Category: Internet Marketing

Most newspapers have begun to realize that SEO is not only necessary for their success, but that a little effort towards optimization for search engine can go a long way in bringing excellent results in terms of engagement and traffic. If one is publishing content online, it has to be accessible to search engines in order to fetch organic traffic. Thus, Newspaper SEO is something that every major publishing house must prioritize. However, even the biggest newspapers find it difficult to understand simple rules of SEO and how best one could optimize content for search engines. In this document, the most important methods to optimize newspapers for search engines are discussed. Title and Headline One must make use of the <title> tag appropriately. The article title must be present in the <title> tag and the category must be mentioned. Joost de Valk at Yoast wrote that <title> – <category> – <newspaper name> works the best. The headline is the most important part of a newspaper article. A good headline not only helps to grab attention, but will also help in SEO. The basic rule is that a headline must not exceed 65 characters, and that includes the space between words as well. Headlines must also not be extremely short. BBC realized this and increased its headlines from 30 characters to 55 characters. Too lengthy:XYZ Unveils Online Shopping Site that Sells Antique Furniture on Discounted Prices Too short: XYZ Unveils Antique Furniture Store Adequate length: XYZ’s Online Discount Store Sells Antique Furniture Moreover, one must not waste this precious space to fill branding and marketing information like the newspaper’s name, date of publication and such other details which may not be relevant to search engines. Only 19.5% of news release headlines are optimized for SEO, which is rather unfortunate. The headline must always be relevant to the story that follows it. Though it is tempting, one must not write headlines in such a way that it misleads the reader only to get him to click on the link. Paradoxically, one may have to use the name of the company in headlines occasionally. You might also want to research your company’s top keywords and use a couple of them. Google Analytics can be a very useful tool in this respect. Moreover, it may also be necessary to not have just one headline but almost 5 of them. You would need an on-page headline and one for the HTML title. Let us say, the On-page headline is: XYZ’s Online Discount Store Sells Antique Furniture An HTML title according to Malcolm Coles at journalism.co.uk says that the typical rules to follow are “On-page headline – site name” or “On-page headline – section – site name”. XYZ’s Online Discount Store Sells Antique Furniture | eCommerce |ABC Magazine For Google News you would need a title that is optimized for SEO but according to Google News instructions. It is noticed that Google News picks up on-page headlines than HTML titles and thus, you may tweak your Google News headline a little bit if you choose to. Of course, it is important to submit a Google News sitemap first. It makes sense to insert words that you may otherwise not want to see in your actual on-page headline, but would be used by web searchers to get to your page. XYZ’s Online Discount Store Sells Cheap and Affordable Antique Furniture Another headline may be necessary for the channel page and that needs to be shorter. XYZ to Sell Discounted Antique Furniture Finally, one would need a custom headline for Twitter and this needs to be very catchy, informal and fun, followed by the link to the content. Grab Affordable but Great Antique Furniture at XYZ’s New Web Store! TinyURLs It is common to come across TinyURLs printed all across the web. They help to reduce the length of unsightly URLs which are not only lengthy, but quite unappealing to look at. A TinyURL looks neat and orderly, and saves space. Instead of http://www.jpost.com/Travel/Jerusalem/Article.aspx?id=272177, one could use http://tinyurl.com/7we92ca However, readers cannot remember URLs when they look at TinyURLs. Every TinyURL looks the same, and it is difficult to differentiate between each other, or even memorize them if one is not able to bookmark the link immediately. TinyURLs do not provide any sort of branding capabilities. It is also not possible to track your links and to know who has linked back to it, shared it or used the link for any other purpose. TinyURL services may simply go out of business and all the links that you have shared using that particular service may simply vanish. Business can instead build their own URL shortening services, which are customized. http://j.post/xyzxyz Then, a shortened URL may be easier to remember, as it resembles it ‘mother site’ anyway. A possible solution to making sure that all the URLs are consolidated in place is to build a page where all your shortened URLs are listed with short descriptions similar to Twitter headlines. Twitter It is an established fact that Twitter is an SEO signal. If more number of people write about a keyword or brand on Twitter, the brand will be more optimized for search engines. Likewise, it is better if more people linked to a document. Now, it is not just general people that matter but when influential people like celebrities, thought leader and those who have a lot of Twitter influence write about a brand, it creates stronger SEO signals. Likewise, influential people must link to documents that you want to optimize. The idea is to get not only followers but influential followers. The next step is to write creative, catchy and great tweets that link to great content as well. Keywords Keywords may not be as important to newspapers as they are to smaller blogs and websites. When a newspaper has more than 500 pages, it is important to make sure that all the content is crawlable and listed on search engines. Thus, SEO must concentrate on making

