The Social Web: A Boon For Your Business

There’s no doubt about it. The Internet has become the social meeting place for people from all walks of life. Whether they’re looking for a new place to have dinner, need information on a certain topic or just want a little laugh, they’re turning to the social web to get what they need. In addition, search engine giants like Google are using that same social web to deliver relevant search results to their users. As a business owner, that means it’s becoming ever more important that you get involved in social media.

How involved you get is up to you, and will depend on your resources and objectives. Social media can take up a considerable amount of time and resources, so you need to plan accordingly. It’s also important to have a plan for your social media and to stay focused because the lines between “working” and “playing” are easily blurred on social media websites.

This guide will give you an introduction to four of the biggest social sites and provide you with some ideas on how you might approach them. Put your focus into the places where you can find your targets, and always refine your approach as you continue to explore. We’ve also included some additional tips to get you off to a great start.

Top 4 Social Networking Sites

If you do a bit of searching around you’ll probably find lists of social networks, and you might be overwhelmed by the sheer number out there. The thing to remember is that most networks have a very small user base and it is not often worth investing any time into them. Of course, if you find a network that specifically targets your ideal customer, they might be worth exploring. But for the purposes of this guide, we are simply going to take a look at the top four social networking sites overall.

#1: Facebook

Description: The granddaddy of all social networks, Facebook boasts the largest number of users from a wide demographic. Users can post updates, photos and videos. Interaction comes in the form of comments, sharing updates and “Likes” which demonstrate that someone likes the update they just read.

Demographic Data: Facebook has 845 million active users, 483 million users of whom are active on a daily basis. Facebook is available in over 70 languages. There are slightly more female users on Facebook than male users, but their representation is fairly even. The age range of users is broad, but the 20-29 age group is the best represented.

Business Opportunity: Facebook allows business to create “Pages”. Users can subscribe to receive updates from your page by clicking a “Like” button to indicate they are a fan of your business. You can post updates about your company, interesting facts, share news, create polls and more. Facebook allows customization for branding your Facebook Page.

#2: Twitter

Description: Often described as a micro-blogging network, Twitter allows its users to send short updates of a maximum of 140 characters; referred to as “tweets.” They can post text updates, and while the site also allows the posting of photos, users have to click a link to view the photos. Users can interact with one another by replying to user updates or “retweeting” them, which means rebroadcasting someone else’s tweet to their own followers. Twitter also employs the use of “hashtags”, which are keywords preceded by a “#” character, that make them searchable, so people can follow conversations on specific topics.

Demographic Data: Twitter has 300 million users that post over 300 million tweets per day. 53% of Twitter’s users are female, giving them a slight edge over the male user population. 30% of Twitter’s users are between the ages of 26 and 34 and 27% of them are 35-44. Twitter is currently offered in only a handful of languages, but they are working to expand their offerings.

Business Opportunity: Businesses are allowed to set up Twitter accounts as the service does not distinguish between business and personal accounts. You can post updates about your company, share information, interact with other Twitter users and post photos. Hashtags are an opportunity to share information during events of interest and relating to specific topics. Twitter allows for custom branding of your Twitter profile page.

#3: LinkedIn

Description: LinkedIn is focused on connecting professionals, with the purpose of sharing industry-related information, as well as job and other opportunities.

Demographic Data: LinkedIn has over 150 million members and over 2 million companies have LinkedIn Company Pages, making it the largest professional social network online. It is available in 200 countries worldwide and is available in 16 languages.

Business Opportunity: LinkedIn provides professionals the opportunity to create profiles and increase their professional contacts and connections. You can also set up a Company Page to share company news, employment opportunities and more. It is a good opportunity to meet other like-minded business owners and professionals for the purpose of sharing information, forming partnerships and more. You can create polls, share files, promote events, share presentations and more. LinkedIn allows for minor customization in order to brand profile pages.

