Steal These 3 Social Marketing Tricks From Top Brands

Do you follow a brand in social media? Are you glad you did? If that's the case, they are either doing one of three things:

• Connecting with one of your passions and/or interests.
• Entertaining you with their engaging personality.
• Providing interesting and/or important information to you.

If you're a small business owner, you may want to consider which of the three strategies you're following.

You might also mull following one of the strategies exclusively. However, it's fine to dabble in each. "These approaches are interchangeable, and a brand can not only switch back and forth between them, but also use two or three at the same time," says Caitlin Francke, SVP, and Director of Social Strategy at Publicis Kaplan Thaler. "The most important thing is for a brand to stay true to their DNA, identify what they are best at, what they can offer the consumers the most of, and focus on that. That will be their strongest play."

The three strategies — passion, personality and transparency — are outlined below.

1. Passion Brands

No matter how much you like it, it's hard to get worked up about an energy drink. But that drink may be just a part of the optimum experience that you associate with that brand.
For example, for some, Red Bull conjures up images of action sports. This is no accident, since the brand has worked hard at tying the brand to images of young people risking their lives on extreme outdoor activities. The cover photo on the brand's Facebook Page, for instance, shows a guy on a snowboard.

Another consistent brand is Nike. Though the brand's social media communication highlights both professional and amateur athletes, the underlying point is the same: celebrating athletic achievement. Adidas' feed is also consistent and differentiated from Nike in its international focus.

Finally, a good example of a passion brand in another category is Whole Foods, whose social media stream consists almost entirely of recipes so fans can indulge their love of cooking and epicureanism.

2. Personality Brands

Not every brand can connect itself to a pastime the way that Nike could. What do you do, for instance, if you're Oreo? Oreo's not associated with much besides milk and perhaps binge-eating.

But Oreo and interactive agency 360i aren't interested in connecting Oreo to a particular passion. Instead, they've infused the brand's social media activity with personality. Oreo's 31 million-strong Facebook feed shows the familiar Oreo looking slightly different in the name of a visual pun.

The daily updates are sort of a variation on Absolut's long-running ad campaign that featured the bottle against unusual backdrops for the same witty purpose.
Another personality brand is Skittles, which has racked up 24 million followers on Facebook with whimsical, stream-of-consciousness status updates like "The frenemy of my frenemy is my enefriend" and "Beavers are excellent at making pancakes, omelettes and anything that needs a spatula."

3. Transparent Brands

Transparent brands want to tell you about all the stuff that they're doing in the real world. A good example of such a brand is IBM, which hosts some 32,000 individual blogs from its employees and produces a firehose of content about all the technologies it has unleashed on the world.

The transparent positioning seems to be the default for tech brands in social media (well, except for Apple) as Intel, Google and Microsoft all take the same approach. A Feb. 6 Facebook status update from Microsoft, for instance, talked about 4Afrika Initiative, "a new effort through which the company will actively engage in Africa’s economic development to improve its global competitiveness."

Auto brands are also apt to use the transparent approach, as are financial services brands like Fidelity Investments. The strategy seems to work best for brands and categories in which consumers are serious about the information they want but are not necessarily passionate about it. Also, note that passion brands are about activities that a brand is associated with, not for activities the brand actually performs. For instance, Nike makes athletic equipment, not sports, but Ford makes cars and driving is an end to itself.

Francke says following one of the three strategies will help clarify your social media strategy. "In social media, brands need to focus on engaging consumers by offering something of value and capturing their attention," she says. Francke says that new forms of media like Instagram and Vine underscore the need to hew to an overall positioning strategy.

Luvocracy: Pinterest for People Who Actually Want to Buy Stuff

People flock to Pinterest to collect and keep track of inspirations, whether they're recipes to cook, destinations to visit or clothes to wear. But there's a promising new social network with a similar model focused less on dreaming and more on shopping.
San Francisco-based startup Luvocracy, which launched quietly this fall in beta, is based around the concept that we buy products more when they are recommended by others. And since 92% of consumers trust word of mouth over any form of advertising, according to Nielsen, it's a smart strategy for a company to embrace.

Here's how the site works: Similar to pinning on Pinterest, users can collect looks and products (from beauty products to tech gadgets) and tack them to boards. They can also repin products from friends, brands and tastemakers, which Luvocracy defines as bloggers, editors and stylists.

Meanwhile, when members comes across items on the web from any retailer — from Macy's to Etsy — that they want to post to a board, they can do so via the downloadable Luvocracy plug-in.
"We wanted to build a platform where you could see products recommended from everyone you trust in one place, so you can sift through it like a personalized catalog," Christine Martinez, creative director of Luvocracy, told Mashable. "You can showcase what you discover too or put it in your 'backroom,' which is only visible to you."

What's great about the service is products featured and tacked to boards are all in stock and ready for purchase. How many times do you find something you love on Pinterest, click through to its originating page and discover it's five years old and no longer for sale? This puts a major roadblock in place for those that may want to use Pinterest to find products they could potentially want to buy. Luvocracy bypasses this issue by forbidding a user to post a product to the site if it's not readily available for purchase.

The site also rewards users with a small percentage of money back if someone makes a purchase after buying one of your recommended products. Although it might take awhile to see any real reimbursement — which can be used for site credit or be mailed in check form — it's certainly possible for those with a large following to rake in some side cash.

The design of the site is also clean, organized and sleek — free from clutter and easy on the eyes. This is a welcomed change compared to some other sites popping up online that cram a lot of images and content into such a small space (Pinterest included).

Although Luvocracy hasn't publicly said how many users are on the site, it says the membership is indeed growing. And to help build up that brand loyalty, co-founder Nathan Stoll sends a thank you note to each user who makes a purchase for the first time.

