How Should Niche Businesses Use Social Media to Best Effect?

This article gives suggestions and best practice tips to niche businesses around capitalizing on the potential of social media.

Time to Socialise

The big mistake that many smaller niche businesses make is to forsake social media platforms completely. There is a prevailing attitude that, because only a few people will probably be seeking out a social media presence, that there isn’t any point in doing it.

Instead, these businesses should view social media in much the same way that they view search engine optimisation. Accept that yes, fewer people will be seeking you out, however take that opportunity to focus on the specific market that has an interest in you and make your social media content as relevant as possible.

How to Stand Out

If you are a niche business then it is not easy to stand out in a world where the biggest
businesses use social marketing experts and have large budgets in order to make themselves successful in this manner.

Where several of these bigger businesses fall down, however, is that their content is just boring. Yes, it may be relevant and original, but it doesn’t inspire, and generally leads back to their site and the same old boring landing page.

Visual social media is a particularly powerful tool, especially if you are selling a product that someone would want to see in action before buying it. This may be something as simple as a fireworks display, or as expensive as a luxury car. Of course, the traditional text based platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Digg are still worth exploring, however if your business can make the most of visual media you will gain much more attention.

Case Study

Just by looking at the ways in which a fireworks vendor could potentially market themselves using social media, the possibilities are endless.

The most obvious means is to use YouTube to utilise demonstration videos of said firework in action. Saying what it does is all well and good, but if a picture can paint a thousand words then how powerful is a video?

There is also endless potential in the uses of sites such as Pinterest or Instagram. Any business with a visual slant can encourage their followers to share inspirational photographs, or even create ones of their own products and what they would like to see your brand produce. Simple competitions such as “come up with a name for this new product” or “what would you like to see?” are excellent ways to pique interest online and build a social media following.

Smaller niche businesses using social media can often quickly build themselves a kind of “cult” following, which is then an excellent platform on which to expand their reach and business.

original: SociablWeb

5 Reasons Why Pinterest Drives Traffic To WordPress Sites

If you are looking to get your WordPress site ready for Summertime, Pinterest, and other similar social media networks, are user friendly and great for giving your site a fresher look. Whether you are researching new marketing techniques or you are launching a new business website, social networking deserves your attention.

It is no secret that social networking is a major component in ramping up your business’ marketing plans. After going to a site like best10webhosting to compare hosting companies, and then choosing an attractive web design, many businesses rely on sites likes Facebook and LinkedIn to connect to their customers. What might surprise you is the rapid growth that Pinterest has experienced this year. Mashable.com reported earlier
this year that this network catapulted from a scarcely marginal traffic motivator to a virtual dead-match with Twitter. For a newbie, the social “pin board” has quickly shown it is a viable marketing tool for B2B and retail strategies.

1. Visuals Spark Interest

According to Beverly Macy, a Huffington Post blogger, the future of the Internet for businesses and consumers is moving toward a more visual platform. If you have something important to share—sharing it with pictures seems to be a successful way to connect with your audience.

2. Pinterest Relationships Extend Beyond Online Boundaries

Word of mouth continues to be the number one advertising tool. Happy customers share their positive experiences with the friends, family and co-workers—referrals without expenses attached. Pinners are coming together in real life to share their passions, resources and common threads in remarkable ways. CNN.com reporter Emanuella Grinbert recently wrote a piece on the natural evolution from pinning a photo online to wanting to see that item in person. Business owners are seeing traffic increase through referrals and secondary referral.

3. Galleries Allow You to Introduce Your Best Products

Tan Kay of hongkiat.com lists gallery options as one of the top ten reasons for incorporating pinning into your web design. Finding a web host that works well for your business is important to ensure plug-ins are compatible.

4. Themed WordPress Pages Make Web Design Easier

Trying out the themed designs is easy and there are numerous advantages to posting beautiful photos that spark interest. Working with a platform that is compatible with multiple browsers like Opera, Safari, Chrome and Firefox, allows more administrative control and accessibility. You can pin every photo and add informative captions. You get all this plus fast real time uploading and SEO compatibility.

5. Sell Without Being a Salesman

Connecting to potential clients through social networking provides a way to develop a relationship through soft-selling. A guest blogger on Venture Beat reminds business owners that in order to get the most out of your marketing efforts on sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, you have to take the time to get involved.

Follow other pinners; establish relationships that encourage sharing—both ways. You share, they share. Relationships take time, but the payoff is worth it. Daily visits will drive more traffic to your WordPress site. Before you know it, your site will be getting an incredible amount of traffic and you’ll have time to have more fun in the sun!

original: SociableBlog

How to Promote Your Blog in Social Medias

You should use social media to increase the reputation and readership of your blog. If you are trying to increase its PageRank using social media, you will make the acquaintance of failure. The Google programmers are never going to put too much faith into social media because it is too easy to manipulate.

A person may start 100 new accounts today, and use them every day, then once a week they may comment on and link to a website. If Google were paying attention, the websites in question would rise high in the Google search engine results. Manipulating social media for search engine results improvement is too easy and hence unimportant unless Google decide to take note of social media mentions/likes.

