TwitterToolsReviews |
- Organize Your LinkedIn Network COI Connections, Pt 2
- #Managing #Twitter #Followers with #ManageFlitter
- Tweet Adder Review and Bonus
- 3 Mobile Tools to Improve Your Social Media Marketing
- How to Benefit from the LinkedIn Publishing Platform
- 7 Simple Ways to Optimise a Blog Post for the Search Engines
- 4 Things Blog Editors Often Overlook
- LinkedIn Influencer Program — Now for Everyone
- 7 Major Blogging Mistakes You’re Making
- The slippery slope of influence marketing
| Organize Your LinkedIn Network COI Connections, Pt 2 Posted: 18 Apr 2014 01:18 AM PDT
One of the companies I work with uses this process to build feed lists, or referral lists, for their meetings. In my last post, we narrowed down a search for Megan's connections—let's go back and look at that. Before I assume that I would like to get introduced to these eight people, I open their profiles in a new tab to view and assess. Why do I use tabs? LinkedIn doesn't allow us to save the filtered searches we create within our connection's connections. Opening any of these eight profiles in a new tab, allows me to easily go back to the narrowed search.
After scanning Shannon's entire profile, I decide he is someone I would like to meet. I click the star underneath his photo to save his profile.
Notice once I click the star, in addition to the "Contact Info" tab underneath Shannon's picture, I now have a "Relationship" tab. Colleen wrote about LinkedIn Contacts in more depth in an earlier post.
Since I'm sure there is more than one person out of the eight that I would like Megan to introduce me to, I click on "Tag" then "Add a New Tag" and create a "Megan Finnern" tag. Notice when I save this new tag, Shannon is now categorized with the Megan Finnern tag.
After going through the other seven profiles, I determine there are four people I want to meet. While inside their profiles, I go through the same process of tagging them as Megan Finnern (except this time the tag is already created, so I just select it). I am now at my meeting with Megan and I'm ready to pull from the saved and tagged profiles of people she's connected with, but where did they go? From the top navigation bar, hover over Network and then click Contacts. You now want to Filter All Contacts by Tag, and then find your Megan Finnern tag.
You will now see any of the profiles you tagged as Megan Finnern, or whoever your COI may be.
You can create tags for many different categories, like Prospects, Clients, Alumni and so on. You can even assign multiple tags to a profile. Notice Jim Ferguson in the picture above is tagged as Megan Finnern and Nonprofit. All of the tagging is for your eyes only. What's more, you don't have to be connected to any of these people in order to build your pipeline. From identifying the natural connectors and centers of influence in your LinkedIn network, to searching through their connections, to organizing the people you want to meet by who they already know … this is the power of LinkedIn. Test it. Identify five COIs, tag at least five of their connections, then ask for the introductions. See what new people you can meet and what new opportunities you can create. Let us know how we can continue to help you build your network. The post Organize Your LinkedIn Network COI Connections, Pt 2 appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| #Managing #Twitter #Followers with #ManageFlitter Posted: 18 Apr 2014 12:32 AM PDT
http://manageflitter.com/try/GaIXo7Jl/connect Why ManageFlitter? ManageFlitter provides you with a set of easy to use tools to empower you to work smarter and faster with Twitter . Sort your followers/following lists by a range of criteria http://manageflitter.com/try/GaIXo7Jl/connect To date they have assisted 2,160,417 users with their Twitter accounts… so they have been around for a while and plan on being around a whole lot more. There system is super fast and built on rock solid reliable architecture. The team behind ManageFlitter have many years worth of experience developing robust online systems that help people lead more productive lives. Twitter: http://twitter.com/Boost4Social Please, share it ___________________ twitter following bot,twitter follower bots,twitter follower bot script,twitter bots to get followers,twitter auto follower bot,twitter mass follower bot,follower bot twitter,twitter bot add followers,witter follower botfree,manageflitter,unfollow,autofollow,management,twitter management,Unfollow Who Unfollowed Me,Unfollow,Unfollowed,Is Following,Following,Twitter Search,Twitter Bio Search,Twitter Unfollow,Follow Back,TeamFollowBack The post #Managing #Twitter #Followers with #ManageFlitter appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. |
| Posted: 17 Apr 2014 11:55 PM PDT Get Thousands of Followers with the Twitter Marketing Software Tweet AdderThis review of Tweet Adder explains why this Twitter marketing software is hands down the best Twitter automation program on the market. I have been able to get well over 300,000 followers for myself and the clients I have worked with largely thanks to the fact that I have used Tweet Adder on a daily basis and shared high quality content as I grew my network. My personal account @Garin currently has over 300,000 followers and I get hundreds of new targeted followers every single day! The video below shows just some of the awesome features of Tweet Adder and I have created an awesome bonus for Tweet Adder below. You need to download and use Tweet Adder to really appreciate it and luckily you can download Tweet Adder and test drive it for free. When you buy TweetAdder through this link: >> Tweet Adder <<(Get a Discount of TweetAdder with the coupon code: DISCOUNT20)Let me know (Garin[at]GarinKilpatrick.com) and I will send you the Twitter Tools Book Platinum Editionbonus package worth $198! This package includes:
Get TweetAdder and The Bonus Package Above now: >> Click Here to Check Out Tweet Adder <<My link for TweetAdder will take you to the official TweetAdder website which will not mention anything about the awesome bonus package I am offering. Rest assured that I will receive an automatic notification about your purchase but I will need you to follow up with me in order to get your bonus package because TweetAdder does not send me the emails of the people who buy their product. Once you forward your receipt to my email address below I will make sure you get your awesome bonus package asap! Once you have bought this program contact me: Garin[at]GarinKilpatrick.com and I will send you your bonus package right away! Cheers. >> Tweet Adder Free Demo <<(Get a Discount of TweetAdder with the code: DISCOUNT20 )The post Tweet Adder Review and Bonus appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. |
| 3 Mobile Tools to Improve Your Social Media Marketing Posted: 17 Apr 2014 11:19 PM PDT By Greg Hickman
Is more of your audience interacting with your business from their mobile phones? If you want to enhance your mobile marketing, then keep reading. I'll show you three awesome tools that make mobile marketing easier. Why Mobile?Mobile is no longer something you can afford to ignore. As customers' adoption of mobile grows, you need to find ways to leverage mobile marketing tools to optimize their experience, no matter what device they're on. Whether you've already been experimenting with mobile marketing or are just getting started, the right tools help increase leads, engagement and sales. In this article, I highlight three tools that offer easy ways to mobilize your social media marketing strategy. #1: Send SMS (Text) and Video Messaging With Mogreet ExpressOne of the most powerful mobile marketing channels available today is SMS or short message service, which is also known as text message marketing. SMS is a permission-based messaging tool that lets customers receive messages from you after they text a keyword or sign up using a web form. SMS may not sound sexy, but it's highly effective. Studies have indicated that 97% of mobile subscribers read an SMS (text) message within 15 minutes of receiving it. 84% respond within 1 hour. Many top retailers actively use SMS to send out sales or product updates, special coupons or other important announcements. Coca-Cola focuses 70% of their mobile marketing budget on SMS/Text messaging.  Coca-Cola embraces the power of SMS to reach consumers. So what does this have to do with social media? Conversations with your customers shouldn't end on Facebook, Twitter or any other social platform you currently use. Mogreet Express lets you quickly create SMS (text) or video messaging campaigns to incorporate into social media and build a database of customers who want to receive your information and offers. First, you create a keyword to title your campaign, and then Mogreet Express pairs your keyword with a shared short code. Make your keyword short and easy to remember. After you've decided on a keyword, you're guided through the process to set up the response customers receive when they opt in.  Mogreet Express lets you set up keywords in your dashboard to promote campaigns to your audience. Now you're ready to promote your campaign on Facebook and Twitter. The easiest way to do this is by using language such as: "Become a Mobile VIP. Just text YOURKEYWORDHERE to 12345″ (this would be the short code that Mogreet Express provides to you). Lane Bryant incorporates their call to action on a Facebook tab to connect with them. Their keyword is LBGB and their short code is 23705.  Lane Bryant added their SMS call to action to a graphic. Once you've promoted your new SMS (text) campaign and customers begin to opt in, message them with valuable offers. This helps you stay top of mind, drive increased traffic (both physical and web) and create a new way to drive sales. Set up a message to send to your customers in four steps:
You should include opt-out language in every message and Mogreet does this for you so you comply with the best practices of the Mobile Marketing Association. The opt-out looks something like this:
Overall, Mogreet Express is a very easy-to-use SMS/MMS marketing tool for any small business owner. Incorporate your mobile call to action throughout your social media and you extend conversations with your customers beyond Facebook or Twitter. It's a great place to start when adding mobile marketing to your social media strategy. #2: Run Mobile-Friendly Facebook Contents With HeyoHeyo makes it easy to build a contest on mobile that integrates seamlessly with Facebook. Not to mention it looks beautiful with the easy-to-use tools Heyo provides. Nathan Latka, founder of Heyo, shared that Lilly Pulitzer worked with Heyo to mobilize their "Want It To Win It" tab right on Facebook because they didn't want to miss out on all the traffic received from mobile Facebook users.  Don’t miss out on all the mobile traffic to your contest pages. To make sure mobile users receive the best user experience, Heyo's smart URL automatically reroutes mobile users to the right location. If users are on a desktop, they're sent to the native Facebook tab. If they're on a mobile device, they receive the mobile contest application.  Lilly Pulitzer contest page from mobile.  