How to Link from LinkedIn Timeline to a Special LinkedIn Article

Your LinkedIn timeline

LinkedIn timelineAfter you write a LinkedIn article, it may be good marketing to link to it from your LinkedIn timeline. This post tells you how to do just that.

Linking to your LinkedIn article in 3 steps

LinkedIn timelineLinkedIn timeline1. Copy article URL 

Copy (Cmd C) the web address of the article into your clipboard.

2. Find ideal picture

You want a  simple picture that relates to your subject. I usually use the picture from above the headline. Find where it is in your Finder. Look at information such as date. That will make it easier to locate it using LinkedIn.

From a LinkedIn page click on Home and then Images. Using information from the Finder in the above paragraph, double click on the name of appropriate image.

LinkedIn timeline3. Write message above picture

Above the picture you just inserted there is space for text. Type a message that will get the visitors’ attention. At the end of it paste (Cmd V) the URL form point #1 above.

Click Post. Notice that the URL has changed to a shortened form.

Curious about the picture?

In case you are wondering, the picture above represents an encryption tunnel. If you wish, you can go to that LinkedIn article entiled How to Increase Security & Go Through an Encryption Tunnel.

LinkedIn marketing

If you are selling to businesses, a good social media marketing idea would be to write LinkedIn articles that subtly promote your product. A good way to get people to read your articles is to link to them from your LinkedIn timeline.

Related pages

Don’t get hacked on free wifi
How to Protect Your Internet Browsing Privacy
LinkedIn article about Encryptions Tunnels
Free Wi-Fi Hotspots and How to Avoid the Evil Twin

 YouTube video

Watch this YouTube video to get a better idea of how to link from your LinkedIn timeline.

How to Protect Your Internet Browsing Privacy

 They don’t respect your privacy

privacyAdvertisers and tracking companies don’t respect your privacy. They use various techniques to record your Internet browsing habits. They collect all kinds of information:

  • Websites you have visited
  • Kind of products you are interested in
  • Your political ideologies
  • Health conditions.

There are other reasons why you may not want people to be able to see your Internet use:

  • You are a celebrity
  • You are an employee doing market research of your competition
  • You are a reporter, law enforcement officer or writer covering sensitive topics. You want to make your computer untraceable to prevent reprisals.

Snooping search engines

Google, Bing, and other search engines:

  • Catalog every web search you perform
  • Online search choices are then attached to your computer’s IP address
  • Subsequently used to customize the advertising and future searches for your machine
  • Zero respect for your privacy

Privacy solution: PrivateVPN

There is a technique to protect you from those prying eyes. It’s called using PrivateVPN (virtual private network).  It makes you untraceable on the Internet.

privacyWhen you start a web surf, you go straight to PrivateVPN and BYPASS YOUR ISP (Internet service provider). When you get to the website you want, you will be using the IP address of the particular PrivateVPN server. Whoever would like to track you does not know it is you.

PrivateVPN cloaks and encrypts your signal:

  • Makes your online activity completely illegible to eavesdroppers
  • Manipulates your IP address
  • Makes you appear to come from a different machine/location/country.

You may be concerned about the wrong party:

  • Getting information about your browsing habits
  • Using your IP address to charge you more or
  • Using hackers for major cybersecurity breaches.

Wherever you lie in that spectrum, PrivateVPN will be a good step in the right direction.

In the case of PrivateVPN, the signal may even jump to a server in another country before you get to the website. The snooper won’t even know what country you’re from.

10 reasons why people may want PrivateVPN

Intranet outside the office

PrivateVPN will allow employees to access a corporate intranet in complete privacy while located outside the office.

Secure chat rooms

Your girlfriend, wife or business partner can enter the URL of a chat room to take part in a secret chat.

Con menprivacy

Every place you go to, your online activities can be monitored by Internet service providers, government organizations or criminals. Protect ourselves against malware or con tricks when web browsing.

Securely connect separated offices

Use PrivateVPN to securely connect geographically separated offices of an organization, creating one cohesive network.

Circumvent political censorship

Secure your transactions with PrivateVPN to circumvent geo-restrictions and censorship. Countries like Afghanistan, Belarus, China, Cuba, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria surveil and limit access to the Internet. Activists and journalists in one of these countries can connect privacyto PrivateVPN server and tunnel out of the censorship restrictions. PrivateVPN conceals your page-by-page activity from any government eavesdropping.

YouTube users might have come across a message that says, “This video is not available in your country”. PrivateVPN’s free YouTube proxy allows you to watch any video with zero constraints.

Note that you must add Private VPN to your computer before you arrive in the geo-restricted country.

Online shoppingprivacy

Do you get annoyed by the shopping sites keeping tabs on you? They start sending you ads related to where you shop. PrivateVPN makes that a thing of the past.

