But in addition to marketing there is the urgent need to keep costs down while promoting at maximum efficiency. Knowing that your Webmaster / Internet marketer is utilizing paid time appropriately will help to speed up the process and keep expense at minimum levels. Continue reading to learn two necessary steps required to successfully promote a website and how monitoring software will give employers a better return on their investment.

Software that delivers

Before delving into “the big two” it is important to address the starting line – the Webmaster or Internet marketer you have hired to build your website and market it successfully. There is a surge of self-proclaimed Webmasters and marketers out there (they are typically one in the same) who may not be as efficient as someone who has actually received formal training in web development and marketing.

More and more businesses are paying Internet marketers to come to their physical location at specified times to work on promoting the website. By doing this business owners have more control over how the employee is spending his time (as most charge by the hour). Some businesses are even investing in keylogger software as a way to monitor the time it actually takes their employee to complete his tasks. These systems allow businesses to monitor what sites their employee is looking at. One can even use the program to see how long it takes someone to write an article or draft a document. Since most business owners don’t have the time or the know-how to market their own website, having a good system in place to make sure a second party isn’t cutting corners is a sound investment.

Blogging

Blogging is a great way to promote a website. By carefully researching sites that permit guest bloggers, businesses can utilize these channels to display their brand or services. Make sure the site you consider utilizing has a big social media buzz. The more the content is being talked about and shared through social media, the better your chances are of drawing more traffic and new clients. You will also want to make sure the site offers dynamic author bios for guest bloggers. This will permit for customized branding with a link to the business website at the end of each published article. Another thing to do is make sure you post blogs to relevant sites. In other words, if you own an Italian restaurant you don’t want to blog for a site that deals with basket weaving.

You will also want to make sure that your marketing expert enriches your content with links that will drive traffic to your website. This will also help with your search marketing endeavors and give you better organic placement in the search engines.

Where is the guarantee?

How do you know your Internet marketer is doing everything he says he is in the time it takes him? Unless you have an employee monitoring system, you don’t. Any good system will capture tasks and time and translate them into readable data that anyone can make sense of. These programs allow employers to see what sites were visited, and what tools were used. If an employee swears to have used an analytics tool for an SEO package, this claim can be verified with the right software. These systems are simple to install, use and are beneficial to any business that outsources paid online. Not only is such a tool necessary for monitoring blogging activities, but it also provides the same service in ensuring that work is being dedicated to social media marketing.

Social media

Be sure your marketing person showcases your business on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Have them create a Facebook page for your business that fans can follow. However, there are certain methods to doing this that prove to have greater success than others. In an article published by ‘Forbes’ on how to promote your business with Facebook, the author says to create content and lots of it before asking people to follow and “like” you. Often businesses are eager to get as many fans as possible, but by first providing quality content you will be giving people a reason to follow and support your business. Furthermore, by linking to feeds via YouTube you will be fueling your website to climb the search engine’s organic placement rankings. And be sure to use Twitter. Instruct your marketing expert to get as many people in your industry as possible to follow you. This will provide you with an audience to tweet links to that direct the multitudes to your articles and website. Twitter also allows businesses to make others aware of special promotions and events that are running.

These tips are very general, but provide a great starting platform for new businesses.  There are more advanced strategies for business promotion within the folds of blogging and social media. Make sure your Internet marketer has a masterful command of these subjects. But also, take control of the reigns. Invest in an employee monitoring software package and before you know it your website should eventually see more traffic and sales.

Image source: http://agileirony.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/face-keyboard-sleep.jpg

The post 2 Tips to Promoting Your Business Website in Spy-Mode appeared first on AddMe Blog.

Social Media Audiences

In the examples below, I will use photography as the niche.

Twitter can work for B2C, but for many photographers Twitter serves as a B2B tool. Twitter is often used for networking with partners and gathering inspiration.

Facebook is best suited for B2C for photographers and most businesses. That is because of Facebook’s business model and platform already being oriented towards personal accounts.

Pinterest can work for both B2C and B2B, depending on the type of photographer. For example, wedding photographers have a much greater chance to use Pinterest for consumer reach whereas corporate photographers would use it for business reach.