Heyo’s easy-to-use dashboard lets you create beautiful pages in minutes. Heyo is the easiest way to create engaging campaigns that are social and mobile. Check out this tool if you want to drive traffic, leads and sales with a Facebook contest. #3: Measure the ROI of Mobile Marketing With LogMyCallsDid you know that people who search the Internet for food using their phone or tablet have nearly a 90% conversation rate? Or that 64% of searchers with smartphones convert within one hour of their mobile search activity? One of the top converting metrics is a phone call. With such high odds of a mobile searcher clicking to call your business, tracking and measuring calls are vital. LogMyCalls gives you a full suite of tracking features to track every call generated by your mobile advertising and measure the return on your investment. Here's how you get set up and start measuring which campaigns are performing the best in 4 steps. Step 1: Select your numbers. Use your current phone number and convert it into a tracked number or choose new numbers and have calls to those phone numbers routed to your business or call center.  Select a local or toll-free number for your tracking. Step 2: Name your route. This is where you associate the number with a specific marketing tactic. In this case, Facebook PPC.  Connect your numbers to your marketing campaigns. Step 3: Set up your DNI. When someone clicks through from a Facebook PPC ad, a unique phone number is dynamically generated on your landing page. This allows LogMyCalls to track which online marketing efforts produced the phone call. This is done via a provided snippet of JavaScript. Step 4: Track mobile calls generated from Facebook ads. This is your first and most basic report indicating call volume, date, time, etc.  Measure your call results with easy-to-read reports. That's it. When your customer is mobile and calls your tracking number from a Facebook ad, a billboard or any other mobile advertising unit, you easily identify which media outlets perform best and which convert leads to sales. LogMyCalls makes it easy for you to understand how many leads and sales are generated from people who call via a mobile phone. Your Turn These tools help you reach your mobile customers no matter what device they're on. There are more tools out there and as you use them, you need to make sure your website is mobile-friendly as these tactics ultimately drive people there. What do you think? Have you tried any of these tools before? What other tools have you used? I would love to hear your thoughts about what works and what doesn't. Please share your favorites in the comments box 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 3 Mobile Tools to Improve Your Social Media Marketing appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. |
| How to Benefit from the LinkedIn Publishing Platform Posted: 17 Apr 2014 10:38 PM PDT By Stephanie Sammons
Do you want to build more authority in your niche? LinkedIn is opening up its publishing platform to all 277 million+ members! In this article, I'll show you how high-quality content creators and bloggers can use LinkedIn's publishing platform to build their influence. Why LinkedIn Publishing Platform?I've always said you don't have to be anointed as an influencer to build online influence. It's up to you to contribute to your community, share valuable experience and create astute content that shows your thought leadership. The LinkedIn publishing platform gives you the opportunity to expand your reach in a major way. Since all LinkedIn members have access to the platform, it's critical for you to create high-quality content that differentiates you.  Your published posts show up at the top of your LinkedIn profile. With the LinkedIn publishing platform, you can follow other publishers and build your own followers in the process. While your LinkedIn followers have the potential to see your LinkedIn posts, they aren't official network connections. (It's similar to LinkedIn's current model for following LinkedIn-appointed influencers.) Any posts you publish on LinkedIn are tied to your professional profile and show up near the top of your profile. This means your thought leadership insights are showcased when someone views your LinkedIn profile. The first post I published to LinkedIn helped me attract over 200 new followers, and my profile views were up 38% week over week! These stats tell me that the LinkedIn publishing platform is going to be a great place to share longer-form, thought leadership content. In the rest of this article I give you best practices for making the most of the LinkedIn publishing platform. #1: Create Valuable, Attractive ContentBefore you start posting, have a plan in place. What content is most useful for your audience? Is your post too salesy? Although there's no formal editorial process, LinkedIn makes it clear that sales-oriented content won't be tolerated (after all, that's what the advertising platform is for). LinkedIn has some helpful guidelines in their Help Center about what to publish. This is a good reference for understanding how to frame your content so it resonates with and adds value to both your established audience and your potential audience (which will now be even greater than your existing LinkedIn network).  