Test online strategies geographically

PrivateVPN’s services allow SEO and marketing professionals to connect to servers in different regions to test their strategies and processes.

Make public wifi private

privacyThose Starbucks or McDonald’s hotspots are not safe for confidential email and browsing. Public wi-fi offers no encryption security to its users, and your signals are broadcast for anyone savvy enough to eavesdrop.

Accessing insecure websites makes  it easy to steal your private information.

It’s very easy for even a beginner hacker to intercept your unencrypted wi-fi signal using an Evil Twin phony hotspot or a Firefox Tamper Data plugin. Mobile users should consider spending the 4 to 5 dollars per month for the safety of a PrivateVPN connection.

Secure Skype phoning

It’s relatively easy to eavesdrop on Voice-over-IP (Internet telephoning). Even intermediate-level hackers can listen in to your VOIP calls. Perhaps  you regularly use VOIP services like Skype. If you log into a public wi-fi network and then connect to your PrivateVPN, all of your hotspot web use will then be encrypted and hidden from prying ears & eyes.

Make booking flights & accommodation cheaper

privacyFlight and accommodation Booking websites:

  • Display different fees based on users location and currency.
  • Use tracking of your online activity
    • Allows them to increase the fee on your next visit
  • To ensure the cheapest rates, use PrivateVPN services whenever planning your next trip.

Free 7-day trial

If you wish to tryout a VPN at no cost for 7 days, go to free 7-day trial VPN. No credit card is required.

You will create a password that allows you to use PrivateVPN from anywhere in the world — on up to 6 devices at the same time.

It takes only a few minutes before your own PrivateVPN will be downloaded into your Downloads folder.  Double click on it and then drag the PrivateVPN app into your applications folder icon.

In a few seconds you will actually see it within your actual applications folder.

Double click on PrivateVPN. Fill in the email address and password that you gave during registration.

Click on the country list link. Click on the country from which you want to appear to be browsing.

Suppose you tested your new PrivateVPN out by clicking on the Belgium country link. Then search for what is my IP address? IP Lookup will give your IP address. Click on Get IP Details.

You will see data telling that you are in Belgium.

During the next 7 days, test out everything you can think of.

Email problems?

After you have used your PrivateVPN, you may be unable to use your regular email. That’s because you are not using your regular IP address.

To enable your regular IP address, click on PrivateVPN in your applications folder. You will get a PrivateVPN panel. Click on the button in the centre of the panel & your home IP address will be set up again. Then you email will work the way it did before you got PrivateVPN.

Blogger’s notes

To buy PrivateVPN, please click on any PrivateVPN link on this blog post. I will get a commission & it will help defray the cost of creating and keeping up this website.

Related pages

Evil twin
Mobile devices & cybersecurity

Related YouTube videos




How To Add Social Media Icons To Email Signature

Social media icons for better branding

social media iconsUse good social media marketing techniques to help brand your product, company, self, etc. One technique involves including social media icons at the bottom of every email you send out. These will link to the corresponding social media pages. This blog post tells how to add the social media icons to the bottom of every Mac Mail email you send out.

What to include in your signature

social media iconsYour social media icons will be included in your Mac Mail signature. For ideal social media marketing, this is what to include in the signature:

1. Your name in colour using a unique font
2. Your email address and position in your company
3. Link to your website
4. Social Media images with links to corresponding pages.

(If you don’t want to add the icons, etc. yourself, the people at Kelowna Virtual Assistantcan do it for you.)

Click here to learn more.

Adding the icons in 8 steps

  1. In Mac Mail, social media iconsclick New Message
  2. Add a line of underscores, your name, position & other contact information as seen in this image
  3. Drag and dropsocial media icons pertinent social media logos from Finder to beneath text. (Note that the logos in this image were saved with GIMP at 50 px. high with a 5 px white bar on each side. If they are too overpowering, reduce their height using GIMP. To find the icons in the first place, enter keywords such as these into your search bar: images instagram logo.)
  4. Highlight your email address and website URL and add clickable social media iconslinks to each. To do this, highlight the email address, right-click and select Link > Add link. Notesocial media icons that for the email address you have to add “mailto:” in front of the email address.
  5. social media iconsFor each social media icon, find your profile corresponding to social media. Click on the image, and then click the Edit > Add link.
  6. Highlight your namesocial media icons and click Format > Show Fonts.
    Select the font that you would like for your signature.
  7. social media iconsHighlight everything you just created and press Cmd C to copy it into your clipboard. In the Apple Mail menu select Preferences > Signature.
  8. If you already have signatures, ignore them and click the +button to add a new signature. If you want this to be the default signature for a specific account, choose the account from the left menu before adding the new signature. Enter a name for the signature and press Cmd V to paste your new signature into the box. Once this is done, click the tiny red close button in the upper left-hand corner.

drop down  drop downFacebook logo

Related page

How to Create a Compelling Apple Mail Email Signature

Social Media Marketing 101

Overview

social media marketing

 

This is an overview of social media marketing. To find more information, go to the social media marketing index.

