Every business involved with selling, whether its a multinational conglomeration, work at home mum, crowd funding project needs to be marketed. Small businesses, charities and home workers often struggle with this area, due to lack of funds ,resources and knowledge of what they need to do.
Marketing costs can run at thousands per month, but do you need this amount of funds and will it guarantee success. Searching online you will find free marketing solutions, so how can a free system provide you with similar results,with a system that costs you money.
In this day and age very few if any people are prepared to work for nothing, so one way of raising money is to offer a share in the future profits , this is often refereed to as crowd funding.
I am involved with a marketing system which is developed in this way by a small team of developers, supported by fellow marketers who have a financial share of the advertising profits, they both test and use the system, The system is free for users, who also have options to share in the profits.
Marketing is about spreading the word and with the exponential expansion of social media, MarketHive is offering not only a social media base for business, but also all the free tools for business, such as blogs, auto-responders, capture pages, videos, WordPress apps and the like which are essentials for business.
Basically, a social media network is made up of individuals or organizations that are connected through various social contacts ranging from casual acquaintances to family members. Social networks are established to encourage connections and communication to occur on a wide variety of levels.
A basis for the theory of social networking was a study performed by Stanley Milgram in 1967 that established that any two random United States citizens are connected to one another by a series of six intermediaries, on the average. This idea was made more popular by the play and subsequent movie, “Six Degrees of Separation”, as well as the television show “Six Degrees”. Current Internet experiments continue to explore this concept, such as the Ohio State Electronic Small World Project and Columbia's Small World Project.
These experiments currently confirm that five to seven degrees of separation are sufficient to connect two people through the Internet. This also serves to confirm the potential effectiveness of Internet social networks to build new connections between people.
The first Internet social network began in 1995 and has 12.9 million visitors today. This makes it difficult to comprehend the rule of 150, also known as the Dunbar number that states that the size of a genuine social network is limited to about 150 members. Over 200 Internet social networking sites exist and the number of members that belong to most them steadily increases.
In an Internet social networking site, a group of founders sends messages to invite members to join the site. Those members then invite additional members and the links continue to grow. Some social networking sites offer viewable profiles for members, address books and online social connections on a social or business level. Many Internet social networks are open to the public.
Internet social networks are a convenient way to link with new people, both personally and professionally. Consider that the senior director of Nielson/NetRatings, Jon Gibs, states that Internet “…social networking is not a fad that will disappear. If anything, it will become more ingrained in mainstream sites.”
The following are 20 of the most Popular Social Media Sites Right Now published by Antony Maina
Facebook
This is the biggest social media network on the Internet, both in terms of total number of users and name recognition. Founded on February 4, 2004, Facebook has within 12 years managed to accumulate more than 1.59 billion monthly active users and this automatically makes it one of the best mediums for connecting people from all over the world with your business. It is estimated that more than 1 million small and medium-sized businesses use the platform to advertise their business.
Twitter
You might be thinking that limiting your posts to 140 characters is no way to advertise your business, but you will be shocked to know that this social media platform has more than 320 million active monthly users who make use of the 140 character limit to pass on information. Businesses can use Twitter to interact with prospective clients, answer questions, release latest news and at the same time use the targeted ads with specific audiences. Twitter was founded on March 21, 2006, and has its headquarters in San Francisco, California.
LinkedIn
Founded on December 14, 2002, and launched 0n May 5, 2003, LinkedIn is hands-down the most popular social media site for professional networking. The website is available in 24 languages and has over 400 million registered users. LinkedIn is great for people looking to connect with people in similar industries, networking with local professionals and displaying business related information and statistics.
Google+
While it’s no Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, Google+ has its place among the popular social media sites. Its SEO value alone makes it a must-use tool for any small business. Launched on December 15, 2011, Google+ has joined the big leagues registering 418 active million users as of December 2015.
YouTube
YouTube — the largest and most popular video-based social media website — was founded on February 14, 2005, by three former PayPal employees. It was later bought by Google in November 2006 for $1.65 billion. YouTube has over 1 billion website visitors per month and is the second most popular search engine behind Google.
Pinterest
Launched in March 2010, Pinterest is a relatively newcomer in the social media arena. This platform consists of digital bulletin boards where businesses can pin their content. Pinterest announced September 2015 that it had acquired 100 million users. Small businesses whose target audience is mostly made up of women should definitely invest in Pinterest as more than half of its visitors are women.
Instagram
Like Pinterest, Instagram is a visual social media platform. The site, launched on October 6, 2010, has more than 400 million active users and is owned by Facebook. Many of its users use it to post information about travel, fashion, food, art and similar subjects. The platform is also distinguished by its unique filters together with video and photo editing features. Almost 95 percent of Instagram users also use Facebook.
Tumblr
Tumblr is one of the most difficult to use social networking platforms, but it’s also one of the most interesting sites. The platform allows several different post formats, including quote posts, chat posts, video and photo posts as well as audio posts, so you are never limited in the type of content that you can share. Like Twitter, reblogging, which is more like retweeting, is quick and easy. The social networking website was founded by David Karp in February 2007 and currently hosts more than 200 million blogs.
Flickr
Flickr, pronounced “Flicker,” is an online image and video hosting platform that was created by the then Vancouver-based Ludicorp on February 10, 2004, and later acquired by Yahoo in 2005. The platform is popular with users who share and embed photographs. As of October last year, Flickr had more than 112 million users and had its footprint in more than 63 countries. An average of a million photos are shared daily on Flickr.
Reddit
This is a social news and entertainment networking website where registered users can submit content such as direct links and text posts. Users are also able to organize and determine their position on the site’s pages by voting submissions up or down. Submissions with the most positive votes appear in the top category or main page. Reddit was founded by University of Virginia roommates Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman on June 23, 2005. A decade later, the site boasts more than 36 million registered accounts and 231 million monthly visitors.
Snapchat
Snapchat is an image messaging application software product that was created by Reggie Brown, Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy when they were students at Stanford University. The app was officially released in September 2011, and within a short span of time they have grown immensely registering an average of 100 million daily active users as of May 2015. More than 18 percent of all social media users use Snapchat.
