The Most Popular Social Sites in Other Countries

Americans tend to think of social networking from a personal perspective, likely in simple terms of Facebook and Twitter and maybe even Pinterest. In reality, though, there are dozens of flourishing social networks across the globe, some of which U.S. residents have never even heard of. Social media is truly a global concept.

Here’s a quick look at some of the most popular social sites in countries other than the U.S. used by millions upon millions of people.

Orkut

Orkut logo You may have never heard of Orkut, but everyone in Brazil has. With over 33,000,000 active and unique users, Orkut is Brazil’s number one social networking site. In fact, almost 60% of Orkut traffic originates in Brazil and the company (originally a branch of Google) was recently relocated from California to the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte. Orkut is similar to Google+ in that users separate each other into groups and
share things like video and photos. It’s particularly popular among teens.

Skyrock

Skyrock logoA mainstay in France, Skyrock is a blend of Facebook and MySpace, thematically. It’s a hub for music lovers and radicals where users can blog and post videos and the site is actually the 7th most popular social networking site in the entire world. Brands in France actually use Skyrock to create branded pages for marketing purposes and there are currently over 21 million users.

VK

Never heard of it? It’s actually the second most popular social platform in Europe (after Facebook) and is most used among Russian-speakers. VK was originally called “VKontakte” and borrows heavily from Facebook in terms of design and features. The site averages 43 million daily users and allows members to create pages, tag friends in photos, and play games. English, Russian, and Ukrainian are actually the three “official” languages of the VK platform.

Renren

Everyone’s heard the rumblings of Chinese youth lamenting the fact that Facebook is banned (yes, banned) in the nation. Renren has been dubbed the “Chinese Facebook” as its look and feel are decidedly similar to Mark Zuckerberg’s site. Based in Beijing, Renren is actually a publically-traded company with at least 32,000,000 monthly users, all in China. It’s particularly popular among college students and in in 2007 went open platform, meaning Chinese developers are welcome to add functionalities to the site. Like everything else in China, Renren is heavily regulated by the government.

Cloob

Cloob actually has a nominal number of users, only about 1,000,000, but what’s interesting about the site is that it’s the top-visited social site in Iran. Nearly every other social platform in the country has been blocked but Cloob remains strong, particularly among men over 65 years of age. What’s more, the site is invitation only and “operated within the boundaries of Iranian law.” Governments outside of Iran have speculated that the site may make it a little too easy for radicals to communicate unchecked.

It’s easy to get caught up in the mindset that the social networks you’re used to are the ones everybody uses. In today’s globalized world that’s simply not the case and there are social sites with literally hundreds of millions of users based all throughout the world.

Original: Most Popular Social Networking Sites in Other Countries

10 Popular Twitter Plug-ins for Your WordPress Blog

Those who have tried know how difficult it is to find Twitter plug-ins for WordPress. The problem is that even if you manage to find a few, they take a lot of space and don’t add enough value to your blog. In case you have been searching for some useful Twitter plug-ins, here is a list that will help you make a right choice.

1 – Tweet, Like, Google +1 and Share

http://wordpress.org/plugins/only-tweet-like-share-and-google-1/

This plug-in comes with five different icons that you can easily add to your blog. By using this particular plug-in, it becomes possible for you to add widget from Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter. People can come to your site, read your content and share it using the icons on different social media sites.

2 – IntenseDebate Comments

http://wordpress.org/plugins/intensedebate/

To make people write and comment on your content in your ‘blog comment’ section, you can make use of this particular plug-in. It is a useful plug-in for those who conduct a
campaign on social media to improve the number of comments on their blog.

3 – AddThis

http://wordpress.org/plugins/addthis/

Yet another impressive social bookmarking widget that works perfectly with Twitter. With this plug-in, it will become easier for your readers to share content via Twitter. It allows people to bookmark your entire blog or a particular element on your page. The interesting thing is that the plug-in doesn’t restrict people to Twitter, but it allows them to share stuff on hundreds of other social media sites and bookmarking channels.

4 – BuddyPress

http://wordpress.org/plugins/buddypress/

This plug-in makes it easy for your visitors to log into your WordPress site and then leave their comments – it also makes it easy for people to participate in different social events. As it works as a community-sharing device, it is easy to use it with Twitter. People on your blog can also use the same plug-in to connect with other members of your blog.

5 – WPtouch

http://wordpress.org/plugins/wptouch/

This is one good way of turning your blog into a mobile-ready site – it makes it easy for people to read your posts on their mobile devices. Not only can they read your posts and check your content, they can also make comments using their mobile-ready widgets, like Twitter. It makes sharing your content via social media sites a breeze. What it means is that with the use of this particular plug-in, you can actually turn your WordPress blog into an iPhone app.