So could Luvocracy be the new, better Pinterest? It depends on what you want from both sites. If you're looking for inspirations and ideas to spark creativity, Pinterest is your best bet. If you're looking for products to buy, Luvocracy's e-commerce abilities are seamless and an easy, integrated way to go.

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RIP Google Reader and Other Top Comments

RIP Google Reader

Fans were outraged by Google's announcement that it would be shutting down one of the world's most popular RSS news readers

Julie Cliffe-Jones is only one of our many commenters who was disappointed by the news

When Google announced it would discontinue its Google Reader at the beginning of July, the web feed's loyal fan base was stunned. Reactions to the announcement were heartfelt; Mashable's Chris Taylor wrote an article called "Hey Google, We Still Love Reader" that was part op-ed, part love-letter; Todd Wasserman suggested Yahoo jump on the opportunity to create its own RSS news reader; someone even went so far as to submit a petition to President Obama asking him to save Reader. While none of these attempts have yielded results thus far, our readers found solace together as they commiserated in our comments section.

In December, Facebook announced that automatically-enabled video ads would be introduced to the News Feed by April at the latest. It appears the company is staying true to its promise — some Mashable readers have already experienced the auto-play function. Mashable's Seth Fiegerman asked if this new feature would deter its current users. While the overwhelming majority of commenters expressed annoyance at the function and (as always) threatened to leave the social networking site, a few commenters who work in marketing reacted positively to the news.
Are you a lifelong fan of any brands? Chances are you aren't as die-hard as this guy: A man received a free year-long subscription to Netflix after tweeting a picture of his Netflix Tattoo. Many of our commenters agreed that a life-long tattoo should warrant a life-long subscription.

Practice makes perfect, right? Wrong!
First of all, nothing’s ever perfect. I’d even say you don’t really want anything to be “perfect.” Why not? Well, once you’ve reached it, where else is there to go but backwards or, even worse, nowhere?

No, the point of practice isn’t perfection. We want to strive for perfection, yes, but that’s only going to work if you understand that it’s not just about the destination but the journey as well. That’s why it helps to look at the process when it comes to those outcomes we’re reaching for. Because what would be the point of getting to where you always wanted to be if you’re beat up and worn out by the time you get there? Where’s the happiness in that?

Happiness is a process as much as an outcome. Don’t get me wrong – a hard-earned victory is awesome. But think about it; should happiness in life be restricted to success in finances, or business, or career, or the attainment of goals?

We have all been there at some point in our lives, saying something like, “If only I had [fill in the blank], I’d be so much happier.” Hey, sometimes we may even get whatever it is we think will make us happy, but what usually ends up happening? We’re psyched for a little while—if at all—and then we find out it wasn’t really enough to make us as happy as we thought it would.

There’s always more.

You can work your butt off to get to where you want to be by practicing your delivery, your backhand swing, your investment strategies—you can practice anything until you get it down, but that doesn’t mean things are always going to turn out perfectly. Practice doesn’t make perfect.

Practice becomes habit, and habits become permanent unless we consciously change them. We’re practicing something all the time through our habits, even when we’re not really thinking about it. If you practice the thought that “I’ll be happy when [fill in the blank] happens,” then guess what? You’re always delaying your happiness until [fill in the bank] happens. Not because things will never be great, but because you’ve become a master at being unhappy. Unhappiness will be your habit!

You have to practice being happy no matter what is going on in life; whether you win or lose, succeed or experience temporary setbacks, whether everything is the way you have always dreamed or if you are still on the road to your next major destination.
Practice whatever you want to be in the future now. If you want to be more patient and less reactionary, then practice patience now. If you want to be a manager of your own personal wealth, start managing your finances now no matter how much money you earn. If you want to be successful, then practice being successful now. Start small. Engage in things that you’re already good at and challenge yourself to be better, even if it’s just in small increments.

The key is to enjoy the process and the journey. We can have moments of perfection, times where we wouldn’t want a single thing to change, but it’s unfair and unrealistic to ask that of life all the time. But it’s totally within our control to practice being whatever we want to be right now!

Google Improves Accessibility In Google+ Hangouts

Last week, Google improved accessibility in Google+ Hangouts, adding a Sign Language Interpreter app and Improving keyboard shortcuts.

Hangouts already has a number of features to improve accessibility to the deaf, the hard of hearing, the blind and the partially sighted, two of which were mentioned in the announcement post on the Google+ page of Anna Cavender, a member of the Hangouts team:

The Hangout Captions app, for example, enables live transcription services for the deaf and hard of hearing (http://goo.gl/4RujF). And "Take the Floor" makes it easier for sign language speakers to do a Hangout together (http://goo.gl/chyKS).

The Sign Language Interpreter app lets the deaf or hard of hearing invite interpreters to speak or sign for them during Hangouts. The interpreter appears in the top right hand corner of the hangout window, or becomes the focus whenever they translate sign. The app can be installed from this link: https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_?gid=532733437531.

There are also a number of new keyboard shortcuts for Hangout users who don’t want to use their mouse:

For example: muting your microphone is now as simple as Ctrl+D (PC) or Command+D (Mac), and you can start chatting with Ctrl+B (PC) or Command+B (Mac). To view the full list of keyboard shortcuts just type '?' while in a Hangout, or visit this page: support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?answer=2752487.

Both the features will be rolling out worldwide gradually.

Are you excited to try out Google+ Hangouts new features?

Motivational Tips From The Avengers

When you think about motivation you usually do not think about superheroes. However I was inspired by Marvel’s big hit movie The Avengers. The characters themselves were ones that made me think twice about what motivated me in my life. Here are some things they taught me:

The Hulk – Be passionate.