 

Social media marketing goals

Before you start making posts to any social media, decide upon your goals:

Brand awareness

social media marketing

  • Create communities who know what your brand is all about and what it is doing.
  • You will be the one who helps decide how people are going to see and feel about the brand
  • Help people know, like & trust your brand.

Click here to learn more.

Traffic & sales

  • Get people off social media and into the page you want them to be.
  • To make that happen, you must first build trust within your social media audience.
  • Sales usually happen from more direct forms of communication such as email.
  • It is your job to create so much trust that people will do things like give you their credit card number or email address.

Service & support

Single goal

When starting your social media marketing, focus on only one goal — probably brand awareness.

Next step

social media marketingAfter your social media marketing goals have been written down, do in depth research about how your client’s industry uses social media. Get to know their standards.

There are two quite different approaches you will take depending upon the nature of your client’s existing marketing situation. Which one of these scenarios represents their present social media situation?

  • A totally fresh account with virtually no social media presence.
  • Existing and active social media presence.

No social media presence

If you are starting from scratch, you will

  • Get logos & pictures so that you will have consistent branding.
  • Research how the competition is using social media.
    • Decide, should you be doing the same thing, something different or can you improve upon what they are doing?
  • Choose the right platforms.
    • Start with one such as Facebook, get it working smoothly and then go on to the next one.

Existing & active presence

Examine which platforms the previous social media marketing person was using. Decide which ones if any you wish to add.

Start with an audit

  • How many social media platforms do they use?
  • How active are they?
    • Number of followers in each platform.
    • Number of shares in each platform.
  • Which platforms are serving which goals?
  • Compare their social media marketing to their competition.
  • Is the branding & imagery consistent among all platforms they are using?
  • Which platform has the greatest reach?
  • Which platform is serving which goals? For instance, some companies use Twitter for customer support and company news & updates.
  • What is the tone of the posts on the various media. Even if you don’t like it, you could confuse the audience by making drastic changes right away.

Different platforms

Facebook
  • social media marketingThe point is to establish a community.
  • You want to be nurturing a Facebook group that will be self sustaining.
  • Look at their pages, profiles & groups.
    • Point of a group is to have people talking to each other.
    • You MUST have a page.
    • Purpose is to present new information & get it out there.
    • A page is also where you place an ad.
  • Must create a sustainable group of followers who will sustain each other.
    • Measurable
    • Attainable
    • Relevant
    • Time-specific
  • Each month
    • Get metrics.
    • Revise goals.
Twitter
  • social media marketingFor conversation & promotion.
  • You can organize your posts into topic-based lists
  • Big difference between Facebook & Twitter: Facebook is for community; Twitter is for conversation.
Pinterest
  • social media marketingFor lifestyle & product information using eye-catching photos & photo collages.
  • Lots of people use it to create their shopping lists. They will create boards for things they are interested in.
  • Of all the social media search engines, the Pinterest one is probably the best.
  • Unlike Facebook & Twitter, people buy things from Pinterest.
    • If you have a product that can be purchased online, make good use of Pinterest.
Instagram
  • social media marketingImage-based platform
  • Not quite as good for selling things as Pinterest
  • Amazing for brand awareness.
  • Learn how to upload Instagram from your desktop computer.
  • If you are on Instagram, connect with others and comment on their posts.
  • The more hashtags you use in a post, the more likely that post is to be found.
LinkedIn
  • social media marketingProfessional networking.
  • Posts to help with business growth & find jobs.
  • B2B.
  • Learn more about your industry.
  • Good place for thought leadership. Rewrite clients blog posts in abbreviated form.
Google+

social media marketingCan help with SEO. Google Plus did not take off the way Google was hoping. Don’t bother using it unless your client has an active, robust Google+ account already.

Snapchat
  • social media marketingQuick message or photo to ONE person.
  • You are hoping that one person will forward the message or photo to their connections.
  • Best way to get people to share is to ask them: Please share if you like this post.
  • Read Social Media Examiner article about 5 Ways to Use Snapchat for Business.

Goals of various social media

Each platform can represent different company goals. Each platform you use should have its own goals & its own mission statement.  Below are types of goals that could be used in each of 5 different social media.

Twitter

Human &/or funny side of organization.

Facebook

Important news & updates.

LinkedIn

Thought leadership & business networking with potential business leaders.

Instagram

Amazing features of a product.

Tone of your posts

  • Posting content alone is not enough. Using the right tone is important.
    • Remember the social part of social media. You should be engaging with people.
  • Is the tone dry, boring, funny, consistently informative, professional, edgy, folksy…?
  • Tone will vary a bit from platform to platform.
  • Be consistent.

