Razworks Web Designer Sarasota and 3D animation

This is a summary of Robert Moorman’s presentation at Search Marketing Expo / Online Marketer Conference held in Sydney 1-2 May 2012.

Robert Moorman is a Video Strategist at Hunting With Pixels, a company that specializes in strategic social video campaigns. Robert has over 20 years of experience working as a video producer for media organizations like Fremantle Media and MTV in the UK, Australia and Europe.

Content is king but distribution is queen, says Robert. Content is now about ideas, not tech. For example, 8 year olds who use iPads don’t need to know interface design in order to use it. Video content must be engaging, authentic, simple and memorable.

Robert kicked off showing a corporate video that emphasizes the relationships formed by a business rather than the product they sell.

 

Video Content Optimization

There are a couple of major things to remember when optimizing your video content, says Robert:

• Highlight your branding early so people associate it with the visual message.
• Include your call to action early, in case people don’t view the entire video.
• Don’t forget audio quality. Poor audio will automatically reflect poorly on your brand. TEST it!
• Short videos generally perform better. If possible, keep your videos to 2-3 minutes.
• Use graphics and captions in your videos to highlight key points.
• Be engaging and relevant.

Robert then showed a Nintendo 3DS promotional video that acknowledges the audience is smart. Clever approach, it worked well with the target market and had a viral impact because it was funny.

Video Distribution Channels

There are quite a few video distribution channels available – YouTube is not everything. So here are the options:

• YouTube – the obvious choice.
• Vimeo Pro – is an excellent HD quality hosting option.
• Vid.ly - is great for video transcoding and checking if your video is viewable on multiple platforms.

Video Content Syndication Tips

• Get your videos embedded by others. If you haven’t already read it, read The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. It will give you some ideas for how to make your videos memorable and sharable.
• Make sure your videos are fully searchable. Fill out all the fields when uploading them to YouTube and other content placeholders. Put the http URL in the video title and/or video description so it becomes a clickable link.
• Use playlists to your advantage.
• When viewing YouTube, choose the right thumbnail, do keyword research to find popular related keywords.
• Turn on transcription / subtitles when uploading your videos to create an automatic text version of your content.
• Context matters – be wary of where your vid appears.
• Use seeding and video advertising platforms – eg. TubeMogul or YouTube advertising to auto distribute your video content via similar content.

Video Marketing Tips

• Be sharable – use video plugins that make it easy.
• Be easy to use.
• Make your video content easily navigable.
• Don’t use shortcuts – quality is key with video content.
• Use YouTube analytics to keep up with viewer statistics and tweak your videos based on viewer activity.
• If you need to create a video-based site, try Vidcaster – instant micro websites made for videos.
• For tips on how to SEO your videos, read Reelseo.com regularly.

Robert then talked about a new marketing trend – interactive video content. He showed the Choose a Different Ending video that paused and gave viewers two storyline options to choose from eg. “take the knife”, or “don’t take the knife”, like the alternative ending books you used to read as a kid. Ultimately, you choose whether to live or die. The video was created by DropTheWeapons.org as an awareness tool to break the circle of youth violence and weapons crime.

Robert then showed a video that was a Flash video that entirely mimicked a YouTube page – A Hunter Shoots a Bear – with the word *shoots* able to be replaced by user chosen via keyboard [fun tip - type in *dances with*]. It was a clever ad for Tipp-Ex correction fluid. Apparently they shot over 100 different keyword scenarios. Robert showed another where the company had created an entire website just using video.

In summary, video marketing doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. Just give it a go. Look into buying a mid range video camera, a cheapish background screen and a spotlight in order to DIY videos for your site. You can get an entire package for under $1,200.

---

Kalena Jordan is a search engine agony aunt, SEO blogger & co-founder of SearchEngineCollege.com. Check out her Google+ Profile

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

SMX Sydney 2012 – Robert Moorman – Developing a Video Content Marketing Campaign

I was riding public transit the other day. I glanced up after sending an email from my iPhone and saw passengers toiling away either on their Apple, Android, or Blackberry device. There wasn’t a newspaper in sight.

