Erik Qualman's Blog, page 599

How to Amplify Your Content Using Social Media

There’s plenty of information out there on how to get started on social media and create content, but when a tweet goes out into an already-noisy cyberspace, does anyone hear it?

Meanwhile, Facebook has revamped its algorithms to give preference to paid promotional posts. You’re on social media and you’re savvy enough, but how do you make sure your content is reaching people?

Evidence suggests that the paid promotional posts do work if they are crafted in such a way to grab customer attention. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn all offer this opportunity.

On LinkedIn, it is particularly important to make the post a substantial one; LinkedIn users are busy and looking for relevant content, and your post can get lost amid a sea of sponsored posts if it is not a strong one.

Images, high-value content and narrowing your audience to the most relevant groups are all ways to make your promotional posts even more effective.

However, before you shell out and money for those promotional posts, you can build anticipation for and expectation of your most significant posts. For example, tweets and other teasers can let followers know that something big is coming.

In addition to promoting yourself, you can make it easy for others to promote you. Be sure that your site has buttons so users can share your information on Twitter, Google Plus, Facebook and other social networking sites.

You can also use contests and promotions to encourage shares and re-tweets. Your website and share buttons should be optimized for mobile viewing as well.

Social media is about more than just sharing your own information. It’s also about building relationships and promoting others. If the only posts you’re sharing on social media are about your own business, you may find yourself in an echo chamber.

People are more likely to pay attention to and share your content if they feel as though there is a person behind the account rather than simply someone churning out content links. Developing a social media personality and interacting with others is key. This will also lead to the unprompted sharing by others of more of your posts.

Time of day is important. Social media is an ephemeral medium, and posts scroll away and can be lost quickly. Try to determine when more of your followers are online, and time your posts accordingly. Depending on your target audience, weekends and evenings are usually poor times to roll out new information.

One of the best ways to amplify your content is by making sure that content is informative, relevant and helps someone with a problem or answers their question. You may use all of the methods above, but if the information you are sharing is not of use to your audience, it will be ignored.

With each piece of content, ask yourself who it is aimed at and how it will help them. If the answer to either or both is “I don’t know,” go back and retool your content and your plan.

As social media becomes more crowded, getting noticed may also become more difficult. However, those crowds also means a larger audience, and learning how to get your content in front of the maximum number of people will pay dividends if you persevere.

 

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What the tech world is saying about Apple’s new IOS 8

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that Apple made some big news yesterday with the unveiling of their new operating system IOS 8. With an announcement this big, we can easily get lost in the thousands of articles popping up about the topic. Here is a curated list of 7 articles from the biggest names in tech news. Everything you need to know is all in this post.

Here are 7 curated blog posts from some of the biggest names in technology and social media to give you all you need to know about the launch of Apple’s IOS 8.

1. Apple’s WWDC: 8 Innovations to Improve Your Workday http://buff.ly/1h4bRsB - This gives a great overview of the new apps that will be added to the IOS 8 update, and particularly how you can use them in your work.

2. With iOS 8, Apple Shows Android a Thing or Two http://buff.ly/1kFyGxr – This Mashable article provides a thoughtful comparison between Apple’s new IOS 8 and the current Android system.

3. Apple Healthbook: Why Fitness Is The ‘Big Idea’ In iOS 8 And iPhone 6 http://buff.ly/1h4ek6h - Intrigued by Apple’s move to focus on health and fitness in their latest operating system update? This HuffPost article explains why health and fitness are part of Apple’s ‘big idea.’

4. iWatch, CarPlay And iHome Will Lead To A Simpler Design Sensibility In Apple’s iOS 8 http://buff.ly/1kFB9rY - This Forbes article explains how IOS 8 may streamline your life with their new apps and products like iHome and iWatch.

5. A Quick Guide to Apple’s iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite http://buff.ly/1h4h57F - Entrepreneur Magazine gives us a quick and easy to read overview of the announcement and what it means for Apple users.

6. Here are a few lesser-known new features in iOS 8 http://buff.ly/1h4ic77 - The experts at Endgadget take us on a tour of the ‘lesser-known’ features we will have with IOS 8.