Google Plus is like Twitter when it comes to its potential audience. While it is possible to use it for B2C, it is more likely to be used as a networking and inspiration tool.  There are also more photographers on Google Plus than any other niche.

Reddit is an underdog in the social media game (at least for photographers) and is best for B2B or partners, mainly because it is rare to find a consumer looking for a photographer there.

YouTube is in a league of its own when it comes to audiences. This tool can be use for both B2B and B2C, and has proven itself over time.

I like to call LinkedIn the Facebook for business. It has a similar business model and platform, but oriented towards business accounts rather than personal ones. That makes LinkedIn one of the ultimate B2B social media tools.

As mentioned before, there are thousands of social networks available. Wikipedia contains a list of some of what you will find on the Internet.

Social Media Strategy

The next part of the social media equation is figuring out what to post on your newly discovered networks. On Facebook, using fill in the _____ posts work very well. (yes, I just did that) On Twitter, asking for a retweet (spelled out instead of RT) will tend to work better than the abbreviated version.

There are many strategies that you can find by doing Google searches for each social network. For example, on ProBlogger, Georgina Laidlaw published an article sharing 15 social media mistakes to avoid. In addition, as you learn and grow within these platforms you might discover your own strategies worth sharing with the world.

Social Media Time Management

Now that your strategy is compiled, it is time to figure out how to manage your time on the sites. It would be nice to have endless time, but there are only so many work hours in the day. That is where many helpful tools come in the picture. My favorite tools are IFTTT and Buffer App. Together, I can efficiently schedule and manage what posts where and when.

IFTTT is the perfect tool to get you back to blogging. Blogging still isn’t overrated, so make sure you’re still writing and publishing fresh content to educator your visitors. Here are some other tools that could be useful in your social media time management:

Digg Digg – Let other people share your content
HootSuite – The most popular tool of its kind
JetPack Publicize – Automatically shares your articles when published

Social Media Tracking

Another important aspect of social media is tracking so you learn how you are doing and how to improve. Think about this… You decided to market your content on Reddit, but do not track your website’s social media efficiency. Two months after your Reddit push, you wonder if it made any sense to try.

By using a social media Google Analytics dashboard, you can track and review your social media efforts and see how much traffic it brings and what converts the most. You may not know what I mean when I said “converts”, so I’ll explain. Google Analytics goals are specified steps that are taken by visitors and tracked by website owners. A goal could be a visitor commenting, filling out a form or clicking the “buy now” button. The act of completing the goal is what I meant when I said “converts”.

In Conclusion

I have talked about finding the right social media channels to share and promote your business. I have also discussed using strategies and tools to better manage your already limited time. I finished the article with a small piece on tracking your efforts in social media. These few things can help you to improve business, so I urge you to get going today.

About the author:

Scott Wyden Kivowitz is a NJ Photographer and the Community & Blog Wrangler at Photocrati, developer of the WordPress themes for photographers, NextGEN Gallery and the Photographers SEO Community, teaching other photographers on how to increase business with their website.

The post Social Media Efficiency & Time Management appeared first on AddMe Blog.

If you have done your research and contracted a company to build an app for your business, now you need to get out there and promote it. One of the deciding factors that most likely motivated you to get an app is the fact that mobile app usage has gone up 35 percent in just the last year. This means that just as many people who watch TV also use apps every day.

When marketing your app, it naturally makes sense to turn to social media platforms as a starting point. Twitter, YouTube and Facebook are free, and currently Facebook has more people using it than Google.

Facebook fan page

Let’s face it, Facebook is the grand master of social media platforms. By giving your app a home on Facebook, you will be setting it upon a stage with a massive audience. Be sure to customize the page and make it look attractive, professional and interesting. Use your company’s logo as the profile photo—you will want to brand your logo anywhere you can, as often as possible. Then try to get as many likes as you can. Be sure to find a fair balance between being proactive and pushy. Send a very non-abrasive invite to people in your Facebook circle asking them to support you in spreading awareness the awareness of your new business app. Most people will be completely willing to comply. Make sure you post content to your Facebook page a few times a week, and be sure to interact with your followers. This includes responding to all of them when they leave statements or questions. Another great way to engage your followers if to offer giveaways or contests. Remember, interaction is huge.

