Erik Qualman's Blog, page 532

More Socializing Can Mean More Work

The U.S. economy is climbing back up, but for some, times are still tough.

The hit on the economy affected a lot of people, even those who kept their jobs. There were salary cuts and things got slower all around.

Certain areas took more of a hit, including building and construction. Lots were left vacant, homes unfinished.

As the article, “construction unemployment rate falls to 9-year low” notes, it’s still tough out there, and not just for those in the construction field.

So if you are in the midst of a job search; you’ve got to work it from every angle, and that includes social media.

Get Social About Employment

In order to increase your odds of finding a good job, make sure to look to:

• LinkedIn – Clean up your LinkedIn account. Use a professional picture (and that doesn’t mean professionally taken, but not one from a beach vacation or dinner party). List your skills and even if you think they may be irrelevant, mention them. Gather connections. Once you hit 500, your profile just says over 500 instead of an exact number, which looks impressive. Perhaps upgrade for a short time; though you have to pay, you can get more out of it, like see who is viewing your profile.

• Facebook – Let your friends know you are in the search. If you know someone in particular who is in your field or could help, reach out. You may want to do that through a private message, but you probably have some great networking connections on Facebook you’re not even aware of. You can also follow some companies you’re interested in; they may post hiring information if they are looking.

• Twitter – Follow the companies you would like to work, along with some organizations in your field. You can tweet your resume with a blurb that you are looking and tweet any other industry relevant things you’ve done. If you are in the construction business, tweet photos of your work.

• Pinterest and Instagram – These are great   for building a visual profile. If nothing else, you’ll have them at the ready to share at an interview.

Other Social Media Tips

You should also look at:

• In general, clean up your social media – Make sure your Facebook settings are private and stay clean and positive on your posts just in case.

• Research before an interview – Check out the hiring manager on social media, that way you’ll have a little heads up on him or her. Research the company, too. It will be impressive that you know details worth discussing when you go in.

You can also learn a lot from social media.

Follow some recruiters, resume writers, and job coaches.

You may learn that one little tip that gets you in the door of a fantastic new opportunity.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Facebook updates ‘Friends’ icon to reflect gender equality

(CNN) - Facebook’s 1.4 billion active users may need to strain their eyes to see the social network’s subtle new design change.

But in terms of gender equality, Facebook’s new look is making a big statement.

The “Friends” icon, in the upper right corner of the page, has long featured a male silhouette in front of a smaller female one. The new icon now shows the woman in front of the man, and the two silhouettes are the same size. Similarly, the new “Groups” icon now depicts a woman between two men. Before, a man was in the center, between another man and a woman.

Facebook design manager Caitlin Winner revealed the changes in a Medium post. She wrote that she noticed gender discrepancies in the “glyph kit” when saw that the male icon was symmetrical but the woman had a chip in her shoulder. The chip was the spot where the man was placed in front of the woman in the “Friends” icon.

“The lady icon needed a shoulder, so I drew it in  — and so began my many month descent into the rabbit hole of icon design,” Winner wrote in the post.

She updated the woman’s and man’s hair, as well. The biggest change, though, is the more prominent placement of women in the “Friends” and “Groups” icons. It was a design choice because placing the icons next to each other was confusing, Winner said.

Winner was nervous about updating the glyphs and kind of expected to get in trouble. But that did not happen, she said.

“Instead, and somewhat magically, the new icons began to appear in new products across the company and our many platforms,” she wrote.

The changes have been implemented on Facebook platforms around the world, she said.

This is just the latest subtle design update for Facebook, which tweaked its logo with little fanfare in July. However, this change may seen as be a step in the right direction for a company that has been criticized for not hiring more women.

A 2014 company diversity report, Facebook’s first, showed that 69% of its global work force was male. The gender divide is even greater among global tech and senior-level employees, who were 85% and 77% male, respectively.

“As these numbers show, we have more work to do — a lot more,” Maxine Williams, Facebook’s global head of diversity, said in a statement at the time.

