How to Claim Your Custom Google+ URL

Back in October, Google revealed that they would be rolling out the opportunity to create and claim a custom Google+ URL for user profiles.  This was wonderful news to me and got me incredibly excited considering I have been working diligently to get my name to the top of search results.

If you’re like me, you jumped on this opportunity the moment it became available, and fortunately, I was able to claim my real name without any additional numbers or letters (plus.google.com/+TaylorClark).  If you’re just now finding out about this, it may be a bit late to get the exact custom Google+ URL that you want, but don’t hesitate to get it anyway!

Qualifications for a Custom Google+ URL

For an individual to qualify for a custom Google+ URL, you have to meet the following criteria:

• Have uploaded a profile photo


• Have at least 10 followers


• Account must be at least 30 days old

If you’re wanting to get a custom Google+ URL for your business page, you will have to meet a little bit of a more complicated list of requirements including:

• 
  For Local Google+ Pages:  Must be a verified business


• 
  For Non-Local Google+ Pages:  Must be linked to your website

Claiming Your Custom Google+ URL

If you meet these requirements, it will only be a matter of time before you get the opportunity to claim your custom Google+ URL.  If you’re not sure whether or not you’ve received this email, login to your Google+ account and look for a notification bar at the top of your profile page.  Unfortunately, Google is rolling this out in waves, so you may not yet be eligible.

Google will supposedly reserve a name for you based on your chosen profile name, should you be the first to attempt claiming your name or have a unique name you may be able to utilize your real name without any special characters.  You can choose the name Google reserved for you by default, or you can choose to request a different one (pending approval by Google, of course).  Should you request a different name, you may have to wait a bit for approval from Google.

Once you’ve accepted your custom URL and accepted the TOS, your URL is locked in.  For once, you will be able to link friends and fans to your vanity URL instead of the ridiculous combination of numbers and letters that we’ve been burdened with since the launch of Google+.

Have you claimed your Google+ vanity URL yet? Did you end up getting the one you wanted or were you too late to get it? Share your experience in the comments below!

How to Claim Your Custom Google+ URL

Blurred Lines for Sponsored Ads: The New Google Search Results

During a discussion with a colleague this morning about Google Adwords and general search marketing topics, we came across an interesting discovery that I haven’t seen talked about much in the past few weeks.  If you’ve performed a search on Google lately, you most likely haven’t noticed that the yellow box around sponsored results is no longer visible, what you also may or may not have noticed is a small yellow icon that says “ad” next to sponsored results.

As I looked into this new discovery a bit more, I noticed that the faint yellow background that I’m familiar with on Google’s search results pages had been replaced by an almost unnoticeable pale white background.  The yellow color that used to seperate paid listings from organic results has been replaced with a color that most people likely can’t even see on a generic monitor, a lovely shade of #FFF7ED.  Even with the ridiculously high definition monitor I use in my office, I was barely able to see the difference.  If not for Photoshop and Chrome’s inspect element feature, I never would have been able to prove to myself that I was seeing two colors.

Can you see the difference? Black line added to help you see the color difference (not actually shown on Google Results).[/caption]

Google is Apparently Doing Some Test Runs

Of course, after seeing this change happen so suddenly (who knows, it could have been this way for months and we never noticed), I was curious to see if anyone else has seen this change or anything close to it.  As we dug around, we came across an article posted a few days ago about Google’s Yellow Ads Label by Jennifer Slegg on SearchEngineWatch.com discussing a new sponsored listings notifier that is being tested.  The first thing I thought was “oh look, Google’s taking a page from Bing’s handbook.”  Little did I know, that in the 67 years since I last used Bing, they no longer have any noticeable difference between their paid and organic results aside from a small “ads related to…” line above their ads.

Jennifer’s results for “Black Friday”[/caption]

When Jennifer noticed the difference in Google’s sponsored listings, she came across a small yellow icon with the word “Ad” displayed next to each search result.  When I did the same search, I came across no yellow icons.  Between my own results and her article, I can only conclude that Google is running some behind-the-scenes tests on their sponsored results to figure out a new way to serve people ads.  She mentions in her article that it seems that the tests may be exclusive to the Chrome browser.  I ran the same searches using both Chrome and Firefox, and noticed no difference between either browser as far as the way sponsored results are displayed.

