TwitterToolsReviews |
- Dressing for Success in Cyberspace: Give Yourself a Digital Make-Over
- Dressing for Success in Cyberspace: Give Yourself a Digital Make-Over
- Bloggers: The Trick to Syndicating Without Hurting SEO
- Roku Adds YouTube To More Set Top Boxes
- Search and Replace Will Change Your Blog Forever
- Tripling Your Facebook Reach With Joshua Parkinson, Post Planner CEO
- Tripling Your Facebook Reach With Joshua Parkinson, Post Planner CEO
- Tripling Your Facebook Reach With Joshua Parkinson, Post Planner CEO
- Tripling Your Facebook Reach With Joshua Parkinson, Post Planner CEO
- If Your Business is Not Using Social Media to Increase Sales, Why Are You There?
| Dressing for Success in Cyberspace: Give Yourself a Digital Make-Over Posted: 22 Apr 2014 08:57 PM PDT
I continue to be amazed by the number of anemic profiles there are on LinkedIn, how easy it is to access Facebook activity that's not intended for the public, how many people have no filter and/or no sense of time and place when they post on Twitter, and how uncivil people can be when commenting on news articles and blog posts. Not much surprises me anymore, but the opportunities to wonder "What were they thinking?" seem never-ending… Given my focus on digital rookies, I'm particularly intrigued by people who are so fastidious about their personal appearance and "real world" reputation but show virtually no regard for their appearance or reputation in cyberspace. They seem oblivious to the fact that they have a digital identity whether they want one or not – and more importantly, that in many respects their digital identity and brand are much more public and powerful than how they're known and perceived in the physical world. To drive home the point of how important it is for professionals to take responsibility for their digital presence, I've started using analogies like leaving the house without any pants on; wearing torn, stained, disreputable, or inappropriate clothes; being unkempt; and having a hairstyle, glasses, and other accessories that are out of date. And to address the frequent lament of "I don't have time," I highlight the time we make to do things that are important to us, like going to a hair stylist or the gym, or shopping for clothes and shoes. The point is that if we can make the time to take care of our physical appearance and put our best foot forward on earth, we should also be able to make the time to take care of our digital appearance and put our best foot forward in the cloud. In this post I extend those analogies by laying out the basic steps and tasks in a digital make-over. Although the recommendations are primarily targeted to rookies, the suggestions should be useful to people who are more digitally sophisticated and engaged as well. We can all benefit from a little closet cleaning… Even if you don’t need a digital make-over, you probably know someone who would benefit from these recommendations. : ) Feel free to share! You can find more detailed digital engagement guidance in these SMART Resources, as well as these. As always, I welcome your comments and questions. What did I miss? What would you add? Review and Critique1. Conduct internet searches on yourself. What to do:
What to look for:
2. Evaluate your public profile on social media platforms. What to do:
What to look for:
3. Get someone else to critique specific accounts/activity. Whom to ask: Identify someone you trust to give you an honest opinion, even if that opinion might make you a bit uncomfortable or hurt your feelings. Finding someone with whom you could do a quid pro quo exchange is not only mutually beneficial, but you're likely to get a better sense of what you should/shouldn't do based on your review of their accounts/activity in addition to their feedback on yours. What to do: Identify the platforms/activity you want them to concentrate on. For most people that would be LinkedIn and Facebook. People who are more digitally engaged may also want to include platforms like Google Plus, Twitter and blogs. What to look for: Basically they're going to look for the same things you did in the previous step, only they can be more objective and are likely to spot things you miss. They can also better identify things that might be viewed as questionable by people who don't know you. Digital Make-Over1. Delete risky content when/where you can.