Have your app reviewed

You can’t review your own app without people turning up their noses in the name of biased insight, so have others review it for you. Submit your app to various sites for critique. A few that offer some great feedback include the following:

• iPhone App Storm
• Big App Show
• My Daily App
• AppCraver

Be sure you don’t blindly pitch these sites. Check to see if they have guidelines for submitting an app for review. Also, read some of their reviews on apps and personalize a letter to the appropriate department stating that you enjoyed a particular article, why you liked it, and why you want their site to review your app. Doing this will make you stand out as someone who is serious, and not a lazy person writing generic letters and shooting them off to hoards of contenders.

Blog about it

Blogging is big in the business world. In an article published by ‘The New York Times’ that examines business promotion through blogging, the author says that blogs increase business visibility, excite audiences and add revenue. Since the app is itself a marketing tool, be sure you understand that you are using content marketing as a way to market another marketing platform. That may have just been a mouthful, but it speaks volume in that you want to make sure you only publish your blogs to sites that are relevant. Mobile apps for businesses by Simplikate, for example, would fit nicely in tech blogs, ecommerce and business marketing blogs. You will also want to submit your blogs to sites that get lots of reader remarks and shares to social media platforms.

Promote away

Once you have your business app created and ready to fire, be sure you market it successfully. Remember, your app will direct people to your website, so make sure it is mobile friendly. Follow these tips, and watch your app’s popularity climb the ranks of business marketing.

Image source: http://info.padalog.com/Portals/112603/images/best-ipad-business-app.jpg

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Time to time, we receive inquiries from law firms that want more information on how they can grow their practice. Here’s one piece of advice for lawyers trying to grow their presence online.

Law firm marketing is a confusing, expensive, and time-consuming activity. For lawyers that run a practice, taking time out of your busy day and dedicating that time to marketing is often times out of the question. That’s why lots of law firms hire outside marketing firms, which can be expensive, but quite effective.

If you’re part of a law practice and concerned with marketing, there’s a cheap (often free) answer to marketing your firm without an outside agency. That answer is social media. Social media is an absolutely vital resource for law firm marketing in today’s world.

It’s simple: if you are part of a practice, you need to be on social media. If implemented and maintained properly, a social media campaign can bring growth to your practice and allow you to get your name in front of potential clients.

Becoming a News Source

You should use social media to become a relevant source for news in the area that you practice in. Share information via your social networks relating to news in your area that you can address and add commentary to. Focus this news on a specific niche, whether that’s local business, technology, or something along those lines.

There’s a pretty big chance that if you develop a following and reputation as a news source, you’ll gain some new clients. It won’t happen immediately, but a few months after keeping your community in the loop, you’ll start to see some results.

Check out what the Yodle Law Twitter account has done to get some ideas, and you’ll see what you need to do to create a successful account.

Fresh Content

In addition to maintaining accounts on heavily used networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, you should also have a personal blog for your practice. Each lawyer in your practice can contribute to the blog, so it’s always got fresh and engaging content.

What you really want is to create discussion. The original content that you create should be commentary on different industry happenings, or even local events in your area. A successful blog will give voice to your practice, meaning readers of the blog will view your practice as something more than just people in suits behind desks. The key will be to eventually have the blog work for you, so you can gain some new business with some of your readers.

Be Personal

Again, you want to use social media to give your practice a real voice, and appear more as people rather than just faces in suits. Don’t be afraid to get personal on your social media accounts and with your blogs, in fact, getting personal is encouraged.

Tried a good wine? Share the information with your followers. Upset about your local team losing? Chances are some of your followers are too. You should be able to understand the line between personal and too personal, so don’t cross it. People want an attorney that they can connect with, and getting personal on Twitter might make people realize that you’re that attorney.

Image credit: http://www.4socialmediaconsulting.com/

The post Grow Your Practice with the Effective Use of Social Media appeared first on AddMe Blog.

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Pinterest is image-driven, so it might be obvious need to jump on board (like if you’re a photographer). However, some of the not so obvious businesses can equally benefit. If you sell any product, why not highlight it by sharing unique uses or top-notch photos from your inventory? It’s not hard to get started with Pinterest.