WhatsApp
WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform instant messaging client for smartphones, PCs and tablets. The app relies on the Internet to send images, texts, documents, audio and video messages to other users that have the app installed on their devices. Launched in January 2010, WhatsApp Inc. was acquired by Facebook on February 19, 2004, for about $19.3 billion. Today, more than 1 billion people use the service to communicate with their friends, loved ones and even customers.
Quora
Capitalizing upon human curiosity is an ingenious idea that would lead to the creation and launch of Quora in June, 2009. The website, co-founded by two former Facebook employees, Charlie Cheever and Adam D’Angelo now claims that it received more than 80 million monthly unique visitors, with half of them coming from the U.S. So far, the question-and-answer website has managed to raise $141 in venture capital funds and while it doesn’t look ready to go public yet, it’s definitely a company to watch.
Vine
With over 40 million users, Vine is a rapidly growing video sharing social media app that allows users to share 6-second video clips with their followers. While this looks like a really short time for a video, businesses of all sizes are having tremendous success using the service. Vine was founded in June 2012 and later acquired by Twitter in October 2012, just before its official launch.
Periscope
Periscope is a live video streaming mobile app that was developed by Joe Bernstein and Kayvon Beykpour. The two started the company in February 2014 and later sold it to Twitter for $100 million in March 2015. Four months after its March 2015 relaunch, Periscope said that it had surpassed 10 million accounts and in December the same year, Apple announced Periscope as the app of the year.
BizSugar
BizSugar is a social networking platform and niche resource for small business owners, entrepreneurs and managers. The site was created in 2007 by DBH Communications, Inc., a provider of award-winning business publications, and later acquired by Small Business Trends LLC, in 2009. The platform allows users to share videos, articles, blog posts, podcast among other content. It also allows users to view and vote on submissions by other members.
StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon is a discovery engine that finds and recommends content for its users. More than 25 million people use StumbleUpon for entertainment and information. In addition, more than 80,000 publishers, brands, and other marketers have used StumbleUpon’s Paid Discovery platform to promote their businesses. StumbleUpon was owned by eBay from May 2007 to April 2009, when Garrett Camp, Geoff Smith and several investors bought it back. It is now an independent, investor-backed startup once again.
Delicious
This is a social bookmarking web service for discovering, storing and sharing web bookmarks. The site was founded by Peter Gadjokov and Joshua Schachter in 2003 and acquired in 2005 by Yahoo. By the end of 2008, Delicious claimed that it had bookmarked 180 million URLs and acquired more than 5.3 million users. The service was later sold to AVOS Systems in April 2011 who later sold it to Science Inc. In January this year, Delicious Media said that it had acquired the service.
Digg
Founded more than a decade ago (November 2004), Digg is a news aggregator with a curated front page that selects stories specifically for the Internet audience, The topics vary widely from trending political issues to science to viral Internet issues and anything in between. Digg supports sharing of content to other social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. In 2015, the company claimed that it had about 11 million active monthly users.
Viber
Viber is a Voice over IP (VoIP) and instant messaging app for mobile devices that was developed and released by Viber Media on December 2, 2010. The app also allows for the exchange of audio, video and images between users. As of April 2014, Viber had accrued close to 600 million registered users and 230 monthly active users.
Facebook Marketing: Are You Using It in Your Business?
As a business owner, you know that you are constantly wondering how you can attract more clients. If you own an online business, the answer to your traffic problem is internet marketing. You need to remember that without marketing, you will never be able to get targeted traffic to your website. Today, any kind of business, whether online or offline are now using internet marketing in order to expand their reach for new customers.
Internet marketing is not quite as easy as it may sound. You have to consider the fact that you need to work hard in order for you to attract targeted traffic to your website. You need to write a lot of good articles to read that is related to the products or services that you are selling and you also need to join groups and participate in them. Also, your website need to be attractive.
Whatever you are selling, internet marketing is a hard task to do, but when it works, it is well worth the effort and money.
However, thanks to social networking website, such as Facebook, you will see that internet marketing is a lot easier than ever before. First of all, in all social networking websites, Facebook is one of the most popular sites. Here, you will already have the numbers you need. This means that it already has traffic. With millions of subscribers logging in and out each day and also millions more registering each day, you can be sure that you will be able to get your fair share of targeted traffic.
In Facebook, you will see all kinds of people with different social backgrounds.
Also, the members themselves will try to separate themselves from distinct groups. The fact that Facebook will allow people to create and join groups you will be able to easily find your target customers.
Whether the group is separated by age, school, gender or interests, you will see that you will find all sorts of groups in Facebook.
Another great thing about Facebook is that it will provide every member with the tools needed in order to communicate with their network. These tools can be considered to be great tools for you to use in order to advertise or market your products or services to other Facebook subscribers. From applications to news feeds and blogs, you will see that Facebook will be able to provide it all.
Now that you know about Facebook, the next question would be how to market in it. The first thing that you need to do is subscribe in Facebook. After subscribing, you may want to try adding your old friends. Invite them to join Facebook to start building your network.
Then, try joining groups with interests that is related to the products or services that you are selling.
Use the tools in Facebook to attract people to view your profile page. Add videos, pictures and applications.
Basically, this is how Facebook can help in marketing your products or services. It will readily provide you with traffic and the tools you need to market, but it is entirely up to you to do the marketing yourself.
You have to figure out how to properly use the tools in order for you to effectively market your products or services. These are the things that you need to remember about Facebook.
Markethive did not invent the blog, but we certainly have made it exponentially more powerful. We certainly have added fun, understanding, reach, groups, daily workshops, understanding and power to the process.
Markethive has successfully combined all the technical and tactical aspects and requirements into one system, but have also overcome the obstacles to make blogging a group process, combined with motivated mentors to help the newbie easily immerse and embrace the process.
