11 Social Media Mistakes You Must Avoid

From guest blogger Bianca Male.....

Using social media for marketing is easy, right?

Not necessarily.

Facebook and Twitter's ubiquity can lead to the assumption that using them is foolproof.

In reality, there are common mistakes that business leaders unfamiliar with social media marketing seem to stumble into. These errors reveal a lack of social media savvy and often negate the effectiveness of those marketing efforts.

What are some examples?

Leaving Your Profile Incomplete

Signing up for an account is easy; completing it requires a little more thought. Leaving your profile only partly filled out not only looks unprofessional, but it also forgoes the chance to communicate a little more about who you are as a company.
Make sure yours is complete, and take advantage of options like your picture and added links to give viewers a better feel for your company's personality.

Not Having Enough Fresh Content

You can't engage your followers if you let your account sit idle -- they'll probably wonder why they bothered to follow you in the first place and soon delete you off their lists.
On the flip side, how much updating can you get away with? In an article for OPEN Forum, social media expert Guy Kawasaki responds with, "It depends on several factors: How much do your followers love the company? How good are the deals that you offer? How much 'real' content and 'interaction' do the company’s tweets contain? For sure, the answer is not 'None.'"

Don't Spam!

On the other hand, bombarding your followers with automated or unwanted messages will only serve to irritate them and can get you a reputation as a spammer.
Tools like Twitterfeed allow you to automatically send certain updates to your account. Convenient, yes, but beware: if those are the only posts you have, your account is going to feel impersonal, and it will completely negate the interactive element of social media marketing, according to Rescue Marketing.
Similarly, never employ tactics such as hashtag spamming, which Jennifer Van Grove of OPEN Forum defines as an instance "when a Twitterer appends a trending topic on Twitter to their tweets simply to gain extra attention." Not cool, and a surefire way to lose credibility.

Not Separating Your Business and Personal Accounts

The last thing your clients need to hear about is your kid's soccer game or what you're doing on a Saturday night.
You are allowed to have multiple accounts on each social media platform, so use that privilege -- separate your personal account from your business account.

Letting Politics and Other Personal Opinions Leak into Your Business Accounts

Your business's Twitter stream is not an appropriate place for you to vent about your stance on anything related to politics or other similarly personal subjects that have the potential to offend.
If you wouldn't bring those topics up in a client meeting, the same standards apply for social media sites.

Fake Friending

Yes, you're excited about suddenly having free access to millions of potential customers. But friending them all at once comes across as spammy and in-genuine -- descriptors that you do not want associated with your business.
Small Business Trends recommends going for quality over quantity: "Seek out the people who will be most vocal about you. Then, go out of your way for them. Help them. Connect with them. Build real relationships. That is how social media becomes powerful. Fake friends aren’t going to click your links, they won’t visit your site, and they won’t buy your products."

Being Pushy

You should treat each new follower online as you would every potential client you meet in person -- which means not pushing your product on them the instant you're introduced.
"Direct marketing can work in social media, but you need to create the relationships before you try and call on them," according to Small Business Trends.
Avoid the temptation to direct message someone and ask them to buy your product the second they friend or follow you, and instead focus on building a relationship with them first.

Not Maintaining a Consistent Image Across the Board

Your social media accounts are now part of your larger brand identity, which means they should reflect your brand consistently within the contexts of each social media site.
The Small Business Advocate writes, "When all of your social media sites, as well as your primary web site, have a similar look and feel, you put out a consistent brand that prospects and clients remember."
Make sure the style of such elements as your background images, photos, and language are consistent with your overall web strategy across the board.

Using the Same Strategy on Every Site

Every social media site is different, and each requires a different approach.
Small Business Trends advises, "Trying to run a one-size-fits-all approach will limit your ability to be successful anywhere." Become familiar with the nuances of each platform and take the time to employ the right strategy for each.

Tweeting and Deleting

If you post something and regret it later, avoid the urge to delete it.
Since search engines maintain a record of your post the instant you put it up in the online world, you can't ever really erase it. Attempting to do so may only call more attention to your gaffe.
Instead, Van Grove advises to leave it, but follow it up with a comment clarifying what you meant to say or correcting your mistake. In her article for OPEN Forum, she adds, "Of course, the best defense is a good offense, so remember to take your emotion out of the equation, and avoid tweeting about sensitive company information."

