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3 Modern Ways to Promote Your Company Through Social Media

George — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 05:01:45 +0000

Social media channels such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare are being used by a large proportion of the population and help us to communicate, free of charge, and keep in touch with our friends. In a short span of time, these virtual places are becoming centers of exchange of views, information and experiences. It is here that customers and users seeking information about a service before using it: they inform, comment, leave reviews and opinions.

It is evident then as today is that every company must be active on social networks and listen to the opinions (both positive and negative) of its customers in order to improve. Here are three tips on how you can use social media to help you find online and to promote your service.
The company blog

1) Have a Corporate Blog
Having a corporate blog is very important. Creating your own business blog is an important factor that determines the flow of your business and would also help you to update it with information related to your service. For example, if you are a web agency, write articles, tips or guide on how to optimize your CMS for search engines and post it own your blog. You can write on any topics related to your service and post on your blog.

2) Set-up Facebook and Twitter Profiles
Facebook and Twitter are definitely the two most used social network of the moment. These two social media sites can be used to listen to things people say and think of you, create contests and competitions on behalf of your company online, ask questions to your customers and make yourself available to clarify and or assistance. You can also promote your services, company related updates, blog posts etc. in an efficient way through Facebook and Twitter.

3) Embrace Foursquare
Foursquare is a social network that is mainly based on geo location is being widely used by a lot of people. Its popularity is being increased day by day and is one of the most powerful social media channel. When the user goes through a particular public place Foursquare makes a check-in and notifies his friends that he was there. You can enter any suggestions or pictures on the site and you can effectively use it to provide discounts to those who make a certain number of check-in near your business, or you can give a prize gifts or gadgets.

These three are the most modern ways of promoting your company through social media and I have found it useful so far in the year 2011.

How to Check If Your Twitter Account is Blocked in Twitter Search

George — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:38:59 +0000

Twitter is one of the most powerful social media tool and is also the top micro blogging site as of now. Twitter has the potentiality to pull huge quality traffic to any website and is one of the most easiest social media site to use. You cannot achieve the traffic and website promotion success overnight as you need to carefully build your Twitter profile to make it equipped for your online marketing activities.

Few months back Google had started showing tweets in their real time searches and this was a great bonus for the Twitter users. The tweets started showing up in Google search engine thereby driving more traffic to any website. Twitter also has its own search engine and this is widely used by people who checks for live news or updates about any topic. So getting listed in the Twitter search engine greatly influences the listing of your tweets in Google’s real time searches.

This means that if your Twitter account is not listed or indexed in Twitter search engine, then you are in real trouble. Getting blocked in Twitter search means that your Tweets will not show up in Twitter search and may also be deprived from getting listed in Google’s real time searches. Ultimately the traffic coming to your website from these sources would cease considerably and this would create more serious issues as far as your online marketing activities are considered.

It is always better to check once in a while whether your Twitter profile is being listed in Twitter search or not. It is very much easy to check this, as you just need to visit the Twitter search engine and search your profile name. If the search results contains your profile and other tweets, then there is no issue. On the other hand, if the search result do not return the listings for your profiles and Tweets, then the chances are that your Twitter account in blocked in Twitter search engine for some other reasons.

Don’t panic while your confront such a situation, but just visit the Twitter help center and raise a ticket. Your problem would be fixed at the earliest. I too had the same issue of being blocked by Twitter search engine and I got it rectified few days back and now my Twitter account is back in the Twitter search results.

Finally My Twitter Account is Back in Twitter Search

George — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:58:23 +0000

I have been using Twitter for more than 3 years and I really enjoyed using this micro blogging platform, both personally and professionally. Twitter gave me some of the best online friends and it also helped me to promote websites of my clients and friends. From the time Google started showing up real time search results, the traffic to my websites increased considerably.

