While a few corporate executives admit uncertainty over social media optimization or its relevance, an overwhelming majority will admit that they foresee greater assignment of funds to the same. While only few businesses select professional services, some challenges remain.

Following are the obstacles that can be avoided.

1. Lack of Awareness

Social media optimization requires understanding the brand from the audience’s point of view, competitor’s aspect, and important terms, which is the first step. Ignoring this could lead to lost opportunities in all respects, like sales, collaborating, customer services, and others.

2. Cohesive Accountability

After establishing the goals, assigning responsibilities and accepting an overall accountability is necessary. Different departments must combine efforts to benefit the business. This prevents any possible brand misrepresentation.

3. Irregular Involvement

Consistently engaging audiences means regular participation in social media optimization tasks. Executive endorsements enable feedback to contributors, which grow the community. Having a dedicated community member as a curator or brand ambassador encourages community participation and displays the level of involvement.

4. Gaining Trust

To earn belief, a company needs confidence. Developing a sincere and passionate community depends immensely on the depth of participation of the company itself. More than opinions, a sense of conviction and strong will stand apart as respectable elements, which builds a reputable presence for social media optimization.

5. Ill-equipped Team

The emphasis is on understanding more than doing, as it is an approach more than a task.  Having your team undergo the requisite training will reduce the difficulty.

 6. Data Roadblocks

While data is essential to decision making, it should never restrict the capacities of the creative department. Most often, a spectacular creative idea can be the game changer, becoming a historic event in social media campaigns.

 7. Generalised Individualism

In addition to maintain a unique element, the real team members can support social media work. Rather than having a nameless person behind your brand, establish partnerships and acknowledge others for commendable work. Simply being useful with a focus will benefit you as well. With social dissent being expressed as well, a tactful and calm approach is required, even a light-hearted acceptance performs the necessary to maintain audience loyalty.

Conclusion

Ultimately, companies earn social media optimization by thorough strategy development, experimental innovations, and repetition of wholesome efforts and a fundamental framework. With these seven guidelines, your brand can fuel its progress on the path to realizing a robust market share and wider visibility.

Image courtesy mashable.com

Waiting for several minutes that feel like hours on the phone, trying to get through to someone “sensible” enough who can take your order for the bunch of roses you wish to order for your mom’s birthday. One word, “frustrating”. Such a simple job ends up becoming a nightmare. So what is the solution? Log on to a website that sells flowers, like www.myflowertree.com, select the flowers, and click on buy and voila! Easy job done in less than 60 seconds! And since you feel great about the efficiency showed by that brand, you leave a wonderful comment on how great their services are!  That is how social media has changed the face of customer service.

While that was just one scenario, there are several ways in which social media has changed the way services are provided to customers. From food, to clothes, to bathroom essentials, there is an ‘order online’ or ‘leave review here’ option for practically everything these days.  Whether a situation goes well or on the contrary, bad, a customer would never hesitate in expressing their views for the world to see since it is available at the click of a button.

1. It’s all out in the open: Gone are the days when people sent letters or emails to company’s complaining about their bad experiences with the product. With blogging and online forums, people can voice their dissatisfaction, and no company can hide from that. This also increases the pressure on businesses to perform well 24-7 since anyone can post a review if they are unhappy and a third person can see that and form an opinion real time.
2. Customers solve each other’s problems: Online public forums help customers identify issues that are relevant to them, and at times they don’t have to reach out to anyone since they can read and review an issue discussed earlier which might be similar to their own. Also they can openly offer advice to anyone who needs it.
3. Wake up Call! Companies have become more sensitive towards customer’s issues and customer centricity has become a key factor in driving businesses. Since there is a lot more transparency between the seller and the consumer through social media, the core of every business now is how to improve customer satisfaction.

