Social Media Optimization: The 3 Reasons To Go With It

Today, social media divides people. Some people - a great majority in fact - cannot go through the day without logging onto their Facebook account. This is the little gossip area where they can know at a glance who has done what. Others not only do not use Facebook but they have an aversion for it. The gossip cloud above it has such a negative fingerprint on Facebook that they cannot see beyond it. The first group of people thinks they are embracing the trend, the second one thinks they are blessed to stay away from it. Where is the truth in these two statements?

Let's be fair to everyone. As private person, social media is something you can totally live without. Whether you like or dislike this, tweet or not that, it has absolutely no incidence on you. However, if you are a businessman, you must step in social media. Why? Here are the 3 reasons why you do not have the choice.

• People. The majority likes social networks. We are not talking here about your competitors but about all the people you want to reach with your website, your services and your products. This is precisely why you must jump into the social wave and get carried around. Your clients are very likely to use Facebook, Twitter and Google+. You must take advantage of their dynamism to share data about your company and all the things you have amazingly done for them. People are not always ready to trust a website or ads but they already trust their friends.


• Today's Search Engines. Search engines such as Google love social media as well. Ranking algorithms evolve. In the past, counting the number of backlinks was the best way to assess the popularity of a website. However, search engines got tricked by link farms. Inbound links have lost their shine, at least the way they were. Today, ranking algorithms are more and more listening at people' opinions. Search engines can use behavioral data from websites i.e. bounce rate, browsing time etc. because it cannot be manipulated. Similarly, social networks represent a tremendous amount of data. If people like a website, they talk about it and each time they share a link, they create a backlink.


• Tomorrow's Search Engines. You have probably heard about Google Knowledge Graph. This is not quite ready yet but it represents Google engineers' dream, a world where Google knows what users want and gives them the answers regardless websites & backlinks... This feature relies on the ability to precisely identify the intent behind the query, to pull out the right entity and the corresponding data. Social networks can help building the entity around your company and it brings a web 2.0 feature to your website i.e. a dynamic interface that evolves with your company and grows with it.

You probably realize if you did not before that the social game is on. Do not worry. You will not have to go against your hatred for social networks. You always have the option to get a SEO company that offers SMO Services. Good luck and see you soon on Facebook, Twitter or Google+!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7894103

How to Find Great Content to Share on Twitter

What content are you sharing on Twitter?

Do you struggle to find interesting, relevant things to tweet about every day?

In this post, I’ll show you how to curate content your followers will love so you can build a loyal community on Twitter.

Why Curate?

Today most marketers understand the need to create informative and relevant content. But it’s equally important to curate informative and relevant content.
In addition to creating great content for your site, the links to the other people’s content that you share on Twitter also matter.

When you share good content on Twitter, the kind your audience loves, it’s easier to build a strong community. And sharing great content will also increase your credibility in your industry.

When you create and curate relevant content, people are more likely to retweet and share your stuff. Image: iStockPhoto

#1: Know Your Audience

So what content should you share on Twitter? Before you can determine what is the best content to share in your social updates, you need to dig deep and go inside your followers’ heads.

You’ll want to know your social media audience. What keeps your ideal follower up at night? What are his favorite blogs? What’s the first thing that pops into his head when he thinks of you?
If you’ve ever created a buyer persona for a marketing campaign, this is the same exercise.

You want to find the intersection of what interests you and what interests your audience.

You can also ask your followers to find out what they want. You may find general open-ended questions—such as “What would you like me to tweet about?”—too broad to give you the information you need.
Instead, ask your followers a multiple-choice question such as, “Would you like me to tweet about a) social media marketing, b) mobile, c) productivity hacks, d) all of the above?”

You can use their answers as a starting point to plan the content you share and identify what your followers want from you.

Once you identify the content your audience is interested in, commit to this topic. Don’t dilute it.
For example, Social Media Examiner focuses on social media. So you’ll find articles about generating email leads using social media. But you won’t find content devoted to increasing email open rates or the perfect auto-responder series or other topics with no connection to social media.

