Facebook Marketing

Are you concerned about your future? Would you like to be in a position to help your family through tricky financial times? Do you feel there is more you can do following retirement? Are you feeling worthless now that you have finished work? If so I would recommend that you take a look at Social Media Marketing as a project which could solve all of the above issues and enable you to achieve a valuable level of additional income. I personally experienced the frustration of a lack of something worthwhile to do with my life and in my search for a suitable alternative I came across the possibility of utilising social media as a business that could be run from home. As I was an IT newbie I needed a mentor to guide me through the early stages of setting up my business and my research threw up an exuberant young man, by the name of Paul OMahony. Paul is widely recognised internationally as a foremost expert in Social Media and he is an accomplished  and humourous speaker. He offers clear and unambiguous advice to his students and he is particularly excited by the potential of one platform in particular. Facebook offers massive opportunity for building a business and expanding a customer base. Astute imaging and regular content posting helps to create a high level of trust with your customers which in turn develops into a long lasting relationship with potential for further sales. Because of the vast potential of this area there is no time to lose, the sooner you take the plunge the better because of the rapidly expanding nature of Facebook Marketing..

If the thought of a Social Media business, working from home with hours to suit yourself, appeals to you you could not do better than to take a look at this FREE webinar presented by my mentor and Internationally renowned Social Media expert Paul OMahony 

Paul presenting at a Inner Circle gathering of his students in Peterborough 2017

To check out your 'totally no strings' FREE introduction to Social Media Marketing 

go to 

https://tiny.cc/2y17ky

'You are never too old'

Ray Willey 

6 Simple Internet Marketing Tactics (That Don't Cost A Penny)

Internet marketing doesn't have to be difficult and doesn't have to cost you a fortune. In fact there a number of internet marketing tactics that are highly effective and don't cost a penny.

1. Email Marketing

Possibly the most effective form of internet marketing is email marketing. Email marketing enables you to develop a relationship with your potential customer so that they come to know, like and trust you and as a result, be more inclined to buy from you. As an online business owner, you should be constantly building your email list of prospects. These are people who have shown an interest in your business and given you their permission to send them more information by email.

2. Social Media

As a general rule, most social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Instagram work best for doing a very specific job for your business. And that's creating leads, not sales. Interact with with your target market on social media, deliver valuable information, answer questions, offer quizzes and create contests. All this generates interest in your business and pushes traffic to your website.

3. Give Away Value (For Free)

People love getting something for free. If they know that what you give away is of value to them, they will happily exchange this for their email address (see point #1 above). Items like reports, eBooks, PDFs and even videos are all excellent ways to do this. Regular newsletters will help you keep customers that you already have. Free items that offer value can also be passed around internet from person to person, all driving traffic back to your website.

4. Video Marketing

Videos are easy to create and there are lots of free tools to enhance your video. People enjoy watching videos. They boost traffic to your website and it's a great way to promote your products and services. Plus, you don't even need to appear on camera if you don't want to.

5. Write A Blog

Blogging is all about informing and educating. Writing a blog helps to broaden your business, catch the attention of more clients and maintain relationships with your existing customers.Regular blog updates keep your website content fresh which helps to get your website noticed by the search engines.

6. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

This organic, or unpaid traffic, is important for every online business. It's all about getting the right keywords and phrases onto your website pages so that the search engines see your website and list it in their search page search results.

SOURCE

6 MINS FOR THE NEXT 60 YEARS OF YOUR LIFE - A RANT

This fully endorses my mantra 'You are never too old', a no holds barred by view by Gary V of the potential of the 'Senior Citizens' who have given up. Often for no fault of their own having reached the age of retirement and feeling as though they are on the scrap heap they are just whiling the time away 'til they die.

Another of my 'mantras' is that 'you are born, you live, you die', the point is there is plenty of living left in you, all it needs is a 'spark' to ignite the desire.

Check out  https://tiny.cc/2y17ky for a glimpse of what the future could hold for you.

You are never too old!!!

https://tiny.cc/2y17ky

Practical Ways to Make Passive Income - Actual Methods to Make Money

Social Media: Does Social Media Allow People To Create Their Own Shrine?

If one was to go into a populated area in the west and to ask a number of people if they are religious, they may find that a common theme begins to appear. This could be a time when they will that see that not many people believe in or worship a god or a number of gods.

A Strange Reaction There is also the chance that a number of the people who were asked found it strange to even be asked this question. It would then have been clear that this is not something that remotely interests them. If one pushed further and asked them why this is, they may have heard that it is because they have more important things to focus on. A number of these people may spend a lot of time using their Smartphone, for instance.

Other Priorities Along with the amount of time that some of them spend using a device, there will be other things that take their time. There can be the time they spend at work, and with their friends and family.  What is clear is that it is not difficult for someone to find something to do in today's world. It could be said that there is no reason for one to be bored; that is unless they are at work, or if they have become over stimulated.