Wow, the Hulk is full of passion, isn’t he? It just bursts from the seams, so to speak. But in the movie he shared his secret to control. It was not that he was never angry, but that he was always angry. He had just learned when it was appropriate to set the anger free. In our lives we need passion to be inspired and motivated. However some people mistake other emotions for passion or let passion run out of control. Passion is only useful when it is channelled in a productive direction. So remember to be passionate, but use that passion for productive purposes.

Captain America – Stick to what you know.

Even though the poor Captain is a leftover from yesteryear he still remains a vital piece of the puzzle. Why is that? Because he does not try to be someone he is not. Yes, he has some gaps in his knowledge but that does not make him useless. Do not let yourself feel bad when you do not know or understand something. Instead, use what you do know to keep going. Though other people may not appreciate your input at first they will eventually see the value in what you have to offer. You are never too old to be useful or too young to be wise. Share from your personal experiences and no one can tell you that you are wrong.

Iron Man – Do not be afraid to be confident.

If there is one thing you can say about Tony Stark it is that he does not lack confidence. In fact, he is a cocky, arrogant and self-centered pain in the neck. However that does not make him unappealing. You see, the key to his ability to still stay a good guy despite his faults is his confidence. He knows what he can do and does it, no questions asked. While I do not recommend imitating all his ways, you should strive to be confident in what you do. Even when you are wrong confidence can still help you to make something successful because people respect confidence.

Thor – Make friends wherever you go.

He is a little rough around the edges and intimidating, but the big blond Viking has a big heart. One of the things that makes me smile when I think of Thor is his efforts to make friends with everyone, even his good for nothing brother. He does not hold grudges or stay angry for long. Instead he tries to see the best in people. If you go through life expecting the worst out of people then that is what you will get. However if you try to see the good in people then both your life and theirs will be much happier. Some people will let you down, but try to stay positive and love those around you despite their faults. After all, you are not perfect either.

Hawkeye – Keep your eye on the target.

Archers seem to be a big thing in movies now. From Katniss in Hunger Games to Disney’s animated princess in Brave, we love to watch their arrows hit the bulls eye over and over again. That level of concentration and dedication to practice is something to be admired. In your own life you should also have goals. If you do not you will waste a lot of your time and energy on things that do not really matter. Like an archer shooting three arrows without aiming, working without a goal is fruitless. It is better to shoot one at a time and aim for the center. That way you will actually hit something.

Loki – A little planning can save a lot of effort.

Though Loki was the bad guy in the movie, he still had his good attributes. One thing I admired about him is his ability to plan. He made the most elaborate plans and took everything into consideration. He might not have been the strongest or the fastest but he still almost won just by his ability to plan. I know that I waste a lot of energy in my life because I do not take the time to plan things out first. If you will just learn to take a few minutes to plan before you start something new you will end up getting more done with far less effort.

Black Widow – Have a thick skin.

As the only woman superhero in the bunch you can bet that she knew how to take a hit. Many women think that they are looked down on because of their emotions. However Black Widow used her emotions to her advantage. She did not let her emotions control her but rather used her control over them to her get a leg up on the competition. Life will not always be fair. The less you let people or things that go wrong hurt you the faster you can move on to something more productive. Do not dwell in the hurts of the past but rather move on to a brighter future.

Agent Coulson – Get the facts.

For all the negative stereotypes of paper pushers out there we can still admire them for one thing. They know how to get the facts. The will dig and dig until everything comes to light. This is something that more people should do. Getting to the facts is often overlooked in this age of fast information; however the truth is always important. Whenever you have something that you are sharing or something that you are unsure of try to get your facts verified first. The more references you can count on the stronger your argument will be.

Nick Fury – Know when to hold them, know when to fold them.

Timing is everything in life. You have to know when it is time to speak and when it is time to stay silent. You have to know what an opportunity looks like when it knocks. Fury was the king of good timing. He knew just what to say and when to say it to motivate the superheroes to action. When you are working with others try to be aware of your timing. Sometimes a simple idea can change a whole group and other times it will be dismissed. It is all about timing.

Pepper Potts – Work harder than everyone else.

Poor Pepper is used by her boss and ignored by just about everyone else, but she does not let it get her down. She finds joy in her work and works harder than anyone else. That work ethic eventually pays off. Just because you are not getting the glory does not mean you should give up. In fact, use it as incentive to work harder. When you are finally recognised everyone will be shocked by what you have accomplished. Even if you are never recognised you can still be satisfied by knowing you did your very best.

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

How To Sell E Books

GOOD COVERS

I can't overemphasize how important a good cover is. Hire a professional. And keep these things in mind:

1. At a glance, it should convey the type or genre of the book you've written.

2. It should be readable in grayscale.

3. It should be readable as a thumbnail.

4. Your name and the title should be large and clear.

There are other little tips that I recommend. Usually legacy book covers have a lot of writing on them, and that makes them subconsciously identifiable as professional. Taglines. Blurbs. "By the author of Whiskey Sour". That sort of thing. 

Your artist should know what vectors are, and the rule of three, and the importance of the color wheel, and all the other tricks used to make a cover pop.

If your sales are slow, consider getting a better cover.

GOOD PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Did you know you can add basic HTML to your book description on Kindle using Author Central? I didn't. But I do now, and I'm using it to make my ebook pages better. 

Once your cover gets a browser's attention, you need a good book description to reel them in. Read back jacket copy on some of your favorite mass market paperbacks to get a feel for it. You can also add blurbs, reviews, a bio, past books, and more.

Make sure there is plenty of white space. I don't like big, blocky paragraphs, and I assume others don't either. Use bold and italics when needed, but don't overuse them.

