit. Guest blogging also promotes inter-community relations, resulting in shared links and audiences, and can bring together previously unrelated audiences who find they share interests. It may not be for everyone, but those who embrace guest posting have a lot going for them.So where, exactly, does one find these mysterious guest posters? Guest #1 — The Ascended Commenter An active and successful blog should have an equally active comments section. Comments are a great way to gauge the level of interest a group has in the message of a blog. Sometimes a blog post will spawn a series of comments that end up being as or even more enriching than the blog itself, including links to other sites and videos that further expand on the message. Some commenters are active, regular members of the community and consistently provide very good and insightful material on a number of topics. Those who participate in all the best discussions and are always there to provide discussion on the topics raised are a prime source for good guest-posting material. If you have such a gem of a commenter, contact them and ask them if they’d be interested in writing up a guest post. Give them all the guidelines and style rules your publication uses, and of course draft-check their work to make sure it fits the needs of the site, but definitely recruit your commenters into your service. This will have the two-fold effect of creating guest posts and improving the quality of commentary in the blog as a whole. As guests see they can be invited to post, they will be encouraged to become more active if they want to do the same. Guest # 2 — Fellow Bloggers Many blogs provide cross-links to other blogs who discuss the same or similar issues. Blogs on cooking provide links to other blogs on cooking, or to blogs on cookware and appliances, and so on. Bloggers exercising good blogging judgment also go to their colleagues’ blogs and participate in the comments sections as well. Just like inviting in a member of the commentary team, calling in a fellow blogger is a great idea. As mentioned, it encourages cross-promotion of both blogs. Even though the audiences of the publications may not overlap 100 percent, each will at least see some benefit as visitors from the other blog come by to have a look. At least some will subscribe, and that’s a big overall goal. One of the best ways to arrange this is to propose a swap. Both bloggers trade posts for a day, so that both can get the benefit of the exchange. Additionally, try to focus on bloggers with a similar but slightly different focus. The idea is to get new information out there, after all. Guest #3 — The Celebrity People like big names; there’s really no getting around it and no shame in it. Experts are good at what they do, and good at it for a reason. If our aforementioned cooking blog is able to get an authority figure with a big name in the community to post, they really should take advantage of the opportunity. Celebrities are often hard to get a hold of, but not impossible. They are people, too, and they often have interests that they like to follow. Sometimes it requires contacting their agent or handler, but it can be rewarding to a blog to have a star pop on and offer some advice on the topic at hand. On the other hand, such a post should stick firmly to the message at hand. Making it a chance for the celeb to simply promote his new cause or book might distract from the goal of the blog, and nobody wants that. Guest #4 — A Polite Opponent There is a benefit in bringing aboard someone whose views differ from those of the core audience for the blog. The most important mode of discussion for the web today is dialog. People want to talk, they want to learn and be heard. Unfortunately, the largest mode of dialog is argument and flaming, and very little gets accomplished in this circumstance. On the other hand, if a blog has taken a principled and reasonable stand on a topic, chances are they have an open-minded yet critical commenter or “rival” whose views differ from their own. This is common in philosophy-and politics-oriented publications. In these cases, consider contacting a rival and asking for an exchange of views. This may seem a bit odd, but it really can make all the difference. It will show both parties that the other side is willing to talk and reason about things. It will give both audiences a sense of pride in their chosen blogger. It will create a greater dialog and benefit the web as a whole and, if handled properly, it will almost always be a hit and generate a great deal of discussion. Take the risk and see if a civil exchange of conflicting ideas is right for your blog. Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the “voice” of our client’s brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at www.iBrandCasting.com/ Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources Blog Writing Tips – Where to Find Great Guest Posters |