It is agreed, written down and emphasized that social media is central to the experience of marketing online. Using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and other social media sites are crucial to the success of a marketing campaign and can significantly help in fetching revenue. With all your marketing strategies in place, how further can you go in ensuring social media success? Well, there is no dearth of tips to enhance social media marketing and here are a few tips that you must include in your marketing practice. Live Events, Webinars and Teleseminars Facebook and Twitter offer possibilities have holding webinars and seminars at a very low cost. Assuming you have a business page on Facebook, it is very important to interact with your fans and followers on a regular basis so that their questions, concerns and suggestions are addressed and noted down. There are many webinar platforms such as Linqto, LotusLive, GoToWebinar and others. You could make use of webcams to get other participants to hold webinars too. Twitter does not allow this directly, but key points from a webinar can be tweeted live, and a custom hashtag may be employed. Be Altruistic, Help Others Once you have achieved some success in your social media campaign, it is important to share your knowledge, success and expertise with those who are still budding. Also, look for opportunities to help people even if it is not related to your business. Outward displays of altruism have a positive effect in social media marketing. Twitter is extremely useful in this area, as you can easily recommend people who are unknown, retweet certain people’s tweets and leave comments on other people’s blogs even if they do not have a high ranking blog. It is important to choose your beneficiary carefully. Focus Less on Marketing Most businesses don’t understand that there is something ‘social’ about social media marketing. People do not like to be inundated with messages and tweets that shove a sales pitch at them all the time. They like to imagine their favorite companies and businesses as concerned, social and human. Thus, it is important for you to be so, genuinely. While marketing in social media is what you are supposed to be doing, you also need to be social and friendly. That also means not driving a sales pitch all the time. Understanding What Customers Want There are tools like Research.ly which help you to monitor what your fans and followers are talking about on Facebook or Twitter. These social conversations provide you with important insights that will help in discovering new opportunities that you probably didn’t know existed. Bringing Social Media to Real Life Twitter meet-ups and Facebook meets are all too common these days. It can be a great way to build relationships with your fans and followers. In fact, there can be a subtle marketing pitch in these meet-ups. By throwing contests and offers, you can meet winners in real life and engage with them just as ‘friends’ would do over coffee, drink or dinner. Other kinds of meetings include Twitter/Facebook meets where a number of people may be invited to meet at a designated place to discuss and talk about issues that concern a brand or product or even a general trend. Be Controversial There is always a shock-value attached to controversies and social networks are great places to tap into this part of the human psyche. No matter how great your content is, if it does not attract and sustain attention there is no point in sharking it on social networks. Using negative flavored language and slightly provocative themes can help drive a lot of traffic. Everyone likes to read controversial stuff especially if it is entertaining at the same time. A title such as “How to Invest in SEO and Fail Miserably” attracts more attention than “Steps to Avoid in SEO”. This strategy works best with how-to and informational content. Research First, Invest Later Just like conducting a market research before starting a marketing campaign, you would need to study your social signals and target audience carefully. Understanding the demographics, best time to interact on Facebook/Twitter and learning your target audience’s quirks and psychographics can go a long way in ensuring that you stay relevant and in sync. Researching your target audience also helps in making sure that you are not missing any opportunities that you may find among social conversations on Twitter or Facebook. Spending decisions must be based on internal priorities, customer-facing priorities and technological priorities. These priorities can be understood well after researching the target audience. Bring Experts and Share Knowledge You could invite guest bloggers to write posts or get speakers to interact with your audience during Facebook/Twitter webinars. You may also want to have interviews fixed with industry experts right on your Twitter/Facebook account and get them to answer questions posed by your fans, friends and followers. Sharing knowledge increases your authority and influence in social media and that is precisely what you should be looking at. Of course, each company or business will also have to explore other possibilities to optimize their social media campaign in a unique and endearing way. The bottom-line is that companies and businesses must stay social on social networks and avoid being too keen on only marketing.

