TwitterToolsReviews |
- 3 Ways to Use Google+ to Increase Search Rankings
- How to Use Twitter for Business and Marketing
- SocialBro Desktop (Chrome edition)
- How a Winery Uses Social Media to Increase Sales and Brand Loyalty
- Submit Your Program to Top Affiliate Directories
- 6 Ways to Use Embedded Tweets to Help Your Business
- Google+ Hangouts: What Marketers Need to Know to Get Started
- 7 Ways to Grow Your Blog With Pinterest
- Cheer Up and Don’t Be Such a Debbie Downer
- 4 Ways #Marketers Can Use Facebook #Hashtags
| 3 Ways to Use Google+ to Increase Search Rankings Posted: 15 Mar 2014 01:34 AM PDT By James Thomas
Did you know your Google+ page and profile could help? Google+ can help you increase search rankings for your website, but you have to take the time to optimize your page, profile and content. This article shows you three ways you can maximize your Google+ presence and tells you why that's important for SEO. Why Google+ for search?Google+ isn't just another social media platform; it's a powerful weapon in your SEO arsenal. Moz's recent Future of Search Report showed that Google +1s had the highest correlation with high website SEO rankings, just after backlinks.  SEO ranking correlations. Image source: The Future of Search: 2013 Search Engine Ranking Factors Released, by Moz. The reason Google+ is an SEO goldmine is that Google+ links are DoFollow links, which means they pass link equity, or link juice, on to the website you share. If you're sharing your website, you're getting the link juice. DoFollow links are a core building block of SEO. They work in conjunction with PageRank, TrustRank and link context to determine how you rank for specific keywords. #1: Optimizing Your Google+ Page for Search RankingSpending a little time to optimize your information can reap big rewards. With five easy tweaks to your Google+ business page and personal profile, you can build a strong foundation for SEO success. SEO Title The SEO title is the name of your Google+ business page (be sure you're using your company name here). Avoid trying to stuff any keywords into the SEO title—it's unprofessional and has little SEO value. Custom Page URL Google+ recently rolled out the Custom URL feature. This is great news for companies that want to include cleaner links in their marketing. Your new customized URL looks like this: https://plus.google.com/+YourCompanyName. To set your custom Google+ page or profile URL:
Below you can see where I've customized the URL for my personal Google+ page to JamesThomasUK.  Google+ Links section. SEO Meta Description The SEO meta description for your page combines your tagline and the first two sentences of your introduction. You only get 160 characters, so make them count.  Google+ Intro section. To edit your meta description or tagline, go to your Google+ business page and follow these instructions:
It's smart to include one or two of your target SEO keywords in your description. Links Google+ pages are born with a high page rank, which is great because it means links you share from your Google+ page or profile carry weight. To get the most out of your Google+ profile, be sure you've completed your backlink profile. Your backlink profile is where you link to all of your other social media profiles, as well as to a relevant landing page on your website.  You can view your backlink profile in Google Webmaster Tools under Search Traffic. To link to your other social profiles:
Nice and easy. Google+ Authorship Google+ authorship is an important ranking factor and one that you may not know about. Authorship tags each piece of content you create and lets Google know you created it. Without Google+ authorship, you're losing potential link juice and SEO. Eric Schmidt, author of The New Digital Age, says, "Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification…" There are two ways to set up Google+ authorship to "claim" your own content:
If you need more help, Google has provided a more detailed guide in the Support section of Google Webmaster Tools. The image below shows what a correct Google+ authorship looks like. You can see that my picture and Google+ information are included next to my name.  Google+ authorship information as it appears in search engine results. #2: Posting ContentOnce you've optimized your Google+ page and profile and correctly set up authorship, you're ready to start posting content. This is the quickest and easiest way to build a solid following on Google+ because at the end of the day, content is still king.  The Anatomy of A Perfect Google+ Post. Image source: Dustn.tv. When posting content to your Google+ profile or page, follow these guidelines:
 Google+ post setup. #3: Connecting the DotsNow it's time to pull all of your efforts together and start tracking your results. You can track every piece of Google+ content you distribute or just a chosen few. Tracking the content you share on Google+ allows you to correlate SEO gains and ranking increases against Google +1s and other social signals. An easy way to keep an eye on what's working and what's not is to assign each Google+ link a custom URL, then review its stats weekly in Google Analytics. To set up a custom URL, open Google URL Builder in a new tab and complete the information. Here's an overview of each section and what you should type in:
When you've completed the URL Builder form, click Submit and you'll get your appended URL. If you like, you can use a URL shortener like bit.ly to make it look cleaner. Use Google+ to increase your SEO ranking. With so many changes in the Google search algorithm, it's important to keep up with what matters—and right now, Google+ matters. Taking the time to optimize your page and profile, share interesting content and track your efforts puts you on the path to higher SEO rankings. What do you think? Have you seen value from your company's Google+ page? Share your experience in the comments! This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. The post 3 Ways to Use Google+ to Increase Search Rankings appeared first on Make Money Online With Twitter Marketing. |
| How to Use Twitter for Business and Marketing Posted: 15 Mar 2014 01:14 AM PDT Is Twitter a part of your social media marketing? Or have you let your Twitter marketing drop off lately? In any case, with the latest Twitter updates, trends in multi-screen usage and real-time marketing, you'll likely want to take a fresh look at what Twitter has to offer. Here's a checklist of everything your business needs to do to get on (or back on) Twitter and start seeing great results. About TwitterTwitter is a short message communication tool that allows you to send out messages (tweets) up to 140 characters long to people who subscribe to you (followers). Your tweets can include a link to any web content (blog post, website page, PDF document, etc.) or a photograph or video. If a picture is worth a thousand words, adding an image to a tweet greatly expands what you can share to beyond the 140-character limit for tweets. People follow (subscribe) to your Twitter account, and you follow other people. This allows you to read, reply to and easily share their tweets with your followers (retweet). How Twitter Is UniqueIn the social media world, Twitter falls into the category of microblogging tools because of the short, disconnected messages it distributes. Other microblogging tools include Tumblr, FriendFeed and Plurk. Twitter shares some features with the most common social media tools (Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube). However, the differences really define Twitter.
