Google Penguin update targets 1% of English queries.

Penguin 3.0 update

Just two weeks after the Panda 4.1 update, Google has begun a worldwide rollout of an update to Penguin last Friday (October 17th). Penguin is an algorithm that targets websites that have unnatural backlinks. As Google's Pierre Far mentioned on Google+ this "refresh" should help sites that cleaned the webspam that was discovered in the last Penguin update. And of course this update also hits the sites that have now been found to contain webspam. The update is already referred to as Penguin 3.0 and will be rolled out over the next few weeks. It is said to impact about 1% of the English queries, but could affect other languages more or less. Do you think you've been hit by this Penguin update or the recent Panda update and are you in need of help? Order a SEO Website Review and have us analyze your website. Www.search-find.co.uk

Our accountants seriously great!

 They are Coventry based #accountants who care about thier clients and proactively look at ways to help #business grow. http://t.co/jncMDbkTAG

Visit there twitter @accountssol 

Total digital media management

The Trade 4 Trade Total Digital Media Management package designed for businesses, who are to busy to learn then execute a new trade, has amazing testimonials from our clients. We have called it the Executive Membership, to find out more visit us at the C W Chamber of Commerce trade expo this Friday. 

Www.trade4trade.org.uk<br /><br /><a href="http://www.trade4trade.org.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/IMG_30812.jpg"><img src="http://www.trade4trade.org.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/IMG_30812.jpg" alt="IMG_3081.JPG" class="alignnone size-full" /></a> http://www.trade4trade.org.uk/blog/total-digital-media-management/

Digital media management.

Total Digital Media Management. Give us a call to find out more or join our Facebook group, tweet us, plus us, press us, tumble or stumble us, you can even poke us! Or use good old fashioned email us. Www.trade4trade.org.uk

Brilliant new Idea for Business

Trade 4 Trade A revolutionary idea.

At last, a way to unleash the potential fast growth of your business and visibility online. So many businesses want to benefit from the phenomenon, but how do you make sure you stand out from the crowd? Trade 4 Trade is a new and unique way of making sure your message is seen/heard? by the people you need to be talking to - today. With over twelve years’ experience in the field of Digital marketing we can guide you through the minefield and take the mystery out of effective online networking.

Interact with other businesses

Trade 4 Trade is a unique way for you to interact with other businesses. Whether you’re starting out or already established; have a service to offer or are looking for help, our range of options can help you succeed. Making effective use of the exponential growth of your visibility and online presence, Trade 4 Trade quickly puts you in touch with the people you need.

Who are we?

Led by Managing Director Anthony Johnson, listed within the top 10 of the SMAUK top 500 Digital marketing Influences. 

Trade 4 Trade’s team can call on a wealth of experience in the twin fields of internet and social media marketing. Over the last twelve years we have put together over 100 successful start-up campaigns and developed a reputation as true leaders in the area. Working in tandem with your business, our certified marketing professionals have the expert knowledge to help transform your ideas into a successful outcome for your business.

What is Trade 4 Trade?

The Trade 4 Trade platform is a user-friendly facility allowing businesses to interact with one another in a unique “trade for trade” marketplace – bringing the barter economy to the internet age. By taking advantage of the existing social and digital networks, Trade 4 Trade lets you quickly and easily reach out to like-minded businesses, forging alliances at a local, national or even international level.

How does it work?

Let’s look at a real example.

As a brand new business, Graphic Designer Paul was struggling to find a printer to reproduce his own stationery at a price within his limited budget. Paul signed up to Trade 4 Trade and quickly found a printer that urgently needed some artwork for another client. They agreed to print Paul’s stationery in return for a day’s work and both were so happy with the results that they’ve not only worked together since, but provided recommendations to their respective clients. Trade 4 Trade has proved itself an invaluable resource for all parties concerned.

And it isn’t just start-ups that benefit. Trade 4 Trade has a range of options that can be tailored to fit businesses of all size. Expanding? Need help? Our advanced employer tools allow you to fill vacancies, find contractors, compete for tenders and increase your client database.

What do I do?