#4: Google+

Description: Google+ is a relatively new social network created by the search giant Google. As Google implements more social results into its search, SEO experts are saying that Google+ is becoming increasingly relevant to your appearance in search results, so it’s definitely a network worth looking at. Users can post updates, and share images and videos. Interactions come in the format of comments, sharing updates and clicking the “+1” to demonstrate that a user likes the update they just read. Google employs the use of “Circles” so that users can categorize the people they are following into different groups such as friends, acquaintances, business connections, etc. There is also integration with YouTube, Picasa and other Google services.

Demographic Data: It is estimated that Google+ has about 90 million users, making it a relatively small social network in comparison to the others mentioned in this guide. Publicly available demographic data is limited, but it is reported that a large percentage of its user base is technologically-oriented men. According to Wikipedia, over 71% of Google+’s users are male and 35% of all their users are between the ages of 25 and 34.

Business Opportunity: Businesses can set up a Google+ Page that allows them to connect with their followers. Businesses are not allowed to set up regular Google+ profiles, although you need to set up a personal profile before you can create a business page. Users can subscribe to your Google+ updates by putting you into their circles. You can share updates, share useful content, photos and videos. You can also create “Hangouts” that allow you to interact your followers via video or audio chat. Google+ allows for minor customization in order to brand your profile page.

Where Should You Focus Your Efforts?

Now that you have a better understanding of what’s available at each of the social networks, it’s time to decide where you’ll first direct your efforts. There is no sense in signing up for all the social networking sites at once if you don’t have enough time or resources to dedicate to every one.

Here are few things to consider when deciding where to begin:

• Facebook definitely has the largest user base, so it’s a natural starting place for a lot of businesses.

• Twitter is smaller than Facebook, but is a much more open network that is readily searchable. In addition, all updates are public by default. That means that your updates on specific topics may catch the attention of someone who otherwise may never have heard of you.

• If you are a new business, building a following on a Facebook Page can prove challenging. With a network like Twitter, it’s easier to find other like-minded individuals and follow their updates and start making connections that way. For Facebook Pages, there isn’t nearly as much of a reciprocal-minded following of brands.

• If you like to share a lot of visuals like photos and videos, Twitter and LinkedIn may not be the natural first choice. While you can link to those types of media, they aren’t readily seen while a user is viewing the updates on the site. Facebook and Google+, on the other hand, are more visual social networks that can put your visual content in the forefront.

• If your business is to create influential business connections or to meet others working in the same niche or industry as you, LinkedIn probably provides the best opportunities.

• If your target market is technologically-oriented men in their 20s, 30s or even their 40s, Google+ may help you connect to the right audience.

Those are just a few starting thoughts. The best way to decide what will work best for you is to get your feet wet. Set up a profile, start looking around at what other businesses are doing and get in on the action. However, just like everything else in business, it can take time to build your following. Just because you don’t hit it out the ballpark in your first week, it doesn’t mean the social network isn’t right for you. It takes consistent work and effort to grow over time.

More Social Media Tips For Business

Before heading off, here are a few things to keep in mind to ensure you are more efficient with your participation in social networks and continue to work toward your goals.

• Have a plan for your social media. Are you going to use social media as an extension of your blog and share updates on your content? Do you want to meet new business connections? Are you trying to create a greater sense of community? Are you trying to establish your business as a go-to resource on a specific topic?

• Social media success takes time. Unless you already have a well-established online presence, you may find that your foray into social media may not produce the instant results you’re hoping for. The key is to start making connections, getting to other influential people and working toward serving your audience.

• Analyze your competition. While you want to set yourself apart from everyone else making noise on social media, there is no need to completely reinvent the wheel. Watch what your competition does on social media. Who is doing well and why are they doing well? These are important things to know.

• Be careful with our social media management team. Hiring a team or individual to help you with your social media campaign is a good idea, but you need to make sure a consistent and appropriate message is shared. Set up well-defined guidelines to make sure everyone is on the same page.

• Put some effort into your profiles. Always fill out a profile completely and think about what your potential follower wants to know about you. Use an appropriately professional image and update details as needed.

