Three Top Tips For Posting Videos On Facebook

When people log onto Facebook, they are often looking to upload their own images and videos. That is a whole lot of people who are sharing videos, and hoping that others will view, like, and share them. According to Facebook's data, more than 60 percent of activity comes from users who are watching videos. If you want to use your own videos to generate views, and drive traffic to your website, the following tips will give you an advantage.

Should You Upload or Embed Facebook Videos?

 There is some debate over this topic, so take what you read with a grain of salt. Essentially, when uploading your videos to Facebook, you should do both of these things: Upload and Embed. Of course, it would not make sense to use both techniques for each video, as you would be double-posting.
To embed a video, you must insert the link, as part of a post. Embedding videos is a great way to drive people to external links. For example, if you have a YouTube account that is related to your business, it is smart to embed the link. This will allow people to view the video on Facebook, but it can also drive traffic to your YouTube page, giving you even more hits overall. This is great for your SEO, which is another important thing to think about. An embedded URL like this is also great for sharing on multiple social media sites, such as Twitter and LinkedIn.

If you upload your videos to Facebook, it helps people to find them with the inbuilt search functions. Your videos will also be added to your profile page, making it easier for people to browse through your collection of videos. Of course, you lose the benefits of having your videos link to outside websites. However, uploading through your profile will make your Facebook page seem fuller, and more legitimate. People often shy away from pages with little-to-nothing on them, as they can appear fraudulent.

Include Good Copy with Videos
Firstly, you need to create high-quality videos, that people will be drawn to. However, that is often not enough. As users scroll through their Facebook feeds, they are bombarded by countless images and text. You need to include some written copy that will compliment your video thumbnails, and encourage people to actually watch your videos. This can be as simple as a single sentence, but it has to be exciting, and it really needs to instantly grab people's attention. However, be sure that you do not lie about the contents of your videos. If you lose people's trust, they are unlikely to want to spend their time looking at your posts.

Make Good Videos!
This might seem obvious, but no amount of special tricks can help you, unless you are sharing videos that people want to see. You do not need to be a professional filmmaker, but your videos should look clear and have good audio, as a minimum. People might avoid a great video, simply because it looks grainy, and has distorted voices or sounds. Put in a little extra effort from the start, and ensure that your videos are worth watching. After you have the basics sorted out, make sure that you include content that people will find interesting or entertaining.

Use Videos Sparingly
Rather than posting loads of short videos of average quality, upload great videos, less often. People are not on Facebook all the time, so it helps to save your best videos for the peak hours, when you anticipate that your followers will be online.

http://www.whatworksinonlinemarketing.com is a Sydney based company that specialises in Internet Marketing (website development and online marketing) using cutting edge technology and current social media trends. Discover how I can be your partner in helping you build a strong online presence for exponential results contact us on enquiries @askmaryphillips.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mary_S_Phillips

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8921090

Swipe these 12 untapped profitable niches to build an online business

http://tiny.cc/12niches

Read More

How business owners can use social media

Read More

Social Media Marketing Basic For Small Business - Facebook

Read More

Improve Twitter Sales With the Right Tools

Do you have a strong Twitter presence? Are you hoping to use this social media service to increase sales and profits in the near future? If you answered yes to these questions, it is time to consider all your options.

There are a variety of tools you can implement to improve sales on Twitter, with these three doing wonders for many businesses throughout the world:

TwtQpon. With this tool, you will soon be creating and sharing a variety of coupon types via Twitter. It doesn't matter if you want to offer a discount online or a free product in a brick and mortar store, with TwtQpon this is a simple task.

With affordable pricing, starting at $19 per 100 coupons, you can get started with this service without breaking your marketing and advertising budget.

1. SocialRank. The SocialRank tagline says it all:
   
   "SocialRank is the easiest way to identify, organize, and manage your followers on Twitter."
   
   If you don't know the first thing about your followers you will find it difficult to sell to them. With SocialRank, you can generate reports that provide information on the most engaged and valuable followers.
   