7. iOS 7 Changed iOS, But iOS 8 Changes Computing | TechCrunch http://buff.ly/1kFE97B - Tech Crunch explains how this IOS 8 update will impact the future.

Did you write an article about the IOS 8 announcement? Did you read a really great article about it? Share it in the comments of this post.

 

Photo credit: pio3 / Shutterstock.com

 

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Instagram Video Ads Will Soon Play on a Smartphone Near You

So we’ve had several weeks to adjust to Facebook’s video ads, which have been peppered in between our friends’ posts on our newsfeeds. By now, you’ve likely been subjected to several quick moments of autoplay footage as you scrolled through your Facebook feed.

Now Instagram is turning its sights toward video ad content. Our social media feeds have become extremely valuable commercial real estate, and advertisers are looking to them for new ways to engage audiences beyond traditional text and graphic content.

The shift toward video content

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Instagram is moving toward video advertising. In June 2013, the photo-sharing social network launched its video feature for users, which allows them to record and post up to 14 seconds of footage.

This capability enabled the site to compete closely with Vine for app adoption rates. The vintage Instagram filters we love so much can be applied to video footage too, with the end result that it can be shared on multiple social media accounts.

Many mobile users who avoided jumping onto the Vine train began to experiment with video content on Instagram. It was just a matter of time before this feature was customized with advertisers in mind.

Instagram, the discerning company

According to Instagram director of marketing Jim Squires, only 15 advertisers have approval to display images on his company’s platform. This approach is substantially more guarded than the advertising options available to businesses through Facebook.

It appears that Instagram expects to exercise a heavy hand when it comes to reviewing sponsored content and passing it for approval. Only a select few can advertise on Instagram right now.

This caution characterizes a social media company that’s extremely concerned about its image and its users’ experience. It’s not likely that the video ad feature will be made available for mass business sign-ups any time soon.

This seems entirely in character for this firm, which has prospered through visual content thus far. Users take pride in tweaking color values and frames, and adjusting filters to post their mini masterpieces online.

Instagram apparently wants to take deliberate care before exposing its audience to lots of advertising graphics and videos. The company is very interested in how current image ads affect the user experience, and it encourages users to leave comments with the hide and feedback features.

Who’s using videos right now?

So far, Instagram has opened the video gates to a very a small number of advertisers. These are major corporations; we haven’t seen any small and medium business representation just yet.

Companies such as Levis, Taco Bell, PayPal, and Starwood have released some of the most noteworthy ads. Like Facebook and Twitter, Instagram uses data based on the accounts you follow and the feedback you provide to tailor fit the ads that appear on your page.

Social media video advertising is a strange phenomenon. Platforms such as Instagram really encourage DIY and other offbeat approaches to advertising, which stands out from the glossy, polished corporate advertising found on television and even YouTube.

These initial Instagram video advertisements might end up setting a precedent for future advertisers when the feature becomes more accessible. Perhaps some day soon, drivers will be persuaded to buy a new car because of an Instagram ad.

Content creators and marketing teams will be challenged to make truly creative and meaningful videos that capture the unique sensibilities of Instagram users.

Video ads appear to be the wave of the future when it comes to the real estate on our social media feeds. As more platforms adopt video features for their users, they are paving the way for innovative modes of advertising.

Online marketers should pay close attention to these early examples of video advertising, since they will dramatically change the way we engage with content.

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6 Remarkably Simple Social Media Re-marketing Mistakes to Avoid

When you remarket your company to people who have previously visited your site or sampled your product/service, the goal is to get them to see you in a new light. These are the people who have seriously considered giving you their business before, but weren’t convinced enough to take the plunge.  Having the right remarketing strategy and the opportunity to create brand new material is basically a second chance for you to win over these prospective customers. For those of you who are marketing geeks such as myself, that’s all part of what makes this field endlessly thrilling.  

One of the most recent trends, and cost-effective methods, of remarketing is taking place on the social media front. However, with social media still being fairly new, unexplored territory, there’s a lot of room for error. Not doing your research on changes the social networking platforms have made since your first online campaign, as well as neglecting attention to detail, could cause you to blow your second chance with your audience. Although these mistakes may be remarkably simple, they’re common. Before you put everything out there for the rest of the social media world to see, make sure that you aren’t committing these faux pas: 

Having Unclear Business Objectives

Before you start posting creative, witty content or innovative contests to engage your followers, the very first thing you should do is establish your objectives for your campaign. It’s shocking how many marketing and social media professionals dive in to the last steps first, resulting in a campaign that looks nice but lacks any real value.