• Let everyone know you’re on social media. Add “follow me” buttons to your website, let your email subscribers know that there is a new way to connect with you and include the information in your advertisements. Publicizing your participation is an important step into growing your following.

• Keep the “social” in social media. While people love to hear from businesses and receive their updates, the focus should always be on the social. Keep your own focus on sharing helpful information, being helpful and avoiding constant blatant self-promotion.

• Share readily. Building on the social aspect of social media, readily share the content of others. Sharing is a great way to meet new people and to be seen as a hub of helpful information in your topic area.

• Respond to those that engage you. Where possible, respond to comments and engage your audience further. There’s nothing worse than a business page that shows no real interaction by the owner.

Above all, keep in mind that you are still working and growing a business. You still need to develop products, grow your mailing list and sell your products. Social media is a great way to increase your exposure and connect more meaningfully with your followers, and it should be a complement to your marketing activities rather than replacing them. Stay steady and focused and you’ll be seeing the benefits of your participation, too.

Google+ is the hottest thing in social media. In just a few short days, the site gathered hundreds of thousands of users, making it a definite contender in the social media arena. A few weeks after launch, it was up to more than 12 million users! With such explosive growth, it is poised to become a major player very quickly.

There is even some buzz in the world of social marketing that perhaps Google+ might even eventually replace Twitter, because it is so easy to use and integrates so many features into one unique platform.

Obviously, anyone who is serious about promoting their brand should take advantage of emerging technology, and Google+ is at the forefront of new developments in social networking. This is the perfect time to join the game!

In this report, you’re going to learn a few tips and tricks you can use to make the most out of Google+ to promote yourself, your business, your website, and your brand. So let’s begin.

Tip #1: Google+ Viral Marketing

One of the most powerful aspects of Google+ is the +1 function. This function allows individuals to share things they like by using the +1 button. This has the potential to allow your marketing to go viral through Google+ users.

You can add a +1 button to your own blogs and websites, and you can even customize your plus one button. Follow this link to customize your +1 button.

The +1 button is essentially very much like the “Like” feature of Facebook. It will promote the links to your Google+ friends, and the more of your friends who vote for the link with a +1, the more your link will be promoted.

Be careful to share links only occasionally. The less often you share links, the more impact you will have when you do, and the more often people will be willing to add a +1 to those you do share.

Tip #2: Getting Google+ Friends

Obviously, getting contacts is paramount. The more friends you have, the better, but they must also be targeted. It won’t do you a lot of good to have a million contacts if they aren’t interested in whatever you’re offering!

Contact lists on Google+ are known as ‘circles’. You can have as many circles as you like, and you can divide people into various circles. Your contacts will not see which circle you’ve added them to, so you don’t have to worry about offending anyone. You can easily keep your family and friends separate from your business contacts if you’d like to use the same account for both business and personal contacts.

Make sure to check out various Google+ directories to find people who are interested in your niche. You will probably also want to add yourself to the directories, as well. Below you will find a few directories to try:

1) Google+ Directory

2) Find People On Plus

Tip #3: Moderate Your Promotion

One of the biggest mistakes people make with social marketing is spamming their followers. While social marketing is essentially permission-based, you can still spam your followers if you post too often.

Because of the potential viral marketing element, it is especially important to moderate your promotion on Google+, because you want those promotions you make to be impactful. More people will +1 your links if you post them rarely.

I suggest posting no more than 2-3 links of good informational value each day. This will give you the biggest potential to be seen, while still being respectful to your contacts and not flooding them with promotions.

Don’t forget to mix your promotions with useful links from time to time. This will get people to pay attention to everything you post, because they won’t want to miss anything important. Make sure you get them used to seeing useful, important links from you!

Tip #4: Streams

A stream is a news feed that includes your own posts and updates, as well as those of the contacts in your circles. You can view your stream simply by logging into your account and visiting the main page. Don’t neglect to do this, because you can make great use of it.

