Popular Articles on Business 2 Community

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• 4 Ways Personal Social Media Profiles Boost Your Brand’s Presence
• 5 Hard Truths About Social Media for Businesses
• 7 Steps to Using Google+ to Grow Your Company’s Community
• 9 Google Webmaster Tips for an Inbound Marketer
• The Social Media War (Infographic)
• The Importance of Google+ for Marketers
• 20 Amazing Marketing Statistics That Will Drive 2014 (Infographic)
• Why Facebook is the Next Big Thing in Recruitment
• Content Marketing Guide to 2014: 3 New Year’s Resolutions
• Social Media Meets SEO In 2014
• How to Get Twitter Influencers to Link To Your Blog Post
• 7 Things For Effective Networking On LinkedIn

4 Ways Personal Social Media Profiles Boost Your Brand’s Presence Posted: 05 Jan 2014 10:30 AM PST Standing out on social media with your brand today is difficult. That's true regardless if you've had an ongoing social media presence for years or if you've just created your brand's first Twitter profile. Established brands on social media struggle to stay relevant and newcomers to social media have to cut through a huge amount of noise to get noticed. It goes without saying that every brand should have a primary company presence on social media. But what about personal profiles for employees? Personal employee profiles on social media dramatically increase your brand's reach and reinforces its overall online presence. Personal profiles will also give dimension to your brand and cut through the social media noise. I'm going to give you 4 good reasons why your brand should be using personal profiles on social media today. 1. Get Noticed When I see a brand on social media just blasting out content, it reminds me of a lone believer preaching on a soapbox to a small crowd. Everyone is listening to what's being said but they'll probably forget about it once they leave to go about their day. It's relatively ineffective and your message only sticks to the people in the crowd that sought out the speaker. Things are a little different when a brand and its employees are delivering a thoughtful, well-delivered message. That sort of social media activity reminds me of a juicy rumor circulating around town. Everyone is buzzing about it and it's hard not to know what's going on. You might even care a little bit more than usual since everyone you know is talking about it. It's so much easier to get noticed when you have multiple people posting content and discussing topics relevant to your brand. Social media monitoring tools such as HootSuite have become very popular and look at keywords to pull posts. The more profiles you have posting relevant keyword-rich content, the more likely you are to get noticed. 2. Increased Engagement  Leveraging personal employee profiles on social media creates a much more, well, personal experience. Prospects will be able to connect a name and face to your brand, not just a logo and corporate message. Some people also don't trust brands as much as individuals on social media; this is especially true among millenials, some of the most active users of social media. Millenials may not be the major decision makers today, but they may be the ones making suggestions to the higher-ups in an organization. A combination of personal profiles with your brand's presence gives your prospects a choice on how to engage with your brand. Some prospects may not want to engage with a brand's page because they feel like the exchange will be impersonal. Personal profiles, on the other hand, give your prospects another more "real" outlet to connect with. This article on Forbes quantifies the returns a brand can see when consumers are engaged, if you're skeptical. 3. You'll Have An Interconnected Web  Everything starts to look like an interconnected web once you have multiple personal profiles active on social media in addition to your brand's. Your brand will be at the center of the web and each personal profile will be connected as they mention your brand and drive prospects towards your website. Make sure that there's a common strategy and everyone can see what each other is doing  – you don't want any lone wolves out there doing their own thing. Sharing posts from fellow employees is a great way to start strengthening your web so you can catch that succulent moth, I mean prospect, and keep them within your brand's social media web. 4. Get Specific Messages Out To Targeted Audiences Multiple profiles on social media also give your brand an opportunity to send targeted messages to specific audiences.  It makes sense for the head of your R&D team to be posting content about new R&D techniques and developments to an audience that's interested. LinkedIn Groups are a great way for your employees to reach prospects since each group has a targeted user base. Groups are also voluntary,so members are usually interested in what that group has to say. Think of this as a giant tradeshow. If you're on the show floor and a prospect has a very specific question about the operation of one of your products, you'd direct her to someone who's specialized in that area. Heck, you might even direct her to the employee who designed that specific piece of equipment.  Why not have that sort of direct connection all the time? Social media gives you just that. Conclusion  It's hard not to see the benefits of using multiple personal profiles on social media to support your brand's presence. You'll see increased engagement, reach, and more ways to deliver your brand's message to prospects. Initially, employees may be resistant; they might not think they have anything to say. It's kind of like blogging: employees should talk about what they know and what they do every day. Take baby steps if you want, try adding one employee every 2-3 weeks until you're satisfied with your online presence. Once everyone gets the hang of it you'll become a visible industry expert for your prospects. Image Credit, 2

5 Hard Truths About Social Media for Businesses Posted: 05 Jan 2014 09:30 AM PST There is an existing excess of inbound marketing techniques that online marketers can use to generate leads and reinvigorate sales. But when it comes to blogging, posting info on social platforms, and other forms of Web-based marketing, many learn a number of hard truths about social media with a rather bleak response. For one, social media is crowded, and generating website visitors or other conversions is an uphill battle. Why? Because everyone in your industry is doing it. They are, at least, creating accounts, throwing out some tacky posts, and annoying followers on Facebook who would rather see what their friends are doing. These platforms are protected by users who, by no means, are required to follow businesses. A single bad apple/poster can ruin a person's opinion about other brand-related accounts. Is it your fault? Hopefully not, but this is just one of many truths about social media that marketers need to acknowledge and move past. The Learning Curve More often than not, businesses will jump on the Web-marketing bandwagon without a second thought. It is affordable, effective when done correctly, and helps companies create online assets that buffer their image. Difficulties arise from day one, however, especially when it comes to learning how to entice potential follows, likes, and shares. A lot of companies learn this the hard way