Your job is to raise the reputation and prestige of your website through social media, so that people will wish to link to you of their own free will. So that people will comment positively on your blog and will follow it of his or her own free will.

Do not forget to put the little social media widgets/buttons on your blog somewhere, so that you blog readers may also follow your social media actions. It is not necessary but is a good idea if you run competitions, surveys or offers on your social media site.

Facebook

If you have a business page feed, you should enable the auto-share function. It will share
your posts automatically when you publish your work. If you wish, you could just auto share an excerpt of your blog post so that your followers may see it. They will then decide if the blog is worth following or worth searching out to read.

You may re-share the excerpt through your personal Facebook page too, so that it reaches a wider audience. Create a tab on your Facebook page and your blog that will allow people to look through your previous posts. This will stop them having to go through the publication history of your entire blog, or through the history/timeline of your Facebook wall, in order to find some of your interesting blogs.

Twitter

This is a blogging platform so you will have to make a decision as to whether you want to integrate your blog into your Twitter interest generation plans, or whether you wish to use one medium to complement the others.

Twitter is going to allow you to mix with a wider class of reader than your blog is going to stimulate. You may wish to share your blog posts on Twitter. There are auto-share functions on Twitter, which will allow you to disseminate your blog posts between your many followers.

Another neat little trick is to send people one of your most recent blog posts when they follow you. If you only do it once then there is little chance that it will anger them. If you do it too many times, the will block you.

Just doing it the one time may move them to engage with your material. They must have followed you for a reason. Hopefully by sending them a sample of your work, you are going to tap into that reason and create a loyal follower.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is still handy for sharing and promoting your blog posts. It may not be the best means of gaining loyal supporters but it does have its charms.

Again you should create an auto-share feature to share some of your better works. It may not be a good idea to share every post on LinkedIn. Why not share one per month. Just make sure it is your best work, as well as being nicely promotional.

You should have an RSS feed on your website/blog. Make sure that you LinkedIn has an RSS feed that will gather your posts and put them in one place for the user to see.

Google+

This may be the only form of social media that may have an actual positive effect on your SEO. If Google are there to monitor the behavior of the people on the social media platform, then they are better able to stomp out any abusers of the system.

Manually post a few of your blog posts onto Google+. Do not post them all; just post a few in order to stimulate a little interest in your blog. Pop them onto your Business page because it makes them easier to search for.

original: SociableBlog

Is Your Brand Like-Worthy-Ways to Drive Engagement on Facebook

The results of a study released in January of 2012 by the Australian think tank Ehrenberg-Bass Institute say that less than 1 percent of the people who “like” a brand actually engage with it. When it comes down to it, the level of engagement is much more important than the number of likes you have. Beyond cultivating likes, you have to cultivate engagement. So how do you convince people to like your brand AND engage with it on Facebook? Here are some of the things that can be successful for driving engagement.

Photos

Photos are the most shared type of content on Facebook. Brands that post different types of content often find that popular photographs also receive the highest number of comments. Photos are great because they’re content that can be consumed instantly. You don’t have to read anything or even click “play” to get the message. Especially if a photo is really funny, people will want to share it with their friends. If you can post photos that are really unique, hilarious, beautiful, or attention-grabbing, you will see more user engagement on that post.

Questions

This is perhaps the simplest and most obvious way to encourage engagement. Ask a question, and your fans will answer you. The best questions are touching on subjects that matter to them. One thing that matters to everyone is themselves, so try asking personal questions (not too personal), like about people’s preferences, opinions, or experiences. Try a fill-in-the-blank type of question, like, “Fill in the blank. This summer I’m most excited about (blank).” Asking questions about your brand is a good way to drive engagement and receive feedback.

Talking Back

The most important way to drive engagement is by engaging, too. When your fans make comments, write back – always respond when they answer a question or give feedback, and often respond to comments even when no response is required or asked for. Even simply “liking” a fan’s comment makes an impression. When you demonstrate that you’re a brand who wants to interact with its customers, more fans will initiate that interaction. Just be careful that your responses are always consistent with your brand’s image and values.

Valuable Content

Really valuable content will inspire engagement. People will feel compelled to comment on something that interests, impresses, or surprises them, and they’ll also feel compelled to share the valuable information with their friends. Valuable content can be anything from a demo video to a news article to a short tip, but it always helps your fans in some way. It might offer them new or useful information, and many times content can be valuable for the entertainment it provides, too.

Calls to Action

Never overlook the power of the call to action. A call to action will significantly increase engagement on any post as compared to the same post without a call to action. Something as simple as, “Share if you like this!” or “Check out this video!” or “Tell us what you think,” can do wonders for engagement on your Facebook page.

original: SociablWeb

Google Analytics Plugin For WordPress – Review

Having a website and seeing it grow in size and stature can be very reassuring for webmasters. In reality however that seldom happens; it is usually struggle and hard work most of the time. Often webmasters in spite of their concerted efforts fail in getting enough visitors to their site. The main reason why that happens is because enough information is not available to webmasters to determine their weakness. It can be with the content, a niche not widely patronized or plain ignorance of the webmaster.