Find out what topics interest your audience most and share content related to these topics on your social profiles.

#2: Tools to Help You Curate Content

Once you know your audience well, you’ll want to set up a good aggregation tool to find content worth tweeting about.

Here some of the popular news aggregators in the market today. Use the ones you like for your business to find the content you need to provide a valuable stream of daily tweets for your followers.
Feedly – Your News Delivered

Feedly is a tool to help you curate content. Feedly makes it easy for you to look for the articles most relevant for you to share.

One of the best aspects of Feedly is the variety of viewing interfaces available. You can format it to show articles in an email-type layout with headlines or arrange them as image cards or also choose a more traditional magazine layout.

Feedly is a great alternative to Google Reader and offers a variety of layouts to make RSS more enjoyable.

Regardless of the layout you choose, Feedly shows you new content from the blogs and news sources you subscribe to. And it offers a consistent presentation across devices, so you can tweet from your laptop, your tablet or your smartphone.

One of my favorite features is Feedly’s integration with multiple online tools such as Google+, Evernote, Buffer, Instapaper and more. This makes your content curation easier.

You can share and save your favorite articles to multiple social networks and web tools.

Fever – Find Out What’s Hot
Do you want to know how hot the story is that you shared? Fever is a content feed reader that ranks the stories in your feed with a temperature gauge. This allows you to measure how many links and shares a story has within your network.

Fever is a paid service that reads your feeds and picks out the most frequently talked about articles from a customizable time period.

This is a visual way to see how the content you share on Twitter resonates with your audience. It’s an easy way to be sure the content you share matters to your followers.

It is important to note that Fever comes with a one-time price of $30 and you need to host the files on your own server.

The setup is a bit technical, so you may want to ask your IT department to help you get started.
Prismatic – Discover New Content to Share

While RSS readers are great for keeping up with your favorite blogs, Prismatic helps you find new and interesting blogs.

Prismatic delivers socially curated content based on your interests to help you discover new blogs and content sources.

If you like to keep your content curation fresh and interesting, Prismatic does a great job of introducing new blogs and content sources you may never have come across otherwise .

Here’s how to get the most out of Prismatic.
Step 1: Sign up
Sign up for Prismatic using your Facebook, Google+ or Twitter login, or create a stand-alone account on Prismatic.

Sign up at GetPrismatic.com.

Step 2: Choose Your Interests
After you sign up, you can pick the different topics that you and your audience relate to. As you use the service, Prismatic will suggest new topics based on what you share and click.

Find new content by choosing topics your community is interested in.

Step 3: Pick Your Favorite Publishers
You can also use Prismatic as an RSS reader. Under the Favorite Authors section, add your favorite blogs and publishers to Prismatic.

Add your favorite blogs so you won’t miss a thing.

Step 4: Share Your Curated Content
After you’re all set up, share the articles your audience is interested in reading.

It’s easy to share the content you like from Prismatic.

When you share content, remember to include the author’s Twitter handle, so you can introduce your followers to new and interesting people.

And be sure to include relevant hashtags, but don’t overdo it. Buddy Media reports that tweets with one or two hashtags receive higher engagement than those with three or more hashtags.
Prismatic has good sharing features and can help you share great content with your audience.

#3: Analyze and Repeat

One of the most important steps to curating amazing content is to measure the results.
Are there certain articles that get more clicks, retweets and favorites than others? Is a certain topic or interest driving more engagement with your followers?

You can use Buffer to analyze shares, but management tools like HootSuite, SproutSocial and TweetDeck can all provide good analytics on your tweets.
These tools help you analyze metrics such as the number of clicks, retweets, favorites and potential reach each individual tweet receives.

Track who retweets your content and the reach they have.

Use this data to see what really resonates with your audience and A/B test different headlines for your content. Here’s an example of results from two different tweets promoting the same content.

The first tweet received zero clicks.

The second tweet had 80 clicks.

The example above shows how a simple product mention can help spread your content to a greater audience.
Be sure to measure the response to different headlines to see which one interests your audience most and learn from your results.