through trial and error. Others, of course, seldom take a second glance at social media, and they cease realizing benefits. To start with, online marketers need to understand that assets benefit one another. This means landing pages, media accounts, and content all work together to increase traffic, sales, and online recognition. It is not a one-size-fits-all sort of challenge, either; every business has to figure out what works for them. Timing Matters Among the top hard truths about social media, timing is a major influence on a campaign's effectiveness. But why should timing matter at all? Aren't people on the Internet at all times of the day, and does not any sort of like or share bumps posts up on newsfeeds? Yes, they do, but there's a lot more to timing than when you post your content. Businesses need to create professional editorial-type calendars that help them keep their posts frequent and non-invasive on newsfeeds. A yearlong calendar (as well as one that bleeds into the new year) should consist of holidays, events, and be shaped around any new branding strategies or product releases. This allows marketers to plan out content and stay active on feeds without overwhelming their precious followers. "Social Rank" Is A Reality Maybe one of the most important hard truths about social media is that social rank and authorship are becoming increasingly crucial for businesses. Authorship, an actual system put in place by Google, is a way got brands to post blogs and articles that are tied into Google+ accounts. This helps content climb search result pages and be seen by the everyday person. Social rank, of course, is much harder to define. It is a "soft ranking" determined by an account's activity, followers, and overall popularity. A strong social rank is a major positive to companies who are then able to share their media success and attract new follows. It is the "monkey see, monkey do" mentality that social users use when deciding to engage with a business' media efforts. Writing Epic, Long-Lasting Content Isn't Easy Finally, marketers need to come to terms with the fact that creating epic content is more than a challenge. Timely, long-lasting ("evergreen"), informative, and entertaining content calls for a lot of effort and professional writing. This content, however, has the potential to stay active and to keep working for businesses long after it is published. Super content that busts past the typical 500-word blog can stay up on search engines for years. There are a number of tricks to writing this content, of course. It needs to be: -Long. Epic content has plenty of information. -Engaging to a wide spread of readers. -Create an interest or share an opinion on an idea. -Well-written and lack any major revisions. -Not overly-promotional. And there it is — a few hard truths about social media that you now recognize and can move past. Photo by: Stefan Topfer

7 Steps to Using Google+ to Grow Your Company’s Community Posted: 05 Jan 2014 07:30 AM PST Do you have a business that is ready get the exposure it's been looking for online? Have you taken the time to set up your Google + profile? It may not have been a top priority to create a Google + profile when there's already Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and tons of other social networking sites; Instagram, Vine, Pinterest, FourSquare popping up, but it's safe to say that Google + is here to stay. It's no secret that Google is the top search engine and Google + reported at least 500 million users, with over 2/3 of them being active. Now that's a lot of users, and with these users comes a huge percentage of potential customers and sales. It's no wonder that so many will undergo SEO campaigns and create strategies to rank the highest in google search results for their markets they participate in. Did you know that the posts you share on Google + are indexed by Google's search engine? If you're sharing content and posts about for instance, home cleaning services in California, when someone searches home cleaning services in California, you're more likely to show up since you're sharing posts and content about just that. Also, with social media links being given more weight than in the past, your ability to rank above your competitors is going to rely much heavier on social than it did in the past. For this post, I'm going to focus on leveraging Google + to help grow your company community online and help you rank higher and be in the spotlight above your competition. So how do you use Google + to grow your company community? I'll outline several steps that are easy to follow and will help you use Google + to grow your community. 1) Create your company page First, create your company profile and add relevant photos and information so page visitors will understand who you are and what you offer. Make sure to add relevant keywords and terms so you can show up in search results. Add photos that help tell your company's story and add value to the page. 2) Utilize what you already have Have your employees and business relationships/partners on Google + add you to their circles. Ask them to start engaging on your page and generate some conversation and activity. Your current community is a great asset to help get your company initial exposure and they're already knowledgeable on your company, they can help recommend you to their circles as well. If your company is engaging in a guest posting strategy, it's a good idea for them to engage in Google Authorship. By having a link to your company Google + in their own account, that can help drive traffic to the company page, as well as identify your employers as thought leaders in the industry. If you're unfamiliar with Google Authorship, click here. 3) Connect across platforms Connect your Google + across your various platforms; website, Twitter, Facebook, ect. are all connected to your Google +. If traffic is already being driven to one, by having a link to your Google + page, you have an opportunity to drive traffic there as well. If your company is engaging in social activity; forum posts, blog commenting, guest posting, be sure to include a link to your Google + page when possible. 4) Find relevant and interactive communities Search for communities that are both relevant to your company's demographics and that are interactive. Interactive communities will be a good place to get ideas for content to share on your page as well as a good opportunity to listen. Listen to what is driving the conversation; see who is driving the conversation, and what your audience really values and wants to be social about. Listening helps you understand the type of content to share and how to drive the conversation. Active and relevant communities are also great places to find content to re-share and individuals to build relationships with. 5) Content Sharing The type of content you share and the schedule in which you share your content is critical to a community's growth. By listening to and understanding the type of content your community values; as mentioned above, you'll know the kind of content to share. Create a schedule of sharing content daily to help gain a community of return visitors. Share content that isn't sales driven but helpful, engaging, and educational. No one wants to hear sales pitch after sales pitch. Share content related to your communities interest, not just your own. Create opportunities for interaction on your posts by asking for questions or feedback. 