Aside from engaging users and coming up with great content for the community, a big part of every social media marketer’s job description is keeping tabs on what the social networks themselves are up to.
Yes, it’s important to gain more fans and followers and research new tools, but it’s equally as important to follow each social platform’s blogs and updates to ensure that you don’t miss any new features or policies. Make it a point to read the official blogs of Facebook, Google+, Twitter, YouTube, and other social networks that you might be a part of. Add them into your RSS feeds or Like / follow their official accounts on the social media space so you never miss an update.
With that said, every major social network announced big changes over the last few days, so if you haven’t been keeping an eye your social media updates lately, read on below to see what you’ve missed:
Facebook is Replacing...
Continue Reading
Moms are responsible for keeping a lot of industries alive. As Nielsen put it, they “are at the center of their family’s offline life, so it’s little surprise that they’re also at the center of many of the biggest trends online as well.”
If your business or website caters to families, kids, or women, then there’s a good chance that you have customers who happen to be moms. Do initial research and determine if mothers are a big part of your customer base. If they turn out to be a significant component of your user or client-base, then you may want to consider upping your online advertising and marketing efforts towards this particular demographic, because moms are increasingly becoming more web and social media savvy.
In fact, according to Statista, mothers use social media a lot, with 80% of them using social media services regularly. That statistic right there should be enough to get you to increase your mom-centered social media...
Continue Reading
Don’t believe all the gloom and doom that you hear about email marketing, because email is most certainly not dead. Social media fanatics may act like email is on its way out and social is the new silver bullet when it comes to reaching customers, but the fact is, email still remains one of the most effective online marketing tools out there and it will continue to be a power player for years to come.
Of course, this isn’t to downplay the effectiveness of social media. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and the like all have very unique features that allow brands to connect with users like never before. With that said, instead of comparing the two marketing tools, it’s best to find ways to make email and social media work together. They don’t have to compete with each other, and marketers aren’t required to pick one over the other.
In fact, Experian recently released a new infographic that illustrates how marketers can...
Continue Reading
Say what you want about Pinterest, but it looks like the image-based social networking site is here to stay. According to AllThingsD, a recent report by Monetate forecasts that Pinterest will become “the most significant driver of social traffic to e-commerce sites by the end of the year — besting more mature networks like Facebook or Twitter.”
Of course, the above-mentioned report is based on just one company’s studies, and forecasting how a site will perform in the future isn’t an exact science. Still though, Pinterest’s wide reach and popularity undoubtedly makes it a force to be reckoned with.
With that said, don’t let yourself get left behind. Be sure to optimize your Pinterest account and include it in your online marketing strategy. Need a little help? The following tools below should effectively help you in widening your reach, analyzing your performance on the site, and making your content much more...
Continue Reading
Pininterest is a popular social media tool that has created huge interest among the online marketers as a potent way of advertising online products. This method is an interesting way to share inspiring ideas and themes across a virtual pinboard that may be of interest to the members of different groups with similar interests. Now, for online companies this can prove to be a great opportunity to promote their products and services on a social platform. Pinterest can be a wonderful way of building your brand and providing a unique identity to boost the popularity of your online business.
However, it is not possible to rely solely on self promotion techniques to create greater demand for your products in the market. Hence, it may be a good idea to post some interesting and engaging topics of your liking and share it with your target audience. There are different possibilities of attracting visitors with the use of eye catching graphics and images that can be...
Continue Reading
Google has been on the move to push its version of social media: social search. With social search, Google hopes to take away some of the market share from Facebook. Whether it will work or not remains to be seen. However, Google isn't' the only game in town. If you want to boost traffic to your website, there are several ways for you to use social media to up the ante on your competitors.
Level The Playing Field
Google is relying more and more on its "+1" system for ranking signals. Normally, a small start up company would have no chance of ranking well for competitive search phrases. However, with Google +, all that's needed is a "+1" from someone in that business's circle to start an unstoppable viral storm.
A "+1" could send a relatively unknown company to the first page of the search results for everyone in the referrer's circles.
What may surprise you is that Google + posts are...
Continue Reading
Pinterest.com has exploded onto the social media scene within a year. It is the most visual of the networks, and also the one with the highest proportion of female members. This has led many to dismiss it as a craft and hobbyist's site with no real importance to marketers. Others hail it as the future of social media marketing. So who is right?
Pinterest is currently the fastest growing website in the world, according to Comscore.com. It is also climbing Hitwise.com’s list of the ten most important social networks. It now has over 12 million users and added a million new ones between December 2011 and January 2012. 70 percent of its users are women!
Whether Pinterest is relevant to your marketing plan depends largely on what industry you are in. If you sell lifestyle goods or services that appeal to women then you need to get pinning! The site inspires massive loyalty, largely because it has resisted allowing any advertising on its on-line...
Continue Reading
By imagining what a social network's real life equivalent would be, you get an insight into who hangs out there and what they do. Can you imagine Pinterest.com as a charity lunch attended by rich, image conscious women, or Linkedin.com as an invitation-only business conference? This is what the most important social networks would be if they left the Internet and became real places.
Imagine Facebook.com as your favourite bar: You go there in your free time, or during your lunch hour, to meet your friends and catch up on the gossip. There is no need to be formal in the Facebook.com bar, as you know everyone that you talk to. Nobody wants to buy anything in the bar, unless it is a really good deal. The clientele isn't quite sure if the barman gets them, or just thinks they as walking wallets!
Twitter.com is like a giant networking event in a giant hall. There is no door policy and you can introduce yourself to everyone there. If you don't like...
Continue Reading
Facebook and Twitter may be the social networks to beat these days, but that doesn't mean that you can't explore other less popular websites out there. Beating the social media heavyweights (such as Facebook and Twitter) isn't easy, which is why some people decided to create more specific networks-those that cater to particular groups, instead of trying to please everyone. For instance, there's now a social network just for food lovers, while there's one specifically for people who want to stay fit.
A niche social site can cut out the clutter and unrelated chatter that often arise in big websites. Being part of a small but targeted network will enable you to participate in more relevant conversations and allow you to connect with more people in your industry. Immerse yourself in these specific communities, and you'll find that zeroing in on your target customers will be a lot easier.
With that said, if your business appeals to a specific group of...
Continue Reading
Pinterest is the latest social media trend that has gained lot of popularity among a vast number of users in the online community. In a matter of few months, it has grown phenomenally from 1.2 million users to almost 5 million users who access this site for sharing their different interests. The main objective of Pinterest is to share some interesting images that people may often find at the time of surfing the web. It is similar to the pin board that we all find in the offices, where people post some interesting things with the other people.
Now, apart from sharing personal interests, Pinterest can be an excellent way of advertising your online business and improve your branding efforts. With the help of Pinterest, you can get more number of backlinks for your website that can help in providing greater visibility to your products among the customers. In addition, you can also share relevant images that have a close association with your products...
Continue Reading