After disembarking I entered a café for a quick latte and witnessed tables full of patrons on iPads and various tablets without one laptop in the vicinity. I made my way from the café and entered my building where I hopped on the elevator with others. As soon as the doors closed we bowed our heads (as if we had entered sacred ground) to scroll through our smartphones to pass the seconds it took to arrive at our respective floors. An hour later, in the gym, my cardio session was distracted by fellow fitness enthusiasts who perched themselves on treadmills and stationary bikes, not clutching bottles of water, but mobile internet devices.

The revolution has not been televised, it has gone mobile.

However, it’s not too late to join the party. There are over 5 billion mobile subscribers in the world to date and many of them are accessing the internet primarily through their smartphones and tablets. By 2015, it is projected that over 50% of off ALL online traffic will come from mobile devices. You have time to get on board. We have provided some additional evidence here, as to why your business should have a mobile website:

1. Local Search

The mobile revolution was spawned from convenience. Google provides different search results for mobile users than desktops to account for their exact current location. You can be out on the street and decide within a split second about where to grab lunch, read reviews, make an online reservation, and get GPS enabled directions/recommendations via walking or local transit. If you want the public to find your business on the spur of the moment and convert to paying customers, then your website needs to be mobile optimized.

2. Attention Span

Practically everyone has ADD when it comes to browsing the internet. Studies show that you have 7 seconds to capture someone’s attention on your landing page before they decide to go elsewhere. If these visitors have to scroll through columns of small text to get to the goods, they will leave. Make sure your mobile home page doesn’t read like the small print of a pharmaceutical ad. Instead, put your “best foot forward” the second customers access your mobile website by displaying clear Calls to Action only.

3. mCommerce

If you are selling products/services online, then there is no question that your website should be optimized for mobile use. 33% of smartphone users have purchased or would consider purchasing through their mobile device. The math speaks for itself.

4. More Cost Effective than Apps

For small and medium-sized businesses, creating an app can be very costly. A recent Nielson study has shown that more mobile shoppers are accessing mobile websites to make purchases than through apps they’ve downloaded to their smartphones. This means that you can bypass the expense of app development and focus on creating a mobile website for your business.

5. Appearance

One of the most obvious considerations is appearance. For example, if you are using Flash on your home page, those with Apple devices will not be able to view the content. In addition, many images which appear attractive on your desktop can look cluttered on a smartphone, if they even load at all. Optimize to ensure your mobile webpage loads quickly and loads well.

6. You Can Still Be First

Depending on your industry, the chances are you still have the opportunity to be one of the first among your competition with a mobile site. In fact, it’s staggering how many businesses have yet to optimize their websites considering the popularity of mobile devices. Create your mobile website today for more profit tomorrow.

Conclusion

The future direction of the internet has already been mapped out. No crystal ball needed this time. Take the success of your business into your own hands by having a professional internet marketing company build your mobile website today.

---

Article by Marcus Maraih, Content Development, http://www.StandardMarketing.ca

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Why Your Website Should Go Mobile

Many website owners were shocked and dismayed to find their sites had suddenly disappeared from page one of the world’s most popular search engine after Google launched its Penguin 5 Update at the end of April. While Google’s recent action has left many website owners blindsided and scrambling to recover lost rankings, the move, while ruffling more than a few feathers, was hardly unprecedented. So, if you have suddenly fallen out of favor with the 800 lb gorilla in the room, what you need to ask yourself is whether you want to get mad, or whether you want to get even.

Even Gorillas Get the Blues

More importantly, you need to ask yourself what is it that the gorilla wants that you aren’t currently providing. For the most part, the Penguin Update was seeking to redress issues regarding link spamming, where sites rely on paid links that have little relevance in the real world and only exist to game the search engines. So if you have been dabbling with link farms, or otherwise engaging in building links with questionable sites, it is time you stopped this practice.

Google also took issue with such tactics as keyword stuffing, where keywords are dropped without rhyme or reason throughout a site in order to influence the search engine spiders. If your text is peppered with keywords that have little relevance to your storyline, or you have hidden text readable only by the googlebots, then you need to clean up your act.

Time to Spring into Action

In fact, one of the best ways to get back in Google’s good graces would be to conduct a bit of spring cleaning in order to prune old or irrelevant content, links and keyword spam. Instead of crying over spilt milk, perhaps you should look at this as a wakeup call that could be put to good use. If it has been more than a year since you updated your site, this would be the perfect time to add some sizzle by dropping in a video or two, or adding Google+ to your social networking scheme. Both these tactics and additional blogposts will help boost your links and ranking, as well as giving your site a fresh new look.