Make sure your posts are scanable. The general guidelines I've seen (including LinkedIn's) recommend keeping posts between 400 and 600 words and publishing weekly. However, you could certainly experiment with these parameters and determine what works best for you. Like other social networks, people want to consume information quickly. Make it easy for them by creating scannable, attractive content. A few best practices are using a compelling headline, placing an eye-catching image at the top of your posts, bolding important text and breaking up longer paragraphs. Feel free to enhance your articles with YouTube videos or content from SlideShare to make them as interesting and useful as possible. When you're ready to write an article on the LinkedIn publishing platform, it's pretty easy. Go to your LinkedIn home page and look for the pencil icon in the box at the top where you would typically share an update. When you click the pencil icon, you'll see the publishing editor. This is where you create your post. LinkedIn's publishing editor is very simple to use. It's similar to the WordPress editor or Microsoft Word. You can type or paste your text into the editor and format it right there. Below is a snapshot of what my first post looks like within the editor:  What a post looks like within the editor. Your LinkedIn post doesn't have a bio section. You'll need to create a bio at the end of each post. Your bio should include a sentence or two about who you are, what you do and who you help, a link to your website or blog or even a specific call to action. It's a good idea to make the most of all of your resources. In my bio below, I've linked my name to my Google+ profile, and on my Google+ profile I added LinkedIn to the list of sites I contribute to. This ensures that Google picks up my authorship profile for my LinkedIn posts.  Be sure to create a bio section at the end of every post you publish! Before you hit Publish, please be sure to review your post and check it for grammar and spelling (the Preview option is helpful here). But if you don't catch everything, you can go back and edit your post any time. #2: Share Your Post EverywhereTo maximize your reach and engagement inside and outside of LinkedIn, share your post on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+. If you have a LinkedIn company page, share it there as well (assuming your post is relevant to your company page's followers). This kind of aggregate social networking adds credibility and encourages more shares and engagement across the social web. In turn, all of that engagement sends social signals to Google's search algorithm and can help increase your visibility in online searches! #3: Manage Your Post CommentsYou've written a useful post, you've promoted it far and wide and people are reading it. After all that effort and exposure, don't forget to check your comments! In the Comments section of your post, you can respond to and interact with members who are leaving feedback or starting a discussion.  Don't forget to respond to comments on your posts! In most cases, those who commented on my posts were people I'm not currently connected to. That means the post is getting visibility beyond my first-degree network, and yours probably will too. Unfortunately I did see one or two spam comments when I posted, but you have the ability to hide and/or flag these. #4: Evaluate Content PerformanceLinkedIn immediately starts to show you the number of views, social media shares and comments your post generates. I admit that it's exciting to see those metrics changing right before your eyes in real time! Use your LinkedIn post metrics to determine how well your content is resonating with your audience. As you build your professional content library, compare your posts to see which ones outperformed others. When you have a feel for what's working for you, take some time to review the posts of your favorite official LinkedIn influencers and your competitors. Evaluate their posting schedule and which posts got the most views and engagement. Consider how you can use similar tactics for your own success. For example, a LinkedIn influencer I follow is Sallie Krawcheck, CEO of 85 Broads and former head of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. She publishes to LinkedIn about once a month. Even though she's a prominent thought leader in the financial services industry, she writes about universal topics that appeal to a larger audience. Below is a compilation of her most recent posts. Her article about productivity hacks clearly stands out in terms of the number of views and level of engagement.  Evaluate what your favorite influencers are writing about. Seeing what's working gives you an idea of what people are responding to and you may want to consider using similar topics or how-to's that appeal to your own audience. Learning from the LinkedIn influencers who have gone before you can help you craft a more successful content strategy of your own! Keep Your Existing Blog!It's critical to remember that LinkedIn's publishing platform shouldn't serve as your content publishing hub. It's a place to syndicate and further showcase your existing professional content from your blog. Remember, you don't own your LinkedIn presence or the content associated with it. I recommend publishing the original post to your own blog first, then publishing it to your LinkedIn profile in its entirety. You may want to vary the two posts a bit, however. Perhaps write your blog post to your specific audience or niche, and when you publish it to LinkedIn, change it to appeal to a broader audience. I'm super-excited about this publishing opportunity on LinkedIn. The LinkedIn publishing platform is an important part of any marketer's content strategy. I think it will be interesting to watch the network grow as an online content destination for professionals. What do you think? Will the LinkedIn publishing platform be a game-changer? What kind of content are you publishing? Please share your thoughts with me 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 How to Benefit from the LinkedIn Publishing Platform appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. |