No matter what your goal is—a boost in sales, increased opt-ins for your email newsletter, a higher click-through rate from social media, more social media engagement in general—make sure the goal is clear, measurable and time-oriented. Also, don’t forget to have a clear naming convention. This will avoid any confusion when it comes to optimizing your campaigns later.

Not Tracking your ROI

At the end of the day, or by the deadline of your social media-remarketing project, your boss is going to want to know how successful your marketing efforts were. Was it profitable? What were the takeaways?

While tracking ROI is as simple as calculating how much money spent on marketing came back in the form of revenue, figuring out what specifically generated that revenue can be tricky. Along those same lines, deciphering what’s of value to your campaign can also be difficult.  If you achieved your objective of having a higher click-through rate and more impressions, but they didn’t lead to conversions, it might be time to rethink your content marketing plan. Think of the big picture—what are you trying to sell, and what do you offer that sets you apart from competitors? You may be attracting more attention on social networks and getting more clicks, but if your content doesn’t match with what you’re trying to sell, it’s a lost cause.

Stepping back to examine the goals of your marketing campaign and re-strategizing may be necessary, but if you’re not taking the proper steps to track ROI you won’t realize your need to re-evaluate in the first place.

Text Copy Errors

If someone hasn’t beaten this word in to you already, do yourself a favor and beat yourself up a bit—proofread!

Really, it’s amazing how many typos make their way on to professional marketing materials. Whether it’s a print ad or a Twitter post, typos are a surefire way to lose credibility and trust from your consumers. Your audience will assume that if you don’t have someone in charge of communications who can spot those little mistakes, then your business may be careless in other aspects. That may seem extremist, but it’s true—especially in the high-visibility world of social media. The slightest typo could make you the butt of a joke, which could be difficult to recover from even if you’re a social media maven.

Your Ad Creative is Poorly Designed

The first step in ad design is figuring out which networks you want to place an ad on, and then evaluating how that site uses ad layouts, colors and visuals. Choosing a high-quality image that is enticing yet doesn’t give too much away is critical, because that’s what will be the attention grabber. Select contrasting colors from the website where the ad is being placed to make your ad stand out from others. It never hurts to create several versions of the same ad with variations in text, size and visual elements, either. In the event that a website changes their ad policy or requirements, you’ll be a step ahead and already have something on hand.

Most of these factors contributing to poor ad creative are simply from not following the most basic design principles. It’s practically visual communications 101, but if you go take a scroll through your Facebook feed, apparently some ad designers skipped that class.

Poor Targeting

Having an ad displayed to an audience that has no intention of purchasing your product or service is probably the most costly mistake you could make. Even if you have problems such as poor design or copy errors, some people are forgiving enough to cut you a break if they feel like the ad is relevant to them.

However, if you’re advertising plastic surgery for fat-loss to a crowd of personal trainers and nutrition professionals, your ad will probably be scoffed at and ignored. With Facebook’s latest Pages update, for example, businesses have more control over the reach and target audience of their ads than ever before. In addition to monitoring audience reach, your company can also keep a close eye on competitors and what content is working for them.  Use the tools that social networking platforms provide you with to your advantage, and you’ll save yourself precious time and money.

Your Landing Page is Not Optimized for Conversions

So you’ve done everything right—designed a visually appealing ad, wrote killer copy, figured out your social media campaign objectives, narrowed down your network audience—you got ‘em hooked. They follow your call to action, click on your ad and then they see…your homepage?

No one should be directed to your homepage when you have them clicking on an advertisement on a social network. Whatever conversion you’re looking to achieve by having someone click on your ad is what you want him or her to be directed to. Don’t make them hunt around your site, because I guarantee you they’re not going to spend more than a couple of seconds trying to find it. Furthermore, not optimizing your landing page is going to cost you results. If it takes more than a few clicks to sign up for more information, or it forces the user to exit or open new windows, you’re making it a hassle for someone who most likely isn’t interested enough to stick through the process.

