dead dyno

Guest post by Dino Dogan, Founder of blogging platform Triberr.

That’s right. It’s dead. Like road kill. Put out to pasture. Extinct. Turned into nothingness. But why?

One of the things we do at Triberr is look at successful blogs to figure out what is it that makes them successful? What is it that they have that small(er) blogs do not? What leverage are they using to get the eyeballs?

And then we build tools to make that same leverage available to the rest of us.

Posting Frequency

The obvious thing that big blogs have is the frequency of publication. Popular blogs publish at least once a day, and very popular blogs publish 10-20 times a day. Coincidence? Hardly.

While the advantage of posting frequently is obvious, it’s been VERY difficult to replicate for a small blogger pressed for time and resources.

And since publishing frequently is key to popularity, it’s no wonder that the myth of guest blogging as some viable method of gaining Attention has been popularized by those “in the know”. It serves their purpose.

Big blogs need new content. They need new blood to keep pumping that content, otherwise their big blogs will go extinct. In return, they promise traffic back to your blog and few backlinks.

Baby in Bath Water

But let’s not throw baby out with bath water. Guest blogging can work for some people some of the time. For example.

• If you are writing about a topic that doesn’t fit your blog. Might as well publish it someplace else.
• If you’re doing it just for the fun of it.
• If you turn yourself into a human article spinner and publish essentially the same article on bunch of blogs and change the wording slightly, or approach the same topic from a slightly different angle.

The last bullet is the best way to get traffic and backlinks, but it’s the least interesting.

Even then, it’s still slave labor to churn out guest post after guest post in hopes that you will:

• Get the Attention you truly deserve
• That your guest post will generate interest which will -fingers crossed- generate traffic for your blog
• That your guest post (which includes few backlinks) will somehow -by osmosis- improve your standing with Google.

What Guest Blogging is NOT

Let me be clear. If you can post on a HUGE blog and reuse the same post for your own blog, then there really is no downside.

I was talking to a friend -and mentor- Mitch Joel, and he told me he “guest posts” on Huffington Post. Then he publishes that same “guest post” on his blog almost immediately. Well, no shit, Sherlock. That’s a no brainer.

HuffPost is a huge blog. It gives you huge exposure. It gives you huge bragging rights. And since Mitch is publishing the same post on his blog immediately thereafter, there’s no loss of effort. So…there really is no downside for Mitch.

Sidenote: Of course, in this scenario Mitch has 2 sets of comments for the same post, and he’s expected to engage on both HuffPost and on his own blog. That’s a bit of a pain. If only there was a way of “joining” the two comment systems. Read on.

But Mitch is Mr. Six Pixels. Huffington Post is not available to the rest of us mere mortals. Our options for getting out guest post out there are A LOT slimmer. And largely not worth the effort.

Besides, what Mitch is doing is not really guest posting anyways. He publishes that same “guest post” on his blog. So, it’s syndication. And THAT is what the rest of us should be doing.

Elephunk 

D’you now what the really big, stinky elephant in the room is?

If you get yourself published on a big blog, most readers will assume that’s your best work -and it should be- so why should they go to your blog to read your “worst” work?

Very small % of readers, and after a sustained effort, over many posts, will actually become disloyal to the big blog and move over to yours. “Leaving” the big blog to go read guest author’s blog feels like a small act of betrayal to most casual readers.

The Rise of the Syndicated Blogger

Traffic is NOT the holy grail of blogging.

That’s right. I said it. Traffic is not only the wrong thing to focus on, but it’s a BAD thing to focus on.

Traffic is only important because it brings Attention to your content. If you could have Attention without traffic, would you take it? I know I would.

Not only is traffic irrelevant, but it’s detrimental. Do you know what would happen if all of a sudden your content went viral?

1. Your blog would crash.
2. You’d upgrade your servers to accomodate newly found traffic, only to find yourself overpaying when the viral-effect wears off.
3. And the new influx of users probably wouldn’t convert into “regulars” either.

So spare me.

What you want is to have your content appear EVERYWHERE. That’s what Oprah does, and it works pretty well for her.

Oprah doesn’t care what local TV station her show appears on. She cares that you see her content. By the same token, I don’t care what blog my content appears on. So long more eyeballs get to SEE my content.

Unifying Comment System

The problem with having your post appear on, say 10 different blogs, is the engagement piece.

I know what you’re thinking. “Ya, ok, Dino. Like I’m gonna keep track of comments across 10 blogs”. 

