How to boost your SEO efforts with Social Media

On December 12, 2011, in Social Media Marketing, by GuestBlogger
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Everyone knows the importance that social media is playing within the freelancing world, and the opportunities provided to us via twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to enhance our networking reach, find new projects and handle client management with ease are undisputed. However, what you may not realize is the benefit that social media can have on your SEO efforts. Social media can aid your SEO efforts in two ways; as a tool to increase the reach of your blog and increase traffic, and as a way to ensure that the content that appears on your site or blog is shared through social media, thereby increasing the number of backlinks to your site and improving your SERP results. So how can you make social platforms effectively serve your SEO efforts?

What can social media platforms bring to your SEO?

Platforms such as twitter offer you the perfect way to connect with other bloggers on a flexible basis. Not only can you follow professionals in your field via twitter and receive inspiration for your own site from their tweets, but you can also connect with colleagues with ease. Twitter functions as a great platform to assist the development of your content and if you want to use your followers as a sounding board for your ideas then this is a great way to interact with your colleagues. If you are producing quality content on your blog on a regular basis, then make sure to auto-tweet your articles to maximize their reach, the better the article, the more chance that it is shared by followers on Facebook or re-tweeted on twitter. This “hype” ensures more backlinks to the original source of the article – your website.

But the key to SEO success on twitter is reciprocity. You absolutely need to re-tweet articles from your followers and engage with their debates, questions or polls. Social SEO is a two-way street after all. (more…)

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Twitter is More Than a Numbers Game

On January 25, 2011, in Social Media Marketing, by GuestBlogger
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Often times we get too caught up in the level of popularity we have online. While having a Twitter account with 10,000 followers may do wonders for your ego it may not achieve great results at your quarter end sales meeting.  The principle of having a lot of followers on Twitter equaling increased sales and marketing performance is based in sound logic.  The logic is based around having a lot of followers will drive traffic to your site/blog and that through that traffic you will achieve some percentage of direct conversions and another percentage of that traffic will link to your site which in the long run will increase your performance in the search engines.  Along with that logic recently it was announced that a person’s social graph does play a small role in the ranking algorithm, however it is assumed to be very small right now.

A solid number of followers is one important piece of the pie however the more important factors in determining how much your Twitter following can assist you in improving your sales and marketing efforts are the type and quality of followers you have.  Just think of it in a real world example.  If you run a sales team for a software company do you want your sales people out networking with a group of electricians and accountants? You probably would rather have them networking with CIO’s and IT managers.  It is the same on Twitter, you want to create followers that fall into one of these categories:

  • Influencers – These are those who are recognized as thought and industry leaders and influence the decision making of others.

  • Potential Customers – This group includes anyone who falls into your target audience (you’ve developed this right?) These are potential customers who are in any of your service/product’s buying cycle.  They may at the early stages and just want to hear about the solution or they may be further along in the cycle and are ready to attend one of your online webinars promoted through Twitter

  • Others in the industry – These are the followers who may not be at the level of “influencers” or though leaders but work in your industry or a similar industry and maintain a Twitter following who may be interested in your products and services. When these individuals re-tweet or share your content their followers will see it and they may fall into one  the influencers or potential customer groups.

Obviously anyone can follow you on Twitter but you can shape who follows you by being selective on who you decide to follow back and by promoting the right type of content.  By doing this you will develop a rich set of Twitter followers who will be much more likely to produce measurable results for your business.

Dustin Thompson is the Principal at Konnected Interactive, a Minneapolis Marketing firm specializing in helping companies create marketing strategies that create a strong brand presence, grow sales, and improve customer service.

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Increase Traffic by Tweeting Your Older Content

On January 5, 2011, in Social Media Marketing, by Chris Edwards
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Here is a quick and simple way to increase traffic to your website or blog that will require very little work. If you run a website or even blog, you most likely have noticed that you get a traffic boost when you post new content. This traffic then slowly dies down. The reason for this traffic boost is normally due to the promotion you have done for the new article you have posted. You most likely tweeted your article, as well as posted it to several social bookmarking sites. This is what gets you that initial boost for your article.