Failing to Measure Your Impact

After spending all that time and effort on your social media marketing strategy, the biggest mistake you could make would be to not measure its impact.
First, you need to decide exactly what you want to get out of your social media efforts: "Increased buzz over a product? Better brand awareness? Blog subscribers? Traffic?" suggests Small Business Trends.
Then, figure out how you plan to monitor it. Mashable has an excellent guide for doing just that, including a selection of tools that measure different elements of social media, from web traffic trackers to sentiment analysis applications.

Bianca Male in an intern at Business Insider. Click Here to few all of her great post!

The "Super Cycle" in Gold and How It Will Affect Your Pocketbook in 2010

Share

5 Blogging Basics You Can’t Live Without

by guest blogger Nate Moller....

Why do you blog?

What do you hope to achieve by taking time out of your busy day to write a blog post?

Do you want to become a professional blogger and make money blogging?

Or do you blog to vent, rant, or talk about your boss? (be careful, he/she may subscribe to your blog secretly)

Whatever your reason for blogging, if you’re like me, you want people to READ what you have to say and comment.

To help you achieve whatever blogging goal you have in mind, I’ve compiled a list of 5 steps to help you better promote your blog post.

Step 1: The Power of the Title

Your content could be the BEST out there, but if your title sucks, the content probably won’t get touched.

Write a blog post with a catchy title!

Brian Clark calls this “The Law of Headlines and Hooks“:

Your post titles must stand out in a crowded, noisy blogosphere, and you must quickly communicate the value of reading further with your opening.

5 Performance Goals All Bloggers Should Set

How To’s in List Format
Love them or hate them, informational posts presented in list format are easily digestible and allow for an efficient transfer of your value proposition to the reader…creating an excellent list gives you an extra boost in terms of presentation and connecting with your readers.

Step 2: Blog Posts Must Be Reader Friendly

Make sure the blog post is “scannable” so readers don’t have to sift through all the “words” to get the gist of the content.

How to Make a Blog Post Scannable

Bullet Points

Header Tags

Numbered Lists

Pictures

Quotes

Short Paragraphs

Bold Text

Good spacing between lines (this is CSS technical stuff)

Step 3: Pictures are Worth 1,000 Words

Include pictures in ALL blog posts.

Not only does a picture “liven the mood” of an article, but it’s more likely to get passed on in the social networks, especially if it’s funny, creative and applicable to the content you’ve shared.

(My client will LOVE this!)

Step 4: Use Video from Time to Time

I’ve seen video used really effectively.

And I’ve seen video OVER-DONE. Use it from time to time if you feel it’s adding value to what you’re sharing.

One small recommendation I give clients is to add at least a few paragraphs of text after a video. Not only does this show you’ve put in a bit of time to get the content ready, but it will help with SEO too.

I’ve even “transcribed” or “summarized” video content about social media marketing in the form of text to emphasize key points.

Step 5: Keep It Simple Stupid

If you’re blog posts are way too long and wordy, you’ll lose readers right away! I usually shoot for 500-750 words max.

I don’t care how good your writing is, most people won’t read more than a few sentences. Any more and they’ll start scanning. You probably aren’t reading this article exactly from top to bottom are you? In fact, you’re probably not even reading this sentence. Man, for a discussion about brevity this sure is dragging on. You can fight it by being more entertaining, but the best policy is to just write less.

How have these steps helped you promote your blog and achieve your life’s purpose?

Nate Moller has helped thousands of new online entrepreneurs start an online business. Check out his website "Thou Shall Blog". He also does SEO consulting for a variety of clients, including one of the best dropship companies online. He also works with clients to build their online reputation via social media marketing strategy.

Make sure to follow Nate on Twitter @mollermarketing.

Share

Top 3 SEO Tips To Dominate Search Engine

From guest blogger John Balthazar....

Since 1998 I've spent the first several months of each year looking for the very best search engine optimization (SEO) tips of the previous year's end. This year I've come across the best SEO tips yet.

SEO Tip #1: Make Google Alerts Your Personal Online Spy

Google Alerts is a great way to let the world's biggest search engine be your personal online spy. This takes search engine optimization insider info to whole new level. Here's an excerpt straight from Google....

"Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:

* monitoring a developing news story
* keeping current on a competitor or industry
* getting the latest on a celebrity or event
* keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams"

As you probably guessed, it's the second one we care about most, "keeping current on a competitor or industry."