Of late the traffic started diminishing, but I did not search the root cause as I was busy with some personal matters. I wished to know the reason, but left it as it is due to lack of time. It was at this point of time that one of my Twitter friend, Blair Semenoff aka @Flipbooks informed me regarding the fact that my Twitter profile is blocked from the Twitter search engine and my tweets are visible only to my followers.

This was alerting news for me and I was happy that ultimately I got to know about one of the reasons behind the drop in the website traffic. Blair told me that it happens to a large number of Twitter users and this can be resolved by submitting a ticket at Twitter. I took the help of Twitter help center and initiated a ticket regarding the blocking of my Twitter profile in Twitter search engine.

After 2-5 days, I got a mail asking me to explain the exact problem in details. After replying to the mail, I got another mail the next day saying that my block has been removed and would be reflected in the next 24 hours. This was a happy moment for me and now my profile and tweets are showing up in the Twitter search thereby getting me more traffic to my websites.

If anyone is facing the same issue, then don’t hesitate to contact the Twitter help center and they are too generous to the complaints.

5 Ways to Check the Authenticity of Twitter Follower Count

George — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:29:35 +0000

The number of Twitter followers clearly indicates the popularity of a particular person and taking this into account, majority of the Twitter users try to get as many as followers as possible. It is always good to have a high number of follower count in Twitter, but what is the use if majority of them are bots or artificially attained followers.

If a Twitter user is really popular in his niche, then he is sure to get followers naturally, rather than going after various methods of getting followers. So the best Twitter profile is that which has got a good number of followers in the natural way and such types of Twitter profiles are the ones that are to be followed by us. Consider that we are following a profile which shows a huge number of followers and majority of them are bots or are not naturally obtained ones. Here you would not be getting any benefit of following such a user as even if he shares your posts, it would vanish somewhere without being re-shared by his followers.

On the other hand if you are following a profile which has genuine followers that are obtained naturally, then the chances are that if he shares any of your tweets, it has got a higher chance of getting re-tweeted by his followers as most of them are genuine and might be more active. So before following any Twitter profile based on the count of its followers, make sure that the user has created such a number of followers in the natural way and they are authentic.

There are various means by which Twitter users acquire followers and some of them include mass following (expecting some of them to follow back), use of automated tools, joining paid programs to get followers etc. There are various methods to check whether the Twitter follower count is worth the profile and here I would like to discuss few of them, which you could try out next time when you start following profiles.

1) Checking the Activity of the Followers
You can check the authenticity of the Twitter follower count by checking the timeline of the followers present in a particular Twitter profile. If they are not having updates for a long time, then that Twitter user is of no use. It simply gives us that the Twitter user is no more active and it might be even created as a fake profile some time back.

2) Checking the Timeline of the Followers
An engaging Twitter user would always have his timeline filled with interesting tweets from various topics. If you see that the profile is having only tweets from a particular topic and that too the same content over and over, then you can easily come to the conclusion that this account is fake. On the other hand if the timeline is filled with interesting Tweeps then that profile is worth following.

3) Checking the Engagement of the Follower
If you see that the timeline of a Twitter profile is filled with Tweets which include self started tweets, retweets, applause, encouragement and wishes to other followers, the you can come to the conclusion that the particular Twitter profile is quite engaging and is a good bet to follow. On the other hand, if there are only tweets and no other activities, then you need to suspect that the particular Twitter profile is meant for spamming and faking.

4) Checking the Follower Accumulation Rate of the Twitter Profile
Checking the rate at which a particular Twitter profile gets followers can also help you in determining whether that particular Twitter profile is having authentic followers. There are many online tools which helps you to see the follower accumulation rate of a particular Twitter profile. If you see that the accumulation rate is constant, then that particular Twitter profile has the highest chance of being legitimate. On the other hand, if the Twitter accumulation rate is not consistent and shows high rate in a particular day and a low rate in the other days, then that particular Twitter profile is sure to be gathering followers in the unethical ways.