Watch your stream carefully. Whenever someone posts something related to your niche, especially if it’s a question, be sure to add to their discussion. This will help boost your reputation within your niche, because people will see that you are knowledgeable, and they’ll also see how helpful and friendly you are.

Remember, the stream isn’t just there for your own updates. Pay attention to the updates of your circle and you’ll get a lot of great promotional and branding opportunities out of it.

Tip #5: Hangouts

Hangouts are ‘live’, multi-person video conferences between Google+ users. These are great, because they can be used for webinars, and you can get a lot of people together at once.

Hangouts are great for making presentations to your audience. Be sure to put together an outline or script before you begin to eliminate a lot of the “ums” and “uhs” you might get otherwise, and schedule the webinar a day or two in advance to give people plenty of time to clear their schedules.

One major reason you should use Hangouts is because you can get ‘live’ feedback from the other people who attend the video chat. This allows you to figure out what people want to know without having to ask them upfront.

Additionally, it allows you to make a physical presentation by showing real world examples of what you’re talking about. This could be especially helpful for ‘live’ how-to demonstrations.

Hangouts offer a level of human contact a standard chat never could, and they can be an excellent marketing tool if used properly.

Refer to this site, GP Hangouts, for a list of hangout communities. You can also set up a hangout of specific interest and let other surfers search for it based on your keywords. It’s the fastest way to get people to join in!

Tip #6: Sparks

Sparks is Google+’s internal search engine that is based on recommendations. The Sparks section is not very obvious in Google+. For a start, you do a keyword search. I use ‘pizza’ as an example (see screenshot above). Then click ‘Everything’. A drop-down menu appears to reveal ‘Sparks’. Note that under ‘Sparks’ is ‘Hangouts’, which means you can also find hangouts using keyword search.

Once you get to Sparks, you will see a listing of content different from the postings on the Google+ stream. If you like what you read, click the +1 share button to send the article to your stream so the people that have you in one of their circles (following you) can see it.

Apparently, how this content is selected for a Sparks listing is part of Google’s clandestine search algorithm. I notice that, like the Google+ stream search results, the Sparks listing goes by the order of how recent the page appears. This goes against the grain of conventional SEO whereby a well-optimized page can stay in the top results for as long as it beats the competition. I suppose that:

1) Only a press release on an established website can get listed on Sparks fast.

2) Your website must already be established (I know that when I publish a new blog post and it gets listed in Google search on the 1st page within 24 hours, it is a sign that my site has reached a certain ‘mature’ age and the backlinks are well maintained over the years).

There are still some things you can do to optimize your pages for Sparks. Good ol’ fashion SEO still applies: frequency and placement of keywords. Bookmark your article to rack up the backlinks. If your article is good, more readers will naturally ‘plus’ it in Google+ and this also helps with the ranking in the normal Google SERPs. Your article may not get into Sparks on time, but you would already have done much better than most marketers who are not paying attention to Google+.

Tip #7: Huddle

Huddle is a text message service that will let you send text messages instantly to the people you’re in contact with. You can send messages to single people or to entire groups of people!

If you’ve ever wanted to get into mobile marketing but didn’t know how, this is the perfect chance for you to give it a try!

You can also sync your Google+ account with almost any mobile device, allowing you to instantly upload photos, tag locations with your phone’s GPS, add locations to your updates, and much more.

And don’t worry about privacy. You can set permissions on things like photos and locations so only people in specific circles can see them. That way, if you only want family to see your locations, your other contacts won’t be able to find out where you are.

This is an extremely important tool, but remember to use it wisely. People will get upset very quickly if you abuse this feature, especially if they get charged for the text messages they receive. So use it, but use it only for very important updates.

Read this article for instructions.

Tip #8: Your Profile

When you create your Google+ account, don’t forget to fill your profile out completely. One of the biggest mistakes people make in social marketing is to treat it like a marketing tool and nothing more. Don’t do this!