The company’s 2015 report revealed little progress. Among global employees, 68% are male. In tech and senior leadership positions, the divide is similar, with 84% and 77% male, respectively.

Image from Facebook via CNN

Article by Wyatt Massey for CNN

 

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5 Celebration Day PR Campaigns

What do April Fools’ and Father’s Day have in common? Marketers love to plan their campaigns around them! Every year, brands take advantage of celebratory days, hoping to make their way into your hearts and homes. Here are five examples of brands that have successfully jumped on different occasions with effective campaigns.

How embarrassing is your mum?

Fashion retailer bonprix challenged the stereotypes with its mission to find out if mums really are embarrassing their children on social media. Their survey, in time for Mother’s Day, found that over half of under-35s said they were happy to add their mum as a Facebook friend.

With the tagline ‘it’s cool to be friends with mum’, the retailer created a quiz for mums to find out what kind of Facebook Parent they are: easy-going mum, best mate mum, loud and proud mum or Sherlock mum!

Valentine’s Speed Dating

Ford’s take on speed dating earlier this year became a viral sensation. The video, hosted on YouTube, showed secret camera footage of men who believed they were on a blind date. They met Prestin Persson, who afterwards politely offered to give them a lift home in her rather nice Mustang. Little did they know that their date, who at first appeared to be a fairly poor driver, was in fact a professional stunt driver.

  Why is it so hard to see black and blue?

#Thedress became an internet sensation in February this year when the world was divided into two camps – those who saw it as gold and white, and those that saw black and blue. The debate sparked a social media frenzy, which The Salvation Army was quick to pick up on. In an advert, which the charity released for International Women’s Day, the dress highlighted domestic abuse to great effect. The ad was hard hitting – an excellent example of newsjacking.

Kiss me, I’m Irish

Iconic Irish liqueur makers Baileys produced a Facebook app in the run-up to St Patrick’s Day which allowed users to create a photo with the slogan ‘Kiss me I’m Irish (and so is my Baileys!)’. They were encouraged to upload and share their picture, which was then entered into a competition to win a “Kiss me I’m Irish” t-shirt. This interactive social media campaign achieved widespread participation.

#Dadventures

Last year’s Father’s Day campaign from Not On The High Street was their biggest yet, with the #Dadventures social media drive supporting large TV and press promotions. The clever, and popular, hashtag was used to encourage consumers to share stories of their #Dadventures, whilst offering unusual gift ideas from the Not On The High Street site.

With so many success stories, it’s clear that jumping on national holidays can be invaluable for a brand, even on a low budget. Get your 2015/2016 marketing calendar printed and get brainstorming!

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Microsoft to Cut Up to 7,800 Jobs, Mostly in Its Phone Unit

The New York Times – Microsoft said on Wednesday that it would eliminate up to 7,800 jobs, more than 6 percent of its work force, in a major overhaul of its struggling smartphone business.

The company also said it would take a $7.6 billion accounting charge related to its acquisition of Nokia’s handset operations, a clear acknowledgment that Microsoft’s foray into the mobile hardware business had borne little fruit.

While Microsoft will not stop making smartphones, the company’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, said on Monday that Microsoft would no longer focus on the growth of its own smartphone business, instead emphasizing the expansion of the broad “ecosystem” of products, including mobile phones, that ran its Windows software.

“I am committed to our first-party devices, including phones,” Mr. Nadella said in an email to Microsoft employees. “However, we need to focus our phone efforts in the near term while driving reinvention.

The company’s retrenchment in smartphones comes as Mr. Nadella, who became chief executive last year, has been pulling Microsoft back from initiatives outside its core mission.

Rather than catering to all smartphone shoppers, Microsoft said it would narrow its focus to three types of customers, including business users who wanted strong management, security and productivity apps, buyers at the low end of the market looking for inexpensive phones and Windows fans.