| 7 Simple Ways to Optimise a Blog Post for the Search Engines Posted: 17 Apr 2014 10:01 PM PDT There is so much palaver banded about on how to optimise a blog post to make it seem totally complicated. In reality, when all is said and done, there are some simple procedures that can be put in place that will make a big difference, and these really don't need to beefed up to make you believe it needs to be done by a fancy, expensive SEO agency. Of course if you want to consistently be on page 1 of Google (whatever that truly means, and for what?) and always be in the result of every search option, then you may need to employ some experts who do this all day long, but if you can't afford these services here are some actions you can do yourself. 1. Choose an easy keywordIf you're really into SEO you will probably take great pains to work out which keyword or keyphrase is the most popular, highly sought after, has the least competition and all sorts of other factors, but even if you haven't got all those systems to hand, focusing on any particular keyword is better than nothing. Then there is the difference between short and long tail keywords. These is affected by popularity, as a short tailed keyword (usually comprising of a single or a couple of words) can be quite 'expensive' in the SEO world, whereas a long tail keyword (a phrase that might reflect what people would type into the search field) will be more difficult to incorporate within a post, as it needs to be reproduced in its exact form to be valid. And not only that, for full SEO it needs to be found in its entirety in at least 14 places within the post, which is quite a feat when it comes to copywriting and making the content feasible, readable and interesting. So I would plump for a keyword you are comfortable with, is easy to use, and can be manipulated into your text in a variety of ways. 2. Place the keywords in the right placesThe 14 places I mentioned above are: the post's main headline, the permalink (the post's own URL), the opening paragraph, the picture's caption and its alt tag (see below), the subheaders, at least the middle and final paragraphs, the SEO title and meta-description (see below), tags and categories, links and the call to action. I've written a post about 18 uses of keywords within blog posts if you're interested to find out more. 3. Optimise your imagesDid you realise that search engines cannot see the pictures in your post? Because they are not comprised of words, images are therefore invisible to spiders. So you need to put some words behind the pictures for the search engines to read, and this is done via the alternative (alt) tags. This is done by clicking on the picture in situ within the post to bring up the image properties or image editing menu.
Regardless of what blogging platform you use, there will be an alternative (alt) text field to fill in. This needs to be filled in with a relevant description about the picture. This not only provides the necessary words for the search engines to index, but also enables the partially sighted web users to get their computers to tell them something about the picture. And by including the relevant keyword you've chosen for this post in the alt tag description, including the title tag above (which results in that little yellow tag showing up whenever you mouse over the published picture), you'll be satisfying the SEO criteria too. 4. Don't forget the tagsTags (in WordPress) or labels (in Blogger) are the secondary keywords. I mentioned the primary keyword in No 1 above, but there will be other important words in your content that could do with a bit of highlighting to draw the attention to them by the search engines. These must be taken from the text in your post, because the search engines will compare the relevance they have to what you have written, and good matches mean more brownie points. Tags can either be over or under-used in a post (some bloggers even forget or neglect them), but to me they are important, along with allocating the post to an appropriate category (subject or topic). They are also good for the search mechanism you may have included in your sidebar for readers to find posts within certain subjects or niches. Checking my stats in Google Analytics shows many posts and pages have been reached due to my tags and their respective pages that list the posts that use them. I wouldn't use too many tags with a post (some blogging platforms even limit their use to only five), so be sparing as well as highly relevant when selecting which ones to use. 5. Filling in the meta detailsIn WordPress.org there are plenty of SEO plugins, but I use WP SEO by Yoast, because this allows me to fill in my meta-description which certainly can help to optimise a blog post. Now I know that WordPress.com blogs don't have this feature, but this is not the end of the world because WordPress has a highly developed SEO system already incorporated into these blogs behind the scenes. The meta-description is the descriptive area within a snippet. A snippet is the entry arising from a search request, and comprises of the SEO title, the post's URL or permalink and if the meta-description is not filled in properly, the first 156 characters which are taken from the beginning of the post.
(Oh, this is a rich snippet, because it shows I have claimed Google Authorship, hence why it includes my avatar (portrait), byline (author name) and link to my Google+ profile.) Now you will have noticed I mentioned an SEO title. This because there is the possibility of a post having two headlines or titles. The first is the post's headline, found at the top above the content, which should be carefully constructed for the reader's benefit, an enticing, persuasive and cleverly written contribution that is vital for attracting attention and sticking out of the crowd within noisy social media environments. The second is the SEO headline, and with WP SEO by Yoast there is the option to construct this title solely for the search engines. This is not always visible within the web, but just in case it is, make sure it is readable and definitely contains your chosen primary keyword.