Digital marketing is an area that must be tread carefully. There are hundreds of examples that we could give why you must put forethought into your digital marketing campaign. This time, we shall use the infamous Swedish Twitter Experiment as an example to describe why your digital marketing campaign has to be planned well and must have a degree of control. The Sweden Twitter Experiment that Was Not Sweden decided to let its citizens take over the official @Sweden Twitter ID for a day each, as part of a digital marketing campaign. The idea was to show the world how regular Swedes are, and how they are so interesting that investors and tourists should never miss an opportunity to consider Sweden. Their digital marketing campaign backfired. Sonja, one of the citizens who got to take over @Sweden for a day tweeted bizarre content including what could be perceived as anti-semitic and homophobic. Another Swede tweeted less embarrassing stuff but at the end of the day, it was clear that Swedes are no different from citizens elsewhere in the world. The democratic digital marketing campaign backfired and Sweden did not really gain anything positive from its marketing efforts. What can the rest of the world learn from Sweden’s failed experiment? A lot, actually. The Swedish Twitter Campaign Was Not a Failure The government of Sweden continues to allow its citizens to speak out using the official twitter handle even after the gaffe. In fact, a few embarrassing tweets by ignorant citizens has not changed the way we perceive Sweden and has in fact humanized that nation. To us, Sweden is no longer that ultra squeaky clean nation with extremely liberal citizens. There are people with their own weaknesses, flaws and embarrassing traits. This only tells the world that Sweden is just like any other country in the world. What makes it different is that in spite of the gaffe and embarrassments, it has decided to stick to its digital marketing campaign. Sweden is not afraid to reveal its flaws and it is willing to accept that there may be elements in that nation who may not be exemplary. In social media, this strategy works really well. Sweden not only came to focus but has also gained mileage for letting its citizens speak even when they are seemingly embarrassing. What Digital Marketing Professionals Must Learn The Swedish Digital Marketing campaign was not pulled off and it continues to allow its citizens to tweet under the official handle. This decision has increased the respect we have for Sweden and its democratic values that insists on freedom of speech. The USP of Sweden is its liberty, freedom of speech and human rights. It has managed to tell the world that even in the most cringe-worthy situation; Sweden would not back off from its policies and beliefs. That builds investor confidence and creates positive image for those who intend to travel there. Likewise, digital marketing professionals must be ready to be creative, controversial and to an extent edgy as well. Sticking to the known territory and being conventional will make a campaign redundant and boring. It becomes very easy to ignore and even forget within no time. Digital marketing campaigns must be honest, true to company policies and mission, and tell the audience what the reality really is like. It humanizes companies just like it humanized Sweden. In digital marketing, it is all about the human factor and most importantly, the social factor. Gaffes, embarrassments and even controversies are ok, so long as you stay true to your company’s agenda and policies. Digital marketing professionals must use this example to learn that it is extremely important to be creative, edgy and social when trying to market something. Mundane campaigns that are no different from the thousands of other campaigns will never be successful. Twitter can be a great tool for marketing professionals. In fact, it is the best tool to begin a digital marketing campaign and can later be diversified to other networks. It offers the highest level of engagement and can be very cost effective. Even when a campaign doesn’t work the way it has to, it can quickly be tweaked and changed to suit changing needs.