Last year, Microsoft laid off 18,000 employees, many of them who were also working in the company’s newly acquired smartphone business. Those layoffs are in addition to the 7,800 cuts, which mainly come from smartphones, announced on Wednesday. The majority of the latest layoffs will be outside Microsoft’s home base in the Seattle area, including in Finland, where Nokia originated.

At the end of March, Microsoft had more than 118,000 employees globally.

Microsoft executives have been hinting at more cutbacks for months. Mr. Nadella sent a companywide email in late June intended to rally employees for the coming year. But he also warned in the message that Microsoft would need to “make some tough choices in areas where things are not working and solve hard problems in ways that drive customer value.”

In June, Microsoft said it was selling its online display advertising business to AOL, as the company exited a business for which it once had high hopes. In 2012, Microsoft signaled how its ambitions in the area had sputtered when it took a $6.2 billion accounting charge related to its acquisition of aQuantive, an online advertising company.

Microsoft has continued to lose market share in smartphones since acquiring Nokia’s handset business in 2014. The company has failed to turn the Windows Phone operating system, which runs on its handsets, into a vibrant alternative to the two leading mobile platforms, iOS from Apple and Android from Google.

Last month, the company said Stephen Elop, the former chief executive of Nokia who became a senior Microsoft executive after the acquisition, overseeing its devices business, would leave Microsoft.

The $7.6 billion charge that Microsoft said it would take during its fourth fiscal quarter, which ended June 30, is a noncash charge that reflected the declining performance of the smartphone business, which had continued to lose money and market share. Microsoft said it would also take a cash restructuring charge of between $750 million and $850 million related to the layoffs.

Article by Nick Wingfield for The New York Times

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5 Marketing Mistakes You Should Never Make on YouTube

https://travisvgvh.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/youtube-is-probably-the-very-best-place-to-do-marketing-as-a-result-of-it-can-be-vast-acceptance-master-the-most-effective-youtube-marketing-and-advertising-strategies-to-turn-out-to-be-an-effective/

YouTube is without a doubt one of the most popular video viewing social platforms with an ever-increasing users list. However, this serves as a reason for more and more organizations and individuals to use the platform for marketing purposes. According to the latest statistics presented by YouTube, the network has over 1 billion users and approximately 300 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute!

Now you can probably imagine the amount of competition you have to face to make your video — visible.

This is exactly why marketers can’t go wrong while trying to earn a large number of customers, viewers, or subscribers. Unfortunately, many marketers are unaware of the top common mistakes made on this social platform while attempting to spread awareness about a product or a subject or increase brand recognition.

1) Making Your Video Commercial-like: Do you know the single most annoying part about watching YouTube videos in the eyes of a user? The commercials that make you wait. No offense, but it’s just the sad reality. You’re lucky if you get a YouTube user to watch and like a commercial, but that really isn’t what the users are there for.

YouTube users are looking for social interaction at a more personal level. They don’t want to watch it television-style where they have little control over what’s coming on the channel. Here, they have an option to switch to another video. Making your videos sound commercial-like is a big mistake. Sales pitches are a turn off for YouTube users. Create content that is engaging, fun, and personal. Once you’ve hit the right buttons, you can make a sales pitch in the end that is NOT the focus of your video.

2) Expecting to Get Hits Right off the Bat: As we mentioned earlier, the per-minute statistics are quite alarming. With the amount of competition you are bound to face on YouTube, expecting to get a bunch of likes, followers, and subscribers right off the bat is unavailing. No matter how good your content is, you have to have a magnet strategy to pull your potential customers. How do you do this? By deliberately promoting your video first. Ask you close contacts, or any contacts, to promote your video via all or any social channels (i.e. Facebook, Twitter). If you feel that the circulation has reduced, initiate the process all over again.

