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Let Social Empire Media Marketing help you set up your Custom Facebook Page and Social Media Strategy…

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With the movie “The Social Network” out in theatres and all the buzz that surrounds that, there is even more interest in Facebook.  In typical Facebook (genius) fashion, FB has now made it possible to get more creative with your page.  For private pages and businesses alike, this is a great boon.  Here we will discuss just a few things you can do to utilize these new features!

1.  Find a new profile templates that reflect your personality or the attitude of your business.  If you are a business owner, you can be very creative and connect with people through these creative medians.  Just be sure to keep it professional.  It may be hard to believe but professional can be fun and creative without losing credibility.  Make your page something to keep coming back to.

2.  Use photography.  Some of you may have seen different profiles where one picture is displayed through many different blocks on the page.  It gives the illusion that the full photo is behind the “wall” on your Facebook page.

3.  Get creative with your photography.  Check out this link.  If you have the know how and the creativity, you can have a lot of fun with your product, personal photos or whatever you choose.

The opportunities to have fun with this are endless and keep in mind – you want to keep people on your page and interested.  We all want our visitors to keep coming back.  Keep it fresh, updated and relevant and you can’t go wrong!

Social Empire Media Marketing Sample Facebook Pages Links:

www.facebook.com/chapmanchiesl

www.facebook.com/gotopatty

www.facebook.com/voakhomesrealestate

www.facebook.com/baggettrealty

http://www.facebook.com/RobertMaesandAssociates

http://www.facebook.com/PowayRealEstate?ref=ts&sk=app_4949752878

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Weichert-Realtors-Elite/129540968782

http://www.facebook.com/luxuryhomesofhenderson#!/pages/Luxury-Homes-of-Henderson/127115167326447

http://www.facebook.com/#!/TheFleetWoodSD?sk=app_4949752878d

blogging, facebook, Facebook profile, Facebook template, Social Empire Media Marketing, Social Media, social media marketing, Twitter

In late February, Google will begin testing display ads in Gmail.  This is great news for all those who utilize Google AdWords for their ad campaigns. 

Google is always finding new avenues to display ads and to help their clients.  Text ads have been an integral part of Gmail for a long time now and it is incredible.  The “Google bots” can tell what your clients are searching for and interested in and display ads according to their personalized interests.  Few advertising resources give advertisers such targeted audiences. 

Now, with display ads, Gmail users will not just see the standard text ads at the top of  their Gmail.  Users will see display ads on the right hand side panels.  These will not be obstructive to the use of Gmail which makes them ideal.

advertising, Gmail, Google ads, Google AdWords

Congratulations Wikipedia…

Unless you have been living under a rock you have heard of Wikipedia.  Chances are you are used it as well.  There are some of us that use it more than we care to admit.

Wikipedia was started in 2001.  It now boasts 3,534,912 articles on a wide variety of topics.  It is also available in about 40 other languages.  It is a free online encyclopedia that is based on an “openly editable model”.  This enables people all over the world to edit content and write articles.  This does not mean that articles are opinion based.  The platform that Wikipedia uses ensures that the content is all backed up by a published source. 

Wikipedia shows us all that internet users are seeking quality information.  Users are also willing to add and edit content for free.  Sharing information is a very powerful tool! 

Want to know more about Wikipedia?  Just look them up at Wikipedia!

information sharing, Online Encyclopidia, Wikipedia, Wikipedia ten years

How Strong is your Social Media Marketing Strategy?

Stay Socially Connected

In late December there were reports of a woman who put together a class reunion by finding all of her classmates on Facebook.  About 10 days after the class reunion her husband left her.  Her Facebook friends found out that she was left with children to take care for and a mountain of debt.  She was devastated and her friends wanted to help her. 

The friends she had on Facebook set up a page on her behalf that she could not access.  Within a short time, her friends organized meals to be delivered to her home, packages with items for children (like diapers, etc) and more to help this single mom out of her situation.  She was overwhelmed by the outpouring of generosity and the power of Facebook in spreading the word and bringing her friends together for her benefit.

For those of you who doubt the power of social media, perhaps you need to hear more stories like this one.  It is so easy for a cause, a business or just something entertaining to go “viral”.  If you are in business you really need to understand the power in social media in this day and age.  Few marketing strategies are so cost effective while being so very powerful.

If you want to know how social media can help you in your business or in any other way, please contact us and let us help you.

facebook, Social Media, social media marketing

What is a blog?

"To Blog or Not To Blog? That is the Q?