When done right, remarketing can convince someone who has already had exposure to your brand to take a second look. Remarketing is a strategic component to every campaign that shouldn’t be ignored, because there is a wealth of opportunity to boost sales and revenue with an audience you have already reached. However, these mistakes could be the nail in the coffin for your online campaign, so make sure to get it right the first time around.

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How to Engage Your Fans on Facebook

If the average marketer on Facebook isn’t steadily working on their engagement, then the average campaign is ultimately going to fail. There’s simply no way to sugarcoat that fact. With the way News Feed ranking algorithm sorts and lists material, and with the importance of your fan reach, engaging with people is the only way to go.

Social networks do require you to be social, and thus finding various ways to engage fans is something that will benefit you in numerous ways. You can ultimately develop a stronger brand following and reputation, attract more leads and earn more sales, and ultimately save money on your advertising by engaging with people. Here are some tips to help you along.

Quality Tips for Engaging Facebook Fans
1: Capture Attention Instantly

One of the best ways to engage with people is to capture their attention as quickly as possible. The average user has a lot of stuff flying through their News Feed, and even a new update like Story Bump isn’t going to guarantee that people pay attention to your posts. So when you release something, give it a very catchy headline, make it intriguing to a reader, and give them a reason to open it. Teasers work very well, so lead with your best stuff.

2: Be More Visual

Another great way to capture someone’s attention and to engage is to be more visual in your posting. Engagement goes beyond someone simply viewing your material and involves someone Liking, sharing, commenting or clicking through on your posts. Providing high-quality, custom visual material is a great way to get someone to engage. Think about custom photos of events, quality infographics explaining something of note, or even humorous, popular memes attached to your posts.

3: Solve a Real Problem

Members of your niche have one thing in common: They have a problem that needs to be solved. This is the “demand” end of business and always has been. That doesn’t change simply because we’re talking about the Internet. So find a problem in your niche and seek to solve it. Perhaps people are having an issue understanding how your product works for them, or maybe they’re having trouble finding an affordable option for the holidays. Whatever the problem is within your niche, seek to solve it.

4: Ask Questions

Questions are another great way to engage. This leads out by directly requiring engagement from people. Now, make sure you don’t simply throw out statuses that ask “What are you doing?” and other trite questions. Dig deep and use Facebook’s features to assist you. Look to create pertinent questions that are based on a theme. You could try holiday-themed questions, for example. You can tie that in with brand-related questions, like “What theme do you think we should select for the holiday season?” while giving options to choose from.

5: Provide Interactive Material

Playing off of the previous tip, you can use different features and apps to help you build your Facebook engagement. For instance, you can create a multitude of polls, quizzes and even cool puzzles to engage with people. Create multiple choice polls, pertinent pop-culture quizzes, and other interactive material like contests and sweepstakes to help boost your engagement.

6: Engage in Dialogue

Engagement has to operate like a two-way street on Facebook if you want to keep it going. So when someone asks you a question or comments on one of your posts, reciprocate. When someone Likes your material, see if they have anything you can Like right back; the same with sharing. And mix in occasional posts which seek to create dialogue by asking people for suggestions or advice.

7: Show a Personal Side

Your brand cannot be seen as a cold, empty, business-only entity. People on Facebook are looking for engaging, warm brands that spew personality from their pages. This isn’t necessarily hard to accomplish; you just have to put in the effort. Show some personal aspects of your business by listed news and photos about live events, parties, company milestones, personal profiles (abridged, of course) of employees, and link your personal network to the professional network.

8: Add CTAs

No matter what type of material you’re providing, adding on a strong CTA (call to action) will always improve your odds of engaging with people. Say that you’re listing a new detailed product review and even have a quality infographic to help explain it. This might pick up some engagement, but adding a CTA will still make it clear that the post requires action. For example, you can suggest that people tell you what they think, click-through to read more, Like or share for some incentive, or a number of other CTAs which put the onus on the fan to act.

Driving your engagement not only has an immediate impact per fans’ feelings about your brand, it also helps weight you in a positive direction with News Feed ranking algorithm and the new Story Bump feature. No matter how you slice it, engaging with people is vital on Facebook.