3) Inconsistent Uploads: Similar to blogging and podcasting, you won’t get points for uploading content inconsistently. If you are uploading a series, you need to let your users know when to expect the next episode. So for example, if you are uploading a video several times in one month and then zero times the next month, while you plan on uploading more videos in future (the third month), you can forget about luring the users that viewed your videos in the beginning. It’s okay to upload less, but it is not okay to be inconsistent. The idea is to be predictable when you are uploading videos. That way, your regular customers/subscribers know when to expect your video and that will keep your YouTube channel alive.

4) Making Your Videos Too Long: The next thing that bothers a typical YouTube user the most—after commercials—is long videos. Try not to drag your video content and bore the users before they get to the important part. Usually the crux of the content lies in the middle or towards the end of the video. So, if you’re extending you introduction or going too far into detail about a subject, you’re not doing justice to your pitch. Again, unlike traditional media, users have a lot of control over what they are watching and they like that control. If they find that what you are saying is too boring or too long, you can expect them to pop out of the window pretty soon—despite the “view”.

5) Not Paying Attention to the Analytics: You certainly can’t complain about the number of tools you can use to view YouTube video analytics. There is a large range of statistical tools that will help you track your video’s performance. To monitor you YouTube campaign’s performance, you can view reports on views overtime, determine audience demographic, discover the source traffic, sources of social shares , analyze audience retention, review subscription rate, likes dislikes and favorites, and more. The possibilities are endless when it comes to your YouTube analytics panel. From this data, you can decipher what your users like or don’t like. What you should be doing to improve your subscription rate and who your fans are.

Also, do not ignore the reviews, comments, or feedback you receive from people. It’s not uncommon to come across useless “troll” comments written by people who are just looking for someone to shame publicly in fancy language and those aren’t the ones you want to be paying attention to. Read and review genuine feedback that directly refers to the content of your video and seems like an honest, civilized, and detailed response of what you could do to improve.

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Eat up the Savings via Social Media

You don’t want to fear each trip to the grocery store, but with the cost of groceries, that may be what happens.

Whether you are shopping just for yourself, or for a family, grocery bills can be a huge chunk of your budget. And with mini trips in between the major ones, you may not even realize how much you’re spending.

However, did you know that you can use social media to get better deals at t grocery store?

Dig Into Social Networking

Social media can be your new grocery shopping buddy, so check out some of these tips for using social media to shop and save:

• Research – Just like you are doing now, research some ways to save. Articles like 13 grocery shopping hacks offer valuable savings tips and information.

• Use your favorite grocery store’s website – Check it for weekly deals and coupons. For instance, Publix offers coupons, both digital and print, and a digital weekly ad. There is even a “ways to save” page.

• Follow your favorite, and nearby, stores on social media – Most have social media links right on their site, and these can offer not only direct deals and specials, but also valuable information on saving.

• Use social media for price comparison – Again, many stores, like Publix, will publish price comparison charts on their site.

• Use your own social media – Chat with your local friends about their favorite grocery stores for savings. You may discover new tips and where to go for the best deal right on your own Facebook page.

• Tweet – You and your friends can incorporate social media for savings. Tweet specials that you see in the stores, and they’ll do the same.

Ways to Reduce Your Bill

Besides social media, here’s some valuable grocery shopping savings tips:

• Bag your own salad – It’s tempting to buy bagged lettuce, but it’s more expensive. It also often includes some sort of preservative, so you are better off buying heads of lettuce and washing and bagging yourself. They’ll test fresher, last longer and save you money.

• Skip other pre-packaged foods – Whether it’s Goldfish crackers or raisins, buy the regular size packages and divvy them up yourself. It’s more environmentally friendly and cheaper.

• Buy store brand – Most store brands are just as tasty as name brands, and substantially cheaper. Also, most stores will exchange it if you’re not happy, so it’s worth a try.

• Watch out on bulk items – Often these are not so much cheaper and you end up throwing a lot away. Only buy what you’ll use.

• Shop the sales – Choose what is on sale. If it’s between two items and one is on sale, go for the sale items if you’ll use it. You can save a lot with some flexibility.

