5 Tips on How to Maximize Social-Media Efforts With a Small Team

No matter how small your business is, a good, strong social media strategy should be a vital part of your marketing efforts. An October 2015 study by Pew Research Center found that 65 percent of American adults surveyed use social networking sites, which means that if your business doesn’t have a presence there, you’re missing out on two-thirds of the U.S. population.

With dozens of social avenues to choose from, though, social media management may seem overwhelming, especially for a small business. Below are some tools and tips to effectively manage social media for your business, no matter how lean your team is.

1. DEVISE A MANAGEABLE STRATEGY.

Before diving in and signing up for every channel with a social aspect, get organized and be realistic about your capabilities, looking at the following categories:

• Hours per week available for social media management: This will set expectations about what you should prioritize and how many channels you should manage. Critical tasks that should be taken into account for effective social media management include:
• Design: This includes not only signing up for and populating your page with the essential elements but working with a designer to optimize graphics for aspects such as profile banners, profile pictures, and images for shared content.
• Content creation: This includes strategizing and writing posts, as well as working across multiple departments to publicize promotions.
• Content-engagement monitoring and interaction with followers: If your brand experiences negative sentiment online, or you anticipate customer service needs through these channels, allot time accordingly. To keep customers engaged, your social media manager should also be responding to comments and answering questions.
• Analytics: Monitoring of analytics, which includes sales, followers, engagement and sentiment, is imperative to refine content strategy and adjust social media management tactics for your business.
• Determining your target audience: If your product is built for businesses, look at professional sites such as LinkedIn to focus on. If you’re a storefront, establishing a presence on Google+ is essential to ensure you are search-engine-friendly. Facebook is the behemoth social media mainstay, so it should be on your list of must-have social channels.
• Determining your message: Besides increased sales, what do you want to achieve with your social media presence? Do you want your channels to act as an additional form of customer support? Do you want to distribute engaging content in hopes of its getting shared? Do you want to make new connections with leaders in your industry? Deciding on your goals will shape the messages of your channels, which should be unique to each outlet’s specific audience. As a fellowEntrepreneur writer mentioned, posting the same content repeatedly leaves followers less engaged.

2. USE TOOLS TO SAVE YOU TIME.

Now that you have a strategy in place and know what social media channels you’ll use, what type of messaging you want to disseminate and how you’re going to monitor your successes and areas for improvement, you’ll next need to put your approach into action. Thankfully, social media monitoring tools save you time as you’re managing channels and evolving a strategy.

3. USE FREE ANALYTICS PROVIDED BY EACH CHANNEL.

Often, social media in-house analytics tools provided by social media channels, such as those outlined by Social Media Examiner, are some of the most effective ways to keep track of data. Facebook Analytics, for example, shows page managers everything from the number of visitors at varying times of the day to data on how many people carried out a negative action — such as unliking a page — when interacting with a specific post.

Pinterest analytics show you the type of content your users love the most, while Twitter shows you not only yours and customers’ top Tweets but impressions and engagement. Google Analytics will show you what channels are driving traffic to your website and resulting in sales. Explore the free analytics of whatever sites you’re using, and use those insights to craft better content and optimize frequency of distribution.

4. USE FREE TOOLS TO MANAGE MULTIPLE CHANNELS.

While you can use software such as Excel to keep track of messaging and ensure you’re creating unique content for each channel, a multi-channel management application can display multiple feeds at once, saving you the pain of logging into myriad sites and clicking multiple windows.

Free social media multi-channel management services, such as those endorsed by the experts here, include Hootsuite and Buffer; and pull networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+, which can go into one easy-to-read window. Some, like Hootsuite, will even display additional data besides your channel content, such as interactions with your business from other brands.

5. MAKE SOCIAL MEDIA PROGRESS EASILY SHAREABLE WITH YOUR TEAM.

Since social media is, well, social, you’ll want to make your strategy transparent to your team. This will not only garner you insight and suggestions from the social media users who make up your company but will incentivize them to get involved and boost your engagement by participating on your social channels.