While there are a few additional and highly technical details that the Penguin was designed to curtail, for the most part what every website owner needs to know is that if you are more interested in gaming the search engines than you are in engaging your audience, then you can only expect to get as good as you give. What I mean by that is that if you provide consistent, relevant content on a regular basis that improves visitor experience and delivers value to your customers, then you are going to wind up not only wooing the search engines, but wowing your audience as well, which is why you should be working the web in the first place.

So, if you really want to create a web presence that is more or less bulletproof to the ever changing whims of search engine operators, then you need to stay focused on creating the kind of site that people will want to come back to read time and time again. And always beware of booby trapped umbrellas.

---

Carl Weiss has been working the web to win since 1995 and has helped hundreds of companies increase their online results. He is president of W Squared Media and co-host of the weekly radio show Working the Web to Win which airs Tuesdays at 4pm Eastern on BlogTalkRadio.com.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Holy Algorithm, Batman, the Penguin Strikes Back!

Today I’m covering QR Codes, a fairly new technology for encoding data that is quickly growing in use and popularity. You need to be aware of this emerging trend and of how you can incorporate QR Codes in your marketing campaigns.

QR codes are the modern-day version of the bar code. These are blocky, black and white patterns with tons of data encoded on them. They’re encoded with your URL so that when you scan one with a smartphone or other mobile device, it sends the browser straight to the website.

Imagine this – you’ve got a print advertisement telling people to check out your website. They have to go to a computer, type in the URL, and hit click before they can see it. With a QR code, all they do is scan it and they’re there.

Plus, you can use them for more than just getting people to your website. You can embed the URL of your Facebook Like button into the code so that with one quick scan, they Like you. You can also embed it with a URL that instantly subscribes them to your list. See how cool this is?

How to Use QR Codes

The great thing about QR codes is that you can put them anywhere. There have been some famous marketing campaigns already where companies have plastered QR codes all over their merchandise to get people to their websites. You can put them on brochures, business cards, t-shirts, fliers, bus stops, kiosks, signs and more. Stamps and stickers of your QR code can be made and you can even put them on websites.

You can embed them with any URL you like. In addition to the examples above, you can send people to your Facebook fan page or Twitter profile, your YouTube channel or a specific video, your blog, your profile on any site, your landing page or absolutely anywhere else you’d like them to go.

Getting Your Own Code

You’re probably wondering how much this awesome new technology is going to run you. Well, here’s another surprise. You can make as many QR codes as you’d like for free. This is a really simple technology and it doesn’t take much to embed one with a URL.

There are websites that create your code for you. These include:

- Kaywa – reader.kaywa.com/

- Qurify – www.qurify.com

- QRMobilize – qrmobilize.com

- GoQRme – goqr.me

- Google’s URL Shortener – goo.gl

Editor’s Note: QRCodes-Index.com allows you to create up to 5 free QR Codes.

And these are just a few of them. They give you an instant code that you can copy and paste, or save and print out. You can make one for each of your URLs and plaster them everywhere.

One quick word of warning, though – You probably want to go out right now and start a massive campaign with your QR codes. But before you get started, make sure you’ve got a good purpose in mind. In other words, what do you want people to do when they scan that code? Make sure you’ve got it well thought out before you start investing your time in putting your codes everywhere.

---

Toby Russell, Internet Marketer, Publisher & Property Investor offers tried and tested methods to help you succeed on line. Get my FREE MP3 Download Interview With Top Internet Marketer & FREE 94 page Free Special Report – Available at => http://www.startinternetmarketingonline.com

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

QR Codes – What They are and How They Work to Get You Traffic

The new kid on the block, Google+, influences how Google sends you traffic from their search engine. This is how:

1. Improving Your Results in Google Search

Google+ has a lot of features and elements built in that will allow Google to have better information to collect about your website from your social circles. They can see what you share, who likes it, what is most important to you, what is most important to your friends, and whether your company is able to satisfy the needs of your followers.

Now, if one of your friends does a search, or one of your friends’ friends, Google can direct them to your website. Google can promote according to your relationships, and use ads to your network based on their interests.