Well, that USED to be the case, but not any more.

With Triberr Unifying Comment System, every single comment will be replicated to every instance of your post.

Yes, you’ve read that correctly. This is entirely new, different, and unique. And no. No other comment system does this. I know, I know. Magic.

Here, see for yourself.

I have a post about How To Build a Community of Fanatics. Leave a comment on that post, then go to a ReBlogged version of that same post on Dan’s blog.

What you will see is the exact, mirrored, identical comments section, with your latest comment included.

Dan ReBlogged it to his blog with a single click using Triberr WordPress plugin. Learn more about ReBlog and Triberr Unifying Comment System here.

I Got ReBlogged

For all I know, you might be reading this post on someone else’s blog right now. In fact, I hope you are.

If you’re reading this post somewhere other than DIYBloggerNET, I sincerely hope you’ll let me know in the comments section.

• Do I care that another blog gots the traffic? Nope. My author box is underneath this post, so if you want to know who wrote this, the info is right there.
• What about the loss of engagement? Well, comments will be mirrored on both blogs, so there will be ZERO loss of engagement.
• Do I lose RSS/Email subscribers? Not really.

On one hand, you probably never would have seen this content if it wasn’t ReBlogged, and if you liked it, it’s easy enough to make your way over to author’s blog and sign up for future deliveries.

Besides. Could these be some future updates I’m talking about here? I think so, I think so

Imagine having your one post ReBlogged 10 times and having your Email/RSS subscriber box available in ALL 10 instances of your post? How much more milage would you get out of each post?  The answer is, a lot.

What Does It All Mean?

For a Syndicated Blogger, it means that you get to publish your content on your own blog, not somebody else’s. That post then gets ReBlogged on other “channels”. All the while, Triberr is mirroring all the comments between all instances of the ReBlogged post.

• Having your post on other blogs means increased exposure + Attention for you.
• If your content is enchanting enough it may actually lead to visits to your blog.
• The important piece is ZERO loss of engagement. All comments are visible everywhere. And you can respond to all comments from anywhere.
• Your content will not be dwarfed by the overbearing power of a well branded big blog.
• You can even manage all your comments from within your Tribal Stream.

You no longer have to write guest posts. You simply focus on writing quality content that people in your Tribal Network will be happy to ReBlog.

And if you include 2-3 links to your older content, and your post is ReBlogged say 10 times, that’s 20-30 backlinks. Now, that’s how you improve your standing with Google.

ReBloggers Tribe

I’m building my ReBloggers tribe right now. If you write quality content about Social Media, blogging, marketing, or similar, apply here.

Q & A

Q. Is duplicate content an issue?

A. No. Duped content WAS an issue many years ago. But google has since figured out to add a freshness stamp to their crawled content. Older version get higher ranking (all things being equal).

Duplicate content IS still an issue when it’s found on the same blog. Which is why many confuse the two.

We also plan on adding Point of Origin tag to each post, thereby boosting the google juice for the author.

————————————————————————————————

Q. Can I opt out of ReBlog?

A. Yes. Whenever you publish a new post you will be asked if you’d like to make it available for ReBlog.

————————————————————————————————

Q. Can I have multiple comment systems on my blog?

A. Yes. You can see what that looks like here.

————————————————————————————————

Q. Where are the comments stored?

A. On Triberr. We wanted to integrate Triberr comments into WordPress comment system but encountered two issues with it:

1. Replication infrastructure necessary is more than we can afford at the moment;
2. And, people like using different comment systems.

Some bloggers use LiveFyre, some use DisqUs, some use Intense Debate. Creating a mirrored comment system that works with all of those would be impossible for us at this time.

————————————————————————————————

Q. Will I forfeit the comments if I decide to not use the plugin anymore?

A. We are building a feature that allows you to export/import your comments into a XML file. It’s not ready yet.

————————————————————————————————

Q. Will I lose google juice?

A. No. in fact you’ll make out like a bandit by getting a ton of backlinks to your blog due to ReBlog.

————————————————————————————————

Q. How will a ReBlog give me backlinks?

A. It is common practice to link a new post to your 2 or 3 older posts. This helps your readers find older content, AND if someone ReBlogs your post, you get a backlink for those older posts.

————————————————————————————————

Q. What about spam comments?

A. All commenters must authenticate, and all hyperlinks inside the comment system are inactive.

Having to authenticate fosters community participation and inactive hyperlinks make Triberr comment system useless to spammers.

