How to Conduct Multiple Social Media Searches with One Lookup
The social media search engine normally lets a person carry out searches of multiple of dozens of social networking sites. Social media can be described to be the social networking system where people get to interact on a social forum. It is meant to keep the friends updated about their social affairs. The social media may also be used by companies to to communicate about their products, recruiting new hires, receiving feedback about their products among many more. There are huge companies which have enrolled so many employees through the interaction on the social media. There exist numerous search engines today which are free that gives one the opportunity to search several search engines with just one look up. So just how does this happen? [Read more]
Get Social Data Through Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free service from Google that provides complete statistics about all website visitors. It is useful in monitoring the impact of new initiatives undertaken for website promotion in terms of returns on investments. Google Analytics has now added social data to its reports and provides all the social media related data people could want. For those wanting figures of the number of Facebook ‘like’ clicks and Twitter tweets, can get them by changing some of the settings and using an additional tracking code available. All buttons like Facebook ‘like’, Twitter ‘tweet’ and Google +1 are called social sharing buttons which can be used by simply clicking on the specific social sharing buttons.
Google uses terms like “social engagement”, ‘social pages” and “social actions”, and it is all these social statistics that are made available in the report through Google Analytics.
Google Analytics Social Engagement Report
This social engagement report provides a comparison of visitors’ behavior by analyzing the behavior of those who click on the social sharing buttons with those who do not. The comparison is highly beneficial for site owners since they are able to check whether the click actually helps or hastens the conversion and they also visit other similar pages, or does it actually hamper the conversion process. In the case of the latter, site owners have reason to worry and find ways to circumvent this eventuality.
The new version of Google Analytics includes figures for the Google +1 clicks, but other social network buttons would need some modifications of settings before they can be assessed.
Google Analytics Social Actions
Social actions are taken to include the number of clicks for sharing site information through social sharing buttons. The social Actions report provides details about the number of visitors who clicked on social sharing buttons within a specified date range. By default Google Analytics takes into account only the Google+1 clicks, but it offers valuable insights into site visitor behavior and the potential for conversions through the data received. This definitive measure helps site owners find ways to enhance these numbers and also look for ways to increase conversions.
Social actions reports can also be checked with other dimensions of Google Analytics to get an idea about the other factors responsible for visitor behavior. The dimensions that can be analyzed include the source of traffic, bounces, conversions and pay-per-click advertisements.
Google Analytics Social Pages
Social Pages is the last Google Analytics report that gives details about which pages of the site got the actual social sharing clicks for a specific duration of time. This is extremely helpful to site owners since they are then able to gauge which parts of the site is appealing to visitors, and which parts actually trigger the maximum social activity. Finding the most appealing aspects of those parts and modifying the rest of the site accordingly will help to improve social sharing from other site pages as well.
Changing Defaults to Include Facebook, Twitter and Others
By default it is only Google +1 that is included for Google Analytics reports. However, some site development will enable the integration of Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites, and then reports will include figures which are a sum total of all the social sharing buttons. Detailed instructions for developing this site are provided by Google but it helps to have technical expertise and familiarity with JavaScript to be able to accomplish this flawlessly. The Google Analytics Software Development Kit (SDK) is needed along with the SDK of the networking sites in question.
Thus Google Analytics provides vital clues which can be used for the betterment of the business by ensuring higher visitor clicks and conversions as well.
This is a guest post by eMobileScan. Which is one of Europe’s leading suppliers of handheld computers like the Motorola MC9090 and the Symbol Mc70. With 18 sites around Europe they can offer their customers the best value
20 Easy Ways to Promote Your Blog Across the Social Web
One of the key points I explain in my book, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, is that for a business to succeed in building a brand and growing, it needs to surround consumers with branded online experiences, so those consumers can self-select how they want to engage with the brand. The same theory holds true for bloggers who want to grow their own blog brands and audiences across the social web.
