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Now that you are cranking away on your link building campaign, it's time to consider promoting your site through social media channels and offline methods.
First of all, keep in mind that this is a series dedicated to the basics, so if you're in need of a serious social media campaign or anything other than beginning information, I'd highly suggest that you consult a professional with experience in that area. Depending upon how competitive your niche is, you may or may not get very far on your own. However, there are a few things that you can do to get started all by yourself.
Love it or hate it, Facebook is big right now.
You can get started here and the whole process is very straightforward. Once your page is created, you need visibility, and you need to be liked. Pretty simple stuff on the surface, but keep in mind that good promotion is not always as easy as it seems at first.
Facebook pages give you the ability to share posts, questions, photos, links, and videos, with the usual wall shown that gives you the latest and greatest. If a user likes your page, he or she can comment on your information. Without liking a page, a user can still share your information but since the goal is to get people talking there, it's best if you can entice people to like you and not just stop by occasionally.
How can you get users to like you? I personally detest seeing those constant "so and so suggests that you like this" emails showing up but when it's something relevant and targeted, it's not so bad, and it IS the way we're marketing these days. Therefore, I don't suggest you spam the entire world with like suggestions, but do send them to people who may actually enjoy your page.
Think of a Facebook page as a chance to showcase what's great about your company. Just as no one (but maybe your mom) is interested in the minutiae of your life, no one wants to be utterly bored on Facebook. If your company is having an in-house lunch meeting for 10 of you, that's not really a Facebook page post, but if you're putting half your inventory on sale at noon tomorrow, we want to know.
One of the neatest promotions I've seen recently with the Facebook page of a local consignment shop is a "password" given out that enables a shopper to get a free piece of jewelry by mentioning it in the store. You don't have to have liked the page in order to see the promotion, but I can easily see someone liking it after that!
I would advise that if you are going to create a Facebook page, please, please maintain it and keep it updated. One of the quickest ways to ensure that your fans don't come back is to let things stagnate.
I confess to using Twitter to get most of my news about the industry. I have found enough "influencers" to follow that I am confident I'll know about it when something big happens. However, there's a big difference in how I use Twitter and how you should, for marketing purposes.
Just like with any other methods of social promotion, it's critical that you actually have something quality to promote. All of us see the people who use Twitter to do nothing but tweet links to their site. It's annoying. Even when the content is top notch every time (and really, it's never top notch every time) it's still annoying to see nothing but a steady stream of "hey look at me!"
A Twitter account is easy to set up. The basics are simple: you need to follow people, and you need to get followers. If someone replies to you, respond. Unless, of course, you have 100,000 followers…in that case, we might cut you some slack.
Jeff Quipp wrote an excellent article for this site last year which lists 33 reasons to use Twitter. Rather than attempting to reword this piece, as it's very well done and to-the-point, I'd suggest that you check it out if you're asking how Twitter could work for your business.
Twitter's 140 character limit for tweets means that you have to be interesting enough in that small amount of space to get someone's attention. While you can use URL shorteners and other methods for getting a longer tweet, it seems to be most effective if there is at least some idea of what you want to say contained in the actual viewable space. I've seen tweets that are so crammed in with abbreviations and URL-shortened links that I have absolutely no idea of what is going on, which means that I won't click unless it's 1:30 am and I'm bored out of my mind.
Some have criticized different types of tweets on Twitter, asking why we want to know when you're hungry or that you've just gotten stuck in traffic and may become homicidal. However, I do think that while no one wants a steady stream of that, we do like it when you're human, even if you are a giant corporation.
Let people know about your site, company name, URL, etc. Drop the reference in conversations, give out business cards, speak at events, and give out promotional products that people will use. This one is very, very simple, yet often overlooked. Promotion is promotion.
In conclusion, as I mentioned above, it's worth speaking to an expert in this area if you really need anything more than the basics. Many people (including myself at times) think that social media is a lot of hype, but hey, it works! I've only covered Facebook and Twitter here because they're the two big ones, but that doesn't mean new ones won't be popping up. I can remember sneering at both of those, and now they're huge.
Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog
Promote Your Site With Social Media
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Written by Julie Joyce, SEO Chicks
Well, today we will! As a small business owner, there are five types of influencers that you should be aware of and reaching out to on social media. Want to know who they are?