5) Checking the Twitter Grading
There are a few online tools which helps you to get an idea about the rank of your Twitter profile. Such tools grades your profile based on a large number of criteria and the overall grading helps you in knowing whether an account is worth following. The profiles which are active and engaging, gets a good grading in these tools. The profiles which have a large number of fake and inactive followers get a bad ranking and hence this tool will come handy for checking the authenticity of Twitter followers.

Twitter to Kill off its Old Version

George — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 04:27:55 +0000

Twitter is one of the most powerful micro blogging and social media site, which is having a large number of users as of present. Twitter is being used for a large number of purposes and is one of the most easy to use social media site. Twitter has finally decided to take off its old version and to migrate completely to the new one. The old version of Twitter would be killed off this week, which has been revealed in an official tweet. All the users using the old version of Twitter would be migrated automatically to the newer version.

The new version of Twitter was launched in September 2010 with some improved features and facilities. But since then Twitter had provided the users to switch back to the older version. Some of the users (including top users) didn’t find themselves comfortable with the new version of Twitter and as a result they continued using the old version.

The old version was pretty simple and clean and also had a good loading time. But with the new version certain new features got enhanced and for some users the new version was not as fast as the older version, even though it had some new good features added. The newer version of Twitter contains some cool integrated multimedia option and Twitter is planning to migrate all its users to the new version.

In my personal experience, ever since Twitter launched its new version in 2010, I shifted to the new one. But after experiencing it for a few weeks, I had to shift to the old version as I didn’t feel much comfortable with the new one. There are also a large number of friends, who also had the same experience. But now, since Twitter has decided to take off the old version and migrate fully to the new version, we can hope that Twitter adds some more good features so that we feel most comfortable with that.

Major Types of Social Media Sites

George — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 05:05:48 +0000

Social Media is the real buzz of Internet and is constantly evolving all the days. Those who are internet savvy cannot ignore the contributions of the various social media sites. There are various types of social media sites that suits for different purposes. Social Media really helps you in connecting with other people over the internet in a much efficient and effective way.

Social Media have already proved to be one of the best advertising platforms and since it is easy to target a specific audience through social media, most of the online advertising or marketing companies gives top priority to social media sites. Social Media is all about engagement and mutual encouragement. You may not taste success in social media channels overnight, rather it requires constant and long-time involvement to be successful.

There are a large number of social media sites that are available on the net and they are used for various purposes. There is a huge classification of social media sites and the list goes on never-ending. Here I would like to project 7 major types of social media sites that we come across in our day to day life. There are even other types which are not mentioned in this list, so I would like you to come up with the suggestions, if I have missed out anything.

1) Blogging Sites
Blogging is the most common thing that is used by online users and is one of the best way to share and express your content and ideas over the net. The major example for blogging sites are Blogger, WordPress, tblog etc.

2) Microblogging Site
Microblogging is the latest blogging trend and has achieved huge support from the social media audience worldwide. Two of the major microblogging platform that have captured the internet market in the last few years are Twitter and Tumblr.

3) Location Based Networking Sites
Location based networking sites are yet another latest social media channels which helps you to enhance and easily interact with your social networking range based on a particular location or are. Two of the major location based networking sites are Foursquare and Gowalla.

4) Social Networking Sites
Social Networking sites are one of the most commonly used social media sites and there are a large number of social networking available out of which a few have become popular. The social networking sites helps you to stay connected with your friends and peers on the internet. Few of the major social networking sites include Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, LinkedIn etc.

5) Social Collaboration Sites
Social Collaboration sites are sites that uses online audiences to enhance their content. The content on these sites are populated by social audience, and these contents are moderated before posting. A major example for social collaboration sites are the Wikis or Wikipedia.

6) Social Bookmarking Sites
Social Bookmarking sites are yet another hugely used social media sites and such sites helps you to save you bookmarks online. Social Bookmarking sites also allows voting for the bookmarked stuffs and there by provides some good amount of traffic to your website. The major social bookmarking sites are Digg, StumbleUpon, reddit,delicious etc.