6) Take advantage of Google Hangouts Use Google + hangouts to create hot spots for discussion and peer to peer interaction. Much like webinars and tweetchats, Google + Hangouts are a great way to offer value to your audience as well as stand out in your community as a place to helpful content and information. You can record the conversations to add to your YouTube channel to help boost your company's video content. Visit the Google + hangouts page to see which live hangouts are happening and see if there's any going live that you can jump into to get to know your audience better. 7) Create a community Much like sponsoring an event within your niche, creating a community is a great way to identify your company as a thought leader in the industry. Creating a community is a great way to keep a close eye on what's happening in the market. Positions your company as a brand that wants to give value back to your community. Make your group public but on an approval to join basis so you can cut back on spammers. You're next From creating a page to taking advantage of all the social possibilities that Google + offers, these tips can do a lot to help you position your company in a way that will enable you to grow your company community. Google + helps you establish your credibility, improve your visibility and both grow/nurture your community. Did you find these tips helpful? Have you used any of them yourself? What Google + features have you used that you found to be beneficial in helping grow your company community? Please leave a comment and let everyone know!

9 Google Webmaster Tips for an Inbound Marketer Posted: 04 Jan 2014 10:00 AM PST Google Webmaster is not the flashiest tool. There are other tools out there that have a ton more functionality and can tell you much of the same information. Google Webmaster does have 2 distinct advantages, though, that make it something you should definitely set up for your website: # 1 – It's free. There is no charge for Google Webmaster tools and it is super easy to setup. # 2  - The information is directly from Google. Google is responsible for over 66% of the search traffic in the world. If they want to directly tell me anything about my website, I'm going to listen. These two reasons make Google Webmasters one of the first things to look at when starting to analyze a website. Below is a list of things to check out to make sure everything is a-ok with Google. Setup both www.website.com and website.com. This can be a frustrating one. Shouldn't Google know better. Most of the time this will not be an issue, but occasionally Google will not provide accurate data for one of the two. If you only setup one, there is a possibility you are only seeing partial data. Check Messages. Google is kind enough to send you messages for a number of different things ranging from a hack to an increase in 404 errors. Check manual actions (under search traffic) to look for Google Penalties. This one isn't the most intuitive to look for, but it is very important. If you see this you’re in good shape: If you see this it’s time to contact an expert: Check the Security Issues tab. When there is an issue here you should have received a message under your Site Messages tab, but it's always safer to double check. This is where Google Webmaster's lets you know if they have seen that your site has been hacked. Check Internal Links (under search traffic).  Google values good inbound links. In fact it is still one of the most important search ranking factors, but it has become harder on links that have no value. Look for fishy links and clean them up before Google starts punishing you for them. Many times it is obvious the links are spammy, but watch out for directory links. If you have a site that is getting many links from a single directory, this is something you will want to look into further. Check pages being indexed. This can be checked under Google index > Index Status (It can also be checked outside of Webmasters through a Google search "site:www.website.com"). It doesn't do much good to have a website if Google isn't indexing you. Always best to double check. Look at HTML improvements. This can be found under search appearance. If this is the first time you've looked here the quantity of suggestions may be a bit daunting. I wouldn't drive myself crazy to solve every suggestion on this page. This is a small part of your rankings and depending on your CMS some may take some time to solve. However, you should definitely take the time to sort out any that are easy to fix and start chipping away at the rest over time. Check for Crawl errors. This will tell you if you have a bunch of page not found errors (404s). This can be corrected by submitting 301 redirects. If there are many 404 errors, 301 redirects should be submitted as soon as possible. Sitemap submitted.  This is found under Crawl>Sitemaps This helps the crawlers find pages on your site faster and more efficiently. Going through this process every time you start a website can save you time in the long run. It lets Google tell you if the SEO foundation of your website is solid. Are there any other Google Webmaster tricks or tactics you use? Let me know in the comments.  scottfeldstein via Compfight cc

The Social Media War (Infographic) Posted: 04 Jan 2014 09:36 AM PST A war is brewing. Recently, Masters in Marketing posted this fantastic infographic that gives a perfect overview of the current state of affairs in the social media space. Some significant take-aways: Over 60% increase in adult internet users using Facebook 40-80% increase in overall social media participation for users over 30 20% of all internet users over 18 are active on LinkedIn Between Q2 and Q3 of 2013, there was a 15% increase in usage of LinkedIn Source: Masters-in-Marketing.org

The Importance of Google+ for Marketers Posted: 04 Jan 2014 07:47 AM PST To many people nowadays, Google+ is still somewhat of an enigma. Sometimes, it is difficult to get attached to a given social media channel and to really understand how to leverage it to its fullest potential. Google+ is worth closer consideration. The reasons why marketers are not sold on Google+ Many marketers have a variety of reasons why they don't use Google+ or why they have never really gotten into using it in any profound way. Some of those reasons are: Lack of convenience: To many people, Google+ may not seem as easy or convenient to use as other popular social media channels. It may simply be a matter of getting used to using it and just proceeding with it. Complicated to learn: Some people have an issue with how long it takes to learn to use Google+ effectively. It may be true that there is a long learning curve to really get up to speed but the effort will definitely be well worth it. The business owner cannot connect with his or her target audience: Because Google+ has not been around for as long as some of the other social media channels that have become so popular, the number of people who have connected may not be as great. However, more and more people are joining Google+ communities all of the time and if the business owner's target audience members have not been connected up to this point, they can join easily and that issue will completely be eliminated. If you consider the perspective of the marketer, it is easy to