GOOD BOOKS

This should be a no-brainer, but every book you publish should be well-written. It should also be well-edited, and well-formatted.


GOOD PRICE

You're going to have to experiment with this one. I have my novels priced at $3.99, my novellas and short story collections at $2.99, my trilogy sets at $9.99, and short stories at 99 cents.

Some of my peers sell for more, some for less. It's all about finding that sweet spot between unit sales and profit. I like my ebooks to be impulse buys, so I keep the prices low. Your results may vary.


VOLUME

The more books you publish, the greater your chances at finding readers. Besides new titles, you can also combine and split up titles to maximize your virtual shelf space.

I have box sets. I have single short stories that are also part of collections. I have joined forces with other authors, each of us putting a title into a set.

I also love to collaborate. That's an easy way to swap fans and increase readership


SOCIAL MEDIA AND ADVERTISING

My take on Twitter and Facebook is similar to my take on advertising. Maybe it'll bring in some sales, but I haven't found it brings in enough to justify the time and money spent.

I have 10,000 followers on Twitter. They don't follow me because they are anxiously awaiting news of my next published book, They follow me because of what I have to offer. Namely, information.

Sure, some of them may buy my books. But this number is minuscule compared to the number of people who have never heard of me before, and discover me for the first time surfing an ebook retailer.

My ebook The List has sold over 200,000 copies. In December it was featured in Kobo and earned $3,000 that month. In the last week, this book has earned me $2500 on Amazon.

I self-pubbed The List in 2009. This is not a new book. I don't advertise it. I don't blog about it, or tweet, or send out email blasts.

It is being discovered by people on their own. Kobo certainly gave it a boost by featuring it, but it was luck Kobo decided to do so. The List just came off a 5 day free period on KDP Select, which no doubt got it some attention, but that was zero cost to me and didn't involve me tooting my own horn anywhere.

I've done things in the past to increase my sales. Blog tours. Sending out review copies. Visiting bookstores. And I saw some success doing these things. But that success pales next to simply being discovered by strangers who haven't heard of you before.

Kobo and Amazon make it easy to find ebooks you like. Their user interfaces are surprisingly smart. Instead of pimping the books you've got, spend time writing more books to publish, then let their algorithms do their thing.


PLATFORMS

It's no secret that about 90% of my sales have been on Amazon. But 10% haven't. And that 10% equals a lot of money when you've sold a million ebooks.

I like dealing with Amazon. They are so smart, so motivated, and do so much right. They're the one to beat, and their online store is the best in the world.

I also like dealing with Kobo. They're dedicated, hungry, and also extremely smart. If you haven't visited Kobo.com lately, you should. They're doing some really cool stuff, making the shopping experience easier, better, and more fun.

Smashwords continues to raise the bar, innovate, and blaze new trails. Coker is one of the smartest men in the biz. I've done well with Smashwords.

I'm just now uploading my titles to Apple, so I don't have anything to report yet. But I'm not a fan of their iBookstore. It's clunky, not fun to surf, and lacks the ease of Amazon and Kobo.

B&N's PubIt program is easy to use, but I'm not impressed with their online store. Still, I've made some good money there.

Createspace is very easy to use, their books look great, and they integrate into both Amazon and B&N with ease.

Overdrive caters to libraries, and I'm making some money there, but they aren't easy to upload to. In fact, I'm not even sure they have opened up their site to self-pub yet.

As a writer, you should be on as many of these platforms as possible. The more places your books are available, the better.

Competition is good, because it makes everyone try harder, forcing them to raise their game to higher levels.

As a result, I haven't gone all in with Amazon. I don't like the exclusivity aspect of KDP Select. Amazon customers would have more choices, and authors would make more money, if it wasn't exclusive.

I also don't like proprietary formats. I think Kindles should read epub, and Nooks and Kobo ereaders should read mobi files.


FOREIGN SALES

My feeling are mixed on this issue.

One one hand, my agent has been amazing selling the foreign rights of my self-pubbed ebooks. I'm in more countries than I'd ever been in during my legacy years.

On the other hand, every right you sell is one you can't exploit yourself.

I've translated two works into German myself, at significant cost (a novel can cost $4k or more), but I'm in the black and set to earn profits forever. Forever is a long time.

But even though I'm doing well with ebooks, I'm not prepared, nor do I have to contacts, to translate every one of my fifty IPs into ten languages. I also don't have the 8 million dollars that would cost.

So my current solution is to sell foreign rights, but limit the term to three or four years, then they revert. That way I can make easy money now, and have the option of do it myself later without losing those rights forever.


AGENTS

If you want foreign deals, audio deals, movie and TV deals, or even a legacy deal, you probably need an agent.

But I don't recommend searching for one until you've sold a lot of ebooks. 50,000 is a good number. And I said sell, not give away for free.


EXPERIMENT

There isn't a single thing I'm saying here that you should automatically believe. Don't trust me, or any other so-called expert. Instead, try things out for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Many newbies reading this don't understand what it is like to have a publisher controlling your book. Many even welcome that opportunity.

I couldn't be happier having complete control over my intellectual property. Being able to change covers, prices, titles, content, quickly and efficiently, is invaluable to me. I can publish instantly, on all platforms, and reach more readers than publishers can.

This is a business. You need to adopt a businesslike attitude.

Businesslike doesn't mean tweeting every ten minutes, begging your 27 followers to buy your book.

Businesslike means looking at numbers and understanding what they mean. Hiring out for things you can't do yourself, or hiring out when your time becomes so valuable you need to. Learning how to repeat cause and effect.