This screen shot shows the WP SEO by Yoast plugin in action. There is a snippet preview at the top, which changes as you edit it, the keyword entered below (options are offered when you type it in), a check list which will turn green when you've incorporated everything, the SEO title field which shows at the top of the snippet (good idea to include your blog's name in it) which needn't be the same as your post's headline as it will be written purely to satisfy the search engines, and the field for the meta-description which is visible in the snippet preview. 6. Make sure your links are relevantLinks are vital when working in SEO into your posts. There is no need to go over the top with links (otherwise you may be classed as spam), but they do need to be highly relevant to their destinations in relation to the post's content. This means if the post is about dog grooming, it is important to link the a webpage specifically about dog grooming, and not to the homepage of a website about dogs. There are three kinds of links, internal, outbound and inbound. These are all important to optimise a blog post. These represent a doorway to another page, post or website, and can work both ways for reciprocal purposes. In fact the presence of links within a post does enhance how SEO performs, especially if any outbound ones connect with a high ranking website, but remember less is more, perhaps no more than two in a post, if you don't want to aggravate Google's Penguin algorithm. And if you're really clever and you can create a contextual link (a link that consists of words relevant to the destination, rather than just 'click here') which contains your primary keyword, then that will certainly boost your SEO ratings. Interestingly research has shown that the call to action 'click here' is much more successful in gaining a response, but these words do nothing towards the ability to optimise a blog post. 7. Sharing is caringAnd the final element which helps to optimise a blog post is regarding interaction and engagement. It's important to share your post within social media (networking and bookmarking) in order to reach a bigger audience and gain more traffic back to the blog. Also this works better the more interaction, likes, comments, sharing and recommendations you can gather, as this reciprocation and engagement is noted by the search engines and the algorithms within the social media sites and is rewarded accordingly as SEO. Every post will benefit from a good call to action, giving the reader something to do other than to read you post and disappear. A suggestion could be to encourage them to leave a comment or share your content in their social media profiles. If your call to action also includes the primary keyword that helps with SEO. Any manual sharing of your post on social networking or bookmarking sites will help if you can accompany its link with an attractive, interesting and persuasive introductory paragraph, and if you can add in the primary keyword into that too, this all helps with attracting the search engines and helps to optimise a blog post. Now it's your turn. See if you can incorporate some of these ideas into your posts, and let me know in a comment below if this has made a difference. The post 7 Simple Ways to Optimise a Blog Post for the Search Engines appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 4 Things Blog Editors Often Overlook Posted: 17 Apr 2014 09:30 PM PDT And One Thing That Should Never Be Ignored
I cannot express to you enough the critical importance of proofreading and editing your blog posts. It isn't just for the purpose of spelling, punctuation, and grammar. I mean, just think of how costly a mistake like a year's supply of salmon could be for your business. Spelling and PunctuationOkay, let's get the easy one out of the way first, shall we? Spelling, punctuation, and grammar are the most important things to consider when writing anything. This is a given. Before you go live with any post on your business blog, be sure to self-edit. If you can't get someone else to do the editing for you, at the very least, you need to set it aside for a little while and come back to it later. To go through everything you've written word-for-word with a critical eye, sometimes you need a little break between the writing part (creative) and the editing part (analytical) just to shift those gears in your mind. Minor typos can be annoying, to say the least. Don't rely on your writing program software's spellcheck to do all the work for you. Sure, it will correct the big, glaring misspellings for you, but it isn't going to catch a little thing like "as" where you meant to type "and," because "as" obviously is a word it recognizes. FlowMake sure your posts segue from one thing into the next smoothly within each post. Abrupt changes in subject can be jarring and easily lose a reader or potential client's attention and interest. Try to keep it to one topic per post, and if you see it veering off course, gently nudge it back on track by editing out the unnecessary parts as you go. Less Is MoreSomething that could be said just as easily in thirty words as it could in three hundred should be condensed. Value your own time as the writer, but also the readers' time. When proofreading your posts, make sure you do it with a fresh set of eyes and an unbiased opinion. Is this something you, as a reader, would follow until the end, or would your attention wane before the mid-way point? TitlesBe sure your post titles accurately depict what readers can expect to find within. Not only will this help people to find your blog posts from search engines and other sites, but it will also show that you have a clear understanding of exactly what you're doing. A confident blogger inspires a return reader. HomonymsSomething often overlooked—not just in blogging, but many forms of writing—are those pesky things known as homonyms: their, they're, their; sight, site; your, you're—you get the idea. Often times, we're typing something out so quickly that our fingers speed ahead of our brains. It's easy to make such seemingly insignificant mistakes, which only serves to reinforce the point being made here today: Be sure to edit before posting to your blog. Don't forget: Anything posted on your business blog is a direct reflection of you and the company you're representing. Give your clients a good impression by offering them quality in every possible aspect.