Free project management tools such as Trello and Slack, mentioned by Social Media Today, allow you to display tasks to your team, while also allowing for global discussion.

Social media may be free, but your time is highly valuable. Continue to refine and optimize your social media strategy to maximize results, while saving your business money by taking advantage of free applications.

 Source : http://bit.ly/2dEu6VS

Do You Have What It Takes to Make It as an Entrepreneur?

Are you suited to be an entrepreneur? Too often, people start businesses not aware they do not have the right entrepreneurial skill-set—they may be too complacent, laid-back, or cautious to take up on the multifaceted role of entrepreneur—which can lead to the failure of their ventures.

Being aware of your entrepreneurial style before launching a startup can help you determine if you’re suited for entrepreneurship.

1. You Are an Innovator

Do you love experimenting with new ideas? If yes, then you are probably a creative soul who loves original ideas. This type of entrepreneur has a knack for blue-sky thinking which often results in creating or inventing revolutionary products. Steve Jobs is one example of an entrepreneur who changed the face of computing with his out-of-the-box approach to thinking.

2. You Are a Risk-Taker

This type of entrepreneur is not afraid to make bold decisions in their business. They take risks as a way to challenge their own methodologies or strategies and to grow as an individual. With their courageous mindset, they are able to successfully grow their businesses and stay ahead in the game. If you have the ability to face challenges, this may describe you.

3. You Are a Wanna-Be Entrepreneur

You desperately want to be a successful entrepreneur but you seriously lack the talent and abilities to become one. You live in a fantasy world of one day having your own business, but you don’t do anything to get started. You are happy reading success stories about entrepreneurs or watching shows about successful business people and visualizing yourself in the same role. If you identify with this type of entrepreneur, then it’s time to wake up.

4. You Are a Slow Starter

You are serious about starting a business, but you want to be absolutely ready before you take the plunge. It’s important to you that everything is in order, and you want to make sure that the process goes as planned. Much of your time is spent in research and planning, and you’re constantly seeking validation from the people around you. Your constant search for information and second opinions keep delaying from getting started, and in the end, you never launch your dream business.

5. You Are a Day Dreamer

Daydreamers are the kind of entrepreneurs who are only seduced by the glamor of entrepreneurship. They don’t want to be bothered with the laborious parts of launching a startup and only want to dwell on what it feels like to be their own boss. They have mental images of fancy offices and luxurious private jets. But they do not do any real work to convert their dreams into a living reality.

6. You Are an Opportunity Seeker

These entrepreneurs are always searching for new opportunities for starting businesses. They do not build castles in the air, but they instead look for opportunities to build their business. They will also keep in touch with influential people in their industry to get help, even if it comes in the form of financial help or volunteering.

7. You Are Resilient

This hardy type of entrepreneur belongs to the group of strong-willed people who never give up, no matter how difficult the circumstances are. Even if finances are a problem, they never lose sight of their vision and keep progressing towards their goals. Through their determination and resilience, they manage to find solutions.

8. You Are Dependent on Others

There are entrepreneurs who are dependent on others to make their entrepreneurial dreams a reality. They are not willing to launch their businesses until they can find the right partners to work with. Therefore, they oftentimes keep delaying their ventures and sometimes end up giving up in the end.

Source : http://bit.ly/2d9LXrs

10 Ways Social Media Can Boost Your Career

So many people think that social media is just for time-wasting. It’s not.

Social media can be an invaluable tool when looking for a new job, or even when trying to boost your skills for your current role. Try these ideas and see how you go.

A Visible Resume on LinkedIn

The most obvious way that social media can help your career is by using the social network dedicated to professional networking: LinkedIn. Although, that’s not the only social network that can help you get a job. Wherever you do it, once you’ve put your resume details online, you never really know who might stumble across them and want to hire you.

Get a few great testimonials each year, keep your skills updated and browse the LinkedIn site occasionally to meet new people. Just be sure to use our powerful LinkedIn code while you’re there.