2. Board up digital properties you no longer use.
3. Lock the doors that need to be locked.
4. Make sure your front porches are presentable. Update your public profiles to address all the problems you identified during your review. 5. Direct people to the "right" you, and make yourself easy to find. Designate a hub or home base for your digital identity (e.g., your LI profile or a website). Make sure that hub includes current contact information (i.e., email address and/or phone number) and links to all your relevant digital presences. Maintenance1. Think before you tweet, comment, update, blog, etc. The best way to manage a strong positive digital reputation is to not put anything out there that you will later regret. And the best way to do that is to be mindful of what you share and where you share it, to choose words and images carefully, and to remember that even though most digital activity is fleeting, it's also permanent. 2. Set up internet search alerts at regular intervals. Using an engine like Google, set up regular alerts using the same criteria you used in your initial review. This way, you'll be notified whenever some cyber activity is connected to your identity. Keep in mind, though, that these automatic searches aren't perfect, so you should plan to supplement them with periodic manual searches. 3. Keep a current inventory of your digital properties. Create a list of all the places you have accounts and update it whenever you join a new platform. This list may not be necessary for the accounts you use all the time, but it is vital in helping you remember the accounts you set up but never return to or stop using. It's amazing how many digital stakes you can put in the ground and then forget about… 4. Review and clean up your digital inventory periodically. At least once a year, determine whether you want to continue to maintain specific accounts, especially those you rarely/never use. Doing so will minimize the digital detritus you leave behind. 5. Review and update your public profiles. Even if your professional circumstances haven't changed, it's worthwhile to take a look at your public profiles at least once a year to make sure you continue to be satisfied with how you're presenting yourself in cyberspace – and to take appropriate action when you're not. 6. Choose your friends wisely. We all have different rules about whom we connect with, but it behooves us all to be discriminating about the company we keep in cyberspace. Develop a set of connection rules and adhere to them consistently. You can find a condensed, more visually-oriented version of these tips on our SlideShare channel. Original post on the Denovati SMART Blog. The post Dressing for Success in Cyberspace: Give Yourself a Digital Make-Over appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Dressing for Success in Cyberspace: Give Yourself a Digital Make-Over Posted: 22 Apr 2014 08:57 PM PDT
I continue to be amazed by the number of anemic profiles there are on LinkedIn, how easy it is to access Facebook activity that's not intended for the public, how many people have no filter and/or no sense of time and place when they post on Twitter, and how uncivil people can be when commenting on news articles and blog posts. Not much surprises me anymore, but the opportunities to wonder "What were they thinking?" seem never-ending… Given my focus on digital rookies, I'm particularly intrigued by people who are so fastidious about their personal appearance and "real world" reputation but show virtually no regard for their appearance or reputation in cyberspace. They seem oblivious to the fact that they have a digital identity whether they want one or not – and more importantly, that in many respects their digital identity and brand are much more public and powerful than how they're known and perceived in the physical world. To drive home the point of how important it is for professionals to take responsibility for their digital presence, I've started using analogies like leaving the house without any pants on; wearing torn, stained, disreputable, or inappropriate clothes; being unkempt; and having a hairstyle, glasses, and other accessories that are out of date. And to address the frequent lament of "I don't have time," I highlight the time we make to do things that are important to us, like going to a hair stylist or the gym, or shopping for clothes and shoes. The point is that if we can make the time to take care of our physical appearance and put our best foot forward on earth, we should also be able to make the time to take care of our digital appearance and put our best foot forward in the cloud. In this post I extend those analogies by laying out the basic steps and tasks in a digital make-over. Although the recommendations are primarily targeted to rookies, the suggestions should be useful to people who are more digitally sophisticated and engaged as well. We can all benefit from a little closet cleaning… Even if you don’t need a digital make-over, you probably know someone who would benefit from these recommendations. : ) Feel free to share! You can find more detailed digital engagement guidance in these SMART Resources, as well as these. As always, I welcome your comments and questions. What did I miss? What would you add? Review and Critique1. Conduct internet searches on yourself. What to do:
What to look for:
2. Evaluate your public profile on social media platforms. What to do:
What to look for:
3. Get someone else to critique specific accounts/activity. Whom to ask: Identify someone you trust to give you an honest opinion, even if that opinion might make you a bit uncomfortable or hurt your feelings. Finding someone with whom you could do a quid pro quo exchange is not only mutually beneficial, but you're likely to get a better sense of what you should/shouldn't do based on your review of their accounts/activity in addition to their feedback on yours. What to do: Identify the platforms/activity you want them to concentrate on. For most people that would be LinkedIn and Facebook. People who are more digitally engaged may also want to include platforms like Google Plus, Twitter and blogs. What to look for: Basically they're going to look for the same things you did in the previous step, only they can be more objective and are likely to spot things you miss. They can also better identify things that might be viewed as questionable by people who don't know you. Digital Make-Over1. Delete risky content when/where you can.