Google+ makes it possible for Google to get an understanding of how individuals share and discuss things. Based on this they can fine-tune the results when you or your circle of friends use the search engine.

2. Improved Quality In Search Results

Now you can’t cheat anymore and have false results due to artificial linking. If you are a spammer, Google will know and will be able to distinguish between a real profile and a spam one. This is great!

This also means that you will need to work hard to get quality +1′s, and make sure you build quality relationships with those in your circles.

3. Changes How You Get Traffic

Google’s share button, the +1, appears in the search results, and can be embedded on your website. They are tied to a destination page, the website where they are embedded the same as tweets or likes. This is important to know as you need to have this installed on your website. Your +1 votes will be tallied separately for each of your pages. This will affect each pages’ Quality Score, which will in turn help with your Google AdSense budget. Moving pages or changing their links will reset your +1 count for that page.

4. Improve Your Site’s Click-Through Rates

This is how often people actually click on your page in the Google search results. You can actually see in the Google results which website is more popular, or which resource people found helpful.

Many people will click differently based on those results. The ones with the most +1′s will be favored over those with the least. It is therefore imperative that you start using Google+ and that you use it to its fullest potential.

5. Direct Connect +

Google added a new feature to their search engine where you can add a + before your company name which will bring up your business profile directly bypassing the search results.

You can add a Google Connect button to your website. However, not all pages will be included. Google uses an algorithm to establish whether to use your website or not. You, therefore, need to work a bit in order to get your website included.

As you can see, Google+ is not like any other social networking site. It will affect our search habits, and Google is not scared to use that to its advantage to penetrate and dominate the social media space.

---

Article by Hannah Du Plessis. For more information on Social Media Marketing and to learn how you can attract clients like a
magnet, visit Attraction Marketing.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Five Benefits of Google+ for Business

With the recent Penguin update that came down a few weeks ago from Google, a lot of site owners are wondering what they can do to recover from a search engine penalty. We know that Penguin was designed to target webspam tactics (Panda was more about content quality), and while glaring black hat tactics like keyword stuffing are easy to spot and fix, it’s not always as simple to find the gray hat SEO tactics that might be contributing (or will with subsequent updates) to a search engine penalty. Many DIY SEO site owners run afoul of the Google Webmaster Guidelines simply because they don’t realize they are doing anything wrong.

If your site has managed to escape unscathed by a Google update so far, don’t assume that you’re free and clear forever. Each search engine update gets a little better at catching and flagging sites that are in violation of the Webmaster Guidelines. Before you find yourself in emergency mode because your organic traffic was cut in half due to a penalty, here are 5 things every site owner can do to protect their website and ensure that future updates will only help their site perform better in the search engines:

1. Forget About Keyword Density

There is no “right” number of times you should use a keyword in any given piece of content. Forget every piece of advice you’ve ever heard about keyword density (2%, 6%, use each keyword at least three times!) and just focus on writing great content. One of the few hard and fast rules of SEO is that content should always be written for the human reader first, the search engines second. Believe it or not, a well-written piece of content will partially optimize itself because the topic naturally encourages you to use various keywords. You never want to force a keyword into the content to meet some keyword count quota – it’s almost always going to negatively impact the usability of your content. Of course you want to optimize your content for SEO, but worry about targeting keywords AFTER you’ve written the content. You can go back and tweak the post to be a little more SEO friendly in the revision round.

2. Diversify Your Anchor Text

A lot of SEO experts are hypothesizing that exact match anchor text might have been a big flag for the Penguin update. It’s important to diversify your anchor text so the search engines don’t have any reason to suspect that you might be trying to manipulate the SERPs. Branded keywords are probably going to make up a large percentage of your anchor text portfolio, but you don’t want to rely too heavily on a short list of targeted keywords (and please don’t use CLICK HERE as anchor text; it has no SEO value) for your anchor text. Much like with optimizing your content, there is no “right” number of times to use a particular keyword or keyword phrase as your anchor text.