Here's how it works... Each time Google finds a reference to the query or topic you request you will be sent an email with the details. This is like having an online spy to make sure competitors are not using your protected keywords (trademarked names, company names, etc.) It's also an instant identifier to know when your site or product is mentioned in a news story or even when a topic is hot so you can take advantage of the situation. It's the easiest way in the world to stop competitors' dirty tricks and identify trends that you can take instant advantage of.

It's fast, free and works every minute of every day. Let Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) do your most time consuming legwork while you reap the rewards!

SEO Tip #2: Optimize Your 404 Page and Always Be Found

"Error 404: Page Not Found" is a blessing that most Webmasters curse. Why? Getting a visitor on any page of your site is fantastic! Don't blow the opportunity. Not only can you make your "404" page a valuable sales tool, you can use the following search engine optimization techniques to attract customers in droves.

A.) Use your main keyword in your title, add a "pipe" (usually above the Enter key) and then use your secondary keyword. Here's as example for an SEO site "SEO - Search Engine Optimization Tips"

B.) Add some keyword rich content using one to two keywords for the page. If you have less than 250 words on the page, just use one keyword and use it no more than three times total. Bold the first use and italicize the second or third use. Keep in mind this is an "inactive" page so simply tell the visitor what your site is about and whet their appetite with a good description. Something like this works well... "Thank you for visiting SEO (bold) Group, Inc. We are sorry you landed on a missing page but don't worry, if you're looking for the very best search engine optimizations tips (bold), you're at the right place..." This will go on for a couple paragraphs or as long as you'd like then end it with something to the effect of "Please Click Here (link) to visit our site map or click any link to the left."

C.) Add your site's standard navigation system (bar, column, etc.) as mentioned above.

D.) Make the look and feel of the customized 404 page match your main site as closely as possible with a template, matched palette, cascading style sheets, etc.

E.) Create a link to the site map page if available, and make the link easy to find. You want your visitor off the 404 page and into your main content as quickly as possible.

Setting up a custom 404 page link usually takes less than five minutes on most major Web hosting companies like Godaddy.com. But whatever it takes, it's worth the effort.

SEO Tip #3: Get (Even More) Serious About Linking

I saved the most important for last. If you want to do well on any search engine, especially Google, linking is THE single MOST important thing you can do. It's that simple.

Here are the five things you MUST do to make your site #1 on Google:

A.) Find the highest page rank sites linking to your site AND your competitors' sites.

B.) Run monthly link campaigns and snatch up the best of the above identified Web sites.

C.) Run regular checks on what pages are still linking back to your site. Alsomake sure they did not move you from a high page rank page to a lower one (don't get cheated!)

D.) Eliminate any penalized sites you link to; ASAP!

E.) Check your search engine ranking AND your competitor's for each of your keywords every week. Do this, at the minimum, for Google, Yahoo, MSN and Alta Vista.

Inside Tip: Keeping up can be a lot of work so a lot of SEO Consultants (myself included) use SEO Elite [http://www.topseosecret.com] to do all the most difficult and time consuming work.

One last thing to know is that Google was originally a college student's project created for the sole purpose of defining a Web site's value by the sites that link to it. Twelve years later this is still it's main job. Linking is EVERYTHING to Google.

These few SEO tips are the very best of the best so use them wisely. Best of luck!

About the Author:

John Balthazar is an SEO expert. he currently lives in Johore Bahru and gives away SEO tips at his website.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Top 3 SEO Tips To Dominate Search Engine

The CEO’s of eBay, Amazon and Wal Mart are falling all over themselves to give you money….Here’s why

Share

4 Ways to Use Twitter To Drive Traffic

From guest blogger Joseph Simon....

Pinpointing exactly how and why Twitter drives viral traffic to your website or blog is quite impossible. I think it comes down to Twitter being a form of word of mouth viral advertising that generates the traffic. Rather than use the bulk of time discussing this I wanted to offer various suggestions when using Twitter to advertise your business.

1. Don't give people the impression you're spamming them.

What I mean by this is don't just repeatedly add people and spam them with the same cut and paste tweets telling them about whatever you're selling. I personally can't stand when someone does this and immediately unfollow them or just completely ignore their tweets. I know I'm not alone doing this either. The better thing to do is to actually come across as a human being and not a spambot. Mix up your business tweets with some personal tweets. Talk about yourself a little bit and send @ messages to other people on your follower list. Remember, fewer followers equals less traffic to your site.