My search on Google for “Black Friday”[/caption]

Google Seems to Be Seeking Higher Profits from Paid Search Results

The more and more I look into this, I can’t help but come to one single conclusion:  Google is trying to line their pockets by producing more clicks.  As an advertiser, I both hate and love this possibility.  Personally, I have always had a tendency to follow organic results as opposed to sponsored results, simply because I trust them more for most of the searches that I do.  With organic and sponsored results looking exactly the same to the untrained eye, I can’t help but think that I would see an increase in traffic as a result of this subtle change.  That’s a major benefit to advertisers, right?

On the other hand, I can’t help but imagine a world where the consumer gets the raw end of the deal.  One of the biggest benefits to Google for consumers has long been the ability to differentiate from organic and sponsored search results.  It provided the opportunity for consumers to be fully aware that they were receiving a sales pitch at the top of the page, and if that pitch wasn’t good enough, they trusted the organic results enough to provide them with a solution to their query.  With the fine line being removed, I can’t help but worry that with the right dollar amount, the wrong products will end up in front of consumers, leading them to results that they weren’t interested in but clicked thinking it was a natural result of their search.  The display notates that you’re being shown ads, but with no visible barrier between organic and sponsored listings (and no indication of how many ads are actually being shown) there is no real way of knowing what you’re getting yourself into without clicking through.  I imagine that consumers will eventually grow tired of seeing these results, and may start to lose faith in the results their receiving.

 

I’m curious to see what the end result of this apparent trial/error will be, but for the moment I’m a bit discouraged by Google’s methods.  They have made constant changes over the years with the way they serve ads to the public.  The question that has to be asked in the end, is as advertisers and consumers, what would we like to see in our search results?

Have you noticed any changes to the way Google displays sponsored results?  Are you pleased/displeased with the new look and feel? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below!

Blurred Lines for Sponsored Ads: The New Google Search Results

The 5 Most Annoying Types of People on Facebook

I will preface this by saying that if this is your first time visiting my blog, this is not generally the type of post you’ll find from me; however, I have been on a bit of a blogging hiatus and I’ve had time to analyze some things that absolutely drive me crazy about social networking, specifically the types of people you encounter on Facebook.

We’ve all met them, the people that you keep contemplating removing from your Facebook everytime they put up a status update.  Maybe you’re too nice, maybe you don’t know how to remove them or maybe you just don’t want to hurt their feelings if they notice.  Whatever the reason, these 5 types of people have a tendency to drive us nuts on Facebook.

5. The Guy Who Posts His Disgusting Injuries

This one happens to drive me absolutely insane.  He may not be the most active person in the world, but the second he breaks a finger nail, you can bet you’re going to hear about it and most likely catch a picture of it the next time you pull up your Facebook stream.  If you’re this guy, do us all a favor and stop posting your disgusting injury pics, we’re sorry that you’re hurt, but we don’t need to see every detail of your injury.

 

4. The World is Constantly Ending Guy

I’ll admit it, I occasionally question American politicians and often find myself feeling a bit lied to by the media, but I don’t make it my entire life.  This type of Facebook user is an expert in everything that you know nothing about, he knows everything about the government and their secret plans, can quote you word for word the Illuminati strategy for world domination and has passed the bar in any state you happen to be in, and knows more than any lawyer you could hire.

Personally, I have a few dozen of these guys and I’ll admit it, I leave them on my Facebook solely to get them riled up so the trolling can commence.  If you’re looking for a good laugh, disagree with this guy, just don’t expect a formal debate unless your usual debate consists of arguing with the most intelligent brick wall in the world.

 

3.  The Health and Fitness Expert

Apparently, all it takes is finding you books from health class from High School and you can suddenly discover how to be an expert vegan chef, natural food expert and personal trainer.  While you may find the occasional selfie from this user, you’re more than likely going to see their meal of the day or workout pics at the same time everyday.

From the all natural, soy milk smoothie to the map of their most recent 1/4 mile “power walk,” this Facebook user wants to show you exactly how much better off their are physically and nutritionally.  Often times, this person is one of the least healthy people you know, who suddenly decide they’re going on a diet and after one issue of Cosmo are your local health expert, full of great advice they’ve regurgitated from other people and claimed as their own.

 

2.  The King (or Queen) of Selfies

It doesn’t seem to matter what this guy or girl is doing, all they know is it’s a great time for a selfie.  I still haven’t quite figured out what the obsession is with taking lonely, self indulgent photos of yourself at all hours of the day and night, but this Facebook user has it down to a science.

