Written For Social Media Managers

When I'm searching for good information on gaining likes, followers, pins, and whatever else I always run into the same thing. Social media "gurus" telling me things I already know... Why is this? Because they don't know jack! They say thinks like "create unique content" and "listen to your audience" but what does that mean? How is that any different from what the last guy wrote and the guy before that?


THE COLD HARD SKINNY ON SOCIAL MEDIA


Here's what I want from your blog posts ---> Relevant information that I can utilize and transform into a following. I want and need new information to feed my social media accounts.


 I will share some real social media tips that you can use right after reading this to gain a larger following.

Churn Followers
Some people don't like to do this, but the truth? It's a great way to start a following on Twitter. Simply follow large numbers of people that are likely to use your products or services. Some of these people will in turn follow you back. For example if you sell custom guitars then you would type in "musicians" into twitter and follow everyone or everyone you think will like your product. You probably know this, but Twitter will only allow you to follow 2,000 accounts when you first start out. You can always unfollow accounts after you reach this limit, thus why it's called churning. Ethical? All I know is that it works

Gain A Local Following
This goes with the last tip and I know ive said it before in my blog, but this works too. Follow people that follow local sports teams, news stations, and anything local. These people live in your area and might follow you back. At the very least these people will catch a glance of your logo which is good too if you're a local business. Do your competitors use social media? Follow all their followers! You already know these people are interested in the services you offer.

You Need Money!
The truth hurts. You're not going to make it very big on Facebook if you are a small business with no FB ads at all. These ads are not very expensive and will do wonders for your account(s) I will estimate that $30.00 in FB ads will be enough for a month per account. In my experience I will gain around 100 new likes per month with these ads. Don't think that's a lot? Think again. These new "likes" are targeted likes and are actually interested in the services you offer. You will flip after seeing all the engagement on your page. These are the creme de la creme "likes." Think of all the time you spend trying to gain a following. $30 a month is nothing compared to the results you will gain. After awhile you won't need FB advertising anymore because you will have people sharing your posts for you.

Social Sharing Sites
You know those networks that will help you grow your social presence by trading likes? They work! These people won't engage with your page at all and almost all of them are fake accounts. The only benefit I see is that you will have larger numbers which will gain you credibility. I would trade 1000 of these likes for 100 real likes any day of the week.

Triber 
Triber is great for you if you own a blog. Other blog owners will share your content once you have been accepted into a tribe or once you create a tribe and gain members. These bloggers usually have huge followings of real followers. The only downside of this site is that it take a little work to get into a good tribe, but it's worth it.
Make sure to share blog posts and log in frequently!

Share Photos On Facebook
If you don't get much engagement try sharing photos. Don't steal photos! Use copyright free photos when posting to any social account. Rename the photo with a keyword and you're set. You can find lots of photos like this using Google Advanced Image Search.

Know The Image Sizes
Do your photos look a little off? It's very important to maintain a professional look while on social media. Make sure your images are the right size.

Here's a short list of the main ones:

Facebook
Cover Photo 851 x 315 px
Profile Picture 180 x 180 px
Timeline Photo 403 x 403 px
Highlighted Post 843 x 403 px

Twitter
Profile Picture (in stream) 48 x 48 px
Profile Picture (in profile) 81 x 81 px 
Header Image 520 x 260 px
Recent Image 90 x90 px

Google +
Profile Picture 250 x 250 px
Cover Photo 890 x 180

Link You Accounts
Link your Facebook to your Twitter. What can it hurt? Also if you work for businesses as a SMM make yourself a manager on their FB business pages. This makes switching between accounts pretty easy and takes a lot of the work out even if you use Last Pass.

Check your FB Insights
With FB insights you will be able to see which posts are preforming the best, and what days are working the best. There is a gold mine of information on each page of the insights and it's fairly simply to read and understand. I'm surprised FB doesn't charge us for this, so use it!

Quozio
Need something to post, but you don't have any fresh content? Quozio <--- nuff said


I hope you learned at least 1 new thing you can implement into your social media strategy.
If you liked it please share it and leave a comment! Thanks!

