Archive for the Category »Social Networking Tips «
28
Jul 2010
Blog Post Ideas
One of the biggest questions I get regarding blogs is what do I put into it. Content can be yours or other people. If you are using other people’s information, be sure to summarize and use pieces of their content. Search engines look for fresh content. Duplicate content can actually hurt your rankings. You can embed YouTube videos into your blog and then write a summary. Remember with videos, search engines can search them for keywords. You will want to still write a summary. Most business professionals are sitting on a ton of content. If you have newsletters, articles, books, brochures or marketing materials, you have a lot of content to pull from. Another great source is questions you receive in your email box. Here are some ideas for blog posts.
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Review of a Product/Service (yours of someone elses)
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Interview a top expert
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Video Review (yours or someone elses)
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Report on an event you attended
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Answer a question someone asked you about your business.
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Case Study
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Success Story
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Review an Article
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How to instructions
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Inspirational Story
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Picture of you doing something fun with a story about what you did
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Celebrate someone you love
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Share your goals
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Share your challenges
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Be a reporter on EVERYTHING you do
Blog Post Ideas
-
Review of a Product/Service (yours of someone elses)
-
Interview a top expert
-
Video Review (yours or someone elses)
-
Report on an event you attended
-
Answer a question someone asked you about your business.
-
Case Study
-
Success Story
-
Review an Article
-
How to instructions
-
Inspirational Story
-
Picture of you doing something fun with a story about what you did
-
Celebrate someone you love
-
Share your goals
-
Share your challenges
-
Be a reporter on EVERYTHING you do
Category: Social Networking Tips
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14
Jun 2010
One of the biggest questions I get about Social Networking is “How can I fit Social Networking into my busy schedule?” or “How do I make time to update all my Social Networking sites?”. These days, having Social Networking as part of your marketing plan is a MUST. Why? 82% of all consumers are going to the Internet to research products and services they are looking to buy. If your company isn’t online it is going to be pretty hard to get that business.
In terms of being able to make time I have a couple of simple suggestions:
1. Know exactly what you are going to do in the Social Networks before you get online. I usually have a checklist of 3-5 things I do. Responding to people who have reached out to you is the first item on my checklist.
2. Find ways to automate simple tasks such as updating your Social Networks.
One of my FAVORITE free tools is http://www.Ping.fm They really explain what they do in a great way “Ping.fm is a simple and FREE service that makes updating your social networks a snap.”
How it works is this: You simply sign up for the service, you add any and all of your Social Networks. You keep adding new networks. Ping.fm has about 50 networks you can attach to your account. You type in your 140 character or less message and hit Ping It and all of your networks are updated with your message.
It is very simple to sign up and to make it really easy for you, I have listed all the steps for you in this blog post. I would love to hear about other tools you feel are time savers.
Setting up Ping.fm
- Open your browser (aka Get onto the Internet)
- Go to www.Ping.fm
- At the top towards the left center of the page, click SignUp.
- Fill in your email and choose a password. Verify your password.
- Click the Sign Up button.
- Add your Social Networks. If you are just starting the only one you will be adding is Twitter. To do that, simply click the button next to the Twitter Logo that says “Add Network”
- It will ask you for your Username and Password for Twitter. Please enter and then click Submit.
- Once this is complete you will come back to a screen there will be a green bar that says “Network has been added”
- VIOLA
If you want to continue adding networks feel free. I would recommend you secure your brand (Name, Company Name and Trademarks) with as many Social Networking sites as possible. You can check to see if your username is available in 150 sites in a couple of minutes by using another one of my favorite free sites. http://www.CheckYourUsername.com You don’t have to be active in them just connect them to your Ping.fm account so you can send updates.
14
Jun 2010
Keywords - Less is MORE!
Keywords is something a lot of business professionals overlook when they begin their Social Networking efforts. When you start to use the same phrases (or keywords) over and over again, the search engines start to pay attention. It also helps with all your marketing. You begin to be recognized as an expert in these keywords. Another way to think of keywords would be to think about 3 problems you solve for your target market. The more focused and narrow your target market is, the easier it is going to be to generate referrals and be recognized as an expert. Many business professioanls are afraid of going to narrow as they might miss out on business. The opposite is actually true. People are wanting to refer you business….they just aren’t clear about who to send to you because you haven’t been specific enough for them.
Here is a quick exercise for you: Find 10 Keywords (Words and/or Phrases) for your business that you will integrate into all of your marketing and sales efforts online and offline.
For a moment, pretend you are your target market….step into their shoes….experience what they are experience….what challenges are they experiencing?….what problems do they want solved?….what questions do they want answered?
Write these down.
Since 82% of all consumers are turning to the Internet to research products and services, pretend you are your potential client. If they were to search on the Internet for help…what might be some of the things they would type in?
Write these down. Start to look for words that consistently show up in these answers. They might not be what you think they are. For instance….if someone is a parent and they are having challenges with being an effective parent. The problem they want to solve is:
- Creating more love with my child
- Getting my child to listen better
- Getting my child to talk more
- Being a better parent
- Having time to learn to be a good parent
Questions they want answered:
- Why is my child doing bad things?
- Why is my child not listening?
- How can I be a better parent?
- Where can I learn to be a better parent?
- What is the most effective parenting program?
Things the might search for:
- Help for parents
- Parenting Classes
- Tips for being an effective parent
- Is my child bad
The keywords would be:
- Better Parent
- Child Listening (and any variation of this)
The more you type, the easier it will be to find keywords. Once you have a list, you can research the keywords by using some online tools. Here are a few sites that might help. Please keep in mind it might be easier to pay for someone to research the information for you and deliver recommendations.
http://www.KeywordTrak.com
http://www.Google.com/sktool
http://www.WordTracker.com
Once you have your top 10 keywords begin to use them in everything you do. Include them in your blog posts, your status updates in all your Social Networks, your website, your articles, your comments on blogs, etc.
Ó2009 Sabrina Gibson. All rights reserved.