It’s unfortunate that grocery shopping has turned into such a game, but it’s one you have to play for savings.

Check out your social media, shop the sales and specials and share what you find with your friends.

You may be surprised how much you can save.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Rawich at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Businesses seeking to strike search marketing gold must move towards search synergy

Businesses want to make as much money as possible by spending as little as possible. Although if businesses had the choice to spend nothing at all and make sales, it would be most welcomed. Search strategies have played a vital role in businesses lead and sale generation strategy since the launch of Google and their Adwords platform. As the platform and businesses become savvier with search marketing strategies that enhance their profits by making their campaigns more efficient, many businesses are still struggling to realise the benefits of running a synchronised SEO and PPC strategy. The pros of executing a synergised campaign outweigh the short term costs that the business needs to invest in. Search Engine Land shared results from a case study conducted in 2013 concluded that a search cannibalisation campaign led to an increase in direct sales. To strike the ultimate search marketing gold, businesses and digital marketing agencies must be courageous in taking the business risk to invest in search synergy. And here is why.

Image via pixabay.com

Running a PPC & SEO campaign improves your business’s share of voice in the search space.

In organic search, you will usually see up to ten listings on the first page. For paid search, you may see between 1-7 (or more) depending on the results presented for the search keyword. Businesses need to claim their pieces of search real estate, to be in front of the active buyer who is searching for information related to their buying decision.

The rule of more is a way of the consumer validating the credibility when deciding which site to visit during their consumer journey. In a way, this adds to the pitching process when consumers are making a decision on who to go with.

 

Improve the search competitiveness of your website

It is a dogfight to gain the search listings on Google for both paid and organic search campaigns. Although there isn’t a direct correlation between paid and organic search, there is an opportunity to boost the visibility of organic and paid search landing pages to outperform competitors that are vying for the same customers on the same keywords.

 

Leverage learnings and take-aways from running campaigns simultaneously

By managing the search campaigns in tandem, you are able to leverage the data and feedback from the campaigns to further improve performance. For example, the data from keyword mining in a paid search campaign can be used to identify prospective keywords to be visible in organic search. The keywords that are identified in the paid search campaigns may also serve as sales conversion keywords as well as discovery keywords that introduce people to the brand.

 

Developing a stronger understanding of what keywords work for organic

Since Google expanded ‘keyword not provided’ for organic search that is keeping webmasters guessing about the referral and converting keywords from organic search, SEOs are looking towards data around landing pages and the information learned from paid search campaigns to identify target keywords that convert. Paid and organic search data can be seen side by side within the Adwords dashboard. SEOs can learn more from the shared data from paid search campaigns to further enhance their campaign on current SEO pages, as well as to develop content surrounding the keyword opportunities that are learned from paid search.

 

Intertwining both ‘always on’ and ‘tactical’ campaigns.

SEO and PPC will generally have an always-on campaign that will see the core of the lead generation focus on the same keywords. However, tactical campaigns based around seasons or sales drives, can be enhanced with synergised planning from both execution teams in order to drive more sales during the campaign.

It is time for businesses to take serious action with their search campaign by improving the collaboration efforts between paid and organic search activities. This will yield stronger performance and facilitate the achievement of revenue and profit objectives.

 

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What Gamers Know About Engagement (Gaming in the Social Media World)

I have found that some of the most interactive people are those who enjoy gaming, specifically multi-player games. It is interesting that there are those who actually think the opposite, that gamers are anti-social. It really has to do with how gamers socialize. That doesn’t rule out the anti-social type that plays the single player games, but there is really a lot of buzz about the social aspect of gaming. Let’s look at how well gamers socialize and engage.

I’ll be honest with you; gaming is not my thing. I am a musician and we have our own interactions and community. However, as a social media marketing expert looking in from the outside, I can say that sometimes there might even be some envy, wanting to be a part of the gaming in-crowd. This is especially true when referencing cosplay (below). After all, I’m known for my fun colored wigs, so I’m already half-way there, eh?