A Complete Guideline About Social Media Marketing Strategies

When it comes to a social media technique or strategy, the main objective should be to become a top seller online. There is no doubt that the online world is hitting hard and you should climb your way towards it. Different alternatives are at your hands. Producers and advertisers are constantly seeking for the ultimate strategies.

Effective strategies
When seeking for effective social media strategies you cannot forget about online profit. Consumers are just like billboards, you cannot deny that everyone wants to buy low cost and quality solutions. That is, forget about price tags and focus on building a good reputation. It is possible to look onto viable alternatives to gain a strong audience, this includes, memberships, discounts, fun ads, etc.
The internet revolution brought new trends and this is why you should remain tuned. Advertisers, sellers and manufacturers worldwide are turning to look onto the best advertising methods. There is no need to pay excessive money on any campaign. You can gain knowledge to avoid the most common mistakes. Consider units costs and so on.

Websites and other strategies
Websites are always a great idea. This is among the most common and effective online strategies to gain followers and allow customers to find you. For instance, by clicking the link of your page ad, users are immediately redirected to your site. In addition, tags, bookmarking, social media sites, interactive tools, RSS feeds and many other methods are quite useful. Of course, you cannot forget about the beloved blogs and forums. Both are majestic in every sense.

Individuals care to share their own experience and write products reviews. This can help you immensely, especially because word of mouth is certainly powerful. Believe it or not, many reviews are realistic. The NET is quite a venue for pictures, videos, online products, etc.

Social networks
You will be amazed on the many advantages linked to social networking pages. The most common ones are Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, StumbleUpon, etc. There are many tools to maximize your online exposure through these pages. Search engine optimization (SEO) is part of the deal. You should aim to climb to the top. Google cares about quality and rich content. Don't forget to implement White Hat SEO techniques.

While it may appear complex, this is not the case. Make sure you upload daily information and focus on quality article writing campaigns and so on. Lastly, selling online is another alternative. Focus on a creative solution and get going.

Find more information about Marketing strategies from http://bestseodomination.com/monthlypr/

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Social Media: A Mine of Business Opportunities

SOCIAL MEDIA GOING BUSINESS 

Over 25% of the Fortune 500 companies have public blogs, 35% have an active presence on Twitter. - University of Massachusetts study 

According to an estimate top 10 Social Media advertisers got more than 20 billion impressions in the year 2012. 

One of the companies that were in the above list commented that soon people will stop talking about it as it will become such a common expected communication channel. Some of the early birds who realized the unlimited potentials of the concept in the business world and implemented it have already started reaping the benefits.

Social Media is all about co-creation of the content in an interactive manner by a group of people who are connected to one another though some channel. Web 2.0 facilitated development of its platforms (e.g., Facebook and Twitter etc.) where people can create such contents, have discussions, express ideas and post other media elements (photographs and videos etc.) and build virtual communities where these contents can be shared and evolved. Business organizations can leverage this platform for creating brand identity, fostering collaboration, creating knowledge pool and finding resources etc. more efficiently.

Notes: There are different opinions regarding the definition of Social Media and Social Networking, and their scope overlap. This document considers Social Media as a larger concept and Social Networking as one of its prominent implementation channels. Social Media itself covers the other channels, e.g., blogs, virtual communities etc. as well.

WHAT IS IN IT?
Primarily goal driven organizations are leveraging the Social Media for achieving one or many of the following objectives:

• Productivity improvement
• Operational efficiency optimization through collaboration, communication and feedbacks
• Innovative and creative products, solutions formulations and problem solving
• Business Relationships improvisation- customers, employees, business partners, suppliers and other stakeholders

Most of the internet users spend a significant amount of their internet time on the Social Media sites. That makes it an excellent medium for advertisements and promotions. Although total advertising expense on it is relatively low when compared to the overall advertisement spending over the internet but it is growing and will soon catch up. A lot many companies are using it for creating brand awareness and promoting their products.

Since people interaction is at the heart of the Social Media, news here runs through the word of mouth. And this provides an avenue for acquiring new customers based on the recommendations of another happy and satisfied customer. Many companies have already started considering surveys as a thing of the dead past and use it for getting customer feedback and satisfaction levels. Interestingly it provides an opportunity listening to the feedbacks given to the competitor's products as well that can be a good value-add; and it is free. This same set of feedback can be compiled and analyzed for getting the market trends, product comparisons and so on.