A blog is like an online journal.  You can make entries as often as you like and post them for visitors to read.  Most blogging platforms will allow for visitors to leave you comments or questions.  A blog can be within a website or it can stand alone. 

Blogs are usually viewed in reverse chronological order.  Most blogs follow a specific topic or company.  For example, a personal blog may be about a persons family or a specific topic like photography.  Professional blogs would be about products, company information, news or anything pertaining to your business or field.

How popular is blogging and who is blogging?

In 2007 a company named Technorati tracked blogs and found more than 112,000,000 blogs.  With growing popularity the numbers have undoubtedly gone up. 

Everyone can blog no matter of age or business type.  Blogs can be for personal use, to network with friends and/or family or they can be professional. 

Types of blogs:

We already discussed personal, family, specific interest and professional blogs.  There are also blogs devoted to video or other multimedia formats. 

There are also blogs for different devices.  Most blogs are done on a personal computer but with new technology people can blog from PDA’s, smart phones and other devices. 

As blogging continues to find more and more popularity we see sponsored blog posts and a lot of advertising on blogs.  Some find this to be a controversial matter but the blogger simply needs to disclose if they are being compensated for a post so that readers are aware. 

The bottom line is that blogging is here to stay for a while.  It is most often free to do and it does not take great technical skill so it appeals to the masses.  A few of the most common blog platforms are Blogger, WordPress, Edublog, blog.com, TypePad and Blogspot (just to name a few).

Blog, blogging, Blogs, free blogs, how to blog

If You Can’t Measure It, You Can’t Manage It!

Measurement of Success

Most personal users of social media platforms do not realize that there are great tools available that can help you measure your social media presence.  For those that use social media to help their businesses these tools are imperative. 

Having an online social media presence has changed the way people do business.  Thanks to the Internet, businesses can reach millions of customers instantly and it is free in most cases.  But business owners need to be aware of how important what they post on Twitter, Facebook or blogs can be.  You can really help or harm you business with just a few words.

Luckily there are some great online tools to help you govern the success of your social media accounts.  Some also help you become aware of what is going on with your competitors and more.  Here are a few:

Google Alerts – Google makes life very easy.  In Google Alerts you just enter a keyword or phrase and they will keep you posted on current social media like blogs, videos and more that have to do with those keywords.  Should you see that someone has mentioned your business name you could email them and ask them to add a link to your website.  This also can help you get ideas for your business because you become aware of what your competition is doing.

Tweet Deck- This is an application you can put on your phone or your computer that will help you manage multiple Twitter accounts.  It sorts your Twitter replies and more.  This program also will let you see where you are mentioned on LinkedIn, MySpace, Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter, etc.  For those that have a lot of followers on Twitter or multiple accounts, this is a  very useful tool.

Social Mention- If you have a large online presence you can keep track of more the 100 social media platforms with this one program.  This is very useful for businesses that have a lot of online conversations  (via Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and use social media a lot.  It is wonderful to have a program that can sort through all the data and help you know what platforms are generating the most interest for your company. 

There are many more programs available out there that serve different purposes.  These are just a few of the good ones.  Most of these programs can help you maximize your impact online.  We all need to know if what we are spending time and effort on is actually helping our business.

Google Alerts, Social Media, social media tools, Social Mention, Tweet Deck

WordPress Welcomes its New Community!!!

Welcome to my WORLD!!!

Windows Live Spaces users will find that over the  next six months things will take a big shift.  Microsoft is shutting down its Live Spaces in favor of the WordPress platform.  Microsoft recently made this major decision and will send about 7 million blogs and the revenue generated by ads over to WordPress. 

This is a huge step for Microsoft as they will be giving up quite a slice of the web.  Microsoft says that they have over 7 million blogs and about 30 million visitors to these blogs so it is not hard to see how much ad revenue this could take in.  Naturally WordPress is thrilled to be obtaining these accounts but one has to wonder why Microsoft is choosing to not compete in the blogging arena.

WordPress is powerful and very successful.  Most users will be glad for the switch because WordPress is so user friendly.  Users have six months to switch over to the WordPress method or the accounts will be gone.  This gives users a few months to decide if the switch is a good thing for them or if they just want their blog to fall by the wayside.

WordPress does have the upper hand as far as controlling spam goes.  They keep spam bloggers to a minimum as well as spam comments.  This is a relief to those that surf the web looking for valuable content as well as saving bloggers time on moderating comments.  WordPress trumps even Blogger in spam control.