Curating Content For Your Expertise

Whichever social network suits you most, curating content for your expertise is a perfect way to showcase what you know and care about. Pinterest and Twitter are ideal for this, but you may also see great results on other social networks.

The things to keep in mind about curating content are that you’re showcasing what you know, you’re attracting followers who like that sort of information, and you’re positioning yourself as an expert in that knowledge. And what’s more, because you’re reading the latest news regularly, you probably ARE an expert.

Meeting Other Experts In Your Field

Social networking is a two-way street. You might be attracting experts in your field by the things you curate and talk about, but also you might find yourself drawn to other experts in your field by what they post.

It doesn’t really matter how you found each other: what matters is that you build on that, grow acquainted with each other and perhaps even become friends. You’d be surprised what sort of opportunities can come up just because someone you know realizes you could be the right person for the job.

Actively Researching Companies To Work For

LinkedIn is an obvious starting place for a bit of active research on companies you might like to work for. But don’t stop there! Check out Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and more.

Try searching all profiles on all social networks for the name of the company and see which executives and employees are posting publicly. See what you can learn about the company culture from these individuals.

Using Social Networks To Find Jobs

Across all forms of social media, you’ll find job postings. They’re not always that easy to find, since hashtags like #Jobs can get overrun by spammers pretty quickly. But use #Jobs and a related hashtag as a starting point and you’ll soon find the less-popular, higher quality feeds worth following.

Also, check out our awesome system for finding jobs via social media.

Learning About Your Co-Workers

These are the people you work with every day, but what do you know about them? If you want to have something a little more personal than the weather to chat about, try to learn about these people via social media.

For starters, make a Facebook group and a Twitter list for your co-workers and take a look in regularly to see what they’re posting. This is quite a passive way to learn more about them over time.

For a more active approach, try searching Facebook for interesting things like “TV shows liked by people who work at MakeUseOf”. You’ll know exactly which shows to bring up in the coffee room.

Attracting Clients And Employers

All of your regular posts, genuine relationship-building and active curation eventually pull together to create a social profile that shows you’re a skilled, interesting, relatable individual. Potential clients and employers come to appreciate your professionalism, they recognise your face and they remember who you are. Who are they going to hire when they next have work that needs doing? You, if you’re available.

Carving a New Role For Yourself in Your Current Job

So, you’re always tweeting, you run two YouTube channels, use Snapchat every day and have a massive Instagram following? Not only are you probably a millennial, but you’re possibly the most qualified person in your office to handle these forms of social media for the business.

Even if the marketing team want to keep control of the accounts, you could still offer your services as a consultant to the team. Perhaps you could even help by being one of the video personalities for the team — a lot of the older generations are quite camera-shy compared to millennials.

Writing Content to Showcase Your Expertise

This is a little bit beyond just curating the articles you’ve read. What I’m talking about here is actually writing a 500+ word article on the subject matter yourself, offering your own insights and expertise to the readers.

Of course, you could make your own website and do this on your own blog or guest post for a larger blog. But certain social networks offer a built-in editor for longer pieces and they have a ready-made audience awaiting your post. Try writing your article on LinkedIn, Medium or directly on Facebook and see how well it’s received.

Follow Career-Boosting Accounts

There are many great career-boosting tools and blogs dedicated to boosting your career, such as The Muse and Levo. Find your favorites and make Twitter and Facebook lists for their respective social media accounts. Also, follow LinkedIn influencers that discuss job advice.

From then on, once a day you can browse through your feeds and maybe learn something useful you can use to help your career.

Source : http://bit.ly/1SAX4p1

11 Things You Can Do to Promote Your Business for Free

In my last article, I wrote about how I was a novice in the online business area several years ago. And I'm no expert today either, but I wanted to continue this topic and talk about some of the things I've learned about how to promote your business ... for free.

As we all know, starting a business can be quite costly. And besides the start-up costs, the ongoing expense for marketing and advertising can be quite daunting. It's like a double-edged sword: if you don't have the money to advertise, then the customers don't know you exist. But until you get customers and some money flowing in, how do you afford advertising?