Final Word

Is yours.

The Local Web

Hence the World Wide Web.

In the last few years Social Media has grown in popularity, becoming a significant marketing opportunity for many businesses. Behind this phenomena the rise in mobile web access has strengthened access on the go.

Combine the fact that people are taking with each other online and increasingly using mobile, it’s no wonder that local businesses can justify using the web for local marketing.

Balihoo, a local marketing automation technology and services company, has produced an awesome infographic based on a number of sources highlighting the importance of local online.

Some of the headline data shows:

1. 73% of online search activity is related to local content.
2. Gartner predicts mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common web access device worldwide by 2013.
3. 83% of local Internet searchers follow-up offline.

Further statistics are shown in the infographic below:

Local Web Infographic

No More L Plates

If you’ve signed up for Twitter and are thinking “now what?”, this article is for you. There are still plenty of people that have never used Twitter, and for many that do Twitter still feels alien to them.

If you have already got the hang of Twitter and want something more advanced then head over to Udemy and sign up for my online course “How To Use Twitter To Build Authority In Your Market Sector”.

For the rest of you I aim to help you get from the point, after you initially signed up, to being a confident Tweeter in 7 easy steps.

Before we get started the first thing to have in mind is that writing a good Tweet (Twitter Message) takes practise. You only have 140 characters, including punctuation and spaces, use them wisely. Whilst some shortening of words is acceptable, try to avoid using Text Speak on Twitter, you’re not writing an SMS!

So you’ve created a Twitter account, you may have even connected with some people and are seeing their updates. If you already know some people on Twitter you may be having conversations, but other than using Twitter as another form of Instant Messaging what more can you do?

A lot depends on why you signed up for Twitter and what you want to get out of it, which brings us to our first step:

1. Why Are You Here?

Why are you using Twitter? Did you sign up to follow celebrities, because your friends are on Twitter or maybe you thought you could use Twitter to promote your business? Any of these are valid, but each means you will mean you will be looking to use Twitter slightly differently once you have got the hang of it.

Having your goals in mind will help you make some choices during the further steps below. You don’t have to use Twitter every day, in fact you never need send a message at all. You can just use Twitter to monitor what others are saying, like your competitors.

2. Profile Image

If you are using Twitter for business you will want to ensure you have a professional looking image as your profile picture.

If your Titter account is representing your business then your company logo would be the best to use. If you are using Twitter to represent you as a person then a photo of you would be preferable. There is no better feeling at a business event than people recognising you because of your Twitter profile picture, it makes networking all that much easier.

Of course if you are using Twitter for any other reason then using any image you wish, try to pick an image that represents your character for best effect. In a previous post I wrote about The Best Profile Photos to Use, especially useful if you want to maximise the amount of people that are likely to follow you.

3. Complete Your Bio

Who are you?

What do you do?

What are you interested in?

My Bio

These are all questions you should answer in your bio. Be warned you only have 160 characters, use them wisely. If you want people to follow you they’ll need a good reason to do so, regardless of whether you’re using Twitter for business or not. Make your bio fun, not just factual, and your likely to get more followers.

4. You Are What You Tweet

Now you’re ready to start Tweeting. But what are you going to say?

This will largely be based on your “Goals” from step 1. If you’re using Twitter for fun and communication with friends then feel free to just chat as normal. If you want to start engaging with others you don’t know, then you have to talk about things that may be of interest to them. And if you’re not a celebrity this will mean avoiding talking about yourself too much!

If you’re into jogging or running for example sharing your times and distances on Twitter can be a fun way to keep track of your training. Mixing this with links to interesting articles you read on the web about running will firmly position you as a keen runner and you’re likely to get other runners follow and converse with you.

You can apply this methodology to any interest or business sector. If you’re using Twitter for business, it’s even more important not to talk about yourself too much. Twitter accounts full of self-promotional Tweets are not that interesting to anyone, although there are always exceptions – see Dell Outlet UK.

5. How Often To Tweet

This will vary a lot dependant on what you are looking to achieve. Even with a casual account based around your own interests you want to be sending out Tweets regularly, 3 or 4 times a day perhaps. If you’re in business and looking to use Twitter commercially you are going to need to Tweet more often. If people get used to you being there and you Tweet interesting stuff regularly they are more likely to keep following you, start conversations with you and importantly share your stuff.