I have an accountant, a financial planner, and an assistant. I hire out for cover art, formatting, and proof-reading. I use a close-knit group of bestselling authors as editors. I discuss strategies with peers, often try new things that fail, and am constantly trying to prepare for the future by watching trends, predicting what will happen next, and analyzing my own habits.

Self-awareness is something everyone claims to have, but few people do. If you want to sell ebooks, look at why you buy ebooks.

When was the last time you:

• Bought an ebook you saw in a tweet?
• Clicked on an Internet ad?
• Followed a Facebook ad?
• Bought an ebook because you got a postcard in the mail?
• Bought an ebook because you got an email about one?
• Read a free ebook?

If you can figure out why you buy what you buy, not just with ebooks, but with every single thing, you'll learn a lot. 

Use that knowledge. And if it works well, write about it so I can learn it too.

5 Simple Strategies for Marketing on Pinterest

Pinterest is the fastest growing image site on the internet. It is far more than just an image site though. It's a way for your to communicate your business in a visual way. This will allow you to present your information about your business in a new and fresh way that potential customers can relate to. Before you get started though, use these tips to save you time and create a presence that will help you get the results you want:
1. Create a complete profile.
Before you sign up for Pinterest, make sure you put careful thought into how you want to list yourself. I used my name because I'm a writer. I want everyone to identify my work with my name.

This makes it easier for them to do. However, you may want to brand your company name so choose a username and title your profile accordingly.
Use a punchy slogan and make sure you include the appropriate hashtags in your description so that others can find you. (A hashtag is this symbol: #.)

Regardless of the keywords you choose, they will always be one word. For example, if you use internet marketing, it will look like this: #internetmarketing.
Include a photo of either yourself or your company logo. Make it look professional, and don't forget to add a link to your website.

2. Pin images that are interesting.
To get started, you will want to create pin boards. Pin boards allow you to organize your content. Complete the titles, descriptions, and keywords for these and then start making you pins. Create long graphics as these display better and make them interesting.
Browse the site to get ideas and see what other business owners are doing. Then create your own. There are many great free graphics programs that are simple to use, and you may use these to help you.

3. Follow others.
If you want to connect, start following others. This will give you a chance to connect, and many will follow you back. Look for those in your industry and make sure you follow them. Pinterest makes it simple to do this. There is, however, a search function to help you find those you may not be connected with on Facebook or Twitter.

4. Comment, share, and like other photos.
Getting involved puts you out there in front of everyone else. Post comments and share others' pins on your pin boards. Like photos. It will make it a lot easier for you to get your content to go viral. Pinterest is an excellent way to try to take your business viral, so test out various elements. Viral marketing is difficult to achieve, but it can be done.

5. Get ideas for things to sell.
Pinterest offers several areas of its site that allow you to get ideas for what's popular. There is also a section where you can post your products and include the prices. Use these areas to help you find out what's popular and then choose products to share that you can make money from even if they aren't in your industry.

You will do better to create pages for these products and include the affiliate link on the page. Pinterest does strip Amazon affiliate IDs, and they may not want to take your affiliate links, so it's best to submit pages and videos instead.

Pinterest can get you a lot of traffic, but it's important that you understand the site first. Build a presence here and then promote your business. It can mean a lot of traffic. Mix up your offers and give your visitors free content. Market affiliate programs as well as your own products and services. Make your business visual and get your potential customers' attention.




Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jinger_Jarrett

Best Tricks to Generate Business Leads Through Social Media Optimization

Business leads are critical to the operations of the business. Business leads are customers in the making and this is the reason why many business owners and web marketers are looking for the best approaches to how to source these leads and pounce on the business opportunity. But how do you get the best leads in a highly competitive market?

Social networking is playing vital role in generating business leads and relevant traffic on your website. With social marketing increasing its influence on the web and the increasing number of registered users, it is now a must-do activity to include social media optimization in the strategic planning process on how to market and boost online stores. So how should a businessman carry out a campaign with strong focus on social media?

You'll find many resources online that can explain the best tricks to generate business leads. But if you are looking for a tried and tested trick, then focus your attention to social media optimization. You should learn how to generate business lead through social media optimization to get your desired results. Social media like Twitter and Facebook are two of the biggest sites now, thus focusing your attention to these sites is a logical step to take.

There are different steps that you can take on how to make this happen. The initial step is to sign up for accounts on these websites. Create profiles on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Once you are inside the communities, make it a point to listen to your customer base. The keyword here is to engage customers and prospects. To get an idea on what are the best practices, try to search for the experts and sought-after account holders online. You can gain a lot of things from the best practices of the experts on social marketing.

Once you have the tools and the idea, then you can engage customers by interacting with them. Engage your followers in conversations and provide answers in forums. Engaging customers in social marketing talk doesn't mean selling products and services. You need to know what they are talking about, and focus on these. Quality content is also critical when it comes to social media optimization. Delivering content using social media is easy thanks to different websites suited for various types of contents. You can post videos on YouTube, post tweets on Twitter and deliver blog posts on WordPress.

Proceed and Succeed

We all face disappointments and setbacks. Everyone has times in their life where they ask themselves such questions as “is it all worthwhile,” “am I really on the right path” and “if so, why is it so hard?”

These are not ordinary moments … these are your destiny-defining moments. These are moments where the decisions you make determine the path you take which will lead you to your ultimate destination. So when you find yourself at one of life’s crossroads, ask yourself these three questions:

1. Do I love what I do? An old cliché goes, “If you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life.” No one loves everything about what they do. However, you must love the core cause, the mission behind what you do, if you expect any lasting success.

2. Do I have the talents to succeed at it? This is a good question because you may love what you’re doing but have no chance at ever being successful at it. If you don’t believe me, just watch American Idol. You must be brutally honest with yourself when you ask this question. You must also solicit the opinions of people you trust who will be brutally honest with you.

