But that means harnessing social media, the way a general marshals his troops according to a strategy. How exactly does one “harness” social media, given the fast-paced, highly-decentralized nature of communications between people over these networks?

Targeted and responsive social marketing

The trick to getting a good handle of your social marketing strategy is to systematize how you put out your product’s photos, brand story, and gimmicks (i.e., memes), and how you respond in real time to your target audience’s reactions to what you put out.

Remember that in the world of social media networking, your market’s “reactions” aren’t meant to be ignored like background noise. Rather, your consumers expect you to treat their reactions as valuable input to your actual product.

For instance: if they blog or tweet about what you’re selling in a favorable manner—then offer up a suggestion as to how to use your product which may be a little different from what you originally intended—the rest of your consumers just might listen to that suggestion, and run off with the idea. You may end up facilitating the birth of a cultural fad or major trend that’s almost completely under the control of your consumer “mob.” Unless, of course, you can somehow seem to be everywhere (online) at once, interacting with the public in real time, answering their questions or providing new information that can help you put a rein on your product’s fame-trend.

It’s very much like conducting a public relations campaign, except on a much faster, more guerilla-like pace—and all done online.

You had better have the right software technology to help you do this. And it must work like a pilot’s cockpit dashboard, giving you a complete one-glance view and control of your entire campaign in real time.

Engaging your exact target

ExactTarget is an interactive email marketing technology provider that has precisely what you need.

Among the company’s social media marketing management platforms is “SocialEngage,” the latest iteration of its “CoTweet” suite of software and services. This version of the platform has been expanded to include management functions for Twitter and Facebook.

This means that you can create single views of each consumer group (or even each consumer!) on ExactTarget’s “Interactive Marketing Hub,” with Twitter and Facebook features integrated into the view. It also means you can easily see (and control) how your product’s Twitter marketing efforts can be integrated with your posts on Pinterest to drive sales, your YouTube videos’ traffic generation, your standard email marketing, and your product’s Facebook page status updates.

The whole CoTweet “SocialEngage” system is, of course, mobile. You can literally be moving about, doing your work, and still be connected to social media in real time, as long as you have access to the Internet and have your smartphone or mobile computer with you. The system is integrated with ExactTarget’s “MobilePush” application, which further enables anyone to consistently push their marketing messages across email, social media, and even blogs and websites (called “cross-channel integration”).

Other management features include “advanced segmentation,” which allows you to automate your message sending based on particular customer preferences. And of course, the system’s reporting and analytics will let you view social media “engagement metrics” in real time.

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Many eager businesses prowl online recruitment websites in search of search engine optimization consultants, and are usually disheartened when they are burdened with a sub-par consultant that barely knows how to wrap their finger around the SEO system.

So how exactly do you weed out the fake search engine optimization consultants and unearth the real gem in pile of coal?

Well, here are ten quick questions you can take note of when you decide to hunt around for that perfect SEO consultant:

1. Ask them how many sites they’ve worked on.

Pick out search engine optimization consultants that have worked with easily a dozen companies before your own. The last thing you want is your company’s website to be the pothole of rookie mistakes, and experience counts more than most these days.

2. Ask them if you can call their references.

Although it is not uncommon for the standard SEO consultant to request a non-disclosure agreement, there are some consultants that have alibis that are willing to be contacted. Do a thorough background research on each potential consultant, and try to fish out as much information about their expertise as you can from their referees.

3. Ask them what they think of your website.

Disregard potential consultants that refuse to evaluate your website first. A good SEO consultant will be honest and straightforward with what they think, and will be critical about what you need to clamber up the SEO ranking ladder.

4. Ask them how much SEO you need.

Since many SEO consultants operate on fixed rates or a minimum hourly fee, it is important that you consider all aspects of your SEO needs, including your keyword competition, present link popularity, number of requested optimization pages and even website difficulties or anomalies. Take note that you might need to restructure some of your URLs, perform some extra coding or upgrades or even implement certain technical software before conducting an SEO customization process.