The Social Butterflies
Remember high school? Remember those people that seemed to know everyone regardless of which party you went to or what corner you were hanging out on? These people also exist on the Web. The Social Butterflies are the names and avatars who live to connect people from inside their different networks. If you need a programmer, they know a guy. If you need 100 invitations made by yesterday, they have a friend who does that. They’ll make the introduction for you because they take pleasure in mixing up their networks.
Social Butterflies are valuable to a small business owner because of how wide their net reaches. By forming a close relationship with the, you get access to everyone else who is in their network. You also ensure that the Butterfly will mention YOUR name to her contacts when the time comes. Where do Social Butterflies hang out? Everywhere! To identify them, try creating contact groups (via Twitter Lists or Facebook/LinkedIn groups, for example) and then look for the names that seem to overlap. These are your Butterflies.
The Thought Leaders
Thought leaders are the voices that your customers trust and listen to most. They’re usually the same people whose content you’re constantly watching get retweeted and whose blogs get more comments in a day than you get in a month. It takes some effort to get these people to acknowledge you because they’re constantly being inundated with messages, but if you can prove yourself by sharing valuable information and being a good social media citizen, you’ll be handsomely rewarded when it’s your content they’re blasting out to their loyal networks.
Thought leaders can help you build your own authority by lending you their platform. When they tweet out your material or offer to help you with a blog post, you get to take advantage of their contact and increase the eyes looking at your site. If you’re looking for Thought Leaders in social media, you won’t have to look too far. They’re speaking at conferences, getting quotes in the most high profile stories, and are always being referenced in other people’s tweets and post. To get the most return, don’t go for the Superstar Thought Leaders, stick to who is most influential in your niche.
The Trendsetters
Every industry has its own set of trendsetters. They’re the early adopters and the people that others listen to. The Trendsetters were on Twitter and FourSquare before everyone else and now they’re trying out a new social networking site that you can’t even spell. Trendsetters are motivated greatly by ego and are always on the hunt for what’s new so they can tell their friends they found it first. They love getting the scool, so get their attention, and they’ll be proud to share you with all 5,000 of their closest friends.
Trendsetters are powerful forces in social media because of their need to constantly be trying and sharing new things. If you’re looking for these people in social media, you can find them reading TechCrunch, commenting on Mashable and tweeting about sites and applications you’ve never even heard of.
The Reporters
This includes the bloggers, reporters and news outlets that live and breathe your industry. They’re the bylines you constantly see and the people most immersed in your industry because they write about it every day. This group is super important to connect with because they hold three coveted things — press, coverage and links. SMB owners need to know how to get the attention of people who link.
Obviously, as a small business owner, you want to create relationships with the Reporters that cover your niche to get your business in front of their audience. You want to form relationships with these folks as early as you can so that you can keep them alert to big things happening in your small business. Once you identify these people, you’ll want to create a PR linkerati list so that you know who you should reach out to when you need press.
The Everyday Customer
Your Everyday Customer has a much smaller circle of influence than The Reporters or The Social Butterflies, but it’s just as important. Your Everyday Customers are the people who live in your town and could potentially walk in and spend money with you today. You want to use social media to create awareness with them.
This group is often neglected in social media as brands attempt to go for the higher hanging fruit. However, reach one of these folks and you’re almost guaranteed that they’ll pass on their experience to their family and friends. They’re all about worth of mouth and sharing recommendations. If you’re looking for them on social media, they can most often be found asking questions on Twitter or participating in group discussions on Facebook and LinkedIn. They’re unassuming, but vocal when given the chance.
Those are groups I concern myself with when talking about “influencers”. Are they any influencer groups you focus on not mentioned here?
From Small Business Trends
The 5 Types of Influencers On The Web
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When the BBC broadcast its first public television signal – 80 years ago on Wednesday – the experience for viewers was utterly unlike that of 2009. John Logie Baird’s electromechanical system was housed in boxes that dominated rooms, yet now screens less than an inch thick hang on walls and “content” is broadcast, downloaded, streamed and even user-generated.
Television has come a long way, but does anyone know where it’s going? On this page we examine the key themes that will shape television, from digital switchover to 3D, but the over-arching debate about how television and technology will combine in the future centres on one thing: interactivity....
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