3.  Does what I’m doing offer me the potential to achieve my social and economic goals? You may love what you do and have the talent to do it, but there’s no potential in it. An example is Will Smith trying to sell high-powered X-ray machines in The Pursuit of Happyness. That would almost be like trying to sell high-powered fax machines or starting a new automobile company today. What you’re doing must have opportunity and potential.

If you answered “NO” to any of these questions you need to do as we say in Texas:  “Dismount a Dead Horse.” Change directions as quickly as possible. Find something you love to do that has potential and that brings your talents to light.

If you answered “YES” to all three questions, chances are you’re just in a lull. Or, as Seth Godin says, you’re in  “The Dip.”  These life-altering moments are when you must proceed and succeed. Remember that most of life’s greatest victories are just inches away from life’s biggest setbacks, and there’s always a way if you’re committed.
This is the time to keep your eye on the target, turn up the heat and keep pressing onward toward the prize.

If you’ve experienced setbacks, you may have to analyze the situation and try a different strategy. You may have to get creative and think out of the box. Where there’s talent, passion and potential, you can proceed confidently, knowing that you will succeed because you are on the right path and victory is near.

Clean up Your Facebook Profile With FaceWash

Your grandmother just joined Facebook, your boss sent you a friend request or you're applying for that dream job. Suddenly, you're scrambling to purge your profile of last night's pictures plus everything else you wouldn't want Grams to see

Painstakingly filtering through your Timeline isn't going to cut it, but FaceWash makes it easier. Three Kent State University undergrads created a web app that cleans your profile of incriminating content to give you a "fresh face."

The app allows users to search the profile with a "dirty word" list, a precompiled set of offensive or distasteful terms. You can also input your own words, and the returned results are displayed in categories such as "links that you have liked" or comments.
When taken to the questionable content, users have the option to either delete or change privacy settings. Check out the video, above, for more.

Like most Facebook-compatible web apps, FaceWash asks for access to your basic information, email address, profile info and photos. The free app is ideal for professionals in the making, creators Camden Fullmer, Daniel Gur and David Steinberg say on their page.

"You spent the last four years being a college kid. And that's wonderful. But a lot can happen in four years, and Facebook never forgets," the site describes.
The students hope to add more features, reports the Los Angeles Times, giving the app the ability to search in other languages.

You Can Build A Successful Business

What separates you from the world's most successful entrepreneurs? You may feel that you don't have the skills available to build a great business, but this is actually to be the case.

Most people are able to construct an enterprise that will produce great results, but too few people have the belief that allows them to see the possibilities that surround them. What this means is that you need to believe, if you wish to succeed.

Is that all that you need? There's clearly the requirement to have a strong business idea, which you may feel that you already have. It can be tempting to leap into implementing the first idea that comes to mind, although this is rarely the best approach.

You need to learn how to assess ideas and to view them, based on individual merits. This can be something that's difficult to achieve, since most of us do have a natural tendency to be rather subjective. We may find it hard to offer an honest view of something that we have created or invented.

This is one reason why it can be useful to discuss ideas with other people. By selecting trusted individuals, you can ensure that you're happy to get some real opinions on ideas that you may think are great, but which may have serious faults.
Some would say that making mistakes can often be the key to learning.

This is something that makes a lot of sense, although you will need to be aware of the fact that mistakes can be expensive within this context. Will you find that you are lacking in some areas of expertise?

It's fair to say that few people have all of the skills that are needed to tackle every single area of a business. This is where it pays to be objective and to identify any weaknesses that you may have that will be likely to have a direct impact on the running of the business.

Your task will be to get assistance, where required, to make up for those gaps in knowledge. If you've not had any previous experience of some critical tasks, such as managing employees, then you may also wish to consider more formal training opportunities.

As you can see, your path to success will rely upon confidence and the ability to learn. Anything is possible, once you really believe that you can produce results.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Simon_Barnett

Coping With Algorithm Changes

The recent updates in the search algorithm of Google may have seemed too drastic if not totally devastating for many online businesses. Most of the techniques and rules that worked so well for the past many years were suddenly thrown out of the window.

Algorithm updates
The businesses that survived the cleansing proved to be not necessarily the strongest or the biggest (majority are actually small businesses). Aside from being prepared to cope to change and capable of adjusting, these resilient businesses turned out to be the businesses that have high quality contents in their websites. These contents are not only appealing and useful to human visitors but also turned out to be the type of contents being sought after by the algorithm updates.

Google algorithms have become smarter and discerning to some great degree. Although still a far cry from human intellect, the new sets of algorithms were tailored to mimic human preferences. The updates have resulted in the elimination of junk results from the first page of Google SERP. The previously high-ranking but deceptive websites were penalized, relegating them into internet obscurity.

Optimization techniques
On-site search engine and marketing techniques have become as important as off-site marketing techniques. The former algorithms have resulted to keyword stuffing, back linking abuses, and even the so-called Google bombing pranks.
Applying the old algorithms, it is relatively easy to make website rank very high given specific keywords. It is just a matter of using these keywords as anchor texts in off-site articles. The anchor texts served as the back links that were counted as votes in favor of the website being promoted.

Both the Penguin and Panda updates sought to eliminate keyword stuffing and link farming, which formerly resulted to many junks search results. The updates forced web masters and SEO experts to change their strategies. Many of the old techniques still work if they are used in moderation. For example, using anchor texts is still essential but they should not be used to over-optimize a website for a specific targeted keyword.