Once you’ve signed up to Trade 4 Trade you’ll be able to create your own search engine-facing profile which acts as a company website, giving you an immediate online presence. This will be shared via all of our internet media resources. We maintain a presence on over fifty social media platforms -you’ll instantly be visible to tens of thousands of contacts thanks to our unique real-time posting algorithm.

You can choose to promote your services on either our home page or other pages across the platform.

Our members-only mobile app (for iPhone or Android) lets you search for exactly what you need, putting you in touch with other members wherever and whenever you want from the convenience of your hand-held device.

A testimonial feature allows you to read comments and recommendations from other members. Peace of mind that you’re trading with a reputable business. After your trades you can send and receive your own feedback to help create a community of trust. Nothing instils confidence like an honest testimonial for a job well done.

Each month there are free downloads keeping you up to date with the latest trends and advice from the digital marketing world. We’ve always got our finger on the pulse - if it’s relevant, you’ll know about it.

Trade 4 Trade is simple to use but free help is always at hand from experienced online mentors through our members’ community portal.

What else is there?

Trade 4 Trade operates a loyalty reward scheme:

Introduce a friend to us and we’ll give you one month’s free access to the service.

Use the service for a continuous twelve month period and we’ll give you another month for free on top.

Start-up businesses can take advantage of our low-priced starter packs with all you need to get up and running: Business cards; compliment slips; logo and Letterhead designs together with a fully optimised website including Twitter and Facebook facilities.

We can provide you with award-winning insurance products, specially designed around the Trade 4 Trade user’s profile.

Sounds great; what happens now?

Trade 4 Trade really is revolutionary. Though the basic premise is all about matching service with service, the benefits and effects far exceed the original remit. No other platform lets you instantly start to build your client database, acquire testimonials, create brand awareness and begin good quality working relationships like this one.

Come and join us. Let’s work together to encourage an active online business community and get working towards a brighter future.

Packages start from £9.99 per month or £99 per annum. Please contact us today 0800 772 3457 or visit the website Here.

When will Google learn?

When you have been doing digital marketing as long as I have, it becomes like fashion, the methods keep coming back round again! But it's googles fault, every time they think they fix a problem two are created. Many years ago we used RSS feeds to dominate the market by tricking G into thinking the site was updated with fresh content every hour, now all the top sites are doing it again! Ah Google when will you learn! Lol

A random blog post about my new hobby.

Please feel free to humour me with compliments on my new found hobby of taking random photos! Lol http://t.co/txGadLHMHg

A Tour Inside Twitter's Stylish New San Francisco Headquarters

The building Twitter calls home previously stood vacant for 50 years. See how the social-media company revamped its new headquarters. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/entrepreneur/latest/~3/fRfapZemKU0/232889

Putting Together Your Social Media Team

Social media teams can range from one person to hundreds of employees. They can be part of the marketing division, public relations department or a specific team hired solely to handle social media. Regardless of structure, someone needs to lead the way and take charge of social media output

Your social media manager's level of responsibility will depend on how experienced they are with social media, the size of your team, and the size and reach of the company. Obviously the one-person team has to take on the full load, so it may be smart to limit the number of platforms you can cover well so your manager can respond to people promptly and post accordingly. If you don't have the budget or manpower to be on several platforms, stick with the top one or two on your list, the ones that best meet your needs and are used by your target audience.

You need to select the right people for the right tasks and train them. People who want to work in social media must be ready, willing and enthusiastic about learning about your business, your products and your services. They'll need to absorb a lot of information about the company and be very good listeners. While they're on your platforms, each team member's social media identity must be that of your business and brand. They need to make sure your followers, fans and customers are happy.

Your dream team should include:

People who are social media savvy. You want people who are comfortable on at least one social media platform and preferably more. Because everyone claims to be an "expert" because they spend time on Facebook, ask tough how-to questions, as well as what they might do in a certain scenario. You can tell pretty quickly if someone knows about social media or is making it up as they go. For instance, if you ask the candidate what they thought of the new (and fictitious) social network "Fourblog" and they punt with something like, "I can't believe how fast it's growing!" you know they're not being honest.