Of course this can be time consuming, so you need to make a schedule for using Twitter just like you would for checking your email. You definitely want to avoid getting sucked into checking your Twitter account throughout the day. In this respect Twitter can be more distracting than your Inbox, so set a schedule and stick to it!

6. Follow To Get Followed

Over time people will come across you due to the information you Tweet, they will then start following you, but you can be proactive about obtaining more followers. One of the best ways to get more followers, is to follow more people. In the earlier years of Twitter if you followed someone, the etiquette was to follow them back, this is how some of the early adopters of the platform gained thousands of followers.

Although not everyone still follows this etiquette, many do, and as long as you make sure your account has plenty of interesting Tweets, a good Bio with a link to your website, if you have one, and a professional profile image you’ll find reciprocation will not be an issue.

So using our example from step 4, go to Twitter.com and type in the search field at the top of the page running. This will bring back all the recent Tweets that mention the word “running”. The results themselves may not be of much use, what is of more interest is the People link top left. This will list all the people with some interest in running, follow these and if you post good stuff they are likely to follow you back.

Finding People to Follow

Follow me and I will follow you back!

Of course you may want to follow some of the brands or celebrities in any case, just to read their stuff.

Advanced Tip: If you click on a Twitter accounts name you will see how many followers they have. If you click on this link it will list those followers, and if that Twitter account talks about running, using our example, then it’s followers are likely to be interested in running! Start following these accounts and there’s a chance they will follow you back also.

7. Share Generously

One of the reasons Twitter is so popular is that it is really easy to share information, not just your own information, but others too. If that information is interesting enough it can even go viral, spreading around the web very quickly. This is one of the attractions for businesses, the ability to spread messages widely with relatively little effort.

The trick to getting your content shared is to write or produce interesting and useful stuff, whether it be a quirky photo, short video, a “how to” article or just an interesting comment. You also need to be open to sharing others content too. Very much like getting followed, if you help others spread their content they are more likely to reciprocate.

This is where the ReTweet comes in. The ReTweet link below a message allows you to send someone else’s message on easily to your followers. If there’s enough space in the Tweet you can add a further comment too if you wish.

Retweet & Share Generously

Bonus Tip: Going Mobile

Twitter has been a popular tool for many in developing countries or living within oppressive regimes not only because of the ease with which you can spread a message, but also due to the low level of technology needed to use the platform. You can just as easily use Twitter on a basic Nokia phone with no smart features as you can on the latest iPhone or a PC.

Going mobile with Twitter can add another dimension to your Tweets making them more real and instant. You don’t need a WiFi connection or data plan either, you can Tweet just using SMS.

To connect your mobile to Twitter just head over to the Mobile Settings on your Twitter account. Then see the help section for How To Use Twitter on Your Mobile.

You can even send picture messages too!

Note: Any Tweets you send via you mobile using this method will be charged against your text message allowance dependant on your mobile contract.

Hopefully this will get you off to a good start, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or leave them in the comments below.

When you’re ready to move to the next level then please try my online course: “How To Use Twitter To Build Authority In Your Market Sector”.

Twitter Addicts are Good for your SEO

Well it seems that Google isn’t just taking notice of links on it’s own platform when it comes to Social Media signals.

Links In Tweets Count Too

Branded3.com used their award-winning petition website, Twitition, with over 1.4 million Twitter followers, 7.6 million signatures on over 198,000 petitions as a base for their recent study.

Taking a sample size of just over 8,500 petitions they looked at the effect on search rankings when users Tweeted the URL of a specific petition page.

The Key Findings

Average Google search ranking across all page URL’s in the study was 54.17.

Based on the number of Tweets containing the URL they recorded the following results:

1. Page URLs with 500 or more Tweets, average rank 45.81
2. Page URLs with 1000 or more Tweets, average rank 40.76
3. Page URLs with 5000 or more Tweets, average rank 30.51
4. Page URLs with 7500 or more Tweets, average rank 4.96

Where pages that were shared more than 50 times all saw a ranking benefit, those that were shared more than 7500 times almost always appeared on page one of the search results!

Rankings were checked by using the page titles, removing any special characters and using the first four words of the title as the search phrase in Google. For example, a Twitition with the title ‘We want Justin Bieber in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil!’ became ‘We want Justin Bieber’.

Download the full Tweets v Ranking report here.

Make Your Content More Shareable

Whilst there are many factors at play when it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), what this and the previous study clearly show is that the more your content is shared the higher it is likely to rank in the search results.

Therefore it is critical that you make your content as interesting as possible to increase the likelihood of it being shared, and that you actively encourage sharing by your audience.