Engagement with your audience

One of the best ways to engage with your audience is to ask a personal question relating to the business. For instance, suppose you are the social media manager for a new ski resort. You may ask people what their favourite intermediate run is. Then you can tell them that yours is such and such because you can cruise for 5 minutes without any moguls.

Metrics & tracking

  • If you are not tracking your social media statistics, you may as well not be using social media for a business.
  • Track at least once a week; perform a major tracking at least once a month.social media marketing
  • You must regularly measure audience size, shares & likes.
  • Look at the responses & conversations.
  • Tracking will help you identify problems.
  • It will help you decide what to change.
  • Read Sprout Social article called All of the Social Media Metrics That Matter.
  • The above article neglected to say how to get to your Twitter Analytics page:
    • Open your Twitter account and then, using another tab, go to analytics.twitter.com.

Social media plans

  • Does not stand alone.
  • Look at everything that’s happening in the company in regards to marketing, sales, service & what changes are coming up in the company.
  • Each post should have a purpose.
  • It’s better to have a small number of very high quality posts than to have lots of fluffy posts.
  • You have to know the company goals, events & product launches.
  • Goals should be SMARTER:
    • Specific
    • Measurable
    • Attainable
    • Relevant
    • Time-specific
    • Evaluated &
    • Revised

Content ratios

The rule of thumb uses 30:60:10 ratios to decide content.

  • 30% is content client owns
  • 60% is content curated from other sources
  • 10% is promotional or CTA (call to action) based content.

Virtual assistant checklist

If you are a virtual assistant about to handle a client’s social media marketing, you need a checklist that contains:

  • Your platform & their missions.
  • Your goals on each platform for the next 3-6 months.
  • Notes about tone & engagement standards for each platform.
  • A calendar of important things going on at the company that social will need so support.
  • The frequency of posting on each platform.
  • Information about where to find metrics & tracking. Clients like to see it.

Related page

How to Build a Social-Media Strategy That Works

 

 

 


 

 

 

Social Media Marketing and Your Blog

What is social media marketing?

social media marketing bing-quality-score-pinterestSocial media marketing is the process of gaining visitors to a website using social media sites. It often revolves around creating content such as a blog. The idea it to advance your agenda by having people link to your blog from social media.

For example, this blog article has examples of posts from seven different social media.  Each of those social media posts links to my blog article about Bing PPC ad quality score. That blog article has two links that will help promote my agenda of getting people to take an email marketing course.

The long image on the right is a Pinterest pin. I have eleven boards in my Pinterest account. One of them is called Social Media Marketing.

When other Pinterest members are interested in social media marketing, they may end up finding my corresponding board. If they click on my Quality Score pin, they will go to my blog post about Bing PPC ad quality score.

Find the posts that link to my blog article from Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus.  You may have to scroll down until you find the Quality Score graphic.

How to learn social media marketing

Do not get overwhelmed. Learn these one at a time.  Get good at it. Then start learning the next one.

Below are links to blog posts about how to use each of the social media mentioned on this page.

(Disclaimer: Please note that social media marketing by itself can be a very slow way to make sales.  It should be combined with paid advertising. One of the best things I’ve seen is value adding email marketing.)

YouTube videos

Notice how the YouTube video below piques the viewer’s interest.  However, it does not tell the complete story.  The visitor must go to the Quality Score blogs post to learn more.

SlideShare

There are only 4 slides in the presentation below. Notice how they pique a visitor’s curiosity and then send him to the appropriate blog post.

LinkedIn

The LinkedIn post comparable to the YouTube & SlideShare entries may be found at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bing-ppc-quality-score-peter-enns.

 

 


 


Selling on Amazon with Lots of Social Marketing

 

Make money with social marketing

A previous blog post promoted a product that helps people sell Amazon products from their blogs.  The product is called InstaSite Wizard.  The more visitors who come to the post while selling on Amazon, the more copies of InstaSite Wizard will be sold.  That’s where social marketing comes in.

To get more visitors I can use paid advertising and/or I can use social marketing.  This page is about using social media to get people to the InstaSite Wizard blog post.

Twitter to help with selling on Amazon

money with amazon 2Always have an eye-catching picture.  Tweets with photos are twice as likely to be retweeted.
♦ Use one or two trending hashtags.  Having hashtags increases the probability of being retweeted by over 55%.
♦ (HashtagifyMe said #Amazon had a popularity of 82.3 and #money had a popularity of 75.2.  100 would be the most popular and 0 would not be used at all.)
♦ Include “please retweet” or “pls retweet”.  That doubles your chances of being retweeted.
♦ Learn more about retweeting.
♦ A Tweet links to the InstaSite Wizard blog.  It is the one that includes the picture above.
♦ Learn more about Twitter.  After you read that page, scroll over the blog tab and scroll down to “Twitter”.