Image Credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mkhmarke...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonaho...

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Evaluating Yourself as a Community Manager

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Community managers don’t have an easy job. They’re tasked with overseeing a business’s online marketing campaign, fostering customer engagement and doing their best to improve a company’s reputation. They often have to juggle a lot of tasks, but be able to do each of them is very important in a company’s success. If community managers do their jobs right, their efforts will hopefully yield higher sales, a larger customer base and more loyal customers.

If you’re a community manager, it can sometimes be difficult to know how well you’re doing. Business improvement is a difficult and time-consuming process and it can take some time before you see clear results. There’s so much involved with the job that sometimes, you can lose sight of how each small task makes a difference. While community management is truly more an art than a science, there are several criteria you can use to measure overall effectiveness. Here are ten ways you can evaluate yourself as a community manager.



Traffic and Returning Visitors

Although you may not see that big of a difference in the short term, it’s important to keep track of changes in your business’s website traffic over time. You’re probably doing something right if you see a steady increase in overall traffic, as well the number of returning visitors to the site.



Clear Expectations

One of the first steps in becoming a successful community manager is knowing exactly what is expected of you. Before and during your job, be sure to ask what the company wants to achieve and where you come in. This is the time to find out what kind of metrics the company expects to achieve and when. The more you know about what the company expects, the more successful of a community manager you’ll become.

Number of Referrals

As a community manager, one of your jobs is to keep customers happy. Satisfied customers may recommend your business to others. Generally, the more referrals your company receives, the happier people are with business.

In addition to personal recommendations, it’s also a good idea to keep track of people referred to your site through social media, online ads or other sources. This will help you see which parts of your campaign are generating the most leads.

Survey Results

Creating customer surveys is a good way to see how people really feel about your business. Their feedback can be invaluable in tweaking your business plan and making your company as user-friendly as possible. In addition, customer reviews are useful for gauging your success for a community manager. The more positive the reviews are, the better you’re doing.



Content Output

Content creation is one of the most important elements of inbound marketing. As a community manager, you need to make sure your company is producing a lot of quality content. Does your business have a strategy in place for social media updates and blogging? Where do you post content? Do you have a quality assurance system in place? Quantity and quality of content are equally important in online marketing.

Social Media Numbers

While the number of Facebook likes and Twitter followers you have isn’t everything, they can be an important measure of success. If you have a lot of people following and responding to you on social media, you’re probably doing a good job with customer engagement.

Social Media Analytics

Most of the major social media sites have some of analytics data available. This can be invaluable in finding out how successful you are. Does your social media data show a high conversion rate? Are people actively engaging with you on the sites? If not, you may want to step things up or revamp your strategy.

Web Analytics

There are lots of great analytics tools available to businesses. Google Analytics is one example. The numbers you see may need some interpretation, but you can glean a lot of information about how your business is doing. If your web analytics are favorable for your business, you’re doing well.

Response to Dissatisfied Customers



Dealing with customer complaints is never fun, but it’s necessary in keeping your business’s image clean. Think of responding to negative reviews online as a form of rodent control for businesses. Just as you wouldn’t want rats to infest your office, you don’t want a few poor reviews to turn new customers away from your business. As a community manager, you want to respond to complaints in a diplomatic way and do your best to correct the problem for future customers. If you already do so, you’re probably doing a good job. Just make sure you don’t remove comments or ignore them — both tend to make the problem worse.



Response to Satisfied Customers

Some community managers are great at responding to negative feedback but forget to recognize praise. When customers say something positive on social media, thank them and say something good in return. As a community manager, how often to you respond to good reviews? The more you do, the more likely the customers will stay loyal.

The criteria above should give you a good idea of how you’re doing as a community manager. What else do you think is important for community managers?

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Thermal Imaging App Raises Legal Concerns

Thermal imaging cameras are more commonly known for being used by the police to detect criminals, or by fire fighters to see through smoke or perhaps in sport. Electrical test equipment supplier ISSWWW who specialise in a vast range of thermal imaging cameras reported even seeing an increase in purchase from more surprising sectors including agricultural. However, a new iPhone attachment, designed by FLIR Systems has been introduced to the market meaning that consumers can now carry a thermal imaging device in their pocket. An iPhone case converts the phone into a thermal imaging camera after the owner has downloaded the corresponding app, and the device is expected to be released this spring for less than $350.