Knowledgeable team members. Make sure everyone is very well versed in what your business does, its products or services, and the brand you're trying to convey. If they don't know an answer to a customer or follower's query, make sure they know where to find it quickly. Nothing is worse than giving people wrong answers or no answers. 

The right people in the right positions.Patience and the ability to remain calm even in situations where people are nasty, obnoxious or just plain rude are important attributes if you're going to handle customer service. People who aren't as comfortable engaging on a steady basis but have terrific design or graphic skills may be marvelous designing the look of your pages and choosing the best images. Utilize the skills people bring to the team accordingly.

The right people on the right platforms.Your Twitter platform will need people ready to think fast and respond quickly, because Twitter is an ongoing conversation. Facebook reps will have a little more time to respond, so you may have people who are better at research and giving more detailed answers handling your Facebook page. If someone is more visually oriented and excels in video production, put them on your YouTube platform.

Interaction and consistency. You have a brand and a social media voice (and tone) to present that brand. Some businesses are more lighthearted, others emphasize their culture and history; some are trendy, and others are more elegant or refined. The brand and voice need to be in sync and consistent from platform to platform. Therefore, your team members must interact with one another to make sure everyone's on the same page. Meetings to brief everyone on the latest news and activities are also vital so that fans and followers get the same overall message from each platform.

Out-of-the-box thinking within the box. Your style and your message are encompassed in your overall brand. But within that box, you don't want everyone saying and doing the exact same thing, reading from scripts or putting up the same posts like robots. Empower people to be creative, think out of the box, and come up with new and innovative solutions within the brand parameters.

People who help one another. Rather than throwing new employees into the fray, have them team up and work with more experienced staffers who can help them decide what to post or how to respond before they do it on their own. Encourage people to learn from one another and ask questions.

A team that knows and follows your own best practices. You may already have well-established working solutions that have served customers well. Make sure your team knows the manner in which things have been done successfully in the past so they use such solutions when necessary, because many problems and customer questions will come up again and again.

Caring and enthusiasm. You want a team who genuinely likes what they do and cares about the people with whom they're engaging. The goal of social media is engagement, and you want everyone to have a positive experience when dealing with your business and your brand. Caring and enthusiasm creates a positive experience, especially when someone on your team goes above and beyond for a customer or potential customer.

By Scot Levy

This year, I have read that 40% of the globe will be using the internet to sell us something or gain new clients , all of which are trying to gain a competitive edge on the world wide web.

Digital Marketing gets more difficult each year, as marketers across the globe continue to change their strategies all the time. In a survival situation, the right skills and tools will ensure your safety, security, and comfort. For internet marketing, the secret to survival is no different. With intuition, a passion for knowledge and using helpful tools.

1. Change

To be faced with change we need to adapt, success depends on your ability to learn new techniques. Google is forever looking to change the boundaries of search, keeping us on our toes and earning the money Internet Marketing companies charge, so its only fair you learn, adapt, change and try to keep your clients ahead of the game.

2. Stay Tuned In

Maintaining awareness of your competitors is the most important aspect of surviving. Rapid adaptation is balanced on the ability to notice change in the webs ever changing market. With the latest changes from Google's algorithms and new industry trends and current events flooding the internet market place prepares you to take action. After major Google updates, you must remain aware of their link profiles and be proactive and not panic deleting links with link removal. To complete post-update link audits are a must but use Google webmaster tools (which will tell you if you have spam links) first and if it aint broken,

don't try and fix it!

3. Best Practice

Surviving is largely about knowing the rules. With the mass of suggestions Google provides, it can be difficult to stay in-the-know about the latest webmaster best practices. To avoid penalties from Google, carefully review Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Certain strategies are considered best practices for webmasters, including sitemap submission, clear site hierarchy and the creation of content written with the reader in mind, not search engines. A great way to stay informed is by following Matt Cutts’s blog and their Google Webmaster YouTube channel. Matt is the head of Google’s Webspam Team.