Cover the Basics

Make sure your website has clear links to your Pinterest site on every page. The best way to boost business is by word of mouth, and social media is the virtual equivalent. When your existing customers are pinning your photos on Pinterest, the chance of others finding you increases. Make sure you provide links to your Pinterest page in all marketing communication, including email.

Make sure your Pinterest page is engaging and professional. It needs to be updated regularly, and it’s important to re-pin from others. It’s not quite as easy to foster relationships with others in your industry on Pinterest, but it’s still important. Dedicate just as much time to Pinterest as you do on your other existing social media sites.

One Second for a First Impression

It’s no secret that you have a lot of competition on Pinterest. The good news is that many people re-pin quickly without much thought. It’s an easy way for them to share photos they like and help you out with free advertising and outreach. However, you still need to reel them in and you only have a second to do so.
Your photos need to stand out. Not just anything will do, so put some effort into it. Hire a professional photographer is necessary. Think outside of the box.

From Pinterest to Your Website

Give your pins the best chance they have to show up in the search results for popular keywords related to your company; if you do so, the pins will be easier to find and thus more likely to send you traffic. When you make a pinboard, give it a compelling, keyword rich name, and be sure to do the same with the description of anything you pin – including anything you re-pin.

While it’s not the most attractive solution and could easily change as Pinterest updates its search algorithm, keyword stuffing is actually a really effective way to appear higher in the search results. I’m not advocating writing “cupcakes cupcakes cupcakes” in every description, but if a keyword is really important to you, it doesn’t hurt to use it twice in a natural way in the description.

Get Some Uniformity in Place

There’s nothing more abrasive than falling in love with a pinner only to find the website doesn’t match up. Your site needs to complement your Pinterest posts. If it hasn’t been updated in a couple of years, it’s probably in desperate need of an overhaul. Getting new traffic to your site is great, but not if it results in a higher bounce rate.

Ideally, the same web designer is in charge of your website and social media. That will produce a sense of critical uniformity. It’s an important part of branding and something you need to constantly improve. Think from your customer’s perspective, and give them what they really want.

Use Pinterest’s Tools

Pinterest has a few extras up its sleeve to help you succeed. If you are pinning pictures of your products, be sure to include the price in the description – doing so will lead to your product being listed in Pinterest’s Gifts section, with a flag over the corner indicating the price. This is particularly important around the holidays, but pinners also browse this section at all times of year for birthdays and anniversaries.

Another great Pinterest tool that you may not know about is Source. Source is a simple tool built into Pinterest’s site that lets you see all of the pins that link to your website. Simply type in the address http://pinterest.com/source/yourdomain.com to see what you and others have pinned from your site. For example, here are the Source results for Addme! If you pin an image from this site, it will appear in those results.

About the Author: Adrienne is a blogger and internet marketer for an SEO company. When she’s not blogging about tech and social media, you might find her practicing her French, whipping up some recipes she found on Pinterest, or obsessing over vintage postcards and stamps.

The post Using Pinterest to Drive Traffic to Your Website appeared first on AddMe Blog.

Most start with a specific niche, like “playing the guitar”. Then they open up the Google Keyword Tool, paste in their main keyword and look for terms that get traffic without massive competition.

They may even do a couple of “allintitle:” searches while they’re at it…

After that, they write or order a few articles, build some links, wait to start ranking and making money, and then get frustrated when this doesn’t happen. They picked the wrong keywords and now have wasted huge amounts of time on their website.

Keyword research is a big part of a reaching success. In a lot of cases, choosing the wrong keywords can be harmful to a website’s content development and strategy. Keyword research drives content strategy, which drives conversion rates.

Most marketers are doing incomplete keyword research. Proper research takes time and effort, but the following strategy is both effective, and fairly simple once you get into a rhythm. It also helps to use a good keyword research tool.

We Still Need Search Volume

Knowing the estimated monthly search volume of particular keywords does two things. The first is that it gives you an idea of the volume of traffic you can get if rank highly.

Second, is that knowing that a keyword gets a certain amount of interest can help to guide your content development efforts. From determining whether an article is even worth writing, to the headlines you use, search volumes provide valuable insights.

Choose your niche, figure out what sort of competition you are willing to deal with, determine the lowest amount of traffic worth your time, and then pick the right keywords.

