Category: Internet Marketing

Blogging is no doubt an important aspect to developing your business. However, we are often caught amidst various services that are available out there, which are all equally good. Tumblr has been described as the home to some of the most creative people on earth. If that rings a bell, Tumblr is very popular among designers and developers of every kind. Why Tumblr is Great for Creative Business Owners The simplicity and minimalism that Tumblr offers as a publishing platform make it extremely attractive to designers, artists and developers. It is almost like a blank canvas which can be used as glossy portfolios to showcase one’s work, or to collaborate with other designers and possibly even gain fame and money. The fame bit comes from the social aspect of Tumblr, whereas the money comes from traffic that is directed to your business site and the clients that you may win along the process. Tumblr’s simplicity means that you do not have to install software, worry about codes or downtimes. All that you need to do is concentrate on your work, share it with others and appreciate other people’s web designing skills. Tumblr makes it beautifully easy to blog and to share content, in an attractive and glossy platform. It is this gloss and glamour which sets Tumblr apart. These qualities are important to web designers and developers if they intend to grab clients who prefer visually attractive portfolios. How to Use Tumblr Tumblr comes with 8 different options in the dashboard, all of which are unbelievably simple to use. The dashboard comes with text, photo, quote, link, chat, audio, video and answered questions which can immediately be published with ease. What is different is that when you upload a video, the video becomes the central object and any caption or text you may add is secondary. Likewise, your graphic work, or design templates or 3D creations get more attention than the peripheral distractions. All the 8 features can be used to upload your examples of your work, instructional videos, quotes of famous web designers for inspiration, web designing tips that you may want to share with other Tumblr users, and also answer questions that other web designers and possible clients may have to ask. You can share links to your work published elsewhere, and on the minimalist Tumblr platform, it looks visually appealing. Publishing and Sharing your Content It is not necessary to use the dashboard to publish your content. There are several other ways to do so. The bookmarklet allows you to post directly from the web browser while mobile applications for iPhone, BlackBerry and Android allow you to do so while on the go. Tumblr also allows you to publish videos, MP3 files, text and photos just by sending an email from your mobile phone. There are also third party applications which help you to publish your content wherever you are. Customising Tumblr Blogs The themes can be customized or changed, pages can be added and Tumblr posts can automatically be shared over other social networking sites. Custom themes can be designed for other Tumblr users, which can be offered for a price. There are several tutorials out there which teach you how to design custom Tumblr themes. These tutorials of immense use, and eventually we shall publish a detailed Tumblr custom theme building blog post. Managing Projects on Tumblr The community feature is probably the most important aspect of Tumblr and possibly the most useful for managing art and design related projects. When visitors arrive at an image, video or text post that you have published, they have the option of ‘liking’ it or re-blogging it. It is important to start following blogs that are dedicated to web designing and web developing. Designers usually share tips, tricks and even announce gigs on Tumblr blogs, and following Tumblr blogs of web designing authorities can be extremely important. Tumblr can also serve as a great collaborative tool, where a number of artists and designers can upload templates, Flash images, PSD files and use them to brainstorm. An article on Net Magazine described why Tumblr is important for designers and provides certain coding instructions. Conclusion At the end of the day, Tumblr may seem a little too minimalist to web designers who are used to complex CMS platforms like Joomla, WordPress or Drupal. However, simplicity is not necessarily ineffective. In the case of Tumblr, it is a very effective platform to upload your portfolio, gain audience, drive traffic to company website, look for clients and build authority and influence.