Testing Social Signals

What makes for good SEO?

With Google maturing and adapting its algorithm on a regular basis it can be difficult to be sure what really does have an impact when it comes to search engine optimisation.

There are some factors we know for certain. Content is a critical component of effective SEO, and not just any content; it must be original, regularly updated and well written.

Some of this is for Google’s direct benefit and some, like well written content, because it attracts links which Google then uses as an indicator of importance in its algorithm.

A good headline title containing key phrases are almost certainly a factor and formatting text with the correct html heading, bold and italics tags can assist.

Keywords A Thing Of The Past

We also know that meta-keywords, hangovers from SEO in the early years, play no discernible role in modern search engine optimisation. The meta-description may be used to display in the search results, and in fact Google is using good meta-descriptions more now than it has in the past. Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team, confirms these facts in the short video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK7IPbnmvVU

There is also lots of discussion around the impact of Social Media on search engine rankings. With Google+ developing rapidly it would only make sense that activity on this platform, related to your website, would have an effect on your rankings. In a bid to determine whether Social Media was impacting rankings TastyPlacement Inc. conducted the following experiment.

Social Media, The Future Of SEO

Setting up 6 similar websites based in 6 US cities they left them to settle in for 10 months then began their experiment. Promoting 5 of the websites with a different social platform, using the 6th as a control site, they measured the results.

Probably no surprise, but the website promoted using Google+ saw the biggest increase in organic search rankings.

Does your SEO strategy embrace Social Media and Google+ in particular?

The full results are shown in the infographic below:

Infographic authored by TastyPlacement, a web design and SEO company, To view the original post, see the original Social Media Infographic.

Customer Acquisition

This is a guest post by Lilach Bullock.

Internet marketing and internet marketers have many issues, but this is the most common one – cost of customer acquisition. In this post we are going to explore costs and how as an internet marketer you can use your list to give you better results including better customer retention.

We are going to start with a little  maths. $C is the cost of acquiring a customer and $R is the revenue generated from that customer.

In order to acquire a customer you have to spend money and/or time: advertising, blogging, social media, sales copy, affiliate commissions, customer support, and so on.

If $R is greater than $C then you have a successful online business. As part of this series I will be sharing with you multiple ways in which you can cheaply advertise your offer AND how you can capitalise on the traffic you do bring to your website.

You could jump in and start pumping prospective customers towards your website and offer, but what happens if that prospect checks out what you’re offering and decides to leave? You would have just spent hundreds (possibly more) of dollars getting that prospect to come and check out your offer only to have them leave — for good.

What if you were able to keep that prospect around for a while? What if you could make the most out of every single prospect that visits your website? What if you could increase the efficiency of your marketing? You can do just that!

Not every prospect that you bring to your website will buy from you today, but many that do not buy today will eventually buy from you one day in the near future. So, why not try and make the most out of the money you have already spent to get those prospects to your website…? Why not try and capture them as future (and highly targeted) leads?

This is where a “list” comes into the picture. In marketing, a list is a collection of prospect (or customer) names and contact information. The offline world has been utilizing the list for decades upon decades! And you can tap into the same power online…

When you have a list of prospective customers, then, you can solicit this targeted list of interested people anytime you have something new to offer. Does this mean you should contact them every single day? No. But, having a list of proven prospects is by far cheaper and more reliable than going out and finding new leads (and faster — just click a button).

All you would have to do is send one email out, and you would have the potential of hundreds or thousands of sales. But this is not possible IF you do not prepare yourself in the beginning.

What you need to do is create a sales funnel before you begin sending prospects to your website

“What’s a sales funnel?”, you ask. Well, look at it this way: A sales funnel is no different than an oil funnel. An oil funnel allows you to pour a large continuous stream of oil into a small area…

A sales funnel is no different!

A sales funnel is a marketing process in which you take a multitude of prospects from multiple sources and you funnel them into one small area — your offer.

Sales funnels can get complicated really fast, but the image to the above is a basic and simple sales funnel. In fact, I could talk all day about different sales funnel techniques, but I won’t do that today. Today I just want to introduce you to the concept, and get you rolling with just a basic sales funnel. This way you can prepare yourself and get ready to capture those leads which you will be generating from the techniques on this blog.

The squeeze page captures your prospects. This is where you promise to give the prospect something (usually for free) and in return the prospect gives you their name and contact information so you can send them their free gift.