Too Much  When one has been exposed to so much stimulation, and this has happened for a certain period of time, it is going to be a lot harder for them to be stimulated. Their brain will have adapted and they will need even more stimulation in order to be stimulated.  This is then similar to how a drug addict will need to continually take more to achieve the same high. The law of diminishing returns as at work here and this is a game that can't be won.

A Number of Options  And when one uses their Smartphone, there are going to be plenty of things that they can do. One of the things that they are likely to use the most is social media, and this will allow them to stay up to date with their 'friends' and family.  Here, one might share practically their whole life online, or they might only share certain things. In addition to this, they may just use one of these sites, or they might have a number of different sites that they use.

A Different Level of Exposure  When one doesn't share a lot online, it can show that they don't have a strong need for attention. They might prefer to send a private message, or to speak to someone over the phone or in person.  On the other hand, when one does share a lot online, it can show that they have a strong need for attention. It might be hard for them to keep things to themselves, and it is then going to be easy for their 'friends' and family to find out about what they have been doing.

Effortless  What can't be denied is that social media has made it extremely easy for someone to receive attention. There is no need for them to achieve anything significant; the only thing they need to do is to upload a video or a picture of themselves, for instance. And if one is physically attractive, they can end up being treated as though they are some kind of celebrity. Once they have shared a picture of their face or even their body, the 'likes' and comments are likely to come flooding in.

One Step Further  Due to the effect this has on how they feel, one could share a picture everyday or a few times a week. When it comes to the amount of positive feedback they receive, it is partly going to depend on how many 'friends' and/or 'followers' they have. So, regardless of what their profession is, one can end up having their own followers. These people will 'like' what they share and they can tell them how special they are, amongst other things.

Another Angle  Thus, even if one didn't set out to do this, they will have created their own area where people can worship them. Some of these people will be religious and some won't, but they are still going to be treating them as though they are some kind of god.  If one was to realise this, it might make them feel uncomfortable, or it could be something that has a positive effect on them. When it relates to the former, it could cause one to take a step back and to reflect on if they want to carry on doing the same thing.

A Business  At the same time, if sharing their life in this way is part of their business and not just a way for them to receive attention, they might carry on doing the same thing. In this case, they don't have the desire to be worshipped; it is simply a by-product of what they are doing.  When it relates to the latter, it could show that one is completely out of touch with their true-self. One can then see themselves as being better than others, and it will then be seen as normal for other people to put them on a pedestal.

The Other Side  Alternatively, one could be in a position where they worship a number of people on social media. They might visit their page a few times each day to give themselves a mental and emotional boost.  When it comes to the people who they look up to (or down to their Smartphone to), one could believe that they are superior to them. No matter what they say or do, it might not have an effect on the idealised image they have created of them.

Conclusion  What this emphasises is that even if one says they are not religious; it doesn't mean that they are not worshipping something or someone else instead. There could be something else in their life that binds them.  One could say that the people who look up to a god are not very bright, but this could be coming from someone who looks up to a sports team or a celebrity, for instance. It could then be said that one is deluding themselves.

Prolific writer, author, and coach, Oliver JR Cooper, hails from England. His insightful commentary and analysis covers all aspects of human transformation, including love, partnership, self-love, and inner awareness. With over one thousand four hundred in-depth articles highlighting human psychology and behaviour, Oliver offers hope along with his sound advice. His current projects include 'A Dialogue With The Heart' and 'Communication Made Easy'.

SOURCE

How to Build Your Email List

Most of the time when someone asks how to grow their email list what they're really asking is, "How can I get 1,000 people on my list this month so I can hurry up and start selling to them?" Most people won't admit that, but honestly, if I could give one secret tip that would answer that question wouldn't you go for it in a heartbeat? 

The truth of the matter is, the very nature of a successful email list has nothing to do with its size. It has to do with the engagement and loyalty of the people on that list. And getting loyalty and engagement takes time, attention and quality content.

There are several things you need to do off the bat to make sure you're giving people every opportunity possible to opt-in to your list. It isn't easy to get someone's email address. It's your job to make opting in to your list easy and compelling.

Using Opt-ins to Build Your Email List 

To make subscribing easy, be sure you have several places on your blog where people can opt in to receive some type of free goodie. The side bar, and header of your site are common locations for an opt-in box. But you should also consider adding a pop up. Even though just about everyone will say they hate pop ups, the truth is, they work. Today's pop ups have settings that allow you to make them as customized as you like. They don't have to be the intrusive screen covering monstrosities of years past. 