Transitioning to Market Research

Niches can be broken down into relevant keywords. Relevant keywords can be broken down into relevant, topic based stories. Telling those stories requires that you know your audience.

There are two great places to get a feel for your market first. Number one is Quantcast, a provider of demographic data on websites and niches. The other is the trusty discussion forum.

Quantcast has long been a secret weapon of the most thorough marketers online. Knowing the demographic makeup of an audience is very powerful. Both content and product development depend heavily on this type of information.

Doing forum research is a pain, but it is still relevant and valuable in 2012, and will probably continue to provide value in 2022. Choose one or two and track the most popular threads, then move along.

We only want and need to track a handful of forum threads because we now have social media and a few easy tools to track the information most relevant to our needs.

Using Social Media Resources

Since so many online marketers seem to be a little squeamish when it comes to SEO, we still need to find a way to drive cheap, targeted traffic to our sites. Just creating useful content isn’t enough. It has to be the right kind.

Everyone knows about social media, but few have any idea how to make it fit their general marketing strategy. When it comes to research, there are three important tools to use.

One is Twilert, which sets up alerts on whatever keywords you provide to show what has been shared on Twitter.

The other is Sulia. Sulia lets you monitor what is going on in a Pinterest type of layout, with a storyboard feel to it.

Both of these are great to see what is happening on Twitter, and with Sulia, Facebook as well.

The last one is Topsy. Topsy is a social search engine that will let you enter either a URL, or a keyword, to see what is getting shared the most.

Keeping Up with the Action

This part is a bit boring, but simple to do:

• Set up a spreadsheet with keywords, traffic volume, and competition.
• Add in values for social media shares. While you’re at it, add the top ten most influential people in your market and track their sharing and interactions as well.
• Look for similarities in headlines and the types of stories that spur activity in your market.
• Start your own profiles, and begin sharing other people’s work, interact with them and get an even clearer overall feel for the “flow” of your market.

Take a couple of weeks to compile this information, then sit down and sort through it. Look for similarities in stories with a lot of social sharing and comments. Which types of discussion topics are active on forums? Pick out the items commonly repeated and figure out what they mean to your strategy.

Pro tip: For the big keywords, plan “clusters” of content around them. Use synonymous terms in your headlines, and make sure your headlines are both interesting, and appropriate for your market.

Conclusion

Keyword research goes beyond simple AdWords values and PageRank analysis. It goes much deeper into a market. Take the time to analyze and plan your strategy now, so you can launch to a flow of traffic, and begin making money much earlier with your next website.

The post Keyword Research: Your Visitors are Not Robots appeared first on AddMe Blog.

Interacting

Just like Twitter or Facebook, YouTube can be a great and creative way to interact with your customer base. Some companies have integrated full on interactive YouTube campaigns to answer customer’s questions and provide witty comments. Old Spice even hired an actor to answer YouTuber’s questions, and created videos with real responses to user submitted questions.

If you get creative, YouTube can essentially replace the frequently asked questions section on your website. You can use YouTube to directly respond to user’s questions and have a large database full of answered questions. This will also make your company appear more personal, as there is somebody visually answering a question.

Explanations

Use YouTube as a way to explain the different products or services your company offers. You can use it to physically demonstrate a product so your customers can see exactly how a certain product is used. You can easily show the difference in products by using YouTube to highlight each of your products. For example, if your company offers free music downloads, produce videos of the different types of subscriptions that you offer and how to access each one. Make it very clear in your videos on how your product is different than others on the market, and the advantages your product offers.

Playlists

Creating playlists on YouTube, whether composed of your own videos or someone else’s, is a great way to get your company increased visibility on the Internet. Try to find videos related to your business that don’t have millions of views, so the content is fresh to viewers. If you make effective playlists, people will associate your playlists with your videos and your company, and you’ll start seeing more views on your videos. The more views you get, the better chance you have of growing your customer base.

Responses

Aside from creating different kinds of videos and putting them on YouTube, interacting with other companies or YouTubers with video responses is a great way to increase your online presence. If you create a particularly interesting response or offer a different point of view, people will be directed to your company’s YouTube channel and will view your other videos. Make sure you are strategic in the way that you target your responses; keep them relevant to your industry and only comment on popular videos. You’ll start to be recognized in the YouTube community, and you’ll see the views on your videos go up.