It is comprised of a headline, sub-head, bullet points of benefits, and an email capture form. The headline gets the prospects attention and the bullets sell the benefits of this free giveaway. The email capture form collects the personal information for each prospect AND the free gift can only be received once the prospect enters that data and hits submit.

You can then redirect them to your sales letter, or you can choose to have them check out their free gift first. Either way, the next step to the funnel is the follow-up.

The follow-up is there for those that have signed up for your email list, but have yet to buy from the sales letter. Some people will have to visit the sales letter a couple of times before they buy from you.

The follow-up will continue the sales process of getting the prospect to visit the sales letter.

Once the prospect gets to the sales letter, then, it’s the sales letter’s job to convert them into a buyer. Once this happens and the sale is made the sales funnel has been completed.

Now that buyer will always be on your list, so, the next time you have a similar offer available you can just email your list again, and those that have bought from you in the past will buy from you again. Why is this? Because it’s a proven fact that it’s easier (and cheaper) to retain a paying customer than finding a new one. Customers always feel safer giving their money to people they have already done business with.

Over to you – do you know your cost of customer acquisition and how do you retain your customers? If you are an experienced internet marketer share some words of wisdom here.

Photo Credit: las – initially via Compfight

Kony 2012 Viral Video

From it’s early beginnings YouTube is now one of the most powerful promotional channels on the web. Enabling anyone with a video equipped phone or camera to be the star of their own movie.

And there have been plenty of celebrities born on YouTube with Justin Bieber probably being the most famous.

YouTube isn’t just about home video and music sensations though. It’s a serious business tool too, with many companies and charities hoping to produce the next video sensation that will promote their brand virally around the world.

Recently Kony 2012 took the web by storm, becoming the most rapidly spreading viral video of all time, with more than 100 million views in six days. This has greatly impacted the films producer’s, Invisible Children, mission to stop LRA violence and support the war-affected communities in East and Central Africa.

YouTube In The Marketing Mix

Is it Social Media?

According to Gary Vaynerchuck Social Media doesn’t really exist and in the video below he uses YouTube as an example of how the phrase has been misused.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8Ino97rEfM

I agree with Gary, Social Media is the Internet, they are synonymous with each other.

YouTube is the fuel that feeds it.

With 4 Billion video views per day and 1 hour of video uploads per second it’s hard to ignore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHPfc6whaSk

Read It Later or Pocket as it is now known, an application that allows you to save articles on the web for “reading later”, reports video saves are up 138%, and YouTube is the most-saved domain; The median length of a video saved in Read It Later is nearly 30 minutes.

Create Your Own YouTube Sensation

So if YouTube is the fuel that feeds Social Media you need to produce some of that fuel of your own. Video can be complex to create, but in an effort to help you understand how to do just that Google have set up some YouTube Creators Workshops throughout May.

Free to take part, they will be streamed live on the YouTube Creators Google+ page and will include:

• May 2: Introduction to cinematography
• May 9: Importing & Exporting: Dealing with codecs and compressions
• May 16: Building your audience on YouTube
• May 23: Improving your channel with YouTube Analytics

Whilst you may not become the next Justin Bieber or create a Kony 2012 you will at least gain an understanding of what is required to plan, produce and build a YouTube video to market your brand, big or small.

Want to build authority for you or your business online? Sign up for my new online course “How To Use Twitter To Build Authority In Your Market Sector”.

This is a guest post by Peggy Fitzpatrick

Today I am going to ponder what I am going to call trendspotting. My definition of trendspotting is searching for a current trend or trending topic in social media. This one simple trick can help jumpstart your social media efforts right away.

One of the hardest things to get started in any social media platform is finding people to engage and follow. When you first start on Twitter or Google+, it seems like you are speaking to an empty room or a crowded room where no one is listening to you. Trendspotting can help you gain some traction in your social media activities.

Using these trendspotting tips will help you do the following:

• Increase your engagement per post or tweet
• Make some connections
• Build your following
• Have more FUN! That makes everything more awesome, right?

It is really easy to find trending topics on Twitter and Google+ and here is how. On regular Twitter, go to your profile and on the left you will see trends. You can select Worldwide, United States or by city. Click on one of the trends and it will open up the entire stream of tweets on this topic. Today is Earth Day so #EarthDay is trending and it will be easy to find lots of great tweets on this hashtag.