We did not invent Word Press, but we have significantly taken Word Press serious and made it exponentially better. This blog’s focus is to help you understand the paradigm dynamic shift Markethive has brought to marketing, blogging and the individual within the hive.
The following video attempts to reveal and illustrate how the whole social blogging platform in Markethive changes the entire Internet field of engagement.
Understanding SEO
You can approach the challenge alone, hire a firm and/or a virtual assistance and take the Internet on. This ego centered approach works for many who have the grit and stamina and educated skills of journalism and polished writing (a note here: As the Internet has evolved, the polished blogger vs the blogger that lacks the polish but has the passion, wins in today’s culture).
Approaching the blogosphere as a crew, a group, a gang or a family wins today. Because fresh, new, consistent and current content win and win you combine a social network into a blogging platform, the results are impressive.
Understanding SEO isn’t easy, and Google doesn’t help things much by changing the algorithms and policies on a regular basis. Seems like every time we get a handle on things, the rules change, and we’re all left wondering what we’re doing wrong and what we might still possibly be doing right.
The whole SEO quotient changes when the social network variable is integrated. This is why SEO at Markethive changes the playing field.
So a social network integrated blogging solution is at hand, and, there’s one thing you may have been doing correctly already from the start: That being blogging. You probably have a million reasons to blog, not the least of which include building trust among your buyers, positioning yourself as an expert, and simply sharing news with your company’s followers. Then, of course, there are those activities that help to boost your SEO rankings. These can only help you if you know how to use them, so make note of these 9 reasons blogging can boost your SEO.
Enter the Markethive Social Network Engine combined with the Inbound Marketing Engine. Kind of reminds of the Hot Rods of the 60s like Eddie Hill’s double dragon (see image):
Except with Markethive, the combining the two huge engines of the Internet, Social Networking and Inbound Marketing has an exponential nature to it, not just a geometrical quotient.
This innovative integration of these two power houses has a powerful effect on all that ios Internet Marketing as I illustrate, please read on.
Backlinking
The following is the conventional wisdom perspective to today’s linking approach.
Some of the techniques used for SEO when blogging raise eyebrows, and back linking is no exception. Many will tell you link schemes will get you a slap on the wrist from Google, and they’d be right. Does that mean you can’t build relationships with other companies and blogs by including links and asking for some in return? Not at all.
You can still benefit greatly from being linked and linking to others, but there are some things to keep in mind. First, if you’ve paid for your link, be sure they use the nofollow designation. Otherwise, you’ll be penalized. Next, work with reputable, quality sites that fit your blog’s niche. When links to your blog appear on sites that have nothing to do with your company, you’ll get another ding from Google. Finally, use the same basic rules for any blogs you link to on your site.
Good quality links from popular, well-respected sites can definitely help your SEO rankings, but only if you do it right.
Now, with that said, the amazing change that occurs to your campaign to build organic, condust and create relationships in the blogging power of the Inbound Marketing Social Network of Markethive, delivers a plethora of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), SNM (Social Network Marketing) and the advantages therein if developing unlimited streams of unique content, automated into literally millions of sites, social networks, social bookmarks, blogging platforms from the stream of content that flows out of the Markethive Social Network you are part of or built.
So what does all that mean? As the natural order of our recent tech releases of the Blog Casting (Social Broadcaster) and Blog Swiping (where your friends and other members can easily copy and edit your blog) then publish it and with the advent of this opening the possibility with these new tools produce a cacophony of your content, links, back links, side links, social reaches into the millions. All built upon chaos theory and technology.
The natural organic process to build a huge amazing white hat mass of blog and site links and social reach, thereby, the vision of the Blog Cloud has come to be reality, thank you Markethive, the social networked Inbound Marketing juggernaut.
Simply put, not just combining but fully integrating two platforms, the Entrepreneurial Social Network and a fully appointed Inbound Marketing platform, has opened up doorways not otherwise capable or even aware of or identified in the exponential character of the Markethive Hybrid. Sort of like Twin Towers built on the same foundation.
Actually more like a million communities of twin towers all inter connected and pulsing and thriving with the constant flow of content and videos and communications (comments and messaging) even further empowered with a constant thriving community of live conference room activity.
Guest Blogging
Again Markethive takes the awkward and difficult process of guest blogging and turns it into a graceful social dance. I will explain after I share again the Internet’s explanation of what has been defined as guest blogging.
The latest hoopla suggests guest blogging is dead, but that’s not necessarily true. As with the backlinking, guest blogs can be tremendously beneficial to the SEO of your website. If you work with reputable writers who are indeed experts in their industry, their popularity can only help you.
For this tactic to work, you must be vigilant when screening potential bloggers. Interview them, research their backgrounds, and compare their submission to everything they’ve written before to make sure you get truly unique content. If you follow Google’s quality guidelines, your guest blog from a well-known source will bring you tremendous traffic and boost your search engine rankings.
Markethive has turned this difficult proposition into one of grace and ease. Because the core of your blogging can now be centered within Markethive, which supports and publishes to just about every blogging platform out there. As a social network, you can build a sphere of influence easily with others who are open to and or capable of assisting in your blogging efforts.
Groups also serve as additional blogging platforms, for the individual who keeps track of different campaigns separated by the groups. Groups also parlay into teams of content creators, allow a team captain to manage and lead the agenda and monitor and choose the array of articles by the group to which blog(s) that article automatically gets sent.
The options that the Markethive tools has created for diverse and distributed content is unlimited and better managed than any other option available in the blogosphere.
Group Blogging not only replaces the old guard of guest blogging, it enhances it, makes it easier to, manage and distribute. It changes the entire playing field.
You can integrate single Markethive members, and/or integrate entire groups into as many blog systems you wish. By simply organizing, selecting and developing different cock tails groups for your blogs, you can literally create unlimited selections and unlimited content for unlimited blogs, your blogs, their blogs, unlimited groups of competent writers and marketers. Get into the mix, join some groups, and get into some Workshops and put the system to work for you.
We can even say that you can produce dynamic content on your blog without as much effort as the conventional way.