Other great places to have your opt-ins:

Email signature line 

Social Media profiles 

Each blog post (up to five different types leading to the same freebie in each post) 

Business card 

Bios of guest posts you write for other sites 

Using Freebies to Build Your Email List

When creating your opt-in, you need a really amazing freebie. This should be something that offers a quick win to the person receiving it, but it shouldn't take you a long time to create. Consider the fact that the person opting in is probably a newbie in your area of expertise. Ask yourself:

What questions do newbies in your field want answered? 

Which questions do you get asked all of the time? 

What do you wish you'd known when you were first starting out 

Stay away from freebies that don't offer a really quick win for your reader. They'll put it aside to work on later and will probably never get back to it and, thus, never realize how valuable your content is to them.

Using Great Content to Build Your Email List 

No matter how many places you guest post, how many blogs you write or how many emails you send out, if you want to build your email list quickly, you need to provide really amazing content. Nothing you do will build your list more quickly than word of mouth. 

If you want people to share your terrific email with their friends, make sure those friends can easily find a way to add themselves to your list. Post snippets of your blog on social media and provide a spot on the blog to opt in to get a freebie that compliments the blog's content. Have a spot on your social media profiles where people can sign up for your list via an app or Call to Action in your header.

Building a strong, responsive email list takes time. It takes work. But if you leverage the work you're already doing to create amazing content that your followers love to read, you'll have a list of raving fans before you know it!

SOURCE

The Top Digital Marketing Trends That Are Transforming Businesses

Digital marketing has taken the advertising sector by storm. It has become an indispensable tool in the hands of a marketer to promote its brand's objectives and lend it a visibility. As we are constantly witnessing advancements in the realms of social media, mobile marketing and user experience, the scope of digital marketing is reaching sky rocketing height. To help businesses stay cognizant of such opportunities, we have enlisted the top trends in digital advertising that will help them capture their online objectives effectively.

The Top Digital Marketing Trends

• Live video streaming
  Live video streaming gained a lot of momentum in 2016 and continues to see a rapid growth in the present time too. It is an effective tool for a marketer to engage and interact with the customers. The trend of live video streaming gained impetus with video streaming apps like Facebook Live and Periscope which enables users to streamline real time videos to push out messages across social media. This trend s highly prevalent in the digital marketing space and is likely to continue for long.


• Unique content still rules the digital space
  Every digital marketer will agree that unique and quality content is the 'king' in the online world and this tendency in the future as well. When the content stands out in terms of ideas and quality, it ensures that it engages and influences the readers completely.


• Social influencers are crucial assets for your business
  Social influencers and established bloggers play a very crucial role in building a loyal following and gaining awareness for your brand. With new social media platforms being introduced every now and then, it is not easy to reach the desired audience. However, influencers and bloggers enjoy dedicated followership that captures the community and engages them with their content. Thus, choosing the right people to promote your business can help you reach the target audience and as a result your business will drive towards success.


• Consumers are hooked to their Mobile phones
  Smart phones have revolutionised the way a consumer communicates and shares information with the world by providing on the go access to vital applications and social media platforms. Mobile phones and tablets have become our constant companions and their dependency continues to rise. It is crucial for the retailers to eye this fact and those who fail to do so will be left behind.


• Augmented reality is the next big thing
  The immense popularity of Pokemon Go gave the idea to marketers that augmented reality experiments can go a long run. Today, consumers are eager to experience such augmented reality concepts which means that there are plenty of potential wins here for marketers. Get ready to witness more AR related experiments in the times to come.

Are you digitally ready?

As digital technology is becoming more sophisticated with time, the extent to which brands and businesses can engage their consumers is seemingly endless and this is a great opportunity for every digital advertising agency to help their clients get their desired visibility and hold among their clientele.

SOURCE

Social Engagement Tips You Can Count On

Social media has become one of the most used marketing tools on the internet today. Social media can be good or bad for your business and this is something to remember and live by. Remember while you can generate positive interest, it is just as easy to generate negative results, so you want to focus on your social engagement and ensure that you retain a good online reputation at all ties.

An affordable SEO packages company, has advised that there are five essential tips when it comes to social engagement that companies can rely on to boost their brand visibility, reach a wider audience and ensure that their clients notice them online daily, so that they are the first name they think of when it comes to buying a product or service that their clients provide.

It is essential that you take the time to listen to your customers, both online and offline. Is there certain questions a large percentage of your customers ask about your products? Do your customers look for more information on certain products before making a purchase? What can you add to your clients experience to help them with their choices? Maybe writing an interesting post on social media answering some of the questions is the first step to reaching your audience and new clients on a daily basis.

It is very important that you take note of all the comments that you receive to your social media page, good and bad. Facebook, for example, enables you to have a review button where clients can review your company, you can remove this option, but it will also remove the map of your location. If you choose to keep it on, then ensure that you respond to each and every comment and review, providing a positive answer and assisting the client. Clients will see you are trying to resolve any issues and will feel more confident dealing with your company moving forward.