On Google+: Click on the HOME icon at the top left and then you will see Trending on Google+. Again click on one of the topics and the stream will open for you. Google+ is unique in their trend searching because you do not have to use the hashtag to be included in the topic as you do on Twitter but you can use the hashtag.

Tip #1

Find interesting material related to a hashtag and tweet it using the #hashtag and everyone following this stream will see the tweet, even if they are not following you.

Share a photo of your favorite place in the world for #EarthDay tomorrow http://t.co/Qrp8iYoK

April 21, 2012 7:45 pm via The Huffington PostReplyRetweetFavorite

@HuffPostGreen

HuffPost Green

Happy #EarthDay! (Just to clarify: an Earth Day suit is NOT the same thing as a Birthday Suit.)

about 21 hours ago via Target TweetsReplyRetweetFavorite

@Target

Target

Happy #EarthDay. Let’s work today and every day for our Mother Earth. [video - Neil Young @FarmAid] http://t.co/RXYnDR8Z

about 21 hours ago via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@benandjerrys

Ben & Jerry’s

Tip #2

Engage! Don’t just observe but become a part of the trend. Make sure that you are posting items that are relevant to the hashtag that you are using or people will be unhappy with you. Don’t drop unrelated links to your posts either, again not a way to make friends. Share other peoples tweets or posts, give them a like a +1, pin them or send them to StumbleUpon. One thing that new people do is observe without engaging. Taking the step towards following and engaging people in a conversation may seem scary or challenging at first but everyone is on social networks to be social. Makes sense, right? Be friendly and say hello. You will be glad you did.

Tip #3

Follow or circle interesting people who you find in the stream. An easy way to follow a Twitter hashtag stream is by using FollowBlast. You can easily pick interesting and relevant people to follow from this list based on the hashtag.

Tip #4

If someone shares your tweet or post, say hi or thank them. Use this as a welcome to converse.

Tip #5

Some hashtags are used all the time like #bacon or #Caturday and some are just for a certain day. Make sure you are using them appropriately.

Tip #6

Don’t over hashtag! Per Jason Falls, “don’t overstuff your tweets with hashtags when you are promoting something.” One maybe two is acceptable, anything more is spammy content and people who follow the hashtag will not take it as seriously.

There is something trending on social media all the time, hop in the stream…the water is just fine!

I hope these tips will help you find more meaning in your social media and help you to truly become a part of the conversation. Follow @PegFitzpatrick

Resources:
Want Better Twitter Results? Try These Effective Types of Tweets

What You Need to Know About Using Hashtags on Twitter

12 Most Spammy Content on the Web

What Are Hashtags? (“#” Symbols)

Featured image courtesy of misspixels via Creative Commons.

The Seven Dwarfs Protected the Prettiest of them All!

Then came along a mighty software company called Microsoft.

So jealous were they of Netscape’s dominance over online access they created their own web browser and named it Internet Explorer, or IE, as it is now more commonly known.

By 2006 Netscape’s market share had dropped to 1%.

This Fairy-Tale doesn’t end here though, as is so often the case on the web no one company dominates a single market sector forever.

Control Access, Controls Everything!

Microsoft dominated the PC market with its Windows operating system, and integrated IE into it. Within a few of years Netscape was no more. IE now dominated web access as much as it did the PC operating system market with Windows.

But times change and Microsofts grip on browser dominance is now slipping. Known for it’s sluggishness, non-standards compliance and generally bloated coding IE started to lose out to Firefox, which grew ever more popular, especially with developers. Quietly in the background the search giant of the web, Google, stepped into the browser market. Slowly at first, its light weight and speedy browser Chrome took time to get a foothold. The general public not really aware of the advantages it held and developers locked into Firefox because of developer friendly add-ons that assisted with web programming. It didn’t take long for Chrome to become a force to be reckoned with.

The Fallen Champion

In 2008 IE had a 70% share of the browser market and therefore control of the individuals that used it. As of April 2012 Microsoft via IE now only has a 34.8% of the browser market, whilst Google with Chrome has grown rapidly to control nearly 31%. Leaving Firefox with just 25% of the market share. It is expected that in the next 12 months Chrome will become the most popular way for people to access the Internet.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Browser Market Share

What of Facebook?

Whilst the war over access to the web has been going on Facebook has grown the biggest online community that has ever existed. Over 850 million people use the social platform to chat, post photo’s, play games and do business.

But how they get there is Facebook’s achilles tendon.