I often wonder how much time these people really have during the day, because it appears they spend most of their day prepping for their next selfie.  This type of Facebook user has a striking resemblance to my number one most annoying Facebook user, the “Can’t Hold Me Down Girl.”

1.  The “Never” Broken Hearted, Motivational Girl

The number one slot unfortunately seems to belong to the ladies, as I’ve never come across a guy doing this and I hope I never do.  We’ve all seen this girl, as she posts selfies like it’s a part time job, and makes a habit of providing motivational postings that remind you of a break up song.  While she wants to come off like shes on top of the world and can’t be held down by some douchebag, to the rest of us it’s very apparent that she’s one break up or tear drop away from writing the next Taylor Swift album.

By all means, props to keeping a positive attitude and not letting a bad relationship ruin your life, but come on girls, don’t be so obvious about your heart break.

The 5 Most Annoying Types of People on Facebook

How to Manage Your Social Media Marketing Schedule in 2 Hours a Week

In the world of a small business owner, time management can mean the difference between success and failure.  Unfortunately, when you look at your schedule and attempt to fit a social media marketing schedule into a schedule packed with staff meetings, in-office hours and promotional events, it can appear as if there simply isn’t time to manage your social media presence let alone find time for a lunch break.  While it may appear complicated, adding social media marketing to your schedule doesn’t have to difficult or time consuming.  By utilizing these tips along you can improve your brand’s social media presence and actively engage your audience without having to make major adjustments to your normal routine.

Social Media Marketing Requires Goals

In order to develop a social media marketing schedule, you first have to understand what your goals are and exactly how you’re going to achieve them.  You’ve likely developed an annual marketing schedule to plan out your workshops, monthly newsletters or client appreciation events, monthly specials and other events in an effort to achieve certain goals each month, and your social media schedule is simply an extension of the steps you need to take to reach those goals.

When you start working on your social media marketing schedule, you’ll be setting yourself up for success by scheduling content, promotions and status updates to promote your upcoming events, share useful information and engage your fans and followers.  With this social media schedule, in less than 2 hours per week, you will be able to:

• Post actively throughout the week to multiple social networks


• Share relevant information to educate your fans and followers

Schedule Two Hours Each Week for Social Media

The overall goal of utilizing this social media strategy is to maintain an active presence on social media without taking up more than two hours of your schedule each week.  In order for that to happen, you have to determine at what time each week you’ll dedicate 2 hours of your time to working on your social media.

After you’ve chosen a time each week, pull up your Google Calendar or your calendar of choice, and set up a recurring event for that day of the week and ensure that you’ll have that two hours blocked off each week.  These two hours of each week will be dedicated to:

• Finding content to share for the following week


• Scheduling posts to share on your social networks for the following week


• Writing short blog posts to educated your fans

Find Content worth Sharing

One of the most important things you can do as a small business owner is use your social media accounts as a means to educate your clients and prospects on what you do, what’s happening each week in the news and share great information that will improve your prospects lives simply by following you on social media..  To do that, you need to share content from reliable online news sources that your fans will be interested in reading.  As a small business owner, you should be keeping up with the news, so you should be able to find content worth sharing.

Schedule Your Favorite News and Blog Articles of the Week

If you’re actively following weekly news related to your business, you should have no problem finding great content to share each week.  When you come across a great article on a news website or from an email newsletter, record that article, a summary of its content and the URL on your schedule template to be used for the following week.  By the end of the week, you will have plenty of content worth sharing.

Set Up Google Alerts for Your Industry Keywords

Google offers a tool called Google Alerts, which will take a lot of the work out of finding content for you, by sending you links based on keywords that you’ve determined.  For my work schedule, you can see that I’ve setup Google Alerts to send me news articles that include the words “annuities” and “retirement.”  Anytime a news article about one of the keywords is posted online, Google Alerts will send me the links to the article so I can read through it and share it if it’s relevant to my readers.  Google Alerts is a great way to get important news information about your niche without having to do a lot of research or consuming a lot of your time.

To use Google Alerts, simply visit http://www.google.com/alerts, enter your search query, determine what type of sources you’d like to receive information from, frequency and the email you’d like these alerts sent to.  Set up an alert for your most important keywords and then create a rule using your email program so that all of your Google Alerts are stored in one location.  Be careful, if you set up your alerts to notify you as things happen, you will receive way more content then you could possibly use.