Following are 20 easy things you can do to promote your blog across the social web. You’ll notice that many of the suggestions listed below require a one-time set-up and you’re done. Some of the suggestions don’t even happen online! Others require you to do a bit more work, but the end result is worth it in terms of directly and indirectly promoting your blog to a wider audience. Take a look and try to implement as many of the suggestions listed below as possible to jump-start your blog promotion efforts.
- Feed your blog content to your Twitter profile, Facebook profile and page, LinkedIn profile, and so on. Use tools like Twitterfeed and the tools incorporated into social networking accounts to do this.
- Publish eye-catching social media icons in a visible location on your blog’s sidebar, so visitors can easily connect with you on your other social media profiles.
- Make sure your various social networking and other online profiles include current links to your full spectrum of online profiles, blogs, and so on.
- Feed your blog content to any LinkedIn groups that you belong to that allow you to do so using the News feature in LinkedIn.
- Include the URL to your blog, Twitter profile, and so on in your offline correspondence.
- Include links to your various online profiles and blog in your email signature.
- Make sure links to your key online profiles and blog are included in the signature line in any forums you participate in.
- At the very least, the URL for your blog and Twitter profile should be on your business card.
- Make sure your blog content gets in front of as many people as possible by syndicating your content through services like Demand Media Blog Distribution Network and Newstex.
- Use widgets and social tools offered by Twitter and Facebook (such as the Facebook Like button) to publish your other social web activities on your blog.
- Continually publish comments on other blogs and link back to your own using the same keyword phrase in the name box every time.
- Hold a blog contest and be sure to promote it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and so on.
- Make sure you offer sharing links on your blog and other online content using tools like the TweetMeme Retweet button.
- Write guest blog posts for other blogs in your niche and be sure to include links back to you blog, Twitter profile, and so on.
- Hold a tweet chat or tweetup with people attending the same events or conferences that you plan to attend.
- Create an email newsletter to go with your blog and be sure to include links to your Twitter profile and other social networking profiles in it.
- Be retweetworthy in an effort to get more of your tweets that include links to your content retweeted.
- Publish press releases about your blog with links to your blog and social media profiles.
- Brand your Twitter profile background and provide more URLs than the standard profile allows.
- Keep publishing amazing, shareworthy content and organically interlink your branded online destinations!
5 Ways to Drive a Buzz about Your Events Using Social Media
Whether you’re a blogger, business owner, or individual with an event to promote, you can spread the word and drive an online buzz about it using the free tools of the social Web.
Some tools integrate directly into popular social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn while others not only let you promote your event but also let you search for events, people who might want to attend your own event, and more. Suffice it to say, the social Web offers everything you need to create a successful event buzz at your fingertips!
Following are five easy-to-use and free social media tools that you can use to promote your online and offline events across the social Web: [Read more]
Why WickedFire is a Great Forum to Learn Online Business and Marketing
Look, if you’re interested in joining a forum where everyone is polite but nobody is making serious money, try WarriorForum or DigitalPoint. Those two, for example, have very strict etiquette rules but only one “minor” problem. Simply put, lots of WarriorForum and DigitalPoint members talk the talk but few of them walk the walk.
Do you know why most people are extremely polite over there? The answer is almost obvious: it’s because a lot of them are trying to sell you something. Maybe an e-book, maybe a coaching problem, maybe some other semi-useless product.
WickedFire is different. Nobody’s there to sell you anything. Well, almost nobody and those who are just trying to sell you on something you don’t need, usually get “loved tenderly” (a commonly used WickedFire term, just like “making monies”, that represents anything but the pleasant idea the phrase conveys) by the community. This forum is what it is and there’s no other community out there that’s even remotely similar. Let’s try to look beneath the surface and determine what exactly makes WickedFire so special. [Read more]
Would You Pay to Read Someone’s Tweets?
Would you pay to read someone’s tweets? For some time now, enterprising individuals have been trying to find the holy grail of Twitter monetization. Some have been blatantly spamming advertisements through @replies. Some have indirectly monetized their Twitter accounts by using it as a viral marketing tool. Still, others have created Twitter clients that are funded by advertisements.