Fresh Content
Search engines love fresh, unique content. How often do the pages on your website change? Probably not very often at all. That’s why you must keep a steady blog filled with new information every week. Those search engines customers used to find companies just like yours will pull the freshest and most relevant content whenever a search is performed. If your site hasn’t been updated with new information in over a year, you can bet someone else’s will rank higher than yours in the results.
By blogging, you build relationships with your readers, position yourself as an expert in the field, and perhaps most importantly, provide new content for Google to index.
By joining Markethive you build relationships with thousands of others who are actively building business, blogging, researching, etc. basically being “entrepreneurs” and advancing their businesses and agendas. Often you can join with these people as friends, group members and subscribers of theirs via Blog Casting, Blog Sharing and Blog Swiping.
When you are an active member in a good group (active and current), using meetings and live webinars, discussions breed inspirations which support developing new content. Here is a tip I use to help with fresh content. I want to write about the “current trends for the entrepreneur market”. So I go to Google and I search the tail words SEO entrepreneur trends but I designate a small tool many are not aware of.
It is found in “Search tools” in the Google search as the illustration below demonstrates. Choose last week or within 24 hours to get very fresh current content to use in building your blog article. This way, you are assured to be utilizing current references building current articles, sharing with your groups and creating a dynamic culture. Checking new content with Google daily in relations to your agenda is something that should also be shared (the search link) within your groups for discussion.
Keywords
Keywords go hand in hand with fresh content. It also pays to see what current or newest results are shown for current sites utilizing the same technique for current content for your research and agenda.
Even though keywords really don’t hold the same weight they once did, it still needs your attention. In fact, this is another aspect of SEO you can do really wrong and end up punished for. The age of cramming keywords into a blog over and over, regardless of what they add to the content, is over. Now those keywords have to serve a purpose. You really want to make sure you choose unique keywords that will lead searchers to your site but not so unique that no one thinks to use them. If you choose words that are used too often, you won’t get much benefit out of them.
Your best bet with keywords and search terms is to use long-tail keywords and phrases that people may use when searching. Instead of focusing too much on keyword placement and making sure you include the words a certain number of times, concentrate on simply answering questions. Provide knowledge for those who reach your site. They don’t need a million keywords; they need answers.
For instance, the long-tail keyword “Inbound Marketing” had barely begun trending in 2009 with a slow crawl upward until just recently, with the advent of Markethive’s soft launch and discussions of the definition of “Inbound Marketing” and the increase of Social Network chatter in that regards we are now seeing the current trend start to grow.
My first company invented what we called “Automated Marketing” but today fits the new definition “Inbound Marketing” As you can see the term “Automated Marketing” is trending down from a long crown of being a top searched keyword.
See the trend towards “Marketing Automation” beginning? Why is Marketing Automation trending up and Automated Marketing trending down? Does it deserve research?
In my opinion no, but, what does need to be looked at in my regards is our new pre launched/soft launched company (as of May7, 2016) is the Trademark “Markethive”.
Because if we read these trends right, we want to make sure we mention Markethive often in connection to “Inbound Marketing” and “Marketing Automation”. This will place squarely in front of the trend curve binding the “long tail” keywords together.
Markethive’s SEO keyword system leads us to these research outcomes, but until the Google API is fully integrated to Markethive’s Keyword platform I go to the Google Trend panel here as well.
When your blogs are shared and consequently clicked on, they move up in the search rankings. If you’re providing quality content, your readers will want others to know. Of course, the only way to make sure your blogs contribute to your website’s popularity is to create unique content, provide answers for visitors, and then share your blogs wherever you can.
That key point “Share your blogs wherever you can” is another way of saying “Broadcast” them. And Markethive has taken Broadcasting to new heights with Blog Casting and SNAP. Blog Casting is a Markethive subscribe feature that other Markethive members use to subscribe to your Markethive blog. When they subscribe (and the potential is 1000s of them), your blog posts are automatically posted to their Facebook Newsfeeds, LinkedIn activity feeds and your Twitter tweets feed.
When you understand that this down stream of subscribers, fellow entrepreneurs at MarketHive, are exposing their connections to your message, they are lifting you up, increasing your popularity and building greater branding for you.
Then there is the Blog Sharing feature that also allows your fellow Markethive entrepreneurs to import your blog posts to their WordPress blogs using the SNAP plugin increasing your message (your posts) to another 25 of their social networks, Facebook Pages, LinkedIn company pages, SumbleUpon, Tumbler, Livejournal, Blogspot, ets, exponentially increasing your exposure and adding to your back links.
When you discover the responsibility this represents that you show respect, produce quality content to your loyal downstream, you now have the opportunity to build a huge popular following. Markethive, The Rise of the Entrepreneur. We have put a great future in your hands. Now it is up to you.
Images
Including images in your blog gives you one more way search engines can find you. Make sure you name them according to the search terms or keywords, and then do the same for the alt-text. The alt-text is meant to describe what’s in the image for those who don’t or aren’t able to see images on their computer screens. For this reason, your alt-text must be carefully crafted to serve two purposes: SEO and information.
I search a lot in images and so do others. They may be looking for an image to fill a need, the reasons vary, but a lot of traffic does come from image searching, so do not ignore this small duty. Alt tags serve an important batch of duties.
When installing images in the Markethive HTML control panel, the following Image control panel, second tab, is where to enter your keywords and descriptions.
When looking at the HTML code, this is exactly what ALT tags look like and search engines Index.
Video
As with photos, video simply gives you more dynamic content that you can share with your readers. Remember they’re looking for excellent, unique content, so be sure you include only videos that serve a purpose. Proprietary videos are always the best bet, since syndicated content will show up on several different sites during a search result.
If you have never made a video, get some screen capturing software. I use Camtasia (cost about $300)
I also down load others videos to use them in my final productions. I build titles and other content with Photoshop Software, but there are other cheaper alternatives. Many of my friends recommend GIMP for image editing. https://www.gimp.org/
I recommend you make as many of your videos you can, but do not produce bad or funky videos. Today, you need quality and you are welcome to download and use all Markethive videos I produce for yourself.