understand that Google+ may not be as "friendly" as some of the other social media channels to navigate, interact, etc. However, once the person learns how to use it, it will definitely be smooth sailing from there. When it comes to the complexity factor of Google+, it is easy to understand that marketers (and all other people) would like to use social media tools that are as simple and straightforward as possible and they want to get the most that they can from their efforts. After all, business people generally have very little spare time and they definitely appreciate it when their time is being spent efficiently and effectively. To be perfectly transparent, even though the tool is very effective and very helpful to businesses, it does contain several different features and it will take some effort and time on the part of the marketer to learn everything that he or she needs to know in order to leverage it completely. Beyond that, there is absolutely no reason for a marketer to not use Google+ for business. The excuse of not using it because the target audience members are not using the tool does not really hold any water. It is certainly easy enough to get the target audience to connect and to begin to interact with you. The many features that Google+ offers are so effective and they really will allow you to interact effectively with your target audience and to build your mutually beneficial relationship together. After all, social media can only succeed through relationships that flourish. Search capabilities and Google+ Even if you are connected to many different social media channels, that doesn't mean that you should forsake Google+. If you do, you will be missing out on a tremendous opportunity to optimize your content for the search engines. If you share your blog content on Google+, it will be indexed more quickly and you can create greater amounts of blog content on the focused topics that are of interest to your target audience. If you are not sure about how to position your content, you can either get advice on keywords and key phrases of study independently and figure out which keywords and key phrases to use. Listening and Google+ If your content is on Google+, you can monitor who is saying what about you and your business. You can set up alerts (right on your brand page) to notify you when anyone is saying anything about your business or about you. It is critical for you to be aware of the feedback, whether it is positive or negative. You will also have to evaluate each alert and decide which ones warrant a response from you. Google and Google+ Google is used extensively and it has a strong connection to Google+. They really go hand in hand and you can really benefit from them. Google is so widely used that chances are very good that everyone is connected. You may be surprised at how much you can tap into between the two tools. Using Google+ to create content Google+ allows you to create content quite easily. There are many features that will enable you to create your content in a way that is highly appealing and can reach every person you have the desire to reach. The capabilities of the tool are astronomical and your content will be extraordinary as a result. Conclusion Google+ is an amazing tool for many business people and it is especially effective for marketers. If your inclination is to stay away from it, a little research will make you understand quickly that you can leverage the tool effectively and your business will succeed and soar to even greater heights because of it. If you haven't made Google+ a part of your social media marketing strategy yet, it is time to consider it seriously. Google+ will help you to build credibility, position yourself as a subject matter expert, and strengthen your professional reputation even more than ever before. 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20 Amazing Marketing Statistics That Will Drive 2014 (Infographic) Posted: 04 Jan 2014 07:36 AM PST As we have flipped the calendar to 2014 and closed the chapter of 2013. Marketers have started developing social media strategies for 'The New Year'. This is the year where social media is no longer a luxury; it will become a must-have in the current marketing strategies. In 2014, marketers will use dynamic content to deliver targeted, highly-personalized experiences to the right audience at the right time. Below are the 20 amazing Marketing Statistics that will drive 2014. What to expect 78% of CMOs think that custom content is the future of marketing. Talking to everyone will be ineffective thus having a specific message for very select audiences will deliver bigger results. Marketing teams will spend $135 billion on digital marketing collateral. There will be more money involved, more people involved, and more online players than ever before. Internet advertising will account for 25% of the entire ad market by 2015. Wow right! Trends in the marketing mix Social Media: Social media marketing budgets will double over the next 5 years. Content: Nearly 50% of companies now have content marketing strategies. Content is the king and always be will be, thus there will always be need for organic content which will attract your audience's attention. Email: Email with social sharing buttons increase click-through rates by 158%. Creating email marketing campaigns with more shareable content and the ability to easily share will help increase your reach. Events: 67% of B2B content marketers are finding events to be a very effective marketing tactic. PR: 73% of reporters think press releases should include images. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words and 3/4th of the reporters agree with the same quote as well. PPC: 72% of PPC marketers (those who use pay-per-click advertising) plan to increase their PPC budget in 2014. SEO: SEO (search engine optimization) is vital — 33% of traffic from Google organic search results goes to the first item listed. Wow! If you're not already active in Google +, you need to seriously consider how to add it in your online marketing strategy. Make certain you are optimizing all of the Google tools such as authorship markup, Google+ Local listings, Maps, etc. All of this will help towards your SEO. What to consider for your digital audience Inbound marketing delivers 54% more leads than traditional outbound marketing. 52% of marketers have found a customer via Facebook in this year. Facebook prevails, but a very important point to remember. Facebook is not the only means of social media; integrate other mediums as well in your marketing strategies. 43% of marketers have found a customer via LinkedIn in 2013. B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads than those that don't. 55% of marketers increased their digital marketing budget this year. Visual content is processed by the brain 60,000 times faster than text. Videos on landing pages increase conversion by 86%. 65% of people are visual learners, so there will be an industry-wide shift toward to employing visual content in marketing initiatives. All content: blogs, emails, Ebooks, PR announcements, social media posts, infographics, etc. – will need captivating visuals to stand out and draw people's attention in. Source: Web-based asset management company WebDAM has compiled this infographic highlighting 20 legit statistics and digital marketing predictions for this New Year.

