4 Ways Twitter Can Build Your Brand

March 29, 2018 / nancyrubin

Twitter is the second most popular social media site in the world. It allows us to speak our mind to a ton of strangers, stalk celebrities and make connections with people all over the world at once.

But how can twitter be beneficial to your Marketing Strategy? Twitter is actually an excellent tool which can help you to build up your brand, make a good reputation for yourself and gain loyal followers who will support you throughout. If you haven’t harnessed the full power of Twitter for your business yet, here is how you can do it.

1.Follow your industry

The beauty of Twitter is that it acts as a hub of information for anyone to make the most of and exploit. For you and your brand, Twitter gives you the opportunity to follow the leaders of your industry as well as follow your competitors. This will allow you to stay in the loop with new developments which you can use for your own gain, and it allows you to see what kind of things your competitors are doing.

Contact influencers

Social media influencers are the new celebrity. They are incredibly powerful beings who reside on all corners of the web and share their opinions on life, services and products. Influencers are called so because they can influence their followers to try new products and services. If you can contact a prominent influencer and get them to review your product, you will likely see a huge influx of new customers who come from their audience.

Interact with people

The whole point of social media is to be social and make the most of getting to know your customer base better. Sure, you will want to give off an air of professionalism when you are on social media. But this doesn’t mean you can’t have a laugh with your customers at the same time. Take the time to ask your audience what they like, talk about current events and even create a poll to get an idea of the things you could create for them. Your audience are the people who you are trying to sell to, so it is worth getting to know them. You may have seen viral tweets from brands who are funny, relatable and real- and this is what you want to become for your audience.

Stick to a niche

Even though you can branch out and talk about current events such as commenting on a royal wedding or looking forward to a sporting event: you need to do it in a way that fits you brand. If you are a restaurant for example and you want to comment on the Super Bowl, you could create a video which shows you making some football snacks for the big game. This shows that you are a real person, you are in the loop and you will show off your cooking skill. This will get you a lot of new followers and much more engagement than if you simply tweeted about how excited you are for the match.

Don’t Fall Into These Traps With Your Online Business!

March 27, 2018March 27, 2018 / nancyrubin / 2 Comments

There’s no denying that the world we live in today is almost entirely dominated by the internet. Whether you’re shopping, socialising, gaming, watching TV, or doing just about anything else, the internet is almost certainly going to be involved. Because of that, it shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone that the business world has had to change and evolve. Online businesses are springing up every single day, and more and more people are able to create startups from virtually nothing thanks to the internet. And yet, despite this, there are a lot of businesses that end up falling at the very first hurdle because they end up falling into some incredibly common traps that come with running an online business. To help you avoid that fate, here are some of the most common pitfalls for new online startups.

Terrible web design

There’s an assumption that far too many people seem to have that as long as you have a website, you don’t really have to think about it that much. This is one of the most common reasons that online startups end up falling apart. If your web design is lacking, then customers aren’t going to be interested in your business. If it looks amateurish, then they’re going to assume that the rest of your business is the same and look elsewhere. That might sound shallow, but it’s a fundamental part of how many customers engage with businesses.

A misunderstanding of social media

Speaking of customer engagement, if you’re not using social media properly, then you’re missing out on an incredibly important aspect of your marketing. Far too many businesses end up using their social media pages for little more than copied and pasted advertising. If you do that, customers simply aren’t going to care and will unfollow your pages in an instant. You need to use social media to engage with customers on a personal level. This means creating entertaining and interesting content that they will want to share and enjoy.

Poor SEO

The other fundamental part of online marketing that is ignored all too often is that of SEO or Search Engine Optimisation. One of the big changes in the internet age is that customers can now come to you rather than you advertising to them. But to do this, you need to make yourself visible to those customers. That’s where SEO comes in. SEO is the way in which you ensure that your business is the first result when a customer searches for specific keywords on search engines like Google. If your SEO isn’t up to scratch, your business is going to end up getting buried.

One of the most important things to remember is that these things don’t just impact businesses that are exclusively online. Every business needs an online presence, and if you don’t consider these things, then you’re just going to end up wasting it. Even if your business has always been based in brick and mortar, you need the internet to succeed in the modern era, just make sure that you’re using it properly.

How to Build a Successful eCommerce Brand

March 23, 2018March 23, 2018 / nancyrubin / 2 Comments

People are rapidly turning to online shopping, which makes it a perfect time to start an online business. However, there are probably hundreds of companies out there offering products that are same, or at least similar, to yours.

