Category Archives: Social Media

Incorporating Social Media as Part of the SEO Strategy

There are three main components of a strong SEO strategy – quality content, link building, and social media. While most marketing managers are aware of the importance of quality content and link building they have yet to grasp the importance of social media. However, search engines have changed their algorithms – the way in which they rank websites – to include social media as well. This makes it very vital that marketing managers pay attention to social media when designing an SEO strategy in 2014.

Social Media More Than an Additional Platform

Social media was not available when SEO strategies were first being implemented for online marketing. However, in the past year, social media use and availability among target customers has grown exponentially, making it important that marketing managers plan content for this platform as well. However, your social media strategy should be integrated into the overall marketing strategy as search engines determine the quality of online content by evaluating the number of mentions and links that social media provides to a particular brand. This means that you can use social media to drive visitors to your website directly and also use it to improve search engine rankings, increasing your website visibility indirectly. In 2014, companies that use social media in a large way in their marketing campaigns are likely to see better results than those that continue to ignore this platform.

Link Building

A more traditional way of increasing search engine rankings is by using link building. This is simply the number of hyperlinks other websites have to your site. Search engines rank websites with a greater number of inbound links higher than others, though the quality of the sites that provide the inbound links also matter. Link building is time consuming and requires patience – however, the results are worth it. One effective way of building links is to agree to write guest posts for blogs where you can provide links to your website or other blogs and content you have written.

Quality Content

The third component of an effective SEO strategy is the creation of quality content. You need to ensure that the content created meets the needs of the target audience and engages their interest. For this you need to have a clear picture of the target audience and put yourself in their shoes to understand their needs. Before creating quality content, you also need to research keywords and ensure that there is relevant content for all keywords. You can distribute your content among blogs, articles, white papers, and ebooks as long as the content is useful for the audience you have in mind. For instance, when you are creating content for a children’s clothing website, you can include information that is relevant to parents – safety of children as they play, pesticide free clothing, toys, and so on, relevance of color in stimulating a child’s curiosity, and so on. By providing content that is not just pushing the products but also informing the audience about issues that interest them, you will be able to hold their attention.

Key Tips To Enhance Customer Engagement On Social Media!

Whilst many businesses make a genuine attempt in keeping their social media pages active by the frequent posts, they often fail to analyse the responses their social media strategies generate. As social media is a two-way communication tool, your posts should be engaging enough to resonate with the audiences and spark a conversation with them. If you are not getting the desired response from your audiences, you need to re-think your social media strategy. Some of the tips that will boost social media engagement with your target audience are as follows:

1)Make Use of Visuals:
Many studies suggest that visuals are far more powerful in conveying messages to audiences than plain text. It immediately captivates the audiences attention and compels them to respond. Social media posts with photos receive 93% more engagement than the ones without any photos. They are also more likely to be shared than the contextual posts. As a result, for enhancing your social media engagement, make sure that your social media posts are always accompanied by an enticing visual. Ask your followers to caption an image as it would enable the audience to interact with the brand. Consequently, making use of effective visuals helps businesses to reach out to a wider audience and gain participation from them.

2)Ask Questions/Feedback/Suggestions:
Asking for input from your followers makes them feel important and a part of your brand. Engage them by asking them thought-provoking questions related to your industry. Involve them with your brand by carrying out a fun activity. For example, whilst launching a new product for your business, ask them to suggest a name for it. Show them their feedback is valuable to you and ask for their feedback/suggestions on what they would like to see more.

3)Share Customer Testimonials and Experience Stories:
Your potential customers would be interested in finding out about the experiences your previous customers have had with your business before making a purchase. Highlighting your customer testimonials and their experiences makes audiences understand the kind of services they can expect from you. Additionally, tagging those clients whilst sharing their stories helps to build engagement and create a greater buzz.

4)Organise Competitions:
A simple and fun-filled competition is one of the best methods to boost engagement whilst gaining many likes/followers/connections. Organise a competition on a special occasion and relate it to your products/services. Also, offer some amazing giveaways as prizes to your fans. Lucrative prizes easily attract audiences as people love to win gifts.. Once your contest becomes a success, you can expect many more loyal fans to be waiting for your next competition. Activities of this kind make your brand popular amongst the audiences and also help spread a lot of brand awareness.

5)Share Inspirational/Funny Sayings:
Share inspirational/funny messages that inspire your followers, make them laugh or help them relate them to their lives. It makes audiences look forward to your posts as it has healthy mix of informative posts about your products as well as some more casual posts that will capture their attention. For example, a funny message on Monday mornings would surely be liked by your audience who dread Mondays.

Building conversation with followers, engaging them and listening to them strengthens your bond with your customers and helps you gain their loyalty. Social media marketing (SMM) services are not restricted to updating regular posts on your page, but it involves encouraging participation from your followers, interacting with them and building a loyal fan base. Since social media is an integral component of online marketing, hiring a professional internet marketing services provider for managing all your businesss social media accounts would be a wise investment.