Ensure you add high quality pictures and make use of informative and how to videos to attract more clients to your social media page. Every affordable SEO package will encourage you to attract more clients to your website and you can do this through social media. People on social media enjoy browsing pictures, reading interesting articles and watching videos. Always ensure the videos and pictures you upload are relevant to your industry and is something your customers will find interesting and hopefully want to share with their contact group.

Make use of promotions, competitions and offers. The more competitions or promotions that you run, the more interest you can create. Getting people to like your page, share the picture and have a chance to win is a great way to generate more interest and have more customers joining your page moving forward.

One of the most interesting things that companies will find helps them increase their social engagement is to ask questions. Ask questions relevant to your industry and give your clients chances to reply. Get a good conversation going and remain in the conversation wherever possible to ensure that your clients always feel that you are there to assist them and are on hand when they need you.

The final thing to be very careful of is to ensure that you respond to each private message that you receive via social media so that your clients can always feel connected. Don't automatically assume interested clients are going to email you directly, many will make use of the social media tools to get in contact, so keep an eye out for this.

Cartoozo is a multiple award-winning internet marketing agency with over ten years' experience in the online marketing environment. This company has an active customer base of over three hundred with their customers being based around the world. This company helps their customers achieve online success with a host of packages designed to meet their customers' needs and budgets. Cartoozo offer a host of expert services ranging from web design to search engine optimization and copy writing to pay per click advertising, just to name a few. They have a team of experienced and dedicated technicians and the entire team focus on customer satisfaction at all times. To find out more, visit http://www.cartoozo.com

SOURCE

Gathering More Top-Quality Twitter Followers

Twitter can be an extremely beneficial and valuable social media tool for your business. It has a variety of strong selling points, including its real-time aspect and the vast number of people who actually engage on Twitter on a regular basis.

You may not be aware of all that you can do with Twitter 

In spite of the 140-character (with spaces) limitation per tweet, you can still accomplish a great deal with each tweet that you send. When it comes to your content marketing efforts, the fact is that if you haven't done it already, you should make Twitter a permanent part of your content marketing strategy. As a social media tool, it has proven itself as a permanent member of the social media repository (or, at least, as permanent as anything can possibly be).

With that said, if you have a small (or relatively small) number of followers, it is time that you think about taking measures to increase that number. It can only benefit your business. Of course, it goes without saying that your number of followers (whatever that number happens to be) will not be very useful if those followers don't engage with you and your brand.

You don't merely want to increase your number of followers, you want to increase the number of followers with whom you can share a mutually beneficial relationship. Your constant desire should be to engage the right people for your brand and for your business.

Persevere and be patient 

Persistence and consistency are two extremely important qualities when it comes to engaging people through Twitter (as well as the other social media channels). If you want something to happen, you need to really stick with it and be committed to sharing great content with people a consistent number of days per week and on specific days of the week.

That is very important because, as you are building relationships with members of your target audience, those members will expect to see your content at regular intervals and it is your responsibility to make sure that they get what they want and need.

There are a few different ways that you can gain more Twitter followers but only you will be able to determine which of the following tips work for your particular business.

• Make your Twitter profile more visible: The first concept that you want to ensure is that your Twitter profile is as easy for other people to find as possible. There are a few basic ways that you can accomplish that, such as making sure that your profile is as complete as possible. That means that you have your name, biography, geographic location, website URL, and photo (a headshot is preferable).


• Promote your Twitter profile on other social media channels, website, etc.: Basically, the more opportunity you give people to connect with you on Twitter, the better your chances will be of increasing your number of Twitter followers. You want to make it as easy as possible for your target audience members to connect and interact with you. Not only will you find that existing online contacts will start to interact with you but there will also be other people who will reach out to you. Those people will be people who have not built relationships with you yet. It is a wonderful opportunity to increase your list of followers.


• Connect Twitter with live events with which you are involved: This is one of the easiest things to do. Use the hashtag of the event and start engaging people while you are at the live event. You may be surprised at how interested other people are to know about what is happening at your live event. Communicating in that way will make it very easy for other people to stay involved with the event and it will boost your visibility and reputation at the same time.


• Create a buzz about your brand and your offerings: If you have exciting products and/or services that you think may really entice other people, you should use a call-to-action (CTA) right in your tweet. Many people will be more than willing to check out what you have to offer. The CTA will allow the other people to reach out to you and start interacting.

Conclusion 

Twitter followers are very important for your business. Twitter is a powerful social media tool and many people like to interact that way. You will want to leverage Twitter as much as you need and you will start to see positive results before too long. Your Twitter followers will increase and your online presence will become stronger and gain a greater momentum before you know it.

Of course, your ability to successfully acquire new Twitter followers will be closely connected to the quality of your content. If your content does what it is supposed to do, your followers will want to retweet what you have shared. That is one of your main objectives. Finally, it is important to keep in mind that not only do you want to increase the number of Twitter followers but you also want those followers to be top-quality and appropriate for your particular business.