Share the Content Your Audience Loves
With the wealth of information that exists on the web, marketers have a harder time finding great content to share.

Use these tools and tips and you’ll not only discover content that you enjoy consuming, you’ll also find content that drives greater engagement with your Twitter following.

What do you think? Did I miss any great tools? What are your favorite tips to curate content? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Images from iStockPhoto.

Foursquare Debuts 'Super-Specific' Search Filters

Foursquare has refined its search capabilities to make it easier for users to look for particular venues.  The location-based social network unveiled what it's calling "super-specific searches" for iOS and Android on Wednesday.

"With today's update ... Foursquare helps you find exactly what you want, whatever that may be," it announced in a blog post.

Users can filter their searches based on the following criteria: "I've checked in before," "I haven't checked in," "my friends have checked in," "offering specials," "open now" and "I've saved." Users also have the option to choose the amount of money they want to spend, with dollar signs reflecting certain price ranges.

Foursquare lists five examples, below, of very specific searches that users can now input.

• A cheap sushi place that’s nearby and open now, but that I haven’t been to yet.
• A bar downtown that’s new to me, but that my friends have been to. Oh, and that has margaritas.
• A Moroccan restaurant that has tagines on the menu, but isn’t going to empty my bank account.
• One of the museums in Paris that my friend Matt went to last year, that’s also near my hotel.
• A burrito place I’ve been meaning to try (it’s on my to-do list) in San Francisco, that’s in The Mission and open right now.

For those who want to keep it simple, Foursquare also allows users to select "best nearby" to see the app's recommendations, or to search for "specials" for good deals.

Android users can download the latest update in the Google Play store, while iOS users can head over to the App Store.

In April, Foursquare unveiled a major update to its iOS app, effectively revamping it to become a discovery tool instead of a way to keep track of friends' activities.

What do you think of the app's new features? Tell us in the comments, below.

Images courtesy of Foursquare

YouTube Launching Paid Subscriptions to Some Video Channels: Report

YouTube is set to launch a paid subscription model for its specialist video channels as early as this week, according to a report.

The move, which has been in development for months, aims to help channels finance a wider range of content such as television shows and films, and will serve as another source of revenue, according to the Financial Times.

The service will include up to 50 YouTube channels, and subscriptions to each channel will start as low a $1.99 per month, the newspaper reported Sunday, citing anonymous sources.

In response to the report, a YouTube spokesperson told Mashable, "We have nothing to announce at this time, but we're looking into creating a subscription platform that could bring even more great content to YouTube for our users to enjoy and provide our creators with another vehicle to generate revenue from their content, beyond the rental and ad-supported models we offer."

Rumors that YouTube will monetize its premium content have circulated for some time. In January, AdAge reported that the site asked a small group of channels to apply to be among those paid.

At the time, a YouTube representative told Mashable, "We have long maintained that different content requires different types of payment models ... The important thing is that, regardless of the model, our creators succeed on the platform. There are a lot of our content creators that think they would benefit from subscriptions, so we’re looking at that."

Other signs suggest that YouTube is likely working on à la carte and pay-per-view options for its video channels. Code found in a February app update mentioned subscribing and unsubscribing from paid YouTube channels.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Rego - d4u.hu

LinkedIn Adds Facebook-Style Mentions to Boost Conversations

LinkedIn just made it much easier to have a conversation with other users on the social network.

LinkedIn announced Thursday that it has started rolling out a new mentions feature that is similar to what's available on Facebook and Twitter. The feature, which was spotted earlier in the day byTheNextWeb, is intended to make it easier for LinkedIn's community to engage with users and companies.

"We’re excited to introduce a new way for you to engage with your network through the ability to mention your connections and companies in conversations on LinkedIn," the company said in a blog post.

The mentions feature, which is being rolled out to English-speaking users starting today, is more limited than similar options on other social networks. You can only mention other LinkedIn users that you are connected to, or other members who are part of a discussion thread on the LinkedIn homepage.