Why Facebook is the Next Big Thing in Recruitment Posted: 04 Jan 2014 05:30 AM PST Just like the rise of social media, the recruitment industry has also evolved from platform to platform. One of the latest discussions online is the relevance and the use of Facebook's Graph Search as a recruitment tool. This article will take a look at Facebook's users, Facebook as an alternative to LinkedIn and some statistics explaining the phenomenon. Look At The Statistics It's easy to make fun of Facebook. The depressed stock, the misguided political comments, the unguarded vanity of high school "friends"—all tend to reinforce the inanity of the social network. But a billion people still use it. Even those who complain (like me) still use it. And for large, multinational companies, it's becoming an increasingly valuable tool for recruiting employees. – Forbes Even though Facebook's reputation has gone through a bit of a dip, there is still no denying the fact that over 1 billion people are still using it. If a social platform is still in use, it is still seen as valuable for those looking to retrieve data. If Facebook users are making most of its data public, it's like a gold mine for recruiters. It's not only highly beneficial for those looking to employ, but also for job seekers: The average person spends 1 in every 7 minutes online on Facebook (Work4) 52% of job seekers used Facebook to look for work in 2012. (Mashable) 22 million people surveyed used social media to find their last job in 2012. That's up from 14.4 in 2011. (Jobvite survey) 84% of job seekers have a Facebook profile. (Time Business) 50% of users say a brand's Facebook page is more useful than its website (Work4) 81% of jobseekers want to see job opportunities posted to Facebook career pages (Work4) The Battle of Facebook vs LinkedIn "Facebook is really a platform, not an application. While LinkedIn is being run like a data-driven application, Facebook is really a sharing platform from which many companies can build applications". – Forbes The main factor to keep in mind is that these platforms have different users and serve different purposes. Even though both Facebook and LinkedIn share the same features, they don't necessarily have the same following. Facebook recruiting has the chance to be successful mainly because of the average age of its users. LinkedIn is more focused on the working professionals with college degrees and experience. They don't particularly target entry level job seekers or the average work force. What works well for LinkedIn is its niche- focus but it might be overlooking prospective employees because of its age parameter. "With around 160 million members (mostly professionals in their 30s and older), LinkedIn has become the virtual rolodex for business people". – Forbes According to this article featured on Forbes.com [the] world is rapidly getting younger (e.g. 55% of the US workforce will be under the age of 35 within 3 year). The younger generation is growing up on Facebook, so this would be their go-to guide for whatever they are searching for. Recruiters would be playing it smart by fishing for the younger generation job-seekers on the platform or social network that they feel most comfortable with. Facebook Career Pages Job seekers are likely to follow the career pages of industry-specific companies. Not only because they are interested in what the company is about, but also because they are hoping this particular company would be advertising a possible job openings. By following what the company is about, the prospective employee would be able to get a clear idea of what they are looking for. The same goes for recruiters. Because of these Facebook Career Pages recruiters would be able to make a better match between a candidate and a company. An example of a company that implemented a Facebook Recruiting Campaign is Earls (a chain of premium casual dining restaurants in North America). Here is screenshot of the cover and below you'll find the current job opportunities with the chain – all inside the Facebook page. "Earls Restaurant recently decided to make Facebook the main focus of their social media recruiting strategy with their Earls Wants You Facebook recruiting campaign. They chose Facebook for all of the reasons mentioned above, but also because it allowed them to convey their company culture to potential hires in a way that neither Twitter nor LinkedIn (let alone any job boards) allowed.". – Jobcast Facebook has the power of visuals on their side. Even though people might use Twitter and LinkedIn for recruitment, Facebook can display the company's culture through videos and images and regular updates. This interactive appeal is what makes this platform successful for recruitment. Less Is More When It Comes to Competition Only about 60% of hiring managers are actually using Facebook to recruit. (NAS Recruitment) At the moment Facebook Recruitment is still rather young, which makes it even better for recruiters. They have the chance to scan through the talent and opening while the competition is still busy elsewhere. Coming on board with Facebook recruitment will give your company a head start in building the online brand, connections and proving your credibility. Have a Look at Using Graph Search Apart from the obvious branding and advertising opportunities on Facebook, recruiters should also start using Graph Search which is similar to (but possibly better) Advanced People Search on LinkedIn. On Facebook, you can search through profile data of members who are either your friends, friends of friends or have public data on their profiles which many users do nowadays. For anyone starting out with this, have a look at How to Use Facebook Graph Search (Noob Edition) by Maren Hogan. You can also have a look at Facebook's own explanation of Graph Search and its many uses. Finally, if you're still not sure about Facebook recruiting, have a look at this video by our partners Work4: Does your company use Facebook for recruiting and/or employer branding? Please let us know in the comments!