5. Ask them if implementation is included.

Usually a webmaster will be the one involved in tinkering with your content and metatags. An SEO professional can also do this, but try not to have too many fingers scrambling your coding. The best way is to merge both your webmaster’s info and your SEO consultation so that you don’t lose out on any coding aspects.

6. Ask them how many sites they have worked on in your field.

As far as SEO usage goes, always keep an eye on SEO consultant candidates that are well-versed with the playing nets on your field. It pays to have someone who’s already familiarized themselves with your services and products.

7. Ask them about the techniques they utilize.

Find out what sort of techniques does your potential SEO consultant utilize – is it old school or modern and efficient? SEO consultants who practice out-of-date techniques should be scraped off the list immediately, since their tinkering can damage your website’s search engine rankings.

8. Ask them how long it will take to optimize your website.

Usually, any form of SEO optimization will take months, with new sites taking up more time than older ones. Do not trust consultants that guarantee instantaneous results, since this is obviously a lie.

9. Ask them how much they charge.

Make sure that the rates are consistent, but be prepared for a jumble of charges from different consultants. It is wiser to pick a slightly pricier consultant with more experience tucked under their belt than a cheaper newbie.

10. Ask them how they gauge the results.

Good search engine optimization consultants will often measure the progress of your website using Google Analytics.

Remember to hire an SEO consultant that answers all ten of these requirements easily, lest you sustain some damage to your website’s search engine ranking in the long term.

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Usually, what customers can read from your website are descriptions of what you offer. The content is merely targeted to what you are selling. In this case, the information is not enough.

If you really want to capture the attention of your audience, you must start making a small business blog. Why? For one, 78 percent of people who use the internet to make an online research on a product before they make a purchase. That information is from The Pew Research Center and it can’t be overlooked. You need to start your own blog to share more interesting and helpful information about your business.

What is a business blog? It is where you can post fresh, updated and relevant content for your business. Linking your business blog to your website will increase your online marketing success. Internet users like to read and gather information online. Give them what they need so you can connect to your customer base effectively. Writing about tips, product reviews and other helpful articles will be a big help to your business. How exactly can a small business blog help your business?

•    There will be increase in website traffic. A huge benefit from blogging is to drive more traffic to your business website. Although your website is already optimized with keywords, imagine what two optimized sites will do for your business. The blog is home to keyword rich articles too. This will lead internet searchers to the blog site which will eventually direct them to the main website.
•    It can be linked to social media platforms. You can link your blog site to your social media accounts. Once you post an article, your network of friends in your social media accounts will automatically see this. Not only are you creating content for random internet searchers, you are also creating content for your direct audience. Hence, you will enjoy more traffic from old, new and random customers.
•    It is organic. Do you know that you can make a business blog without spending a penny? There are free blog sites that you can sign up for. And if you choose to write content yourself, you won’t have to spend anything too. At the end of the day, you will get organic results which search engines favor more.

If you’re convinced on making a business blog, why not work on forum marketing too? Those who are very active in forums are experts, bloggers and consumers. If you can start marketing on forums, you can get the attention of these people which will help in making your business more visible online.

You shouldn’t even be thinking twice about making a blog for your small business. While you may want to hold out on creating one in the coming days, you’ll also realize that you won’t be able to hold out any longer. Competition is steep and unless you have your feet in the door, you won’t win anything.

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Not to mention, you have to worry about conversions too. Social networking sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook has been helping companies promote and market their business. Although using your social media profiles can get the job done, won’t it be better to get some extra help?

SocialOomph Boosting Social Productivity

SocialOomph is a tool that every online marketer should use. It used to be called Tweet Later but is now called a new name which is quite fitting too. This automated tool will give you that “oomph” you need when it comes to your social media marketing campaign.

SocialOomph is used alongside your Twitter account. It offers a free-trial period so consumers can decide to purchase the whole thing. SocialOomph has dozens of features that online marketers can’t live without. With that said, this is the time that you look into the benefits of SocialOomph as well.