The good thing is that branding can be a lifesaver for your business. You have to stand out from the crowd and show people why they should purchase your products, and not the products of your competitors.

Your products might be great, and your website appealing and well-optimized, but that doesn’t mean that you will succeed. According to statistics, 55% of all eCommerce sales are done through branded stores, while 45% are done via marketplaces. Therefore, you have to build a strong brand in order to beat your competitors.

It’s time to take the first step towards your success.

Personalized, but safe service

Customer data points are very useful for personalization. The data is your gold because you will know what your customers want before they do.

So, include those data points in your eCommerce business:

Shopping Cart – recommendations based on the current content of a customer’s wish list or cart
Search Queries – recommendations based on search terms
Purchase History – recommendations based on a customer’s past purchases
Social Behavior – recommendations based on product rating, shares and likes

You can also recommend products based on geographic location and customer segmentation, such as demographic. Use this data to provide your customers with the best service possible. This will help you understand your customers and their relationship with your product and brand.

Are your customers mostly gift-buyers? How often do they buy products from your website? Look for patterns in your customers’ behavior because that is precisely what will point you in the right direction. Also, it’s always a good idea to personalize your product packaging. Many brands are doing it, and people seem to love it.

Since, as an online business, you will collect and retain sensitive personal information about your customers, you have to show them that their information is safe with you, especially when it comes to payment and delivery.

You can make your brand trustworthy and reliable by using payment card industry data security standards (PCI DSS). These standards apply to all organizations that store, process or transmit cardholder data, so your business should have PCI DSS compliance, too. However, keep in mind that, even though you are operating online, you still need to adhere to your federal and state privacy laws.

Engaging approach

The impression you make on people who come in contact with your brand for the first time is very important. Therefore, you should make sure that they see your brand in the best light.

First, you have to ensure that your customers can see and feel that they can engage with your brand.

Always ask your customers for their opinion. Give them an opportunity to review your products and chat with you. Use these options on your website and social media pages. 71% of consumers who have had a good social media service experience with a brand are likely to recommend that brand to others. So, this will help you both increase brand engagement and attract new customers.

Next, you can turn your customers into brand ambassadors who will help you share your amazing story all over the internet. They are a powerful tool that will help you raise awareness about your company. The reason that brand ambassadors are so credible is that they don’t actually work for your company but are only huge fans.

Emotional connection with your target audience

If you want others to share your story, you have to give them a reason to do so. Tell them your story and engage with them on an emotional level. By giving customers a strong “why” you will provide them with something to believe in. Try to answer these questions:

How did you start your business and why?
What are your values?
What makes you different from your competitors?

People like to hear a story behind the products they buy. Get them to fall in love not only with your products but your brand as well.

For example, if you use your lifestyle as an inspiration for your brand image, you will attract people with similar interests.

If your vision matches your customers’ opinion, your fans will be dedicated to you. Actually, if you include this vision in your posts on social media and newsletters, they will be happy to share that with others.

Consistency as a branding tool

Did you choose your style? What about the color, design, style of writing, and other elements of your brand? Do your social media channels, emails and adds follow your style?

Once you determine your style, it’s important to stick to it. Use it consistently in all of your marketing efforts in order to become recognizable.

Your style represents your brand’s personality. It can tell more about your values then you think, and it can engage people on an emotional level.

Whenever you want to share something, ask yourself – is this consistent with your brand story?

Remember, your employees should also understand your style and vision. They have to represent your brand in the best possible way.

Conclusion

If you miss the opportunity to build a brand today, it can cost you your business. Products come and go, but if you build a personal brand, people will keep coming to your web shop.

Remember, brands are not established in a day, but these tips will help you get one step closer to success.

Guest author, David Webb, is a Sydney-based business consultant,online marketing analyst and a writer. With six years of experience and a degree in business management, he continuously informs the public about the latest trends in the industry. He is a regular author at BizzmarkBlog. You can reach him on Twitter or Facebook.

Top Reasons People Hate Your App

March 20, 2018 / nancyrubin

It can sound a bit harsh to say someone hates your app, but if you’ve gotten to the point where you feel like it could be possible, it’s time to figure out why. When you have a business, and you create an app, your objective obviously isn’t to have people hate it.

Unfortunately, more often than not that can be the case. If you can identify what elements of your app design or functionality users don’t like, you may be able to fix it without a complete overhaul.

If you’re not sure where to start, the following are some of the top reasons users could be less-than-thrilled with your app in its current form.