Content Marketing Guide to 2014: 3 New Year’s Resolutions Posted: 04 Jan 2014 05:00 AM PST 2014 has lots of great things in store for your content marketing strategy, but like all good things, these rewards will take some elbow grease. (But not TOO much. Here's how to work smarter; not harder.) A few weeks ago, Content Marketing Institute (CMI) published their 2014 Content Marketing Predictions eBook, featuring 50 predictions from content thought leaders on what they think is next in 2014. Many of these thought leaders were right on par with where Curata sees content marketing going in the new year! We have three New Year's Resolutions for those of you hoping to whip your content marketing strategy into shape this year: (1) hire a team dedicated to content (2) integrate technology into your content workflow and (3) improve the quality of your content. Resolution #1: Hire a Content Team Joe Pulizzi, Founder at CMI, predicts that in 2014 "at least three Fortune 500 brands will hire a Chief Content Officer." This is where we think content is headed. With the increasing significance of content marketing and the positive impact it's having on businesses, it's becoming more and more important to hire a content executive to manage your company's editorial. The next step is to build a sustainable content team. Content marketing is not a part-time job. It requires a team dedicated to creating and managing content that helps to boost brand awareness and thought leadership; ultimately driving qualified and sales ready leads. Hire a content marketing team that understands the editorial process AND your brand values to better drive team organization, content quality and leads. Joakim Arhammar's, Content Strategist at KW Digital, prediction aligns with this resolution as well. He predicts that in 2014, "More companies will hire a cross functional editor-in-chief in charge of all editorial content produced by the company." Decide what type of content leadership your organization your benefit from and build your team from there. Robert Rose, Chief Strategist at CMI, predicts, "…2014 is the year that companies finally start to proactively and formally create internal organizations for the management of content marketing strategies." The formation and development of a content marketing team will further the credibility of your organization's content through a stable strategy and management process. Resolution #2: Content Marketing Technology Content marketing technology is becoming more and more critical as organizations try to differentiate themselves and stay ahead of their competitors. Without it, you may fall behind in 2014. (For a full list of content marketing technologies out there today, check out Content Marketing Tools: The Ultimate List by our CEO, Pawan Deshpande.) Content software designed to help users distribute their content will become a necessity for organizations looking to stay ahead of the curve. Getting your content out to multiple channels with one-click can be a life saver when it comes to saving time. Publishing real-time content will keep the conversations going on your topic, position you as in-the-know and make your content a dependable source for your audience. Distribution is key when it comes to content. How can you get all your information to the right audience, in real-time AND in an organized fashion? By implementing content marketing technology, of course! Joe Chernov, VP of Content at HubSpot predicts, "As brands begin to create a surfeit of content, the meritocracy (if one even exists) will shift from the "best" content to the smartest distribution." Jon Miller, VP of Product Marketing at Marketo, gave his predictions in his article, "When it Comes to Marketing in 2014, the Only Thing You Can Predict Is Yourself," originally posted on Inc. "Today marketing is about conversations instead of campaigns, and that means being able to communicate with prospects and customers where they are and when they want to hear from you. Consumers today are better at filtering out noise than ever before, and your business relies on your having the right tools." Having the right content marketing technology helps your business distribute to the right audience at the right time. Making a resolution to put technology into action this year will also help you stay organized. Using a platform that allows you to find sources, organize and publish content in one place keeps your content developers coordinated and on schedule. The ability to crowd-source in a content marketing solution (like Curata's bookmarklet, for example, which allows your team to add articles on the fly with one click from any page) can lead to more diversity and innovation in content as well. Resolution #3: Quality Content Now you have the people and the technology – great! Next it's time for the most important content marketing resolution of 2014 – quality. Quality doesn't always mean quantity. In fact, best-in-class content marketers use the Content Marketing Pyramid to get the most mileage out of one piece of great content. Start with an eBook. …Then turn that eBook into a webinar. …Create an infographic based on the same content. …Write a series of blog posts to break down the eBook content. …Curate articles on related information. Get it? You can re-purpose content into more digestible forms to reach a wider audience and increase the buzz surrounding your topic. Melissa Chang, President and CEO at PureB2B, has the same idea. Her prediction was that "Marketers will begin to be smarter about creating one body of content and distributing it in a variety of short, easily digestible formats." You spent a lot of time working on that piece of long form content and there's a lot of information in there. Don't immediately move on to the next piece. Keep pumping out shorter, more digestible assets to accompany the research that you put a lot of time into. Besides, not everyone is going to read your eBook the same month it's published. Promote it with short form content until you've saturated the market you audience is looking for information in. Think about your editorial calendar, if you launch the eBook this month, maybe launch a blog series next month. (Content marketing technology can also help you manage this as well.) Best-in-class marketers are also upping the quality of their original content by supporting it with curated content. Curation of information from third party sources (i.e. thought leaders) adds credibility, variety and further establishes your organization as in-the-know. The ability to annotate curated pieces and add your own insights still allows you to display your expertise on your topic. It's a great way to save time and resources with the need to publish fresh content every day. Pawan Deshpande's 2014 prediction is aligned with the quality aspect of your content marketing strategy. As content gains more attention, there is going to be a growing need for marketers to stay ahead of their competitors. "As a result, we will see a heavier emphasis on being unique, adding value, annotating, and ultimately the convergence of curated and created content." Ready to kick these New Year's resolutions into gear? Download our latest eBook, Stop Egocentric Marketing for more information on how to publish a higher quality of content. To see the full list of content marketing predictions for 2014, check out CMI's eBook.

