Social Networks

Broaden Your Social Marketing Using Google+ Pages & Direct Connect

November 24, 2011 By tlyons Leave a Comment

Eversince Google+ started, businesses have always wanted to be part of it. In July, Google closed any account that has been verified as a business. Fortunately, earlier this month Google+ Pages welcomed in businesses & brands to use the Google+ social network. An amazing addition is that Google+ branded pages are appearing in search results.

People + pages, better together

Google+ has always been a place for real-life sharing, and Google+ Pages is no exception. After all: behind every page (or storefront, or four-door sedan) is a passionate group of individuals, and we think you should able to connect with them too.

For you and me, this means we can now hang out live with the local bike shop, or discuss our wardrobe with a favorite clothing line, or follow a band on tour. Google+ pages give life to everything we find in the real world. And by adding them to circles, we can create lasting bonds with the pages (and people) that matter most.

For businesses and brands, Google+ pages help you connect with the customers and fans who love you. Not only can they recommend you with a +1, or add you to a circle to listen long-term. They can actually spend time with your team, face-to-face-to-face. All you need to do is start sharing, and you’ll soon find the super fans and loyal customers that want to say hello.

A number of pages are already available and to create your own Google+ Page for your business, go to the Create A Page and choose which category you belong.

Local Business or Place
Product or Brand
Company, Institution or Organization
Arts, Entertainment or Sports
Other

According to Google, if you create a page for a local business, you have special options.

Local Google+ pages are unique from other categories of pages because they have features that allow customers to easily connect with that business’s physical location. For example, local pages include a map of the business’s location and feature its address, phone number, and hours of operation.

Just like how vanity or branded URLs are in Facebook, you can also have them in Google+ page, so be sure you can secure and use your real business name.

In addition, business pages will have an overall Google +1 count that shows on the profile page in which people can also +1 the page.

Direct Connect from Google search

People search on Google billions of times a day, and very often, they’re looking for businesses and brands. Today’s launch of Google+ Pages can help people transform their queries into meaningful connections, so we’re rolling out two ways to add pages to circles from Google search. The first is by including Google+ pages in search results, and the second is a new feature called Direct Connect.

Maybe you’re watching a movie trailer, or you just heard that your favorite band is coming to town. In both cases you want to connect with them right now, and Direct Connect makes it easy—even automatic. Just go to Google and search for [+], followed by the page you’re interested in (like +Angry Birds). We’ll take you to their Google+ page, and if you want, we’ll add them to your circles.

*You can add a brand to circles directly from a search result page with Direct Connect.

It will be exciting to watch how traffic is going to go between the big social networks and the integration with Google Analytics, but whatever the case may be, our focus is developing the marketing and brand using the content we have and the tools Google provides.

Filed Under: Articles, Google Tools, Social Networks, Tom's Ramblings

Get People to Keep Visiting & Talk About Your Site with Rumble Talk

November 15, 2011 By tlyons Leave a Comment

If you have a website, be it a blog, a portfolio website, a real estate website, etc. there’s always this need to keep on coming up with new & interesting stuff to put up to attract & give visitors a reason to keep on coming back & would make them want to stay longer on your site. RumbleTalk is a chat service that provides your visitors an exciting live conversation experience. It’s a fun way of giving your visitors a further reason to stay on your website and will promote your content for you.

To set it up, go to RumbleTalk. You simply need to register with your email and create a password. Rumble Talk is a cloud-based solution so there’s no coding or server required. The chat is added to the site by simply copying and pasting an automatically generated code.

RumbleTalk provides a live customizable chat widget that can be added to any web page in 3 basic options:

Embed anywhere on your website as part of a web page.
Embed as a floating toolbar on the bottom.
Get a URL and share it to your community.

Why use Rumble Talk?

Custom-Designed Chat - You will have an admin panel where in you can customize & design the look and feel of the chat box to align it with your website’s colors, font & theme, control background style in different parts of the chat, use your own image as a background & it gives you the ability to ”stretch or shrink” in size as needed.You can also use Rumble Talk’s skins & templates if you wish.

Promote via Social Networking & Increase SEO – Not only does Rumble Talk adds a chat service to your website, it also has a feature that makes it easy for your visitors to share your website to social networking sites like Facebook & Twitter. Use a single sign-on with Facebook or Twitter account. Visitors will have the ability to “LIKE” your company’s Facebook page & retweet interesting lines from the chat or repost them on Facebook, instantly promoting your site! You can also let visitors contribute content to your site or blog.