3. Remove Questionable Links From Your Link Portfolio

In the weeks before Penguin, Google started sending out notifications to many site owners warning them about “unnatural links” in their link portfolio. These could be link exchanges, paid links, unrelated links, links from splogs and low quality directories and so forth. If there are any links in your link portfolio that might catch the eye of Google for the wrong reasons, it’s best to do away with them now so you don’t have to worry about it later. Keep in mind that a few “bad” links aren’t going to destroy your SEO, especially if the vast majority of your link portfolio is full of great links. You can’t control who links to you, which has made many site owners worry about the ramifications of negative SEO (a competitor would purposely link from dangerous sites to you to hurt your site). It’s when you have an okay link portfolio or shady SEO past that you need to worry about scrubbing your link portfolio as quickly and effectively as you can.

Some SEO experts have also hypothesized that sites might feel a trickledown effect via their link portfolio. Even if your site wasn’t hit by Penguin, if a lot of the sites linking to yours were those poor quality sites Google penalized, links from those sites become pretty much useless to your SEO. Your site may have escaped unharmed, but your link portfolio took a big hit.

4. Analyze the Value and Quality of Your Content

Ever since the first Panda update last year, just about every Google update since then has been focused on quality, especially content quality. It’s hard to hold a mirror up to our own efforts sometimes, but take a good hard look at your content. Where is there room for improvement? Are there any thin pages that you could combine in order to make a strong page with a great user experience? Are there pages you should just delete entirely? Put yourself in the shoes of your customer – would you want to buy from your brand? Is your content compelling and user driven or is it just a bunch of company mumbo jumbo and ego?

If you haven’t already, now is the time to launch a company blog (or up the number of posts you have going live each week.) Onsite SEO and link building are crucial to long term SEO success, but content is really what is going to propel your brand forward. The more quality content you have built around your website the better you look in the eyes of the search engines. It gives your customers a reason to interact with your brand (and link to your site!), builds your online authority and helps grow your overall online presence.

5. Imagine There are No Search Engines

Speaking of overall online presences (and this is going to sound strange coming from an SEO professional), treat your online marketing like there were no search engines. It’s important to diversify your traffic sources so your entire online livelihood isn’t based on the mercy of the search engines. If Google didn’t exist, what other online activities would you invest into connect with your audience? Build up these other channels so that if your site is impacted by an update, you can survive until you figure out and fix the problem. Google doesn’t owe you anything, and even though they want site owners to do a good job with their SEO (it helps clean up the SERPs, which gives Google a better product) they aren’t obligated to make sure your site survives. It’s up to you to learn the rules of the online world and give your website the best chance at online success!

There are many, many things a site owner could so with their SEO that could trigger a penalty from Google. But these are 5 things a site owner can (and should) do to not only protect their sites from future updates, but actually benefit from them!

---

Nick Stamoulis is the President of Brick Marketing, a Boston SEO services agency. With over 12 years of industry experience, Nick Stamoulis shares his knowledge by offering SEO training and consulting sessions and by publishing the Brick Marketing SEO Newsletter, read by over 150,000 opt-in subscribers. Contact Nick Stamoulis at 781-999-1222 or nick@brickmarketing.com

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

5 Ways To Protect Your Website from Future Google Updates — A SPN Exclusive Article

Though seemingly new, Pinterest has quickly become a major source of buyers. Pinterest is not new. It has been gradually rising in popularity for the last two years. In fact, it is still in beta now despite suddenly landing in the new number 3 spot on the Social Media Network rankings (as of March 2012). It is thanks to this steadily increasing popularity that the volume of traffic both on the network, and referred from it, have led to an increase in sales for those companies able to sell their stuff in a visually compelling way.

If your target audience is primarily women, aged 35 – 55, in households with an average income of $100,000 or more, then Pinterest is a social platform you want to add to your marketing mix.

Here are 5 key tips to keep in mind if you do decide it’s for you:

1. Daily Pins, But Not All At Once

Like every social network, daily is better than weekly, and multiple times/day is better than once for a solid 85 minute session. This is because, when you pin, or re-pin, an image, it goes out onto the general stream of pins. Think: newsfeed. If you do a solid chunk of time there (so that you can cross at least one thing off your list for today) then you will not only clog up everyone’s feed, but risk getting un-followed by others not appreciating the saturation.

2. Narrow the Focus of Each Board

Red shoes are better than shoes; Zone 5 Silver Roses are better than Roses. Because of the massive volume, the narrower the niche the better. It’s just like living in Manhattan where the tighter and more specific your specialty, the more business and higher prices you can command. You get considered as an expert in that narrow niche and can take up a leadership, go-to, guru status for folks who want exactly that.