Will you dare to venture into Twitter monetization by limiting your audience to paying subscribers? This is what TwitPub aims to do. It’s supposed to be a
marketplace made for Twitter so users can buy and sell premium tweets.
Is this a viable business model? It could be, if you are in the business of dispensing important, expensive advice.
While TwitPub’s activity may not be all that impressive, their service may have potential within the political and financial realms (as people would pay to access gossip and financial advice, especially in this economy).
I come from a school of thought that says the moment you set a price to your content, you would have already devalued it. For one, you are limiting your audience severely. Secondly, you won’t have as much interactivity and viral marketing potential if your content is closed. Of course, this may not necessarily be true in all cases, but unless you’re really famous and powerful, I’m not sure if anyone would be interested in paying to read your tweets. And if you’re already famous and powerful, you probably don’t need anyone paying a few bucks to read your tweets or to send you direct messages.
Would you pay to read someone’s tweets? And would you pay to get your direct message sent into someone’s inbox?
How to Find People to Follow on Twitter
We’ve all heard of how awesome Twitter is for social media marketing, but you may not know how to get started. One of the most important and basic things for Twitter marketing is finding people to follow.
Here are a couple ways to do that, so you can start networking with active people in your industry.
1. Search Twellow.
With the popularity of Twitter, Twitter profile directories have started popping up. Twellow is my favorite one. It’s pretty easy to use. Just enter the name of your niche in the search box and you’ll get a list of profiles that are interested in your niche. The profiles will be ordered by followers so you can easily follow the most popular ones.
2. Search Twitter itself.
You can use Twitter’s search function to see which people are currently talking about your industry. Simply search for the name of your industry or other related keywords. Then, check out the profiles and see how often they actually tweet about your niche. The ones that are big fans of your industry are great candidates to follow.
3. Check out bloggers.
Check the active blogs in your niche to see if they have a Twitter feed or a link to a Twitter account. Many bloggers have become active on Twitter, so this method is an easy way to find people to follow.
4. Find out who other people follow.
Once you’ve found some quality Twitter profiles, browse through their friends and see who they follow. I’ve found great people through this technique. Oftentimes, there are quality Twitterers that are under the radar because they don’t follow a lot of people. However, you can find out about them with this technique since many people usually follow them.
If someone follows a lot of people and you don’t want to wade through all their friends, you can ask them for the top 10 people they like to follow.
Over to You
How have you found people to follow on Twitter?
This is a guest post from TwitQA.com, a twitter tool where you can ask and answer questions.
Getting Links to your Blog
Is your blog not experiencing the volume of traffic that you would like to see? One of the major flaws that many blog owners do not consider is the importance of links and linking. Links are to a blog, what highways are to the automotive world. Without highways, information, people, and goods cannot reach their destination. The same is true when talking about links. You can post the most credible or well written blog on the internet, but without proper linking from your post, or to it, the information you have provided is simply that: yours.
Links take readers of other blogs and different miscellaneous websites to areas of the internet that they normally would never have gone. Your blog might just be one of the areas that are outside of their comfort zone. These internet users are crucial to your blog’s survival. One of the most important reasons why it is essential to build a large linking network to your blog is how much higher you rank in search engines.
One of the methods that search engines like Google and Yahoo! use to rank their pages is how many other websites link to it. For example, a site that has fifty sites linking to it is more likely to be higher on a search engine list than a website that has ten. Keep in mind that this is not always the case, but this is definitely a good rule of thumb.
Another element that is crucial to the growth of your blog is the quality of the links that you provide. While gaining reputation through other websites, you have to ask yourself if the websites that are linking to you are doing you any good. If your blog is on the best Super Nintendo games of all time and you are getting links from sites that focus on the poverty of developing nations, then search engines are not going to take your blog seriously. If, however, you can find a way to talk to Nintendo itself and convince them to link to your blog, then your credibility and influence is going to be greatly affected in a positive way. It takes a combination of quality and quantity for your blog to gain strength on multiple search engines.