Let’s look at some of the relationship-building aspects, and some of the benefits of being part of the gaming community, coming from an admitted non-gamer like myself.

The games are fun. People wouldn’t play them if they were not. Hey, even I have enjoyed playing games. I was into “Zelda” enough to know that if I didn’t stop myself I was going to become addicted and skip going to work at the mortgage company. Believe me, I know they are fun! Games like Farmville (see stats in 2013, compliments of TechCrunch) would not be as popular on Facebook if games were not fun.

The multi-player games involve interaction. While it is true that you may not be having deep intellectual conversations while playing the games (notwithstanding games like “The Sims”), there is still an engagement process that happens when participating in multi-player games. Even requesting friends to join in, on the social network games, involves engagement. Here is a very academic approach to studying gaming engagement in the context of a learning environment, from a science journal.)

As a sidebar, I remember hearing that your Klout score would go up with spending more time playing games on Facebook. It makes sense, that the games that encourage interaction on the Facebook platform also increase Klout. So, the more time spent in the Facebook game, the more your social score on Klout increases with all of the natural Facebook interaction resulting from the games.

The game world engagement can sometimes cross over into real world engagement, providing even more opportunities. An example of this is the widely popular cosplay. According to Wikipedia, cosplay is really anything that involves wearing a costume to represent a known character. But, cosplay is also really popular in the avatar replication and there is even a site dedicated to cosplay, at cosplay.com. There are youtube videos showing how to dress up as your favorite game character. These videos include tips on costume, wig, and step-by-step makeup techniques. Here is an example of how to dress up like Princess Zelda:

The cosplay does not have to follow rules or be gender specific. For example, here is a fun how-to for looking like Mario (from Mario Brothers), as a female. This gal gives you suggestions on clothing and an adaptation for Mario’s brother, Luigi.

Crossover Points Between Gaming and Social Media

There are different places on the Internet where the gamer can join communities to meet other gamers. This can assist the gamer in the social media connections as well as crossing over to the real world interactions.

Twitch.TV – stream your games live. Here is an excerpt from a recent panel discussion that I hosted with “Alex” providing some context for Twitch.tv.

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Here are additional sites that may be helpful for gaming socialization:

Raptr
Playfire
Duxter
GamerDNA
KoinUp

And, this site is helpful in obtaining information about all different types of games: PlayerX.co.uk

In Conclusion…

One of the things that really impresses me about the world of gaming is how uninhibited and free the community is. There is a sense of “free to be yourself,” and yet, with the inclusion of virtual reality, there is a freedom to be someone else, too. Either way, engagement becomes an viable option. With gaming there is the opportunity to connect the real world with the virtual world to whatever level you desire, with the interaction crossing over from one world to the other.

Gaming may not be for everyone, but there are a lot of resources available to the gamer that allows for social activity beyond just the game. Those of us who are not gamers could learn a lot about the level of socialization that goes into successful gaming.

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5 Ways to Build a Brand

Building a brand, and maintaining it, starts the moment you go online. There are business brands and professional brands, and these two realms often overlap. Even an 18-year-old with no idea of what he or she wants to do has an online reputation or “brand.” It’s what schools may look at when deciding if you should be admitted, what employers consider when choosing the best person for roles and what your potential dates find when getting ready for the first in-person meeting. Your reputation and brand are really all you have—it’s your first impression, so make it count.

Fortunately, you’re largely in charge of your brand since most of it is built online. In many cases, it’s you and you alone who’s posting information about yourself, from photos to reviews on third party sites. Reputation management isn’t just for enterprises or major companies. It’s something we can all do on a daily basis.

Take a look at some great websites and platforms, such as Flippze, Etsy or Amazon for examples of brand building done right. There are also YouTube stars and even the Kardashians (regardless of what you think of them) who are brilliant at brand building.