2. Twibble. There is more to this tool than its cool name. With Twibble, you can send auto-tweets complete with graphics. Unlike other tools, this one stands out in the crowd for its ability to add a featured image. In short, tweets with images have a better chance of being retweeted and clicked on.
   
   While the tools above can help you take your company's Twitter sales to the next level, there are some basic things you must do if you want to realize a high level of success:

• Use your Twitter account for more than selling and marketing. It is essential to also provide followers with information such as industry news and professional guidance. Too much selling will turn people off.
• Stay consistent. If you use Twitter for a couple days and then turn your back on the service for a month or so, you cannot expect to gain much traction. Stay consistent, even if it means spending an hour or so a day to remain on the right track.

With the right tools powering your Twitter strategy you can increase sales and collect useful data. By experimenting with the three tools above, it won't be long before you begin to realize the true selling power of this social media giant.

By Peg McDermott 

Peg McDermott is an award-winning marketing communications expert, Internet marketing specialist, and public speaker. Peg is the founder and president of COGO Interactive, an innovative Internet Marketing firm specializing in helping small to mid-sized businesses increase revenue and awareness by leveraging Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Optimization.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8849255

If you would like to learn more about marketing your business online, please collect my 4 free ebooks at: www.methodsocialmedia.com

Read More

7 Easy Tips to Make Money Blogging

Can you imagine being a blogging rockstar like Johns Wu? He sold his blog (bankaholic.com) for $15 Million dollars. He spent 2 years developing that blog focused on personal finance, credit cards, bank rates, loans, etc. Not bad for 2 years work.

Weblogs, Inc is a blogging network that earns about $30 million dollars a month.
The Huffington Post is a blog. They earn over $2 million dollars a month.
 John Chow is a pretty average joe, he claims to earn over $40,000. per month on his blog.
 Maybe the biggest secret to blogging is to change your name to John.

Moving on...
How to Make Money from blogging.
Some niches have more opportunity to market and different techniques available. Some are easier to drive traffic to than others. Once you are getting traffic to your blog you will want to monetize it.

Below are a few techniques.
Affiliate Marketing
Promote other people's products or services and receive a commission. Affiliate sales could include a one time fee to a residual monthly stipend. The possibilities for affiliate income ranges from less than one dollar to $10,000. per sale. Profitability and potential depends on your niche.
Banner Advertising
Advertising banners of affiliate marketers or actual product publishers guarantees you a monthly income. Many put a contract in place for banner space on their blog. It often involves a 3rd party that the blog owner can sign up with. If you have a high ranking blog, other marketers will reach out to you independently wanting to advertise on your site.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
PPC is a component of banner advertising. Google is a PPC provider. The blog owner and Google are paid when someone clicks on the advertisement placed on the blog. It is not based on whether or not a sale was made.
CPM Advertising
CPM is an impression based advertising model. Cost per 1000 impressions. An impression is counted each time the advertisement is viewed.
Membership Program
Membership sites are a growing trend in the industry. If you provide premium quality content to your visitors you might find some willing to pay for it.
Consulting - Coaching
If you are comfortable in your knowledge of your specific niche, offer to coach someone else who is interested in learning about it.

Sell Your Own Product

Write a "How To" Book and sell it on your blog. Do you make jewelry, or croquet doilies, sell them on your blog.

Blogging is easy, and fun, although if you find yourself stuck on one or more component of the creation you can always outsource anything you need.

If you have a blog and you are not monetizing it, you are leaving money on the table.

By Sandy Armstrong

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8876084

If you are interested in learning to market your business online, please collect my 4 free ebooks at www.methodsocialmedia.com

Read More

How to Boost Your Social Media Marketing - Tip 1 - Automate Your Social Bookmarking

This article is the first of a series of articles which will help you boost your social media marketing.You can benefit by posting your bookmarks to a social bookmarking service.