2. Present your tweets in a creative way

This goes hand in hand with number one and could provide a boost in traffic from Twitter or increase followers. I know it can seem difficult with only 140 characters or less but it shouldn't be too hard for a person who has created their own content for a blog, an article, an e-book etc. Also, spruce up your profile a bit. The default Twitter background is ugly and the sidebar color is even uglier. Do you really want people to think you're too lazy to take 20 minutes to change up your profile? It can have a negative effect on the way people view you and your level of service and dedication. Also, always follow the people who add you as a follower. Develop a connection with your Twitter followers and that will generate more traffic and more sales.

3. Always use hashtags and follow trending topics

A hashtag is a way to make your tweets clickable and easily searchable. A hashtag is nothing more than adding the hash symbol (#) before a keyword or a keyphrase. So, let's say I tweet about the new episode of American Idol. At the end of my tweet I would add #americanidol. Doing this tagged that tweet associated with American Idol and added it to a live feed of up-to-the-minute tweets related to American Idol. This leads me to trending topics. Twitter keeps a list of the common tweets at the time on the right sidebar and this is very helpful at attracting new followers. I mentioned earlier about mixing up your business tweets with personal tweets so if you keep an eye on that list and something catches your eye you can tweet about it throughout the day and be exposed to more Twitter users who could turn into followers and who might generate traffic for your site.

4. Add the Twitter widget to your site(s)/blog(s)

If you're using other methods to promote this is essential to building your Twitter following and increasing Traffic to your site. Why is this? Well, I'm assuming you're using an autoresponder so assuming that there will at least be certain people that visit your site have a Twitter account this is a way for you to send daily messages to them via your tweets. It's a fact that very few people obtain a program or a product immediately after being exposed to it. It ordinarily takes seeing it a few times and thinking it over.

Used effectively Twitter can be a goldmine. All those users can't be wrong. For more information on Twitter check out my blog entry.

About the Author:
Joseph Simon an internet marketer and expert re-seller with 10 years experience with everything from EBAY to MLM to Affiliate Marketing. The most profitable program he markets is the IPC Instant Cash Program. Currently he lives in NJ where he is a full time Internet Marketer and Product Review Specialist. Just Click Here to check out what he's up to at his official site.

Instantly Make More Money Starting Now

Share

Social Media.....Worth the time?

2009 brought us a lot of changes in the world of social media. MySpace gathers dust except for a few teenagers and Facebook appears ready to take over the world. But don't take either one of those facts for granted. MySpace might just be the perfect place to promote your site and Facebook may never bring you any traffic, but the cold hard truth is that you need to try both.....you need to try them all.

No one can tell you "this is what you have to do". That is the first sign they really don't understand the world of blogging and promoting your site on social networks. Every single one of us does something a little different, we have a different niche. And we need to go into blogging with our waders on.

If you organize your time wisely and do a little bit almost everyday at the major social networking sites it won't take long for you to figure out where to call home.

Yet still, forums seem to be the kings of social media and why is that. SOCIAL MEDIA! Nothing will bring you more traffic then making yourself part of a community that lives and breathes the subject matter you are writing about. If you can spend some time every day making comments that are not only interesting but make you appear as an authority [come on, we know you are] people will flock to your site. If you can't....you picked the wrong subject to blog about.

While you are out there looking for forums to place your links [Oooo the beauty of being able to post your link as your signature] why not create your own. Check out the folks at Ning.Com. They have made it simple to create your own forum and complete social network. Then you can feel free to spam yourself, within reason.


Click here to get 1 Million Guaranteed Real Visitors, FREE!

Share

Things You can Do Today to Increase Traffic....Download Alexa!

If you have not done it yet, make sure to download the Alexa toolbar. If you are not familiar with it the Alexa system is the leader in rating websites. Why is this so important? Not only does it give you a gauge of your sites own ratings, but gives you an insight into what blogs and forums are highly ranked. Focus on these sites for your comments and discussion don't waste time on sites that are not even ranked as high as your own site.

Get started now with the "Alexa Sparky" Toolbar and don't forget to verify your site while you are there.

Please feel free to leave comments with any ideas and suggestions you may have.

Share

PayDotCom....Sell Your Products or Become a Super Affiliate

Click Here to Sell Your Products or Become a Super Affiliate