Image credit: freedigitalphotos.net/ningmilo The post 4 Things Blog Editors Often Overlook appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| LinkedIn Influencer Program — Now for Everyone Posted: 17 Apr 2014 08:58 PM PDT
Somehow, I missed the email that showed up just a couple of weeks later letting me know that I had received my access to the Influencer Program. But when I logged into LinkedIn I noticed a "pencil" in the "Share an update" bar on my home page.
I was excited, to say the least. When I clicked on the pencil, a "Getting Started Guide" popped up along with an editor that closely resembles WordPress, if that's a content management platform you already use. I have to say, as excited as I was to get started, I was a bit daunted.
Click the wrong button and whatever you have written goes out to your entire network. So, pay close attention to what buttons you're clicking. To be safe, if you decide to become a LinkedIn publisher, write your posts in Word or Google docs first and then copy it over to LinkedIn, save and publish. When you publish you can share directly to your Twitter account by checking the box next to the Twitter icon. Where does your Influencer Post show up? Right in your profile for all your connections to see. The more people you are connected to, engaged with, the more your post should be seen.
Who is the LinkedIn Influencer Program designed for?Well, really everyone but more specifically you. If you are looking to highlight your subject matter expertise, influence your connections for recruiting and business development initiatives, and increase your professional brand, this may be ideal. If you have enough traction and engagement with your connections, you may actually receive more views on LinkedIn than your current website. Watch your stats and see what people are responding to.
Tip: If you are not posting short status updates, start there first before publishing an entire post. Once you are comfortable posting and sharing content within LinkedIn's platform consider what your LinkedIn publishing will be. What are your goals for publishing?
Consider your answers to these questions and keep them top of mind when you are writing. Publishing content that is random, pitch-y and not well-crafted may turn off your connections, so be careful. Always work toward adding value and being current. Does this suddenly seem more daunting than you thought? Thinking it through now will make the journey so much easier. Need some additional insight? Read Yvonne Lyons' post How to Use Ideas, Messages and Themes to Build Your Content Strategy. There is clearly significant potential and, therefore, unintended consequences from publishing within LinkedIn. Take your time, consider your audience and your messaging and give it a whirl, I think the upside outweighs the downside. In the end, the content comes before the distribution channel. LinkedIn's Infuencer program began in 2012 and has expanded to more than 500 Influencers. Read more about LinkedIn as a publisher in, "LinkedIn walks like a publisher and talks like a publisher. But is it?" This will be an interesting new era for LinkedIn—I can't wait to see if the content is richer with more members contributing. Let me know your thoughts and tell me if you have access to LinkedIn Publisher, how will you use it? The post LinkedIn Influencer Program — Now for Everyone appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 7 Major Blogging Mistakes You’re Making Posted: 17 Apr 2014 08:32 PM PDT
More often, however, the company blog is a major source of frustration for marketers. Posts are not updated regularly, post writing ebbs and flows. Content writers will produce posts for a few weeks and then become less consistent. How can your blog transform itself from a useful pile of marketing dung, into a lead gen machine? What are the 7 biggest blogging mistakes you’re making? 1) Not writing enoughThis is easily the biggest mistake marketers make on their blog. They simply do not write frequently enough. Most believe that writing 1 or 2 posts a week will improve their marketing and generate readship. This (unless you already have a massive following), is not true. Most companies need to write more–usually a lot more–in order to generate organic traffic. What does that look like? How often should you write? I don’t have a concrete answer for that, but here’s my rule of thumb: write 3x more than you do now. If you write one post a week right now, write 3. If you write 1 post each day write now, write 3. If you…well you get it…you know how to do multiplication. It is impossible to overstate how big of a problem this is in the content marketing world. Most marketers simply don’t write enough. Quality vs. Quantity is an important inbound marketing argument to have. But, remember this: you have to create enough content to move the needle on Google organic search. Simply writing occasionally WILL NOT do it. It just won’t. 2) Not writing enoughYep. It’s this important. 3) Writing only ‘research’ postsEvery post will NOT win a Pulitzer. You don’t need to be a fantastic author to create a post. Not every post needs to be a doctoral dissertation. It doesn’t need to contain unique research or even be a terribly unique perspective. When I was a TV reporter I was given some great advice by my first boss, “Every story will NOT win an Emmy.” Why is that good advice? It’s good advice because perfect is the enemy of done. It’s good advice because, as General Patton said, ‘A good plan executed today is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” Action is better than inaction. So what should be posts be written about?