Do you need to; Create new targeted traffic to your website, blog or optin page?; Create more chances for your site to appear in the search results of major search engines?; Create the chances of viral traffic?

Of course you do. These can be the benefits to you of social bookmarking. Importantly the submission process can be automated so saving you lots of time.

A social bookmarking service is a centralised online service which enables users to add, edit and share bookmarks of the website pages which they like. You can use your bookmarks easily from any location using any computer which is connected to the internet.

Being listed on sites like Digg and Delicious can drive new traffic to your website. Incidentally Delicious popularised the terms "social bookmarking" and "tagging." These sites offer the best type of visitor. People who reach your site from such a social bookmarking site are generally there because your website appeared in a search for topics they were interested in.

Search engines will often list results from bookmarking sites. So if your site is bookmarked, this is an extra opportunity to show up in search results.

Being featured on one bookmarking site can often lead to people tagging your site on other bookmarking sites so you have the possibility of viral traffic.

The top 5 bookmarking sites in terms of unique monthly visitors are Reddit, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Digg and Slashdot. But there are many more. Search Engine Journal has put together a list of 125 social bookmarking sites, some of which are very popular and others which are newer or somewhat unheard of.

Besides targeting the major social bookmarking sites, you will find some diamonds in the rough which are niche oriented or treated well by Google and other search engines.

To get your share of the wealth which social bookmarking offers, you should leave your bookmarks in multiple sites. This might seem a daunting task but it can be automated with appropriate software such as IMAutomator.

This social bookmarking software allows you to build links in just moments. IMAutomator operates using Submission Credits. Every site in the system has a credit cost equal to its PageRank so a PR1 site costs 1 credit to submit to, a PR4 site costs 4 credits and so on. When you submit a job you choose exactly which sites you want to submit to and thus control exactly how many credits you are spending on each one. If you're just starting out the best option is the free trial then you buy credits as you need them.

You'll be surprised how easy the submission process really is. Once you've completed your details and submitted the job, you'll have access to a submission schedule, for each job.

The default rate for link submission is one per day, in order to avoid search engine penalties. My job comprised of 63 scheduled submissions and the cost of credits was about $6. The bookmarking site with the highest PageRank was Delicious. The remaining 62 sites had a PageRank ranging from 1-7.

So there you are then. Automated social bookmarking. The automation cost of $6 saved hours and hours of my time. Of the top 5 sites however, only Delicious was included in the submission schedule. So I'll have to do Reddit, StumbleUpon, Digg and Slashdot manually. Not such a daunting task considering the many long term benefits.

By  Stelios Perdios

Read more Social Media Marketing Tips at http://www.socialmediamarketingstepbystep.blogspot.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stelios_Perdios

Read More

Social Bookmarking: What is Social Bookmarking and How to Use It?

Read More

Creating a Facebook Ad? Implement These Call to Action Tips

Anybody with a little bit of time and a few dollars can create a Facebook ad and run a campaign. Not everybody has what it takes to create an ad that generates clicks and converts these people into buyers.
When creating a Facebook ad, regardless of your company size or industry, the call to action is one of the most important factors. If your ad is boring and unattractive, you can't expect it to receive a high click through rate. On the other hand, if you implement a killer call to action, you may be surprised at how much traffic you drive.

Here are three call to action tips that can take your mediocre ad and turn it into something much more powerful:

1. Use at least one "action" keyword. A Facebook page is full of content and images, so your ad has to stand out in the crowd. By using an action keyword, you are telling your audience that you have something special to offer. You are telling them to take action now if they want to take advantage.
   
   Some of the best action keywords include: save, discount, book now, sign up today, order now, try, and subscribe.
   
   You can build off of these, based on your particular industry and offering, to create an even more powerful message. For example, if you are pushing a weight loss product, you could use a phrase such as "lose weight today" or "lose weight faster."


2. Don't beat around the bush. You only have so much time to grab the attention of your audience and convince them to click through.
   