Be sure you tag your videos with appropriate search terms before you post. Let readers know exactly what’s going on in the video so they can find your content in a search.
I know video editing and production can be daunting to many at first. However, we have plenty od excellent talent that offer video workshops in Markethive. Just check the calendar or enquire within the membership (Social Network).
Remember we are all Entrepreneurs and most of us are also philanthropic and want to help you succeed. I know I do.
Check the calendar
Social Media
Believe it or not, Google also returns social media search results. If you connect your blog to your Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts, you give search engines one more thing to find when people look for your company. As long as you use search terms in your titles and meta descriptions, you’ll boost your SEO through social media listings, too.
A popular set of current wisdom pulled from the Internet void (5 Things to Think About When Considering The Impact of Social on SEO) :
1. Social Links May or May Not Boost Your Search Rank
Okay, social signals pertaining to a profile’s authority are out, but does Google consider links published on social accounts to be credible backlinks? When a blog post goes viral on Twitter, do those new links boost the post’s search ranking?
Many marketers believe that links to your website via social media accounts do have a major impact on your rankings. Says Marketing Consultant Brian Honigman:
Today, links are mainly achieved through developing original content that is in turn, shared across social media. Links to your content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube and other social networks help the search engines understand what websites are credible and should be ranked for what keyword phrases.
In Danny Sullivan’s 2010 interview with Google and Bing for Search Engine Watch, Google first says that it doesn’t incorporate the number of times a link has been tweeted into their search rank algorithm, and then it goes on to say that it does (doh). Bing says that it definitely looks at this data:
We take into consideration how often a link has been tweeted or retweeted, as well as the authority of the Twitter users that shared the link.
While Cutts’ 2014 video is crystal-clear about the absence of social signals from the search algorithm, he does say that Google crawls social websites for data in the same way that it would any other site:
Facebook and Twitter pages are treated like any other pages in our web index, and so if something occurs on Twitter or occurs on Facebook and we’re able to crawl it then we can return that in our search results.
This leads me to think that while the authority of a social account doesn’t impact search rank, links published on social media could be marked as credible back-links and thus influence a page’s rank.
Takeaways: When Cutts made his statement about Google not factoring in social signals I understood him to mean clues about a particular company’s authority on social media, which, for me, is distinct from the number of times a page has been linked to on social media. Further research didn’t help me get much clarity on this point.
If there are any SEO experts reading this, I’d love for you to chime in below in the comments.
2. Social Media Profiles Rank in Search Engines
While social shares may or may not affect a webpage’s position in search listings, your social profiles definitely influence the content of your search results. In fact, social media profiles are often amongst the top results in search listings for brand names. When I searched “General Electric” in Google, the company’s Instagram and Pinterest profiles appeared as the 5th and 6th listings, respectively, and Twitter was the 8th result.
Moreover, Google displayed the company’s Google+ profile information in the right-hand sidebar at the very top of the search results page.
While social shares may or may not affect a webpage’s position in search listings, your social profiles definitely influence the content of your search results. In fact, social media profiles are often amongst the top results in search listings for brand names. When I searched “General Electric” in Google, the company’s Instagram and Pinterest profiles appeared as the 5th and 6th listings, respectively, and Twitter was the 8th result.
Social channels can feel more personal than webpages, and they’re a great way to get a sense of a company’s personality off the bat. When I’m researching a company I don’t know much about I typically go straight to their Twitter or Facebook page. So if a social account shows up at the top of the search results, I’m just as likely to click on it as I would be to click on their website.
Takeaway: There’s no doubt that your social profiles matter to Google and especially to people who are looking for you online. A few active social channels can make the experience of getting to know your brand online more fun, engaging and personal. Also, while some may consider Google+ a non-essential social channel, marketers shouldn’t discount the fact that a company’s Google+ profile is one of the first things a searcher will see (and potentially click on). As such, it pays to have a profile with up-to-date info and engaging content.
3. Social Media Channels Are Search Engines, Too
Nowadays, people don’t just go to Google and Bing to look stuff up; they also use social media channels to find what they’re looking for. Patel makes this point in his article on why social is the new SEO: “We need to understand that search engine optimization includes the search that happens on social media search engines.”
This works in a couple of ways: First, if you’re active on Twitter, it’s entirely possible that people will discover your company’s new content distribution app after searching for content marketing-related tweets with Twitter’s search engine. Likewise, brands that lend themselves to beautiful visual content can benefit from making their content visible in Pinterest and Instagram by using hashtags and properly categorizing their pins.
Moreover, as mentioned in point #1, if someone wants to check out your company, they’re likely to open Twitter and Facebook and do a quick search to see what kind of presence you have on each channel. YouTube, and, of course, Google+ are also search engines.
Here are some impressive stats that illuminate just how much people are using social media to search:
As of 2010, Twitter handled 19 billion search queries a month (that’s more than 5x the queries handled by Bing!).
In 2012 Facebook said it got around one billion search queries per day.
As of March 2010, YouTube got roughly 3.7 billion search queries a month. Also, 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, making it one of the largest content repositories on the web.
Takeaways: Companies should expand their concept of SEO to include not just the traditional search engines––Google and Bing––but also social search engines.
When searching for a brand on Facebook or Twitter it’s not uncommon to see several different profiles pop up, and it’s not always clear which one is the real deal. Marketers need to ensure that it’s super easy for users to identify their official social profiles.
This may mean deleting duplicate accounts and/or clearly labeling each social account so that users understand what purpose they serve (for example, accounts for HR or press versus general brand pages).
4. Not Now Doesn’t Mean Not Ever
Just because Google says that social signals don’t currently impact search rank doesn’t mean they never will. Social media shows no sign of becoming a less important part of a brand or person’s online presence anytime soon; moreover, given that link-building strategies like guest blogging have become a less reliable way to indicate the quality of a webpage, it makes sense that search engines would begin to look for other signals of authority and value.