4) Failing to generate leadsMore precisely, this mistake should be: failure to TRY and generate leads. I’m stunned when I see a blog post without a notable and useful call-to-action. Every blog post should include a clear, specific, and precise call-to-action. You’ll notice that each and every one of our blog posts have a link to a White Paper, webinar or FREE trial at the bottom. (You should click on it). 5) Not newsjackingNewsjacking is writing about news and pop culture subjects and relating them to a subject that YOU want to write about. For example, the day after the AFC championship game, we wrote a blog post relating Peyton Manning’s changes at the line of scrimmage to a marketer’s changes after seeing campaign metrics. 6) Not writing in a conversational wayWould you enjoy reading this? Does it take effort to read? Your blog posts shouldn’t require the intense and prolonged focus on your readers. It should be conversational, quick, and to-the-point. 7) Having unrealistic standards for your blogYou’re not going to get 30,000 readers each month within 3 months. You’re probably not going to get 30,000 readers each month within 6 to 8 months. Have high but realistic standards for your blog. The post 7 Major Blogging Mistakes You're Making appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The slippery slope of influence marketing Posted: 17 Apr 2014 08:24 PM PDT
One of my friends was posting and tweeting from a conference sponsored by a Fortune 100 company. He had actually been paid to attend this event because he is an “influencer.” Coincidentally, I was also being paid to be at an event from a different company at the same time, on the other side of the country. How did I get on their list? I have no idea. “Have we hitched a ride on the influence marketing train?” I asked my friend. “I don’t know,” he said, “But woo – woo!” Clearly, opportunities for bloggers will increase as brands recognize the benefits of aligning with people who are powerful online advocates. And for people like me, who have given content away for free, day after day for years, it is nice to be recognized and rewarded for the hard work. But influence marketing can be a house of cards for both companies and individuals. Rules of the roadA digital agency recently approached me about a host of new opportunities to make money from blogger outreach programs, I had to put on the brakes and give them some advice and I think this is important enough to share with the blog community, too. What is the source of my influence? I create content, yes. I engage consistently, of course. But at the end of the day it gets down to trust, right? That’s why the emerging Citizen Influencers have to be very judicious in their relationships with brands. Likewise, brands have to be discerning about their expectations from influencers. If brands become too exposed with too many bloggers, both parties will suffer. If the credibility of the blogger declines, the effectiveness of their advocacy is doomed. “No” is a legitimate strategyThat’s why I am saying “no” to most opportunities right now. I have to be incredibly selective. First, it has to be a company I truly, authentically believe in and second, I have to limit how much I do because if this blog ever becomes filled with spammy sponsored posts or suspicious brand advocacy, you’re going to go away. And you should.
As we all approach this era of incredible consumer content choice, to stay ahead, we need to emphasize radical honesty. You need to believe in me and what I write every day for me to earn a seat at the content consumption table. Likewise, I think brands need to do their homework and figure out which bloggers have built real authority and trust, rather than making a call based on number of Twitter followers, for example. I think we are approaching a time when you can make some decent money as an influencer … and it is already happening for mommy bloggers (some have agents to negotiate brand contracts). But we need to fiercely protect the reader trust that got us here in the first place. Agree? The post The slippery slope of influence marketing appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.         Comments
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The post The slippery slope of influence marketing appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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Your business blog is finally up and running, driving traffic to your site, bringing attention to your services. Everything appears to be going smoothly…until a colleague points out a typo in a post that may or may not have you accidentally giving away a year's supply of canned salmon to one lucky feeder.
When I read that LinkedIn was rolling out its Influencer Program to all of its members, I was excited and curious. What would it look like? How would it work? Would it resemble the craziness of LinkedIn's endorsements (wild-wild west meets People magazine) or the more reserved recommendation section?
Your 
I don’t think I would like my own blog if it starts to look like a NASCAR racing jacket. Although I do love M&Ms.| You are subscribed to email updates from Twitter Tools Reviews To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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