This isn't the first time LinkedIn has taken a page from Facebook and Twitter to boost engagement on the site. LinkedIn added a follow button for brands, similar to Twitter, andoverhauled its homepage and profile pages to be more like Facebook. Flipboard recently integrated mentions into its apps as well

Facebook Like a Ninja With These Keyboard Shortcuts

Did you know Facebook offers an entire range of keyboard shortcuts, designed for keyboard-only users?

You can easily navigate the social network like a ninja once you've learned a few simple commands.

Take a look through our quick and easy guide to get you started. Please share in the comments below any other time-saving Facebook shortcuts you know.
Pick Your Browser

The shortcuts are browser-specific, so you'll need to memorize the relevant key sequence for the browser you use from the list below.

Internet Explorer for PC: Alt + [key stroke], then Enter

Firefox for PC: Shift + Alt + [key stroke]

Firefox for Mac: CMD + [key stroke]

Safari for Mac: CMD + [key stroke]

Chrome: Ctrl + Alt + [key stroke]
Then it's just a matter of adding those different key strokes to navigate the following pages:

/ = Search

0 = Help

1 = Home

2 = Timeline

3 = Friends

4 = Inbox

5 = Notifications

6 = Account Settings

7 = Privacy

8 = About

9 = Terms

There are also action shortcuts, as follows:

c = comment when on a story in your News Feed

j and k = scroll between News Feed stories

l = like or unlike a selected story

m = new message

Google+ Now Lets You Use GIFs for Profile Pics

In what may be a sign of their resurgent popularity, Google+ announced Monday that members can now use animated GIFs for their profile photos.

The social network unveiled the update in a post on its Google+ page, alongside a link to a Google search for "How to create a gif."

Matt Steiner, a software engineer at Google, first made the announcement on his profile page. He said GIFs will animate on both desktop and mobile, "like newspapers in Harry Potter."
Steiner also changed his profile pic to a GIF of himself turning towards the camera and smiling. Check it out, below.

The update comes just a week after Google added a search filter for GIFs and transparent images. When users conduct an image search, they simply click on "Search tools" below the search box, then select "Animated" under the "Any tupe" dropdown menu to refine their results.

Earlier today, Google pushed out a new update to its iOS and Android apps, with photo editing and filters, as well as a new design that looks similar to its desktop layout.

Google+ users, what do you think of the update? Do you plan to change your profile photo to a GIF? Tell us in the comments, below.

Image via iStockphoto, maxphotography

Facebook Tests iOS Notification That Nags You to Post an Update

Facebook's modus operandi is that it tests all kinds of things all the time just to see what sticks. So, don't be too alarmed about this notification feature which Bijan Sabet, a general partner at Spark Capital, tweeted about this week:

A Facebook rep says that the feature is in a "small test we're running." As Sabet's reaction illustrates, the feature has the potential to irk users. Facebook has attempted to toe the line between prompting engagement and becoming too intrusive before by asking users to check in with friends they haven't communicated with in a while. More recently, the company has drawn complaints for nagging Android users to download the latest update of its app.

What do you think of this feature? Let us know in the comments.

Images via iStockphoto, mattjeacock and Twitter, Bijan Sabet

Facebook Updates iOS App With Cover Photo Control

Facebook released version 5.6 of its iOS app Monday, giving users the ability to update their profile cover photo on the go.
Users can now update their cover photo on the iPhone with a tap of their finger.

Simply tap on the cover photo in profile view and you can choose to view your cover photo, choose a new photo from your photo library or take a new photo. Select the photo you want and arrange it as desired, hit save, and you're done.

The update also promises fewer taps for creating group messages and easier ways to name and find group conversations.

The Facebook for iOS update [iTunes link] is available in the App Store now.

Homepage image courtesy of Facebook, composite Christina Warren, Mashable. Screenshots courtesy of Facebook

What Is Facebook? - Ways To Monetize Social Media

If you could only search on the internet for facts and figures on Facebook, you will be shocked with the massive numbers you see. $100 billion dollars and plus: that's the value of this innocently named social networking website. How does it feel to know that every 13th person walking on this planet has a Facebook profile? So, if you are thrown on an island which you haven't ever heard of, it is possible that you might find the dwellers of that island using Facebook. Most of the users on Facebook are between 18 to 34 years old so it is the best place for businesses that target this age range.