SocialOomph is valuable in Twitter marketing as it can help ease the workload. You can send bulk tweets and schedule the Twitter posts. You can automate messaging and following. It can even notify you if your keywords are mentioned in tweets. Here is a complete rundown of what you can benefit from using SocialOomph:

•    You can manage unlimited Twitter accounts through SocialOomph. At the same time, you can automate following and messaging for all these accounts. Can you imagine the time and effort you will save?
•    You can set schedules for your tweets and it can push your tweets to different Twitter channels.
•    Do you have new followers and want to show your appreciation for following you? Use SocialOomph to send automated messages to new followers and link them to your online resources.
•    Speaking of new followers, SocialOomph can create a list of your new followers so you can review them. This way, you’ll know who you need to follow back.
•    SocialOomph’s keyword alerts is a very handy feature. You will set up around 50 keyword terms and the program will notify you if the keywords were mentioned in tweets. What you’ll love about SocialOomph is that the alerts are filtered as “read” so it won’t clutter your mail Inbox.
•    For people to follow you, they must find you and they must find you easily. SocialOomph will assist in creating a detailed Twitter profile for you.
•    You can track your links, view mentions and retweets and add Google Buzz network.
•    If you have several Twitter accounts to manage, you can compile all your tweets and monitor channels you want easily. If you purchase the professional version, you can even define the channels for easy scanning.

SocialOomph’s free version already offers significant features that you can use to boost your social productivity. The free version may suffice in cutting down tons of work in your marketing campaign. With more efficiency, there will be improved productivity. However, if you find the tool too valuable for your online marketing campaign, don’t think twice about upgrading to the professional version.

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Essentially an instant messaging application that doubles up as a free sms outlet for Smartphone users, the WhatsApp app has ascended the throne of popularity in a space of few years, crippling its competitors with hardly any effort.

Its rival applications include the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), which caters exclusively to fellow BlackBerry users. But unlike BBM, WhatsApp can be utilized by a miscellany of Smartphone users. Thus, basically anyone who has their fingers wrapped around a phone running an Android, Windows, Blackberry OS, Symbian or Apple’s iOS stands a chance to utilize this nifty app for a quick exchange of words, without even forking out a dime to use its services. This new method of smsing has certainly struck a thrilled cord with its users, who are enjoying the benefits of WhatsApp for something as simple as friendly and casual texts to something as serious as business dealings and online marketing.

Needless to say, the world of mobile marketing will truly never be the same again. With WhatsApp, people are no longer shackled to geographical barriers or constricted by pressing time zones – the application functions in such a way that it serves as an instant messaging tool for phones; you can use it anytime, anywhere. As for the brains behind this brilliant stroke of technology – that honor goes to a duo of ex-Yahoo staff members, Brian Acton and Jan Koum, who both teamed up to create the app in 2009.

Ever since its launch, WhatsApp was quick to claim the mobile telecommunication scene, swiftly inducting a total of 250 million users around the globe within a course of three years. Call it quirky and infectious, but WhatsApp certainly projects a very secure and private interface, despite the security hiccup it encountered in early 2011, whereby reports of possible hijacking and non-encrypted data packets were flown in. After patching up the gaping hole in its security defenses, WhatsApp continued its reign of popularity, enlisting followers wherever it went.

But how does this application even operate?

Well, the WhatsApp app basically serves as a customized platform for the usual Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP). The moment the app is installed, it automatically generates a user account based on the phone number of the phone being used. This free sms tool then allocates and siphons all the phone numbers from the user’s address book and incorporates it into its central database, thus adding a series of contacts of fellow WhatsApp users.

By selecting the contact they wish to text with, users simply open the application on their Smartphones and begin typing a series of words before entering the slogan or phrase. The recipient will then receive the text at no charge – hence the reason why WhatsApp has been dubbed as a free sms tool numerous times. However, do take note that the transmission and reception of messages require an active internet or Wi-Fi connection.

As for security concerns, WhatsApp is a relatively secure method of chatting. Prior to August 2012 however, all messages were transmitted in a plain-text and unencrypted format, which made it susceptible to session hijacking. It is only after acknowledging this huge vulnerability did the WhatsApp technical support team come up with the idea of implementing data encryption methods to better protect users and keep conversations private and confidential.