Takeaways: There’s no reason why social signals won’t begin to affect search rankings in the future, so smart brands will continue to build their authority in key social channels and think about social when designing their SEO strategy.
5. Don’t Forget Bing
Google may have back-tracked and changed their stance on social signals, but I haven’t found any evidence that what Bing told Sullivan for his Search Engine Watch interview doesn’t hold true today.
Remember, Bing said:
We do look at the social authority of a user. We look at how many people you follow, how many follow you, and this can add a little weight to a listing in regular search results.
Takeaways: Bing, which is the second most-used search engine, has been crystal clear about how their algorithm incorporates social signals into their search results, and, unlike Google, they haven’t flip-flopped on the issue. With its market share steadily growing, companies would be wise to include Bing in their SEO strategies.
Wrapping Up
Cutts’ claim that Google’s search algorithm ignores social signals should not be seen as an invitation for marketers to dismiss social’s impact on SEO. Instead, marketers should broaden their concept of search and SEO to take into account the myriad ways that people find content on the web. They also need to think about the positive effects that increased traffic from social can potentially have on their search rankings as well as the prominence of social profiles on first-page search results.
Ultimately, the web is all about building relationships, fostering audiences, expressing identity and sharing ideas––it’s inherently social, and there’s no reason that SEO best practices would go against the grain, especially since the rules that govern SEO are ultimately meant to make the web a more enjoyable and useful place.
Indexed Pages
Perhaps the most important reason of all to blog is the fact that each post counts as a new page on your website. Google really does like fresh content and will reward those who share frequently. Those who do include a business blog on their site will see up to 55% more traffic than companies who don’t. The reason for this is the indexed pages. For Google to index those pages, you need to include at least 300 quality words. That means reblogging, short blogs, and duplicating content won’t help you. There is a time and place for the previously mentioned blog types, but not when you’re hoping to boost your SEO.
Now that you understand why blogging is essential to improving your SEO results, you probably want to get started right away. Don’t get bogged down or feel overwhelmed. A systematic approach is what you need, starting with a content calendar. Simply start by answering those burning questions your potential customers have. Plan blogs that will touch on their pain points. You’ll see results sooner than you ever thought possible.
29 Motivational Quotes for Company and other Work Environments
Some days an inspirational quote can supply a quick pick-me-up for staff members as well as management. They can be a breath of fresh air when it comes to a dull afternoon. These are also a terrific method to jazz up a newsletter or a memo and even to merely print and connect to a publication board. Utilizing quotes like these are perfect ways to produce an inspirational and successful workplace. As Mr. Rick Pitino states "The only method to obtain individuals to like striving is to inspire them. Today, individuals should understand why they're striving. Every individual in a company is motivated by something various."– Rick Pitino
Motivational Quotes:
1. Mahatma Gandhi: You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
2. Jim Stovall: You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins.
3. Robert Frost: The only way around is through.
4. Warren Buffett: You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.
5. Les Brown: You must remain focused on your journey to greatness.
6. Theodore Roosevelt Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
7. Charles F. Kettering: Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier
8. Henry Ford: Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right!
9. Jim Rohn: You must either modify your dreams or magnify your skills.
10. William Hazlitt: Who likes not his business, his business likes not him.
11. Denis Waitley: Winners take time to relish their work, knowing that scaling the mountain is what makes the view from the top so exhilarating.
12. Le Iacocca: Management is nothing more than motivating other people.
13. Dwight D.: Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.
14. Drucker: The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong question
15. Max Schmelling: Why did I want to win? Because I didn't want to lose!
16. J. Paul Getty: To succeed in business, to reach the top, an individual must know all it is possible to know about that business.
17. Pierre Corneille: To win without risk is to triumph without glory.
18. Tony Dorsett: To succeed… You need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.
19. James Broughton: The only limits are, as always, those of vision.
20. George Kneller: To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted.
21. Peter McWilliams: To the degree we're not living our dreams; our comfort zone has more control of us than we have over ourselves.
22. Johann Wolfgang Von Goeth: To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult.
23. Tryon Edwards: To waken interest and kindle enthusiasm is the sure way to teach easily and successfully.
24. Spanish Proverb: Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week.
25. Lyndon B. Johnson: The noblest search is the search for excellence
26. Charles M. Schwab: The man who does not work for the love of work but only for money is not likely to neither make money nor find much fun in life.
27. Chinese Proverb: The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water; but to walk on the earth.
28. John Naisbitt: The new source of power is not money in the hands of a few, but information in the hands of many.
29. Henry Ford: The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.
Many employers will add these quotes inside the employees' paycheck envelope. In some cases it might be an inspirational quote, other times a silly remedy. Consist of employee birthdays or other essential occasions to help your employees feel a part of the group.
Markethive has fused the Social Aspect of Entrepreneurs with a state of the art very powerful Marketing platform for free. Email Autoresponders, Capture Pages, Blogcasting, etc.
Attain top SEO and reach billions of people on the Social Networks is a typical day for the Entrepreneur at Markethive
The Force Multiplier
When you gather the troops of Entrepreneurs as a family, with a common goal, the power of the Inbound Marketing of Markethive explodes exponentially.
Broadcasts in the trillions begin to happen, reaching SEO results unheard of and building lifelong partnerships with other Entrepreneurs is Markethive.
I started using Markethive a few months ago. The Tools are incredible, rotators, tracking, coop press releases, email autoresponders, capture pages, the blog platform is genius, the knowledge shared and the family of other entrepreneurs just makes the results of marketing with Markethive the very best.
It is all free, because they fund the system with advertising and then share 50% of the advertising with us in the affiliate program.
Markethive has fused the Social Aspect of Entrepreneurs with a state of the art very powerful Marketing platform for free. Email Autoresponders, Capture Pages, Blogcasting, etc.
Attain top SEO and reach billions of people on the Social Networks is a typical day for the Entrepreneur at Markethive
The Force Multiplier
When you gather the troops of Entrepreneurs as a family, with a common goal, the power of the Inbound Marketing of Markethive explodes exponentially.