Social Media Meets SEO In 2014 Posted: 03 Jan 2014 11:47 AM PST It appears from the way things are headed that SEO is coming back. Coming back in the form of social media. Companies like Google and Facebook would like to see organic search go away and everything go to pay-per-click advertising. Little by little, organic search is getting squeezed out. I have used pay-per-click advertising in the past and found it somewhat effective, but it comes at such a high price and the model of paying more and more money to get a better slot on the first page of Google or more impressions on Facebook is not a sustainable model and frankly is a bit of a waste of money. Why not focus more on content to better reach your potential client market. In 2013, content marketing came back strong. Many companies came back to blogs and there were some great information being shared on social media sites. Then a couple of months ago, Google Hummingbird was released and marketers woke up to the realization that search marketing had changed in a big way. Searches were now going conversational and companies have been trying to find ways to keep marketing online using an "organic" emphasis and trying not to move towards a a pay-per-click emphasis. Now, it appears social media and seo are coming together. I call it, "Smart Marketing Optimization". We cannot ignore social media any longer, but we need to use it smarter. In addition, seo is not going away either, (even though some people would have you believe that). It's all about changing with the new rules. Smart Marketing Optimization is all about finding ways to get our message out to the masses and making sure people can find us. Believe it or not, some new clients mentioned that they found my company using the yellow pages. Now, I believe the trend is definitely going away from this, but the fact is that people are finding your company in a variety of ways. Most people would have you believe social media is the answer. My feeling is that it is a part of the solution, but I would not stop going to trade shows or sending out direct mail pieces. All of these items are critical to creating a powerful brand. The focus needs to be on interacting with your clients and finding ways to keep in touch with them. I do believe brevity and quality are part of the equation. All of us need to work at improving our marketing messages and making them stick with our clients. We are being overloaded with data everyday. Our children are interacting with data at a rate not seen. What are people remembering about your company? What messages are resonating? Are images, video and voice replacing traditional type, pen and paper. Can all types of media be used if the message is a powerful one? How do we incorporate mobile apps into this process? Are we moving toward metrics that measure "true connections" and "type of connections" versus shear count numbers and hits? I believe analytics are getting more personal and social as a result. These are interesting times and companies need to find ways to go deeper and look at the idea of Smart Marketing Optimization in a whole new way. This is how I am looking at the whole marketing dynamic and it is helping me see things in a whole new perspective. More to come in 2014! What are your thoughts? | Hopefully, you are looking at things a bit differently these days. Image courtesy of Pong / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How to Get Twitter Influencers to Link To Your Blog Post Posted: 03 Jan 2014 10:05 AM PST Let me ask you a question. …. Did you notice what happened? Did you notice that you gave me your full attention for that split second? That is called the power of QUESTIONS. If you ask, people listen. Now, that is actually an example of this greater marketing concept called reciprocity. According to Wikipedia Reciprocity in social psychologyrefers to responding to a positive action with another positive action, rewarding kind actions. As a social construct, reciprocity means that in response to friendly actions, people are frequently much nicer and much more cooperative than predicted by the self-interest model; conversely, in response to hostile actions they are frequently much more nasty and even brutal. Yes, what goes around comes around, like a boomerang. Now, if you are reading this blog, you probably know by now that, more links mean more traffic.. and thus more customers and more money. (This is the basis behind SEO, or search engine optimization.I though I may use SEO tricks, I don't really DO SEO). Often times, people do all kinds of SEO stuff.. like outright asking people to link to them. Problem is.. this type of self promotion doesn't work …why? It's all about YOU YOU YOU. No one wants to be in a one sided conversation. Give First, Ask Later If you want to gain people's trust, you have to first GIVE them something without expecting anything in return. So how do you get someone influential to link to you? Link to them FIRST. Why? As the old saying goes… "flattery will get you everywhere". People LOVE talking about themselves. People love it even MORE when you talk about them to YOUR audience. If a person of influence sees that you are talking about them and sharing their posts with YOUR audience, you immediately get their attention. Create flattering post with a title like "Top X Must Read Blog Posts for Y People", then you surely WILL get in their radar… and if you tell them (i.e. tweet to them) about it, you will most likely get a re-tweet or even a link for their blog. Here's one I did for marketers: top 6 must read for marketers. When I tweeted, the authors sure gave me some tweet love: BUT……….. this can get REAL time consuming. Imagine, you read bunch of awesome posts and want to create a "top 10″ post that links out to 10 other blogs. You gotta get the title download the preview image (because preview image increases engagement rate and lower bounce rate), resize it to a correct dimension, if the preview image doesn't exist, show something … like a screenshot of the page create a link to the post search for twitter handles for you to Tweet to Imagine that you have to do that 10 TIMES (i.e. 10 posts that you wanted to link to). If one post takes you 3-6 minutes of work, this can mean an 1/2 an hour to an hour of your life that you have to invest. That's why I wrote the