The problem is, most webmasters and bloggers do this process once then move on to trying to come up with their next article or new content to get that boost again. My question to them is…why stop?

If you are like me, you have many articles and pages that you have put a lot of work into, however they have fallen off your homepage and deep, deep within your site’s navigation. The only way they are found is through Google. My tip to increasing your traffic is as simple as going into your site and digging out this old content and posting it your Twitter account and your social bookmarking websites. Yes, it really is that simple. (more…)

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A Review of TweetingMachine, The Ultimate Twitter Tool

On January 3, 2011, in Social Media Marketing, by Chris Edwards
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I was privileged to be asked to review TweetingMachine.com, dubbed as “the ultimate twitter tool”. I have been using this tool now for about 3 weeks and would like to share my opinions with you.

What is TweetingMachine?

TweetingMachine is a web based interface that has many twitter tools that are easy to use. Here are some of those tools: (more…)

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Tools to Unfollow Twitter Non-Followers

On December 13, 2010, in Social Media Marketing, by Chris Edwards
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I have talked to you about how social media is a great tool for your business. Twitter is one of those social networks that is perfect for marketing.

If you are using Twitter for marketing, you may have found out that there is a limit to how many you can follow after you follow 2,000 tweeps. Once you hit this limit, you are put on a follower to following ratio by Twitter. This means that you need to keep these number either close to each other or have more followers than those that you are following.

Due to this limit, you have decided to start unfollowing some of the tweeps that your are following. If you are like me, you like to help out those that are following you by returning the favor and following them. At this point, you will want to remove some of those that you are not following you back.

Now yes, you could go through the long process of manually finding each person or you can just use a tool that will assist you with the process. I will tell you about four tools to unfollow Twitter Non-Followers. (more…)

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How To Cancel Your TweetBig Account

On December 5, 2010, in Social Media Marketing, by Chris Edwards
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Check out my real review of TweetBig to find out what my trial taught me about this product.

I know that some have not found an easy way to cancel their subscription to TweetBig. YOU CAN NOT cancel you TweetBig account through tweetbig.com. Many are stating that it is impossible to cancel however these people are not doing it the right way. It must be canceled through ClickBank. Follow the method listed below to cancel your TweetBig account.

  1. Open up the order email
  2. Find the section where it talks about Customer Services and click the link inside that section
  3. In the upper left corner of this order details page, you will see “Get Support”. Click on that.
  4. In the drop down box, you should see “I Want To Cancel My Subscription”. Select that
  5. BE SURE TO check the box that says something about sending the Ticket to ClickBank support. This will bypass TweetBig’s horrible support.
  6. Fill out all other info needed and hit submit

PLEASE NOTE: ClickBank states that it can take up to one business day to cancel your order. If you are in your 7 day trial, be sure to cancel it around 5 days to allow for that one business day.

If That Did Not Work

If you are having problems with canceling your TweetBig trial or TweetBig subscription, call ClickBank customer service at 1-800-390-6035 and have the order number that is in your email ready. From my experience on calling in, they seem to work with you great. The total call time took me only 4 1/2 minutes and that time includes the greeting and menu system.

If you have lost, or did not receive the order email from ClickBank, not to worry, you can still cancel your TweetBig account. Just call the number listed above and give them your name and the day you ordered, and they should be able to look up and cancel your account.

DO NOT Wait The Full 7 Days

As I already stated above, ClickBank requires 1 business day to cancel your TweetBig subscription. Honestly, this needs to be changed to say 2 business days as when I did 1 business day I still got charged and had to call and get refunded (which they did for me). Be sure to take into account holidays and weekends and plan your cancellation day out right.

If you did not make it in time to cancel and you were charged for a full month, do not worry too much. Give ClickBank a call and explain that your 7 day trial ended on a weekend and that you are not satisfied with the product. They will give you a refund and you will be all good. I was explained that there is a 60 day no questions asked policy that all companies that use ClickBank must follow. If you call and ask ClickBank for a refund during this time, they will give it to you regardless of what TweetBig thinks.