Now let's dive into how you can use Twitter for your business. Step #1: Present Your BrandYour Twitter account and profile are the foundation of your Twitter experience. It's your chance to tell your business story to the Twitter community. It is important that your Twitter presence have the same look and feel as your other online tools. This helps people identify your business and builds trust.Choose an account name and images consistent with your other online presences and your brand. Choose Your Twitter Username Nothing expresses your brand on Twitter more than your account username. This name appears next to all of your tweets, and is how people identify you on Twitter.  An example of a small business with a Twitter username that matches their website domain. Choose between your personal name (best for professional individuals) and your business name. Avoid using punctuation to keep your name easy to type on mobile devices. If your exact business name is not available, choose a similar name for consistency. Profile Images Twitter uses two different images to represent your account. It's important that you take advantage of both of these images to tell your business story. You upload these images under Profile in your account settings. Your Twitter profile photo is a square photo that appears next to every tweet you send. You can use either your company logo or your headshot for your profile photo.  An example of a Twitter user with a headshot for his profile picture. Note: Many small businesses use their business name for the account and a personal photo for the profile photo. This adds a personal touch to your Twitter account. Your Twitter profile header is a large background photo where you can tell a story about your business. Similar to the Facebook cover photo, your header photo appears at the top of your profile page.  An example of a header photograph that tells the brand's story. You can also customize the background that people see when they visit your Twitter account. You can create a graphic file so it matches your business branding. You upload this image under Design in your profile settings.  Example of a small business user who has updated his Twitter background with his company branding. Step #2: Build a Strong FoundationIt's important that you complete your Twitter account profile completely. Each feature gives more details about your business that contribute to your business story. Don't miss these three important features under Profile in your account settings.  The location, website and bio portions of your profile provide important information about your business to other Twitter users.
Step #3: Start Following PeopleWhen you follow another Twitter user, you subscribe to read what they share. So be selective about whom you follow, especially at first. To follow a user, you find their user profile and click on the Follow button.  One simple way to follow new people is to locate their profile and click the Follow button. Twitter has strict rules about what they call aggressive following and aggressive following churn, so be careful and take it slow. You don't want to get your account suspended in your first week because of suspicious activity. Note: Your Twitter experience is defined by whom you follow, not by who follows you. Pay attention to your follow choices to give yourself a great Twitter experience. In general, start following people in these categories:
Twitter can help you find people you know by scanning your email address book.  Use the Find Friends menu option on the Discover page to have Twitter scan your email address book for people you know on Twitter. While you are out following people, you may notice that people are starting to follow you. Don't worry if you don't know these people. Stay focused on whom you follow for now. Step #4: Start TalkingTalking on Twitter is different from every other social media site. It's a fast-paced smorgasbord of ideas and sentence fragments. It's hectic, but it's also fun. Give yourself a little time to get your feet wet. Listen to others. Jump in when you feel comfortable. Start talking as you get your bearings. In general, there are five types of Twitter messages:
Step #5: Talk SmarterAfter you master the five types of tweets, you are ready to attack the big question: What should I talk about on Twitter? For every business, the answer is different. In general, you want to find the sweet spot between what your target audience wants to hear and things that promote your business. For many businesses, the answer is to focus on how your products and services benefit your customers. Give people useful information and answer their questions, and they will consider you a valuable member of their community. That's an important first step to winning a new customer. There's a real art to writing a headline-style message on Twitter. Experiment with different ways to say the same thing, and see what gets the most response. With only 140 characters, it's important that every word pull its weight in your messages. Over time, the quality of what you share will help you grow a strong Twitter following. Now, you are ready to take a step back and come up with a Twitter communication plan. Your plan focuses your Twitter conversation on topics designed to draw in potential customers and publish your tweets at the times you are most likely to engage people. Step #6: Drive Traffic to Your Website and BlogTwitter is a great tool for driving traffic to your website and blog. To do this, you create a tweet around a link, writing a message that compels people to click to learn more.  Write a compelling headline-style message to get people to click on the link in your tweet. Because space is at a premium in a tweet, there isn't room to post the entire web address. That's why all of the Twitter tools allow you to shorten your web addresses using a URL shortener.  When you paste a web address into a tweet, Twitter automatically shortens it, giving you more space for your message. When you use Twitter.com, the Twitter URL shortener uses just 20 characters for your web address, no matter how long the actual web address. Step #7: Connect Your Online PresenceNow that you have Twitter rolling along, it's time to integrate it into your overall online business presence. There are three ways to do this:
Another way you can move the Twitter conversation to your blog or website is by embedding a tweet. This allows you to select any tweet and insert it into a blog post, for example. By embedding the tweet, you allow people who visit your blog post to jump into the Twitter conversation.  Hover over any tweet you want to embed, click on the More link that becomes visible and choose Embed Tweet. Here's how an embedded tweet looks: Step #8: Get Mobile With TwitterNearly every cell phone can connect you with your Twitter audience.
 The Twitter app on the iPhone allows you to perform nearly every Twitter activity from your phone that you can do on Twitter.com. Twitter allows you to set up push notifications to your smartphone so you know when selected activities happen on Twitter:
With Twitter, a speedy response is best, and push notifications make it easy for you to know when things are happening for you on Twitter. Step #9: Share Photographs in Your TweetsPeople love to look at pictures, so include photographs in your tweets whenever possible. You don't have to be a professional photographer or have a fancy camera. All you need is a smartphone. You can share your photograph from your desktop on Twitter.com or from the Twitter app on your mobile phone. Get into the habit of taking photos of your business activities that you can share with your Twitter community. Twitter integrates into your smartphone's camera roll. This allows you to easily share photos you have taken with your Twitter followers.  You can tweet directly from the photos stored on your smartphone, as shown here on an iPhone. Twitter adds the photo to your tweet and makes it available for everyone to see.  Click on View photo to see the attached photo with any tweet.  A tweet with a photo allows your followers to view the photo within their tweet timeline. Twitter adds every photo you share to a photo (and video) gallery. The first six appear on your profile page. Take advantage of this feature to share pictures that tell your business story.  Twitter shares the six most recent photos or videos you share in the gallery on your profile page. Step #10: Add Video to Your Twitter TimelineVideo is another powerful way to tell people about your business. You can add videos to your Twitter timeline, but you cannot add them directly from Twitter. You must first upload them to another service like YouTube, and then link to them in your tweet.  Here's a tweet with a video inserted by linking to YouTube. Click View media to open the video inside Twitter. When a tweet contains a link to a video, Twitter allows you to play the video within the tweet. Click on View media to open the video player.  Twitter allows you to play videos without leaving the platform. Recently, Twitter launched a new video service called Vine that allows you to take short, 6-second videos from the Vine app and play them on an endless loop inside Twitter.  Click View media to view an attached Vine video. Like other videos, simply click View media to start playing the Vine video attached to a tweet.  A tweet with a Vine video. Twitter plays the video on an endless loop. Twitter also adds your Vine videos to your profile gallery. If you are not sure how your business can take advantage of this exciting new information-sharing tool, check out these examples of how businesses are using Vine to tell their story. Step #11: Organize Your Followers Into Conversation ListsAs you follow more people, it can be challenging to focus on the information coming from specific people and groups. That's where Twitter lists come in. A Twitter list allows you to separate the Twitter accounts you follow into groups. You might create separate lists for:
A list allows you to see the tweets from the list members as a separate Twitter timeline. This distinguishes them from the crowd so you can pay attention to what these people say. You can also share tweets from a list on your website using a widget (explained in this article). You can organize your lists in any way that helps you. You can create one or many lists. You can also make your lists public or private.