Michael Cohn is the founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications. He has over 25 years of experience in IT and web technologies. Mr. Cohn spent a significant amount of time at a major telecommunications company, where his main focus was on initiating and leading synergy efforts across all business units by dramatically improving efficiency, online collaboration, and the company's Intranet capabilities, which accelerated gains in business productivity. He also reduced company travel and travel costs by introducing and implementing various collaboration technologies.

His expertise includes business analysis; project management; management of global cross-matrix teams; systems engineering and analysis, architecture, prototyping and integration; technology evaluation and assessment; systems development; performance evaluation; and management of off-shore development.

Mr. Cohn earned a Master's degree in project management from George Washington University in Washington, DC; and a Master's degree in computer science and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ.

Mr. Cohn is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

SOURCE

Blog For Fun And Profit

Blogging has become very, very popular in recent times and that popularity continues to grow by the day. Many blogs are run purely as a social outlet to share views, interests, information, etc. with friends and anyone else who wants to read. The vast majority of bloggers are not especially interested in using their blogs as a means of generating income but some people have seized on what is a great profitable opportunity.

If you are considering this latter option, however, simply sitting down at your computer and typing away is not going to bring in the money you are looking for. So how can you turn your blogging into a viable business? There are a number of ways that this can be achieved. Here are a few tips that will get you started and, hopefully, help you turn your hobby into a profitable career.

First of all, rather obviously, if you don't already have a blog you need to create one. Two of the most popular platforms these days seem to be 'WordPress' and Google's 'Blogger'. One big advantage of blogging sites is that they are usually free to set up and free to use. These are very easy to setup and there are many instructional videos on You Tube to help you with this.

Secondly, you need to decide how you are going to create income streams from your blog. There are a number of ways to do just that. The most popular way is to place adverts on your blog site. There are various internet based companies who will place adverts on your site for you. You will then receive a financial reward every time someone clicks on one of these ads. Google AdSense is one of the most widely used. An alternative is to sell a product or service from your website and use your blog to bring in customers. A sort of combination of these two strategies would be to advertise someone else's product on your site and then get some sort of commission from that person. Whatever method you decide on to monetize your blogging you need a plan, a strategy to follow consistently to maximise your profits. Once you have your blog and your strategy in place you are your way to a blogging career.

The third and most important step is to drive traffic to your site. Once your blog is set up it will only be effective as a money-making source if people visit it. Internet marketing, to a large degree, is a numbers game. The more traffic you can bring to your website the more people will read your blogs and other content. By the law of averages more visitors equals more sales and/or ad-clicks. So, how are you going to draw that traffic to your blog site? In this the use of keywords is important. There was a time when keywords were almost the only criteria. That is no longer the case. Search engines now respond to activity, (ie - regular new posts, backlinks, etc.) You need high quality content on your site to bring traffic from search engines to your blog.

Blogging is an enjoyable pastime to many but the potential is also there to develop a profitable business if you are prepared to put in the time and effort to learn how.

SOURCE

If you have already heard about attraction marketing and know what it is, you already know so much more than many out there using the internet to grow their business. You have a feeling that it's exactly THE strategy for you and the perfect way for you prefer to come across out there, but are not entirely sure as how to get started.

Today we'll give you some tips here on how to get on with it right here, right now. Being an attraction marketer doesn't mean that you should not offer people what you have. On the contrary. It's the WAY you offer your product service or opportunity that is different.

The difference between attraction marketing and ordinary marketing is that you do not "spam" people, stuffing your service or product down their throat. This unfortunately happens all the time on social media and the truth is that NOBODY likes it.

And no one never really has built a long-term successful business that way. No top earner that I know of has built their empire using that method. They ALL used attraction marketing - and so should you.


Your focus is firstly on making relations with your prospects and THEN you start considering whether or not what you have is a good fit for that person. So distinguish between being an advisor or a seller. And distinguish between being intruding and being valuable.

So, let's get started shall we!

STEP 1   First of all you need to take a look at ALL your online profiles. Are they attractive?

Are YOU attractive? Take a look at your different timelines and see if you would be attracted to you. Is it positive, inspiring, fun, motivating, informing? 

Because that's what it should be. And when I say informing I'm not talking about product or company links scattered all over your personal profile. That is you being a seller. People don't like that, especially not new friends you make.

Imagine you add someone as a friend. The first thing they do is to go check out your personal profile. If they find advertising all over the place, they will know why you added them and they'll get out of there as quickly as possible. So first thing first. Your profile must be attractive, inspiring, informative and inviting.

STEP 2  Invest in yourself!  Buy a course on attraction marketing or a course with the strategy you'd like to start implementing. 