3. Be Useful

Many businesses on Pinterest just want to promote themselves. However, Pinterest users are very aware of self-serving businesses, and they tend to get ignored. The best way to beat this is by promoting other businesses or making pins that lead to useful articles. You could co-opt a colleague and do “third-party endorsements” for each other. When you recommend someone else, it expands your own authority. It is ironic: by expressing your honest admiration of a colleague, you demonstrate your own confidence and wisdom. Remember, people are on Pinterest to see, to window-shop and to get recommendations. It’s a Gen Y thing: they make decisions as a group. Understand that and you won’t offend them with overt self-promotion.

[Sidebar: it is in the context of being useful - aka helpful, providing value - that you can then share that you have this opportunity of your own. That's the mindset of a sale on Pinterest.]

4. Follow the Leader

Chances are that, no matter how big your business, there is someone bigger or equal to you in your niche. Follow that business. Even if it is your main competition, follow that business on Pinterest. Logically this makes no sense, but since it has worked for people on Twitter, (the last big new thing in Social Media Marketing) the assumption is that it will work here too. The concept is that the leader will then reciprocate and follow you back. Thus, whenever you take an action, it will show up in that leader’s stream. So all of the leaders’ people get to see you too and the theory is you will grow your fan base as a result. [Pinterest has been on the radar for such a short term there's no proof of this yet, other than the Twitter experience, as mentioned before.]

5. Pin Videos

It’s no secret that a video gives you a great chance to promote your business and connect with the audience. However, lots of people don’t know that you can pin videos on Pinterest, so there are fewer videos compared to images. That gives you a competitive edge.

Bonus Tip: you can pin articles too, but I don’t recommend it. Snore. It’s a network that works best with rich, colorful images. Funny cartoons, wise sayings against a lush photographic background and mouthwatering food tend to be popular, as do photos that look like Architectural Digest or Travel magazine.

---

Article by Juliet McEwen Johnson. These are my top five favorite tips to rapidly increase your Pinterest following and supercharge your business’s promotion and marketing. For more, why not join me on a webinar where I demonstrate some cool toys and more tips to get the most business out of Pinterest while growing fans and driving traffic to your destination of choice.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Five Tips To Grow Fans And Traffic On Pinterest

Ezine or newsletter publishing is an essential element of your online business. Ezines allow you to keep in contact with your prospective customers and to build relationships of trust and respect. Relationship building is the foundation of your online business and producing a quality ezine or newsletter can help you accomplish this.

Over the years I have been asked many questions about how to publish and ezine. Below are many of the most common questions people have asked.

Q: What is an ezine?

An ezine is simply an electronic newsletter or magazine emailed periodically to a list of opt-in subscribers. Opt-in means these subscribers have signed up for and given permission for you to send your ezine.

Q: To whom do I send my ezine?

You will need to build a list of subscribers by advertising and promoting your ezine. There are several free ways to do this.

Ad Swaps – Running other publishers’ ads in exchange for running yours is a great way to get a lot of free exposure and to build your mailing list.

Writing Articles – When writing and submitting articles be sure to offer your free newsletter in the resource box. If people like your articles they will probably sign up for your ezine.

SigTag – By adding an attention grabbing headline and your subscribe address to your email sigtag, you can substantially increase your mailing list.

Message Boards – Join message boards and discussion groups and add your subscribe address to your signature. Join in the conversations and give advice, help and guidance. This will help you build your list as well.

Social Sites – Be sure to post info and mention your ezine and/or newsletter on your social sites. This is an excellent way to get people to sign up.

Joint Ventures – Contact other ezine publishers and work together to promote each other. Exchange thank you page ads, participate in group pop-up windows, swap ads in your welcome email, etc. Be creative with joint ventures and you can help each other get more subscribers.

Q: How can my ezine make money?

Your ezine is like a lifeline between your business and your readers. Your readers will come to trust you and your reputation will grow along with your business. You can also earn extra money by selling advertising space in your ezine.

Q: What do I put in my ezine?