Organizations have successfully created consumer communities where the members not only share feedbacks but also share ideas for improvisations, find innovative solutions and solve each other's problems. Such communities not only foster customer relationship and innovation but also save cost. Taking a step further many companies have started getting engaged with their customers individually as well by listening to their grievances and providing a personalized response.

WHAT IT WILL BRING?
Advent to Web 2.0 made the Social Media happen. As its wave is catching up and its unlimited potentials are being realized it will have a huge impact the way technology advancement happens. In a way so far it has adapted the way technology was going, but now the trend has reversed and the technology has to adapt itself to the needs of this social platform. The boom of hand-held smart devices that are already enabled for the required features and capabilities is no happenstance and more will follow. Windows 8, the latest OS version from Microsoft, by design support integration with Social Media with a click of mouse.

As the wave catches up organizations that are reluctant to open their gates for this change eventually will have to consider the adverse consequences and gradually move away from that stand.
Here content is mostly unstructured data and making sense of them is not a simple task. Getting valuable information from this pile of data necessitates tools that will facilitate capturing, monitoring and analyzing the data. There are already a good number of products, both free and licensed doing so. But their number will grow and capabilities and scope will increase in the future.

WHAT TO DO?
Given the wide range of innovative possibilities it has something to offer to almost any business scenario. But due to the ethereal nature of things over the web it is not always easy to make a successful implementation. Organizations that are taking a strategic approach towards their Social Media implementations clearly get an advantage over those who don't.

Not all the businesses target it for the same results. First good place to start is putting a plan. The plan should set specific and rational business objectives in relation to it. It is important to find metrics that will measure the progress and success. It should also access all the risks involved and a mitigation plan should be there in place in advance.

Understanding the underlying dynamics and managing it for meeting the stated business goals needs very specific skills. Identify the resources that will be responsible for making it happen and setup a team. If any training is required arrange for the same. If the business intends a large number of its employees to participate in the process they all may need some kind of awareness training.

It thrives on connecting people and getting them engaged for a fruitful interaction. Each business will need to target a certain group of audience. There is every possibility that there will be sub groups within those audiences having different preferences. It is very important to understand the intended audience and setting up both the content and the strategy accordingly.

Once the right content is in place and things start moving monitoring becomes the most crucial aspect. The planning should entail the details of what should be monitored, how the monitoring will happen and how the responses will be adjusted depending upon the flow of the wind. There are many licensed and freely available tools in the market that should be accessed prior to implementation to find a best fit. Here is a list of 25 freely available monitoring tools:
http://smallbiztrends.com/2012/09/20-free-social-media-monitoring-tools.html

CHALLENGES AHEAD
All the goodies that the Social Media brings with it will not be for free. It will bring its own set of challenges and risks and they are serious.

• Some risks like lack of confidentiality and privacy are inherently part of the concept. Apart from that maintaining the copyright, meeting the industry specific legislations, validation of content and ensuring the identity are some of the challenges that need to be met.
• As the workplaces are opening and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is getting popular, ensuring the security even within the corporate networks would be a daunting task. Organizations would find it very difficult to control the usages of Social Media for non-business purposes by their employees.
• From the technical standpoint there is very little or no integration possible across different Social Media channels. If a business is tapping into multiple channels they will need to find out ways to have an integrated view.
• Resources having necessary skills in Social Media domain are hard to find.
• For the business managers it is difficult to compute ROI and access the tangible benefits even if there are intangible benefits. More over a Social Media event could be potentially a dangerous thing if it backfires or a disgruntled employee triggers something that becomes defamation.
• Some critiques observe crowdsourcing as and avenue where workers can be exploited very easily and made to work for free or the wages well below than the permitted lower limit.

As the adaptation of Social Media is snowballing technology and business together will need to face these challenges. Organizations must access the opportunity vs. the risks involved and take the precautionary measures to reap the benefits and mitigate the risks. There is no turning back, but we need to make the right moves at the right time to make it a purposeful journey.

