So, you’ve finally decided to join the social media stream and now you’re looking for more creative ways to market your business. So far, you’ve built your Facebook page, a LinkedIn group, and your newly launched corporate blog is receiving a lot of positive feedback from readers. There is one more thing that can boost productivity: social media applications. These apps can boost your marketing efforts and make the process even more efficient. Here is a breakdown of the five most popular social media apps that you can use to accelerate your marketing success: Networked Blogs Join an online family of over 500,000 blogs and build an active community around your own blog. With the Networked Blogs Facebook app, you can: Import the blog feed to your Facebook profile Share your posts with a huge community of bloggers Gain massive visibility Promote your blog on Facebook The first step is to add your blog to the Networked Blogs via Facebook. Once you – Read the full article
Whether your business has 100 followers or 100,000 fans, you’ve probably already realized that your community needs to be cultivated – and monitored – on social media channels weekly, if not daily. Recent news about the Taco Bell class-action lawsuit, which was filed against Taco Bell for “misrepresenting the contents of its beef,” is nothing surprising. I’m sure most customers don’t expect they are eating wholesome, organic meals at Taco Bell. However, it’s not the lawsuit that is interesting here; it is the way that Taco Bell warded off a potential crisis by being proactive and effectual on social media. Taco Bell has already gotten some previous press for their impressive works on Facebook and Twitter; but this is more impressive, and the way they turned this particular misrepresented beef crisis into something positive is a great lesson for Internet marketers as well as for online reputation management professionals. First step: Address the issue A confident and clear message doesn’t – Read the full article
A long time ago, aka a couple years, Social Media had no relevance to your page rank or SEO campaign. Social Media was simply another tool, or middleman to connect your business with your clients. Usually links to social media were rel= nofollowed (tell search robots to not click on link). Up until a few years ago, social websites media sites were not considered as high quality links and did not carry much authority. As of today, the number of Facebook and Twitter users exceed 500 Million! If this isn’t a reason to give a website authority, then I quit this industry. Google and Bing realized that there is quality in Facebook and Twitter and have said they can directly impact you page rank. Fret not friends, your quest for more followers and to get Gaga to retweet you can actually pay off. Twitter: Twitter, while some still call it a ‘new’ phenomenon, it is crucial for successful business today. It has been one – Read the full article
About a year back we compiled a list of competitive intelligence tools and it turned out to be one of our most popular posts. Well its a new year now and we thought you deserved an updated list. We went through the old list and threw out a few services that are no longer useful and added a whole bunch of new ones for you to check out. Some of the sites are more convenient than others depending on your needs. Some are free and some our expensive. Some of them directly monitor competitors’ advertising efforts while others track social media channels. Some of them offer several services and others only one or two. Heck, some of them aren’t even meant to be competitive intelligence tools, but we think each has something beneficial to offer. It was by pure coincidence that it came out to be an even 40 tools so let us know if there’s more we need to – Read the full article
There’s a lot of hype in the social media realm over the dozens of new tools and dashboards that help you keep an eye on what people are saying about your company. Indeed, online reputation monitoring and management is quickly becoming a must-have for your marketing strategy. It is every business owner’s dream to be able to keep tabs on their brand name. Now, they can swoop in and clean up after a dirty situation. Likewise, they can reward or thank people for good mentions. Social media is growing at an enormous rate, but it still makes up only a relatively small portion of the Internet. There are billions of websites and blogs that also like to talk about things. Many of those sites have a reach comparable to or larger than the social mentions that are happening around your brand. Reputation monitoring goes beyond social media: you should be monitoring the whole Internet. Before you spend money on expensive – Read the full article
A number of the world’s biggest businesses and brands are using Twitter. Chances are, they’re also using Facebook. And their employees are using LinkedIn, to connect with other professionals. How do you, as a small business owner, set yourself apart from the competition? Obviously you’ll have to be more creative with leveraging social media, and with finding alternative platforms where you can engage with customers. You’ll have to seize overlooked opportunities for marketing, or create these opportunities where none exist. Start by knowing there are other social networking tools in town. Like Flickr, for example. Okay, so we can almost hear you say it. Flickr? Really? How do you use that for marketing? Um, isn’t Flickr a picture community for hobbyists and photographers and artists? Just like Vimeo is a video community? And doesn’t Flickr explicitly say that you can’t use the site for commercial purposes? All of the questions above have a point, but that doesn’t mean you can’t – Read the full article
Forgive us? We’re feeling kind of guilty that we’ve written a number of Twitter articles that provide a lot of tips on how to use the popular social media site – without providing an equal number of examples. So let us make it up to you with these great examples of how today’s biggest brands and businesses are using Twitter. Starbucks (@Starbucks): The Seattle-based coffee giant offers “freshly brewed tweets” to a loyal following of over 1 million Twitter users. Check the brand’s profile out, and you’ll be surprised by the number of @replies/mentions they tweet in a day. That’s what engagement is all about. All too often, companies misuse Twitter by spamming their followers with relentless sales talk and ads – without caring to respond to mentions or direct messages. Sure, while Starbucks does post the occasional promo or new offer, the brand’s use of Twitter is mainly to connect intimately with fans and customers. It listens, and as – Read the full article
We don’t know about you, but Mad Men is a show we can’t get enough of. Sure, it has won a bunch of Emmy Awards, and it provides a gripping depiction of the lives of advertising executives on Madison Avenue in the 1960s, but these aren’t the only reasons why we’re watching. The truth is, Don Draper – played by actor Jon Hamm – is actually wise beyond his years. A classic American figure, sure. But old-fashioned? We don’t think so. Every episode, Don Draper unleashes a brilliant, memorable line, a gem of an advice that we can take and use in the age of Internet marketing and social media. Take for example the following Don Draper quotes. Don Draper: “Our worst fears lie in anticipation.” Sure, trying to learn things like Twitter, SEO, web analytics, PPC advertising, etc. can be downright intimidating. It’s almost like trying to learn a whole new language – something you may be afraid you’re – Read the full article