To review the public lists created by any Twitter user, display their profile page. Then click Lists in the left menu. Their public lists appear in the right column.  Here's a Twitter account with many public lists. Click on Lists on the left to see their public lists in the main column. To view the tweet timeline for the members of a list, click on the list name.  Here's an example of a Twitter timeline for people contained in a public list called SmallBiz Most Influential created by Twitter user D&B Credibility. To add someone to a list, display his or her profile. Click the gear icon and choose add or remove from lists. Then check or uncheck them from your list of Twitter lists.  You can add any person to your lists, even if you don't follow him or her. Step #12: Expand Your Audience With HashtagsMost people's Twitter experience is limited to the people they follow. It's always a good idea to keep looking for new, fresh voices to follow to keep expanding your online conversations. There are two great ways to expand your Twitter audience beyond your circle. Hashtags appear in tweets to identify a common topic or theme. They use the pound (or hash) sign followed by a unique identifier. For example:
Scroll through your timeline to spot tweets with a hashtag.  An example of a tweet with a #GetGlue hashtag. When you see a tweet with a hashtag, click on the hashtag to see a list of all tweets that include the same hashtag. You will see tweets from people you do not follow.  When you click on a hashtag or do a search on it, you get a list of tweets from all Twitter accounts that use the hashtag. If you attend a conference, the conference may ask all of the attendees to include the conference hashtag in their tweets. This way, hashtags pull together the conference tweets into one huge conversation, even though you may not be following all of those people. You can create a hashtag unique for your business and use it in your marketing to help people find your company and the conversations around it. In fact, hashtags are a great way to use Twitter for customer service and support. Step #13: Pinpoint Potential Local CustomersPeople often think that social media allows you to connect with people outside of your local geography. And while that is true, one of the great strengths of Twitter is the ability to focus on people in your own backyard. Most businesses need local customers. You can use Twitter to help you find potential customers who live and work near your business. Use Twitter Advanced Search to find people near your location.  Use the Advanced Search feature to find people by city and zip code. Use the Places feature to identify your location by city or zip code. Twitter displays a list of people who are tweeting near that location.  An example of a local search for "Tempe, Arizona" and the list of tweets in that area. Use this tweet timeline to find people who may be potential customers. You can follow them or add them to a potential local customer list. It's the first step to engaging them in conversation. Take Your Twitter Use for Business to the Next LevelAfter you master these Twitter skills, there are still more ways you can use Twitter to meet your business goals. Here are a few of them to inspire you.
Your Turn Use these suggestions to launch (or relaunch) your business's Twitter presence. What do you think? Are you ready to reboot your Twitter experience? Are you ready to jump into the Twitter pool? Share your experience and "ah-ha!" moments here with us. The post How to Use Twitter for Business and Marketing appeared first on TwitterToolsReviews. The post How to Use Twitter for Business and Marketing appeared first on GrowYourTwitterNetwork. The post How to Use Twitter for Business and Marketing appeared first on Make Money Online With Twitter Marketing. |
| SocialBro Desktop (Chrome edition) Posted: 15 Mar 2014 12:57 AM PDT It’s easy to be overwhelmed by Twitter, especially when you’re trying to use the micro-blogging service for business purposes. Who should I follow? How do I get more people to follow me? When should I tweet? Where do I start? These are just a few of the questions that Twitter users often have—and they are among the ones that SocialBro tries to answer. This comprehensive Twitter management tool offers plenty of features to help you make the most of Twitter, but it, too, can be overwhelming—and its free edition is limited.
 It’s all a bit confusing at first, but SocialBro’s tools are easy to use and after some time playing around with them, you can see just how useful they are. The graph displaying your Twitter community updates quickly as you adjust the sliders, refining the results, and allowing you to learn more about the people with whom you interact on Twitter. Additional features include an analysis of the best time to Tweet. But while SocialBro allows you to compose Tweets, you can only post them immediately; it doesn’t allow you to schedule them. For that, it integrates with Buffer. You also can use SocialBro to discover other Twitter users you might want to follow, but I found this tool pretty limited—at least in the free version of SocialBro. It simply presented me with a list of the most popular Twitter users, such as Justin Bieber, rather than allowing me to search by influence—something only available in the paid editions of SocialBro. That’s not the only feature missing from the free version of SocialBro. Many of the service’s best features, such as the ability to analyze a competitive Twitter account, are only available in the paid versions—something SocialBro seems intent on reminding you about. The app lists features that are only available to paid customers, and then urges you to upgrade when you try to use them. SocialBro’s paid versions do offer a comprehensive set of Twitter management and analysis tools, but the free version is no slouch. It offers a handy way to learn more about your Twitter community, and its slick interface is impressive. I just wish the free version worked reliably outside of Chrome, and that it learned to appreciate just how much it does have to offer, rather than reminding me of what it doesn’t. Note: The Download button takes you to the Chrome Web store, where you can install the latest version directly into your Chrome browser. The post SocialBro Desktop (Chrome edition) appeared first on Make Money Online With Twitter Marketing. |
| How a Winery Uses Social Media to Increase Sales and Brand Loyalty Posted: 15 Mar 2014 12:37 AM PDT By Louise Julig
Whitehall Lane, a 20-year-old Napa Valley winery run by the Leonardini family, has hit on a winning social media formula that pays dividends in both increased sales and brand loyalty. Wineries face special challenges in promoting their business on social media. The federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, known as the TTB, considers social media "advertising," and regulates what wineries can do. The regulations primarily affect Whitehall Lane in two different ways. They cannot run contests that give away wine, and they must monitor user-generated content for anything that might promote irresponsible drinking. "We don't fool around with the TTB regulations," said Katie Leonardini, direct sales manager for Whitehall Lane. But that hasn't stopped them from successfully using social media to grow a loyal fan base outside the tasting room. This in turn has increased both wine club membership and direct sales. Here's how they do it.  Whitehall Lane Winery uses Instagram as one way to foster brand loyalty. Organization: Whitehall Lane Winery Social Media Handles & Stats Highlights
Whitehall Lane started using Facebook and Twitter in 2009. They've since expanded onto Instagram, Pinterest and a blog within the last year and a half. By keeping an eye on their brand while experimenting through trial and error, they've hit on a social media formula that reaches beyond the tasting room by: 1) partnering with complementary brands, 2) rewarding loyal fans and 3) educating and telling stories vs. selling. Partnering With Complementary BrandsContests and giveaways are standard tactics on social media for retail brands. But TTB regulations prohibit wineries from giving away alcohol. Whitehall Lane has overcome this challenge through some creative thinking. Leonardini identifies complementary brands that fit with their objectives for contests. The winery has given away wine glasses and cookbooks, for example. They've also done giveaways with Whitehall Lane estate olive oil.  Whitehall Lane partnered with Govino glasses for this Instagram contest.  Finding complementary brands is a way for wineries to do giveaways. Whitehall Lane also retweets content on Twitter and likes Instagram photos of complementary brands that promote tourism in Napa Valley.  Whitehall Lane liked this photo on the Instagram feed of a Napa Valley inn. Rewarding Loyal FansWhitehall Lane does not run contests on social media to get new followers. They run them to reward existing fans. "It's never a refer-a-friend type of contest," said Leonardini. They would rather use contests to collect email addresses of current fans for their database than inflate follower numbers with people who aren't true fans of their brand. Whitehall Lane also does not advertise on Facebook.  