The post Using YouTube as an Effective Marketing Tool appeared first on AddMe Blog.

When utilizing a free website it is imperative that they offer their clients the following:

• Professional, unique design
• Current, state-of-the-art technology
• No advertisements
• 24 hour customer support
• Affordable, upgradable websites
• Advanced features and tools
• Marketing support

When finding a company that offers these must-haves, give them a shot and test the water. Remember that they need to earn your business, just as you work hard to earn business from your clients. Determine if they are meeting your expectations and representing your brand as you specified. If everything looks in order, then keep active with your website, and start reaching out to a broader sphere of influence.

Some “Dos and Don’ts” in Running your Business Website

Networking and link building is all part of the work involved in running a successful business website, but don’t make this overly complicated. In an article published through The Huffington Post, the author warns business owners not to overwhelm their website with links that will send their potential customers into “surf shock”. Keeping your website clean and free from annoyances will offer better results in keeping people in your website. After all, if you went into a shop and it had signs posted everywhere and clutter in the aisles, would you want to stay?

Using other online resources to promote your website is not only a smart move, but in today’s competitive online market it is essential to your growth. Many website companies offer marketing support with social media platforms such as Facebook. If your company provides this option, USE IT. Recently, Facebook has gained tremendous popularity as an online tool for business marketing. Its mission was, and still is, to make the world a more open place by providing a platform in which people can share thoughts and ideas. Approximately 175 million Americans log into Facebook every day. It has grown to become a huge cultural obsession, and businesses are tapping into this. Be sure to contact your website company’s marketing department, and ask them how you can utilize Facebook to broaden your sphere of influence in the business world.

Your Brand, Your Reputation

Having a business website not only serves the purpose to offer a platform where clients can make transactions with you, but a good website will allow you to control your brand and reputation. Your free website must showcase you as an expert and leader in your industry. You will also want to use it to build credibility, and to ensure you have your client’s trust. Also, running a blog on your website is a great way to give your website good organic ranking in the search engines, attract new customers, engage current clients, and promote yourself as an expert in your field.

Remember, your free business website is not “an online business card” for people to refer to; it is your identity as a professional. Be selective in which company you partner with to build your website. You are, after all, putting your identity, brand, and reputation in their hands.

The post Promoting your Business for Free appeared first on AddMe Blog.

Consider these Twitter best practice tips when developing your Twitter strategy:

Make sure that your page is branded
Business Twitter profiles should look different than Twitter profiles that are owned by individuals. Twitter allows you to customize your profile, so it’s important to take advantage of this and incorporate the company logo and branded color schemes. Make it obvious who is tweeting. Utilize the description space and add a company description that includes keywords and always include a link back to your website.

Incorporate hashtags
Many businesses don’t fully understand what hashtags are or how to use them so they miss out on this opportunity. Hashtags (#) designate an important keyword within the content. It helps people search within Twitter. If you’re still confused, see how others in the industry are using hashtags and search for hashtags within Twitter to see what comes up. Some businesses even create their own hashtag surrounding a product launch or an event in order to generate buzz and awareness.

Follow others
You never want to just start following people at random, but a good way to earn followers in Twitter is to follow others. Do some research and look for influential people in your industry or in related industries. If they have similar interests they will be more likely to follow you back and pay attention to what you have to say.

Re-tweet
The purpose of social media is to be social and share with one another. Think of Twitter as a community. If you want to be a good community member you can’t only focus on yourself. In order to get people to care about you and share your content, you have to be willing to do the same for them. If someone posts something great, re-tweet it to your audience and add your own introduction.

Link to a mobile friendly site
Many people are accessing Twitter today from a mobile device while on the go. A common Twitter strategy is to share links that point back to your website or blog. If you are going to do so, it’s important to make sure that the content being shared is mobile friendly and able to quickly load on a mobile browser. People are looking for information quickly. If they click on a link that isn’t mobile friendly, they may not even read it.

Check analytics
Check your website analytics to see what content is generating visitors to your site from Twitter. Once you see what works and what doesn’t you can make changes to your Twitter content sharing strategy.

The post How to Use Twitter Effectively appeared first on AddMe Blog.