2. Board up digital properties you no longer use.
3. Lock the doors that need to be locked.
4. Make sure your front porches are presentable. Update your public profiles to address all the problems you identified during your review. 5. Direct people to the "right" you, and make yourself easy to find. Designate a hub or home base for your digital identity (e.g., your LI profile or a website). Make sure that hub includes current contact information (i.e., email address and/or phone number) and links to all your relevant digital presences. Maintenance1. Think before you tweet, comment, update, blog, etc. The best way to manage a strong positive digital reputation is to not put anything out there that you will later regret. And the best way to do that is to be mindful of what you share and where you share it, to choose words and images carefully, and to remember that even though most digital activity is fleeting, it's also permanent. 2. Set up internet search alerts at regular intervals. Using an engine like Google, set up regular alerts using the same criteria you used in your initial review. This way, you'll be notified whenever some cyber activity is connected to your identity. Keep in mind, though, that these automatic searches aren't perfect, so you should plan to supplement them with periodic manual searches. 3. Keep a current inventory of your digital properties. Create a list of all the places you have accounts and update it whenever you join a new platform. This list may not be necessary for the accounts you use all the time, but it is vital in helping you remember the accounts you set up but never return to or stop using. It's amazing how many digital stakes you can put in the ground and then forget about… 4. Review and clean up your digital inventory periodically. At least once a year, determine whether you want to continue to maintain specific accounts, especially those you rarely/never use. Doing so will minimize the digital detritus you leave behind. 5. Review and update your public profiles. Even if your professional circumstances haven't changed, it's worthwhile to take a look at your public profiles at least once a year to make sure you continue to be satisfied with how you're presenting yourself in cyberspace – and to take appropriate action when you're not. 6. Choose your friends wisely. We all have different rules about whom we connect with, but it behooves us all to be discriminating about the company we keep in cyberspace. Develop a set of connection rules and adhere to them consistently. You can find a condensed, more visually-oriented version of these tips on our SlideShare channel. Original post on the Denovati SMART Blog. The post Dressing for Success in Cyberspace: Give Yourself a Digital Make-Over appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Bloggers: The Trick to Syndicating Without Hurting SEO Posted: 22 Apr 2014 08:11 PM PDT
At the end of last year, I heavily syndicated some of my blog content across a number of larger sites and platforms. I enjoyed interacting with the new audiences and appreciated the exposure, but it never occurred to me that I was literally shooting myself in the foot. For months my blog traffic and page views had been on the rise, which naturally gave me a better Alexa ranking. Then things went south–fast. I first noticed a problem when my traffic and page views began to decline in mid-December. At first, I chalked it up to seasonality and the holidays. People were busy shopping, cooking, and partying. They were not spending as much time online. I’d soon find out this was not the case. In January, I got the shock of my blogger lifetime when my Alexa ranking tanked (significantly). It dropped by thousands over a number of days. My gut immediately told me to check my Google Webmaster Tools to see if I had been penalized for something. There were no messages, no alerts, everything was fine. What was going on? I sat down and made a list of all the changes I had recently made to my blog, plug-ins that I had added, and so on. Again, nothing raised a red flag. Until…a friend who specializes in SEO asked me why I was syndicating so often. He explained the negative traffic hits which occur from drops in SEO to original articles and posts, and asked if I had seen a drop with my blog. The light bulb went off! Even though I was receiving attribution and, in most cases, a link back to my blog, all of the sites I had syndicated with were five to ten times the size of my little corner of the Interuniverse. Because they were larger and had authority, Google viewed the syndicated versions as the original articles and mine as copies. This penalized my SEO and caused all the syndicated versions of my posts to appear in searches. The big guys were now the ones receiving the referral traffic to some of my most popular posts. Mine were subsequently dropped. I stopped syndicating, as the return on investment was a huge hit to the blogging platform I had spent countless months building.
In late February, through some book outreach, I happened to meet another SEO guru. We chatted about syndication and the detrimental effects it can have on blogging. Then he asked if I new the secret to syndicating safely. The secret? Like a magic wand? He basically said, “YES!” Within your Google Webmaster Tools, there is a feature that allows you syndicate without hurting SEO. I’ve been testing it since early March, with great results. The feature is called Fetch as Google. Bloggers often publish new posts and wait for them to show up in Google search results. Fetch as Google is a convenient way to speed things up considerably if you have new content that you’d like to be discovered and found in the SERPs. It also allows Google to know who is the originator of posts, which is critical when syndicating content.You can use this tool to fetch up to 500 URLs a week per Webmaster Tools account. Submitting your link to the index using the Fetch as Google tool really is like waving a magic wand. Here’s how to use this handy feature: Note: If you haven’t verified your blog with Google Webmaster Tools yet, see Google Webmaster Tools: An Overview for step-by-step instructions.