In my almost four-year journey as an online entrepreneur, I have learned that there are a lot of actions you can take to promote your business that don't cost much money - and in most cases, none at all. Here are 11 ideas you can start using in your business today:

1. Youtube videos

If you don't have a Youtube account yet, get one. As a self-proclaimed "technological idiot" (as I've also written about before), it doesn't take much to learn how to shoot and edit videos. A good quality web cam and some editing software such as Windows Movie Maker are all you need to get up and running. Creating informational videos and posting them social media will lead to people sharing them, and thus, get you free "advertising."

2. Get on radio or TV shows

Most radio or TV shows don't charge you to be a guest (although some do). But if you get a show with a big enough audience, think about all the people you can reach for free! You will want to make sure that the topic of the radio show is appropriate for your business. That way, you are reaching your target audience.

3. Wear your logo on a t-shirt - as often as you can

I have a friend in a network marketing company, and she never leaves the house without wearing something with the logo of the company on it. Why? Because it starts conversations with strangers. Many people say, "Hey, I've heard of that company!" Or "What does that logo mean?" and BOOM! It starts the process of recruiting them into the business.

4. Get affiliates

Affiliate programs are great. If you're not familiar with them, it's when someone partners with you to sell your products/services/programs, etc. For instance, I am an affiliate for a self-development program, and I make 50% out of every sale. And since the sale is a monthly membership, it results in passive income for me. So getting affiliates to sell for you is a brilliant strategy.

5. Run a contest

People love contests! Who doesn't want to win something, right? So running a contest for a free prize(s) is a great way to get people to pay attention to you. Social media is the primary way some businesses do their promotion, so running a contest is a great fit for these outlets. Ask your friends and loyal customers to share the contest with their friends/followers, and again, your brand is shared with a lot more people.

6. Create an app

I have a friend who created a self-help app, and it went on to be #1 for its category on iTunes. As a result, what do you think happened? You're right - he greatly increased his audience. So if you don't know how to make an app, you can either learn how to make an app yourself or find someone to do it for you.

7. Host a summit

This is another brilliant strategy. An online summit is when you (as the host) do video or audio interviews with other people in your field of expertise. The goal is to have all of the people you interview share it with their audience on social media. And then you and your business are suddenly in front of a huge audience. Most summits interview around 20 experts. Think about the possibilities!

8. Cross-promote with others

This strategy is similar to the summit, although perhaps on a smaller scale. Again, find people whose message/business is similar to yours. Then you make an agreement to share each other's materials on social media. It can be in the form of blogs, videos, special offers, contests, or pretty much anything you think is appropriate. The goal, once again, is to expand your audience.

9. Give away free stuff/samples/trials/consultations

Most of your competition is probably giving away free stuff in the beginning. It's a way to "lure" the customer in without them having to make any financial commitment. Let's face it - we all like free trials! And it's much more likely that they will turn into a long-term customer once they get a feel for who you are and what you do.

10. Write a blog

Okay, maybe you aren't a writer, but having a blog is another great way to create sharable content that can go viral on social media. If you don't think you can write them, there are freelancer websites out there where you can hire a writer at a reasonable rate to do it for you. Regardless, it's almost a "must" in the business world these days.

11. Write for other websites

If you are a good writer, consider writing for other websites. Just as with all of these other tips I've given, it exposes you to a different audience. Almost every website will give the author a bio and photo with a link back to their website. The more websites you write for, the more you will expand your reach.

Source : http://huff.to/1O2gI7t

10 ways to combine SEO and content marketing

Gone are the days when search engine optimization was enough to land your website onto Google's good graces.Now you must to add content marketing to your arsenal of digital marketing tool if you want to gain search engines’ approval and ultimately win the heart of online users.

Given the important role content marketing now plays in the success of online business, it's time that SEO ties the knot with content marketing.

The two digital marketing tools that were once viewed as separate entities are now an inseparable couple, promising to inch businesses closer to the proverbial “overnight success. ”The amazing duo can greatly help your online business reach the pinnacle of success and outwit your competitors.