Using Twitter 101 for Small Business Owners Twitter possibly is the most powerful tool today in the world of social media. Twitter is unique because it doesn’t depend on trusted connections but the importance of the content and text that is shared. 140 characters may seem astonishingly less, but perhaps this character limitation is Twitter’s strength. It is no more a secret that Twitter is one of the most important social media tools out there, and probably the most misunderstood as well. Let us take a look at how Twitter can be used to drive traffic to your website. What Does One Tweet and How? Though it sounds obvious, many people tend to forget that it is important to have the Twitter button visible on every page of the website. It is also equally important for people to be able to retweet or share your blog posts, each time they are published. Several plugins are available which help you to place a Twitter share button on every article that is published. Twitter allows only 140 characters to be tweeted, and this includes the shortened URL as well. This forces you to make sure that you use the choicest of words to describe what the link is all about, and what the twitter user can expect when he/she clicks on it. The idea is to be honest and descriptive, short and concise and attention grabbing. You must also make sure that your tweet contains relevant keywords pertaining to the content found in the link you share. Consistency, Timing and Scheduling While the same tweet can’t be tweeted again, you could probably change the text and the header, while keeping the URL same. However, you need to do this only 2 or 3 times a day, unless you don’t want to be seen as a spammer. It might also be a good idea to promote your older posts and content once in a while. The idea is to repeat your tweets, but not to the point of attracting criticism. You need to tweet consistently and not be erratic in sharing your links. It helps to use tools like Buffer and SocialBro in order to schedule your tweets. It does not make sense to tweet all your posts within a span of few second and forget about it for a week. It is important to remain consistent, and maintain a discipline. SocialBro and Buffer help users to analyse what could be the best times to tweet. It depends on your audience and your followers. It makes sense to tweet more often when most of your followers are online. Usually evenings and morning hours are good timings to tweet, but that depends on your location. The best way to engage in smart scheduling of tweets is to use Buffer app and SocialBro. Effective Networking Is important While it is tempting to gain more followers than the number of people you follow, it makes sense to follow people and companies who are related to your business. This helps you to identify your industry, groups, and interests. If you are being interesting enough, authoritative Twitter users shall follow you back as well. This increases your credibility, number of followers and the number of clicks on the links you share. All this leads to more traffic to your website or blog. This can only happen when you engage with authoritative Twitter users in your industry, in an honest manner. You would need to make sure that you constantly engage with their conversations and eventually they would retweet one of your links. A single retweet by an authoritative person with a large number of followers is enough to help you gain a lot of attention. Thus, gaining influence on Twitter is hard work, but pays off eventually. Be Social, Courteous, Helpful and Participative It is important to engage people in conversations, and not just share links. You need to answer questions, help people genuinely, send Direct Messages if information needs to remain private and follow basic etiquette. Courtesy attracts trust, and trust attracts more clicks on your links, leading to more traffic. Like any social network, Twitter can be used to collaborate with other web designers, SEO professionals and look for clients. It can in fact act like a free text messaging service, albeit very professional and powerful. It is very important to be yourself, and not pretend to be something that you are not. You must tweet stuff that matter to your industry, and that portray your own professional opinions and beliefs. These tactics ultimately lead to social trust, which pays off in the form of clicks and traffic.

How to Promote Small Businesses on LinkedIn LinkedIn has always had the image of being ‘too tough’, ‘very serious’, and ‘bulky’. In reality, LinkedIn has upgraded its desktop and mobile versions to make it really attractive while using. Thanks to its thousands of groups, discussion forums and some of the most powerful people in the world, LinkedIn is a marketer’s dream-come-true. Unfortunately, no one really utilizes LinkedIn the way it should be. It is largely ignored or degraded to an online resume service. Let us take a look at why LinkedIn is crucial to improving chances of small business success. Search Engine Optimization and Blog Promotion LinkedIn has a high rate of authority among search engines. When you type your name in Google and search, chances are, LinkedIn appears first in the search results, even before Twitter or Facebook. What this literally means is that having a company page on LinkedIn is a great way to boost your SEO. LinkedIn is a great way to optimize your content and your website for search engines and eventually it will lead to a higher traffic number. You can control how your business appears in search results and make sure that you look as attractive as possible on search engines. LinkedIn profiles allow you to add three websites along with your Twitter account. These 3 websites can be linked to your company’s website, your blog and if you have written a book or have something else to offer, you could link to that. SEO professionals have noted that there isn’t a better way to promote your blog feed than to use your LinkedIn profile. Though LinkedIn is not as optimized as it was for WordPress anymore, you can still steadily share your blog content on LinkedIn to ensure higher click rates. LinkedIn Ad Campaigns LinkedIn also offers its Direct Ads Campaign, which is a great way to promote your company on the social networking site. Being a professional social network, your business related advertisement would be more relevant on LinkedIn than on Facebook. There