6 – Wordbooker

http://wordpress.org/plugins/wordbooker/

It works as a cross posting plug-in and allows you to post micro blog posts on your WordPress site and then cross post them using your Twitter profile. It also allows you to publish your blog post on your WordPress blog and Facebook at the same time. It saves you time and makes blogging a lot easier.

7 – Network Publisher

http://wordpress.org/plugins/network-publisher/

This is another good plug-in used for cross posting. It allows users to upload a blog along with making parts of that post appear on different social networking sites. For instance, you can change its options in a way that whenever you publish a post on your WordPress blog, the title and first few lines of that post will also go on your Twitter profile – you can also change settings to make parts of your post show on Facebook and other sites. It works automatically and makes it easier to share new posts with your audience.

8 – PodPress

http://wordpress.org/plugins/podpress/

You should make use of this particular plug-in if you always host Podcasts on your WordPress blog. It is possible to use this plug-in to create a feed that will tell you how many download have taken place since you have uploaded it. At the same time, it will inform social media networking sites whenever you host a new Podcast. It supports a range of video file formats, which is an added benefit.

9 – User Access Manager

http://wordpress.org/plugins/user-access-manager/

You can use this plug-in to determine how different users can access your posts. With its help, you can take full control of what posts, pages, and files people could see on your WordPress blog. It also determines how people get access to the Twitter functions you have added on the blog.

10 – Social Media Widget

http://wordpress.org/plugins/social-media-widget/

It’s a good plug-in developed to create a sidebar on your WordPress blog. It offers a list of social media widgets that you can select and add to the sidebar. It is also possible to use this plug-in to create links to different social media profiles and pages.


Original: 10 Popular Twitter Plug-ins for WordPress Blog

5 Quick Tips to Boost Your Linkedin Visibility

Living in the age of social media means you aren’t somebody until you can be found on professional sites such as LinkedIn. However, with more professionals and businesses creating an account on this social networking site, it’s becoming more difficult to get found by potential employers or customers.

So, what can you do to increase your chances of getting found on the most powerful and popular professional network? You can start by optimizing your account correctly which will give you a leg up in using LinkedIn to find jobs, customers and more. In fact, optimizing your account needs to be a priority as it’s what can take your profile views to
go from 0 to 1,000.

Here’s how to do it:

1.    Complete your profile

This one’s a no-brainer but, if you take a look at the profiles on LinkedIn, you’ll notice that so many of them aren’t completely filled in. So, take the time to fill out every single section as this can help improve your position on LinkedIn’s search results and rank higher over partially completed ones.

Not sure which sections to fill out or what information to include? LinkedIn provides a useful tracker that shows the percentage of fields completed and the areas where you would need to add extra information about yourself, your skills and experience.

2. Claim your Vanity URL

When you first create your LinkedIn account, your initial URL will include some random numbers and letters. Claim your vanity URL by changing it to your full name – for eg. linkedin.com/in/johnexample/. This helps you connect your LinkedIn profile to your name so you can get found easier by your real-life connections.

3. Optimise your profile using relevant keywords

When writing your profile description, make sure you optimize it by including the keywords you’d like your profile to be associated with in LinkedIn’s search results. Think of the search keywords a potential client or employers would enter into the LinkedIn search bar to find you. For example, if you’re a London-based web designer, focus on keywords such as “web designer” and “web designer London”.

4. Join and participate in relevant groups

Run a search on LinkedIn to find groups you might find interesting or useful. By joining and participating in relevant groups you can not only expand your network easily but also improve your profile’s visibility.  But don’t just join these groups. You also need to engage and contribute in a positive way in order to boost your level of profile activity. The more you engage, the higher the chances of ranking higher in LinkedIn’s search results.

5. Expand your network

LinkedIn is the perfect platform to connect with as many people as possible, whether they’re friends, former university colleagues, co-workers or potential clients. The size of your network is another important factor LinkedIn takes into account when displaying results. So, if you’re serious about improving your profile’s visibility on LinkedIn’s search results, you need to expand your network. Don’t stop at people you know. Take it one step further and reach out to new contacts, especially those who share your professional interests and skills.

How about you – what else are you doing to improve the visibility of your LinkedIn Profile?

Original:  Quick Tips to Boost Linkedin Visibility

Facebook Appeals to its Users with More Updates

Facebook is expected to launch a new feature in the near future that will allow users to “share” photo albums. Using this feature, the creator of a photo album can allow up to 50 users to contribute to an album. Previously, Facebook had restricted the control over a photo album to its creator alone. This makes the experience of sharing photos more social than it was before, and it also allows for a more streamlined photo browsing experience. For example, photos of a given event, such as a vacation trip or a wedding, can all be combined into a single photo album for everyone to contribute photos to. This is much better than the previous system, in which each user who had taken pictures at the event would have to create his or her own photo album. This system is also beneficial because it increases the exposure of photos from each
user, because the friends of other users that have contributed to the album are viewing them.