Since the beginning of the days of blogging and content optimized websites, getting high PR links has always been on the priority list of SEO professionals. High PR links helps to get your website ranked higher in search results for a given keyword or keyword phrase. Getting ranked higher also implies that more number of people click on your link when they search for that particular keyword. All this leads to an increased traffic and eventual monetization. With that in mind, here are some of the most important tips to get high PR links. Keyword Rich Content One of the most important tips is to write content that is keyword rich. However, this does not mean that you can stuff your content with keywords as that would render your content spammy. The idea is to use keywords and keyword phrases pertinently and prudently. When you choose keywords, it is important to make sure that they are unique and relevant to your business. Once high quality keyword optimized content is published, it can be submitted to high PR article submission websites. This leads to those precious back links that cope your way and help you achieve higher website page ranking. Commenting and Interacting It is not all about writing a great keyword optimized post and forgetting about it. One needs to be active and visit other blogs, websites and web pages and leave sensible comments and engage in conversations. While doing so, you could leave a link to your blog post that is relevant to the discussion. Asking people nicely to visit your website or blog works, but leaving a link everywhere you comment will get you thrown out of forums, and comments sections. Ideally, use your prudence and leave links to your blog posts only when you know it is apt to do so. Hosting, Domains and Themes It is always important to choose a unique domain that is easy to be remembered. Moreover, host your domain on with a hosting service that allows you to have a unique IP. Always self-host your blogs, and do not host them on generic blogging sites like blogger.com or wordpress.com. Buy a domain, host it yourself and use WordPress or other CMS to publish content. Personalized themes always work better than sponsored ones. Make your website stand out from the rest of them in the market. Identifying Niche This has been repeated several times over but that is because of its importance. It is extremely important to carve a niche for yourself within the identified niche topic. Identify your interests, expertise and knowledge and once that is done, write blog posts that answer questions about a niche area. This helps in attracting back links from authority websites who may be looking for your expert opinion. Link Exchanges and PR Directories It is important for you to make sure that each link comes from a different IP. It is also important to make sure that you avoid touts and brokers who ask for money or fees in return for links. Submit your articles and links to high PR directories where do-follow links are allowed. This helps in achieving good links as well, leading to a high PR. Interviews, Guest Blogs and Features It is always wise to feature interviews with thought leaders, business entities and CEOs as that adds to the originality of your website. This leads to high PR links as well. Moreover, asking guest bloggers who are thought leaders themselves to write an article or two for your blog can take you a long way in achieving quality links. Make it a point to publish ‘features’ that add value to your website and bring traffic. These features have the ability to go viral and help you achieve high PR links. Discipline, Consistency and Timeliness of Posts Make sure that you plan your month ahead and be consistent in publishing posts. Do not make readers visit your website only to see old posts. There has to be something new each time readers visit your blog or website. Also it is always a good idea to write timely posts that reflect current happenings and news within your identified niche. These 7 tips will certainly help your blog to become credible, trusted and respected within your niche. Only when you build your credibility will you be able to attract high quality PR links. Hard work always pays well but so does consistency and creativity.

Digital marketing can never be a successful unless one identifies their target audience. The core audience that purchases a company’s products or services forms the target audience, and predictably, it is a very diverse population. So how then, can one understand the quirks and eccentricities of a subpopulation in order to formulate marketing messages that are customized? Firstly, it is important to identify a target audience, and secondly, it is important to understand how that audience perceives digital media, digital advertisements and digital paid content. In this article, let us take a look at marketing digitally to a target audience that comprises of hipsters. Who Really are the Hipsters? Hipster subculture is defined by its refusal to be categorized, and to remain nonconformist. While doing so, this demographic may try to adopt cultural trends from different eras and cultures and create personal collages of lifestyle patterns, all of which remain subjectively inauthentic. In his article “Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization”, Douglas Haddow describes hipster culture to consist of recently settled urban middle class youngsters between the ages of 18 and 34. They may prefer independent music, organic foods, non mainstream tastes in art and culture and a tendency to strive for individualism and authenticity, while disregarding what is mainstream and what reflects of mass culture. This then, poses a significant risk and challenge to marketing managers who have always lived upon the idea of identifying influencers and influencing those influencers so that the rest of the population that admires these influencers can purchase those goods and services. The Challenge of Authenticity, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability If marketing to hipster audience is a challenge, it only means that marketing strategies need to be more creative. One must understand that this sub-group thrives on authenticity, ethics and a sense of responsibility towards environment, health and respect for one another. Thus, it becomes important for a brand or a company to be authentic, ethical and carve out a niche for itself. It is funny, but this is what all companies need to be doing anyway: remaining authentic, original, not doing what everyone else is doing and developing an individual personality that is far removed from what everyone currently professes. Luckily for marketers, when a company targets hipsters, they can also ensure their own ethics, authenticity and responsibility for environment and the world. Digital Marketing for Hipsters Commonly, hipsters tend to use either Twitter or Tumblr, when it comes to prominent social marketing tools. It might do well for a company to adopt a very authentic and individualistic twitter campaign and have a personal engagement strategy with their target audience. It especially works for small and medium businesses that need to develop a faithful and loyal consumer base. By remaining authentic and true to your product and service, and by conveying that message on Twitter, you would be able to win not only a hipster’s heart but also anyone’s heart. Apart from Twitter and Tumblr, you might want to identify social networks that are unique and that which lie on the fringes. That way, you will be able to choose a social network that reflects your own ideals and ethics. Online Ad Campaigns for Hipsters Another way to handle digital marketing for hipsters is to create online ad campaigns that are ethical and call for an action based in ethics and social responsibility. You might want to use your own corporate responsibility principles in your ad campaigns. For instance, you might want to communicate your company or business’ commitment towards ameliorating the conditions of feral cats or your commitment towards educating students in high schools about the ill effects of bullying. This again will improve your own corporate image while also boosting credibility and reliability of your social responsibility. While naysayers and old fashioned executives find it difficult to market to hipsters, if you remain authentic, ethical and socially responsible and show your customers and consumers that you do what you believe in, you will be able to send a very strong marketing communication. Why You Need to Be a Hipster Yourself in Order to Target Hipsters A hipster will never identify himself or herself as a hipster and will almost certainly deny it. By admitting or accepting that he or she is a hipster, they will negate the very philosophy they believe in: that one must not conform to a category and must remain authentic. In your digital marketing campaigns, you must make sure that you remain true to your company’s ideals and ethics. Basically, if you walk the talk, you will be able to achieve success in your digital marketing campaign targeted at the so-called hipsters.

Marketing on Twitter has turned into an important part of digital marketing. In fact, universities have begun to include Twitter marketing as a compulsory module in marketing courses. With that in mind, companies and individuals often ask us what they should be tweeting anyway. The answer that we always have believed in is that there is no straight answer. As we often like to say, “It all really depends”. The question that this article will address is that whether one must tweet one’s own content or tweet a healthy mix of one’s own content, competitors content and some useful information that would help your target audience. Predictably, both social media managers and consumers experience cognitive dissonance when it comes to marketing on Twitter. Cognitive Dissonance and Twitter Marketing Cognitive dissonance is a state of mind where a person experiences opposing cognitions. Cognitions constitute emotions, thoughts, memories, perception etc. When a psychologist says someone is going through cognitive dissonance, they mean that a person experiences a sort of love-hate relationship to something, if one were to put it in a layman’s term. If we take the example of Twitter marketing from a company’s perspective, cognitive dissonance occurs when marketing managers are tempted to tweet competitors content along with their own, but also dislike doing so because they fear harming their own business. A consumer on the other hand might experience cognitive dissonance when a company tweets great marketing content and within no time, the same company tweets information from a competitor. Naturally, a consumer would be confused and wonder if he should patronize the company in question or its competitor. The answer to this fundamental tweeting dilemma is rather simple. The solution begins with understanding how Twitter works, and what your marketing strategy is all about. Postmodernist Take on Twitter Marketing Postmodernists often say that we must avoid falling victims to existing binaries within us, which can roughly be translated as solving a cognitive dissonance by taking one of the sides exclusively. We must remember that no single strategy is the correct one, and there are uses and disadvantages in opposing strategies. Thus, we believe that tweeting one’s own content may work sometimes and at other times, it may be necessary to tweet stuff that is not yours, and sometimes can even belong to your competitor. Tweeting Your Content Only Tweeting your own content exclusively helps you to create a brand identity that is solely yours, with no room left for your competitors to take advantage of your position. Your consumers will not be confused and will know that they have only a few choice and if they like what you offer, they can certainly go ahead and buy it. This strategy may work when you offer a service or product that is very unique without any competition at all. It may also work if you