are greater chances of people being interested in what you offer than anywhere else on the web. You can either choose to pay by clicks or by impressions and start as low as $50. Promote Events It always helps to attract potential clients to carefully planned events. These events can consist of talks, an eBook release or just an informal gathering at a coffee shop. No matter what your event is, you can invite your LinkedIn contacts to attend your event by promoting it on LinkedIn. The social network also allows you to take a good look at all the upcoming events your network has to offer. This can be a great way to nurture relationships that are already made on LinkedIn. LinkedIn Groups One of the most important ways to promote your small business on LinkedIn is to create a relevant LinkedIn Group. Once you create a LinkedIn Group that is related to your industry, you can invite a number of people and actively begin to discuss issues and share your experience. By giving information and sharing, you will be able to develop and establish valuable relationships that can get converted into leads. Moreover, you must also join groups that are related to your small business. Once you join other groups, you will need to actively take part in discussions and leave links to your blogs occasionally. This is a great way to interact with people who are not your contacts. Recommendations Last but not the least, always remember your clients to leave a recommendation for you on LinkedIn. These recommendations are seen as a reflection of your reliability and credibility. They need to be taken very seriously from a small business point of view. Of course, you will need to write recommendations yourself before asking for one. Like any other social network, for your small business to grow on LinkedIn, you will need to give more than you expect from your contacts. LinkedIn may not have an attractive interface like Tumblr or Twitter. It may also not have the omnipresence that Facebook enjoys today. However, it remains one of the most trusted and respected professional networks today, and to achieve success in a small business, it is very crucial to have a presence on LinkedIn.

Facebook Pages 101 for Small Business Owners Almost every company invariably ends up with a Facebook page these days. Most companies worth their salt already have one. It is also estimated that 27.5% of all external referral traffic to Facebook pages come from Google. This only shows how important Facebook pages really are. SEO professionals must take these statistics into account and work towards optimizing Facebook pages to drive more traffic, and also help companies and individuals to engage their customers and audience. Importance of Facebook Page views Jeff Widman at PageLever analysed 1000 pages over a period of 6 months and concluded that Google not only sends 1/3 of external referrer traffic to Facebook pages, but also sends 10 times more traffic than Bing, and 5 times more than Yahoo to Facebook Pages. It is a proven fact that optimizing Facebook Pages would result in doubling of page views.  The importance of search engines in driving traffic to Facebook Pages highlights the importance of search engine optimization. SEO professionals should concentrate more on Google than Yahoo or Bing, as their contribution in driving traffic to Facebook Pages is much lesser. Admins must make sure that they have SEO friendly URLs and that they publish links often on their websites, which are posted on Facebook Pages as well. Encouraging visitors to ‘Like’ a company’s Facebook Page would also make it more search-friendly. Tips to Optimize Facebook Pages Getting a custom URL for your Facebook Page is very important. Facebook allows you to have a custom URL that can be search engine optimized. With the new Timeline feature, you may not be able to choose your landing page using custom tabs like before. However, that is not going to affect your Facebook Page’s traffic much. You can still customize your Timeline to present your company in the best light possible. Filling in all the information and making sure that there is enough information about your company and what you exactly do is important. The photo gallery can be used to include information about your site. Use your social and networking skills to get more people to like the page. If possible, try to advertise on Facebook as well and there are Social Ads which can be bought. Links must be posted regularly, and conversations must happen in order to keep the page active. There are several Facebook apps available which can be used for a number of purposes. These include widgets for other social networking sites, blogs and your own website. Monitoring and Analysing Facebook Pages Data There are several ways to monitor and analyse progress on Facebook Pages. Facebook Insights provides metrics and page tab analytics, which help you to track Facebook sharing, Likes, etc. Facebook Insights can be accessed by page administrators. It is also possible to monitor fan growth on a monthly basis, and the Fan Growth Graph does just that. Fan Demographics and Fan Geography tell you who your target audience are and where they are located. This helps you to hone your SEO strategies and marketing plans in a way that might drive more traffic. Level of Interactions helps you to monitor what type of interactions your fans prefer. This can be gauged through Likes, comments and unsubscribes. Apart from Facebook’s own insights, you could also use Google Analytics in order to get visitor statistics, traffic sources, keyword searches and map overlays. FBML application allows you to place your Google analytics custom code inside Facebook Pages. Google Analytics provides detailed usage statistics which help you to plan your SEO strategies. It can also help you to design marketing campaigns depending on the kind of traffic that is driven to your website. Third Party Tools There are also third party tools that can help in assessing metrics and provide valuable insight. One of them is the Webtrends tool. In fact, third party tools are built to compensate for the limitations of Facebook’s inbuilt measurement service. Whether you use third party tools, Google Analytics of Facebook’s own insights, what is important is to remain active on Facebook Pages, and to engage your audience. The more targeted your engagement is, the better shall be your results.