Despite suffering several media backlashes due to the occasional security breach, WhatsApp still remains the most sought after and used Smartphone instant messenger. Its uncanny ability to transmit photos, short video clips and even texts at no cost has allowed users to bridge the gap between continents at the mere click of a button. Business deals can now be conducted via simple text messages at virtually no charge, and the dynamics of the online marketing world has certainly been altered once and for all with this ingenious little app.

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Why is Marketing So Important?

The importance of marketing in a business is immeasurable. Every business needs a solid marketing strategy to reach customers and inform them about products and services. In marketing, the ultimate goal is to promote a product or service that will result in customer interest. This is done through providing prospective customers with information that they want to hear, and hear more of. The more valuable the information is, the higher the chance a customer will make a purchase.

To understand better the importance of marketing, it will be best to first understand what marketing is. Marketing is a process wherein the demand for products, services and information are expected, provided and satisfied. The first step is to analyze the industry, market, competitors and your consumers. After which, you have the needed information to design a product and determine its prices, distribution process and promotional strategies.

Marketing is not only about promoting products and services, it is also about getting new customers and retaining old ones. In addition, marketing is also being a step ahead of what your customers need. As a result, you will be more efficient and effective in satisfying their expectations. Therefore, marketing is both analysis and promotions. It is a process with no end.

Effective Marketing Strategies

Business owners have plenty of marketing strategies to choose from. For offline promotions, many businesses can promote their business through print ads, discount coupons and media advertisements. However, many business owners are wise enough to use the web as a place to market their business on a larger scale. You can use email marketing, paid advertisements, social media promotions, online vouchers and many more.

You must pick the most appropriate marketing strategy depending on your target market and marketing goals. If you are still new to internet marketing, you can seek the help of an online marketer. Such marketer is skilled, knowledgeable and experienced in promoting businesses online in different ways. They know how to analyze the strategies and make improvements.

The importance of marketing for online businesses is just as huge. The competition among websites is steep and each one is trying to find a way to stand out from the others. Most of all, online businesses want to gain exposure. Online marketers will help you work on brand awareness, acquiring new customers and maintaining the support of old clients.

Online marketing has never been so powerful and you’d be a fool not to use it for your business. A combination of traditional and online marketing strategies will be your recipe for success. Show your customers that you are working on both sides to reach out to them and deliver the information they anticipate. In return, you are more likely to get their business.

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Losing the Eye on the Prize

Every business has goals and objectives to achieve. It is only through collective effort from leaders and employees that goals can be reached. Everyone works hard every day, their motivation is to earn money and finish all the tasks given to them. However, many employees lose sight of the long term goals. They are too preoccupied with delivering daily results. This leads to gradual work burn out and that is something every business owner should avoid.

Let’s Move Forward Together

To keep employees going, they should always be motivated. It doesn’t have to be about money all the time, just a compliment for an employee’s effort will do. What is motivation in a company setting? It is about showing an employee that his or her work is valuable and appreciated. That small effort you put in motivating someone will reward you greatly.

Whether you own a small business or a large organization, you have to motivate your employees. Show them that you want to move forward together. What you should realize is that when an employee is motivated, he or she has more initiative, energy, courage, a positive attitude and the tenacity to follow the company’s goals.

If you think that your vision statement is just something to add to your company profile, you need to think again. Vision statements serve as a guide for everyone in the company. It gives employees a clear vision of what the company is trying to achieve. Add a clear understanding of the goals and a motivated employee, you will have a company moving together towards the same direction. You have everyone on the same boat and that is an extremely good position to be in.

Motivation is Everywhere

Growing up, there is plenty of motivation everywhere. It need not be an outright motivational message said by an important person in your life. Think back on everything you wanted to do. Whether it was learning to play the guitar, baking a cake, finishing college or going to the gym, you were motivated. Your motivation came from your inner drive, will and desire to accomplish something good for yourself.

The only thing different right now is that people are working for you. They are working towards the goal of your company. Keeping this in mind, you’ll realize how important it is to keep your employees motivated all the time.