4. Learn

learning new information, techniques and skills is a must. Google’s various changes and updates really keep us on our toes, link building has taken on a different form than it has in the past. SEOs intent on survival are becoming accustomed to the newly-defined best practices for link building, which include heightened focus on proactive engagement with content creators, building brand-relevant links and working diligently to get links from sites with high authority.

5. Move on

Sometimes, moving on is your best chance to succeed. When Matt Cutts quoted that guest blogging for SEO purposes outdated in early 2014, SEOs across the globe launched into action, creating new and better ways to do business. Google’s recent crackdown on MyBlogGuest is a bit harsh but proof that the internet search leader means business when they stated there is to much spam and aim to clean up the internet.

Anthony Johnson

www.search-find.co.uk

How can a social media manager stand out from the rest?

By

While most social media managers approach their job differently there are a few things that the most effective social media managers will have in common.

These seven areas should be applied if you want to succeed in your role as social media manager. With a medium that changes as often and as quickly as social, it’s important to be on top of your game.

Early Starter

The day does not start when you wake up, it carries over through the night and early into the next morning. If you want to find success in your position, you are going to have to be right there monitoring your brand and industry conversations on social first thing in the morning. A major part of the job has to do with keeping an eye out for bad press, negative comments or a social media crisis. These kinds of cases do not wait for you to sleep in and take your time in the morning.

Getting an early start means being alert from the get go. With real-time platforms like social, managers do not have the luxury of easing themselves into the day. If an issue or event comes up, you have to be ready to tackle it. So for all those morning people, you’re off to a good start. For the rest: a cold shower and a bucket of coffee should do the trick.

Great Writer

Great as in even when you throw something together quickly most people envy your innate ability to write. You don’t need to have the most eloquent of speech, but you should be able to speak well (not good, but well) and with complete grammatical accuracy. One of the most upsetting things for social media users is poor grammar from brands. That’s right – not terrible customer service, but poor grammar. (That said, don’t overlook good customer service in the name of proper grammar.)

As a social media manager for a brand or business, you are (generally) speaking on behalf of the company. That means that everything you say or do reflects not on you, but on the brand. So a whole bunch of misspellings and grammatical slip-ups means the brand looks bad and you’ll be taking the heat.

Quick on Your Feet

As noted above, a lot is happening and it is happening fast. You don’t always have the luxury of taking your time to deal with things as they come up. It’s important that you are quick on your feet when it comes to social media. When you need to respond to a tweet, for example, you should know your brand’s voice, the image it wants to maintain and, most importantly, how best to address a comment (or let it lie) in order to avoid any negative repercussions. That takes some quick, critical thinking on your part.

Of course, in the event of a crisis, the best thing to do is to bring the issue to higher ups that know how to handle these sorts of things. Try not to take on too much yourself. Which brings us to our next point:

Modesty Can be an Asset

There is a time to let your ego shine and there is a time where modesty can be your best friend. As a social media manager, you are going to have to realize (sooner rather than later) that you cannot do everything. Sometimes a senior marketing executive is going to have to take the reigns. Sometimes the PR department will have to step in. Sometimes there is an issue best handled by your support staff or the sales team.

Know the limits of your job description and recognize times where something is out of your league. Knowing when to pass things off is just as important as knowing when to take charge.

Friendliness

You were not put in this position because you are a monotonous drone with no people skills. You were likely charming in your interview and a great conversationalist. That’s a great start. That personality should extend to your brand’s social presence. Of course, you will probably be given some guidelines when you first get started indicating what you can and cannot say, but try to give everything that human touch.

People are active on social media because they want to engage in conversations with people all over the world who share similar interests. So, make the social channels highly sociable. A great example of a brand that understands this is Cadbury.

@coreypadveen Mwahahaha!

— Cadbury UK (@CadburyUK) March 14, 2014

Coolheadedness

We seem to keep circling back to one important point: social media are fast paced environments wherein a ton is happening all in real-time. You need to be able to handle that sort of thing if you plan on being a successful social media manager. Becoming easily overwhelmed means it will be tough to go far with the platform. So if you want to succeed in your role, know that you will be able to take a step back, take a deep breath and handle everything that is going on without feeling like it ‘never ends’ – because it doesn’t.