   Don't make people read through your ad to find out what you want them to do. Instead, the call to action should be displayed in a prominent and powerful location. If your audience can identify the call to action at a glance, while also understanding what it means to them, you have reached your goal.


3. Ask a question. This is one of the best ways to engage your audience. Not only does a question draw people in, but it can improve your click through rate as they will be interested in learning the answer.
   
   Note: if asking a question, keep it short and sweet.

With these three call to action tips, you will find yourself taking a different approach when creating Facebook ads. Subsequently, you may also find that your campaign is generating better results.

Peg McDermott is an award-winning marketing communications expert,Internet marketing specialist, and public speaker. Peg is the founder and president of COGO Interactive, an innovative Internet Marketing firm specializing in helping small to mid-sized businesses increase revenue and awareness by leveraging Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Optimization.

By Peg McDermott

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peg_McDermott

Read More

Top Ten Effective Ways to Market Yourself on Facebook

Read More

Brands Look to YouTube to Boost Sales

YouTube Stars Becoming Brand Ambassadors

As online viewing figures continue to rise, brands and advertisers are looking for new ways to reach their target audience. Their next port of call? YouTube.

 getchute.com

YouTube advertising on the whole is nothing new. I’m sure you've all been frustrated by seeing an advert at the start of a video you’re trying to watch, even more infuriating when that advert is longer than the video and won’t let you skip it! (I’m not bitter at all…)

The latest approach, however, puts a different spin on the tried and tested techniques. By collaborating with YouTube stars who have managed to accumulate a large following, brands are hoping to build a rapport with their customer base on a more personal level. The ambassadors are often content creators who focus on independent product reviews, a style that helps them to earn their viewers’ trust, as they will only endorse a product they have themselves tested and liked.

A major factor in why these people have amassed such large following is the genuine and personable feel you get from an independent YouTube star, as compared to a generic TV host. When a major YouTube star such as Zoella (recently appointed digital ambassador for the charity ‘Mind’) advises her viewers to invest in a particular product, they are more often than not taken on their word. They carry with them a certain level of credibility accrued from years of making videos, meaning their audience now are likely to have been following them for a while, and keep coming back because they enjoy, and importantly trust, the content.

thenextweb.com

When selecting a brand ambassador for your own business, getting the right representative is key. Make sure you’re hitting your target market, there’s no point in a make-up company teaming with a cooking channel, to make an obvious example. Once you've found your demographic, aim to find a YouTuber who is passionate about your product. They need to believe in what they’re selling or that edge they gain for being genuine with their audience is lost, and they may lose credibility as a result. Of course, that would be bad news for both your marketing campaign, and the star’s subscribers.

Done right, a brand ambassador can dramatically boost your business, but make sure you know the rules. Oreo recently had a YouTube marketing campaign banned for misleading viewers. The purely promotional videos were not labelled as such, and YouTube decreed that as it was unclear that the videos were paid for they had to be taken down. As long as you follow the guidelines however, a YouTuber on your side can be a big advantage.

By Sam Bonson

Article source: http://www.socialmediafrontiers.com/2015/01/youtube-stars-becoming-brand-ambassadors.html#.VK8WSPzlqos

Read More

6 Apps You Need to Stay Social in 2015

New social media platforms and social applications are released every day. With so many to choose from, it can be difficult to know which apps and platforms are right for your business. So, here is a brief list of social applications to watch in 2015:

1. Line

Messaging is a quick way to communicate with your employees and staff. Since most people are busy, important conversations need to happen quickly and Line allows one-on-one chatting as well as group messaging. Additionally, it offers video sharing, voice messaging and photo exchange. Not only can you and your employees connect with each other, but you can use this app's social features by following popular artists and brands. This is especially helpful if you are in advertising or marketing because you can keep up to date with what's trending.

2. Quicket

If your business requires you to travel frequently, Quicket is a one stop shopping tool. It enables you to book your ticket online and choose your seat all from your smartphone. This app also allows you to be social by checking-in via Facebook and even connecting with who is sitting next to you on the plane.