You see, the thing that makes social marketing effective isn’t the ‘marketing’ aspect. It’s the ‘social’ aspect. You have to treat it just like you would if you had nothing to market.

Set up your profile completely. Add a photo, fill out your ‘About’ page completely, including an introduction that includes keywords that will make it easy for people to find you.

Don’t forget to add a link to your website or blog!

The more thorough your profile, the more ‘real’ you become in the eyes of your contacts. This level of personality is what makes social marketing so incredibly powerful, so don’t forget to make use of it!

Tip #9: Avoiding A Ban

While using social marketing is essentially permission-based marketing, it is still possible to get banned if you’re not careful. It’s important to take precautions to avoid such a fate, because losing your account means losing all the work you’ve put into building contacts and nurturing them.

The first thing to remember is to be respectful. Don’t spam people with endless links or through private messages. Don’t post links to questionable content.

Most importantly, never use those services that use scripts to trick people into sharing your content. This will get you banned very quickly from any service you do it with, including Google+.

Also, don’t just indiscriminately add thousands of people. The service is new, but it definitely has the potential to be abused. You will undoubtedly begin seeing people getting banned for adding too many people too quickly in the near future under the assumption that only spammers do this, so be careful! You can always get more contacts by adding your URL to your forum signatures, e-mail signature, blog posts, your blog sidebar, and Google+ directories.

Tip #10: URL Shortening

In order to make it as easy as possible for people to find you on Google+, you might want to use a URL shortening service made specifically for Google+. This will make it easy for you to remember your link when you need to give it out, and it will look much neater when you include it in forum signatures, e-mails, blog posts, etc.

The most popular tool is Gplus.to. This service shortens your URL to gplus.to/yourusername, making it extremely to remember and share your link.

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Getting lots of people to follow you on Twitter sounds like the most boring undertaking in the world, but it’s not if you just know how to add some excitement to the process. You’ll find tons of information related to growing your follower count on the Internet but still many Twitter marketers struggle to increase their follower numbers. This typically occurs when someone tries to boost their Twitter account too quickly, and what ends up happening is they end up with hardly any followers at all. So in this article, we will be discussing some methods you can use right now to increase your followership on Twitter.

One of the first things that you should be doing in order to grow traffic to your Twitter page should be to embed your Twitter feed on your site and blog. When you embed the Twitter widget on your website, your website will be exposed so that your traffic can access your newest tweets. You need to adjust the widget and put in a bold title that suggests that the reader follows you to your Twitter page.

If you have the desire to do it, you can turn the idea into an interactive concept by placing a ‘live’ widget on your This will bring your Twitter updates to your blog the minute that you create them.

If you are looking for people who share similar hobbies and interests as you, then you shouldn’t hesitate to use Twitter directories to find them. Since people are grouped by interests, these directories offer an excellent opportunity to find new followers. Some example directories include Twellow and WeFollow. If you want to maximize the potential of these directories, then you will have to have a listing in them first. You will then need to find users you believe might be interested in your page by looking through all the categories. Jot these users down so that you can follow them as this is how they will follow you back.

If you want people to pay attention to you then you need to tweet about topics that are current and hot. So that you can send out tweets when the time is right, you need to make sure you are up to date with all these topics. Since people are inquisitive by nature, they tend to click on trending topics. Usually they go through all the tweets related to these topics, so it’s an effective way to grow your exposure and talk about things that are currently interesting to people. One of your principle aims should be to attract the interest of as many people as possible. Above all, it should now be apparent after that article that getting more Twitter followers is more about common sense than anything else. If you apply the above tips and learn from your experience, it won’t take you much time before you reach a high follower count. As long as you put in the required effort and you’re willing to keep plugging away even in the face of failure, you will slowly see your follower count rise until it’s amassed a number you can be happy with. And then after a while you’ll see that the speed of people following you will increase with time.

I want you to visualize a new social sharing process. We know a good social media-ready blog has bookmarking buttons for various social media websites.

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