Where Google+ has grown quickly, 170 million users according to Google CEO Larry Page, it still has a long way to go before it seriously contends with Facebook in user numbers. Yet we know that Google+ was never intended to be an independent platform. Many of Googles other products already integrate seamlessly with Google+, and Google has not been shy about its use of your Google+ activity to assist with personalised search results. Therefore it is only a matter of time before it leverages its coming browser dominance to deliver users into the Google+ platform.

In this version of the future Google would now control the way people look for things on the web with it’s search engine, and eventually the way people access the web in the first place. It would not be difficult for them to relegate Facebook to the back of the queue when it comes to social networking online. In fact there are currently many Chrome add-ons related to Google+ which may one day just be part of the default browser.

A Glimmer Of Hope

There are two opportunities for Facebook in this battle for access. One is Apps.

For all it’s advances online Google has yet to produce killer mobile applications that work with Google+. Facebook have been slow in coming forward but there is now a usable iPad App and other Apps for all popular smart phones. Yes Google has Android, but where the Android mobile platform is popular, the majority of serious web access is still currently via Apples iOS.

The second chance for Facebook is to develop it’s own browser. One that integrates seamlessly with the social network is likely to appeal to its users. Even if it doesn’t fancy building one itself, Microsoft is highly likely to do a deal over IE to ensure its chances of remaining dominant in the browser wars.

And The Winner Is…

Facebook is not down and out yet, and Microsoft won’t give up without a fight. But if you ever doubted Google+ playing a part in your business’s social media strategy then this at least should get you rethinking.

Google lives off the data it collects, it’s this that it sells to you, allowing your businesses to target potential customers more accurately and efficiently. The more it can do to encourage people to use it’s products, whether through improved usability, Chrome, or better results in Google Search, this is what it will do.

Social Media offers the most valuable dataset of all, this fact alone will drive Google+ to own the social space. Make sure you don’t miss the ride!

If you need help getting up to speed with Google+ or any of the other social platforms call Sean on +44 (0)7850957506.

Look Right

The right image can have a massive impact on getting your content read and shared.

Even choosing the right profile photo for Twitter or Facebook can impact the number of followers you have.

A study by Curata, a content curation agency, shows content that included images saw more frequent clicks from website visitors.

In its research, Curata measured a 47% increase in engagement for those articles with photos on their pages against those without.

This may go some way to explain why Facebook recently paid $1 billion from Instagram. Also the fact that Pinterest is the fastest growing social platform ever.

Images are that important!

Even more and more data is being visualised for easier consumption, which has lead to the meteoric rise in popularity of infographics as shown in the Google Trends graph below.

Google Trends for Infographic

Clearley you can see the importance of imagery, but where do you find the images and what type of images should you use?

Sourcing Images

Firstly you want images that reflect your content. Ideal is an image that is eye catching and supports your headline. Even if someone doesn’t read your content they may well share it via the image on a site like Pinterest.

Next you need to ensure you have the right to use the images you put on you’re website. Accessing the majority of information online maybe free but that doesn’t mean you can just use it without permission.

Your Own Photos

Using your own images is always preferrable if you have the resource to take them or already have them available. If you intend using your own images just ensure they are of a good quality, framed well and in focus. Your holiday snaps might not cut the mustard!

holiday snap

Searching on Google images is best avoided for commercial use, it is often difficult to determine the rights owner, and image quality can vary.

Free Images

Flickr is a great free resource for images, though finding exactly what you want can take some time. Please also remember that not all images on Flickr are available for use.

When searching for images to use on your own website, on Flickr use the advanced search, put in your search term, then scroll to the bottom of the page and tick the box that states: “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content “.

If it’s for commercial use then tick that box aswell.

Creative Commons licensed content

Ensure you abide by the lisence conditions which are usually to attribute the image owner. You can do this by including a link at the foot of your article or linking the image itself to their Flickr account.

Paid Images

The alternative to free images are stock photos. These can be found on many sites across the web and are often professionally shot photos made available for commercial use, at a fee. Costs will vary dependant on what you want to use the image for.

From as little as £0.80 ($1.30) per image BigStockPhoto is my preferred stock photo option. An enourmous database of over 10 million images, perfect for commercial use.

Finding That Right Image

A word of caution. Hunting for images can take a huge amount of time. Balance the necessity to illustrate your article with the time spent finding that “perfect image”. It’s very easy to spend more time on Flickr than you did writing your article in the first place.

Sometimes time is best spent elsewhere and paying for a stock photo can be more cost effective.

Do you have any other image resources you use?