7) Multimedia Sites
Multimedia sites are actually the entertainment sites on the internet and multimedia sites consist of website that share video, music and pictures on the internet. The major multimedia sites are Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, YouTube, Vimeo, (Pandora, Last.fm, Groove Shark, Turntable.fm etc.

How Law Officials are Utilizing Social Media

George — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 05:01:05 +0000

The current technology driven world has forced local law enforcement agencies to turn more into social media tools to keep the public informed and even solve various crimes. County Sheriff’s Office in Washington has been using and utilizing a Facebook page for about a year which has around 1,000 followers. The major job of the page includes up-to-date information about crime, information about wanted suspects and significant arrests. The County Sheriff’s office posts alerts about robberies, suspects, flooding, drugg arrests and all type of crime activities that is happening around. Photos of the most wanted criminals and suspects are also posted on the Facebook page, so that the public would be kept more aware about the crime activities in their localities.

The major advantages of using social media channel such as Facebook in low enforcement activities is that people can also post their ideas and confidential information about a sensitive case or so on. This is of a great help to the law officials as they usually get confidential information about criminals, thefts, theft plans etc. A Facebook fan page also helps to arrange discussions between the officials and public that are related to make peace and order in the locality. The public can express their opinions and doubts on the Fan page and they would be getting a resonable answers and appreciation for their opinions and doubts.

Since a lot of the younger generation is using social media websites or channels such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, the low officials finds it easy to reach out to a wide audience. The social media activities can also be complemented with a regular updation of the official website of the firms. But since social media websites are much popular and easier to maintain and update, the law officials prefers social media sites over the website.

A majority law enforcement department has not yet fully utilized the advantages and benefits of social media site, and it is high time that they take the advantages of social media website seriously. Creating a Facebook fan page does not ensure the venture to be successful if it is not carried out in the proper way. So the Facebook fan page has to used and promoted in the best way to get the most response and benefits out of it. There are certain law enforcement agencies which do not have an official fan page, but has received many help from the social media channel in an indirect way.

IZEA Acquires Magpie

George — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 10:26:58 +0000

IZEA, the leaders in sponsored conversations has acquired German based Twitter advertising network Magpie. IZEA have built various platforms that is aimed at connecting brands and advertisers on various social media networks. The 3 year old Magpie ( be-a-magpie.com ), is one of the first company of its kind that offered in-stream ads on Twitter. Both advertisers and publishers have benefited from Magpie in these years.

The Magpie network claims to have over 12,000 advertisers and 16,000 Twitter publishers in 124 different countries. Some of its extreme clients includes big names such as Burger King, Heineken, Playstation and Audi. Magpie has a strong client base in the Europe and this acquisition would help IZEA to expand their social media sponsorship operations in Europe.

The existing Magpie users do not have any reason to worry as they would be migrated swiftly to IZEA’s advertising platform namely sponsoredtweets.com. Magpie users can use their existing credentials to log into the new IZEA advertising platform. The Magpie credentials would continue to work for a while till their accounts are verified and the balance cash has been transferred over.

As of now, the Magpie users cannot make new deposits or withdrawals from Magpie. Users would also not be able to create any new campaign or accept new Tweets on Magpie advertising network. For that they have to use the sponsoredtweets.com.

How Social Media Marketing Benefits Your SEO Campaign

George — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 10:35:57 +0000

Social Media Marketing is one of the hottest thing in the area of online marketing and is also considered as one of the best viral marketing strategy that exist on the internet. Social Media Marketing have always complemented the traditional SEO activities and if you are really serious about your online marketing campaigns, then both of them should go hand in hand. Most of the internet marketing professionals make the serious mistake of excluding social media marketing from their SEO activities. Some online marketing guys also interpret social media marketing and social media optimization as the same, but the fact is that both are entirely different.

It has been proved time and again that Social Media marketing acts as a boosting activity for the SEO campaigns. With proper and effective social media marketing websites gain a lot of benefits in an SEO point of view. In short social media marketing always helps in boosting the SEO activities of a web site. Some of the major advantages for SEO with an effective social media marketing program are listed below.