The thermal imaging iPhone device will show consumers the image of an object (whatever they may be looking at), with colours to highlight different heat levels. So how will having a thermal imaging device benefit consumers and why would they want such a device on their smartphone? Well, you might be surprised just how useful thermal imaging cameras can be for everyday life. For instance, they are great for detecting an early fever in a child or finding things in the dark (which is particularly good, if you’re someone with a dog that’s always wondering off in the middle of the night). It’s also a great device to use to spot any water leaks or energy leaks in a house, which is especially appealing to consumers with the recently announced hikes in energy prices. It will also help households to become more energy efficient and encourage them to implement a greener lifestyle.

Although it is evident that the new thermal imaging iPhone attachment will have great benefits for consumers, the new device has raised some legal concerns involving the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

In order for police to use thermal imaging devices to detect criminal offences, they need to have a warrant before any detection can take place. A shocking example of where this failed was when police officers, used thermal imaging cameras to detected a male individual growing marijuana inside his home. When the individual challenged the fact that the thermal image search that was conducted before the officers got a warrant, he won the case. Under current law, police that use thermal imaging cameras without a warrant are barred.

While this example is a serious case, there are worries that consumers are going to use the thermal imaging device in a similar way to the police and invade other people’s privacy without permission. The device can tell a person things that they would not be able to tell standing outside the house and it is a worry that people will download the app and suspiciously start walking around using it to determine whether heat is coming out of homes. Another issue with this is the difficulty of the government being able to keep track of any citizens that might be doing this.

So, although all this new technology is great and while the majority of citizens will use the thermal imaging device for the right reasons, the app is going to raise real concerns and challenges for how the Fourth Amendment rights will continue to be protected. And as technology continues to develop and become more advanced it raises question for the privacy of the public sector in the future. The need for IT Malpractice has already dramatically risen over recent years, and more and more solicitors are needing to specialise within this area. For instance, Gordon Dean, solicitors in Great Yarmouth have recognised the importance of expanding to specialise in IT malpractice because as technology continues to develop, the number of legal issues within IT is only going to increase.

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Pros and Cons of Being a Small Business Owner [Infographic]

Owning your own business is not just another job. It’s a totally different lifestyle. Being a small business owner can be extremely rewarding, however it can also be quite challenging challenging. The following infographic, created by the folks at Dealstruck, breaks down the pros and cons of what being a small business owner actually entails.

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How Web Hosting Affects SEO

If spreading awareness, growing your brand, increasing traffic and profitability is the question then web presence is the answer. Almost every businessperson is now fully aware of the need to take on the Internet with a combined and refined set of tools that place you favorably against your competition. In this mission, getting there has the same importance as how you get there and one crucial decision has to do with your web hosting choice.

A lot of people are of the notion that all web hosting service providers and packages are the same, which results in a failure to make comparisons between different services and packages that are on the market. You need a website that will rank favorably on major search engines for your web presence to count for anything and poor hosting services will compromise that mission.

In this quest, it is totally self-defeating to devote all your time, energy, and resources to please crawlers and spiders yet turning a blind eye to the users whose experience matter in the grand equation. What pleases the user pleases the bots and gives you good rankings. True to Matt Cutt’s words: “digital marketers should think of SEO as being Search Experience Optimization.”

What Are The Web Hosting Factors That Have A Bearing On SEO?

There are 3 factors of web hosting that have a real impact on the fortunes of your SEO, namely:

Page speed
Uptime and downtime
Location

Page Speed

The speed at which your page loads has a bearing on the ranking of your website. This fact was revealed by Google in the year 2010, making speed one of the nearly 200 factors that go into the determination of your ranking. Overall, this constitutes a small percentage but does not mean you should turn a blind eye to the speed of your website. The trend so far has been the total disregard of this aspect which has been largely left to CRO experts and Web designers.