are an established brand whose name is known widely. Tweeting and Mentioning Your Competitors Content However, this strategy may not work if you are a small or medium business, or if you have a lot of competition. One must understand that twitter users are identified by ‘Twitter handles’, which begin with @ and are followed by that user’s id. When a company tweets a competitor’s content, the company will have to include the competitor’s Twitter handle as well. By doing so, your tweet will appear in the Twitter search results of your competitors’ consumers. You may lose a few of your own consumers but you stand to gain or communicate with a number of consumers who are not following you on Twitter, but are following your competitors. This strategy can be a double edged sword and is considered to be a very controversial way to market on Twitter. This strategy works if you are a small company and need more attention from consumers who use your rivals’ products. Of course, any tweet that concerns your competitors must have their Twitter handles ‘mentioned’ in the body of your tweet. Twitter Cognitive Dissonance Takeaway To conclude, we believe it is always a better digital marketing strategy to keep an open mind and to give more than you take. After all, Twitter is a social network and the more you give and help others and even promote others who may compete with you, you actually will gain at the end of the day, because you will receive attention and a lot of good will from your consumers and your rivals’ consumers too. It is a good practice to tweet a major percentage of the time your tweets, an occasional tweet from your competitors and then engage with not only your consumers but also with your rivals’ consumers and followers. As long as you engage and make your own company’s name be seen and heard, your marketing strategy cannot go wrong. In fact, cognitive dissonance when it comes to twitter marketing can be beneficial.

Marketing has always been about persuading your target audience to purchase your product or service. It has almost always concentrated on driving your point across, without worrying much about how useful the communication actually is. With digital marketing, things are quite different. Digital marketing employs social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Tumblr. The keyword here is social, which means that in order to communicate with a certain target demographic, one needs to be social. On Twitter too, one needs to be social and give more to customers than expecting them to be faithful to you. This basic slogan will help companies to be successful when they use Twitter or any other social network to market digitally. Let us now take a closer look at why it is important to give more and expect less in twitter marketing. Marketing on Twitter is Fundamentally Different Twitter is a microbroadcasting network that allows one to send messages that are less than 140 characters. The short length helps Twitter users to stick to the point and include a link that provides more information. With that in mind, twitter is basically rooted in giving information to followers. However, with time, Twitter has become the single most powerful tool in the world of digital marketing. The immediacy, transparency and clarity of communication have helped companies and businesses to market their ideas and thoughts effectively to a large group of followers without spending any more. It must then be assumed that twitter is the right place to send persuasive messages that are short, with a link to the product that is being marketed. Unfortunately, there isn’t a bigger blunder than to try and sell a product on Twitter directly and coldly. That would automatically reduce a company’s image in the eyes of its customers and that would be the end of Twitter marketing for that company. Giving is Extremely Important on Twitter Any Twitter user will know that the more they help people online, the more number of people would follow them. By giving more information and sharing ideas thoughts and opinions, a Twitter user creates an identity. Twitter is unique in its character as its most prolific users are those who share and give. By giving a lot more than what is required, Twitter users create identities that remind one of benevolence, kindness, generosity and selflessness. Of course, these are not the qualities that businesses are usually known for but by being so, a company can ensure that goodwill spreads not only through word but also electronically. Even if a particular customer or client may not purchase your product or service, it is important to give something. What Can One Give On Twitter? Give Knowledge and Information Whatever your company does or offers, you can share knowledge that is related to your field. For instance, if a company provides SEO services, it can write effective blog posts and share that content on Twitter for everyone to read. By giving crucial information and knowledge for everyone who follows you on Twitter for free, you increase goodwill. A company must aim at becoming a ‘go-to-source’ so that when in doubt, people go to that company’s blog for information or download its eBooks and white papers. Give Discounts Companies and businesses can give discounts. Existing customers can be communicated through Twitter and one can announce that they are lucky winners of a discount. By doing this publicly, you are letting your customers know that you believe in generosity and that too without expecting anything in return. Once a person purchases something on discount, they usually come back for more, even if they have to pay full price. Give Gifts and Announce Lottery Prizes Twitter can be a great place to run and announce lotteries. The lottery prize can be a free subscription, an hour’s worth of work or just about anything that you offer. It does not have to be big and expensive. It just has to be a little gesture to show that you are generous enough to give without expecting. There isn’t a better way to get people to try