Easy to Manage – You may have a couple of websites that you’d want to add the Rumble Talk to. No need to worry because you have an option to use one account to manage all of your site & you can manage as many chats as you like in each site. You can even restrict inappropriate words. With RumbleTalk you can define a list of words and phrases that will be restricted & ban certain users to help control spamming visitors.

It’s FREE!

What better way to energize your website or blog? Use it to engage visitors & to create a community in your website.

Filed Under: Articles, Featured, Product Reviews, Site reviews, Social Networks, Tom's Ramblings

Why You Shouldn’t Limit Your Brand to Just One Social Networking Platform

October 18, 2011 By tlyons Leave a Comment

Social media is a valuable tool for businesses and organizations. While game-changing in many ways, they are simply the latest in the evolution of tools that allow people to easily connect with one another. Ultimately, it’s important to keep in mind that the purpose of social media is to generate interest in your product.

Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Friendster, MySpace, Xanga, etc… Anyone who has internet is familiar with these sites. Some of these sites have faded (Friendster, Xanga, etc.), leaving decaying individual’s profile. Yet, the fact remains that social media is of essential importance to anyone hoping to expand their brand. So the question is “Should companies focus on one social media platform to ensure success?”

In a blink of an eye, something beyond your control might affect the way you reach your target audience, especially when you just rely everything in just one social media platform. Take for example – Facebook.

Whether you’re a fan of change or not, it’s coming quickly to the social media giant, Facebook. They basically just dropped a bombshell and instantly changed the way we communicate online with their new newsfeed, timelines, subscriptions and a myriad of other enhancements and updates. However, if you have a fan page, you might have noticed a drop off in the amount of interaction you are getting on it. Facebook said they want to make it easier for people to connect on the web. But we have yet to find out what good does the new changes bring to Facebook pages.

See, this is what we have to understand. If our brand just circles around Facebook and if it’s the only way we communicated with our clients because we haven’t diversified enough and use other platforms, these changes could have badly hurt our business. Email, Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, Google, SEM, SEO, phone calls, QR codes, texting and prints all need to be used in conjunction with one another to drive people to your home base, which is your self-hosted blog. That is the only thing that you control! And if Twitter goes away tomorrow and you use other mediums to communicate with your clients, you will not be badly hurt & crippled. You cannot afford to put all of your eggs in one basket.

The first step of a successful (and long term) social media plan is to spread your brand everywhere you can and the main goal is to drive people to your site and give them a ton of quality content that will keep them coming back. More than ever, it’s important that you have a web presence. Especially in a Real Estate business, since it’s is no longer a short term -transaction game, but a long term relationship building process, that would definitely be strengthen by having a web presence. Your own website or a self hosted blog is the only thing that you have a 100% control over, so it is where your time needs to be spent first.

Here’s a pratical takeaway: Google your personal name and your company’s name. What comes up? If you don’t see anything about yourself or your business, none of the other billions of people online will see it either and you know wha to do.

Filed Under: Articles, Facebook, Featured, Must Reads, Social Networks, Tom's Ramblings, Twitter

10 Social Media Marketing Tips Small Businesses Should Bear in Mind

October 12, 2011 By tlyons 2 Comments

Most small businesses usually focus on researching, understanding and managing elements related to their businesses. That’s good business sense. However, only few have the resources necessary to keep current with changes & have the time to monitor the daily changes that impact social media marketing.

Fortunately, small businesses don’t need to be experts to be able to promote their businesses through social media sites and connect with people quickly & spread the brand faster than ever before.

Here are 10 smart social media marketing tips:

1. Have A Social Media Marketing Plan

Businesses can take advantage of a lot of sites & applications that are available for free but you need to spend ample time to plan to make your social media marketing work. Set the goals you want to attain from social media & the actions you plan to take to achieve them. Determine the amount of time & resources you need to allot for every process to keep you on track. Make sure to write it down so you can keep track of your progress & focus on getting the results you want.

2. Do Things In the Right Place at the Right Time

After setting a plan, oftentimes small business owners tend to do everything all at once in all places. Being in all social networking sites is not essentially beneficial for every business. Do some research to determine which platforms work best for you line of business. Do a research which sites are your competitors and customers on. Start with the platform that you are familiar with and that you already have established network on.

3. Keep Track of Your Achievement & Return on Investment

Being a small business, you’re always pressed for time & you only have limited resources, so it’s very important for you to keep track of every aspect of your business to be sure you’re doing progress & that it’s worth your time and efforts. A social media program is no exception. Make use of some type of analytics that most social media applications have (google analytics, number of views on a video or blog), to keep track of your progress, for you to determine which ones are working and which ones aren’t. The success of your social media marketing will always be based on the feedbacks you receive, so keep track.