3. Space Tag

Available for free, Space Tag allows people to leave their digital mark wherever they go. Users can snap a photo, leave notes about their location and share on social networks. It is a way to communicate with others about a particular place, capture a memory and even make a digital diary. This is especially helpful for businesspeople who travel or for advertisers and marketers who need feedback on their client's location and business.

4. Rinbw

This app can be a fun way for your employees to bond and have fun with each other. Rinbow allows you to share 5-second videos to people in your contacts. Creating and sharing these videos may spur conversations, spark creativity and help build team unity. Friends can also "fruit" videos that they like, which will definitely make the person sending the clip smile.

5. Viber

Viber is another great app for the traveling businessperson. It not only allows you to call locally and internationally for free, but it lets you text and send photo messages, too. Without the fear of running up charges and fees for long-distance calling, Viber allows users to talk and connect without pricey repercussions. This also is helpful if your clients are out of the country or if you have a global workforce.

6. Heard

Heard is a social network that allows users to interact anonymously based on the content they prefer. Visitors can check out polls, predictions and posts from others and then interact with them as much (or as little) as they want. Heard also connects your content to the right audience, which is especially helpful if you are in content marketing, an upcoming blogger or publisher or a writer that is trying to get noticed. The app then tracks user reaction and other stats that are helpful to your business.

Social companies possess the potential to make their mark in 2015. If you want your business to stay social and be noticed, be sure to watch these social applications and let them help your business thrive.

Written by TeamSMF

Article source: http://www.socialmediafrontiers.com/2015/01/6-apps-you-need-to-stay-social-in-2015.html

Read More

Beyond Followers: How to Achieve True Engagement with Social Media

Click To Enlarge


Via Salesforce
Article source: http://blogs.salesforce.com/ca/2014/11/engagement-with-social-media.html

Read More

Can Social Media Intelligence Really Help Your Business?

The answer is yes! But first let's understand what social media intelligence is all about. It is essentially the information or data that is gathered from various social media sites relevant to a particular business (both intrusive and non-intrusive). For small and medium sized businesses, can be a beacon of light to guide them through various business related decisions.

The next step is to use the correct tools and knowledge to apply the available information in a relevant manner. Let's look at some of the ways the businesses can use this data to make their decisions.

Audience selection

Any kind of business would require knowing their audience thoroughly to execute the proper campaigns. Using the correct tools is the first step towards this. For example, through Facebook Insights, one can gather enough market intelligence along with social media intelligence to gain information like the age, gender and general preferences of a potential consumer. This information will, in turn, help the business to target the right kind of audience for their product and focus their campaigns accordingly.

A soft drinks company launched a drink in 2009 and soon saw that young men loved the product while women were having mixed opinion and were not particularly fond of it. They found that young girls and women expressed their disdain freely on social media sites. Through this market intelligence, they slowly found out that they were actually opposed to the TV ad promoting the product, and not the product itself. The company, thus, changed their campaign accordingly to better target the respective audience.
With proper social media intelligence at your disposal, you can also locate your audience and understand where the best engagement is coming from to make better decisions. For example, Hootsuite's link shortener, ow.ly, will allow you to track the number of clicks you are receiving from your links.

Understand audience sentiment

Another advantage that comes with gathering enough market intelligence from social media sites is to track what your consumers think about your product or service overall. This can be done on various platforms, be it Facebook or Twitter. Consumers, these days, resort to various digital platforms like these and express their opinions on the products they use. These opinions also become a point of decision for other consumers who wish to buy that product or utilize the service. Thus, to avoid losing any potential customer, businesses can screen these comments, likes, and opinions and take the necessary steps. This kind of information will provide a business with the proper guidance on how to plan its next move to provide better service.