Here are 10 ways you can ensure that the two digital marketing tools work in harmony:

1. Set common goals.

Setting common goals is the first step to make SEO and content marketing work together to bring additional revenues.

Ask yourself what activities overlap between the two digital marketing techniques. Is it increased online traffic, rankings or links? How can you align the activities to achieve common goals?

The answers to these and other similar questions will give you a starting point in creating an integrated SEO and content marketing strategy with clear and focused goals and strong communication.

2. Establish key performance indicators.

Another way to optimize synergy between SEO and Content Marketing is to establish key KPIs that will track performance, and ensure that it is on track for achieving common goals.

These KPIs include content sharing, links to content, online user engagement, call-to-action conversion rates and several others.

3. Understand your target audience.

Understanding your audience is the key part of an SEO and content marketing strategy. Create personas of the target audience and develop a unique digital marketing strategy for each group. The personas can be based on age, location, gender, hobbies or interests.

Don’t undertake any digital marketing activity without considering what your audience wants, and also what you want them to do in return of fulfilling their demand.

4. Create SEO-optimized content.

Google places great emphasis on quality content. You can make the content more relevant for the search engine by incorporating high-impression keywords. Optimizing the content in this way will allow your Web pages to become visible to online users by appearing on the search results.

Avoid overstuffing keywords into website content. In order to play it safe, limit the keyword density to 1 percent or less. This will ensure that your site doesn't get penalized by the search engine, decreasing online traffic.

5. Research high-impression and relevant keywords.

Include high impression and relevant keywords in the website. Each keyword that you select should be researched properly using online tools such as Google Planner, Google Trend, Word Stream and other similar tools.

Optimizing your content in this way will ensure that your online content is able to attract maximum number of online users.

6. Attract online consumers through link building.

Another way you can make SEO and content marketing work together is through link building. Link building is a pure SEO strategy that results in distribution of online content to a large number of targeted, qualified audiences. You can greatly increase your content’s effectiveness through these efforts.

The links pointing to the published online content is placed on various high authority and high page ranked sites. These sites attract thousands of online visitors that can be diverted to your site by placing targeted links on the site they first visited.

Enlist SEO professionals to enhance your link building strategy. Here are some reputed SEO companies, based on user reviews:

TIS India

SE Media Online

Anpee Media

7. Focus on internal link building.

Internal link building works wonders in increasing your website’s ranking along with your published content. Moreover, creating internal links will also result in improved user experience due to easy navigation around the site.

Internal link building is simple to implement, and should be part of your digital marketing arsenal. This will help to improve your ranking and guide users with the content that is relevant to them.

8. Optimize your website content’s title and headings.

Your website content’s title and headings should also be optimized using relevant keywords and phrases.

The title is displayed on top bar of the browser, and headings are included inside the content. Your title should be descriptive, persuading users to click. Headings should be catchy enough to make the content readable.

Both must also be SEO-optimized to make your content more visible in the search results page.

9. Measure your results.

Make use of various online tools to measure the outcome of your combined SEO and content marketing efforts. Google Analytics can track changes in search volume over time. You will also know which pages and content attracts the most visitors, and the keywords they type to enter the website. The information gathered can help you fine-tune your content.

10.Keep your efforts going.

Combining SEO and content marketing must be an on going effort that should not stop at any time.

Make the most of the opportunity and watch the extraordinary combination of SEO and content marketing work wonders for your organization or client. It will position you perfectly on the fast track to success.

Source : http://bit.ly/1N6CI3x

iPhone 6s: The 9 best new features

Apple fans, the wait is finally over: Apple’s next-generation iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are finally a reality. Months of leaks and rumors didn’t leave many surprises for Apple during its big press conference on Wednesday, but the event was still packed full of action and now it’s time to step back and take a deeper dive into Apple’s new iPhones.