The larger and more public the brand, the truer this holds. If you recognize this aspect and still feel confident that you can handle this without breaking a sweat, you’re in great shape so far. Only one more step to go!

Born Decision Maker

In contrast to the modesty mentioned above, you will also want to be a born decision maker. Marketing, PR and advertising executives do not want to be bothered with every little thing that comes up. It might not seem like it at first (especially when people constantly ask you if you simply post to Facebook all day) but you are being given quite a bit of responsibility as a social media manager. The public voice of the brand is being put in your hands, and you ultimately control its fate. To succeed in this role, you’re going to have to be able to make some important decisions with the utmost confidence.

Know when to respond and when to leave a comment or criticism alone in the socialsphere. You need to be capable of making decisions in real-time about a number of different elements including what content to share, how to respond to messages, how to handle small crises, the best ways to measure returns, the best tools to use, the right campaigns to run, the key demographics to target and quite a bit more.

Conclusion

If all of this sounds like a walk in the park, and these seven habits identify you to a tee, then you might have found your calling! Of course, these are not the only seven habits of highly effective social media managers. Quite a bit more goes into the job. But if you possess these qualities, you are certainly off to a great start!

http://socialmediatoday.com/users/coreypadveen

3 Steps to Powerful LinkedIn Page Optimisation

One of the most powerful tools for marketing your business is a LinkedIn page, but what do you know about optimising your page? It’s an art, not a science. Here are three ways you can better optimise your LinkedIn business page and drive more traffic to your website.

1. Share updates often – Some people say to post updates to your LinkedIn page just once a day. Some people say do it more than once a day. It doesn’t matter how often you do it, but you should do it often. At a minimum, you should update your LinkedIn page at least once a day. Keep the content relevant and post it often. If you don’t, you’ll fade into obscurity.
2. Add visual elements – You can add banners, images of your products, or even videos to your LinkedIn page. I’d say to do all three – as often as you can. Making your LinkedIn page more visible will go a long way to driving up engagement and sending more visitors to your website.
3. Link to a landing page – You can create a landing page just for your LinkedIn page to give visitors a special offer, or you can create specific landing pages for your products and link to different ones from your LinkedIn page as you discuss those products. Pick a strategy, but it needs to make sense for your brand and your visitors. Instead of linking to your home page, link to a powerful landing page with a strong call to action.

How to write an optimised blog.

What is Inbound Marketing? You’ve heard the term thrown around but you’re not 100% what it means. We’re dedicating a series of posts to helping you understand what inbound marketing is and how you can improve your efforts.

Your company blog should be posting at least three days a week – but you already knew that, right? We’re part of an impatient society that texts and tweets, so how can you get your point across without boring people to death? Harsh, but true! You really need to appeal to your audience and keep them interested in your content – don’t let me freak you out though, you’re halfway there.

A Punchy Headline

You have maybe three seconds to convince someone to read your post. Piece of cake! RIGHT??? It can be a piece of cake, you just have to get creative. I could have named this post “3 Tips for a Perfect Blog Post” or “3 Things Every Blog Needs” but then it would look like every other post with advice for your business blog – and Twitter is so saturated with the same recycled blog titles. It’ll be nice to stand out – trust us. Think of a title that isn’t super long and gets the point across – mathematically a title should be under 70 characters total so your audience doesn’t zone out mid-headline.

Take Gizmodo for example, their headline “25+ Famous People’s First Tweets That’ll Make You Feel Better About Yours” could have been “25+ Underwhelming Tweets From Celebrities” - BUT THAT’S A TERRIBLE HEADLINE! The great thing about their headline is that they are making their audience think about their tweets and wonder just how awful some celebrities’ tweets could be. SOLD! CLICKABLE! For the full scoop on how to write a fabulous headline check out HubSpot’sA Simple Formula for Writing Kick-Ass Titles.