Social media is the strongest platform for customer service. Whether it’s the good, bad or the ugly, a customer has every right to express his or her appreciation or discontent for any brand or type of service. Sometimes however this may cause people to voice opinions which may not be relevant or may seem over the top and unreasonable. Social responsibility goes both ways. It is a relationship between the consumer and the seller, and social media happens to be a mediator between the two.

Image courtesy mashable.com

Colours – They remind you of two things – the joyous festival of holi; and, the uninterrupted, essential variety of life. Take for example social media. There is absolutely no dearth of variety in the purpose and usage of these platforms. You have the red queen Pinterest, Blue bird Twitter, a blue and white journal Facebook, and many more ways of keeping entertained. Social Media indeed is motley of interesting ideas to draw from. Each platform, however, has a USP. The confluence of connectivity with social media is an interesting development that the Internet has witnessed.

The world today enjoys many facets of this platform. There are innumerable social media platforms waiting to be explored. Not just that – there is a lot that you can do with and on each of those platforms. Even though you are doing a number of things on social media, there are a number of activities that you can take up of which you don’t even have an inkling of idea about. Finding a job, learning a language, chatting, dating, keeping in touch – all can be done through a single social media platform. Here are some variants of is worldwide usage:

• From Black Churches to Everyday businesses, every organization makes use of social media in a manner that suits them. Have you ever heard about a court room trial being tweeted about? That’s what Courier-Post did once.
• Another important aspect of social media is that it thrives on change. Since technology is the base of every social media activity, a small change in technology can open a number of avenues in the periphery of social media.
• Varied social media platforms are suitable for laptops and desktops. With the invention of smart phones, using social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest on phone has become feasible.

While the four main slices of the social media pie can be divided into video updates, test updates, photo updates, and content updates, there are many other things that social media has made possible.  Think Farmville for example; apart from the fun and enjoyment that it provides, the game teaches a lot of farming. With social media, be a little creative and a lot creative, to realize all the facets of the platforms.

Image courtesy seelevel.com

Social Media is surely is one of the most lucrative and rewarding platforms for promoting any website. SMO or Social Media Optimization involves the use of social networking as well as social bookmarking and news sites to make a website more prominent on the web. Below are some pointers which can help you to optimize your SMO efforts.

1. Make your website SMO friendly: The first of the steps towards SMO should be to integrate social media handles/buttons in your website. Facebook “Like Box”, Twitter stream and bookmarking buttons help you to keep your website alive across various social media channels.

2. Promote Shareable Content: Generating shareable content is one of the key requisites of SMO. Shareable content can be anything that is intuitive, essentially relevant to your target audience and has an element of substance or value in it.

3. Update: You need to be aggressive in your approach to make your SMO efforts effective. You must build a rapport with your audience which can only be done by consistently updating your social media handles at regular intervals.

4. Initiate Conversation: Give an ear to what people are talking about. The key thing to understand about social media is that it is for people and people talk. Take your involvement to another level by initiating and participating in conversations across social networking sites.

5. Analyse: You can better direct your SMO efforts if you keep a close watch on the various statistics and use analytics. SMO warrants a targeted and logical approach which can only be done by taking various all information, facts and figures into account.

SMO can help you to catapult your website into widespread recognition. All you need to do is follow a genuine approach to connect with your target audience.

Image courtesy Web Next Solutions

The business world is going gaga about social media and every new concept in it that promises a revolution. It is a time when if you exist then it must be because of social media. Could there be something wrong with a thing like social media, which is responsible for giving so many businesses an identity? Is it all a good thing or does it have its share of grey shades too? Let us explore.