Top 10 Secrets Of Federal Government Employee Discounts

Although government jobs are some of the most stable careers in the economy, federal employees are still watching their bank accounts and trying to save money. The good news is that many companies offer public servants deals on vacations, clothes, phones, auto insurance and home improvement. We have researched and compiled a list of the Top 10 Secrets of Federal Government Employee Discounts.

1. Food

10 percent discounts are offered to military members dining at IHOP, Denny’s, T.G.I Friday’s, Long John Silver’s and the Hard Rock Cafe. Applebee’s also offers a 15 percent discount at selected locations.

2. Clothing

10 percent discounts are offered at Nautica and New York and Co. Fans of Old Navy know the company offers a discount on the first of every month. These discounts can also be used in conjunction with coupons and other methods of saving.

3. Auto Parts
5 to 10 percent is offered at Kragen Auto Parts. Advance Auto Parts offers active and retired military members 10 percent off. AutoZone offers military discounts as well.

4. Insurance

Depending on the state, Geico offers between 3 to 10 percent off automobile insurance. Liberty Mutual also offers car insurance discounts.

5. Home Improvement

Lowes and The Home Depot offer 10 percent discount at most locations. The government is also offering up to $1,500 in tax rebates for installing energy-efficient products. LongFenceandHome.com offers a discount to federal employees and military personnel on a wide variety of products and services.

6. Eyes

Group Health Eye Care offers a 20 percent discount on prescription eyeglasses or sunglasses. Additionally, there is a one-time offer of 20 percent on contact lenses.

7. Gyms

Washington Sports Club offers 33 percent discount on their monthly membership fee.

8. Travel

When planning a trip, Govarm.com is our recommended site for vacation and leisure services. However, some other respected government travel sites are: Club Quarters, Government Vacation Rewards, Holiday Inn Express, and La Quinta Inns and Suites.

9. Communication and Technology

Verizon offers a 20 percent discount on phones, calling plans and accessories. When looking for home computing software and hardware consult Dell. They offer at least 10 percent when purchasing their products. Do you prefer Macs? Apple has recently offered various discounts on iPods and computers.

10. Fedsave.com and RecGov.org

These are the top recommended sites for searching government discounts. Fedsave.com offers a subscription which includes a free monthly newsletter highlighting savings and special offers on everything discussed above.

Government discounts are abundant, but are often overlooked. With some quick research, you may find yourself saving a lot of money.

Citi Simplicity vs Slate by Chase

With the economy hitting new lows, Americans are descending further and further into debt. Although sometimes this can be mitigated by tightening up the belt and saving better, sometimes this is not enough. For these people, balance transfers have become a very common way for people to help slow down growing debt for long enough to pay it off. As balance transfer cards are a great way for credit card companies to pick up new customers, the market for these cards has become very competitive. Citi and Chase in particular have very good deals for people with excellent credit ratings.

Citi Simplicity

The Citi Simplicity Card offered by Citi Bank is one of the top choices for balance transfer credit cards. It offers a 0% introductory APR on not only all transferred debt, but on new purchases as well. This rate lasts for a remarkable 18 month period, at which point it will increase to something in the range of about 13-22% depending on how good your credit is. The better your credit is, the lower of an interest rate you will get. They also do not charge any late fees, annual fees or penalty fees. For each balance transfer, there is a fee of 3% at a five dollar minimum.

Chase Slate

Chase offers a similarly good deal for balance transfers known as Chase Slate. Like Citi Simplicity, Slate has a 0% introductory APR for people with excellent credit. However, it only lasts for a 15 month period. This is still quite good, although it is not as long as Simplicity’s introductory period. However, this difference in APR may be mitigated by the fact that Slate has a 60 day period in which there is no balance transfer fee. People with extremely good credit can also get a regular APR of about 12%, which is slightly lower than Citi’s deal.

Which is Better?

Choosing between Slate by Chase and Citi Simplicity for a balance transfer card is something that depends entirely on your specific debt situation. If you have an amount of debt that will take longer than 15 months to pay off, Citi Simplicity is probably the better deal as you will have a short time accruing debt at a higher interest rate. However, you may find that the lack of balance transfer fees with Slate is more worthwhile. Before committing to either, you should calculate what your balance transfer fee with Citi Simplicity would be, then see if that number is greater than what new debt you would acquire after the introductory period of Slate expires.

Ultimately, Citi Simplicity and Slate by Chase are two of the best options out there for balance transfer credit cards. Consider what your current debt situation is, do some math, compare credit cards then determine what the best deal is for you. If you find that neither of these plans suits you, be sure to look into some of the other plans offered by these companies, as well as Bank of America and Capital One.