Whitehall Lane rewards fans with special promos and contests. "All of our fans are genuine," said Leonardini. "Whitehall Lane isn't about hundreds of thousands of fans, it's more about the quality and the conversation," she said. The winery also rewards fans informally by liking their photos on Instagram and giving shout-outs on Facebook and Twitter. In return, fans naturally share Whitehall Lane content.  Whitehall Lane reposted this fan’s Instagram photo to their own feed.  Reposting and liking Instagram photos informally rewards fans.  Whitehall Lane gives shout-outs to fans on their Facebook page. "We've found that when you have genuine, authentic followers, you don't even have to ask them to RT or share your posting, because they'll do it on their own," said Leonardini.  Whitehall Lane finds that fans naturally share content that resonates with them. Their focus on growing a fan base organically has an added benefit—they almost never have to remove user posts or comments for spam or encouraging alcohol abuse. This makes it much easier to comply with TTB regulations. Educating and Telling Stories vs. SellingWhen Whitehall Lane first started using Twitter, they would search for people who were asking which Napa Valley wineries to go to or who had checked in at another winery. They would then tweet with a 2-for-1 offer to come in to their tasting room. It did bring in traffic. "But they were people looking for free tastings," Leonardini said. Although numbers in the tasting room went up, sales did not follow. They decided to change their Twitter strategy. Now the winery uses Twitter primarily to educate fans about food and wine pairings and share facts about Napa Valley and winemaking. The interaction they receive tells them this is what their followers want.  Whitehall Lane finds that educational tweets are what their followers want. "When we tweet something that's educational, we get an average of four to seven retweets," said Abbi Whitaker of the Abbi Agency, a public-relations firm that works with Whitehall Lane.  Educational tweets get more retweets and favorites than promotional ones. The winery has also started a blog where they post recipes, updates from the winemaker and harvest notes. Though blog subscribers are fewer than they would like right now, they're focusing on consistency and quality content and believe the numbers will follow. "We're not just going to buy a list and shoot out our blog to them," said Leonardini. "We want it to grow because people want to [subscribe]." Results: Successful Wine Dinners and Increased Wine Club SalesSubscribers to Whitehall Lane's wine club get three to four shipments of wine a year; the club is a big part of the winery's business. But they were getting calls from subscribers, often after three shipments, asking to cancel. When asked why, subscribers would often say they loved the wine, but they belonged to three wine clubs and had to let one go. "We've been able to greatly reduce that [problem] because of social media," Leonardini said. Whitehall lane encourages club members to follow them on social media. "Even though they live in North Carolina or Nebraska, they get the feeling that they're still here in touch with us, and our retention rate has changed dramatically," said Leonardini.  Whitehall Lane uses social media to make wine club members feel connected. The winery also partners with fine restaurants across the country to put on wine dinners. The dinners are not a new idea. What's new is the response they now get. Because of their social media following, restaurants now approach them about helping to promote the wine dinners. RSVPs are now up to the point that the dinners sell out—a win-win for the restaurants and the winery. "Wine sales at these dinner events now exceed a busy Saturday in the tasting room during the high season," Leonardini said. In addition, the number of wine club signups at the dinners has increased dramatically. "It's a whole new outlet for us," said Leonardini. "Previously the only venue to sign up club members was through the tasting room, but now we can sign them up at these dinners throughout the country." Over to You Despite federal advertising regulations, Whitehall Lane has found a way to successfully use social media with tangible results to their bottom line. What do you think? Is your business in a regulated industry? How have you used social media to increase brand loyalty and sales? Include your comments and questions below. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends:
The post How a Winery Uses Social Media to Increase Sales and Brand Loyalty appeared first on Make Money Online With Twitter Marketing. |
| Submit Your Program to Top Affiliate Directories Posted: 15 Mar 2014 12:10 AM PDT Listing your Affiliate Program in the top affiliate directories is a good way to start recruiting serious and high-performing affiliates. To help speed up the submission process for you, Affiliate Software HQ has created an exclusive listing of the top 15 affiliate program directories. As far as we know, this is the only one available which is listed in order of popularity, to ensure that you know you are submitting to the top affiliate directories first. (Popularity has been determined based on Alexa ranking.) Another unique time-saving feature of our list is that the links take directly to the directories' sign-up pages. If you have limited time, submit to the top 5 for now or use one of the time-serving tools listed at the bottom of the page. Whatever you do, don't waste your precious time manually submitting to the dozens of affiliate directories on the web that no one ever visits. Often there are some very good reasons why no one visits them – they are spam sites that you don't want backlinks from. Stick to this list. The Web's Top Affiliate Directories (in order of popularity) AssociatePrograms.com AffiliateScout AffiliateSeeking.com AffiliateTips.com (Note: This site is a general directory but also has a focus on gaming affiliate programs) AffiliateRanker.com AffiliateFirst.com 100 Best Affiliate Programs Top-Affiliate.com WhichAffiliate.com AffiliatesDirectory.com WebmasterAffiliates.net AffiliateGuide.com SponsorDirectory.com AffiliateHangout.com Refer-me.com e-sponsors.ws For more tips on find affiliates, visit our 5-Step Guide to Affiliate Recruitment. Tools to save you time spent submitting to Affiliate Directories: Affiliate Directory Submitter has automated and semi-automated features that will allow you to submit to dozens of affiliate directories yourself with just a few minutes of active work. It costs a one-time fee of $97 and is backed up by an 8-week Money-Back Guarantee (and since the payment is through Clickbank, that really means something). Check out Affiliate Directory Submitter here. Affiliate Announcement will submit to the 100 top directories for you, and provide some other valuable services, such as: • Affiliate program review to ensure the program meets all submission policies • A comprehensive submission report • Copy writing of your affiliate program description • Category keyword research and selection • Program listing optimization • Link testing • A review of your affiliate sign-up page and agreement for compliance with directory guidelines At $295 it's a bigger investment and for that reason, I would not recommend it in most cases. But it still seems like good value for someone who really wants super-effective affiliate directory listings, and is not able to do achieve this alone. Check out Affiliate Announcement here. Get more tips for finding affiliates. The post Submit Your Program to Top Affiliate Directories appeared first on Make Money Online With Twitter Marketing. |
| 6 Ways to Use Embedded Tweets to Help Your Business Posted: 14 Mar 2014 11:48 PM PDT By Kristi Hines
Do you want to show off your customer's kind words about your business? Since Twitter allows the ability to embed tweets on websites, people have discovered lots of creative ways to use them. In this post, I'll show you six ways to use embedded tweets to enhance your content, drive engagement and establish social proof. How to Embed a TweetFrom sharing spontaneous customer testimonials to increasing traffic and promoting events, embedded tweets can capitalize on or support engagement with your brand in a number of ways. Before we get started, let's quickly review how to embed a tweet on your website. When you find a tweet you want to embed on your website, hover over that tweet and click on the More link. Then you should see an Embed Tweet option.  Finding the Embed Tweet option on Twitter. When you click on Embed Tweet, you are prompted to copy the sharing code for the tweet.  Copying the embed code for a tweet. Then you paste the embed code in your website. If your site is on WordPress, use the HTML/Text editor. When you save or publish, you have a live, interactive tweet on your website.