Broadcasts in the trillions begin to happen, reaching SEO results unheard of and building lifelong partnerships with other Entrepreneurs is Markethive.
I started using Markethive a few months ago. The Tools are incredible, rotators, tracking, coop press releases, email autoresponders, capture pages, the blog platform is genius, the knowledge shared and the family of other entrepreneurs just makes the results of marketing with Markethive the very best.
It is all free, because they fund the system with advertising and then share 50% of the advertising with us in the affiliate program.
Affiliation the Quickest Way to Get Started Online
Yes, your online content will be packed with free tips and techniques and secret weapons for becoming the next internet marketing millionaire.
However, it can be very time consuming especially if you are just starting to build your online business. The arrival of the Internet has made the tasks of promoting your business much easier than before.
You get instant feedback with your advertising that in times gone by would have taken months if not years to obtain. The same sort of results that now can take as little time as a few minutes with Google ad words can achieve the same results, saving you time and money.
Some of the benefits of an online business: the most inexpensive way to start a business, unlimited market for your products or services, automatic streams of constantly growing income (otherwise known as passive income), more time you are able to spend with your family and loved ones as a result. So ask yourself what products can I offer that are of interest. What type of product can I sell that will take the hassle out of making money online what can I sell that will give my customers instant gratification and solve my prospect's problem, the answer is electronic downloadable product with instant access 24/7.
If your ads or products do not clearly spell this out, and tell the customer how you will give them what he/she desires, most times you will not make the sale, if you go down the path of selling hard product then you are going to require a customer service department, or shipping department, then you must see how many people you will need to employ.
If your selling digital downloads then you don’t need any of the above you can set up your business and it will run on automatic.
While it is true that other major search engines have also recently launched similar tools, Google remains in a class of its own in terms of what it can deliver and the sheer experience of being the premier and largest search engine provider.
The truth is that an affiliate needs fairly high levels of traffic to make money from any online affiliate business opportunity. An Affiliate Program Can Help Your Business. The truth is that there is a lot of hard work in terms of setting up structures and driving traffic to your affiliate site that needs to be done over a period of time before the money can start to roll in thick and fast.
This is the reason why most people who register to join a top 10 online business opportunity affiliate program usually give up somewhere along the way. There is probably no online business opportunity today that is more viable than joining an affiliate program or two. In fact it has now become clear that chances of online business success are much higher with an affiliate program opportunity than by trying to launch your own new product or service. Small companies do it to become big while big sites do it to retain their position.
Casting aside the more technical programming jargon, the most important things to making money online in terms of SEO is inbound links and good content on your website.
Have some Meaningful Content about your Keyword or Keyword Phrase. You need to have meaningful content that the Search engines can use to determine if your product is relevant to what the search terms are that people are typing in there browsers.
The engines are getting much smarter about robotic page generated sites that are not able to be read by humans and are only there to trick the search engines, pages like this are a thing of the past, these days the more relevant the information you provide to people through your web site the more success you will have. This is not a lesson on search engines but given the amount of content based on the one word 'SEO' you can begin to understand how popular this idea is.
In conclusion affiliation is the quickest way to get stated online and you need relative content to what it is that you are selling, all matched to the key words that people are using to find what they are looking for. This with the determination to succeed and a little hard work and you’re on the way to setting up our own online empire.
With so much information on the web these days, the competition for high-quality content is strong — and it’s growing.
You can’t always introduce new topics to your target audience, since influential bloggers have already written tons of content on the issues you have in mind. There is a trick though: you don’t necessarily need an original idea to craft unique content. You can always develop your own piece by adding the right dose of creativity into any topic your audience is interested in.
For example, let’s say you’re running a lifestyle blog and you’ve exhausted all topics about getting inspired, finding a purpose in life, achieving goals, and all other themes that are usual for these types of blogs. You can take the good-old idea on giving goal planning tips, but you can add a different angle. Here are few examples:
How Blogging Can Help You Plan and Achieve Life Goals
Do You Really Need a Calendar for Planning?
How Plans Can Prevent Procrastination
Or, you can relate your niche with the concept of blogging, so you’ll give tips to other bloggers. In this case, the topic could be something like Unusual Methods for Planning Blog Posts. There are endless variations and spins you can think of.
You may find several other online posts when you get such an idea, but your individual approach will make it different. How can you think outside the box to bring a new angle to a tired topic?
This blog post takes the traditional theme of planning and connects it to something unconventional: pet birthdays, fan conventions, and divorce parties. It’s a nice example of how you can give new life to a boring topic.
Remember: it’s definitely possible to achieve originality and a substantial following. However, it’s going to take hard work and practice. Read on; we have some tips that will help you with that!
Why is unique content so hard to find?
There is a simple answer to that question: huge competition.
It doesn’t matter what your blogging niche is and what topic you have in mind; your audience can probably find tons of other resources when googling the keywords you used.
That being said, it’s clear why it’s hard to find entirely unique content if you limit the term unique to something that’s available from a single author. Even if you think of a topic that has never been covered before, other bloggers will get inspired by it and they will take it further with their own ideas, so it won’t be that unique any longer.
Does that mean you should give up on blogging? Of course not! You see, there is a trick: the term unique is quite flexible in its essence. You can still work on an evergreen topic and bring something fresh on the table. You only need to reveal your individual style and think of some original ideas.
Matthew Inman’s The Oatmeal is a great example of how boring or mainstream topics can get really fun when you add a twist.
Why unique content is important
If you don’t serve anything new for your audience, you won’t be special for them. They don’t want to read the same old tips over and over again.
For example, let’s say you’re writing a post that’s supposed to help people surpass mild depression. Instead of writing cliché tips like “read a book, watch a movie, take a walk, talk to friends, and meditate,” you can suggest something radical, like “quit the job that’s making you miserable and start your own business.” — but you better be ready to back it up!