Again, it is the goal of a successful website or blog to be first on a search engine’s results, or at least on the first page. While this process may take a while, if you produce quality content, then you can be sure that you will succeed.
The most important part about linking is actually convincing someone to link to you. There are two methods that almost all blog owners use, due to their ease and effectiveness. One method is to actually write on someone else’s blog; a quick article is usually sufficient. This is a quick and easy way to simply show the bloggers on that site that you exist, and as long as you produce great content, then many of them will stop at your blog regularly. The more direct route that many blog owners use is to just simply ask another website’s owner if he/she would be willing to link to you. Sometimes this method works beautifully.
Sometimes the person you asked may want to barter with you, such as an exchange of links. Just remember, the worst thing that can happen to you if you ask someone is that they will just say no. Simply thank them for their time and move on.
Eventually, your blog will begin to contain multiple links to and from many websites. Keep in mind that linking is equally affected by the quality and quantity of your linking potential.
How much traffic is Bing sending to your blog?
I thought it would be interesting, a couple of weeks in, to see how much traffic Microsoft’s new Bing search engine was sending to a range of blogs I have stats access to.
While it’s very early days and the sample size I have access to is fairly limited compared to the web statistics collection companies, it does suggest that Microsoft has a long way to go to begin challenging Yahoo, let alone Google.
Bing’s highest share was on my personal blog, which covers a range of topics including technology and current affairs. Even there it mustered just 2.35%, putting it in second place behind Google’s massive 93% lead. It seems to have taken some market share from Yahoo and AOL.
On a site about families and relationships, Bing accrued 0.5% of the share in the past two weeks. Here it possibly took a little share from Google, though the giant still had over 90%.
On a large general consumer technology site, Bing managed 0.67%, putting it in fourth place, though it took no share from Google or Yahoo.
Bing did less well, accruing just 0.46%, on an iPhone-related blog, while on a blog about high definition TVs it scraped 0.69%.
Hardly anything to write home about.
iTWire reports that StatCounter search engine market share data also showed Bing got just a fraction of a percentage point.
It’s hard to get an idea of the keywords and phrases someone uses to find each site differs between Google and Bing because Bing’s sample size is so small. The fact is, with such a huge market share and history of crawl, the list of keywords from Google is huge and far more varied.
When it comes to how many pages have been indexed and listed (using the “site:” modifier, which isn’t perfect), Google often seems to return more results than Bing, though some larger sites have more returns from Microsoft’s engine.
It’s unfair to draw conclusions just a fortnight after Bing launched. At one level, I’d like to see Google’s dominance challenged just a bit by some other players, as it reduces our reliance on one company to send visitors to our sites. At the moment, though, Microsoft is playing catchup with everyone else.
Have you noticed any significant influx of visitors from Bing or is Google still your main search engine traffic driver?
Do You Tweet to Read or Do You Tweet to Write?
I’ve observed several celebrity Twitter users to have a friend/follower ratio that is heavily skewed toward the follower side. This means they have a huge following, but follow only a very few people. While most do reply to tweets related to them or directly sent to them as @replies, a lot are probably just using Twitter to post updates about themselves (which is understandable, especially for folks with a very public life). Some others are most likely marketers. They don’t engage in conversation much, but they do post a lot of quotes, retweets and links.
On the other hand, some Twitter users I know are more of readers rather than writers. They seem to have a lot of followed folks, but only a few followers. And they mostly engage in conversation when the topic interests them.
I’m part of the second group. I must admit I’m not too fond of tweeting out of the blue, about what I ate for breakfast, musing about the weather, or complaining about the chores I’m currently doing. I mostly scan and read updates from my Twitter friends–mostly on my mobile phone using Gravity–and reply to or retweet interesting messages. I also try to get ideas for blog posts or articles from my friends’ feed or from searches relevant to my interests. For me, Twitter is not a platform for simply shouting out my ideas, but rather a community with a rich cloud of information ready to be harvested and processed.
What about you? Do you tweet to read? Or do tweet to write?