Yes, it's that simple! Now, let's look at some ways to use embedded tweets. Here are some creative applications of embedded tweets: #1: Build Your Reputation With Customer TestimonialsThis is one of my favorite ways to use embedded tweets. For some businesses, it's tough to get fans to write personal or product recommendations on LinkedIn, send testimonials via email or otherwise profess their respect for a brand in long form. On Twitter, however, you generally find people who will take a quick moment to share their good experiences.  Twitter testimonial search for “I received great service.” Find potential testimonials by looking through mentions of your @username and a Twitter search of your business name or product. As you browse through your mentions, save the best tweets about your business by marking them as favorites.  Testimonial tweet saved as a favorite. Once you find enough good mentions, add them to an existing or new testimonials page on your website, or scatter them in random places where you need social proof, like a sales page! #2: Back Up Your StatementsDon't let readers of your content wonder whether you made something up. Use embeddable tweets to cite sources and quotes. For example, if I were to write that having errors on your website that affect smartphone users may hurt your rankings in mobile search, you may wonder where I got that information. But if I included this…
Then, you would know how I came to that conclusion. As a writer, tweets from a reputable source help you quickly solidify content. And as a reader, they help you move from "Wait, that can't be true." to "What should I do about this?" #3: Encourage Retweets of Your MediaInstead of just embedding a video or SlideShare presentation directly on your webpage, why not share that content on Twitter and then embed the tweet with the media in it?
This way, people not only see the content on your site, but it's also easy for them to retweet it to their audience or reply to you with a comment. #4: Increase Website Traffic With a Tweet ChatWant to host a small Twitter chat or party on your own website to increase overall site traffic or page visits? Take embedded tweets a little further and add an embedded widget. For example, let's say you want to have a Twitter chat with the hashtag #socialmedia. Go to Twitter and search for #socialmedia. Then, change the filtering to All tweets, click on the settings wheel icon, and select Embed this search.  Embedding search results for a hashtag. When you configure your widget, be sure to turn safe search mode on to keep the conversation PG.  Configuring your embedded tweets widget. Now, just copy the code and add it to your webpage. You're all set to invite people to come have a Twitter chat on your website.  Embedded tweet widget on a website. Note that the refresh rate on these widgets is not very speedy, so you would only want to do this with a slow chat and not something insanely popular or fast-moving. #5: Create Twitter Engagement for Blog PostsWant to get more Twitter engagement and perhaps some extra tweets for your blog content? Search Twitter for the URL of one of your blog posts.  Search results for a blog post URL. Change the filtering to All, and then click the settings wheel icon to embed the search. Then, embed it somewhere in your blog post. Tweets about "http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/embedded-twitter-posts/" Right below the widget, tell users how they can click on the area to compose a new tweet, add a comment about the post and then include the link so their tweet also shows up in the widget. The result? A new way for people to engage with your content and more tweets for your post! Go ahead and try it here. Compose a new tweet in the widget above, copy the URL to this post (http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/embedded-twitter-posts/) and paste it into the tweet with a comment! #6: Promote Your EventWhether you're marketing an upcoming event or showing off tweets from an event in progress, an embeddable tweet widget on your website does wonders for getting visitors excited. See this in action in the margin of the Social Media Success Summit page! One Thing to Consider… When using tweet widgets on your website, remember that any tweet containing those items is displayed. While Twitter removes any profanity or sensitive information, it won't necessarily remove spam or negative responses. So you definitely want to scroll through tweets to see what people are saying before you add them to your website, and continue to evaluate embedded tweets on an ongoing basis. What do you think? Do you use embedded tweets and tweet widgets? How do you apply them to your website? Please share in the comments section below! This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends:
The post 6 Ways to Use Embedded Tweets to Help Your Business appeared first on Make Money Online With Twitter Marketing. |
| Google+ Hangouts: What Marketers Need to Know to Get Started Posted: 14 Mar 2014 11:29 PM PDT By Michael Stelzner
Are you wondering how hangouts can help your business? To learn how to get started with Google+ hangouts, I interview Brandee Sweesy for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast. More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing. The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting). In this episode, I interview Brandee Sweesy, who is a Google+ hangouts marketing expert. For the last 20 years she has been helping entrepreneurs grow a following with video. Brandee shares how you can use hangouts to promote your content. You'll learn the different techniques to help brand your hangouts and the best ways to promote attendance. Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below! Listen NowPodcast: Play in new window | Download You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, Stitcher or Blackberry. Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show: Google+ Hangouts MarketingWhat is a Google+ hangout? Brandee states that first of all, it's free. Google describes it as a unification of their video, chats and messenger service all in one place. It was a replacement for Google talk and Google chat. Hangouts can either be private or you can stream live to your YouTube channel with Hangouts on Air.  Brandee Sweesy’s YouTube channel. Brandee explains that if you're a consultant or coach, you can use hangouts like you would Skype. The quality of the video is amazing. If you want to record your private hangout sessions, then you will have to use Camtasia or ScreenFlow. These hangouts are great to use for team meetings, consulting, coaching or when you privately advise people. With a hangout on air, you can host yourself and up to nine other people. You can all be on the video at the same time, where you can chat and give a presentation. This can be done with private hangouts and hangouts on air. You'll discover why you need to keep control of the sound-activated screen and what you need to do.  You can control who is in the larger screen. Hangouts on air stream live to your YouTube channel. It's linked to your Google+ page. If you have a Google+ profile or a Google+ business page, you link it to your YouTube channel. You need to have your YouTube channel verified for uploads of more than 15 minutes and most hangouts run longer than that. The great advantage when you stream live to your YouTube channel is that at the end of the broadcast, you have unlimited YouTube content. You'll find out what you need to add once you have finished the live stream to be able to optimize your video marketing. When you stream live, it also runs on your Google+ profile page at the same time. Once you start a hangout on air, you can take the embed codes and share them on a Facebook tab, website or blog post. You can then direct people to watch it there.  