Keyword roles
The keyword placement and density are still important but they should be relevant to the overall semantics of a website's text content. On-site marketing or SEO strategies must be contextual and not anymore reliant on baiting robot crawlers with meta-tags and other hidden tags. The navigation structure of a website must also be tailored in such a way that it is easy to use not only for robots but more importantly for visitors and would-be customers.

Content quality
As the old internet marketing adage goes, "content is king". The volume of visitors might be determined by external or off-site marketing but the actual conversion rate will be determined by the content of the website. If it is truly interesting and useful to visitors, many of them are likely to be converted into paying subscribers or customers.




Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Homar_N_Murillo

Don't Fall for This 'Faceboourk' Phishing Scam

 

 

A very convincing scam that spoofs Facebook verification pages is being used to steal users' personal details and credit-card information before taking user to the real Facebook, leaving many victims none the wiser that they've just given their sensitive details to criminals.

The scam, outlined by Australian software architect Troy Hunt on his blog, starts out as a link to a viral video or other Internet meme, perhaps in a friend's tweet. It's a shortened link that obscures its real destination, but users will be relieved to land on what looks like the standard Facebook login page.

After the visitor logs into his Facebook account, the phony site asks victims to update their Facebook account security and provide additional information — a security question, a mobile-phone number and full credit-card details, right down to the expiration data and card security code. There's even an "overall protection" graph that mimics password-entry forms.

Unless they pay close attention to the address bar, the nearly perfect spoof page is likely to make users feel perfectly safe. Although the page looks exactly like Facebook, it's actually faceboourk.com.

Once users have given "Faceboourk" their Facebook login credentials, phone numbers and credit cards, the site's work is done. It takes them to the real Facebook login page, stealing their personally identifiable information and dumping them at Facebook's front door in one seamless motion.

Scams like this aren't new or uncommon, but this one's level of sophistication and lack of spelling mistakes makes it especially noteworthy.
Hunt tried to look up the Internet registration information for the phony site, but was only able to glean that information entered into the faux Facebook pages was redirected to a "parked" (unused but registered) porn URL, and from there sent elsewhere.

Hunt said he thinks the scam may have abated for now. Still, Internet users should always treat links with skepticism and pay close attention to the URL, especially when entering sensitive information.

Scammers likely use the information gleaned from such phishing scams to sell on the black market or commit identity theft and financial fraud.
Their unscrupulous activities can lead to days, weeks and even months of financial headaches as victims attempt to sort out the financial havoc that's been wreaked on their lives.

New Year New Life

Get the Ball Rolling in 2013

After the initial enthusiasm over new years resolutions for 2013 dwindles, keeping motivated, committed and moving toward accomplishing those goals is often tough. For many of us, our resolutions slowly vanish from our daily thoughts and actions and we wind up creating those same EXACT resolutions the following year.


  

So what’s the secret formula to staying on track with your new years resolutions? 

Taking ACTION and staying CONSISTENT! To hell if conditions aren’t perfect, or if this circumstance isn’t quite ideal or that person isn’t following through the way they said they would. We’ve got to take all these principles learned throughout the years and put them into action.

This can become another one of those “Duh, Harv” moments. “Of course you have to take action and stay consistent.” But are these two principles that most people follow and really live by?

That’s exactly where a lot of people get stuck and give up on their goals, even those with greater awareness and knowledge. You know you want to work out, need to get into better shape for the sake of generating more energy to work your mission. But what step is often the hardest to take? It’s not the goal you set nor the resolution you create for yourself. It’s the first step that’s the hardest!

Sometimes getting the ball rolling can feel like pushing a boulder uphill, metaphorically speaking. You need to build the next muscle and final spiritual muscle that separates the successful from those still waiting at the gate: momentum.

Momentum is that force that makes it easier for someone who’s successful to do what’s right than to do what’s wrong. Momentum is that process of getting that snowball moving. The hardest part about working out is getting to the gym.  Once you get there, it’s not that hard to do.

When you’re in motion, that’s when things begin to line up, not before (that goes for you perfectionist!). A body in motion will remain in motion and a body at rest will remain at rest. What do we want to do? Get into motion! Once you’re there, it gets easier. We already know that. Now we need to just do it.

What in your life do you need to get started and adjust as you go? What have you been waiting for? What’s the fear? Is that true or did you just make it up?

For 2013, I challenge you to set smaller, incremental goals for yourself to gain momentum, and then adjust those goals as you go. Don’t forget to celebrate EVERY goal accomplished, no matter how small.

Work Hard to Hardly Work

You’ve probably seen this painting periodically throughout your life called American Gothic by the artist Grant Wood. It shows an older man and woman, farmers presumably, standing stoically in front of a farmhouse, the man holding a pitchfork.

Art is subjective—what you see may not be what someone else sees—but even the casual viewer of this painting will see two people devoid of any emotion that would make the viewer stoked about the idea of ‘hard work.’

The painting, so the myth goes at least, points toward the idea that hard work is a rewarding virtue in itself. It’s implied as if the reward of hard work is something that just naturally happens as a result of our having ‘paid dues.’

Please understand I’m not ragging on farming or anything that requires hard, physical labor. I am, however, ragging on the idea that hard work is a ‘virtue’ that we should be carrying into our retirement years.

Unfortunately, these myths we grow up with impact our psychology more than we sometimes give credit. So many people judge success on superficial factors—like the prideful vanity of using a line like “I work hard” to bludgeon other people with—but also on the wrong metrics of measuring success to begin with. The number of hours worked and tasks completed may produce more money per paycheck, but it’ll also mean you’ll end up with those long, tight faces like in American Gothic.

Do years of hard work and little enjoyment of life, yet having a ‘comfortable’ retirement, equate to success? Maybe, but you could just as easily look at it as poor time management and a waste of personal strengths and skills—doing stuff that (often) makes us miserable for a little bit more money and for vanity’s sake—“I’m a hard worker.”