Sharing online is no more an afterthought but something we do instinctively. Whether we are business owners, consultants or just regular people, we all tend to share more than what we would bargain for. The consequences of oversharing online can be very messy. It is no secret that people who overshare may get fired by their bosses, lose scholarships, get divorced because their spouses find out they are not being faithful and the reasons can go on. Probably, the scariest reason why one mustn’t be oversharing online is to prevent identity thefts, security lapses and privacy breaches. If we must consider why small businesses and companies must not overshare online, it is pretty similar to why regular folks must not overshare. However, there are a few differences and let us take a look at them closely. Security Lapses Companies and small businesses may give out more information than necessary. This is very crucial when competitors are always trying to find out what a company is up to, and if there are any new products and services in the line. Employees and even business owners must be very careful to keep company secrets within the compound of a company and never reveal more than what’s revealed in those harmless blog posts. Competitors and malicious entities always wait for something to be revealed so that they can manipulate leaked information. Financial Condition If you are not a public company and if you are a small one, only your accountant and tax officer needs to know your financial details. Confidential information such as pay slips, profits made and debts need not be shared online even humorously. There are several instances when small business owners do not realize how important it is to not disclose financial information online. Credit Card and ID Card Information Credit cards, passports and other government issues ID cards must be guarded like gold. These identity cards should never be shared online no matter how important it is. This can affect not only your business but also your own personal safety and the consequences may not be pretty. Giving Away too much for Free It is often said that one must give away a lot to succeed in digital media. That is certainly true. When a company gives away a lot of free information and knowledge, it appears generous and sympathetic towards its followers. However, by giving away too much and not withholding some information that can be used as bait, a company stands to lose a lot of money. The red line needs to be drawn, in order to identify how much to give away for free. Everything should not be given away for free. Embarrassing Details are Not Funny There are many businesses that share pictures of employees having fun at a party or when employees do not look as professional as they should. The key is to share pictures at the beginning of a party when everyone looks sober, but not during or after the party. A human face to the company can make it endearing to customers. However, appearing goofy or ridiculous will encourage customers to move on to the next rival. Plans for Future There is always a limit to how much you can share about your company’s plans for future. There are things that need to be kept confidential. What is benign can be shared online but certain plans and strategies which must remain confidential must never be discussed on social networking sites. These can severely hinder a company’s progress and cause loss to revenue. Separating Work from Life It is always a good idea to encourage your employees to have a personal Twitter account along with a professional one. The personal one can be used at will with all the freedom a person deems necessary. The professional Twitter account needs to remain a little stiff upper lipped, and that includes not talking about what one purchased at the local brewery. The key is to maintain a balance. It is a social world on the Internet and it is impossible to remain cold and businesslike. However, by letting one’s guard down, one may risk overexposure and face subsequent consequences. Mitt Romney famously said that corporations are people too. Though it is a controversial statement, on the Internet and social network, companies and small businesses do pretend to be people. When people are advised not to overshare on social networking sites, the same rule holds good for companies and small businesses as well.