Awesome Visuals

I would never make anyone suffer through a post without at least one photo, and hello! You can embed Vines! Tweets! YouTube tutorials about the correct method of shaving a llama! Maybe! I haven’t checked. You know why BuzzFeed articles are everywhere you look, and I enjoy them too but most of their posts are about 20 pictures and people love it. Two of my current blog obsessions are Peak Design andEat24 because they both have a sense of humor and clear, interesting visuals – and not just of their product. Gifs or fun memes to break up the text. Really, you should be doing quite simply is keep your readers interested with bullet points, lists and visuals. It’s as easy as that.

Sorry. Also, the internet loves cats. But you already knew that.

Smart SEO

When you write a blog post you should already have a keyword in mind, and for those that don’t know about long-tail keywords, do read up on them because they’re so necessary for your posts to rank on Google, so people can find your blog posts, then blog, then website and look at all of your products and BOOM! You’re a millionaire! You need your keyword to be strewn across your blog – intelligently, of course, because there’s nothing more depressing than blatant keyword placement. 

What's missing in your marketing strategy?

We have reached a point where the barrier between “marketing” and “digital marketing” is almost nonexistent. And every year that line separating the two grows thinner and thinner.

So what values determine whether a marketing campaign succeeds or fails?

It is not really any one thing, but a combination of smaller factors that makes the real difference. Every company knows that they need to interact with customers on social media channels, put out thought-leading blogs to appear in relevant content searches, create a great website design, use keywords, etc.

Here are all those little extras that many companies miss when developing a strategy:

Create Measurable Goals

It is impossible to mark your company’s successes and shortcomings without setting numbers for the team to strive for. Take time to plan ahead on this point. Consider your budget and financial goals before deciding what marketing strategy can get you there. If you want to achieve, say, 10 new sales, then you would need 500 new leads, and for that you will need 50,000 new visitors to your site in the designated timeframe.

Now that you know the numbers you can begin to hash out a marketing strategy that makes sense for your business that will also achieve your desired results. It you are looking to increase your sales, all other numbers, including time and resources dedicated to marketing efforts, must be raised at a respective rate. You can’t improve one without the other.

Integrated Marketing Strategy

This point comes down to everything in your entire marketing scheme working together toward your company’s end goal. This is also where preparation is key. You cannot dive into a marketing campaign without planning it out from every angle.

1. Consistent Branding: Crossover between all types of shoppers, such as a customer who searches your product on their smartphone app but goes to the computer version of the site to make a purchase or vice versa, is becoming increasingly common these days. As such, every platform must be delivering the same message and brand image consistently.

2. Personality and Voice: Along with your brand’s message being clear and consistent through all channels, it must also have its own personality. The tone of voice that you create is what makes your brand unique, and what gives customers a character to identify with your company. Don’t just act on content marketing’s capabilities when you aren’t making your numbers; it should be a constant interaction with your audience to show them your voice.

3. Schedule: Create a calendar for everything that is included in your campaign. Blog schedule, social media updates, new ebooks, upcoming events or webinars, special offers, email campaigns, and one that contains a little bit of all of these should all be set before the campaign begins. Think ahead and make a realistic editorial calendar for any campaign you create.

Device Readiness

Most people will abandon a sale or download if the device they are working with is moving slowly or not working properly. That is why, if you deal in digital, which we all do these days, you have to invest in a high-quality site with responsive website design.

Along with that, take mobile optimization into account as well. This can be used in various ways, so find the one that works for your company to stay ahead of the competition without alienating your leads.

While mobile devices are becoming the norm, don’t forget to have a system that easily works on tablets, which are more common for online purchases than smartphones. You can’t ignore any form of technology if it may lead to new leads and new sales.

Visual Engagement

I’ve said this before and I will say it again, visuals attract the customer’s attention the way text never can. If you have a product to offer, show it being used. If it is an event, show photos and videos from previous events so they can see what to expect.  

A great way to kill two birds is to include calls to action, or CTAs, within your web pages, blogs, emails, etc.The perfect CTA will be visually appealing while also offering your site’s visitors somewhere else to go within your site. That special product or event that your company has going on should be made abundantly clear through your site’s CTAs.