Keep Up With Your Competition

One of the easiest ways to find great content to share with your friends is to keep an eye on your competition.  You’ve likely heard talk about who’s successfully using social media to promote their business, so keep an eye on what they’re doing.  Like their Facebook pages, follow them on Twitter and pay attention to what they share.  If they share a great news article, schedule it for your own page to share with your fans.  If they wrote a great blog post about a topic you think your fans will like, check out their sources and write your own version, just don’t plagiarize their content.

When you start paying more attention to your competitors, whether their from across the country or your local area, you may start noticing techniques that they use aside from content sharing that you can use to help promote your own business.  There’s nothing wrong with utilizing ideas that you get from your competitors, they’re probably keeping a close eye on what you’re doing as well, so it should create some friendly competition.

Pre-Schedule Your Updates a Week in Advance

Once you’ve found great content worth sharing and you’ve written down the information on your social media schedule template, you will have no trouble at all getting posts scheduled for the following week.  To make this task easier, you need to utilize a social media management tool.  Social media management tools allow you to manage multiple social media profiles from one location, preschedule status updates and interact with your fans and followers.  There are dozens of SMM tool options available, but the two most impressive and cost effective options are Hootsuite and Sprout Social.

• Hootsuite:  Hootsuite is probably the most used and best known social media management tool out there.  While the interface takes a bit of getting used to, it’s cost (absolutely free) makes it the best, most affordable and functional option available for someone looking to manage their social profiles in one place.


• Sprout Social:  Sprout Social offers one of the best looking and most advance SMM platforms out their, and the monthly cost is relatively low compared to tools like Hubspot.  While there is no free option available outside of their 30 day trial, they level of control and powerful analytics and reporting tools that they offer make sure you’ll have a competitive edge over your competitors and complete control over your campaigns.

Either of the above mentioned tools will allow you schedule your content in advance.  Using your SMM tool and your social media schedule template, setup at least one posting per day to all of your social media profiles.

Conclusion

Creating and maintaining a social media marketing schedule doesn’t have to be difficult and doesn’t have to eat away at your weekly schedule.  By simply setting aside 2 hours per week to seek out great news articles, create interesting content and pre-schedule your posts a week in advance, you can maintain and active social media presence to promote your business without crowding your weekly schedule.

How do you create and manage your own social media marketing schedule?  What advice would you offer to others who are trying to create their own?  Share your thoughts and ideas by leaving a comment below!

How to Manage Your Social Media Marketing Schedule in 2 Hours a Week

Automated Twitter Messages are Spam for Your Followers

I promise, you won’t find a lot of my rants posted to this blog, but as this one is particularly relevant to Twitter and social media marketing in general, I felt it necessary to share it with you.

Over the past month, I have taken on the task of following a large number of people in my local area that I felt might be interested in networking with me on Twitter.  I connected with other marketing bloggers, web design firms, marketing companies, and everyday business owners from Baton Rouge and from the rest of the world.  I have probably followed a good 10,000 people over the course of the last month.

Automated Twitter Messages are Pure Evil

During this period of attempting to gain new followers and find great people to follow for information, I came across a service that I have come to hate, called TrueTwit Validation.

If you’re not familiar with TrueTwit, I’ll summarize quickly for you.  When someone follows you, your account will automatically send them a messaging asking them to verify that they’re a real person, if they’re not, you won’t follow them back.

TrueTwit is Getting You Unfollowed

Be honest with yourself, you’re not Ashton Kutcher, nobody is really that interested in following you unless you happen to be a celebrity.  Let’s be even more honest, there’s not one person on Twitter who actually thinks your automated response that was sent 1/2 a second after they followed you is actually being sent by you.  Sending out a automated Twitter messages isn’t going to make you look like superman, it just looks like spam.

In reality, all this is doing is showing people that all you really care about is your follower numbers, not connecting and interacting with people.

So, why are automated messages getting you unfollowed? It’s pretty simple:

• Your Spamming Your New Followers - Sorry, deny it if you want to, but automated responses are spamming people’s inbox with information that they didn’t want in the first place.  If they really wanted to follow you on Facebook, they probably would do so without you sending them an automated reminder.


• Your Exposing Yourself - I’ve yet to come across an auto-DM that wasn’t being used for self promotion.  Not once have I just simply been thanked for following, and those who did thank me actually did so manually and made a clear attempt at interacting with me.  These automated messages are doing nothing more than exposing your real desire, to obtain as many followers as possible.