It could be a Facebook or an Instagram course. Education is essential!  To get better and being able to advice others you need to study.  Choose only ONE social media platform and become an expert on that. And make sure to keep your focus on that one platform. Also make sure to be active, engaging and interactive with other people on your platform.

STEP 3  Now start sharing some of the valuable content that you have just learned. Some of the tips from the course you are doing. Share, share, share. You can easily make a small cheat-sheet on 5 of the best tips you've just learned, save it as an PDF and share it with people in exchange of their email. Start building your list this way and send out emails to your list with the latest tips and tricks you learn from your course.

Invest, Learn & Teach say's Ray Higdon and you'll find that people will start reaching out TO you instead of YOU running after them.

And when THAT happens it will feel just amazing, believe me!

SOURCE

Are You Ignoring Social Media Marketing To The Detriment Of Your Company?

In today's market, businesses cannot dismiss social media as a way to get good exposure to potential customers, as well as being able to enhance their company brand. In fact, social media has become a well-known and popular way for businesses to extend their reach in a very cost-effective and efficient manner. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have millions of registered users, with these numbers expanding immeasurably on a daily basis. In fact, if it were a country, Facebook would now be the largest country on Earth* - with an estimated 1.39 billion people logging into Facebook from month-to-month, that makes it bigger than the entire population of China that has 1.36 billion people. Therefore it would be a huge mistake for any business, small or large, to ignore the economic value that these websites could be to them.

Social media for business has many advantages and the prime one is that it allows you to reach out to a large set of online audience base who are telling you what their interests they have. There are entire groups of people who are telling the world that they have an interest in photography. They even tell you what level they are at when it comes to this space. Does your business cater to amateur photographers who are just starting to learn how to take better photographs? Search Facebook and you'll find groups of people who fit that category perfectly! Do you sell small dog outfits for breeds like Shih Tzus or Chihuahuas? Guess what! There are so many groups for these breeds of dogs full of doting owners who want to spoil their four-legged friends. And it is so easy for you to get involved in these communities and reach out to the group members.

In the past advertising online was so expensive. Search engine pay-per-click advertising tended to have the monopoly for these types of opportunities, but the problem was that it was so expensive, and you were often paying Google or Yahoo a few dollars for every click that people carried out on your ads, even if the click was made by mistake, or by a competitor who was trying to run up your advertising bill. The other problem was that you very limited when it came to controlling who saw your ad and would therefore, have the opportunity to click on it. In fact, the only control you had was to say which keywords should be searched before your ad would be seen.

With Facebook ads, online advertising has become way more affordable, and you have so much more control over who sees your ads. You can limit visibility by age, sex, religion, stated interests, location and even by purchasing history. And best of all, your ad costs will be measured in cents and not dollars.

The other benefit with social media is that potential buyers will often be influenced by the reviews and comments of previous customers of a business that they read online. If your customer satisfaction stinks, then perhaps this is not such good news. But for the more reliable and conscientious suppliers who take customer satisfaction seriously then this can be used to their advantage.

So what are you waiting for? If you haven't already it's time for you to take the social media's bull by the horns and to show it who's the master. If you don't know where to start, there are so many social media experts out there who are waiting to show you how they can help you and your business. Or, if you're more of a do-it-yourselfer, then there are numerous books and videos on YouTube or Vimeo that can help you get started. Make the decision to start building your own online marketing strategy today, and it is only a matter of time before your business will be enjoying the benefits of brand and product recognition on the major social media sites.

* http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/28/facebook-biggest-country_n_6565428.html

Earl Gardner is the founder and owner of Alchemy Digital Media, a website development and online marketing company in Fort Myers, FL. Earl has worked directly with many small to medium-sized businesses to help them develop and implement their own online marketing strategies and shown them how to measure success and re-organize their online marketing plans to help them get a better return on their marketing investments while maximizing their financial and personnel resources.

SOURCE

Why Searching For The Online Marketing Magic Bullet Will Lead To Frustration AND Failure

Today I want to talk a little bit about this topic, because I find that it is very common. Especially in online marketing, we tend to think that there must be ONE way, a magic bullet, that is THE way to success. Fast. Here and now. And that this "Magic Secret" is known by the top earners, but they won't share it with us. What I have learned over the past two years in online marketing is that there is NO magic bullet. The top earners have NOT used a magic button to get where they are now and all though they might have SOME secrets they are not sharing with everyone, they know that the ONLY way to success is FOCUS, CONSISTENCY and HARD WORK.

PERIOD.

Now, let's look at why this aimless search will lead to frustration and ultimately failure and WHY being focused is perhaps THE most important work ethic you'll need. When it comes to social media there is no platform being better than the one you chose to focus on.

While some are crushing it on Facebook, Instagram is not working for them at all. Some find Twitter the best platform, while others use Snapchat or LinkedIn. I've seen known 6 figure earners with absolutely no activity on Instagram for example. What all these marketers have in common is this: they concentrate and focus on ONE platform and strategy only. That's it.