your product or service than by offering something little for free as a mere gift. Give Love and Gratitude Companies and businesses must regularly give love and gratitude to their customers. Twitter can be an amazing place to do that, as prospective clients and customers can easily be contacted publicly. Likewise, previous customers can be thanked by retweeting something that they offer, recommending them to someone else publicly or just wishing them well. Companies and businesses must regularly give love and gratitude to their customers. Twitter can be an amazing place to do that, as prospective clients and customers can easily be contacted publicly. Likewise, previous customers can be thanked by retweeting something that they offer, recommending them to someone else publicly or just wishing them well. Companies tend to forget that they can also give humor. By offering occasional satirical remarks and tongue-in-cheek comments, companies and businesses can reveal their human side. That can result in a very powerful bonding between consumers and businesses. By being a company or business that is giving and generous, you stand to gain a lot of goodwill, respect and even loyalty. Twitter is the best place to do that because every act of kindness is displayed in public Twitter streams, leading to goodwill towards your business.

Offering customer service is certainly not the easiest job in the world. It means that one must face one’s own weaknesses, accept these weaknesses and mistakes and rectify them as soon as possible. Providing customer service also means a company has to ensure that they are available at all times and are not elusive. While it is a great way to build a company’s image by offering great customer service, making a customer wait, not resolving the problem immediately or showing that you may lack empathy lead to disastrous consequences. Twitter is increasingly being used to offer customer service, as an adjunct to telephonic service. Sometimes, companies offer customer service solely on Twitter. Here are the most important reasons why Twitter is such a great platform to offer customer service Twitter is Cost Effective and Requires no Installations Twitter costs no money and is free, and can be used by a lone customer service representative if you are a small company. In fact, one does not need to install any software or hardware. All that one needs is a freelance contractor who knows how to talk wittily and sympathetically. Twitter Reduces Friction Twitter helps companies to resolve problems without friction. This friction is usually caused when customers are put on hold when they call or when the customer service executive speaks in a foreign accent. If the problem that one is talking about is small, it can be resolved in just a tweet. If not, the customer can be prodded to call a certain number of continue to conversation through direct messaging. Spread of Goodwill Each time a customer is satisfied, he or she will thank you, and will use your official Twitter handle to express their gratitude for resolving their problem. This can be viewed by other customers and you can ensure that goodwill against your business or company will be built over a period of time. Easy Monitoring Twitter also ensures that a company can monitor its presence on social media. If somebody does not have a nice thing to say about your company or business, it provides you food for thought to improve on that area. In fact, using Twitter as a medium for customer service can result in some serious soul searching within an organization. Twitter Is Viral As discussed earlier, your presence will be noticed each time you tweet to disgruntled customers. When they end the conversation satisfied that their problem is resolved, other customers become aware of your company’s presence. Twitter customer service then has a viral effect on spreading the good word. Companies and businesses can utilize their Twitter customer service accounts to retweet comments made by satisfied customers and also to highlight your strengths and weaknesses. Removes Opacity and Barriers between Customers and Companies Twitter reduces any sort of opacity that might exist between a company and its customers. All that a customer needs to do is send a 140 character message to the company, and the message shall have reached. This increased transparency and availability leads to greater customer satisfaction and increased loyalty when it comes to using your products and services. Increasing Engagement Another important factor one must consider when talking about Twitter customer service is engagement. There is no better alternative to Twitter when it comes to engaging audiences and striking up conversations with potential customers. Twitter can be a very powerful tool in solving customers problems, recognizing your strengths and weaknesses, reducing costs, increasing efficiency and finally, increasing profits and revenue.Among these fundamental qualities of Twitter, here are the most important reasons why companies must take Twitter more seriously when it comes to offering customer service: It reduces time and increases the speed of problem resolution. Helps companies to personalize communication and offer a human face to the company. It can be used as an opportunity to show that instead of being a cold business, a company is actually warm, humane and understanding. Twitter offers confidentiality, in the form of direct messages. Sensitive information can be communicated through direct messages by asking your customer to follow you at least temporarily. Twitter can be a great hunting ground when it comes to looking for possible and new customers. Twitter is decentralized and democratic no matter which way one looks at it. Twitter is free, reduces HR-related expenses and boosts a company’s image. It is no wonder then that most companies have begun to offer customer service online via Twitter. This trend will only continue and is expected to increase dramatically in the next couple of months.