Share the embed code on Facebook to announce that you are live on air. There's also a Hangouts on Air page that lists all of the hangouts that are currently on air. Listen to the show to learn about how you should name your hangouts to grab people's attention. How does a hangout differ from a webinar? Brandee first saw hangouts as a possible replacement for webinars. A lot of the webinar platforms are expensive and if you only do a few, it can be hard to justify the cost. Many webinar platforms base their price on the number of viewers. But with a hangout on air, you have unlimited viewership. Brandee explains how she has done webinars by herself with a slide presentation embedded on a website that has unlimited viewers. With hangouts on air, you don't need to buy expensive plugins for your website. People can enter their email address and then flip over to a Watch Live page.  You can have people opt in on your website and then flip through to your Watch Live page. You'll discover the best option to help build engagement and keep viewers from getting distracted. The advantage with hangouts is you have the opportunity to share an image with your audience, plus have that face-to-face connection, all in one place. You can share content with both private hangouts and hangouts on air. All you have to do is press the Screen Share button. Brandee's trick is to never share your desktop screen. Always make sure you close everything down first, except for what you want to share. If you use Keynote, you need to convert your slides into PowerPoint, then load them into your Google Drive and select Present in New Window. You'll also learn how you can build your slides in Google Drive and Brandee's secret trick. Listen to the show to find out how to control the main video and swap among guests. Why marketers should consider doing a hangout Brandee says the number-one reason is because it's YouTube. Videos always rank higher in searches and hangouts on air jump very quickly to the first page of Google. With normal video, you have to go through and edit it before it is released; whereas with hangouts on air, you have the live streaming to YouTube. This gives you unlimited YouTube content. If you are strategic with the optimization afterwards, you will skyrocket to the first page on your subject. Remember that people buy from people they know, like and trust. It's a huge opportunity to allow people to get to know you face to face. You'll hear what people can gain from these live experiences. Brandee has had clients who have made $12,000 with one hangout on air alone. You can also create web shows, which help build your list and engagement with your audience. People love it when you mention them live on air. When you have a weekly show at a certain time and are consistent with the people you interview, it's a great benefit to your business. You'll discover how the analytics work for live streaming and what made Brandee's viewers double in 24 hours. If you want to share exclusive content, the best option is to go back into the video once the broadcast has ended and mark it as unlisted. This allows you to share your exclusive content with only the people who registered to watch it. Once you mark it as unlisted, it's pulled out of your YouTube channel. You'll also learn another way to share exclusive content. Brandee shares what equipment she uses for her videos and why there is zero labor involved. Listen to the show to find out about what you need to learn first before you start to record and what Brandee tests before she starts a broadcast. What kind of apps can enhance hangouts? One of Brandee's favorite apps is the Hangout Toolbox. It allows you to have a lower third, where you can put your name and your website address.  You can brand your video in the lower third with your name and website address. Even if it's a hangout with others, you still need to have your name, website address and a call to action there. You can also use your logo in the same area. The Hangouts Toolbox has custom overlays, so you can make sure you have a well-branded lower third. It's great for consistency and branding. It helps with when you are on other shows too. Listen to the show to find out what size the lower third needs to be. What you need to know if you are getting started with hangouts Brandee states that you first need to know the answer to "What is your why?" Once you understand this, the next stage is your strategy, which includes where you want people to watch your hangouts. If you're a video person, you'll want to send viewers to your YouTube channel. For a marketing person who wants to build a list, then the best place to send them to is your website and ask for an opt-in. It all depends on where your biggest audience is. As with all marketing, it's about consistency. If your goal is to build relationships and engage your audience, then you might want to do a weekly show. If you want to sell a product, it won't be as often but you will become known for this through your hangouts. It's another marketing tool. You'll hear about two guys who co-host Social Media Maniacs and how within a couple of weeks they went from zero subscribers to thousands. Although hangouts can be any length, the ideal time is around 30-45 minutes. It only works for longer periods if it's high-energy and moves forward. Brandee talks about viewer engagement and what you need to take into account when you ask questions.  Get viewer engagement with an attention-grabbing promotion. People love it when you include them in a hangout. Make sure you prompt for questions. The Hangout Toolbox and Comment Tracker will let you pull comments in from your YouTube channel, your Google+ profile and your Twitter account. You can then pop these on the screen. Listen to the show to find out the best way to include comments if the hangout is on your blog. How to promote a hangout First you need to decide what your goal is and where you want to send people. It's the number-one consistency in your marketing. Brandee firmly believes that you should go where your audience is. Never try to drag them to another place. You need to make it as easy as possible for your end users. You'll discover what promotional pieces work best and what you need to include to help drive people to one location. If people happen upon you on the Hangout on Air page or on your YouTube channel, then these are bonus people. When you promote your live event, you need to start 4 days in advance. Brandee uses a plugin for her website, so when you land, you need to fill in your email. Then instead of a double opt-in, it takes you through to the Watch Live page. Brandee shares how she gathers questions for the show and what techniques she uses to remind people of the live hangout.  You need to keep promoting right up until the last minute before you go live. About 30 minutes before you start your hangout on air, Brandee advises to start setting up and making sure the lighting and camera angle are in a good position. Then 15 minutes before you start, you need to invite your guest to come and join you in the "green room." You only start to stream live once you click Start Broadcast. You'll hear how Brandee does one last promotion 5 minutes before the hangout starts. Once the broadcast has finished, the video is available within a couple of minutes in your YouTube Video Manager. You now have the opportunity to add the description, keywords or even edit the video. Brandee shares how to make a trailer for your longer broadcasts and where to add annotations. Listen to the show to hear what Brandee trims off her video. Discovery of the WeekIf you find yourself staring at your screen too long, then a cool tool to check out is f.lux. You can install it on your computer and iPhone/iPad. It coordinates the time of day with the brightness of your screen. As you approach the nighttime, it takes the blue out of the screen and replaces it with red. It's a great option, as it doesn't make the screen so bright if you want to check something when it's dark out.  Your screen adapts to the time of day. Social Media Examiner's New LinkedIn GroupWe have recently founded a brand-new LinkedIn group called the Social Media Marketing Networking Club. It's a place where you can go to help other people, network with your peers and get your questions answered. You can also post job openings.  The Social Media Marketing Networking Club is a great place to connect with other marketers. What makes it different from other LinkedIn groups is that it's fully moderated by three people.