The first step toward building a website with potential to bring in large traffic is, understanding statistics and comparing your site’s performance with those of others. But where do you get the statistics and other information about your site to begin with? Chances are that you are not aware of the various tools available in the internet for getting information. However, don’t despair, there is help and it is the form of Google Analytics. Google Analytics is in reality a piece of software that collects data about your site’s performance in the internet.

While Google Analytics is a generic piece of software, programmers across the world have developed plugins that can be put in the website to collect data, which can at a latter point of time be used for making analysis. For those who are not tech savvy, software writers have come up with special programs that can be used with their website for mining data. One of the more fortunate sites to have ready made plugins for data analysis is WordPress.

Here is what Google Analytics Plugins for WordPress can do. There are scores of plugins available in the internet; some free while others need to be paid for using them. However, in principle they have the same role to play – provide real time information pertaining to your users demography, number of visitors the website gets, how long a visitor spends in each page and more.

Another use for the Google Analytics Plugin for WordPress is they help you get sponsors and advertisement, especially if you are actively into PPC and CPA programs. The statistics you collect through the plugin can help provide your prospective advertisers the information they need to make an evaluation about your site’s performance and then decide on the course of action.

Selecting the right plugin is however not an easy task. For most part the right one is something that you alone can decide. It all depends on what kind of information you may want. However, there is information which is common to all Google Analytics Plugins.

-          Asynchronous Analytic Tracking: Which means that a code within your webpage will keep track and help your website load faster and give you more accurate data.

-          Event Tracking: Another special feature of Google Analytics; it helps track problem pages which you can then target for special attention and make changes.

Custom Variables: They help you track your visitor’s preference and gather Meta data. You can use this information to change the codes in your webpage for optimizing them to be search friendly.

How to Install Windows 8 In a Virtual Machine

What is a Virtual Machine VM?

In the computing environment VM is defined as a software tool or an instrument allowing a user to install and run an Operating System (OS) or a computer program. It is because of the process of virtualization that the concept of cloud computing is possible.  Many media observers, analysis and researchers argue that virtualization and VM is meant for hobbyists and experiments. However, there are plenty of applications and advantages virtualization and VM offer.

The Windows 8 platform

To put it in a nut shell, Windows 8 is smooth and polished platforms that has outsmarted its predecessors hands down. One of the outstanding features of Windows 8 is its ability to allow creation of VM on its platform.

Requirements to create a Windows 8 Virtual Machine

    Firstly to begin with, the most important requirement is that you will need is a PC that supports virtualization.

    You can download a copy of Windows 8. 32-bit or a 62-bit should serve the purpose.

    The additional requirements are not many. You will need about 1 to 2 GB of RAM.

    You will also need around 20 to 30 GB of storage allocation space dedicated to Windows 8 VM.

    Finally you will require virtualization software, VirtualBox, form Oracle should be good enough. This software is available for free.

How to create a Virtual Machine VM with Windows 8

You can follow the step by step process in creating a VM with Windows 8

Create a Virtual Machine

The first step is to create a VM. To do so, you can install and run the VirtualBox. Then click on ‘New’ button. The VM is now created. You can assign a common name to the VM, say Windows 8 PC or Windows 8 VM. From the drop down menu that appears, you will have to select the Operating System as Windows Microsoft 8 or Windows 8 (64 bit) depending on the OS your using.

Selection of specifications

You will have to define the kind of memory space your virtual system has. Ideally, it is recommended that you opt for 2048 MB. However, if you are short of RAM you can opt for the minimum memory requirement of 1 GB for 32-bit. Then click on ‘Next’.

Drive image creation

It is best that you stick to default settings to create a new hard disk drive. The VDI drive image is VirtualBox’s file format.

Virtual Disk size

You can change the size and the location of your virtual disk if required. However, it is best to stick to the default size of 20 GB. You can check if the summary is appropriate. Click on ‘Create’ button to proceed to the next step.

Virtual optical

The next thing that you have to do is to right click on windows 8 PC. Form the options select ‘Settings’ and click on ‘Storage’. From the list select CD icon from the IDE Controller. Then you have to locate the Windows 8 ISO. To do so you must click on CD icon to the right of the controller. Next you will have to select a virtual CD/DVD disk file. The file must be pointed at the Windows 8 ISO and select ‘Open’.

Installing Windows 8 on your VM

You can do a custom installation of Windows 8 on your VM. Select the virtual PC and then click on ‘Start’ button. The installation of Windows 8 is simple and hassle free. Once the installation on the VM is done, you can log into your account.

Installing guest additions

You can install guest additions in the Safe Mode. Follow the steps to install guest additions

• On the desktop view press ‘Windows tab + R’
• Launch MSConfig
• Select Boot option
• Also select safe boot and base video
• Once you have saved the changes click on ‘Ok’

The final step in installing Guest Additions is to reboot your device into Safe Mode.

Launch VM

Make sure that you enable 3D support while installing the Guest Additions from VirtualBox Devices Menu. You can increase the video memory to 128 MB in the Display Settings. Next you must enable 2D and 3D acceleration. Launch the VM.

These are the simple steps involved in creating a Virtual Machine with the Windows 8 platform.


original: SociablWeb