Posted: 06 Sep 2011 10:00 PM PDT   People long have loved to find new and innovative uses for the most innocuous technologies and advances. In the late 19th century, “moving pictures” were a nickel-arcade novelty. Today films such as Avatar are made on budgets comparable to military-grade hardware investments. Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone could barely call from one room to another; now the average iPhone has more uses and computing power than all the computers used in World War II combined.This trend is repeating itself with the rise of social media network marketing practices. What started as socialization programs only slightly more complex than the average e-mail client has grown into one of the newest and most promising marketing niches in the entire world. Taking advantage of this means familiarizing oneself with a few surprisingly simple concepts that have unusually far-reaching implications. In particular, marketers are finding that the “Like” and “Share” features on Facebook have become the newest and best tool in the online marketing arsenal. We “Like” It The “Like” function is a pretty simple one – people click “Like” for things that interest them. On the surface, this seems almost irrelevant, but thinking so ignores the way Facebook operates. Taking advantage of the “Like” function is actually the key to getting good marketing opportunities out of Facebook. When a user clicks “Like,” whether on Facebook itself or through a site’s Facebook plug-in, Facebook records the data and uses it in a number of ways. First, a notification is put up on the user’s wall confirming the “Like.” This informs other users who are familiar with the wall about the product, news item or event, giving them an opportunity to examine and potentially “Like” it as well. Therefore, if a user has even 200 friends, which is not that great a number given the increasing inter-connectedness of online communities, that’s 200 people who will see what their friend “Liked,” and who will have the chance to “Like” it themselves. This is the very foundation of viral content, or content with the ability to move rapidly along through intermediate connections of hundreds of people. Additionally, Facebook makes recommendations to users based on things they have “Liked.” Thus if friend A has friend B, and friend A puts a “Like” on business C, friend B will not only get an announcement about the “Like,” but may have the business recommended to them since they “Like” friend A. This is still another route of communication and an indirect marketing opportunity that requires no more effort than a simple click. Thus it is to any business’ advantage to put a plug-in allowing people to “Like” them on Facebook via the business’ site. “Share” a Little, Gain a Lot “Sharing” is another process which allows users to spread information about themselves and the products, news items or events they enjoy across multiple networks. This level of extra-connectedness in essence performs the same function as “Like,” but with more data given which people can use to evaluate contacts and make connections. “Like” simply gets a basic fact out there. “Share” will tell users more about each other, allowing for the kind of networking that drives modern business. It also expands the audience beyond the immediate momentary location of Facebook to other sources such as LinkedIn or Twitter. This further creates the potential for any post to go viral, allowing it to spread quickly among related yet distinct audiences. Two-way Street The communicative rather than broadcast model will serve marketers well in the area of “Liking” and “Sharing.” Yes, it is good when users “Like” a business – it drives referral traffic to the business and allows for more information to get out there. However, equally good is when a business provides “Likes” to others and for their material. In the first, most mercenary example it will increase the business’ own traffic automatically. Consider friends A and B from before. If friend A puts up a post that Business C likes for whatever reason, friend B will see the “Like.” This creates another indirect marketing opportunity and referral traffic automatically. So it’s clearly to a business’ benefit to be active in the community and to consistently “Like” things that are interesting to the business. Indirectly, it creates goodwill in the community. The model of the Internet is a place where people exchange ideas and information, so people respond well to good comments. If business C “Likes” friend A’s post, then friend A may “Like” them in return, for reciprocity if nothing else. This can be amplified by providing well-thought-out, insightful and proper comments on various walls throughout a given Facebook community. At its roots, Facebook “Likes” and social networking “Shares” create opportunities to be more involved, and they reward increased and thoughtful involvement more than automatic, disinterested participation. Actively read through communities touching on a brand’s interests and look for the “Likes” and referrals others are following. Provide commentary for your brand, as well as for the interests of others, and people will respond out of courtesy. The brand that behaves like a human will receive human consideration, while the brand that acts like a robot will be blocked out automatically. Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the “voice” of our client’s brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at www.iBrandCasting.com/ Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources Beyond Expectations – Getting the Most out of Facebook Like and Share |
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