Twitter LinkBait Post Creator plugin. What is a linkbait? Basically a "bait" (i.e. a reason) to get people to link to you. This (and other linkbaiting) is an incredibly powerful way to get influencers to tweet about your post, and eventually build your own following. Here's how you work the plugin (after you download & install it). Step 1: Curate the Content Get the URLS of the pots you want to promote. Sorry. You can't automate this. You have to actually READ the posts and see if they're worth promoting to your people. Usually you can get the "post worthy" blog posts just by following the posts of the Twitter users you follow / admire / want to get tweets from. Step 2: Create a Twitter Linkbait Post 1) Go to "Posts => Promote" 2) Enter the title of the post that links OUT to other posts 3) Enter the URLs to promote (one per line, no HTTPS posts please). For each of the URLs posted, the plugin will parse the HTML and fetch the 1) Title 2) Description (either meta description or og:descripton) 3) Preview image (either image_src or og:image in html head), upload to your media gallery, and resize accordingly. If no preview image is specified in the header, then a screen shot is generated instead via ImmediateNet. Then it will create a nice sexy post compilation, like this: http://www.freshsupercool.com/top-10-must-read-for-marketers-nov-4-2013/. Step 3: Tweet the Post to the Authors The plugin will look for ALL twitter handles associated with the posts, so that you can send them a tweet about it. (Don't forget to ask them to retweet). Unfortunately it looks or ALL twitter handles listed on the page, even if they might not be associated with the post. SO I suggest you look at the post and see 1) Twitter handle of the author 2) If the post is a guest post, Twitter handle of the one who owns the blog Download & install the Twitter LinkBait Post Creator plugin for wordpress.

7 Things For Effective Networking On LinkedIn Posted: 03 Jan 2014 08:47 AM PST The multi-lingual professional social networking service LinkedIn has over 225 million users from more than 200 countries across the globe. If you go by Wayne Breitbarth, author of The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success, it goes: The experience and connections of seasoned professionals give them (users) a leg up in harnessing the benefits of LinkedIn. That means a lot for professionals on LinkedIn who know how to take off from being on it. But, there are still others who may not have learned to leverage the network's strengths. Below are few things you may not be knowing or doing right on LinkedIn. Checkout! Linkedin Is A Horse Of Different Color LinkedIn is unlike Facebook or Twitter. You don't share flaky updates on LinkedIn about your recent travel trip and what you ate in the supper last night. LinkedIn lays out the user information under set categories like Profile Name, Company, Summary, Experience, Education, Languages, Skills & Expertise, Groups, etc. All you need to do is to fill up every information carefully and thoughtfully. Whatever you write is going to help you in showing up in the search results. Make use of good keywords while framing up your profile. Do not minimalize and center yourself well. Know the Stage Well Most users who are landing on LinkedIn have already had their experiences on other social networking sites. They believe they know LinkedIn too. But, LinkedIn is a large database of 'strict' professionals. While they have chosen to do a line of business on LinkedIn, they are looking for the like-minded professionals. And, you could be one of them too. LinkedIn's own revenue comes through talent solutions, marketing solutions and premium subscriptions. You must know how you can secure your own place in these three verticals. Fixing Headline & Profile Anonymity LinkedIn Headlines are very important. It is no secret unless you try to keep it ambiguous. Keep it clear as people are going to get attracted to significant headlines. Prepare a forward looking profile unlike a resume that goes backward looking. You can keep a number of job titles, charged with keywords. Don't miss out to write a job description under each title, where you get a limit of up to 2,000 characters. Link Up & Connect If you are on LinkedIn, then you already know the lines well: Connect. Find. Be found. The number of connections you make on LinkedIn is going to establish your online identity. This will help you in getting to know more and more people whom you are directly or indirectly associated. Try to completely avoid those whom you know not and are ineffectual. A good number of recommendations can help you in establishing yourself among recruiters, help you in emerging in search results, and in a way validate what you have already mentioned in your profile. You Are Not Sharing Out In other words, this means that you are tuning up with the opportunities on LinkedIn if you are not sharing enough. You can discover a lot of new ventures and business deals that are coming your way. You can share your content on LinkedIn feed and can reach out to more connections. What all can you share on LinkedIn? For example, presentations, videos, documents, case studies, images, PDFs, and many more. This gives a share of how you like to interrelate with other connections on LinkedIn. Ignoring the Summary Do not neglect the summary. Write it in first person and give it a prospect to break the ice. You can make it like an introduction to your Headline. A well-written summary speaks about how you would like to project yourself on LinkedIn. Therefore, express correctly and clearly. Getting Into Groups Join LinkedIn Groups where you can approach and interact on various subjects. This also facilitates others in contacting you via Group Messaging. Do not choose Groups that are invalid or meaningless. Try to be active and effective, and share your views explicitly. These joined Groups display on your profile page and show your pursuit. Summing Up LinkedIn is one of the most trusted social media networks, where professionals go over reliably in search of other members. Therefore, projecting oneself correctly should be the first move. Avoid any false move that stands in the way of securing a vantage on LinkedIn. Try gaining maximum while you are on LinkedIn.

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