Radharaman is working as a Technical Architect with iGATE ( http://www.igate.com/ ) and can be reached at radharaman.mishra@igate.com

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Social Media And Networking - How It Is Helping Online Business

You know social media and networking are becoming more and more popular these days. These networking sites are helping people many people stay in from different geographical areas and different societies. They can share their views, exchange information and interact with each other by the help of these networking sites. These social networking sites are useful for many other purposes. Marketing executives can recognize the potentials of marketing with the help of these sites so that make people aware about their brand. Around 25 to 30 % display advertisements are shown on these social media and networking sites. There are several sites where number of people can stay in touch are Facebook, YouTube and Twitter etc.

There are several strategies which are used by these e-commerce developers of these social websites in order to develop and promote their business. Some of the strategies which are used by them are given below:

Display advertising
There are a number of display ads which are developed by these businesses to target the audience. These ads include discounts, offers and coupons along with deadlines so that the customers can act urgently. These tactics are played by the e-commerce developers to attract more and more customers. They clutter these display ads on website's landscapes.

Increasing brand awareness
They use these social media and networking sites to make people aware about their brand. You know that how interactive these sites are, these developers engage the users in the discussion of brand. They demonstrate the quality and get a number of customers as well as make a respective brand image with the help of these sites.

Spread the word
There are many customers who post their views and opinion of the brand on these sites. They can get potential customers by spreading their words through these websites and by following their concerns.

Building a user community
There are many e-commerce developers who use these networking sites for building a user community. They can get lots of customers by designing their own websites and these websites should link the user community. They receive a number of feedback's on services and products by the help of user forums on the e-commerce business.

Monitoring discussions
These networking sites are also helpful in monitoring the discussions. You can enhance the brand of products and services with the help of sharing these positive responses. This will help you in getting number of customers. Instead of that if there is any negative response from other customers then you can correct them also. This will help you in building a friendly image of your brand.

Widened customer scope
You know that how popular these social networking sites are and how fast the members are growing day by day. By placing ads on these sites you also can gather number of potential customers and can get chances to expand your business. If you are an e-commerce developer then you can follow these strategies and get many customers.

For more reliable information on Social Media and Networking, visiting home business planner might be an ideal option for you. Social Media and Networking can become quite simple for you when you have access to our website.

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Tips Tricks and Questions from a Social Media Manager

I have leaned many things over my career as a smm and want to share a couple tips

A Local Following
When I first started out I found it hard to gain fans/followers for companies that need their followers to be in one city or state. These are the things I have found:

• Facebook advertising is great for this to start your page from scratch
• Cross promotions with local businesses via social media works great
• Liking and following all your local teams, city, etc
• Follow all the people that follow something local especially the competition (their conversion rate will be higher)
• Get in contact with anyone and everything from that area, the more people that know about you the better

What and When to Post
Post relevant content and make sure to always include photos. People are around 30% more likely to like a post with a photo. Post at least once a day on Facebook and link it to your twitter. All your Facebook posts should go to your twitter.
Don't waste your time scheduling posts on Twitter if you don't already have a nice following. Chances are the posts that you are bulk uploading suck and no one wants bad posts on their feed. Take your time and create amazing tweets that people will RT. 1 amazing post is much better than 15 bad posts a day.
Post all this stuff around 1 - 3 pm on the weekdays and weekends



People You Should Know
So you need help with a FB page or Twitter account? Ask for help then. It's pretty cool who you can get in contact with on Twitter.

What are your most valuable tips?
Where would you say that you obtained the bulk of your fans? 

Are Forums Useful for Social Media Marketing?

In the rush to grow followers on the biggest social media sites, it is easy to overlook the value of social media marketing within forums. But social media forums like LinkedIn groups, specific topic forums, and Question/Answer groups like Quora are an opportunity to use target marketing instead of a shotgun approach. Although your audience may be smaller, it is more receptive to your message because it is already interested in the subject.

This article addresses how you can use social media forums as a key element in your social media strategy. First, it is important to recognize that social media marketing in forums is not for everyone. Since forums are based on individual membership and individual contributions, social media marketing within this context works best for people in consulting, public speaking, or analyst functions. Although it can be used carefully for sales functions, it isn't a good place to blast out corporate messages.