4. Do Not Underutilize Social Platforms for Branding

Every social media platform enables you to insert your brand messages and images in multiple fields. Many small business owners fail to take advantage of these and leave multiple fields on their profiles blank. Your company information, logo, contact number and any other links to your website should be available so potential customers would have an idea what you do and would know how and where to contact you. Make sure your company profile is complete and nicely done, it reflects

5. Engage & Listen to Others

Great salespeople are great listeners. The most critical communication skill for anyone in the business world – managers, innovators, salespeople, and customer service specialists – is effective listening. People don’t buy what you wish to sell. They buy what they need. Selling is not happening when you are talking. Selling is happening when your prospect is talking, and you are listening actively and passionately, listening to your prospect’s emotions to find the right fit.Engagement in social media gives you the opportunity to build authority in your field which leads to – sales

6. Address Negative Comments or Feedback

There will be times when you’re going to get negative posts or comments from customers or clients on your profile. The initial reaction is to delete the comment, which is not the right thing to do. Social media is based upon transparency and authenticity. The best thing to do, instead of deleting the post, is to address the concern and give solutions if needed. Dealing with it will earn your brand loyalty than you had before.

7. Be Consistent on Each Network Your On

You may not know it, but a lot of your company information is a matter of public record. Regardless if you want to be involved socially or not, your company might already be in Google Place and Yelp may have already list information about your company whether you’ve created a profile or not. Use this as an opportunity to expand your web presence. All of these services give you the option to control what’s shown about your company and how it’s shown. Claim all of the profiles that mention your company and update the information. Be consistent on each network so the same information is listed.

8. Don’t Skimp on Time

Having an online presence requires time & maintenance, so to speak. To fully get the results of expanding your network online, you need to consistently interact online, even if it’s just about 10-15 minutes a day. If you don’t have the time, might as well not start it.

9. Be Passionate

Passion drives you to give it your best and strive for perfection. Social media marketing cannot be successful without passion, as it requires a drive to be able to push through difficulties and setbacks inherent with managing interactions from people. If you have the resources, consider having one of your employees run the program. Social media can make a big impact on your business, but (like anything) you need to have a certain level of interest and passion to make it successful.

10. Know if Social Media Is Right For Your Business or Not

Just because lots of businesses are using social media, doesn’t mean you have to. For many small businesses, social media isn’t the right outlet. Know and assess your business, so you won’t be wasting a lot of time if you think social media is not really for your business.

Social media marketing, when done properly, contributes a lot to the development of your company’s online social presence which leads to improved search engine positioning and increases website traffic. It builds credibility and give people an opportunity to get to know and trust your business. So make sure to take control to get amazing results. Social networking is not just a fad, it’s a revolution.

Filed Under: Articles, Featured, Social Networks, Tom's Ramblings Tagged With: Social Media Marketing Tips

Facebook and Google still tops for web hits

August 15, 2011 By Tom Lyons Leave a Comment

The latest web statistics from Hitwise (www.hitwise.com) are out. Here are the highlights of the most popular websites in Canada for the week ending Aug. 6. A few things are obvious from the latest results.

Facebook, YouTube and Google dominate in their categories. Canadians love our banks’ online banking websites, too! Meanwhile, MLS continues to dominate activity in Canada’s real estate industry.

The top 10 overall websites for traffic were: 1) Facebook (12.52 per cent of all traffic); 2) Google Canada (9.26 per cent) ; 3) Windows Live Mail (4.34 per cent); 4) YouTube (4.21 per cent); 5) MSN Canada (2.17 per cent); 6) Google (1.72 per cent); 7) Yahoo! Canada (1.30 per cent); Bing (1.27 per cent); 9) Yahoo! Mail Canada (1.16 per cent); 10) Sympatico.ca (0.96 per cent).

The top five search engines: 1) Google Canada (65.68 per cent); 2) Google (12.18 per cent); 3) Bing (9.03 per cent); 4) Ask (3.60 per cent); 5) Yahoo! Canada Search (2.79 per cent). It’s pretty clear that Google continues to dominate the Canadian search engine landscape, leaving all others in the dust. You know you’ve arrived when your brand name has become a verb.