Web speed has to do with the rate at which your site responds to web requests which can be an uphill task to improve.Google incorporates user experiences into the ranking of your site and it naturally follows that there is nothing amusing about a slow website. Users detest slow websites and so does Google. They are fraught with bounce rates and diminished user engagement as well as little average time on page. The speed of your site also has a bearing on the indexing that it enjoys.

Search engines regularly crawl your website, and if some pages cannot be accessed due to a compromised speed then the rankings of the respective keywords will suffer. A fast loading website ensures that most if not all of the pages are indexed during your Googlebot crawl budget, which might not be much depending on your sites trust and authority. To get a true picture of the speed of your site, you can use a number of free tools such as:

Page Speed
YSlow
Pingdom Tools
GTmetrix
WEBPageTest

Not every incidence of a slow website can be attributed to your web host. You must realize that other factors such as the coding of your site, un-optimized images, excessive fancy flash, external embedded media, and spam can also result in the slowing of your website.

Uptime and Downtime

Uptime and downtime is another web hosting issue that has a strong bearing on your SEO efforts. Downtime refers to the time that your website is inaccessible due to problems associated with the server that it is hosted on.  Search engine crawlers and spiders will try to visit your website on numerous occasions in a single day. If your website is down, then the situation is noted and they move to other sites.

If this scenario avails on a frequent basis then your website will ultimately be flagged as being unreliable which has the effect of bringing down your rankings.  A situation whereby unreliable websites receive favorable rankings is untenable for the Search Engines as it makes them look bad and unreliable as well. The demotion is thus done to ensure that all pages that are ranked highly can be opened when users click on the links.

Other Factors

Other factors that can affect the performance of your website include the distance between you and your host as well as the capacity of the host. Far away servers result in greater downtimes while oversubscribed host services can have the same effect including terrible speeds.

What to Do

The best way of ensuring that you don’t fall into any of these nasty scenarios is to exercise due diligence when you seek out web hosting services. There are a number of factors that you have to consider, namely:

Operating system
Bandwidth
Configuration
Support services

Every website is gifted with a set of technical features that makes it compatible with specific web technology operating system. There are Windows and Linux servers to choose from and your choice will have a lot to do with whether your website is coded in PHP, JSP, ASP.NET or ASP. You also have to pay special attention to the hosting packs bandwidth of your service provider. This must be done holistically taking into account the physical characteristics of the host’s server as well as its limitations and various other services.

Larger web hosting companies tend to be open with such information which makes the assignment much easy for you. Another way of determining whether a web host is right for your requirements is to take a closer look at their server’s configuration settings as well as the time limits, server versions and installed libraries. Your final choice of a web hosting services provider must be one that offers overwhelming technical support.

This is ensures that any glitch that is experienced is only momentary and does not eat away your SEO efforts. When you select the service that you want from the various packages available, it is preferable to opt for a dedicated IP address than to go for a shared option. Your IP address, and a couple of other factors, will also be used by Google in determining your location for ranking purposes.

Conclusion

As we go deeper into 2014, SEO is slowly pushing out those playing a chancing game. The playing field is being leveled and only a true white hat approach, experience, research and a comprehensive appreciation requisite tactics will see you through on your goals.

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5 How To Videos for Social Media Newbies

Did you just start in a new role with your company that has placed you in charge of social media accounts? Are you a small business owner trying to break into the world of social media marketing for your business? YouTube can be a great place to start. Here are five videos to get you started, try finding a few more and block out 10-15 minutes each morning to watch a new tutorial or two. You’ll be up and running a great campaign in no time!

If you are a regular reader of Socialnomics and perhaps don’t necessarily need to learn how to create new accounts or basic how-to tutorials, pass this along to someone who does. We have a saying at socialnomics for this, “post it forward.” So go ahead and share this post with your fans and followers and help someone new to social media!

#1 A great tutorial on how to use Instagram.

#2 Excellent tutorial for anyone that wants to create their first Twitter account.

#3 Learn how to create a Facebook Fan Page for your business.

#4 Great overview of the Vine app.

#5 Heard of SnapChat but not sure what it actually is? This video will explain the app and it’s features.

BONUS ROUND!
Some ‘big picture’ advice from Gary Vaynerchuck

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