Earn a percentage of the selling price for every book sold.

Click here to learn more.

Facebook

♦ Learn how to create a Facebook page.
♦ See the Facebook post connected to InstaSite Wizard.  (It’s the one with the above picture.)

Google Plus

♦ Learn more about Google Plus.
♦ See the Google Plus post related to InstaSite Wizard.  (It’s the one with the above picture.)

Selling on Amazon with YouTube

♦ Learn how to create a high-quality YouTube video.
♦ See the YouTube video related to InstaSite Wizard.

SlideShare

What is SlideShare and how do you use it?
♦ See the SlideShare post relating to InstaSite Wizard.

Pinterest

♦  What is Pinterest and how do you use it?
♦ See the Pinterest pin relating to InstaSite Wizard.

Blog

♦  To learn a great deal about blog writing, hover over the blog tab in the horizontal menu and click on some of the posts.
♦ See the blog relating to InstaSite Wizard.

LinkedIn

♦  Learn about LinkedIn.  To learn even more about Linkin, hover over the blog link on the website.
♦  It’s good social media marketing to go to LinkedIn and publishing lots of your own posts.  To create a post, go to your LinkedIn home page and click on the “Publish a post” button.
♦  Read the LinkedIn post promoting InstaSite Wizard.

Learn social marketing

This post discusses 8 different types of social marketing.  If you are not used to using all of them, don’t start too fast.  Learn them one at a time.  Then you can reasonably use social media to help with your selling on Amazon.

     


         Schema Markup
Facebook logo
Schema Markup           

 


     

 

Go to the InstaSite Wizard web page to learn more.


Social Media Strategies

Learning each medium one at a time           

social media strategiesSocial media marketing is essential for most businesses these days. While deciding upon your social media strategies, start small.  Otherwise you can be overwhelmed.  Master one social medum at a time.  After you are good enough, go onto the next one.

In my opinion, these are the best seven social media in which to promote most brands.  Each summary below has a link to a page or pages with more details.

Whichever media you choose, remember that it is SOCIAL.  You should not blatantly be trying to sell something when people expect to be social.  People will simply stop looking at your posts.

Social media in this page

On this page we are discussing

1. A blog
2. Facebook
3. Pinterest
4. Twitter
5. Google Plus
6. YouTube
7. SlideShare.

Let’s discuss each of these briefly.

A blog as part of your social media strategies

What’s a blog?

A blog is a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group.  It is usually is written in an informal or
conversational style.

The BlogBasics website says It is a place to express yourself to the world. A place to share your thoughts and your passions. Really, it’s anything you want it to be. For our purposes we’ll say that a blog is your own website that you are going to update on an ongoing basis. Blog is a short form for the word
weblog and the two words are used interchangeably.

Blogs are not only for individuals to express their passions.  If you have a business and want it to thrive in this digital age, you should have a blog.

Any one blog has one central theme.  For ideas on how to find regular, high quality information for your blog, read the Finding New Blog Content article.


Earn a percentage of the selling price for every book sold.

Click here to learn more.

Marketing power of your blog

The Business 2 Community website says

Organic and low-cost marketing techniques have become increasingly effective within multiple industries. Take blogging, for example, which not only creates additional landing pages that can be indexed by Google but also enables brands to rank higher in relation to specific keyword phrases.

In this respect, a commercial blog is arguably the most powerful marketing tool at your disposal in 2016. Readily accessible and easily affordable, it offers you a unique opportunity to enhance your brand’s online visibility, engage potential customers and improve sales conversion ratesRead more.

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking website that makes it easy for you to connect and share with your family and friends online.  It is an ESSENTIAL part of most social media strategies.  If you want to use it for your business, create a special Facebook page related to that business. Social Media Marketing Facebook page

Then combine it with other social media to link to or from that page.  For instance, for every Social Media Marketing blog post, I link from my Facebook page to that post.

For more information about marketing with Facebook, read the article about the 9 Facebook Marketing Tricks.

Slides about Facebook marketing strategies

  1. Watch the SlideShare presentation about the Top 10 Facebook Marketing Strategies

2. In this presentation Misty the Marketing Coach will share with Small Business Owners how to attract quality fans, promote their business, capture leads, and sell their products and services on Facebook.

3. Most important presentation –> Essence of Facebook Marketing covers: – Introduction to Facebook Marketing, – Facebook Marketing Strategies, – Stages of Facebook Marketing, – Organic and Paid Facebook Marketing, – Facebook EdgeRank (The Facebook Post Algorithm) – Facebook …

4. Creating Winning Facebook Marketing Strategies

5. This Presentation highlights the various strategies used by brands/companies to promote themselves on Facebook. It also displays the various promotion techniques offered by Facebook.

6. How to use Facebook for business marketing. Includes practical tips for getting seen, content ideas and three fabulous Facebook tools for customizing your Facebook presence.