Takeaway

A unified, consistent strategy with measurable goals is exactly what you need to make a successful marketing campaign. But those extras, such as the visuals, CTAs, high-tech gadgetry, well-planned calendars, brand personality and consistency, etc. are what take a marketing strategy great.

Without considering all of these factors beforeembarking on a new marketing campaign, or improving on an old one, you will be going in blindly with a chaotic plan of attack. Take the time to schedule every aspect of your campaign so you don't miss any vital pieces!

Www.search-find.co.uk

Social media for business

A host of PR and marketing strategies exist for building customer awareness, but one area often overlooked is social media

For many small businesses, expensive advertising campaigns or big, splashy PR stunts simply aren't an option. This means that in the initial phases, business owners are faced with a challenge: how to build the brand awareness your company needs while keeping costs down?

There are a number of efficient PR and marketing strategies that companies can implement to build awareness among their target customers, but one area that is often overlooked by small businesses, or executed poorly, is social media. Social media, when used strategically, can give you direct engagement with many of your target audiences. Twitter now has grown to 241 million monthly active users, while Facebook has 1.2 billion members. Obviously, for those companies starting out, these channels give access to vast numbers of people, whether it's to raise awareness, create engagement or drive revenues.

The possibilities presented by social media channels are endless, but how can businesses ensure that they use them in the right way, to support their business objectives, rather than wasting time and resources to no end? It is all too easy to think "we need to be on social media" and not get any further than that. Unsurprisingly, however, a successful social media platform needs a strong strategy behind it, if it's going to generate results.

Like much communication, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, but there are some basic questions that companies can ask themselves about creating relevant and engaging strategies.

Who am I trying to reach?

This might sound obvious, but too many businesses launch into social media without thinking about what they want to get out of it. Unsurprisingly, this rarely yields results. Instead, companies need to think about what they are trying to achieve, and work out their strategy from there. A key part of this is understanding your audience. Are you a business-to-business brand trying to reach CEOs, or are you a consumer brand whose main customers will be mothers? Do you have secondary audiences such as regulators, journalists or NGOs? Establish clearly who your primary and secondary audiences are.

What channels are most appropriate to reach these people?

It's important to think carefully about what channels are most appropriate for your key audiences. If you're a B2B brand, for instance, you may find that you have limited success using Facebook. Equally if teenagers are your target audience, LinkedIn might not be the most appropriate channel. So often when considering social media, people just assume that they need to be on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, but even though these are the most common channels they may not be the most relevant. Also, remember that if you have niche audiences, other appropriate platforms may prove more fruitful.

What kind of content will they care about?

It's a rare consumer who loves being constantly bombarded with marketing content, yet when you look at many corporate channels, this is exactly what you find. Think about the kind of people you're trying to reach and what interests them. Will they be more interested in visual content? News articles? Fun facts? Have a look at companies that have been successful in engaging similar audiences and see what has worked for them. Also make sure that you get the balance right between content that talks about your company and content that engages on a broader basis.

How much time do I want to dedicate to this?

Real social media marketing takes dedication, time and resources, and there is no point having channels if you don't use them. Radio silence probably won't lose you followers, fans or viewers, but it won't gain you any either, and it won't achieve your objectives. In order to make social media work, you need to make sure that its value and importance is communicated internally and that time each day is set aside for your channels. Think about who is responsible as well. Will it be you doing the tweeting, or will it be someone else's responsibility? If the answer is someone else's, you need to make sure that it sits within their core objectives, rather than being seen as an additional pull on their time, which can drop off the priority list when people get busy.

How can I track success?

In order to establish whether your new social media strategy is successful, it's important to define what success looks like. It's often helpful to look beyond statistics such as follower and fan numbers, to more sophisticated metrics like engagement. Many social media channels have in-built methods to help with this evaluation, but also consider online tools such as bit.ly which can track how many people click on your links andGoogle Analytics which can track where traffic to your website is coming from.

