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Monday, December 3, 2012

Why Your Business Should Be Sweet On HootSuite

Every week it seems like I'm turning clients on to yet another content sharing social network that their business should use to augment its brand presence and get new customers. I can almost hear the collective sighs from outside of the office door - "Another one???"

True, it can feel like a daunting task to maintain multiple social media accounts for your business and with recent data evidencing that every network is accompanied by dramatically differing demographics and times of the day that each social network is most active, you could easily fill entire days of the week attempting to optimize your marketing efforts towards them all. But who has the time for that? Enter HootSuite - a Vancouver BC based tech company that takes the burden of your social media and content scheduling and streamlines it into one convenient platform.

Here is what HootSuite can do to ease your social media / content marketing efforts:

1. Add Multiple Social Networks

HootSuite allows you to add your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts (among others) and recently added Instagram to its growing Social network support platform and will be adding others such as Blogger to the mix soon. This allows your business the ability to coordinate social media marketing into one convenient place.

2. Add Multiple Business Apps

Popular business applications such as SlideShare have also now been integrated into HootSuite and they will be adding others like Yammer in the near future. This allows businesses to streamline and enhance their ability to share presentations and other business applications amongst staff, investors, and prospective B2B customers.

3. Per-scheduling

In addition to streamlining all of your business' social media networks and business applications into one place, HootSuite allows you to pre-schedule tweets, posts, and releases into the future. For those that don't have the time to revisit their content sharing networks every day (or every hour) of the week, or simply forget to do so, this is the most efficient tool on HootSuite. You can pre-schedule activity months in advance.

4. HootSuite's Mobile App

For business owners on the go, the HootSuite mobile app is a favorable option with an incredibly easy to use dashboard. You can schedule your tweets, posts, and releases while standing in line at the bank, local coffee shop, or anywhere else you have to pass the time.

5. HootSuite Upgrades

Many of HootSuite's features are free and for the most part small to medium businesses will get along fine with the basic account. However if you would like to add other members of your company as administrators, take advantage of HootSuite Social Analytics, or manage unlimited social profiles and networks such as Google+ via HootSuite, then you may want to consider HootSuite Pro or HootSuite Enterprise upgrades.

Advice

Using HootSuite can take a tremendous load off of your back with regards to social networking and content sharing. While it varies depending on how important these marketing strategies are to your business, I recommend selecting one day of the week and devoting at least one hour towards prescheduling of tweets, posts, and releases for your multiple networks. Don't forget to still check-in daily to see if you've had any responses to your efforts in the form of retweets, likes, comments, messages, or better yet - requests for more information. The whole purpose of this after all is to get more customers. HootSuite simply allows you to better maintain that effort.

Making Social and E-Mail Calls to Action More Effective Social Networking - A Beginners Guide to LinkedIn Making Efficient Use of Your Social Media Campaign - A Debut Into Social Media Marketing Top Reasons to Engage on Twitter How Are You Leveraging Your LinkedIn Groups to Build Your Empire? How Online Social Networks Help Build Businesses

Why Social Networking for Business Should Not Be Automated

Every piece of a business system can be automated. However, with automation comes the possibility of computer generated errors, and this problem becomes even worse when the automation has to do with content driven material such as social networking. If there is a piece of communication that should not be managed by computers, it is the social media component of a business's advertising strategy.

Newsletters are commonly one of the most automated pieces of social networking. These newsletters are great for generating top of the mind awareness that every business needs to generate revenue. However, when these tools make mistakes, they are usually grievous errors. For example, there are many systems that will allow a business owner to insert the first name of a prospect dynamically using code. There are times when this code is accidentally changed and the code itself is shown. There is nothing more challenging than recreating the goodwill that a person has built up when a customer realizes that the newsletter was not generated specifically for them. This look behind the curtain can cause the consumer to look elsewhere because they want to work with a company that appreciates them and does not try to have automated customer service systems.

Content created for social networking for platforms by computers also tends to be less than ideal. This is because the computer (as much as people have made advances in this field) does not understand language as well as a real live person does. Even when grammatically correct information is generated, it usually lacks the feeling that it was generated by a real human. Therefore, the content is ignored by search engines (if it does not pass the duplicate content filter) and humans alike. This equates to a loss of money because the advertising method is not effective at engaging the end user (in this case the reader of the material).