Every time you publish a new blog post, it should be Fetched right away. This will get your content indexed faster and allow you to syndicate without hurting SEO. The post Bloggers: The Trick to Syndicating Without Hurting SEO appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Roku Adds YouTube To More Set Top Boxes Posted: 22 Apr 2014 06:58 PM PDT
Roku has added a YouTube channel to all Rokus released after July 2011. The YouTube Channel had already been available to customers who owned a Roku 3, but now YouTube is officially available on most other Roku devices. The channel supports HD playback, playlists and has a search function. However, if you have a smart device connected to the same Wifi network, then you can find videos on there and cast them to the Roku, just like you can with Google's Chromecast. Like the Chromecast, this allows you to browse videos while you watch one on your television. The Roku LT, Roku 1, Roku 2, Roku 2HD, Roku 2 XD, Roku 2 XS, Roku 3, both Roku streaming sticks and Roku HD model #2500 all support the new channel. Confusing things a little bit is the original Roku and Roku 2, which came out prior to 2011. When Roku relaunched its product line it did so under the Roku 1 and Roku 2 name, even though products like named "Roku" and "Roku 2″ existed. The original Roku and Roku 2 do not support the YouTube channel. While users could previously get YouTube working through a variety of unofficial apps, the set up and user experience was less than ideal. With the competition getting heated in the television set top box market, it makes sense that Roku would want to get more major channels like the YouTube app working on the majority of its devices. The post Roku Adds YouTube To More Set Top Boxes appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Search and Replace Will Change Your Blog Forever Posted: 22 Apr 2014 06:20 PM PDT
But no more! Now, you can revise your entire history in just a couple easy steps. Yes, it's true that both my blogs shit the bed in a catastrophic failure; but, before that happened, I did some pretty amazing things. When I left my company, Abraham Harrison, they became AH Global, maintained control of the domain, abrahamharrison.com, while I maintained control of both blogs. After five years of blogging shamelessly on behalf of AH, what was I to do? All those links! To my newest competitor, too. Easy. Every word processor and text editor has a search and replace function. Even PowerPoint and Excel have pretty nice "replace" functions. And, so does your blog. Global Search and Replace Modules and Plugins
So, what I did is I changed every link that previously went to www.abrahamharrison.com was redirected to www.gerriscorp.com. I also needed to make a choice: should I change all textual mentions of Abraham Harrison and my former business partner, Mark Harrison, to Gerris and Chris Abraham or should I keep the keywords there but just steal the Google juice. What a conundrum! And you can make the same choices. And you should, too. Think about it: let's say you have 2,843 blog posts going back 10 years. Or, 843 blog posts going over a couple years. You can make all sorts of changes. Just imagine. Now that I put the idea in your head, you're going to go nuts. There are a number of plug-ins you can try out for WordPress, including Find replace, Search and Replace, Real-Time Find and Replace (and, if you're a total coder-hacker-geek, then you should try out Search RegEx. If you're a Drupal-user, you can try Search and Replace Scanner, Drush Search & Replace, or Content Find and Replace. Or, if you're still using Movable Type, then you can just use your built-in Search and Replace tool. Please Be Careful
However, you really need to not overdo the whole retroactive linking madness. Make one universal change, such as changing the destination URL of one keyword phrase and then see what happens. You don't want to shock Google. And, you need to make sure you like the results of what you do. Poaching Keywords You Already "Own"
Give Your Web Site a Keyword FaceliftI haven't done this yet, but I would consider updating all of my references to keyword phrases like "long tail blogger outreach" to something a lot more modern, cool, popular — something folks might actually search for — such as "content marketing" or "outreach marketing" or what you will. Don't Screw It Up
Maybe You Just Want Auto-LinkingWell, maybe you don't need to go through all of this search-and-replace stuff. Maybe your blog is pretty new. Maybe you have done a terrible job of linking anything in the first place and all of your posts are giant gray blocks of plaintext. Well, you can sort that out, too, by setting your blog up with an autolinking module or plugin. WordPress has a couple, including SEO Auto Links, SEO Smart Links; Drupal has Word Link, Keyword Link and Link Intelligence. Beware the Load on Your Sites
Each of these plugins can bog down your website in different ways. The Search and Replace plugin modules will bog down your site for only as long as your search and replace query. So, if you have hundreds of pages and potentially thousands of replaces, then you really had better wait until late at night before you take the plunge. And, because of the nature of the process, do NOT interrupt the search and replace process no matter what — even if it looks like it's stalled out. Give it some time. And, if you plan to use an auto-linking tool and you have loaded it up with lots and lots of keywords, you really had better make sure your site is pretty rock-solid. Make sure you have plenty of RAM and a good processor (and if you are on a shared server or a virtual hosting plan, please be sure to be a good neighbor, a good web citizen — because if you're selfish with your shared resources, you'll make quick enemies and then probably get booted off the box by your hosting company). If you're going to do rock star, advanced, stuff like Search and Replace or Autolinking, you might want to get a dedicated server or try out a Grid server from someplace like Media Temple. But, be sure to talk to your hosting company or your IT guy to make sure your blog can handle this sort of thing. And, even if it does work, be sure the responsiveness of the site keeps up. Why? Because after all of this, if your blog or site ends up being too slow, Google will penalize you. You really don't want that. A Note About Caching