• Your Asking for Too Much - Sure, I follow a lot of people that I never expect a follow back from, like Daniel Tosh for instance.  I can’t imagine what interest he might have in following me.  That being said, you just got a follower for free, and now your forcing them to leave Twitter to validate their existence just for the opportunity to interact with you.  Kind of makes you sound a bit full of yourself doesn’t it?

I am now in the practice of immediately unfollowing people who use services like these, they make it pretty obvious that they have no real intention of communicating with me in anyway.  Maybe I’ll miss out on a few celebrities who were simply trying to prevent spam in their inbox, but I think I’ll be alright.

What do you think about receiving and sending automated direct messages on Twitter?  Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

Automated Twitter Messages are Spam for Your Followers

How to Use Twitter for Business and Marketing

Twitter is one of the most popular social networks in the world, so it only makes sense that every marketing professional you’ll run in to is going to tell you that Twitter needs to be a part of your business’ online marketing strategy.  If you’ve already started using Twitter for business marketing or it’s something you’re considering, you may want to take the following tips to heart.

Use Twitter For Business and Branding Development

Twitter is a great, unique social media platform for personal use or for business.  Twitter is a communication tool where people share thoughts, articles and messages 140 characters at a time.  The platform lets you follow people who interest you, and lets others follow you to receive your Tweets.

Your tweets can be just about anything, and can include photos, videos from YouTube and links to anything you’d like to share.  Just remember, make the most of your space, because you only have 140 characters to get your message across.

Show Off Your Brand in a Professional Way

The first thing you want to do is attempt to obtain your business or brand name on Twitter when your register.  The closer you can get the better.  As you can see, Taylor Clark is a common name, so I was forced to choose @taylorclarkco instead, which works well since I use a .CO domain name.  Most of the time you shouldn’t have any issues obtaining a name, but if you aren’t able to make sure the name you pick is something relevant.

Make Your Profile Page Impressive

Boring profiles are just plain boring, this is no exception on Twitter.  You want to show off how great your brand is with great branding and messages on your profile page.  Choose a great profile images, most likely your professionally designed logo or a great close up face shot.  Avoid using a picture that will leave people confused and wondering who you are.  Remember, the key here is brand recognition.  I’m not going to engage with you if I can’t recognize you.

If you don’t have a graphic designer working for you, I would recommend checking out a gig on Fiverr to obtain a great looking profile header image and a custom Twitter background.  Make the most of your Twitter background image, and include a brand message, URLs to your other profiles and of course a contact number for your business.

Set a Goal and Define Your Purpose

Once you’ve got a great looking profile, you need to figure out exactly what purpose you’d like to serve on Twitter.  If you’re entire goal from the start was to push ads and specials and get a few sales, I would suggest trying something else or purchasing some ads on Facebook.  When defining your purpose and setting goals for using Twitter for business, it’s important to think about what type of value you could provide to potential followers.

Anyone can sign up for a Twitter account and self promote, instead, try letting your content promote you.  Will you use your Twitter business account to share articles from your blog?  What about sharing pictures and videos from your recent events?  Don’t use Twitter for business ads, promotion and discounts, that’s not what it’s for and you’ll end up wasting your time.

Share Your Profile and Start Following People

In order to gain followers and spread your message, you have to acquire some followers.  The first thing you’re going to need to do is share your Twitter business profile on any other social networks you use and get some links up to your Twitter profile on your brand’s website.  Make sure any customer who’s interested can find your Twitter profile easily.  Remember, if they can’t see it, they probably won’t know it exists.

There are tons of tools available to help you locate followers in your area, but it’s possible to do it manually as well.  Use Twitter’s search and discover functions to find topics you’re interested in, that are relevant to your business or your area and start interacting/following the users using those topics.  Your goal should be connecting with people who are interested in what you have to offer, these are the people who are most likely to share your Tweets.  To learn about some of the more popular social media tools that can help you find followers, take a look at my social media tool reviews.

 Share Great, Retweetable Content

If you really want to increase your chances of getting more followers, you need to be sharing content that’s unique, interesting and worth retweeting.  Share content from great influencers just as often as you share your own content, don’t be greedy.  Don’t spend all of your time tweeting about your business, your own content and making yourself look like a narcissist.  There’s nothing wrong with self promotion, that’s why you’re online in the first place, but don’t be so bold and consistent with it.  People will be more likely to interact with you if you’re sharing great content and thoughts, not just shameless self promoting tweets.

Are you using Twitter for business or marketing?  What have you done to improve your brand’s appearance or to increase follower interaction? Share your thoughts and leave a comment below!