Through the introduction of this new feature, Facebook is attempting to stay on par with Google+, which already has a feature that allows its users to do this. Google+ lets all of its users who have attended a specific event upload pictures from that event. Currently, Facebook users who want to do something like this must use workarounds such as creating hashtags. This new feature will allow Facebook users the same ease of use as Google+ users when it comes to creating shared photo albums.

However, the implementation of Facebook’s feature is not limited specifically to events. For example, photographers can use it to collaborate with each other and increase heir collective exposure. For instance, multiple photographers can share a photo album and upload images with similar subject matter or photography technique such as high speed imaging in hopes of being discovered by users browsing the shared album that otherwise would not have seen their photos. With this new feature coming soon, it will be exciting to see the various creative ways Facebook users utilize it in order to make their photo sharing experience more social.

5 Useful Tools To Improve Your Instagram Marketing

Instagram is the most popular social pictures community with an estimated user base of more than 100 million members. With its huge audience, Instagram is becoming a major asset for companies to reach their target audience. If your business isn’t already on Instagram, it is the right time for you to jump ship and create an account.

Unlike other social media sites, the marketing success of Instagram solely depends on the quality of pictures you’re posting in the network. By posting good quality pictures which are eye catching, you can get a huge number of following which will ultimately help to get better results for your business. In this article, I am sharing the 5 useful tools you can use to increase your following, get them engaged and get better results with your

Instagram marketing campaign.

Instagram Marketing Tools

1) Statigram:

Statigram is a web based Instagram supporting tool, which will help you to measure and analyze the statistics of your account. Using this tool, you can get the numbers of your following, numbers of likes your pictures are getting daily, list the top hashtags which you have used mostly, etc.

Statigram can also be used for creating and moderating competitions on Instagram, promoting your accounts via blog, Twitter or Facebook page with the help of live feeds, and find out users or pictures using a specific keyword. When you can measure all your account statistics, it will be easy for you leverage your Instagram marketing campaign!

2) Curalate:

Curalate is an effective web tool which is providing Pinterest and Instagram account statistics. Using this tool, you can find your most popular hashtag on Instagram along with the most popular image. Curalate also helps you to monitor the user engagement about your brand along with tracking the most shared brand image. Using these statistics, you can easily find out your target audience.

3) Ink361:

Ink361 is a web viewer of the Instagram app which will let you to watch your images and feed on your desktop. One of the best features of this tool is its ability to let you create image albums using your Instagram images and share it with other people who aren’t on Instagram.

One of the main reason people use Ink361 is that it will let you to create accessories like phone cases, tablet cases, photo cards, fine articles, or canvas using your Instagram images. This exciting feature can help you to get better exposure for your brand and improve your social presence.

4) Followergram:

Followergram is another exciting web app specifically created for new Instagram users who are looking to build their following. Use this tool, you can find the most influential people on Instagram and follow them. Also Followergram will let you to find people who are posting images of your hand and the hashtags they are using with it.

Along with it, Followergram allows you to create vanity URL which can be used to showcase your Instagram pictures for users who aren’t on Instagram. Once of the best features of Followergram is that it will give a QR code for your profile which you can add to the company products or printed materials and make people visit your Followergram profile.

5) Piqora:

Piqora is an innovative tool which has been created specifically for businesses that are using Instagram for marketing. The tool lets you to compare your metrics likes number of global audience, trending pictures, and influential users with your competitors. By comparing your with competitors, you can easily find out the success of your Instagram marketing campaign.

By making use of these tools, you can easily get the better out of your Instagram marketing campaigns.

Original: Useful Tools To Improve Instagram Marketing

LinkedIn Introduces Company Page Analytics and Sponsored Updates

While the audience is diverse in terms of demographic makeup, LinkedIn primarily caters to a single target market: goals-oriented members who are using the site to meet professional needs. As long as the company continues to provide tools that enable this group of users to thrive, it will forever have a cozy position in the competitive social space. So far so good, and LinkedIn is back at it again with a feature that will surely pique the interest of its most dedicated users.

LinkedIn has rolled out Company Page Analytics. The new tool offers instant value by allowing you to easily track engagement levels across your page. Businesses, especially, should find the feature very useful as the data it provides addresses many of

the questions they may have about their performance on the network.

Company Page Insights

Serving up impressions, clicks, and interactions in a comprehensive graph view, the new Company Page Analytics lets social marketers, managers, and other professionals analyze page performance in a variety of ways. Core attributes include the ability to

-Discover status updates that drive the highest user engagement

-Monitor trends in engagement by criteria such as type and time frame

-View more detailed demographic information about page followers

-Track growth of followers and compare it against competitors

While these insights are not as extensive as what you get with Facebook Insights, which provides analytics for Facebook Pages, they are extensive enough to give you good idea where you stand in terms of leaving a good impression on your social fans. For that reason alone, you can expect this feature to become a big hit with serious professionals who use LinkedIn as an audience engagement platform.