Before you think that the above mentioned facts were astonishing for you read this: over 48% people who are below 34 and above 18 years of age do Facebook as first thing in the morning. You could go on and on when it comes to writing the interesting facts about Facebook but the most important thing is how you make use of Facebook to monetize social media and ultimately your business. Here's how Facebook can be the best source of leads and online traffic for any business.

The Many Ways Facebook (and other Social Media) Can Be Monetized To Generate Profits for Businesses
Before talking about anything it must be mentioned that Facebook is one of the best, most influential and revolutionary websites on the internet that has the strongest force of changing the consumer behavior towards a particular brand, company, manufacturer, government, celebrity etc.

· User recommendations are considered the most important factors steering consumers to or away from a particular brand. Most of the users using the internet for purposes of researching products and services like to look at user comments and recommendations before they make a purchase. The same can also be said for subscriptions to particular services. Therefore, if you have a representation on Facebook and most of the votes are positive, it is likely that you will receive recommendations and more business through Facebook.

· Several surveys and theories show that an unhappy customer is 10 times more dangerous to business as a good customer is profitable. If your customer didn't have a good customer service from your company or customer support representatives, he can spread the word in no time through his Facebook profile, sharing, wall or simply the shout. However, the Facebook page and representation allows you to interact with your customers personally and resolve their matters. Nothing makes a customer feel better than a company making him special. It's an essential component of customer satisfaction.

· Facebook has proved to be the best place for the introduction of your newly launched products and services. However, you must be stay on top of yourself and be sure that you are not throwing a sales pitch through your Facebook profile or page because that carries a very negative impact for the users. Go for a genuine introduction or announcement of what you are about to introduce in the market and your customers will just love it. The key is to build relationships with people not entirely based on business. Under no circumstances should you attempt to hard sell to anyone.

· It wouldn't be wrong to say that an efficient employee is another profit made by the company and by posting pictures and company habits on your company profile on Facebook, you could really invite some great professionals from all around the world to work for your company. This is the most effective way of inviting people to join your company for work and it doesn't even require any money or investment from you.

· Targeted advertising is another great benefit that Facebook is able to offer to businesses related to various industries. For a certain group of people or country, the businessmen could pay for getting the information from Facebook and after knowing the trends of those people on the internet, this company can place targeted ads only on the profiles of those people who it paid to target ads to.

· Branding is definitely considered the most important part of any business' marketing and advertising. Through branding you send a message to all the customers, new and old. If this branding is done through a social networking website such as Facebook, the impact is greater than ever before.

· Since every user on Facebook is spending some part of his day using Facebook, you are likely to get a great return of your newly introduced offers, promotions and special discounts. Many people become followers and fans on your business page once they have taken advantage of a particular offer to wait for another one.

· Once you have a Facebook page, you can be found anywhere in the world. It doesn't matter if someone is trying to search your business on Google because your Facebook business page will appear in the Google search results as well.

Facebook is the leader of social networking websites at the moment and with the number of users it has right now, it doesn't seem that it will be overtaken by any other social networking website anytime soon... If ever. If you have a business, an internet website and/or a blog but no Facebook page, there is a good chance that you are possibly missing out on the biggest profit earning opportunity for your business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7509671

Facebook Pages Manager Updated To Version 1.1

Facebook Pages Manager for Android devices has just been updated, introducing three new features to the service.

Facebook Pages Manager was released to users in New Zealand, Canada and Australia last month, becoming available to the USA and the UK a few days later.

The first version of the application allowed Facebook page administrators to make posts, reply to comments and direct messages on the go using their Android devices.

Version 1.1 of the Pages Manager app, which is available from the Google Play store, adds three new features:

• Promote your Page posts to get more people to see them in the news feed
• Schedule your post to be published on a future date
• Create events from your Page.

The update means that page administrators will be able to easily manage their business pages on the go, or if there is not a desktop device immediately available.

What do you think of Pages Manager Version 1.1?