WordPress offers three good ones. I used W3 Total Cache myself but there's also WP Super Cache, which I have tried and really liked, and WP Fastest Cache, which I have never tried. Drupal has caching built it, but there are always ways you can add caching to both these blogging platforms. The Essential 404, 301, 302 RedirectsIf you're going to start messing around with links, URLs, and domain names, all willy-nilly, you'll either need to be really careful or you'll need to make sure that any links that arrive at your site, be it if you're linking back to your own blog, self-referentially, or if you're pointing to another one of your properties, you really need to make sure you give all of your links a safe landing. So, if you make any URL changes that result in broken links, you can fix that by either building an .htaccess error redirect that sends all broken incoming traffic back to the main, top-level, index page, using double-secret code like ErrorDocument 404 index.html.
Well, there you have it. Don't let your blog or web site molder. You can do whatever you want. It's your art. It's your body (of work) your choice. Give it a go. Just be sure to back up your database, if possible, before you start slicing and dicing. And, unless you know what you're doing with Regular Expressions (RegEx), then just leave that part alone — you'll do some really awful things to your site. Go git 'em, Tiger! The post Search and Replace Will Change Your Blog Forever appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Tripling Your Facebook Reach With Joshua Parkinson, Post Planner CEO Posted: 22 Apr 2014 05:52 PM PDT Facebook saw a 48 percent increase in ad clicks over the first quarter of 2014, and concerns of declining engagement were realized with a nearly one percent drop on text posts. However, images and videos continue to rise to the top of the News Feed, providing the highest engagement of any other post. Post Planner is a Facebook marketing app that aims to help you not only save time, but also increase engagement and reach on your posts. We got to chat with CEO/Founder Joshua Parkinson about the recent addition of a Viral Photos feature, and a whole lot more. You launched a new feature that finds the most popular photos on any Facebook page. How can businesses put this to good use? If you're a business with a fan page, you can use our Viral Photos feature for 3 main things:
Curating proven viral photos, re-sharing viral photos from partner pages, and monitoring the photo strategies of competitors — this is what the new Viral Photos feature is all about. The main pain point we're trying to kill is the pain of guessing which photos will perform well on Facebook. In my opinion, predicting the future performance of an untested Facebook post is as difficult as predicting the future performance of a penny stock. Ie. extremely difficult. Post Planner removes a lot of this difficulty by taking the guesswork out of posting viral photos on Facebook. Facebook recently called out "like-baiting" and explicitly asking for likes, comments or shares. What are some ways to increase engagement without "engaging" in such tactics? The best way to increase engagement without asking for engagement is to post images that people love to share. In my experience, people love to share things that make a statement about who they are as a person. This is why wise/positive quotes on images do so well — because everyone wants to be perceived of as wise and positive. It's why funny images do so well — because everyone wants to be perceived of as having a sense of humor. And it's also why the more cynical, snarky images tend to do well too — because people want to be perceived of as "too smart or too good for all this"… "above it all" if you will. The main point here is that you don't have to ask fans for engagement to get engagement. You just need to publish images that people can share to make a statement about who they are. We're seeing more and more instances of organic reach decreasing, but there are many exceptions to the rule. What separates those Pages from the rest? From my perspective, the pages that are holding strong and not seeing a decrease in reach are pages that:
Where do you see Facebook evolving in just the next few years? No idea. But I think the News Feed will become ever more visual — with larger, more vibrant images and link previews — and ever more mobile friendly. And the News Feed algorithm will become ever more important to user experience. No groundbreaking predictions here, sorry! As a wise man once told me: "The future is over-forecast and under-predicted." http:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MVG3_RNyRs Photo credit: Owen W Brown The post Tripling Your Facebook Reach With Joshua Parkinson, Post Planner CEO appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Tripling Your Facebook Reach With Joshua Parkinson, Post Planner CEO Posted: 22 Apr 2014 05:52 PM PDT Facebook saw a 48 percent increase in ad clicks over the first quarter of 2014, and concerns of declining engagement were realized with a nearly one percent drop on text posts. However, images and videos continue to rise to the top of the News Feed, providing the highest engagement of any other post. Post Planner is a Facebook marketing app that aims to help you not only save time, but also increase engagement and reach on your posts. We got to chat with CEO/Founder Joshua Parkinson about the recent addition of a Viral Photos feature, and a whole lot more. You launched a new feature that finds the most popular photos on any Facebook page. How can businesses put this to good use? If you're a business with a fan page, you can use our Viral Photos feature for 3 main things:
Curating proven viral photos, re-sharing viral photos from partner pages, and monitoring the photo strategies of competitors — this is what the new Viral Photos feature is all about. The main pain point we're trying to kill is the pain of guessing which photos will perform well on Facebook. In my opinion, predicting the future performance of an untested Facebook post is as difficult as predicting the future performance of a penny stock. Ie. extremely difficult. Post Planner removes a lot of this difficulty by taking the guesswork out of posting viral photos on Facebook. Facebook recently called out "like-baiting" and explicitly asking for likes, comments or shares. What are some ways to increase engagement without "engaging" in such tactics? The best way to increase engagement without asking for engagement is to post images that people love to share. In my experience, people love to share things that make a statement about who they are as a person. This is why wise/positive quotes on images do so well — because everyone wants to be perceived of as wise and positive. It's why funny images do so well — because everyone wants to be perceived of as having a sense of humor. And it's also why the more cynical, snarky images tend to do well too — because people want to be perceived of as "too smart or too good for all this"… "above it all" if you will. The main point here is that you don't have to ask fans for engagement to get engagement. You just need to publish images that people can share to make a statement about who they are. We're seeing more and more instances of organic reach decreasing, but there are many exceptions to the rule. What separates those Pages from the rest? From my perspective, the pages that are holding strong and not seeing a decrease in reach are pages that:
Where do you see Facebook evolving in just the next few years? No idea. But I think the News Feed will become ever more visual — with larger, more vibrant images and link previews — and ever more mobile friendly. And the News Feed algorithm will become ever more important to user experience. No groundbreaking predictions here, sorry! As a wise man once told me: "The future is over-forecast and under-predicted." http:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MVG3_RNyRs Photo credit: Owen W Brown The post Tripling Your Facebook Reach With Joshua Parkinson, Post Planner CEO appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Tripling Your Facebook Reach With Joshua Parkinson, Post Planner CEO Posted: 22 Apr 2014 05:52 PM PDT Facebook saw a 48 percent increase in ad clicks over the first quarter of 2014, and concerns of declining engagement were realized with a nearly one percent drop on text posts. However, images and videos continue to rise to the top of the News Feed, providing the highest engagement of any other post. Post Planner is a Facebook marketing app that aims to help you not only save time, but also increase engagement and reach on your posts. We got to chat with CEO/Founder Joshua Parkinson about the recent addition of a Viral Photos feature, and a whole lot more. You launched a new feature that finds the most popular photos on any Facebook page. How can businesses put this to good use? If you're a business with a fan page, you can use our Viral Photos feature for 3 main things:
Curating proven viral photos, re-sharing viral photos from partner pages, and monitoring the photo strategies of competitors — this is what the new Viral Photos feature is all about. The main pain point we're trying to kill is the pain of guessing which photos will perform well on Facebook. In my opinion, predicting the future performance of an untested Facebook post is as difficult as predicting the future performance of a penny stock. Ie. extremely difficult. Post Planner removes a lot of this difficulty by taking the guesswork out of posting viral photos on Facebook. Facebook recently called out "like-baiting" and explicitly asking for likes, comments or shares. What are some ways to increase engagement without "engaging" in such tactics? The best way to increase engagement without asking for engagement is to post images that people love to share. In my experience, people love to share things that make a statement about who they are as a person. This is why wise/positive quotes on images do so well — because everyone wants to be perceived of as wise and positive. It's why funny images do so well — because everyone wants to be perceived of as having a sense of humor. And it's also why the more cynical, snarky images tend to do well too — because people want to be perceived of as "too smart or too good for all this"… "above it all" if you will. The main point here is that you don't have to ask fans for engagement to get engagement. You just need to publish images that people can share to make a statement about who they are. We're seeing more and more instances of organic reach decreasing, but there are many exceptions to the rule. What separates those Pages from the rest? From my perspective, the pages that are holding strong and not seeing a decrease in reach are pages that:
Where do you see Facebook evolving in just the next few years? No idea. But I think the News Feed will become ever more visual — with larger, more vibrant images and link previews — and ever more mobile friendly. And the News Feed algorithm will become ever more important to user experience. No groundbreaking predictions here, sorry! As a wise man once told me: "The future is over-forecast and under-predicted." http:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MVG3_RNyRs Photo credit: Owen W Brown The post Tripling Your Facebook Reach With Joshua Parkinson, Post Planner CEO appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Tripling Your Facebook Reach With Joshua Parkinson, Post Planner CEO Posted: 22 Apr 2014 05:52 PM PDT Facebook saw a 48 percent increase in ad clicks over the first quarter of 2014, and concerns of declining engagement were realized with a nearly one percent drop on text posts. However, images and videos continue to rise to the top of the News Feed, providing the highest engagement of any other post. Post Planner is a Facebook marketing app that aims to help you not only save time, but also increase engagement and reach on your posts. We got to chat with CEO/Founder Joshua Parkinson about the recent addition of a Viral Photos feature, and a whole lot more. You launched a new feature that finds the most popular photos on any Facebook page. How can businesses put this to good use? If you're a business with a fan page, you can use our Viral Photos feature for 3 main things:
Curating proven viral photos, re-sharing viral photos from partner pages, and monitoring the photo strategies of competitors — this is what the new Viral Photos feature is all about. The main pain point we're trying to kill is the pain of guessing which photos will perform well on Facebook. In my opinion, predicting the future performance of an untested Facebook post is as difficult as predicting the future performance of a penny stock. Ie. extremely difficult. Post Planner removes a lot of this difficulty by taking the guesswork out of posting viral photos on Facebook. Facebook recently called out "like-baiting" and explicitly asking for likes, comments or shares. What are some ways to increase engagement without "engaging" in such tactics? The best way to increase engagement without asking for engagement is to post images that people love to share. In my experience, people love to share things that make a statement about who they are as a person. This is why wise/positive quotes on images do so well — because everyone wants to be perceived of as wise and positive. It's why funny images do so well — because everyone wants to be perceived of as having a sense of humor. And it's also why the more cynical, snarky images tend to do well too — because people want to be perceived of as "too smart or too good for all this"… "above it all" if you will. The main point here is that you don't have to ask fans for engagement to get engagement. You just need to publish images that people can share to make a statement about who they are. We're seeing more and more instances of organic reach decreasing, but there are many exceptions to the rule. What separates those Pages from the rest? From my perspective, the pages that are holding strong and not seeing a decrease in reach are pages that:
Where do you see Facebook evolving in just the next few years? No idea. But I think the News Feed will become ever more visual — with larger, more vibrant images and link previews — and ever more mobile friendly. And the News Feed algorithm will become ever more important to user experience. No groundbreaking predictions here, sorry! As a wise man once told me: "The future is over-forecast and under-predicted." http:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MVG3_RNyRs Photo credit: Owen W Brown The post Tripling Your Facebook Reach With Joshua Parkinson, Post Planner CEO appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| If Your Business is Not Using Social Media to Increase Sales, Why Are You There? Posted: 22 Apr 2014 05:31 PM PDT
A recent blog we read told us that we should NOT use Social Media if we want to sell our stuff. The idea was that you should get to know people personally, help solve their problems and if you never make a dime, you will be more respected. Sounds good. But for most of us, making those dimes is what keeps us in business (and eating … and paying our rent). While the strategies involved in "inbound" or social media marketing are slightly different than traditional marketing, it is still marketing. If your participation will not be at least one reason people buy from you, why would you waste your time, effort and money? While developing personal relationships has been a marketing tactic for centuries, the idea of developing relationships "online" was born at a time when interactive websites became a reality. Relationships that once relied on geography could now be developed with people all over the world. (Even hyper local businesses selling to a defined geographic area may find it difficult to meet all potential customers; social media marketing is an opportunity to reach even more local people than would be possible in person.) While strategies surrounding online Social Media marketing have evolved over the last few years, the basics remain the same: People do not want to be "sold to," they want help making their own buying decisions. It is the job of a good Social Media Marketer to give people the reasons they need to buy – in other words for the business to make a sale. Here are a few myths that have been put forth by a few Social Media Marketing "experts," and our answers:
False – 47% of users say Facebook has the greatest impact on their purchasing behavior. (Jay Baer) Social Media is where people are looking to buy products and services. Users "friend" a Page to obtain information about products and services. Facebook is often where they make their purchasing decisions. Social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close ratio than outbound marketing. (State of Inbound Marketing, 2012) So tell them what you are selling.