How to Use Twitter for Business and Marketing

5 Do's and Dont's of Facebook Status Updates

For beginners starting out on social media website like Facebook and Twitter, it can be difficult to figure out exactly what to say and when.  Maintaining an active brand or business Facebook page can be extremely easy to do if you follow a few simple rules for creating unique and interesting Facebook status updates.

How to Build Better Business Facebook Status

In order to engage your fans, it’s important that the content, photos and status updates that you share in your Facebook status are carefully thought out and have the potential for user engagement.  It’s great to share the occasionally promotional status update, but what your fans are really after is unique information, tips or content that they can only get from you.  If you want your fans to stick around, interact with you and promote your brand by sharing your updates, you need to be creating interesting status updates that encourage them to do so.



To help you clear that Facebook writers’ block and come up with Facebook status updates easily, follow these great tips:

1. Include an Image With Your Updates

Not only will sharing images with your status updates make your timeline look much more interesting to your fans, but it increases the chance that those people are going to share it.  Make sure the image that you choose to share is relevant to what you’re posting about, and if possible, unique enough that people will want to share it and show it to other people.

2. Don’t Resort to Asking Questions

I see this happen way too often, and all I can think to myself is “man, that person must feel really bad that nobody is commenting back to answer…”  Unless you already have a huge, engaged fan base, posting questions is more than likely going to end up with the sound of crickets chirping.  By no means do I mean never ask your fans a question, but don’t let your timeline become a long list of unanswered questions, it’s just a depressing when nobody bothers to answer.

3. Share Updates from Others with a Caption

You more than likely use Facebook for personal or business use and you probably have liked a few fan pages of your own.  Feel free to share interesting content in your Facebook status that you find from other places, but don’t forget to add your own spin to it.  Share content that you think your fans will find interesting, and throw a few words in to share how you felt about the article or what your take on the news happens to be.  You might actually get some feedback from it.  Fair Warning -  If you have a dissenting opinion on a popular article, be prepared that someone might just disagree with you publicly, after all, it is Facebook.

4. Share Your Expert Advice

This is especially important if you’re a business owner in the service industry.  Share your opinions all you want, but when it comes down to it, sometimes you just need to play the role of expert when posting a Facebook status.  Offer your fans insight that they can’t find anywhere else, whether it’s advice on fixing a busted drain line or tips on how to get better gas mileage from their vehicle.  If people see your advice and can use it in their own lives, you may end up with a reputation as an expert in your field and people will start to come to you for answers online.

5. Avoid Modifying Memes for Your Business

I’m sure you’ve seen it, and frankly it’s starting to get old.  Plenty of people out there (iFunny users in particular) have an awful tendency to take popular memes or funny trends and modify them for their own chance at internet fame.  Sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t.  The one piece of advice I can give you is share memes and funny internet trends if they’re relevant to your business in their original form.  If it’s funny the first time, don’t chop it down and add a “funny twist” to it to make it relevant to your brand.  If you’re really, really good at being funny, you might be able to pull it off, but other times, it just comes off as a blatant shot at self promotion.

(Featured Image from Christy Sheffield on Flickr)

What would you recommend that people do or don’t do when posting a Facebook status update on a brand page? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below!

5 Do's and Dont's of Facebook Status Updates

How Twitter Conversations Might Improve Your Marketing

On August 28th, Twitter announced on their blog that they had updated their mobile apps and website with a new look and feel that would improve user interaction and make Twitter conversations easier.  I’ll be quite honest, trying to have an engaged conversation between more than two people on Twitter has been aggravating, if not down right annoying.  With all the anger from the Twitterverse over this latest update, the question we have to ask ourselves, is how can we take advantage of these new updates?

If you haven’t heard about this update yet, check out this video from Twitter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnRmayAuB4M

TweetChats Will Be Easy to Manage

If you’re like me, the idea of a TweetChat event seems really interesting when you hear about it, but the second it starts happening it becomes a giant mess of “refresh, refresh, refresh.”  I can only imagine what it’s like for those hosting the chat.  However, with this latest Twitter update, I have a strong feeling that we’re going to start seeing TweetChats more often as it would appear things will be much more organized now.  It seems as if using Twitter conversations would make a TweetChat more like a Reddit AMA than a jumbled mess of too many people using the same hashtag.