Another area where content is automated is the "friend" and "follower" requests. However, this is one of the worst places to automate your social networking system. These computer-generated programs are built to find people speaking on a certain topic or keyword and to automatically request them to be a "friend" or "follower." In theory, this practice sounds like a good idea. However, what happens is that these programs find other programs doing the same thing. This inflates the friend and follower list to high levels but these networks contain nothing but programs that are talking to programs. There are no end users and if there are real users, they usually end up frustrated by the amount of link spam presented by those programs. In the end, these programs end up speaking to no one and generate no money on their own.

In closing, a business should not automate their social media campaigns because computers do a poor job of relating to humans socially. A real life person needs to run the social networking campaign (especially if it is social networking for business purposes) because people like to talk to real people and not programs developed to speak to humans. Having a real person run the social media program will allow the business to feel more human and show that they care about the ideas and needs of their consumer base.

Successfully Using Online Social Network Sites For Business

There is a lot more to using online social network sites for marketing your business than simply making product offers and assuming you are good to go! The fact is if you intend to use such sites you must first have an online presence that is consistent with any claims or offers you make! It makes little sense otherwise to try marketing your business to people if you've got little or nothing to show!

Here are 3 things you'll want to establish and maintain on a consistent basis if you intend to make product offers on any social sites!

Online Presence

When marketing your business at any social sites you need to have your 'ducks in a row' in terms of having a website or blog! Having an online presence such as this only lends to the legitimacy of any claims or product offers you make! Quite simply all businesses need a location or 'store front' that people can visit and where you can make available to them the opportunity to make purchases!

Useful Content

The 'destination' you send any traffic from social sites to should be one that contains plenty of useful and relevant content! Consider your site as the next step in your trust building 'funnel' and a much needed online presence! The content found on any site you use for marketing your business must reflect what it is you offer or represent! Furthermore you want to be mindful that any content people do view at your site is of interest and contains accurate information as well! The point here is that if people do not make a purchase they may at least be interested enough in returning later on to view any new content!

Thematic Promotional Offers

This is to say that whatever service or product offers you make must share a relevancy with the theme of your site and the content found on it! Displaying any inconsistencies here will only serve to confuse visitors you are marketing your business to along with weakening your brand! Let's face it getting traffic can be a 'headache' therefore it makes NO sense to 'blow it' by drifting away from the theme of the business you represent!

Online social network sites are a great source of traffic and an easy way for marketing your business provided you're set up to do so! You can't expect to start making product offers at these sites without already establishing some type of online presence! This presence only serves to lend a certain 'legitimacy' to what you do while also giving visitors something to view that 'reinforces' your business claims! The 3 things you'll want to already have in place before marketing your business to members of any of these online communities are listed and discussed above! After all, you can't expect to gain the trust of others or establish authority in your field without some type of 'consistent' online presence already established?

Making Social and E-Mail Calls to Action More Effective Making Efficient Use of Your Social Media Campaign - A Debut Into Social Media Marketing Social Networking - A Beginners Guide to LinkedIn Top Reasons to Engage on Twitter

How to Send a Pinterest Invite - 3 Methods That Work Fast!

Pinterest, the world's first social service to be named as a big virtual pinboard, allows users to create their own space containing various Web images that caught their interest while browsing the Internet.

As of now, Pinterest works as an invite-only website, which means you can't join the social network unless someone invites you to do so. Well, if you are already a member of Pinterest and want to share this awesome service to your friends and colleagues, here are the 3 fastest methods on how to send a Pinterest Invite:

1. Directly invite them through Pinterest.

The fastest way to get another person started on Pinterest is to send them an invite via the website itself. To do this, go to your account at Pinterest and hover your mouse over your name, which is located at the toolbar found on the top right corner. Simply click "Invite Friends" and then put their email addresses on the space provided. After this, tell your friend to open his or her email and follow the sign up steps provided in the email sent by Pinterest.

2. Use Facebook to invite friends and rescue others.

Through Facebook, you can direct your friends to Pinterest by sending them an invite. Don't forget to check out for your friends' statuses regarding their request for a Pinterest Invite. There's no doubt that they will be grateful for your little help. If you want to continue being heroic, you may go to the Pinterest fan page on Facebook and send invites to people who want to get started on Pinterest.

3. Connect with more people via other websites and forums.

For sure, there are a lot more people who want to create an account in Pinterest but don't know where to get the invite. If you have extra time in your hands, consider their plea and hook them up to Pinterest by asking their email addresses and sending them Pinterest invites. You can make a lot of new friends just by doing such a good Samaritan deed.