Go and check out our new LinkedIn group. Call in and leave your social media–related questions for us and we may include them in a future show. Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how this works for you. Other Show MentionsSocial Media Success Summit 2013 Social Media Success Summit 2013 is a special online conference designed to help you master social media marketing (brought to you by Social Media Examiner).  Social Media Success Summit 2013. Forty-five of the world's leading social media pros will show you how. Instructors include Jay Baer (author, Youtility), Chri s Brogan (co-author, Impact Equation), Mari Smith (co-author, Facebook Marketing), Michael Stelzner (founder, Social Media Examiner), Mark Schaefer (author, Return on Influence), Jesse Stay (author, Google+ for Dummies), Amy Porterfield (co-author, Facebo ok Marketing All-in-One for Dummies) and experts from General Electric, Sony, E! Online, Kelly Services and Discovery Channel–just to mention a few. Fully online. Click here to learn more. The conference is spread over the month of October and is designed in 45-minute sessions, so you get intense, high-quality content. We cover every social network and also include video marketing, podcasting and blogging. If you are thinking of improving your blogging, some of the sessions include:
It's a great opportunity if you are thinking of getting into blogging or you want to master social media. It's completely live online and you get the recordings and the transcripts. Be sure to check it out. Key takeaways mentioned in this episode:Ways to subscribe to the Social Media Marketing podcast: What do you think? What are your thoughts on Google+ hangouts for your business? Please leave your comments below. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends:
The post Google+ Hangouts: What Marketers Need to Know to Get Started appeared first on Make Money Online With Twitter Marketing. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 7 Ways to Grow Your Blog With Pinterest Posted: 14 Mar 2014 11:12 PM PDT By Karen Leland
Are you looking for creative ways to use Pinterest to benefit your business blog? Pinterest offers a robust path to help you build your blog. You can use Pinterest to find content for your blog, grow your audience and increase your website traffic. In this article, I'll show you 7 easy ways to use Pinterest to grow your business blog and engage further with your online audience. #1: Create a Blog Think TankAre you constantly clipping articles, studies, posts and pictures and placing them in an idea folder—online or off? Pinterest is tailor-made for doing this quickly and easily online. Create secret boards for your blog post ideas and use them as placeholders for images, videos, quotes, etc. that you want to blog about in the future. Curate boards for single posts, a series you're working on, even potential guest bloggers. You can use secret boards as placeholders for content you may want to use in the future. Remember, secret Pinterest boards are only visible to you. You can use them to curate content ideas securely for your business blog. #2: Search Pinterest for New Content InspirationIt's no secret that business bloggers face the constant need to churn out fresh content. When you struggle to come up with something new, turn to Pinterest and find a treasure trove of ideas for a single post or a series of articles that will interest your readers. Check Your Keywords Because Pinterest is keyword search–friendly, you can easily search for and find pins associated with the focus of your blog. Simply go to the search box at the top left of the Pinterest site and enter a keyword related to your blog. Scroll through the tabs to find recurring themes or items and topics that have high repin rates, a lot of likes and generate a large number of comments. Add the topics that make sense to your content calendar and create your own popular posts. A search for the keyword "backpacking" shows a trending interest in food-related content. Remember, the more on-point your content, the more likely it is to be shared across other social media sites. Look for Interesting Images Whether they're related to your topic or not, you're likely to stumble upon a pinned image of an idea, picture, service or product that encourages you to think outside the box and write a post that stretches you. Add it to your secret board for a future article. Pinterest can be a useful source of inspiration for your business blogging topics. #3: Write Articles That Relate to Pinterest's Most Popular CategoriesA 2012 report by RJMetrics showed that the most popular categories and topics on Pinterest are:
If your blog centers on any of these topics and you pin a post to your board, it's a logical assumption that someone visiting your Pinterest board (or the boards of people who repin your content) will click through and read your blog. For example, food blogger Stephanie Manley of CopyKat Recipes says that Pinterest drives more traffic to her blog than Facebook and Twitter combined. "What I love about Pinterest is that boards are curated by real people. Thanks to them, my website receives about 10,000 additional unique visitors a month." Stephanie Manley's blog receives 10,000 visits from Pinterest each month. If your business blog covers topics related to what's popular on Pinterest, you can expect to drive traffic from Pinterest to your blog. #4: Shine the Light on Another Pinner's Photo or Video PinsYou can also use Pinterest to develop relationships with the people you're interested in for your business. Search Pinterest for a shareable photo or video that your audience would appreciate and post it to your own blog. Write a simple introduction to the photo or video and be sure to give full credit to the original pinner with a link back to their board. This is a great way to build relationships that inspire others to write about your post or blog on their own site. #5: Make Your Website Pinterest-FriendlyImages on a Pinterest-friendly blog will get more exposure on Pinterest, which will then drive more traffic back to your blog. Here's what you need to do. Feature an image with every blog post, make sure it's pinnable to one of your relevant Pinterest boards and include a link back to your blog. This not only supports your link-building efforts; it also strengthens your brand by promoting the categories and topics you write about. Since readers on Pinterest can click through and read your article, make it easy for them to pin an image associated with your post with one click. Place a Pin It button under each image, or if you use WordPress, use the jQuery Pin It Button for Images. Make it easy for people to pin images from your posts to Pinterest. Lastly, invite your audience to follow you on Pinterest. Add the Pinterest button to the other social media buttons above the fold on your website to let visitors easily follow you and your boards. #6: Follow Other Pinners in Your Field of InterestChances are other power players or online influencers on Pinterest cater to the profile of your blog readers. Follow and engage with these hotshot pinners by liking, repinning and commenting on their pins, and increase the likelihood that they'll do the same for you. Repin and comment on online influencers' pins. When they do this, your pins and posts end up in front of a bigger segment of your perfect audience. #7: Include Calls to Action in Your Pin DescriptionsWhen you pin photos from your blog articles on your Pinterest boards, don't forget to add a juicy description of the blog post that relates to the pin you place on your boards. Always include a request to click on the dedicated URL that leads back to the whole blog post on your website. Make sure you add a description and a call to action with a link back to your blog post. This makes it easy for people on Pinterest to find your blog. Over to You Follow these Pinterest marketing tactics to develop your blog. On your blog, place striking images with your blog posts, add easy engagement mechanics like the Pinterest Pin It and Follow Me buttons. On Pinterest, reach out to like-minded pinners and be sure to add calls to action on the blog posts you pin on Pinterest. These are a great start for increasing your website traffic and visibility. What do you think? Have you used any of these tips? What results did you see? How do you use Pinterest to benefit your blog? Share your thoughts in the comments below. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. The post 7 Ways to Grow Your Blog With Pinterest appeared first on Make Money Online With Twitter Marketing. |
| Cheer Up and Don’t Be Such a Debbie Downer Posted: 14 Mar 2014 10:51 PM PDT Building on my cocktail party analogy, imagine yourself at a networking event deep in conversation with a new bunch of friends. One of them is a total bummer and is constantly negative. How much do you really want to be talking to that person? Social media is no different than that party. Both on Facebook and Twitter, people don't like spreading bad news. And the data bears this out. For instance on Twitter, accounts that make many negative remarks tend to have fewer followers.