Conversations on Twitter Will Finally Be a Reality

When I first started using Twitter, I noticed immediately that it was a world of self promotion and selfies from instagram, which was one of the main reasons I stopped using it for so long.  Why would I want to be part of a network where the only interaction was the occasional retweet.  Until now, it’s always seemed to me that nobody actually holds conversations on Twitter and if they do, it’s done via DM.  I had seen so many people complain about this new feature, yet I hadn’t come across it once on my desktop or my mobile.  Will Oremus appeared to have the same sentiment when he first came across Twitter Conversations:

I had to scroll down relentlessly to find the first instance of a blue-vertical-line festoon marring my otherwise neatly chronological timeline…. The reason the festoons are few and far between is because hardly anyone holds actual conversations on Twitter.”

Twitter has always been a great place to get your content shared and promoted, and over the last month has increased my website traffic by almost 1,000 visitors, but it has always seemed to lack the sort of interaction that I love so much about Facebook, LinkedIn or Google+.  While conversations will still be limited to 140 characters, the ability to group your messages together should greatly improve interactions.  For those who do hold up a good, informative conversation over Twitter, this need grouping ability seems to encourage those on the outside viewing your conversation to join in and share their two cents.

Conversations Can Be Shared in New Ways

Want to expose your interactions via Twitter to non-Twitter users?  Now you can!  With this latest update, Twitter is making it easier to share conversations, and this includes the ability to email conversations to friends, whether they use Twitter or not.  So what does this mean for marketers?  Did you happen to have a great chat with Bill Gates?  Share it!  Embed Tweets from your conversation in a blog post or email them to your email subscribers, show people how incredible your Twitter account is.

While many people are complaining about these latest updates, it’s important to look past the internet users’ resistance to change and see the potential that this update can provide for your marketing efforts.

What do you think about Twitter Conversations and the latest Twitter updates?  Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below!

How Twitter Conversations Might Improve Your Marketing

5 Tips to Improve Your Press Release Marketing

Believe it or not, there is still value in press release marketing.  You’ve probably seen or heard of press releases being used as part of an SEO strategy, but what you may not realize is that a strong press release marketing strategy can actually gain your business quite a bit of local media coverage if you handle it properly.

Press Release Marketing Actually Works

If you’re anything like me, you’re not willing to sit and wait for a reporter to contact you for an article he’s writing, you want to force the reporters to pay attention and encourage them to reach out to you.  Using these tips, I have been able to get the financial advisor I work for several TV interviews and news article interviews, with little to no real effort involved.  In some disappointing but useful instances, I’ve actually had newspaper editor’s use the entire press release as an actual article for their publication (I know, lazy right?).

If you’ve been interested in using press release marketing to promote your brand, consider the following 5 tips to help you improve your press releases.

Submit Your Press Releases to The Right Places

I find that a lot of people will recommend that you don’t bother submitting your press release manually, by emailing them directly to reporters and I have to disagree.  I have seen success by submitting them directly to editors and reporters; however, I would recommend before you do this you reach out and make a personal connection with the person you’re submitting your press releases to.  Unless the content in your press release is downright incredible, you’re going to need that personal connection to ensure they take time to read it.

Whether or not you’re comfortable submitting press releases by hand, it is 100% necessary that you submit them to the major PR websites.  For press release marketing on a budget, I recommend that you utilize PRLog.com, which allows you to submit press release for free with limited exposure.  The other big name press release marketing websites will require that you pay to play, but the potential you can from these payments is well worth it, just make sure what you’re submitting is newsworthy so you’re not wasting your money:

• Pitch Engine


• PR Web


• Business Wire

I have had great success using a combination of PRLog and PR Web’s press release distribution services along with manually submitting press releases to reporters that I’ve worked with in the past to gain great exposure and increase the chance of getting the advisor I work into the public eye.

Your Headline is Everything

This one applies in full force if you’re manually submitting press releases to new outlets, but rings true regardless.  If you spend time blogging, you know full and well that the right headline can make or break your article.  If your headline doesn’t get the reader interested you’re press release is most likely going to be looked over.

Keep SEO practices in mind when writing your press release headline so that it will show up in search engines and get your point across easily and of course make sure that you’ve included your target keyword.

Include Keywords in Your Press Release

If this thought hasn’t crossed your mind, you may want to seriously reconsider press release marketing until you have your goals in focus.  Press release marketing can be an effective tool if used properly and a major factor to successful press release distribution online is the use of keywords.

Of course, don’t overload your press releases with keywords, nobody benefits from keyword stuff.  Do include relevant keywords where they’re needed so that your press release can be found by the people you need to see it.  The most important factor in press release keywords, and blogging in general, is to write for readers not for search engines.  Your goal is to get your press release in front of people’s eyes, search engine rankings should be a secondary benefit.