False – 80% of US social network users prefer to connect to brands through Facebook. (HubSpot) People are seeking specific information regarding products and services. Using Facebook ads gives you the opportunity target very specific markets. In fact, Facebook's recent changes have been aimed specifically at making their ads bigger and more useful. Because Facebook ads can be so finely targeted, effective AND cost effective, they are one of the best ways for businesses to reach their exact demographic, geographic and psychographic markets.
False – 50% of leads are qualified but not yet ready to buy. (HubSpot) Give them a reason to buy. Help them understand why you have the products and services they need. Give them information about your company so they can make an informed decision. Provide enough details and give them a special discount so you can take those 50% and make them customers.
False – Social Media is the new advertising platform. Providing useful and interesting information is important to help people make buying decisions. A few amusing cartoons and interesting images will get their attention. While these and other tactics that personalize a business page should definitely be a part of the overall strategy, the bottom line is that Social Media is the New Advertising Platform. It is becoming even more important as print media shrinks, phone books are thrown in the recycler and TV ads can be skipped with a push of a button. AT&T, Disney, Netflix and Weight Watchers are just a few companies that use Social Media Advertising successfully. You can too.
False – To become a trusted business you must have a base of customers who can tell their networks how good you are. These customers want to understand and then purchase your products and/or services. They don't want to be your personal friend. They want a deal, a discount or a special offer. They want to feel satisfied that they have gotten the best quality product at a fair price. Once that happens, they will tell their friends about you. Stop trying to be best friends with your followers and give them what they want. False – To become a trusted business you must have a base of customers who can tell their networks how good you are. These customers want to understand and then purchase your products and/or services. They don't want to be your personal friend. They want a deal, a discount or a special offer. They want to feel satisfied that they have gotten the best quality product at a fair price. Once that happens, they will tell their friends about you. Stop trying to be best friends with your followers and give them what they want.want to be your personal friend. They want a deal, a discount or a special offer. They want to feel satisfied that they have gotten the best quality product at a fair price. Once that happens, they will tell their friends about you. Stop trying to be best friends with your followers and give them what they want.
The Bottom Line Social sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are becoming major players in the world of advertising. Walmart has over 34 million Facebook Friends, Starbucks has over 90,000 followers on Twitter and Target has over 157,000 followers on Pinterest. Ask yourself, would they be using Social Media Marketing if it wasn't improving their bottom line? The post If Your Business is Not Using Social Media to Increase Sales, Why Are You There? appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
If you've been blogging for a long time, your life has probably changed a number of times. You've developed a history that has been, until now, etched in stone.
Yes! You can decide to revise the entire history of your entire blog all the way back to the very beginning, all at once. Immediately.
Be subtle. Don't go nut. Just make subtle changes. The sort of changes I did. I believe I made URL changes to all mentions of www.newmediastrategies.net and www.edelman.com as well. Just be sure that you make your changes explicitly to the HTML and not just to the Rich Text on top. So, be sure to spend some time reading through the manual.
Think each search and replace through. As you may well know from doing Search and Replaces on MS Word or Textpad, you need to measure twice and cut once when it comes to doing it right, especially when you're doing it all across everywhere and everything. And if you break your HTML, your links, or make a spelling error, you'll end up chasing the corruption around for the rest of your life. It'll haunt you until the day you die. So, be careful, back up your database, and check to see if your chosen plugin or module allows you to rollback your changes — some of them are pretty cool these days.
If you've spent any time with Drupal or WordPress (or any database backed websites) you know that the more plugins that you install the slower your site'll be. Some plugins really can load a site down. So, if you're still using the $4.20/month special from your local web hosting company, you might consider either upgrading or passing on some of these solutions.
You need caching if you're going to be growing, becoming successful at all, expect Big Dogs to ever link to you, share you, or retweet you. Myself, I can crash poorly set up blogs and sites. I had been bogging down the Biznology blog for years. Every time I would share my Tuesday posts across my 50k Twitter followers, my 5k Facebook friends, the 564 members of my GaggleAMP gaggle, my 5,633 followers on Google+, and even my 1,859 followers on Pinterest — all at once (plus, if you add all my Google Pages, my Facebook Pages, and all of that) I would always kill the site.
Or, you can download and install a redirect plugin. WordPress options include 
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