Users Don’t Know When Something Is Happening

You’re using an app, you push something, and it seems like nothing happens. There’s no acknowledgment that you’ve taken action.

Is it working or not? It’s extremely frustrating but all-too-common.

When you create your app, you want your users to know that their action is recognized. For example, you can show an icon of movement or that the screen is being refreshed. You want to be able to create a sense of cause and effect for user actions.

Advertising Feels Intrusive

Nobody likes intrusive advertising in any media. We’re at a point in digital technology where people can largely avoid advertising altogether if they choose. So while you may need to drive revenue with in-app advertising, you need to be careful with it.

You don’t want to include super graphics-heavy advertising or video ads that are going to make someone’s phone seem like it’s going haywire every time they use your app.

You also don’t ever want to include any unresponsive advertising. It’s going to be highly frustrating, and even if your app itself is great, it’s probably not going to matter.

Constant Push Notifications

Push notifications can be an excellent marketing tool, but not when you’re bombarding users. If someone feels like their smartphone is buzzing every hour with your push notifications, they’re probably going to uninstall the app.

As with advertisements, you need to be smart, strategic and discerning with your push notifications, so they create value rather than turning off users.

Constantly Asking for Reviews

When someone downloads an app, they do so because they want it to bring value to their life. It’s not about your business getting feedback.

If you’re using every second a person spends in an app asking them to like or share it, they’re going to feel frustrated.

That’s just a big interruption and obstacle in the overall user experience. If someone is trying to complete a task in your app and they keep being stopped so it can ask for a review or a like, it’s a problem.

Of course, in-app feedback can be useful, but it can’t be overdone, or like advertising, it can’t feel intrusive to the user experience.

Finally, be on the conservative side when it comes to how many personal details you’re asking your users for. Yes, your app may ask for some, but it’s important that you do so for a purpose, and you disclose this to users with transparency. Otherwise, they’re going to feel like you’re trying to exploit them or take advantage.

How to Find the Best Prospects for a Link Building Campaign

March 9, 2018 / nancyrubin

Link building is a highly effective strategy for improving your business visibility, awareness and online credibility. What’s more, link building is one of the most important search engine optimization (SEO) activities. As a matter of fact, top quality backlinks are on top of the list of Google ranking factors, alongside content. But, in order for backlinks to show their full potential, they must be made on reputable and credible sources. However, finding the right prospects for backlinks is more difficult than ever.

The discovery process for high-quality links demands effort and dedication. The main reason is that you simply can’t make backlinks anywhere you have a chance to. That strategy will get you penalized. Instead, you must find excellent sources that favor good reputation in the online world, such as websites, blogs, forums etc. to make backlinks on. That way, your own reputation and credibility will improve and you’ll be able to attract more quality traffic back to your website. Here are a few ways to find the best prospects for a link building campaign.

Do an online search

The Internet is full of great opportunities; you just have to utilize your search engine and find the ones that suit you best. This is easier said than done, especially since the online world is quite saturated with various websites, blogs and content pieces. You can start things off by searching for lists. List posts are basically curated links on industry resources that point out important blogs, websites and influencers that you should check out.

Depending on the industry you’re looking to build links for, you can search for top bloggers, top blogs or experts in the industry to follow. That way you’ll find various prospects that can prove to be beneficial for your link building campaign. Again, the results and their potential may vary based on the industry you’re in. Nevertheless, you’ll gain a general idea on what sort of prospects to focus on.

Leverage tools to your advantage

Manual search can result in plenty of potential prospects for your link building campaign, especially if you’re using advanced search options, such as “intitle”, “Inurl-category”, “allintext-category” etc. However, this method may take away too much of your time when looking for prospects. If you want to speed things up a bit and get more adequate results, you can leverage link building tools to your advantage.

That way, you’ll be able to identify the right websites, blogs and influencers that match your criteria. Simply put, you’ll find the right prospect to build high-quality backlinks on. What’s more, you can also obtain contact information of prospect’s owners. That way, you can easily establish communication without having to search for contact information individually.

Competitive analysis

Another good way to find worthy prospects is to conduct competitive link analysis. That way, you’re looking into your competitor’s strategy. For instance, what are their prospects, how many backlinks they make and so on. It’s important to understand that you’re not trying to copy your competitors or their strategy.

Instead, you’re simply looking for opportunities they’ve missed out on, in order to improve your own link building efforts and gain competitive advantage. In addition, your competitor’s prospect may prove more useful to you or may lead you to even better prospect. Furthermore, checking in on your competition may also lead to great opportunities, such as spotting their broken links and replacing them with your own.