Motivation is Success

On the contrary, the lack of motivation in the workplace will bring you the opposite results. Employees are not happy going to work. Their performances will be substandard. The progress will be slow. All because you didn’t do your part in keeping your employees motivated and driven. Therefore, motivation is key to reaching goals and business success.

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In the instance that a bad decision is made, a business not only stands to lose a huge amount of potential revenue but can even collapse and dissolve. However, good decision making in business is crucial to ensure the continuous survival of the business in question. In most instances, it is up to the manager or chief executive officer (CEO) to oversee all aspects of the business operation, and implement the necessary decisions that will help a business grow and increase its market share.

Although business wisdom may be hard to come by, employee feedback is highly valuable when it comes to implementing a core decision that will send ripples of changes undulating through the company. A good CEO will eagerly receive the counsel of other board members or even listen to feedback from subordinates before conducting any form changes or implementations. But a bad CEO relies solely on his own insight to perform a decision, and can put the company’s long-term interest at severe risk if a bad decision is made.

Thus, implementing the best decision and evaluating all the alternatives that would yield the best possible outcome for the company is the most crucial role of a CEO. Take workforce decisions, for example. Workforce decisions are the prime example of long-term strategic decisions that could either make or break a company. Installing cutbacks or increasing the workforce might sound easy, but all aspects of the decision must be considered. For example, ask yourself: will my company benefit from the increased workforce? Or will the increased amount of wages to pay drive down the profit margin of my company? Will employing a cutback and closing a department be enough to salvage the rest of the company? Or will the company be in further trouble due to the sudden decrease in workers?

These are key examples of questions that a manager or CEO must ask themselves every time they decide to implement a workforce decision. The same reasoning and pattern of logic applies to other situations as well. Therefore, good decision making in business is essential in ensuring that a business continues to succeed and rake in enough profits for future sustainability.

Decisions that are made hastily or without proper research or input stand to ruin an organization or business. Quick decisions usually cannot be undone unless great personal cost is involved, but lengthy decisions can also cause a company to go broke. Thus, good decision making in business involves decisions that can be made accurately within a stipulated time frame with minimal wastage of resources incurred along the way.

Another important tidbit in decision making is the morality behind each decision. Managers sometimes implement decision with less conviction, thus losing the trust and respect of their employees. Even the wrong decision stands a chance to garner the trust and respect of employees, if it is made with conviction. This form of leadership not only instills a sense of loyalty in stakeholders of a business, but also boosts the overall morale of the organization, thus stimulating people to be high performers and achievers.

Businesses also generally operate on four phases:

The Start-Up Phase
The Emerging Phase
The Growth Phase
The High-Growth Phase

As a CEO or manager, it is important to acknowledge which phase a business is currently presiding in. Young businesses in the throes of infancy are usually in the start-up phase, and it is vital to include the insight of experienced business mentors at this stage. A business that is slowly clambering up the growth ranks is in its emerging phase, and a business that is blooming is in the growth phase. High-growth phase refers to very successful business outlook, and often requires the counsel of the executive board members to debate the strategic plan and goals of the business as a whole.

Thus, it is crucial that good decisions are made during each phase to ensure that a business continues to expand and grow.

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Although sites like Joomla and WordPress might devour the lion’s share of your time the moment you flip out your laptop and begin creating that epic web design you’ve always dreamed of, the task itself is not as studious or daunting as it sounds, if you simply take note of these eight web design principles:

1. Color Schematics

Also dubbed as the visual hierarchy, the color scheme or visual appeal of any website is crucial in hooking in viewers. In adverse circumstances, a lurid background or disorganized layout might just repel viewers and send them scurrying for the hills. Therefore, it is important to take note that prominent visuals appeal the strongest to viewers, and the visuals should be in line with your core business objective.

2. Divine Proportions

Crowned as the golden magical number that is aesthetically pleasing, the number 1.618 is the perfect ratio for generating design proportions. The ratio simply cannot be ignored – but if you truly wish to do something different and still create a responsive web design, then you can base it on the Fibonacci sequence.