The top five social media websites: 1) Facebook (64.52 per cent); 2) YouTube (21.72 per cent); 3) Twitter (0.98 per cent); 4) Meebo (0.79 per cent); 5) Badoo (0.78 per cent). Of the 15 other websites showing up on the Top 20 list, Google Plus is nowhere to be found. Note the complete dominance of Facebook and YouTube. Together, they account for a phenomenal 86.24 per cent of all social media website traffic in the country. Incredible!

Hitwise also ranks sites in banking, travel, real estate and entertainment.

The top five banking websites: 1) TD Canada Trust Online Banking (12.36 per cent); 2) Royal Bank of Canada Online Banking (11.30 per cent); 3) Desjardins Online Banking (8.52 per cent); 4) TD Canada Trust (7.50 per cent); 5) Royal Bank of Canada.

The top five travel websites: 1) Google Maps Canada (16.98 per cent); 2) Google Maps (4.46 per cent); 3) Take Off Eh! (3.99 per cent); 4) Expedia Canada (3.22 per cent); 5) Air Canada (2.20 per cent).

The top five real estate websites: 1) Realtor Canada – also known as MLS (25.81 per cent); 2) RE/MAX Quebec (5.31 per cent); 3) Duproprio.com (4.42 per cent); 4) ComFree.com (2.89 per cent); 5) Century 21 Canada Real Estate (2.49 per cent). Moncton-based Property Guys is in ninth place with 1.79 per cent of total visits.

The top five websites featuring entertainment personalities: 1) People Magazine (14.00 per cent); 2) TMZ.com (9.15 per cent); 3) PerezHilton.com (5.98 per cent); 4) Zimbio (5.79 per cent); 5) CelebEdge – Canada (3.51 per cent).

And finally, here are the top 10 search terms (written exactly as they are being searched for) for the week ending August 6: 1) facebook (5.42 per cent); 2) youtube (1.91 per cent); 3) facebook login (1.64 per cent); 4) kijiji (0.39 per cent); 5) www.facebook.com (0.31 per cent); 6) facebook.com (0.26 per cent); 7) plenty of fish (0.25 per cent); 8) google (0.25 per cent); 9) you tube (0.23 per cent); 10) fb (0.17 per cent).

Of all the terms searched for in Canadian cyberspace, Facebook-related searches account for five, while YouTube accounts for two – meaning that seven of the Top 10 searches only involve two websites. That’s pretty impressive, if you ask me! And again, Google Plus isn’t even on the radar.

° Brian Cormier is a writer, blogger and communications consultant. Social Media Matters appears every Friday. E-mail:brian@briancormier.com. Website: www.briancormier.com. Twitter: @BrianCormier. Facebook: facebook.com/briancormierreaders

Filed Under: Facebook, Google Tools, Must Reads, SEO, Social Networks, Twitter, YouTube

5 Facebook Pages That Everyone Must “Like”

July 13, 2011 By tlyons Leave a Comment

Your business can’t afford to not have a facebook presence. The social networking site has more than 750 million active users despite the headlines about security issues and the virus that began to spread claiming to have photos of him shortly after the news broke about Osama Bin Laden being killed.Good thing Facebook Security Page notifies people who “Like” the page about the virus so people were made aware to avoid computers to get infected.

We have to take the risk in order to take advantage of the benefits of Facebook. With the Privacy and Security settings available for us to find a comfortable balance between being social and being private, Facebook users need to somewhat accept the responsibility to secure and look out for necessary steps to protect ourselves.

Nevertheless, Facebook has a lot of resources to guide its users and keep them updated. Here are 5 Facebook pages that everyone is recommended to “Like”

Facebook Security

Like this Page to receive updates about how to protect your information both on and off Facebook.

Facebook Known Issues

“Like” Facebook Known Issues if you want the most up-to-date information about bugs and other issues on the site.

Facebook Marketing Solutions

This pages share news and best practices for marketing on Facebook. You will find videos, guides, interviews and links to live training events.

Facebook Pages

The guide provides best practices on managing a Page for advertisers and page admins. Your plays a very important role in your marketing, so you’d really want to stay up-to-date with all the changes.

You may also want to check out their guide on Facebook Page Marketing

Facebook Live

Facebook Live is Facebook’s official live video streaming channel, providing a deeper look into our features, partners & employees. They use this page to live stream product announcements, round table discussions and interviews with thought leaders. When you follow this page you will be notified of upcoming events that you may want to attend.

The reality is that Facebook membership is actually still growing. Social networking and data privacy are, in many ways, directly at odds and the solution comes down to user awareness and choice.

Filed Under: Articles, Facebook, Social Networks, Tom's Ramblings

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