Even though the advantages of social media are far more than its disadvantages, it is always better to know both the sides of the coin well. Knowing the below mentioned disadvantages will only help you have a better control over your social media processes:

• “It’s Free” is just a strategy: The social media sites my offer you free registration, but everything beyond that has a cost attached to it. Once you have signed-up, you will need to work on developing strategies for attracting people and then retaining them. Coming up with ideas (a lot of them), means added cost and time investment
• It’s Risky:  Businesses will agree that a larger audience does not always bring positive results. It is also about increased chances of negative feedback. And, since we are talking “social media” the chances of getting negative feedback increase manifold.
• Fraud Makes It More Risky: Social media is full of fraudulent people and fraudulent activities. It is very important that you monitor your social media activities regularly, even if you are not taking any third-party help to handle your twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ or LinkedIn.
• It Means More Competition: Unlike what it is considered, social media is really tough. Social media is a very competitive platform. It is not just about running an account but about continuous interaction with parties and keeping them engaged. Because almost everybody is “going social” it becomes extremely tough to emerge as a leader.
• It Doesn’t Promise ROI in Initial Business Stages: The gestation period is higher in case you are selling your products and services online. This basically boils down to the fact that there is no surety of returns in short-term.

By this blog we are in no way steering you towards becoming “anti”-social media. We also do not want you to unfriend your Facebook account. The drawbacks only indicate that you be more careful with your approach towards social media henceforth.

This blog is for anyone and everyone who is on LinkedIn and still not able to figure out “How the hell is it helping”. The contents of the blog are a must read if you have….

…just made your account on LinkedIn and hoping for someone to add to your connections

… been using LinkedIn for a while but have never really got a hang of it

…are looking for interesting ways to make a value addition via LinkedIn

Let us first get our facts right. LinkedIn, unlike what many people think, is not a job search board. It is definitely not a place to discuss personal matters and absolutely not a place for unlimited chit-chat. So what is it then? Well, firstly, LinkedIn is a social media site with the purpose of making business-to-business transactions/happenings/connections simpler, faster and convenient.

Why should you join it? Even if the rapidly rising share prices of LinkedIn fail to convince you to open an account then we give you another 100 plus reasons to join it. But for the sake of space, as well as to retain the essence of this blog, let us stick to 5 such ways to use LinkedIn that it enhances your social presence.

Have A Blog? Publish It

It is a very intelligent feature of LinkedIn that its users can publish their blogs and posts on it. This is not just a great way to divert more attention towards your LinkedIn profile but also a good strategy to grab more eyeballs for your blog. The ‘motive’ here is to establish a common platform for people and allow knowledge sharing. You social presence automatically gets established when people are drawn towards your works and would like to know more about you.

Build Brand “Me”

There are a zillion ways to build your personal brand on LinkedIn. We will share a secret here. LinkedIn works in a manner similar to the one that Google used a decade ago. So if you wonder where the rankings are being calculated, be assured it is just another SEO game. The wiser you are at using the keywords, the more searchable you are; therefore the rank-wise categorization. And, a better ranking means more visibility.

Be the First to be on Google’s Mind, Always!!

If you know the trick then creating a smart profile on LinkedIn won’t be much of a trouble. And, we have already given you the key to this secret, which is SEO. Apart from that, taking care of some basics will make your LinkedIn profile be at the top of the Google search page.  For enhancing your web presence, make sure that you make your profile public, give your profile a proper title, mention your website links accurately and keep adding to your list of skills in the “skill box”.

Get Involved

You have been an active participant of events and forums on Facebook, then what is holding you back from joining the rendezvous taking place on LinkedIn? When you participate in the discussions that are being held you enhance your social presence and reach out to a larger audience. You can debate, discuss, opinionate and share your views via LinkedIn and become a crucial part of various groups. For maximum benefit, target the most popular discussions happening, and also the recent ones.

Attend and Hold Conferences

You can also hold tradeshows here if you want to, but webinars are tried and tested. Since LinkedIn is a learning ground for professionals, it is always a good idea to get together and throw light upon some emerging business trends that are of interest to all. Doing this through web means time, place and space advantage. An increase social presence automatically spawns from dedicated social networking and interaction.