Organisations that answer these five questions when formulating their strategies will be in a much better position to reach their audiences in a manner that generates positive business results. For every company the style and channels used for social media outreach will be different, but by following these steps businesses should be able to build awareness and reputation among their key audiences, while keeping costs to a minimum. Most of all though, companies need to remember to be engaging, human and relevant, rather than just using their "owned" channels to push out free corporate marketing messages.

Sara Benwell is a senior consultant at Sermelo. You can follow her on Twitter@sarabenwell

Social Media Traffic to News Sites Has Increased 57% Since 2009

Well, this is no surprise: Digital has far surpassed print in the way we consume news.

More than half of all Internet users are plugged in to some form of social media, which means they're most likely coming into contact with the breaking news other users share on those platforms. This is especially true of Twitter, where stories can go viral long before they see In fact, 64.5% of Americans consume their news online, and traffic to news sites generated by social media has increased 57% since 2009. The New York Times and CNN have an especially prodigious social media following, with more than 10 million Twitter followers apiece — although neither can top Katy Perry's dedicated fanbase.

Take a look at this infographic from the University of Florida Online to track the side-by-side evolution of major news and social media outlets.

Www.search-find.co.uk

How to build your personal social media brand.

http://socialmediatoday.com/nate-mendenhall/2196576/how-build-your-personal-brand-social-media

Link building still works.

 Google's recent updates have spread fear, uncertainty and doubt among webmasters. Which tactics can you still use to build backlinks to your website and which tactics should you avoid? There are some old-school tactics that still work if you do it right:

1. Forum backlinks

How not to do it: Automatically created forum backlinks are a sure way to get a Google penalty. There have been many tools and services that automatically created forum accounts with keyword rich links that pointed to the websites of the user. These links do not work anymore.

How to do it right: If a high quality forum is closely related to the topic of your website, a link from that forum can still have a positive influence on the search engine positions of your web pages.

2. Directories

How not to do it: Bulk submitting your website to directories that will accept any kind of website won't do your rankings any good.

How to do it right: If your website is listed in a high quality directory that delivers targeted visitors to your website, you should submit your site to that directory. Links from authorative directories (including niche directories) with strict submission guidelines are good for your website.

3. Guest blogging

How not do to it: Using the same article on several blogs doesn't work. Using keyword rich links in that article might even trigger a Google penalty. If the main purpose of guest blogging is getting links, don't do it.

How to do it right: Guest blogging can drive targeted visitors to your website if you write for blogs that are related to your business. Your guest blog article should offer the readers of the blog insights or other valuable information. Individual articles on related blogs can have a positive influence on your website's performance.

4. Link pages

How not to do it: If your link pages contain links to every Tom, Dick and Harry, chances are that these link pages won't be good for your site.

How to do it right: highly themed link pages that contain links to closely related high quality websites are good for website visitors and search engines.

    
It's easy: spamming doesn't work anymore, building real backlinks works better than ever before.

Search-find.co.uk

Via axandra

I want to be a ranker! .1

@AnthonyJohns0n: A good place to start when looking at rankings is to audit your website. http://t.co/rRn0310H0b 

Small businesses online community.

Microsoft launches online forum for small businesses

Online community provides perfect place for small business owners to connect, collaborate and share best practice

• Share1
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• inShare0
• Email

Small businesses are increasingly turning to online communities for advice. Photograph: Brian Jackson / Alamy/Alamy

It is becoming increasingly common for small businesses to collaborate online in order to succeed. Online communities, social channels, blog sites, how do you know which one is the right one?

Microsoft may have the perfect solution for you and other busy business owner with limited time or expense to spare.

Microsoft have connected with other small business influencers to create one place for small business owners to connect, share ideas, collaborate and get advice from people who have the experience and know-how. It is free to join and contribute and you are completely in control of how you get involved.

Whether you are looking for advice on winning new business, how to use a pivot in excel, advice on mobile marketing, support with technology, whatever the conversation, Microsoft is committed to getting you the answer and connecting you to the right people.

Join the forum today and check out the groups you can join to connect with likeminded people and access friendly, free advice. Why not introduce yourself and connect with your peers today? It could make a difference to your business. You can join the forum here.