Fill your ezine with resources, helpful information, some fun, motivational stories, original or guest articles, product and affiliate program reviews, freebies, webmaster tools, etc. Put yourself in your ezine as well. Let your readers get to know you and give your newsletter some personality. Be sure to have your contact info readily available for your readers. Write an editorial and talk to your readers. Encourage them to interact with you. Writing and publishing a quality ezine is fun so let your ideas flow for an interesting and unique ezine!

Q: How do I send out my ezine?

There are many options for emailing your ezine and many of them are free. When I started my first ezine many years ago, I used Yahoo Groups for sending it out. That worked out very well. Other options include:

Autoresponder – A favorite of many publishers but can get costly.

Web Host mailing Feature – I have also used this option. It is free and works out very well.

Mailing List Software – You can also purchase software to manage and send out your newsletter.

Experiment with your ezine. Try new ideas and let your creativity come out. Make your ezine an extension of you and your business.

Above all else, remember that your ezine is for your readers so take the time to publish a quality ezine so that your business and reputation will flourish!

---

Don’t be one of the 95% of people who fail at their online business. Terri Seymour can help you make money online. Find out how to increase your traffic and sales with her popular “How to Build Your Online Business” ebook for FREE at: ==> http://www.SeymourProducts.com

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Your Ezine Publishing Questions Answered

As far as I am concerned, Twitter is a must have for business; whether you are using Twitter to promote your business or to establish your expertise, it is a crucial piece of the puzzle to getting recognized and building relationships. But with all the clutter in the Twitterverse, it’s important not to ignore the etiquette of Twitter, otherwise you might find that you are
not getting the most of this popular social networking platform.

Top 10 Twitter Etiquette Tips for Business

1. Listen to Your Mother and Mind Your Manners

This is just good common sense. As someone who is a marketing professional first, I always like to say, “New Tools Old Rules.” If someone mentions you or retweets you, if at all possible thank them. Not only do People like to be recognized for their efforts, but this is a valuable action, so not thanking them would be rude. This is also a great way to begin building a relationship on Twitter. This small gesture may open the lines of communication between you and a potential customer or business partner. Show your appreciation and people will be more likely to re-tweet your offerings again and again. Even better, return the favor and retweet one of their posts.

2. Use #Hashtags Appropriately

I personally love hashtags. They are a great way to encourage participation not to mention help others track and find information. Having said that, it is important not to overuse them. While I like the long hashtag as much as the next person, using it too often or putting a hashtag in front of every word of your post will do nothing more than annoy your followers.

3. Resist the Urge to Tweet Too Much

Time and time again, research has shown that there is a fine line between just enough sharing and too much. Oftentimes businesses that are new to Twitter don’t yet understand this principle. Don’t fill your followers’ feeds with spammy Tweets. The best way to engage your audience is to post relevant, interesting, useful, and original content. Before you post, ask yourself: “Would I care about this if I were a follower?”

Tip: If you have a lot of ideas, use a program like Hootsuite to schedule your tweets so that they can be spaced out.

4. Warn Followers if You’re Going to Tweet a Lot

If you want to live-tweet an event at your business or charity gathering, you will need to tweet a lot!. While it’s a good idea, you may lose followers who feel assaulted by a barrage of tweets. A little fair warning will be much appreciated, and your followers will likely give you a pass for the day.

Tip: Tell them to check out Twalala or Twittblocker.

5. Watch What You Tweet

There have been some famous and embarrassing blunders on social media that have gotten both individuals and even entire companies in a lot of trouble. Never use your brand’s Twitter account to discuss controversial topics, send inappropriate photos, or use explicit language. If you’re on a personal account, the sky’s the limit and you can debate anything you like. However, in a business setting, unless it directly pertains to your product or service, it may be best to leave certain incendiary subjects like religion and politics alone.

6. Don’t Get Too Personal

Developing relationships with customers is one the primary goals of Twitter, but you should try to keep your posts about relevant business information. Your followers don’t need to know your personal business. I will concede that there is a benefit to adding a personal touch from time to time, especially in a small business. If you’re getting married or a favorite employee just had a baby, you may want to share the news for your brand loyalists to celebrate with you. Just be careful when considering what is appropriate to share.

7. Write Professionally

Your social media presence is an extension of your business persona. Always use proper grammar and spelling. It will help you maintain a professional image. (No one wants to see a law firm or accountant office tweet “OMG! Its not 2 late 4 u to file ur taxes!”).