There is a lot more to LinkedIn than we can ever imagine and no matter how much is known about it at present, there will be something new about it the next time we explore it more. But to sum it precisely, if you want to build some truly influential connections online, LinkedIn is the place to be.

Remember the uninformed and surprising entry of the Facebook Timeline? A number of us did not like the very idea of it, and its usage was definitely not in question. Many of my online friends were completely against it and voiced their criticism against the time-line feature pretty openly. Discussions about the time-line that led to unfair opinions against Zuckerberg and his declining sense of design were so common that I doubt if an unintended viral may not have affected  the opinion of even those who would have liked to give a thumbs-up (read: like) to the time-line feature.

You may or may not be comfortable with the timeline settings for now but what matters is if you have switched to it then it is indeed good for you. I have a silly habit of searching for things that seem disconcerting. The timeline feature in particular was for example one of the many ‘not-so-important-yet-on-my-mind’ things that undoubtedly was something that I wanted to know more about. Why so much of a brouhaha over something that was only a part of the virtual world? Why is everyone discussing it? Actually, no one was really discussing it. EVERYBODY WAS CRITIQUING. So, I took to studying the timeline and to my surprise what seemed useless for a complete bundle of goodies. I now can’t think of another way of great online marketing.

Many businesses as of present have switched to the timeline feature but haven’t been able to figure out how to benefit from it. In a market that is inexorably focused on social media, the Facebook timeline has given businesses some extremely simple ways of getting ahead with online marketing.

Advantage Cover Photo

The cover photo becomes an evident part of your Facebook profile once you have agreed to use the timeline. Inarguably, this is the most important feature of the timeline also as it a strategically thought adding that helps businesses to improve the visual-designs of their companies. This is the place where you communicate with the world in pictures. This is where on-line marketing is at its active most level. Put a cover photo that draws attention and captures the essence of your business. Be creative, take it seriously and the timeline will come alive, acting as a salesman for your business.

A Tryst at the Template

 Many of us may not know that it’s not just the look that has changed but so has the purpose and intent. Facebook timeline allows a lot more interaction and rendezvous than the earlier version did. You can make use of the template/body at the advantage of online marketing. Highlight items on your page, feature stories, and pin to other websites for a full-fledged online marketing experience. And, then there is a bar to the right-side just below the cover photo which contains four boxes labelled pictures, maps, notes, etc. You can intelligently customize these boxes to display the products, brochures and content of the company.

Knowing the Admin Panel

 No one paid attention to this, right? Well, the admin panel which is a useful part of the timeline is a feature that monitors all the activity that is taking place on your business page. There is also an “Insight Box” that is helpful to convert the user data into a statistical and/or graphical form. This helps you analyze your popularity and reach towards the World Wide Web audience.

The Kolaveri Di about the Timeline took some time to settle but its now time you start benefiting from the well-planned strategy.

A certain Tulip Garden restaurant decides to revamp their menu to attract vegan customers. Word of mouth – being the less effective method in the small community that it was- the business suffered due to lack of proper marketing strategies. So the restaurant put up an interactive game on their website akin to Farmville on Facebook in which the player grew their own produce and made their own Garden burgers. The game also provided opportunities to be able to find hidden free burger vouchers, to enjoy the same, in real at the restaurant. The links were shared on Facebook and Twitter. Soon the game became viral, attracting almost 500 retweets and over 100 shares on Facebook. Their business made most of the situation and the average vegan, found a perfect BBQ styled vegan burger within a stone’s throw.