If you have noticed, infographics tend to go viral even if their content is not extremely important. This is because human mind is wired to visual information more than textual content. An infographic presents information in a fun, creative and easy-to-understand manner, which reams of text cannot possibly do. Thus, it is time to incorporate infographics in marketing campaigns, especially social media marketing. Why Are Infographics Popular? Infographics are very popular in the recent months, and companies have begun to hire designers to artfully represent statistical and ‘boring’ data. While companies may manage to create great infographics with the help of talented designers, they usually downplay the importance of marketing and promoting them over social media. Let us take a look at how infographics can be made to go viral: While creating Infographics, it is important to involve credible sources. These sources invariably promote your own graphic. Creating a blog post that describes the infographic and then sharing it across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social bookmarking sites will help it to go viral. Infographics can be segmented into smaller images and used in various posts, which are again directed to the main infographic. Infographics can be promoted with the help of news releases, and may be used in email promotion as well. The idea is to link the segmented infographic to the complete image. Infographics can be deconstructed into PowerPoint presentations and shared as slideshares as well. Infographics are not a Fad Before you dismiss infographics as a fad, you might want to try using them in your own social media marketing campaigns. Chances are, they will drive more traffic to your website than just sharing links and writing lengthy posts. Visual information is always processed more efficiently by human brains than textual information. Of course, a good social media marketing campaign would always be supported by high quality blog posts along with infographics. Social Media Marketing Every company that is worth its salt needs to have a social media marketing strategy. While employing social media marketing, companies usually get lost in the oblivion. Social media marketing employs various social networking sites to drive traffic to the landing page or blog posts, and also to create a brand presence. This social presence translates to increased sales, loyalty and brand identification. One of the ways to engage in social media marketing is to use appropriate infographics. Identifying the audience would help in not only creating an infographic in certain manner, but also help in sharing it across social platforms to niche audiences. Utilize Social Media Buttons The page that contains the infographic must have social buttons that are easily visible. The most important social networking sites that must be present on the page are Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. It also helps to have buttons of Pinterest, Tumblr, Delicious, StumbleUpon and other social bookmarking tools. It is because of these tools that more number of people would be able to share your infographic. Apart from the usual social media and social bookmarking sites, infographics must also be submitted to aggregators and directories. Some of the popular ones are: Daily Infographic Cool Infographics Infographics Showcase Submit Infographics Infographics Archive Visual.Ly Infographic Journal Use Nostalgia and Emotions An infographic must tell a story. It must be told in an artful, informative manner that reduces the need for reading up on a particular company. You could have an infographic describing the market cycle of your popular products, or a nostalgic infographic that depict the story of your first web designing project. The idea is to use emotions and nostalgia, while tapping the creative aspect of information. These are the essential qualities of an infographic that would go viral and help you in your SMM initiative. Mixing Style with Substance An infographic no doubt has to be stylish. It has to appeal to those kinds of people who would never bother to read an entire article. It must have snippets of micro stories that need not be told in words, but instead can be experienced through graphics. With all this importance given to graphics, one must not forget the importance of the marketing campaign and factual accuracy. The idea of an infographic at the end of the day is to drive home a point, and also give information. Being informative, factual and entertaining will ensure an infographic’s success over social media sites. Visualize Your Marketing Campaign Infographics can also serve the purpose of communicating your success. The success of your brands, products and services may be attractively placed within an infographic and appropriate social media tools may be used to market it. This invariably drives traffic to your website or blog, and that is part of every marketing campaign.