I Would Like To Here From You

Please tell me about your experience with canceling TweetBig. For me, it was pleasant however I know for many, it was not. You can comment below and as long as it is not spam, I will approve it no matter if your opinion is good or bad. This article and these comments are here to help others that are going through the nightmare of canceling this product.

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Social Media: Listening is the First Step

On November 15, 2010, in Social Media Marketing, by GuestBlogger
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Even if are still hesitant to jump into social media for growing your brand awareness, improving your search engine optimization, or promoting content, managing your reputation is a factor of social media you cannot ignore.  If you aren’t active on social media that does not mean your customers, vendors, contractors, and others are not and they will be using social media to talk about your brand.  Keeping up to date with the buzz around your company is an invaluable resource that will allow you to improve several areas of your business including:

  1. Customer service
  2. Usability of your website or product(s)
  3. Development of new products or services
  4. Content creation

Online reputation management (ORM) is a process you should start investing in now as the base of your social media efforts.  ORM will not only will help you stay up to date with the voice of your customer but it will also help you develop your ongoing social media strategies by giving you ideas of what your target audience is looking for  and what type of content is not yet available. (more…)

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How To Encourage Customers To Follow You On Social Media

On November 12, 2010, in Social Media Marketing, by Chris Edwards
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Photo by Dale Chumbley

So you followed my advice and understand why your business should be using social media. You created your Facebook account and setup your twitter account to get started with. You even went in and adding all your business info to Facebook and branded your Twitter page. You are now ready to go but you have hit a snag…how are you going to get your customers to follow you? Well, let’s see what we can come up with.

Tell Everyone!

Yes, tell everyone! Once you have created these accounts you need to get the word out every possible way. You will need to tell everyone your Facebook URL and your Twitter username. Here is a list on just some of the ways you can get this info out:

  • Put it on your receipts
  • Place posters around your store
  • Place a flyer your sales counter
  • Put a link on your website
  • Add the info to your business cards
  • Tell each of your customers verbally at checkout
  • Send it out to your email list
  • Put it on all promotional material you send out
  • and so many more… (more…)
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Keeping Social Media Comments In Check

On November 11, 2010, in Social Media Marketing, by Chris Edwards
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One of the biggest aspects of social media is the fact that everyone comments and tweets about everything that they see, hear, visit, touch, etc. This can have positive affects on your business marketing plan however, if not kept in check, this can have major negative affects on your business.

In a previous article, I talked about why your business should be using social media and showed you the following infographic about the social media effect:

The Social Media Effect

This infographic showed how the content you create can spread all around the web. Now, just like the content that you create, your consumer’s content is entitled to the same flow.

As stated in my previous article about why your business should be using social media, 35.4% of Americans are interacting with businesses via social media networks. This means, they are commenting and tweeting about how their experience with your company was. If you have gone above and beyond, they will be sure to tell the world. If you have not met their expectations or you have upset them, they will be sure to also let the world know that. (more…)

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Why Your Business Should Be Using Social Media

On November 4, 2010, in Social Media Marketing, by Chris Edwards
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I am sure you have heard about Social Media Marketing, Social Networks, Facebook, Twitter, etc., etc. Everyone says you should be including these in your marketing plan but never fully tell you why. Well, let me be the one to tell you why.

The Facts

Cone LLC released two studies that showed some very interesting trends amongst consumers.

According to their research, four-out-of-five consumers (81%) will go online to verify recommended products or services regardless if their friends and family are the ones recommending the product to them. This information came from research that Cone LLC published in their 2010 Cone Online Influence Trend Tracker.

Cone LLC also released a study back in 2008 that finds that Americans expect companies to have a presence in social media.

According to their research, 60% of Americans use social media and of those, 59% interact with companies on social media web sites. One in four interacts more than once per week.

These numbers should be pretty alarming to businesses that currently are not using social media. The math works out to 35.4% of Americans are interacting with companies via social media websites.

When asked about specific types of interactions, the study showed that Americans who use social media believe:

  • Companies should use social media networks to solve my problems (43%)
  • Companies should solicit feedback on their products and services (41%)
  • Companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand (37%)
  • Companies should market to consumers (25%) (more…)
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