Use social media for link discovery

Social media platforms have evolved to become a powerful business tool. Social media networks are excellent means of communication and are also great resources for link prospecting. The main reason is that social media hosts a great number of people and businesses alike. That makes it easier to identify credible sources, by checking out social proof and public relations of a prospect.

Social media can help you determine important influencers and the authority they have over their followers. Moreover, you can determine your audience’s preferences and identify which websites or blogs the often visit. That will give you a good understanding on where to look for prospects, in order to build your links where your audiences are.

Finding the right prospects for link building is never easy. Your links have to be on reputable and credible sources and they need to be of top quality as well in order to produce the best outcome. The more quality your backlinks have, the better your ranking will be. Not just that, but your reputation, trustworthiness and visibility will also improve through the quality of your backlinks and the sources they’re built on.

Guest author, Raul Harman, is a B.Sc. in Innovative entrepreneurship and has a lot to say about innovations in all aspects of digital technology and online marketing. While he’s not enjoying football and great food, you can find him on Technivorz.com

Six Outdated #SocialMedia Tactics That Need to Be Put to Rest

March 7, 2018 / nancyrubin / 2 Comments

Well, if you are one of those who think using the same social media tactic again and again will help you then this perception no more holds true today. The tactics that Mark Zuckerberg used sitting in a corner of the Harvard will not apply for you and your company today.

SEO is very much chancy and you need to cope with the current trend and be up to date. Especially while handling your social media pages, you need a new technique everyday so that your page is visible. In addition, along with this, why do you want to use the same tactics that are helping your business in any way?

Following are some of the techniques that you need to stop immediately:

Posting Links Only

As a social media manager of your company, you must have created links to the content. You should be proud of it, as you have worked hard to create those links but think about a social media account full of links. The result will be a dull customer response. Just links will make your account a dull one.

Instead, manage your links with posts of general interest that raises interest of the customers. You can mix the links with some content that is not linked anywhere and hence customer will find it new and read along.

The Pitch Messages

This is what happens generally, “You found a social media page interesting and you followed it. As soon as you hit follow, you get a buzz on inbox with lots of offers and discounts. What will be your reaction to this?”

These are pitch messages that are hated by customers. These messages make the customers loses interest in you and he feels that he is nothing but an element to make money.

Instead, make use of social media to build strong relationship with the customers. Do not involve in direct selling and create interest in your profile before you offer your services to them.

Mass Following is no no

Many companies believe that mass following will help them create a good web presence and they will get more following as a return. Accounts like these may have many followers but hardly have they got engagement from the public. People consider you as a fake account and you are never noticed.

Instead, follow a general routine and try to follow only those people who are relevant. Unnecessary following will not help you.

Using Bots

There are auto engagement bots, which automatically likes and shares the post of the social media page that you like or follow. By using them, you can raise fake interest, visibility, esteem amidst your followers, and believe you will the same in return.

Tricks like these are easily pointed out and once people know this, they will not come to you. Moreover, these bots ruin your feed. Bots make you lose the opportunity of the original interest that people might show in your page.

Instead of using bots, you should target your social media campaign in such a way that it calls for the original engagement of users. Craft ways to put some interesting posts across the social media pages.

The “Best Times to Post” strategy

There is nothing called the best time to post. Many people just wait for that right time to post their content so that most of the people are online at that time and so they get good views. There is no such time as the most appropriate one. If your content is good and engaging, you will automatically get hits, likes and followers.

Not paying attention to optimizing the content

Most of you might be using SEO at various places, but hardly have they used SEO for their social media sharing. SEO is equally important for social media sharing as it is for your other digital marketing campaign.

You need to make use of good keywords to make your social media post popular.

The best SMO company in India is the one who is always up to date with its tactics. Be it SEO or SMO you need to provide something fresh and unique to the audience.

Author Bio – Saloni Bhatnagar is working as SEO Analyst in Green Web Media. She enjoys writing about digital marketing insights, trends, and updates for various prestigious platforms. In her spare time, she likes reading, cooking and watching movies.

Personalized, but safe service

Engaging approach

Emotional connection with your target audience

Consistency as a branding tool

Conclusion

Do an online search

Leverage tools to your advantage

Competitive analysis

Use social media for link discovery

The Basics

Question #1: What’s your target market?

Question #2 What platforms to develop for?

Question #3 What main features to integrate?

● Registration

● Self-Expression Tools

● Newsfeed