DON’T MISS: The 5 worst things about the iPhone 6s

2015 is an “S” year, of course, so we know we were in store for next-generation iPhones that looked almost exactly like their predecessors. We also knew that inside, the new iPhones would feature some huge upgrades in order to put Apple in its best possible position to continue growing its iPhone sales each year.

What’s new in Apple’s just-announced iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus? Here are the best new features you can look forward to:

3D Touch

As we were all expecting, the star of the show this year is Force Touch, though it has been rebranded on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. Using a combination of new display hardware and some smart software, Apple’s new iPhones are able to recognize three levels of touch pressure. This allows the user to perform different actions based on the amount of pressure applied with a tap.

The new peek and pop gestures are two examples. Press lightly on a tap target in an app and you’ll get a peek at whatever it leads to. Press harder and the app will pop open a new screen. Firmer touches and swipes also trigger various gestures — for example, a firm swipe in from the left edge of the screen will swipe the current app away and switch back to the previous app.

Alongside the new screen, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus will also include Apple’s taptic engine for more precise vibration feedback, just like the Apple Watch.

Is 3D Touch enough to sell you on Apple’s new iPhones? If not, don’t worry… there’s plenty more for you to lust after.

Motion Wallpapers

Last but not least where the display is concerned, Apple’s new iPhones will support Motion Wallpapers. Animated wallpapers are hardly something new on smartphones, but Apple’s are far more complex than anything we’ve seen on other platforms.

Bye-bye Bendgate

What will this year’s scandal be for the iPhone 6s launch? There’s always at least one, but only time will tell. What we do know though, is that it won’t be a repeat of last year’s “Bendgate.”

Apple’s new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are constructed from the same harder 7000 Series aluminum as the Apple Watch, and they’re much harder to bend than last year’s models. Of course, that won’t stop idiots from trying, so get ready for a flurry of “will the iPhone 6s bend?!” videos.

A new color

Some Apple fans were skeptical of Apple’s decision to introduce a gold color option last year, but now you see gold iPhones everywhere. This year, Apple is keeping the same gold tone from the iPhone 6, but also adding a new rose gold color for the iPhone 6s.

Better cameras

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus focused on improving photo quality rather than bumping up the megapixel count. In 2016, Apple is doing both.

Apple’s new rear camera on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus is a 12-megapixel unit that Apple says is a big improvement over last year’s model. The new unit features better optics and it can record 4K video as well.

The front-facing camera has been upped to 5 megapixels, and it supports full HD video as well as selfie panoramas.

Both new cameras include a new software-based flash feature that should improve low-light photography.

Live Photos

When the iPhone 6s captures a standard photo, it also records a brief video automatically in the background. Simply force touch on any photo in your camera roll and you’ll see the brief animation play. Pretty awesome…

Performance improvements

Last year’s iPhones “only” had a dual-core A8 processor, and they “only” had 1GB of RAM. Of course, they still managed to crush the competition in most key performance tests.

This year, Apple’s new A9 processor is based on a newer process and it features unique tri-core architecture that’s 70% faster than the A8, with a 90% faster GPU. Beyond that, the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will get 2GB of RAM, giving performance an even bigger boost.

New Touch ID

Apple’s new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus include a brand new Touch ID sensor that Apple says is twice as fast as the scanner in the iPhone 6. Apple’s first-generation fingerprint scanner is already leaps and bounds better than any other sensors out there, so we can’t wait to see how fast the second-generation version is.

Hey Siri

Falling squarely in the “new to iOS but not really new” category is the iPhone 6s’ new Hey Siri feature. With a new setting enabled, Siri will always be listening for the “hey Siri” trigger, even when the iPhone’s display is off. Earlier iPhone models have a similar feature, but the phone needs to be plugged in for Siri to listen while the screen is off.

Anytime the user wants to ask a question, open an app, set a reminder or do anything else Siri is capable of on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, all he or she needs to do is say “hey Siri” and then speak the command, and Siri will abide.

—

Apple’s new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will launch on Friday, September 18th. They will start at $199 and $299 on contract, respectively


Source : http://bit.ly/1Mc3gCP