And this is what being focused means. Focus on ONE platform only AND stick with it! Once you get bored, because you feel nothing happens and start jumping around from platform to platform you are doomed. Doomed to fail. Why?

Because you need to put in the work behind your strategy over time to get the results you desire. No 6 figure earner started out with 20.000 followers on Instagram or leads pouring into their autoresponder every day. No, they built it up from scratch. They started out with 100 followers and no leads at all - just like you. I know, because I've been there to. If I hadn't stayed focused on my strategy I wouldn't have the results I'm getting today. I was jumping around my first 4 months and all though I concentrated on blogging, every time we had a training about a new platform I thought I had to do be on that platform as well.

And that is not possible.

Once you stay focused and put ALL your energy and work behind one single platform YOU will grow and YOUR business will grow. And once you do that you will not have time to get frustrated. IF that happens, you might have to readjust your expectations. And what I mean by this is that if you expect amazing results from day one, you will be disappointed.

Expect none or very little results in the beginning, whilst building your foundation. And remember even the smallest accomplishments are results. They are signs that what you are doing is actually having an impact on someone out there. A sign that what you are doing is having an effect. Results are not just sign-ups. Results are when you get likes, comments, messages, people reaching out to you.

Now, YOUR response to those small results in the beginning is what defines your success. If you ignore them, don't expect much.  But if you see and treat them like openings and react to them, reaching out to people, you may see some pretty nice results real quick.

It's a process and you have to work consistently on a daily basis for a good while. And that is why if you are everywhere, doing a little bit here and a little bit there it will take much longer time. Perhaps years before anything happens. This is where frustration takes over and the reason so many give up.

A time frame? I would say you need to work your one strategy for a minimum of 6 months, before you add a new one. It's really all up to you. Everything depends on how you react to those first small signs and reactions in the beginning that you get. If you don't react and expect that others should take action only you are placing the responsibility on someone else - not on yourself and nothing will ever happen this way. Once you take over responsibility and stop searching for a magic bullet and stop blaming outside circumstances you are on the right path.

And if you keep going you WILL succeed!

SOURCE

Content Marketing Trends in 2017

Content marketing has already evolved over the past several years and today it has become a key factor for any business or product to go through this unique marketing strategy in order to gain audiences. The purpose of content marketing is not only to pitch your product or services, but also give your audiences something that is relevant and timely to help them solve their issues.

As market standards are shifting, technology is evolving, and consumer preferences are being changed, "What they really want?" becomes a more difficult question to answer. Nowadays content marketers are required to evaluate the subjective situations and adapt emerging market trends at a faster rate than ever before. They need to keep updated with all the latest trends.

Data-driven Insights:

Assuring convincing, reliable customer experiences are the main target for marketing executives. Yet many marketers declare it as an overwhelming task to distribute the right content at the right time to the right audience.

As most of the audiences spend more time online with their mobile devices, there are enormous amounts of data to manipulate strategies for companies in every industry. To have the maximum impact, content marketing businesses should work on gathering, interpreting, and acting on data to turn it into valuable insights and actionable data-driven marketing campaigns.

Video and Live Feature:

Due to evolution in mobile technology, the demand for interactive video content is making a massive impact. It's a fact: studies have confirmed that visual marketing and content is powerful and humans get attracted to visual content faster. Consumers want something incredible that stands out, pulls them in, and connects them. Video and live streaming feature for content marketing will help your efforts stand above the rest. Social media platforms like Facebook are enhancing and optimizing their live video feature to make it easier than ever for users to promote videos and submerge themselves in the content.

Re-emergence of Email Marketing:

Even though many think newsletters are among a disappearing class of communications, email persists to be a critical approach to promote and grow audiences. According to a research, more than 205 billion emails are sent daily. Plus, the numbers are in actual consistently going up in many cases, demonstrating that email is on the rise as a source of information for customers. This figure is expected to reach 246 billion daily emails by 2019. So, considering email marketing in the coming years is highly recommended as its one of the rising trend these days.

Social Media Platform:

As social media websites are being used by many users every day. It has become one of the key part of human's life these days. Many startups and small business promote their organization and services on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. The necessity of the promotion of content on these platforms has become essential due to its countless usage. So, content marketers should consider this uprising trend of promoting on social media critically and make the most of it.

There are many other trends as well that can be considered by content writers and marketers to reach millions of potential users to address their needs and promoting businesses. However, these are some of the most critical and rapidly rising trend for the coming years that must not be neglected.

SOURCE

Why Social Media Put So Much Impact on People's Life Nowadays?

Social media- what we literally understand by the term itself is being 'socially active' throughout all the platforms available in the world of the digital media. Amongst all those sites, there are Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat to name a few. So, how different are these from each other, as all possess almost equally the same things?