Unfortunately, Pinterest is not connected to Twitter as of the moment. But for sure, they will be associated with each other in the future. The same goes for LinkedIn and other popular social networking sites. But for now, you may use the mentioned 3 ways on how to send a Pinterest Invite fast and easy. Enjoy your new Pinterest account!

Facebook Boosts Businesses in an Unusual Way

Business leaders are fond of banning Facebook and other social networks. Indeed, I met a security expert the other day who told me that some firms even ban people from using their personal mobiles from accessing Facebook during office hours - either by confiscating all mobiles at the start of the working day, or by installing "blocking" radio waves, which prevent the mobiles from receiving a signal. What jolly workplaces they must be.

Some business leaders appear to think that social networking is a distraction. That's in spite of several studies which show that office productivity FALLS once you ban the likes of Facebook. Furthermore, companies that institute Facebook bans also find they lose the benefit of staff giving their company free marketing support.

But why are businesses happy to let their company lose out on the marketing potential of their staff talking about them on Facebook? The issue, it seems, is that they cannot trust their staff to say positive things about the firm. Oh dear. If you cannot trust your own staff to say good things about your company that says a great deal about your employment practices and your relationship with your workers. This is not a Facebook problem; instead, Facebook bans reveal more about inadequate senior management in businesses than anything else.

Now, a new research study emphasises this issue. Psychologists have discovered that Facebook usage during studying has no impact on the students who use Facebook, compared with those who do not. The fear was that Facebook would contribute to lower grades because of the distraction. However, this is not the case.

What is interesting in this research, however, is the fact that students who were good multi-taskers and who had good relationships with their parents tended to to better if they also used Facebook. For businesses this has important implications.

It suggests that the selection of staff is important - and that if a company has "issues" with social networks like Facebook it could mean they really need to look at staff selection, rather than banning Facebook. Ultimately, what this new research suggests is that if you select people who are good at multitasking (why wouldn't you want them anyway?) and who are well-rounded with solid family relationships (who wouldn't want that either?) then you are much more likely to be choosing people who will actually do better for your business if they use Facebook.

In other words, many business leaders need to look at themselves and how they select their staff, rather than simply banning social networks. Indeed, choose the right people and your business will benefit significantly in more ways than you think from using social networks.

What A Business Can Expect to Experience When Using Social Networking for Business

A business should expect to make more business contacts at a higher rate of speed when using a social network designed for business purposes. This is because the Internet is a place where a person can meet a high variety of people without physically being in the same room. This allows people to meet without the expenses of traveling or having to go somewhere for lunch. Obviously, this is not always possible. This is why social networking for business is very important. Business can be accelerated to the speed of the Internet, not only for transactions, but also for business meetings.

A business needs more contacts. More contacts can lead to more opportunities in the business space then a business that does not generate contacts at a high rate of speed. Part of being successful in business is being aware of opportunities as they arise. The ability of business to identify opportunities will determine how much revenue they can generate within the year. This is why socially networking for business through the Internet is so important. The Internet opens up a new world of business contacts that a company would not normally have access to in the real world. It is very important for any business to learn how to network effectively using social media to have a chance to succeed in the future.

A business should expect to make more money when they properly network through the Internet. A business is no longer limited to their physical location. The new technologies that have been created for the Internet have allowed businesses to grow outside their physical borders. For example, meetings can now happen on the Internet where they would have only happened in face-to-face meetings. A meeting can be scheduled for a person in the USA with a person in a different country within minutes. This is all possible instead of a sending a sales person to fly to meet with the other business person. This speeds up the rate that a business can close a business deal.

A business should also expect to be able to talk to their employees with a higher rate of speed than was previously possible. We business can also talk to a multitude of employees using the same medium an exact same message without having to pick up the phone and physically talk to every employee that needs to hear the message. This allows for quicker conversations about where a company is going and what the company needs to do. The speed of communication allows a business to move fast on opportunities and to adjust their strategy on the fly.

In general, a business using social networking for business can expect to be more capable to handle the advancements in technology and business. The ability to communicate with employees and perspective customers at a high rate of speed will determine the ability of the business to be successful in the future. A business that chooses the right platform for social networking will dominate their niche and become the most well known name in their market space. In closing, a business that effectively uses social media or social networking for business can expect to make more money.