Engaging the audience

Creating a successful business is all about making the client feel valued. And nothing does it better than putting in a personal touch. With the proper social media intelligence at your disposal, you can arrange for events that will not only promote your product, but also give you an idea as to which section of the audience to target next. Social media intelligence helps you identify the sort of events that are likely to engage the highest number of customers- be it a poll, or a giveaway, or some sort of contest. A case in point is the recent launch of smartphones by Xiaomi. The brand, which is virtually unknown outside of China, managed to sell a few million devices in just a few months by the simple method of promoting the product via social media and making it mandatory for customers to register to obtain the product. Not only did it help generate a huge amount of publicity, it also made it possible for the company to estimate beforehand the sort of figures it was looking at.
Thus, social media intelligence is the way to go for any business that aims at targeting the right audience. After all, it is publicity that sells the product. With the right sort of intelligence at your disposal, you will know just how to create the right sort of noises.

by Reeya Bose

Article source: http://goarticles.com/article/Can-Social-Media-Intelligence-Really-Help-Your-Business/9929776/

If you would like to master social media marketing for your business, collect 4 free ebooks at: www.methodsocialmedia.com 

Read More

The Biggest Change

Post by John Assaraf.

Read More

Using Social Media To Make Official Communication Informal

Social Media is a buzz word that everyone wants the opportunity of being a part. But many people are very skeptical on the impression it may have on a serious customer about the positioning and image of a business. Social Media Websites are often seen as informal and unofficial hangouts for people and businesses alike. In the recent past more businesses are seeing social media as a tool to reach out to their target market where they are most likely to be noticed. This article highlights some ways in which businesses use social media in an official capacity, yet maintaining a friendly and informal approach.

Customer Support



We know many businesses who use Twitter and Facebook to provide customers with constant updates about their service. A world famous DNS and Proxy service uses Twitter to Report Service Outages across their global data centers. The company posts frequent tweets about maintenance and migration activities and also posts brief updates on server faults and restoration. Some Hardware and Laptop manufacturers now offer technical support on Social Media websites. They handle customer grievances and also provide contact details of their nearest service centers through tweets or posts. Many banks and financial institutions constantly provide safety tips and security reminders to their customers. While these reminders can be annoying for some, the constant nagging may really help people to take security of their account seriously. Although this type of support maybe limited only to forwarding the complaint to the concerned technical team, it offers the customer a quick and easy way to get support by short circuiting a lengthy support process. This can be pleasing for the customer, but can be quite a task for the company to manage.

New Product Launches



A famous Automobile Manufacturer has started posting inside updates and a sneak preview of their latest designer cars. In past years they used to "leak" this information only to a few car magazines which demanded a high price which only a few could afford. Running a teaser campaign for a new product can be done best on social networks, especially due to their brevity and instant nature. You can slowly release bit by bit of the campaign and let it unfold instantly. The beauty of it is that you will be able to get instant feedback about the response and how well it has been received so that you can plan your next campaign or next revelation accordingly. This can also be detrimental to your image if you run a lousy campaign or do a shabby job. You will immediately know whether your campaign was a success or a failure. This is something only possible with social media. In the past many companies have successfully created a pre-launch hype on social media to attract the attention of potential customers.

Informal Banter

Many companies indulge in small talk and entertain inquisitive visitors to their pages or feeds to keep

their page active and buzzing. While a bit of such informal talk is fine, when businesses go on a tangent on Social Media, it can get quite intolerable for the people following or subscribing to their updates. Sharing a joke or running a riddle campaign can be quite interesting and may generate a lot of publicity for your business if done well.

Educative Material

Pushing out educative material or academically interesting content can give your business a well needed boost. It not only creates more content for search engines to index, but it also shows your customers and prospective clients how much of relevant knowledge you have about your business. Almost all large corporations either have a YouTube Channel, or Blog or Facebook Page or Twitter Feed constantly buzzing with useful information which is aimed at catching the eye of a potential customer.

By By Alex H D 

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Using-Social-Media-To-Make-Official-Communication-Informal&id=8849669

Read More