7.Improve Your Bottom Line With Successful Facebook Marketing Strategies

Pinterest

Wordpress website pin 2Pinterest is becoming much more popular. It therefore should be a very important part of your social media strategies.

It is a social media site in which you have a story to tell and tell it with attractive graphics.  To the left you see a pin about making a WordPress website.

Notice the CTA (call to action) at the bottom.  If you go into my Pinterest pages, you can click on it and be directed to a website.

If you hover your mouse pointer over that graphic, a graphic that says “Pin It” in red letters will show up.  If people like your graphic enough, they will “pin” it to one of their Pinterest boards.

You should pin something every day — either your own pins or other people’s pins.

My blog is about social media marketing.  So, I go to pinterest.com and search for “social media marketing”.  I find other people’s pins about social media marketing.  I then select a really good one and post it to my social media marketing board.

Occasionally I make up my own graphics.  Learn how to use Pinterest for your business.

Pinterest tools for marketers

The Search Engine People website says

And among today’s top social media networks, Pinterest is the one medium that utilizes images as its main offering — except that there’s something more of benefit for content marketers too, and this comes in the form of link sharing.

By “pinning”, or uploading images on Pinterest, you get to attach a URL of your choice, such as a link back to your site. The best thing about this process is that this linkback will be coming from a reputable online source. As your post gets repinned by other users, Pinterest will keep linking to the original URL, which is the link back to your siteRead more.

good twitter tweetTwitter

Some people call Twitter micro blogging because you use 140 characters or less.  If you use a graphic, that takes up 23 of those characters.  A hyperlink takes up another 23.

For every blog I write, I have a tweet with a good image linking to that blog. Having an eye-catching image with each tweet should be part of the social media strategies of every business.

Caution: Do not use more than two hashtags.  That would be too distracting.

That “Jaws” tweet is a good tweet.  Read 8 characteristics of a good tweet.  Read more about Twitter.

Using Twitter Marketing Strategies

The Sequitur website says

Your primary aim as a Twitter marketer is to find other members who are interested in your product or service so they will “follow you.”  Following is the Twitter equivalent of social bookmarking. It means you have been “noted” and that everyone on someone else’s Twitter list has noticed that notation because they have been sent a brief message. Before you know it that person’s followers are then following you.

Once your message has caught fire and gone viral you can make a lot of sales. The hardest part of using Twitter is finding the followers in the first placeRead more.

Google Plus

Google Plus is a complex social medium with many facets.  Learn and begin to use one facet at a time.  Then you can learn more facets as you can use them.

My social media strategies for Google Plus are similar to the way I use my Facebook Social Media Marketing page.  (I always make sure that the wording is different from Facebook.)  I give a very brief description of my latest blog, I attach one of the best pictures from the blog and I make a link to the blog.

Read more.

5 strategies to increase engagement on Google+

The Business to Community website says

Whether you own an eCommerce or a brick-and-mortar business, utilizing Google+ as a networking and media tool is a smart strategy. With well over one-hundred-million active users, Google+ is ranked as one of the world’s top social media websites; however, their algorithm goes far beyond the conventional features of “sharing and liking” content.

In this article, I share 5 strategies that you can easily implement in your Google+ regimen to increase the engagement of your followers and help your customers find you on the webRead more.

YouTube

YouTube will be getting more and more popular as the next several years go by.  People will be wanting to see videos on products before they buy them.  If you have a business, having a YouTube presence is becoming more important.

Watch the video about 10 tips for creating better videos.  Those tips are also discussed in one of my blog pages.

YouTube marketing strategy

The My Ad Ran website says

YouTube marketing has become an essential part of any successful network or an online marketing strategy. YouTube, according to Alexa data analysis is the third most visited site in the world rankings after Facebook and Google.

Alexa reports that each visitor spends an average of 24.02 minutes per day looking for or just browsing YouTube. Many network marketers have experienced a significant improvement in their business using video marketing on YouTube or any other site for sharing videos.  Read more.

SlideShareSlideShare clickablelinks

Often a YouTube video moves too fast for people to absorb the entire message.  It can often help if they can watch a slide show.  Most of the slides will consist of compelling graphics with a small amount of text to fully explain it.

Watch the SlideShare presentation below to see a good example.  Notice the hyperlinks in the slides.  Starting in the fourth slide, you can start linking to pages where you sell things or simply want to give extra information.

Use the horizontal menu above to find a post about how to create clickable hyperlinks.

Learn how to get started with SlideShare.

Using SlideShare in your content marketing strategy

The Business 2 Community website says

SlideShare is regarded as the giant of content marketing – according to Steve Olenski, a contributor to Forbes Magazine.

The following tips will help content marketers get started integrating SlideShare into their content strategy. Read more.