1) Branding
Social Media is one of the best platform available to enhance your reputation and branding on the internet, provided it is carried out in the right and legitimate way. Remember, branding cannot be achieved overnight, but needs continuous effort and patience.

2) Getting More Backlinks
Social Media marketing helps you to get more backlinks to your website, both directly and indirectly. In other words, if your website content is marketed on relevant social media sites, you would surely be getting a handful of backlinks to your website from there directly. If your content is promoted well on the various social media channels, other webmaster might naturally link back to your content, which is considered as the indirect but the best way of getting backlinks through social media marketing.

3) Traffic Generation
Traffic generation is another major benefit of social media marketing, that is liked by most of the web marketers who are into social media marketing. A site that is marketed well in the social media platforms would be bringing you a large amount of instant and targeted traffic to your website.

4) Better Search Engine Performance
Social Media marketing is an amazing marketing strategy that helps in achieving a much better search engine performance for your website and it has been proved many times. And with the real time results by Google, social media marketing efforts has further improved its ability to improve the search engine rankings of a particular website.

5) Get More Targeted Traffic
Since marketing activities through social media channels is carried out on a specific groups or communities, it is quite clear that one would be getting more targeted traffic on to his web site. This aspect would certainly help and enhance the SEO campaign which is aimed at getting traffic from a targeted niche group.

It is not the about the Twitter Follower Quantity, but Quality

George — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 11:37:02 +0000

Twitter is one of the most popular micro blogging and social media platform which is being used by a large number of users. This is one of the most amazing social media platform to share your ideas to a large number of fellow Twitter users. Different people use Twitter for different purpose such as business, information sharing, chit chat etc.
Most of the companies have set up their own Twitter account by now and uses it for Tweeting about their management updates, product updates, major changes, job openings etc. The companies do hire someone to manage their Twitter account and their main objective would be Tweet major updates via Twitter profile. Most of them tries to acquire as much followers as possible in the belief that their tweets would reach to a wider range of followers.

Even though most of the them manages to get a large number of followers, they are not able to get the expected responses for their tweets. For example, if a company has 20k followers, then a plain tweet or a tweet with a link has to get the desired results. But in most of the cases a Tweet with a link hardly gets 5-10 clicks at a time which is really hard to digest. We can say that majority of the users are from different countries and may not be on the system at that time.

If you get a good number of clicks on your tweets on any particular time, then you can say that your followers are responding enough to your tweets. But if you are getting the same number of clicks, i.e 5-10 clicks at all the time, then there are some serious issues with the number of followers in your Twitter profile. There are many other Twitter profiles that I know which hardly has 5k followers but produces 10 times higher clicks for Tweeted URLs when compared with a profile having 20K or more followers.

Some of the major reason behind this may be that your followers might not be relevant, they are not relevant or they are bots. If 19K out of 20K followers falls in these categories, you only have 1K followers and 40% of them might not be online at the time of your Tweet. so you would be able to reach your Tweets to the remaining 60%. Of these 60 % of followers 20% of them misses your tweets due to some other reasons. In the remaining 40% a few of them might not be interested to click on your tweeted links while the remaining few manages to click on your links. As a result you would be getting much less clicks than expected.

It may also be a fact that the active followers in your list may not be having an authority profile and as a result even if they retweet your links, it goes unnoticed. So if your followers are having a popular and high authority profile, then you have a better chance of getting your links go viral much easily.

So rather than filling your followers list with unwanted profiles, better to search for relevant, active and high authority profiles and try to get them as your followers. Even if your followers list is small, don’t worry. Make sure that they are interested in your Tweets and don’t make them bored. Also try to get involved in your followers tweets and this would help you in the long run. If your followers are having great popularity, then it would be much more beneficial for you. In the end, it is not the quantity of your Twitter followers, but the quality that really matters.