If we’re honest with ourselves, the only realistic goal of playing the money game while being truly happy and fulfilled is to play for eventual freedom from work—way sooner than retirement. 

Don’t misunderstand me here: the most valuable things in life aren’t going to come easy and they’re often not going to come without some pain and effort.

If you’re going to work hard, you might as well be working hard at working less.

The real measure of success is how free you are—financially, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually—to live life the way you want to live it.

Instagram’s New Privacy Policy Paves Way For Further Integration With Facebook

Today, Instagram published its new Privacy Policy, keeping most of the document the same, but adding a couple of new passages regarding data sharing with Instagram’s affiliates and partner companies.

In a blog post announcing the change, Instagram makes it very clear that the changes have been made in collaboration with Facebook to better help users make the most of the combined service provided.

“Our updated privacy policy helps Instagram function more easily as part of Facebook by being able to share info between the two groups”, explains the blog post. “This means we can do things like fight spam more effectively, detect system and reliability problems more quickly, and build better features for everyone by understanding how Instagram is used.”

The first new passage in the Privacy Policy document lists the information that Instagram will share with Facebook:
“We may share User Content and your information (including but not limited to, information from cookies, log files, device identifiers, location data, and usage data) with businesses that are legally part of the same group of companies that Instagram is part of, or that become part of that group.”

The ‘group of companies’ mentioned clearly refers to Facebook and their affiliates, meaning that when the change comes into effect, Instagram will have the right to exchange its users’ personal data with Facebook.

The second new paragraph clarifies what use Instagram’s affiliates will have with the data:
“Affiliates may use this information to help provide, understand, and improve the Service (including by providing analytics) and Affiliates’ own services (including by providing you with better and more relevant experiences). But these Affiliates will honor the choices you make about who can see your photos.”

The constant inclusion of the word “affiliates” insinuates that, at some time soon, Instagram will be further integrated with its affiliate Facebook. The final sentence of the paragraph suggests that, in light of the change, Instagram users will be able to reset their photographs’ privacy settings at some point soon.

The change will come into effect on January 16, 2013.

8 Lessons Learned Growing a Site to One Million Monthly Page Views

 

Some time ago one of my sites crossed the one million monthly page views mark. The screenshot from Google Analytics for the month of August is below.

While I know there are thousands of other websites out there with much higher traffic, reaching this milestone made me quite happy, as this is a website I built from scratch (i.e., I still remember when I registered the domain).

Below you’ll find the eight most important lessons I learned while building this site (I won’t reveal the URL for privacy reasons, but the useful stuff is below anyway ):

1. Choose Your Niche Wisely

Most people who read this blog probably think it is my largest and most profitable website. Well, it’s not. The reason? Niches like blogging, make money online, SEO or Internet marketing are pretty small when compared with mainstream stuff like gadgets, movies and television, cars, health and so on. That is why my “money” sites are placed in those niches, while I write on Daily Blog Tips mostly because I have fun doing it.

2. Find A Unique Angle

While picking the right, relatively large niche is important, I wouldn’t recommend you to start yet another tech or cars blog, where you would get most of your content from other, larger blogs and sites. Most mainstream niches are crowded, and if you just write about what everyone else is writing, after them, people will have no reason to visit your site. The solution? You need to find a unique angle. You need to come up with an idea that will differentiate both your site and your content from others in the same niche. Not easy, but possible.

3. Repeat Visitors Matter

There’s one metric that very few people pay attention to, yet I believe it’s one of the best indicators of the potential of a website: repeat visitors. Basically if the amount of repeat visitors on your site is increasing over time it means that you are converting some of your casual visitors into loyal ones, and that your overall traffic will increase overtime. If the amount of repeat visitors is not growing, on the other hand, it means that your content is failing to engage visitors to the point that they will remember your site a couple of days after visiting it. In this case you need to rethink your strategy.

4. Quality Over Quantity

If you need to choose between quality and quantity, go with quality. In order words, you’ll get much better results publishing one top quality article per week than publishing five average ones. It’s the quality of your content that will increase the amount of repeat visitors you get, after all, and the amount of backlinks you’ll receive from other sites (more on that below).

5. Google Is Your Friend

Whether you like it or not, Google is the main traffic driver around the web, so you better befriend it and use its help to grow your site. This means that you need to understand how search engines work (e.g., how Google crawls the web, how it decides which websites to serve when people search for stuff, etc.) in order to optimize your content, pages, and to promote your articles in a way that will increase their exposure with search engines. It will take some effort from your end, but the results are certainly worth it.

6. Research and Gather Data

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization and to promoting your website in general, you’ll need to research and gather data (as opposed to trusting your gut or intuition). That is, you’ll need to understand what are the hot topics inside your niche, what search terms are sending you more traffic, what visitors are more likely to stay on your site and so on. With the numbers on your hand you’ll be able to make much better decisions, both in terms of content and promotion.

7. You Can’t Do It Alone

While there are many people who manage to grow large sites alone, I found that getting some help along the way made all the difference. On most sites I have these days I focus exclusively on the strategy/promotion aspects, while leaving the web design/content development to other people. Sure, you’ll need to spend some money, but this is one of the most efficient ways to grow any website (and any business, for the matter).

8. Slow and Steady Wins the Race

It took me around three years to go from zero to one million monthly page views. During that time frame there was no single event that catapulted my site’s popularity, no large spike in traffic. It was a gradual and slow process, where every month I would promote the site a bit more, do some guest posts and so on. All that mattered to me was to see the traffic numbers increasing, albeit slowly, month after month.