More information on the best social media

You can find lots more information about these 7 best social media by going to the top of this page and looking at the blog titles.  As you hover over each of the social media tabs, the sub-menus will show up listing all of the blog posts about that particular media.

If you are having trouble figuring out how to access those sub-menus with a tablet, go to the tablet menu blog post.

Facebook group post

I’ve been trying to promote a book called How to Serve People with Disabilities. So, I searched on Facebook for a group about people with disabilities.

I found a group about disabilities that has around 15,000 members. I created the post below. Notice how it asks for help in the last paragraph.

Generally speaking, people like to give free advice. I’m hoping that I can get people engaged with my topic by wanting to give free advice.

There is a reason more companies aren’t doing more things friendly to people with disabilities. No one ever brought it to their attention in a way that they would understand. It is up to those of us who are educated about such problems.

Our statistics dept. says that 13.7% of our population has a disability that interferes with their daily lives. We have to get that message out to businesses & public service offices.

The man in this picture is Michael Haines. He has cerebral palsy. He has been really annoyed that so many businesses have given him and people with other disabilities such poor service. So, he decided to do something about it.

He started writing a manual for businesses on how to serve customers with disabilities. Then, last March, he linked up with a nurse & a ghost writer to finish the manual.

It took 3 months of extensive work. In the end they came up with an excellent ebook that is available on Amazon for around $7.75 USD. It’s like a textbook for businesses to let their staff learn from & to teach them how to treat people with a wide variety of disabilities. To learn more about the book, go to http://howtoservecustomerswithdisabilities.com/.

I’m trying to help Michael out. Does anyone out there have any ideas on how to let businesses know that this book is available?

 

 

14 SlideShare slides telling how to create better videos

The SlideShare presentation below is about this blog

Online Advertising with Social Media

Free or paid?

To earn money on social media, you can use free systems or paid online advertising.  Expect to make money online quicker with paid advertising.  With the free system, you are competing with millions of other users out there.

online advertising zebra teethWith the free system, remember the social part of social media.  You are socializing with someone as if you are sitting across the table from them.  You begin by establishing a rapport with them.  Post interesting pictures and videos for them to enjoy.  Because of the picture, they may share your post with a friend.

If you know lots about someone’s blog topic, you may want to read their blog and comment on it.  Slowly they and the related community may get to know you.

Earning respect

There are common sense principles to follow so that people respect you:

  • Be polite to everyone
  • Don’t spam
  • Listen
  • Give more than you expect to receive.  (E.g., in this website I’m giving away lots of free information.  It’s taking me thousands of hours to collect it.  In return, I’m hoping that about 2% of the people buy from the website.)
  • Add value
  • Be honest

The more popular social media for online advertising

Facebook

online advertising granite pet memorialsYou can slowly begin to earn money online by simply posting to Facebook.  However, Facebook online advertising will give you a quicker return with a much higher probability of success.

For instance, with my granite pet memorial ad, I

  •  Chose my demographics

    •  Women 35 – 64
    •  Live in the lower 48 American states
    •  Own their own homes
    •  Like dogs
  •  Choose my daily budget
  •  Choose my own photo, heading, ad text and landing page to which ad is linked
  •  Get lots of help from experts if I agree to advertise at $25/day for 30 days

Cost of online advertising

It’s cheap.  So far today I’ve spent $8.36 and have had 14 website clicks.  (I chose to be charged per impression.  That means that I am charged each time my ad shows up on someone’s Facebook page.  My ad has shown up 749 times today.)

With Facebook online advertising you can choose your target audience’s country, city(ies), age, sex, relationships, languages, interests, education and more.


Earn a percentage of the selling price for every book sold.

Click here to learn more.

Twitter

Twitter members send out tens of millions of tweets every day.  The idea is to find people with similar interests to yours and follow them.  If your tweets are interesting enough, many of them will likely follow you.

Tweet of the truck stuck under the bridgeHere is an example of a tweet I recently made.  It is the type that will be retweeted because it has an entertaining picture.  Read my blog post giving the characteristics of an effective tweet.

Here’s a website that will tell you lots about how to advertise on Twitter.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is something like a Facebook for business professionals.  It has several hundred million members.  Among other things, it can help you to brand your business.  As far as advertising is concerned, LinkedIn has a highly-targeted communications channel that offers marketers great
opportunity. It has considerable reach — over 250 million
members worldwide, with an estimated 100 million in the US.

Google+

This social platform has around a billion users worldwide.  Google+ allows you to organize conversations privately or by a specialized group.  It even has a video-calling feature called “Hangouts”.  Here you can promote your product to thousands of people via video.  Or else you can use +Post Ads.

online advertising social media marketingThis is just a quick overview of how to earn money online using social media.  To get a free e-book explaining more, click here. Inevitable Social Media is a free 25 page ebook giving an excellent overview of social media marketing.  To get your free copy, click on the picture of the ebook.