Overall, it is obvious that competing in this market takes a huge amount of money.  It is also hard to compete with the two giants:  WordPress and Blogger.  There are some easy to use platforms out there for the free bloggers but most of us are still choosing these two great companies because they offer such great ease and options.

blog spam, blogging, free blogs, Microsoft news, Windows Live Spaces, Wordpress, Wordpress news

Keywords, Check…Description, Check…Backlinks, Check…Reality, Check….Search Engine Optimization!

Increase your Local VISIBILITY!

As time goes by the science of search engine optimization has changed drastically.  It is far different today than it was just a few years ago.  Not only has the number of websites gone sky high so that there are more listings overall but even the most simpleton website builder knows some basic tools for search engine optimization.  This means the competition is astounding.

Because of the ever changing dynamics of what the search engine spiders are looking for when indexing sites, it is important for sites to always be updated and fresh.  You constantly need to be looking at trends, what keywords are being searched for and putting them into your content so that you rank as high as possible.  Even when doing this it can take years for a site to reach a good placement in search engine listings.  The key is to be realistic in your goals and BE PATIENT!

Search engine optimization is a great tool and we all know that when we search for something on Google we probably won’t be looking at page 20 of the listings to get what we want.  However, search engine rankings aren’t all that matter.  Yes, they are key but you also want to think about getting to your target audience.  You want to hone in on your true customers for your industry.  Websites are not just about rankings now, they need to be about converting your traffic into sales and leads.  One way of doing this is on your “contact us” page.  Make sure you have a box that will ask your customer about themselves and their specific needs that you can fulfill.  Not only will you then have key information on what your visitors are looking for but you will serve them better.

SEO is as important as ever.  We all want to rank #1 in the search engines and yes it will help your traffic but you also need to focus on what you will do with the traffic once you get it.  It is also important to be afraid of SEO companies or “specialists” who promise you the moon.  If the promises sound too good to be true or like a quick fix, you are not going to have success.  Many companies will tell you what they think you want to hear and why not?  We would all love someone to tell us that we would rank #1 in one month but it just won’t happen. 

Be patient, be very careful when choosing an SEO company or individual and always keep your target audience in mind.  Your customers are what gives your site purpose.

search engine optimization, seo, seo goals

I remember when Facebook and MySpace were pretty new and it seemed intimidating.  I remember thinking that they were sites for teenagers or college students, surely not adults.  This is a common misconception.  These social networking sites and many others are growing so fast that it is hard to keep up.  For example, Foursquare now has 3 million members!

Pew Internets research shows that there was an 88% growth in social media users in the 55-64 age group.  The 65 year olds and older usage grew by a whopping 100%!  This is great information for those companies that cater to these ages.  While most users are in the younger age groups, the growth in the 55 and older groups is so substantial that it can’t possibly be ignored!

Pew Internet also states that the usage in the over 50 crowd on social media doubled from April 2010 to May 2010.  While the group is still relatively small it is growing very quickly.  This age group is not known for their status updates but the numbers are increasing there as well.  Many are saying that they log in at least once a day and one in ten say they update their status and read other updates.

A digital measurement company, comScore, noted that there are 27.4 million social media users that are 55 and older.  Naturally this pales in comparison to the number of young adults but if you are a business owner you can be sure that this is a great number of people to reach and influence over social media.  The bottom line is to not count any one out!  This is not a platform for the young kids anymore, it is something everyone is enjoying and utilizing!

Social Media, social media users

You may have recently received or seen messages on Twitter and Facebook offering a free iPad.   If you saw this it could be that your friends have fallen for this latest scam.  The Twitter safety people say:  “If you’ve received a message promising you a new ipad, not only is there no ipad, but also your friends have been hacked.”   Twitter also says that for those who were “hacked” they will be sending out password reset messages.

The  message that users see usually say something to the effect that you must check something out and because there is a problem with the system it is sending out free iPads to everyone.    The message then contains a link that when you click on it gathers your personal information.  If you do receive messages or did click on these types of links it is a good idea to go in immediately and change your password. 

This scam is just one more warning as to why you should never follow links that sound too good to be true or offer something for nothing.  It is also a reminder of why you NEVER offer your personal information online unless you know exactly who it is that you are giving it to.  Even then you need to use a lot of common sense.  Nothing is fool proof and anyone can fall prey to these types of scams but if you are aware of them you know what to look for.

facebook, Facebook scam, free iPad, iPad, online scams, Twitter, Twitter scam