Sponsored Updates Overview

Before launching the aforementioned tracking system, LinkedIn rolled out a new ad product called Sponsored Updates. With Sponsored Updates, marketers can engage their target audience with posts that come off as more relevant and meaningful than traditional paid content. These updates may consist of articles, blog posts, or videos and show up in the site feed on the company’s desktop, smartphone and tablet apps.  Each post is accompanied by a “Sponsored” label and welcomes engagement through interactions such as liking, commenting and sharing. Users can also follow the sponsoring company right from the update.

Not only is LinkedIn taking a cue from rivals Facebook and Twitter by essentially allowing brands to buy their way into the feed, it’s taking a similar approach to purchasing ads a well. Marketing managers can buy Sponsored Updates directly through the company’s self-service advertising platform. The self-serve tool keeps customization in mind by giving you a way to target your audience, choose and manage your budget accordingly, and pay based on a CPC or CPM model. This new ad feature offers worldwide appeal as the updates have the potential to reach audiences in 20 languages in the more than 200 markets LinkedIn operates in.

It would appear that the arrival of Company Page Analytics is right on time because it complements Sponsored Updates almost perfectly. Marketing managers with administrative access can login and use the feature to see how their ads are performing. The analytics tool provides insights into what is working as well as what isn’t, empowering users to make strategic decisions that improve future campaigns. LinkedIn is confident that this addition will be instrumental in selling the new ad units.

The Social Network That Could

LinkedIn doesn’t have the size or popularity of Facebook. Nor does it have the type of mainstream appeal that attracts celebrity ambassadors like Twitter. Having said that, it is fairing pretty well for a social network that is often described as “boring”. The company has a viable business model in a robust, diverse advertising platform and legions of loyal members who depend on it to support their professional needs. As it stands now, LinkedIn has an estimated 220 million users, which by the numbers, still makes it one of the largest social networking sites.

Company Pages Analytics is just one of several new features to come out of the LinkedIn factory over the past year. The system is basic in its current state, but the company says it will introduce more functionality to improve it in the near future. Whether or not the presence of analytics compels marketers to start investing in LinkedIn ads is up for debate, but I would like to think that any page owner who conducts serious business on the site will find value in the feature itself.

Original: LinkedIn Page Analytics and Sponsored Updates

5 Tips To Effectively Optimize Your Google + Places Listing

A good Google Places listing can help you get easy traffic to your site. If you are wondering why optimizing your Google+ Places is important, then the answer is simple. Approximately a third of every search is based on location and Google Places makes it very easy to obtain a page one listing.

For example if you are a Real Estate Display Home with multiple sales offices or a retail boutique with multiple outlets, Google Places is an excellent channel to use.

Here is a look at 5 tips to effectively optimize your Google+ places listing.

1. Contact Details on Your Site

The first tip for an effectual Google places optimization is making sure that you have a

contact details page on your website. This page should have details of your phone number and business address. A map is useful as well.

2. Get Citations

You should have citation from around the internet. Citations are when your business or company is listed on other sites, you want to ensure that the right details, that is address, and phone number among other important details are on those sites.

You should make this 100 percent correct for each of your citation around the internet. If it is 100 percent correct, you will get higher ranking in Google Places listings. This will drive more traffic to your websites, hence making your business more known and ultimately bringing more sales.

But you should note that if you have different phone numbers appearing on different websites, this will have an impact on your raking as well.

3. Get Reviews on Your Google Places Listing

It is very important that you get reviews and comments on your places listings. Today, it is not easy to get reviews, particularly as people are more liable to give negative reviews. Therefore, if you have some people who really appreciate and compliment you on your service or product, just send them a link or request them to go to Google Places listing and have them leave a review. This is a great way to give your website a better ranking.

4. Connect With Local Businesses

It is important that you take the chance to post an article on other local companies in the area, whenever you get that opportunity. This way, you will be able to prove to Google that you work within the local region and you are prominent in the locality.

5. The Google Places Dashboard

If you believe there is an issue with your listing, you might access your dashboard. You simply have to log in there and you will be given any errors or other things that you should tidy up.

But at the end of the day, never depend on Google Places, never depend on Google and never depend on a single traffic source. It is good to have many different sources from everywhere in the internet. Hence again, do not depend on Google Places, you will have your listing jumping up and down for any reason. Although reviews come and go, the most excellent thing you can do is concentrate on your number one asset, which is your website. Increase it; make it the source of power. Put a lot of audio and video on it.

Original: Tips To Effectively Optimize Your Google + Places Listing