3. Hick’s Law

Hick’s Law emphasizes that every additional choice causes an increase in the amount of time taken to make a decision. The same principle applies to websites. A website presenting an amalgam of endless information might just confuse its viewers and detract them from future visits. Thus, the process of eliminating and vanquishing distracting options must continue through the web designing process.

4. Fitt’s Law

Fitt’s Law basically postulates that the amount of time required to move to a target area equals to a function of distance to the target and target size. In layman’s terms, this means that the bigger and closer the object is, the more likely and easier it is to utilize. Therefore, this binary logarithm indicates that an object that gains an impressionable size is more likely to be clicked and selected (closer and larger target) than an object of diminutive size.

5. Rule of Thirds

Images attract a wide range of audience. Visuals communicate ideas quicker than texts, but should not be excessively utilized to the point that it is over-cluttered and strays away from your business objective. The best of images follow the rule of thirds, whereby an image could be divided into nine equal parts with two equally spaced vertical and horizontal lines respectively.

6. Gestalt Psychology

The Gestalt design law is a mixture of mind over matter. It basically operates on the principle that the eye sees objects as a whole before discerning them in individual components. Therefore, people tend to see the website as a whole first before analyzing each individual part of the website. This makes designing the proper layout and employing neutral tones the best option for communicating your brand with your audience.

7. Clean and Crisp Design

Most viewers harbor a preference for web designs that boast a clean and crisp interface. The amount of white space left between flurries of text or even runners of visuals can provide a ‘break’ for the eyes of your viewers and exude an ‘organized’ and orderly vibe.

8. Occam’s Razor

Occam’s Razor operates on the principle of selecting the hypothesis with the fewest assumptions and simplest explanation. In other words, this means that having the simplest web design can elicit the best effect.

Take note of these eight web design principles the next time you intend to design your very own website!

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Although the traditional methods of marketing are still being used, using the Internet has proven to give a boost to a business’s performance.

The mere fact that most people all over the world has web access whenever and wherever they are makes email marketing a favored marketing strategy because it is notably cost-effective and faster compared to traditional mail, which is more time-consuming and costly. Obviously, this strategy is applicable to those who have existing email addresses. People are always curious about new things, so whenever they chance upon something different, they would click on the link to see for themselves what that person or company has to offer.

Of course, there are some concerns that must be addressed first before doing email marketing. The question: ‘what is spam and how can I prevent my marketing campaigns from being classified as one’ is among the major concerns of small business owners. People do not want to receive junk snail mails so just the same with online mail, people are not keen on receiving spam mails. They do not want their inbox to be filled with unnecessary or unimportant messages.

So what do email marketers do to make sure that their customers will not simply delete their mails or move them to trash because they got mail from an unknown party? When a potential customer enters his or her email address in a website to join a subscription list, this indicates that the person gives his or her consent to receive future emails from the company. It is like giving a handshake as a gesture of trust and permission. That person is given the assurance that his or her email address is safe with the company and that it will not be shared or disclosed to another party. Legitimate businesses know exactly that sending the right email is critical to the success of their email marketing campaigns and strategies.

One of Australia’s top boutiques, Pompidou.com.au, is among the many businesses that use email marketing subscription as another way to grow its clientele and keep them informed and updated with their new offerings or promos. Pompidou is located at Byron Bay in New South Wales, Australia selling labels on women’s wear, men’s wear and homewares. Its goal is to enhance its relationship with its customers and to foster loyalty online and offline. Online customers get to enjoy the same superb customer service as would offline customers who’d shop in the actual store.

Customers living far from the boutique can join the mailing list to receive newsletters about new arrivals, promos, exclusive sales, designer previews, etc. The best thing about this is that customers also receive a 10% discount code for their next purchase at the store. The Pompidou website has a page where interested individuals can join the mailing list by simply entering their email addresses.

By joining Pompidou’s emailing subscription list, customers can transact with the company as they would with any other store online. After receiving the store’s confirmation of the email address, the customer would then need to make a verification and the registration of the subscription is successfully done. The boutique always sends out newsletters whenever there is something new going on.

Email marketing may seem tricky at first but once a company launches it the right way, the rest will follow, making the business more successful and profitable.

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