Check out PR Web’s article on using keywords effectively in press releases here.

Include Real Quotes in Your Press Release Marketing

As I mentioned above, I have had editors use my press release as submitted as actual articles in their publications, with no modifications whatsoever.  While this may not ever happen to you, it makes it that much more important that you include direct quotes in the press releases you distribute.

Not only does a direct quote make your press release more engaging, but it allows you to further express your expertise in your field.  When writing your press release, use a quote that reinforces the point of your article and strengthens your image as an expert.  Don’t use a quotation as an opportunity to make a sales pitch or promote your business, keep it strictly informational so it adds value to the release.

Never, ever forget links and contact info!

The point of press release marketing is to gain exposure for your brand.  While including your business name is great, providing information on how to contact you is even better.  When submitting your press releases online, it’s extremely important to include links back to your website.  You paid for the distribution, take advantage of the benefits.  Use as many internal links as the website you’re using will allow, and link to various places on your website.

When your press release mentions a particular person, link their name to their bio page on your website.  If you’re discussing a new service you’re offering, link the description of that service to its respective page on your website.  Last, but most important, including a link to your homepage.  The SEO benefits of this are real, and can help you out greatly if you include them in your press release.

Have you used Press Release Marketing to improve your brand’s marketing strategy?  Share your tips and experiences by leaving a comment below!

 

5 Tips to Improve Your Press Release Marketing

5 Places to Find Free Images For Your Blog

Don’t want to get arrested? Great, me either.  You may have noticed there are a ton of articles floating around the web lately talking about “stealing images off of Google” and how you can get into some serious legal trouble by doing so.  I’ll admit, I’ve been guilty of snagging images and meme’s off of Google image search from time to time for blogs, websites or simply trolling on Facebook.  That being said, I’ve compiled a list of different places to get free use images that you can use for your website, blog or anywhere else without paying a dime.  Where else could you find incredible free images like the featured free image for this post by BrickArms from Flickr?

Any good blogger or SEO enthusiast will tell you that it’s critical to have images on your blog to spice up your articles, draw the reader’s attention in and to boost your chances of showing up in Google results.  All of that is great, but if the images you decided to use were obtained illegally, you may end up with a great looking blog that caused you several thousand dollars worth of fines.

5 Places to Get Free Images for Your Blogs

The websites that you’ll find below offer tons of great photos, many of which are professionally photographed and edited (depending on the site you use).  Some of these website you’ll have to sign up to use, and some even offer high-quality premium images with a price tag, but all have free photos available that you can use for whatever your heart desires.

Flickr

Photo by NIrelandeye on Flickr

Flickr may not be your first choice or even the best choice, but you can get free images for just about any category you could ever want.  Be careful though, they do give photo authors the option to turn off downloading.

http://www.flickr.com

Stock.xchng

Photo by ‘doc’ Sias van Schalkwyk on Stock.xchng

Stock.xchng requires that you register to use their photos, but once you do, you get plenty to choose from.  In addition to their free images they also have a wide range of premium paid images to choose from.

http://www.sxc.hu

Morgue File

Photo by BBoomerinDenial on Morgue File

Aside from it’s seemingly gruesome name, Morgue File has some incredible free images to choose from.  From the little bit of digging that I did, I found that some of this artwork is worth framing and hanging on your wall.

http://www.morguefile.com

Microsoft Images

Photo by Elenathewise on Microsoft Images (Original on Fotofolio)

Believe it or not, this website is more than just generic wallpapers for your Windows PC.  Microsoft’s image gallery has a great collection of free images that you can use for your blog or website that look awesome!

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images

RBG Stock

Photo by Scottsnyde on RGB Stock

When I came across this site, I immediately noticed the quality of the photography available and free images available for use.  While there are some “low skill” shots on this site as with others, there are some incredible pieces as well.  This site does require you to register in order to download.

http://www.rgbstock.com

What websites do you use to legally obtain free images to use on your website or blog?  Share your favorites by leaving a comment below!

5 Places to Find Free Images For Your Blog

Subscribe to My Weekly Marketing Newsletter

After a lot of thought, I have decided to launch a weekly marketing newsletter for my blog readers.  This marketing newsletter will feature weekly social media and internet marketing tips and will also notify you of new posts on this blog, as well as articles that have been featured on popular marketing websites.

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