We are living in the age of the “sharing” economy, where social media optimization (SMO), one of the many methods, is used as leverage to market products and services. In the world, where grabbing eyeballs is better than delivering lackluster information ; where ‘likes’ and ‘retweets’ are the rule of the land, social media marketers must up their game in order to be in the proverbial spotlight. Like a dress on Etsy? Share it with your friends on Facebook, Tweet it! Stumble it! Digg it! Your friends can discover the link in their notifications, and voila! more traffic redirected to Etsy. Social media is an indispensable tool for growing businesses, who want their followers to discover, consume and engage with their content effectively. And to that end, the content strategy must be rich and should allow the recipients to coherently convert from content to conversation, from conversation to relationships with the brand or company, from relationships to potential businesses, and from businesses it to ROI. To achieve this SMO must centre on generating dialogue, influencing collaboration, effective segmentation, targeting, and focus on personalized customer attention. At the end of the day social media marketing requires you to be socially active virtually. Web users no longer look for information with the sole expectation of achieving just results. They wish to interact, connect with the results before they form their opinions. They visit pages that their friends recommend and click on shared links. With this degree of personalization the brand needs to come across as real to the consumer. In this regard specific keywords and links is the new moolah vending strategy for SMO.

Thus when a searcher brings forth a query on a search engine, the result is displayed along with matching ads that redirect him to further resources on other websites. In a world of social media marketing strategies lost – Content is the newfound ‘Holy Grail’.

Proper SEO etiquette dictates that every page of a web site is optimised for search engines, for that will help ensure that the web site is on top of search results. When I say every page, I mean the home page, the content, the services, the about us page, and so forth. While this may very well viable if you have small company web site with about 40-50 pages, it is downright impossible if your web site has a humongous number of pages.

Well, technically, it isn’t impossible. You could hire an army of SEO specialists and pay them huge quantities of money and leave them to optimize each and every one of the 10,000 pages in your website. Then leave for a vacation to the Bahamas and come back after a month to find that all your pages are now fully optimised with keywords, Meta tags and descriptions. As a result of all that money, hard work and time, your website now generates 10% more hits. Is it a Success? I don’t think so.

The key is to find the right balance between time and the results. You could spend months on end optimizing a web site for an additional 100 hits or you could spend a day or two to optimize the most popular pages on your website and gain about 10-20 more hits. The choice is quite obvious.

The simplest way to speed up optimising is by concentrating on the popular pages first. Only then you should move on to the other pages of your website. Another method is by the clever usage of Meta tags. Before optimising, create a number of Meta tags and descriptions (the number depends on the size of your site) to use as templates. Then cycle through those templates at random and avoid using the same ones many times in a row so as to avoid being labelled as a spammer.

In an ideal world, the amount of time spent optimizing web pages would be directly proportional to the hits you get. Is this possible? Here’s a hint: ideal worlds don’t really exist. So you have to make do with what you got.

A recent study conducted by Pew Research Centre’s Internet and American Life Project had some interesting results to show. It claimed that search and email were among the most popular activities online. The exact numbers shown by the study will be talked about later, but let’s focus on how this result affects the marketing maxims that people have long held holy. For one, it dispels the popular myth that social media optimization is your best bet as an online marketer. Meanwhile, those who are religiously engaged in tipping the search engine scales to their favour can breathe a sigh of relief: SEO still reigns supreme in online marketing.

The guys at Pew seem to have done their homework. Tracking online activities of adults since the past 10 years, they come up with some numbers that might rearrange the priorities of online marketers. Coming to the numbers themselves:

1. Using search engines and reading emails tops the list at a dominating 92 percent,
2. Reading online news gets the silver at 76 percent,
3. Online purchases occupy 71 percent,
4. Bringing up the rear is social networking, which is placed at a miserable 65 percent.

An interesting point arises here: Although the rise and rise of social networking sites has heralded a phenomenal growth of SMO activities to raise brand visibility and attract traffic, it looks like sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc. have not yet managed to consolidate their hold over all demographics. It seems to be more cluster-oriented, really. Au contraire, search engines and email have consistently attracted a sizeable chunk of followers from just about every strata possible.

Does that mean that a change is in order? Should we, for the matter of debate, start paying more attention to email marketing in our campaigns, something that’s widely regarded as the ignored cousin of SEO and SMO? Remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: this study is sure to get online marketers rethinking their strategies.