And on Facebook, while sex is the most "shareable" content type I found, "positivity" is number 2 and "negativity" is the least shareable.
There is no lack of negative news on the web and if I want to get bummed out all I have to do is turn on one of the 24 hour news stations. People don't go to social media to feel bad, they go to social media to talk to their friends, make new ones and generally have a good time. So cheer up, and stop being such a Debbie Downer. The post Cheer Up and Don't Be Such a Debbie Downer appeared first on Make Money Online With Twitter Marketing. |
| 4 Ways #Marketers Can Use Facebook #Hashtags Posted: 14 Mar 2014 10:31 PM PDT Have you started using Facebook hashtags for your business? Are you wondering how to best use a Facebook hashtag? In this article, I'll reveal four important benefits of using hashtags on Facebook. I'll also explore important considerations when putting together your hashtag strategy. Why Facebook Hashtags?As you've undoubtedly seen, hashtags are now clickable and useable on Facebook. Using a hashtag # (or pound symbol) in front of a word or phrase turns the word into a clickable link. When you click on the link, you'll see a feed of public posts (or posts that are visible to you due to a friend relationship on Facebook) that include that hashtag. Here's how you can use Facebook hashtags: #1: Expand Your ReachAs hashtags gain momentum on Facebook (they've been in use on other platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Google+), they'll help you expand your reach to people who are looking at posts in your topic. Hashtags have been a great way to help people interested in niche topics find each other and find the conversation.  The #WalkingDead hashtag connects people interested in this show.
By including a hashtag in your post, you can possibly get in front of people who may not have seen your post otherwise. But you'll have to monitor this in yourFacebook Insights. Make sure you watch your Reach and Engagement Numbers to see if your hashtags are making a difference in your posts.  Click the Reach column in your Facebook insights to see which posts are getting the highest reach. #2: Amplify Your BrandBranding your Facebook Page with your own special hashtag can help an idea or new product catch on. By branding all your posts about a new product, you can break this information out into a separate stream of information and give people an easy way to share information about that product or idea. Think carefully about what types of things others would also be interested in sharing. If the posts are too promotional and not valuable, you may have a hard time getting people to share them with their friends.  Home Depot uses #HDHacks to share fun ideas with their audience. #3: Cross Social PlatformsIf you've already been using hashtags in your Twitter, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn or Pinterest posts, it's now more natural to use hashtags in Facebook. You can save some time by being able to post the same content across several platforms. While I don't recommend doing this for every post in Facebook (some people are annoyed by the hashtags entering into the Facebook realm) it does work to your benefit to occasionally cross platforms with a single post. Plus many people have already been doing this with their own posts from Twitter and now the hashtags are more searchable in Facebook.  The Starbucks #treatreceipt hashtag has been in use on Twitter in the past and is now searchable on Facebook too. #4: Promote Specials and EventsYou can use a special hashtag in your posts to promote something special. For example, this can work really well for a #contest.  Use a specially branded hashtag to help promote a contest across several platforms. Realize that you can't have people enter your contest on Facebook by including your branded hashtag like you can on Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter. Because of Facebook contest promotional rules, you can help people find the content across platforms by including the hashtag in your Facebook posts. If you know some popular hashtags that fit your marketing goals—such as offering a special coupon or deal—then you can include them in your post as well. I don't recommend stuffing your posts with tons of hashtags that aren't relevant because that doesn't look good and may turn off some of your fans, but a few relevant hashtags are OK.  You can also attach a hashtag at the end of your post that’s relevant to people looking for special deals such as #backtoschooldeals. Important Considerations When Using Facebook Hashtags1. Privacy settings are still in effect. If you're using hashtags on posts on your personal profile, they'll still have theprivacy settings set up according to how you control your privacy on your profile. Just because you use a hashtag doesn't make that post suddenly public. If you add a hashtag to a post that you only share with a certain group of your friends, only that group will be able to see that post.  Your privacy settings are still in effect even when you add a hashtag to your post. 2. Hashtags have to be all one word. If you wanted to use #Facebook Marketing as your hashtag, it will need to be posted as #FacebookMarketing or #facebookmarketing (see the next tip). 3. Capitalization doesn't matter. You can choose whatever capitalization you want in the words themselves and the hashtags will show the same results. #FacebookMarketing and #facebookmarketing show the same search results. 4. You can make up whatever hashtags you want. There's no "hashtag registration" or "database of approved hashtags", you can make up whatever hashtags you want to use. Consider your goals. If you want tobrand your own hashtags, you can, but make them short and easy to useand understand. A hashtag that's overly complex or hard to read won't get much traction. If you're abbreviating, make sure it's clear what point you're going for – a hashtag like #IKPMTTTRWD won't mean much to many people. 5. Research your hashtag before you use it. There have been some recent embarrassing cases of brands using a hashtag that's already in use for an entirely different purpose that doesn't align with their company message at all. Take a look at the social sites where hashtags are in usesuch as Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and Google+ and see if your hashtag is already being used by people. 6. You can easily look for hashtags on Facebook by URL. Easily search for hashtags or bookmark their results by using the URL: www.facebook.com/hashtag/ then just include your keyword on the end. For example https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/FacebookMarketing shows you the results of posts that include #facebookmarketing or #FacebookMarketing (or any alternate capitalizations). Conclusion I strongly recommend you test out hashtags as part of your Facebook marketing strategy and measure your results. Use them sparingly (not in every single post) and don't over-stuff hashtags into your posts. While some people may not be as excited about hashtags on Facebook, they're firmly entrenched in other social sites and aren't going away anytime soon. How about you? Have you been using hashtags in your posts? Are you going to give them a try? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below! The post 4 Ways #Marketers Can Use Facebook #Hashtags appeared first on Make Money Online With Twitter Marketing. |
A tweet is a short message sent out to everyone who follows your Twitter account. 
An @reply tweet is a message you send in response to a tweet from another person. 
A mention tweet includes the name of a Twitter user but is not a reply to a previous tweet from that person. 
A DM is a private message sent to someone who follows you on Twitter. 
A retweet is a message sent by another person that you share with your followers. 
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