Product Reviews
With the latest trend in social media forums, a strong social media strategy is a must in 2014. But in order to develop that strategy, you first have to start with the most widely used social network tools available to you. Techinforgraphics.com designed this awesome infographic highlighting the new and fresh approaches to how we consume content and engage in the digital space.
Those of us who live and breathe social networking like air are well aware of these new digital sharing tools. But just in case you aren’t, here’s the CliffsNotes on Snapchat, Pheed, Line and Vine.
Snapchat is a mobile photo and video sharing service available for both iOS and Android devices. Videos range from 1-10 seconds, and photos remain viewable for that same length of time. The cool thing is that before sharing, users have the option of annotating clips with text and marker tools to add fun and artistic design elements. One of the most disputed and widely known aspects that many teenagers like (and those looking to erase the breadcrumb trail to their deeds) is the self-destruct mechanism that can be set by the sender to erase the message contents within seconds of you viewing it. And as a result, there are big discussions happening about how Snapchat is used for and may contribute to unrestrained sexting and bullying.
Pheed is like your personal life channel that holds video, audio, live events and text “pheeds” to your undying following. It appears to be a robust version of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook all rolled into one. Since it’s roll-out, it’s become increasingly popular with musicians and celebrities. So if you love the fishbowl life, this is the social network for you.
Line is a new communication app for your cell phone that allows you to make free calls and send free text messages without restrictions. So you can talk to local and far away friends and family, and even hold business meetings. So it seems to be another version of Skype but perhaps a bit more refined.
Vine, created by the folks at Twitter, lets you record and share six-second of looping video clips. It works as a mobile app that captures and uploads your images to share with friends and family. Vine captures and shares brief content much like Twitter, but a little longer than Snapchat. It also has a scrollable feed of all your friends’ vines on the homescreen to keep up with what they’re posting. Although fun for kids, I’m not really sure of the benefits for adults using it.
Call to Action: What do you think about these social network tools?
All Posts, Infographics, Marketing, Social Media
This years Super Bowl was an amazing televised phenomenon showcasing not just the talented, body crushing sport of football but the most popular musical talent as well as engaging and fun commercials by lead company marketing mavens. In the era of everything is Tweetable, Social Media usage was at an all time high and some data companies had great fun showcasing their talents in this realm. I found so many of the infograpics informative, engaging and quite stylized that I just had to share and comment on the best of them. So enjoy these top 3 Super Bowl XLVII infographic all stars!
Since I’m not a true football fan, I truly thank Sysomos for the Your Social Media Guide to the Super Bowl [Infographic] by Sheldon Levine. It highlights not only the Ravens & 49er social media fans going to head-to-head but also a plethora of information about the players including their personal Twitter handles.
*The above infographic is shortened because of size. Click on it to launch the entire infographic.
Kyle Lacy from Marketers from Mars gave us the very educative & classic looking infographic reflecting the most important details about the Social Superbowl. It highlights everything from the best advertising stats to some interesting and fun celeb Tweets.
Millenium Media scored big time with their Mobile Bowl infographic targeting specific statistics on social media engagement and traffic by fans of both teams. And they make it easy for us by educating us from top to bottom, splitting the relevant information right down the middle to make clear the true winners and losers.
All Posts, Marketing, Social Media, Web Design
We’ve all heard the old adage, you only get out of it (a particular action) what you put into it. And that is so true when it comes to the online marketing of your business and the sweat equity you put into it. It takes time, effort and can also cost a considerable amount of cash if you have it. But if you are a frugal business owner or have fallen on hard financial times due to the economic climate, you need to review these 8 ways to promote your business online completely gratis!.
Free Social Media Resources
#1 Facebook posts need to occur on a regular basis to be effective. Most people are logged on during the prime time hours of 5-9pm. You can create quick posts about a new product or service, a free service tip or even ones that are relevant to seasonal time frames. For example, “Stay warmer longer and out of the cold less with a new SmartStart remote starter!”
#2 Blogging via your website is easy enough by adding a few paragraphs with information specific to your business or service. Adding fresh content on a regular basis will give you consistent indexing on major search engines. You can do this yourself or consider asking a friend or family member that’s a pretty good writer to put a brief article together that gives you an authoritative voice about your particular niche and hopefully a faithful following!
#3 Twitter posts are the easiest but seem to be the hardest to keep up with. Why I don’t know. But I do know is that prioritizing a few Tweets per week can help keep your business relevant in this social medium. If you just don’t have the time, there are social media management programs to help schedule postings on a daily or weekly basis.
#4 Hootsuite is a free social media management tool can help you to schedule and manage multiple Social Media networks and your daily/weekly postings. It’s free up to 5 networks and then becomes a paid service. This is a great no cost/low cost option and it’s super easy to use. Another option would be to consider asking a college student to do it for a few bucks so they can leverage it as professional Social Media management experience.
Free Website Resources
#4 merchantcircle.com holds major clout when it comes to online business networking as the largest social network for local business owners. They offer free online business listings, free marketing tools, internet advertising and so much more. It’s 100% free to set up a profile account so you can connect with other local businesses and promote your services/products.
#5 Yelp touts they are “the best way to find great local business” and true enough they are one of them. The site is well-known as the word-of-mouth for the digital world when it comes to reviews and opinions about businesses. Creating a profile is easy, smart device friendly and it is similar to Zagat, allowing consumers to rate your business. Don’t be afraid to ask your favorite and most long-term customers to add reviews to your business profile which helps increase your ratings. Remember, you will look better to consumers with 3 great reviews rather than someone who has none. But make sure you monitor your profile regularly in case someone puts something on there that’s less than becoming. You want to be able respond timely to anything that’s said which could affect your business’ reputation.
#6 Google Places helps consumers, much like Yelp, to help choose the right businesses based on their needs. These searches focus on geographically locating your personal needs in the areas of food, service industries and more. Here you can add photos, videos, coupons and even weekly specials all on your Place Page.
#6 Google+ Profile Business Page is another great tool by Google helps you find, share, rate, and recommend your business to their friends, and people across the web. But here’s the real gold nugget value – on this site you can also hold free customer meetings via 1 to 1 or even a 10-way video meeting called Google Hangouts. You can even stream and record conversations for playback later.
#8 A Free YouTube Channel for your business will allow you to upload your videos and market via your own channel! Plus you can really leverage this medium by programming certain settings and keywords to make your channel appear in people’s online searches. Not sure what kind of video to shoot? Consider educating your consumers via a Tips Video with several how-to’s or why choose your business infomercials. For example, if you’re an automobile service business, give a how-to-tell if your tire has a real flat or if it’s just the outdoor temperature affecting the pressure.
Last Tips
-Unless you want to pay someone to do the work for you, it sill takes a consistent effort of rolling up your sleeves and getting these resources to work for you.
-Remember, the goal is to create engagement and grow your online business presence leveraging these free online tools.
-Be consistent in your business descriptions across all these mediums so that search engines pull the same company information about your business.
-Keep in mind that with these resources, there’s no “set it & forget it” recipe. Even with Hootsuite, you’ll need to follow-up on your postings to check for comments and post responses to those consumer comments.
-You aren’t going to see dollar-for-dollar return on these efforts & the time investment you put into it. But I am confident that within 6 months, you will be surely see the fruits of your labors with leads and consumer recognition.
-Pace yourself so you don’t burn out and remember, slow and steady still wins the race all the way to the successful business finish line.