You can also link the theme with celebrities; that often works really well. Untitled3
The reality of search engine optimization (SEO) is essential to understand
Without satiating and unique content, your site will not receive the search results you want. Search engines value your content as much as your viewers. And ultimately, you will need exposure in search engines to achieve success.
A search engine measures uniqueness a bit differently than your readers do. Your audience needs fresh ideas, but Google needs non-plagiarized content. In other words — do not copy someone else’s work!
Your content needs to include strategically-placed keywords and phrases as well and clear, well-written human copy.
Keywords in the right places are indicators to search engines, which will help them to classify your site and target the appropriate viewers during searches. Don’t overstuff your piece with keywords, though. When you use too many keywords that your audience can easily recognize, they will affect the overall uniqueness of your post.
Valuable content will increase your expertise and authority
In addition to search engines, you need to consider your readers. Search engines will give your blog/website higher SEO rankings if your content is seen as an “authority”. To achieve this status, your posts need backlinks, as well as a steady and large number of visitors (who maintain long view times).
When you give readers something of substance, you are more likely to retain them as consistent visitors. When they get used to your blog, they will perceive your content as unique even when there are tons of similar articles on the web. They will always read yours first. If, for example, someone is looking for articles related to digital, social media, and technology, they are most likely to visit Mashable as an authoritative blog in the niche, since they know they will always find something valuable there.
Think of it this way: if you read informative articles of great value, you’re most likely to bookmark those sites for future use. That’s the effect you want to achieve with your own posts.
How to create unique content
You will need to begin each post with a great idea, however, this can be difficult to achieve on a consistent basis.
First, you must understand that high-quality, original content requires various areas of focus. Don’t narrow your mindset down to the specific niche you’ve chosen; make sure to research other areas of interest and connect them with topics relevant to your audience.
Review the following guidelines to get started.
1. Idea Generation
If you’re creating site content, then you probably have ample experience and knowledge in a specific area to produce quality work (and a foundation to back it up). However, that does not always mean you can create intriguing titles, headlines or unique ideas.
It’s normal to face a point of low inspiration. Below are some of the best online destinations that help you find ideas for unique posts.
Online generators
TweakYourBiz is a great option that quickly provides hundreds of ideas (separated into categories like lists, bests and problems) for writers with a simple keyword search. Not all of these suggestions will seem logical, but at least they will inspire you to find a twist to the theme you plan to cover.
Other tools, such as Coschedule’s Headline Analyzer and AMI’s Emotional Value Headline Analyzer, will help you choose the most efficient headline when you have few alternatives on your mind.
Blogs
Expand your imagination and check out blogs outside your given niche. Even if a blog is completely off-topic from your own, you will be surprised to find unrelated areas of interest intersect and inspire new ideas. Then, you need to relate those ideas to your own niche, and you’ll come up with a unique topic for your piece.
For example, let’s say you find an awesome blog post about the importance of academic writing, but you’re running a blog related to business startups. You can infiltrate this ideas in your own editorial schedule with a post entitled How Academic Writing Made Me a Better Businessman.
Social Media
This is a great way to discover what’s trending in your blog’s subject matter. If people are talking about it and reading about it, then you need to provide them with your perspective. Maybe the idea won’t be 100% unique, but your own point of view will make it original.
2. Adequate Research
Once you get some strong ideas, it’s time to research properly. You don’t want to give your readers false information and you don’t want to tarnish your status either.
Start by using Google and search your blog idea or title. The results will be your first exposure to the competition. Review the top results and look for the following:
Check for clarity and flow. Is the article informative and interesting? Does it flow naturally? If it’s believable and factual, you can add it as a resource in your post.
Be attentive and check the date on the posts as well. If the posts are newer, they will seem more relevant to your audience.
It’s also imperative to keep your research organized. The popular app Evernote is a great source for storage. The tool connects on all devices and users can save anything from video and audio files, to online articles, images and more. Have you heard the latest news? Evernote now allows you to pin the content you locate online. That’s awesome, since you’ll get an even better overview of the sources of inspiration you find.
When you keep track of all resources, you won’t risk using someone else’s unique ideas just because you forgot where they came from.
Remember: get inspired by the research; do not copy the content you found!
3. Editing and proofreading
Once you’ve drafted a post, it’s time to edit. You should never publish a first draft. This disregards an essential part of the process and will greatly affect the authority of your site content. Use the following tips to get started:
You should make sure to check the uniqueness of your piece during the editing process. Use online tools like Plagtracker to be sure your content is 100% original.
When writing for the web, your articles must be engaging, but also concise and to the point. The attention span in the digital world is short, regardless of the audience you’re targeting. If you post boring, unclear content, it won’t matter how unique it is… not many people will read it.
Use tools like The Hemingway app for help. The tool highlights issues like complex sentences and adverb usage, and it provides an overall readability score.
Read your content out loud to yourself. This can show you repeated or misplaced words that you missed while reading quietly to yourself. It’s also a great check for flow and natural tone. Repetitiveness affects a reader’s impression for uniqueness, so make sure to get rid of it.
No matter what topic you are covering, your content should always be created with passion, motivation and honesty. Every content creator should be using these tips and tools to enhance the creation process and come up with unique pieces of content.
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Stephen Hodgkiss
Chief Engineer at MarketHive markethive.com
When using any marketing strategies, social media marketing has become the best medium utilized by many businessmen and entrepreneurs. For some businesses, having social media accounts does not change their sales marketing nor does their online business improve. What are the reasons their social media marketing efforts are not providing them the outcomes they were seeking?
It may be that the methods they are using are not ideal. Maybe they are making the same social media marketing errors as other companies. Social network marketing goals must be set. Various companies use social media differently, depending on their goals. What is the purpose of the campaign? Brand recognition? Customer relations? Increased revenue?
They must know their audience, acknowledge their presence, and build their trust. Because the audience must believe that they are very important, social media interaction is required. Social media marketing is undoubtedly the best method used by any online business. Defining the goals is the key to a successful effort. Know the purpose, define the target audience, and interact with the audience to understand and deliver what they want.