Here are a few ways you can build and control your brand:

1. Guest posts: If you’re a writer, infographic designer or vlogger, you can get more exposure and increase your leadership prowess with guest posts. This is how you get your name out there in the industry you want. Make sure you have a professional byline, professional photo (no selfies) and match your interests to the right website.

2. Manage your Google alerts: Set up a Google alert for your name, variances of your name and business, if applicable. You’ll be instantly notified when anything new about you shows up in Google searches.

3. Remove or bury low quality content: There’s no shame in googling yourself, and you might even be surprised by what pops up. It could be an old angsty rant you forgot about, a tagged photo from a drunken night out or some other content you no longer want out there. Each website has a different means of requesting content to be taken down, and in some cases you can do it yourself (like if it’s an old dating profile you forgot about). Otherwise, you can work on burying bad content with good. This is where a pro website, blog, guest blogging and other tactics come into play.

4. Create a professional website: Even if you’re “just” a student, there’s no reason you can’t have a professional website with a blog, your resume, recent projects and other details included. It shows future employers that you’re serious, tech savvy and helps you stand out. If you really want to shine, include a video introduction (just make sure it’s regularly updated).

5. Lock down your privacy: This is particularly true on social media sites. Every now and then, double check your privacy settings to make sure everything’s under lock and key. However, the best approach is to not post anything on social media you wouldn’t want the world to see.

Your brand can bolster your success or drag you down, so plot it carefully. Gone are the days when privacy was a given, and in the Digital Era you need to keep things squeaky clean. Keep track of yourself so that others don’t do it for you.

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Does Your Website Get Enough Social Loving?

Spreading the word about your business website takes more than just an interesting layout and engaging content.

If you really want to create an online presence for your business, you need to give your website a little social love.

Here are just a few ways you can make your business website more socially savvy:

Website-Boosting Social Media Sites

There are a number of social media sites out there that can help you boost your business website.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Linkedin, Pinterest – these are the social heavy hitters. However, there are a few relatively unknown social sites that can help give your brand a major presence.

Among them:

• StumbleUpon – Adding your business to StumbleUpon gives millions of users access to your brand. Users type their interests in the StumbleUpon search bar and, if your business falls within their interests, your website will show up in their results. It’s basically an interest-based bookmarking tool for websites of all kinds.

• Quora – In a nutshell, Quora is question and answer social site that allows businesses like yours to answer common questions relating to your trade. It helps online audiences find questions to topics ranging from politics to cooking. Through Quora, you can link to your own website and increase your visibility.

• Reddit – Reddit is a website for die-hard social media fans. If you can land content on Reddit, your social profile will skyrocket because Reddit users will share your content until it’s viral. With that said, you have to offer some pretty unique website content to make it on Reddit.

Now that you know some of the social routes to take, here are some tips for promoting your business through social media:

Respond to Social Questions and Comments

Creating a social profile and posting on a regular basis is all part of the social media process.

However, once your website and your brand start gaining attention, you need to respond to any and all social questions and comments you receive.

The article “5 Ways a Website Can Boost Your Home Inspection Business” mentions the importance of staying on call 24 hours a day with your website.

Well, the same goes with your social activities.

Whether it’s a question about a product on your site or a comment on your service, social media is a great way to communicate with customers.

Social Timing is Everything

Social audiences peak at certain times of the day, which is something you need to remember when promoting your website.

Although every social environment is a little different, most social media users are active in the morning and at night.

Weekday afternoons are also a good time to promote your website on social media because users are usually on lunch break.

Take Advantage of Photos and Videos

There’s a ton of social competition out there, especially when it comes to businesses trying to share content.

If you really want to draw attention to your website promotions, then you need to use photos and videos in your social campaigns.

This can include anything from detailed product photos, pictures of your storefront, or videos of your business and its products in action. Catering to social audiences’ visual senses will increase exposure for your brand.

When you’re ready to promote your business website and your brand, keep the social media pointers above in mind.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Vlado at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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