Tip: Be sure to use proper forms of commonly misused words like there, they’re, and their.

8. Be Aware of Your Audience

Keeping rule #6 in mind, try and tailor your content to fit your audience. If your brand is focusing on tweens and teens, speak their lingo. If you are a B2B company, you will definitely want to use industry jargon. Be sure to post information that is relevant and timely to those following you and those you want to follow you.

Tip: If applicable, awards shows and sporting events are great ways to engage customers.

9. Be Timely With Communication

Once you’ve started a conversation with someone on Twitter, it is imperative that you respond to them in a timely manner. Even more importantly, if someone poses a question to you, answer them! Social media is great for giving you an opportunity to engage immediately and directly with your customer base. Nothing is worse than asking a company a question and not hearing back
from them for 3 days.

10. Address Customer Service Issues Privately

Almost any customer who tweets you with a complaint or concern wants to be heard, but not all want to engage in a public dialogue. Directly address consumers through direct message, off the public “floor.”

Tip: you can even ask them for a phone number and call them personally to show them you care about fixing the issue.

BONUS: Don’t buy into personal attacks.

There are always those people who complain and no matter what you say they will never be happy. To make this worse, Twitter is a medium of text communication which means there can be a definite margin of misunderstanding because there’s no way to hear someone’s tone of voice or observe their body language. What may be meant as a joke could escalate into something more negative. If it seems a conversation is deteriorating into something contentious, it’s wise to just walk away. Trust me, it’s just not worth it.

Twitter has become one of the most effective ways to market your business of the last decade. Follow these rules, and you’re sure to have many happy tweets ahead of you.

---

Authored by David P Mon. If you liked this article, please visit our blog at www.SocialMediaManagerinc.com/Blog

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

10 Twitter Rules for Business Success

No, Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t been in a car accident or been hurt in any way. As far as we know, he’s probably hanging out, drinking some carrot juice at his Palo Alto mansion, but his social media empire might not be faring so well.

There’s no denying that Facebook changed the entire online landscape and rose up quicker than we could have all expected or even imagined. However, Beanie Babies revolutionized the entire stuffed animal market and became somewhat of a cultural icon of the day. Do you see store merchants struggling to keep these collector items on the shelves? That’s what I thought.

If trends continue along this path, will Facebook even be in existence 5 years from now?

As 80% of Facebook’s revenue is generated from advertising, it is clear that businesses have, in the recent past, entrusted Facebook to reach niche markets and increase exposure of product or service offerings. The rate of growth in the number of new Facebook users from July 2010 to March 2011 was a staggering 8.38 users per second. On the other hand, from September 2011 to December of the same year, that rate declined to approximately 5 new users per second. As the popularity of this social media outlet is shrinking and as a significant percentage of old users are entering the workforce and leaving Facebook behind, it is becoming more apparent now than ever before that the novelty of this platform is slowly wearing off.

Barney Stinson’s character on the popular television sitcom, How I Met Your Mother, effectively captures the spirit of the digital age when he states, “Forget every other rule I’ve ever stated because every other rule I’ve ever stated is old and I have only one rule: New is always better.”

In the ever-changing and dynamic world of social media, what is popular and exciting today is old news tomorrow. Social media platforms must keep pace with the trends in order to stay afloat and survive in the midst of constant innovation. As the population becomes increasingly dependent on mobile technology, shifting to mobile should be on the forefront of business strategy. Facebook, however, has had a rough time making strides in the mobile world, so can we really expect them to adapt to future trends as fast as the other big dogs out there?

Given the rapid pace of innovation in the tech world today, it’s not impossible that Facebook may disappear in the next few years?

Why? Because in the social networking landscape, we have all been witnesses to the “next best thing” phenomenon. The minute that someone comes up with a new idea and experiences success, it’s just a matter of time before someone else comes up with something even better, putting the previous idea to shame. Unless Facebook constantly distinguishes itself from its competitors and adapts to the increasing demands of its users, it will follow in the footsteps of MySpace and join the Titanic at the bottom of the North Atlantic.

---

Article by Meredith P Thornton. http://www.emailanswers.com

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Zuckerberg In Critical Condition