 

 



Social Media Marketing, p.2

More tips for increasing social media exposure

Interview a niche leader

Interview one or more niche leaders and publish it.  They will appreciate the social media exposure, especially if it goes viral.  This can cause your campaigns to go viral.

How to get traffic

Main goal of any social networking site — Get maximum amount of traffic.

truck stuck under a low bridge♦ Entertaining
photos/videos — Funny/sad/thought-provoking photo or video that people
feel compelled to share with others.  Make sure your brand is on it.

♦ Give away something for free — could be a how-to video, a report, an e-book, an interview, a page of valuable information — anything that people find interesting or useful.  Include distribution rights so that people know it’s okay to  pass around.

♦ Find out what your audience is lacking and provide it.  You want the information to be so useful that they will share it with their friends on social media.


Earn a percentage of the selling price for every book sold.

Click here to learn more.
♦ Social Media Campaign — Build a number of social media profiles and link them together before you start your campaign.  (See What is a Platform?

♦ Facebook — One of the main advantages of FB is having a place
that links to other articles and media.  For instance, each post on my
granite pet memorials Facebook page links to a blog on my
LaserPhoto.ca website.

♦ Twitter — Like Facebook, you can link to other articles & media.  If you are linking to a blog post, try to make sure you have catchy headlines and relevant and useful content. You want to try to make sure that your posts are so interesting that people will share them.  If you go to my blog posts (e.g., Prison-Drug-sniffing-Dogs or Second-Twitter-Account) and scroll down, you will see how I use Twitter for my table of contents.

♦ Blogging — Here you write a regular post (at least once a week) on one of your areas of expertise.  The idea is to get a huge following from people with similar interests. The idea is to NOT blatantly advertise to them.  That way people will stop following you.  Try to make your promotions subtle.

Always allow comments in your blogs.  That helps you to understand the personalities, likes, dislikes, etc. of your readers.  Use your blog to start two-way conversations with some of your followers.

social media YouTube analyticsVideos — Use lots of videos and photos.  Most
people would rather watch videos than read text.  Find yourself a good YouTube tutorial and start creating short videos for YouTube.  You want people to share your videos.  So, use some good software to help you make it entertaining, polished and shareable.

Make sure you do an Internet search for “YouTube insights” to get amazing analytics about who is watching your videos, how many minutes they are watching each one, the percentage of each gender, etc.

Return to p.1

Related Pages

Free e-book

To learn much more about social media marketing, you can download a free e-book called Inevitable Social Media

Social media platform

Go to the Building Your Social Media Platform post
to get an overview of what a platform is and how to set it up.

Social media marketing advice

Go to 7 Tips for Improving Your Social Media Marketing.

 

 

 


Peter Enns has been developing websites since 1996. He is a social media blogger and author of a free YouTube tutorial. It’s called 7 Day YouTube and will teach you how to make entertaining videos & animated GIFs.

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Platform for Your Social Media Marketing

What is a platform?

The TechTarget website says that in IT a platform is “any hardware or software used to host an application or service.”  Using that definition, it could be a combination of the hardware, operating system and coordinating programs used to run a particular app.

platformA platform is a “home base”  for establishing your authority and building your audience.  It can include your blog, your website and your YouTube channel.  It is something permanent to which people go to get trusted information.

It should be based upon your OWN website.  You do not want to lose it because a company goes out of business or changes their terms of service.

Multiple media

You should build multiple trustworthy social media that can support each other.  These can include your own forum, a YouTube channel, a Facebook page, Twitter, etc.  They should be linking to each other.

Don’t overdo it

platform

Don’t try to use too many social media until you are an expert.  You will just overwhelm yourself.  You should work with one social medium, research it online, thoroughly understand it and use it effectively.  Only then should you venture into some unknown social media that you know very little about.

Otherwise you could end up with some very unprofessional-looking platform like the one you see here.


Earn a percentage of the selling price for every book sold.

Click here to learn more.

4 steps to creating your platform

  1. Create your brand.  Create a style that you are comfortable with and that your visitors find trustworthy.  Will it be folksy, super professional, one with your own unique identity or one without your identity so that you will be able to sell it?  You decide what is best for you and your audience.
  2. Buy your own domain name.  It costs about $10 a year.  It is important for making you trustworthy.
  3. Create a blog.
  4. Build a mailing list from your contacts.  This could end up being one of your most valuable asets.

Ecommerce platforms

If you want to start selling some products from ClickBank, for instance, the ecommerce platform is readily available. Hear some amazing podcasts about how to use ClickBank.

10 laws of social media marketing

10 Laws of Social Media Marketing

 

 


Peter Enns has been developing websites since 1996. He is a social media blogger and author of a free YouTube tutorial. It’s called 7 Day YouTube and will teach you how to make entertaining videos & animated GIFs.

tweets