EXPLAINING EACH ONE OF THEM BRIEFLY-

• WhatsApp- it's primarily for mobile phone messaging services (though, off late it can also be done in web after scanning a QR code). People can use it for texting their near and dear ones while the internet connection is active on a device.

• Facebook- it's a worldwide social media platform founded by Mark Zuckerberg and most probably the highest usage rate as compared to the other social media platforms. People can connect each other from any part of the world and share all the concerns.

• Instagram- it's primarily targeted for posting videos and pictures to the world and hence socialize.

• Twitter- this is used to write about all the latest happenings in the world m(or anything else!) as its posts are limited to 160 characters only

• Snapchat- here, people can send images and create filters but they vanish after a certain period of time.

By now, it's clear that all does the same thing- that's connecting people. And, all of them are a bit different from the others. So, where from comes the difference? Well, the audience for all the platforms varies a bit. If we go by popularity, Facebook comes first but going by the statistics, all other social media platforms are gaining popularity very soon and might soon end up reaching the popularity of the giant digital platform.

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS IN THESE PLATFORMS?

Other than chatting and catching up with long-lost friends and acquaintances, these platforms, nowadays helps us all in numerous ways. More than the news channel in television and broadcasting in radio stations, social, media platforms are used to publicize any concerned news to the world.

So, what else can be done? Well, videos and instant stories are a rage these days. People tend to capture the moments they are in and upload it in these sites and get instant reactions on their posts. This way, people tend to remain updated more about each other's' lives and keep informed fully.

Till a while before, only Snapchat had this story updating feature available, but now, all the other sites have also walked the same lane to compete with each other that made them all the same in dearth of being all the different.

People nowadays are so much involved and busy in social networking that they almost forget the important factors of life- be it outing with family and friends or spending time with the closed ones, they are always hooked up on the devices attached with those social media.

CONCLUSION

There are a lot of pros and cons in the world of digital media. Though more of it is taken positively, there are still some backlogs when it comes to the safety of many things. Like, girls are not always safe on these sites as they are trafficked on purpose for many things and these social sites spreads them like fire (though earn shame for the attacker and accolades for the victim) but still it proves to be a hazard; many social accounts are hacked and posts are made to defy the image of many honorable individuals.

So, one should be well-informed and socially aware of what he or she is using the platform for, because with great power comes great responsibility and if social media is one's power he or she should be responsible enough to use them in fruitful ways.

She is a writing strategist in Web World Promotion and also does freelance writing as her hobby. She is in the verge of writing novels and is currently working towards improving it.

SOURCE

True or False: Video Killed Text Content

We all know what happened when video came along and killed the radio star, but did it do the same for written content across the Web? This is concerning news for any SEO company that offers content marketing services. This is a debate that can go on for many years, but the truth of the matter is this - video has caused a big splash on the Web. You'll find marketers, brands and even the end users using video content on YouTube, Vine, Facebook and Twitch.

It has even made it as part of the SEO services packages that SEO companies offer to their customers. The uptick in video publishing is likely due to the major impact it has on prospective audiences. Video has shown to be an excellent way to interact with various types of audiences.

According to numbers, video content is highly shared and engaged with by users. Consumers are said to be 39 percent more likely to share video content. 36 percent more likely to comment on a video and 56 percent more likely to like a video.

But does this mean that it's a done deal for text? One thing we know for sure is that text is still alive and well - it's just a different type of format that is best used for different reasons. The best case scenario would be to implement both into your Internet marketing strategy.

What Data Shows

The numbers are staggering for video content - the average Internet user watches about 206 hours of video content each month and according to Nielson, 64 percent of marketers are planning to use more video in the near future. Sure, video content beats text when it comes to engagement, but there are situations where users would prefer to read text. An SEO company can help you determine the services that will work for your company and when to use video content and when it's best to use text.

Videos Are Lazier

The one reason why video content is doing so well is because it doesn't require much cognitive work. The brain is shown to process videos 60,000 times quicker than text. People today are more inclined to choose to do tasks that are less work. Reading articles and watching video involves two different brain processes. When you read an article, your mind is actively involved and requires a longer attention span. Again, video content can be used in certain scenarios that suit the topic and the user.

Video sounds truly amazing - it's no wonder SEO company experts swear by them. But it's also important to note that not all Website visitors will prefer to watch a video. Your Web design can implement video, but make sure that it does so in a strategic way.

http://www.ithinkanidea.com/ is a leading, full service internet marketing agency. I Think an Idea works with serious business owners small to large alike. Based out of Los Angeles, CA providing great results for services such as SEO, social media marketing, Online reputation management and PPC management. I Think an Idea can maximize your search engine presence and amplify your brand across social media channels, and help safeguard your reputation.

SOURCE