Before getting engaged in social media marketing within a forum, follow these four steps:
Read the group terms. Individual groups have different norms, which are almost always documented. Most forums strictly forbid sales pitches. Some allow them, but only in a specific section of the group. Some prohibit job posting. Read the group terms carefully and abide by them. You won't be effective in social media marketing if you are breaking group norms.

Listen first. Before providing any posts, listen to get an understanding of what the group finds to be interesting, and what generates a lot of responses. This will help you to tailor your messages to the most effective topics.

Contribute second. Before posting any messages that could be construed as self-serving, provide thoughtful commentary and insights on others' posts and questions.

Message last and least. Post on topics related to your business. Your objective should be to casually inform, not to persuade. An heavy-handed attempt to sell will be seen as a group norm violation and could get you tossed from the group.
Here are some specific ways forums can be used for business objectives.

Research. Many analysts ask questions within the forums to identify ideas for their reports and to find experts to interview.

Product Research. Forums are a good place to ask members about their biggest needs or about their product preferences. Questions such as "how important is a keyboard on a 4G mobile phone" help both developers and marketers plan their work.

Product Feedback Post Launch. After a product is launched, forum members may appreciate the opportunity to show their expertise by commenting on the product or service.

Distribution Partner or Developer Searches. Many groups allow postings to recruit partners as long as it follows group guidelines.

Prospect Identification. Potential customers are lurking in groups. It's important to abide by group norms and seek first to inform, not to sell.

Share events and webinars. Groups are a great place to spread the word about your topic or industry-related educational events. You are bringing value to the group when you share events, especially if they are free.

In conclusion, forum participation can be an effective element in your social media marketing as long as you abide by group guidelines and focus on contributing value and informing rather than selling.

LJ Beatty is an experienced marketer and owner of WikiThreads, a Dallas custom t-shirts business. LJ frequently writes about how small business owners can market more effectively using internet marketing, social media, customization and branding. in the small business marketing blog Quick Takes. If you are interested in Plano embroidery, t-shirts Dallas, or small business marketing, See LJ's latest post in her blog Quick Takes.

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Social Media Marketing - Important To Have An Adequate Budget For Best Results

One does not have to spend money to set up social media accounts. That does not mean social media optimization is completely free. You will have to spend time, effort and money to come up with the right social media updates for your customers. If you do it on your own, you will have to devote valuable time and effort. If you are not the expertise to do this on your own, you will have to employ search engine optimization and social media professionals who specialize in these tasks.
In such a scenario, it is very important to set goals that will quantify your expectations from the social media campaign. Keep the following factors in mind when you are determining the goals and assessing the efficacy of your social media campaign.

Numbers can help you assess whether your campaign is on the right track or not. However, the overall success or failure of the campaign will depend on the number of leads that have been converted into customers. This is the simplest and most effective metric that will tell you whether the money that you have invested has been recovered or not. A social media campaign that does not boost your sales is, sooner or later, going to become an unmanageable expense.
At the same time, it is important to realize that your campaign may not yield results immediately. Just like search engine optimization, you may not be in a position to enjoy a drastic increase in sale volumes. Spending a few thousand dollars over a span of a few months and expecting immediate increase in sales may not be practicable.

On the other hand, if you do not see a substantial increase in sales even after 12 months, then you probably have to conclude that your social media campaign has not worked. Unless you are implementing the social networking campaign as a hobby, you will have to focus on its ultimate impact on your business profits.

If you are focusing on social networks to not just increase your sales but to enhance the quality of customer interaction, then you will have to consider this factor when determining the success or failure of your campaign. How many customers interact with you on websites like Facebook and Twitter? Have you established a viable channel of communication with your customer base? Are you in a position to convey your latest products and services to the largest audience possible without spending a lot of money in the process? How much time do people spend on your Facebook page? How many tweets in your Twitter account get retweeted?

Keeping track of this data will help you understand the overall impact of the campaign on customer satisfaction. There is another significant advantage of keeping track of this data related to social media.

You will be in a position to analyze the performance of your website, web campaigns and online marketing efforts as a whole. Merely focusing on numbers may not help you in the long run. However, there is absolutely no denying that metrics will help you assess the tangible aspects of the campaign and will help you analyze the intangible aspects in a much better manner.

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