An overview of social media and how to make it pay

 Yesterday I received an email from the public relations executive of an online magazine. It was short and to the point:
 "We are struggling with our social media efforts. We really don't know what we should be doing, what is best for us or how we should use it. Can you help.?"
 I will be seeing them later this week but it got me thinking, many companies, large and small likely feel equally overwhelmed.
 We are constantly flooded with new ways to connect with customers and prospective clients. It can be daunting and, in many cases may lead to a situation where social media programs become the goal rather than just tools used to reach the real goal -- putting more money in your pocket.
 It was therefore opportune that I came across an article by Chris Heiler, president of Landscape Leadership, an inbound marketing agency that combines social media, content marketing and search marketing for green industry clients.
 Titled: "How to make social media pay off" and published on the Green Industry Pros website, the article outlines the pros and cons of different social media platforms and makes the point that, while Facebook is the biggest, it is not necessarily the best for finding new clients.
 "The majority of a Facebook Page’s fans will be customers, employees, family and friends — not prospects," writes Heiler. "Think about it: Why would someone like your Facebook Page if they weren’t already familiar with your business?
 "Facebook is used best as a real-time complement to your company website, helping keep people updated and current with your business. Use it to stay top-of-mind with your current customers to drive referrals and repeat purchases."
 I am not going to rehash Heiler's article. He has done a fine job, so there is not much point in reinventing the wheel. It is thought-provoking and definitely worth reading and is a good example of content marketing at its best.
 Check it out.

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Google Plus: a better mouse trap that nobody wants?

Infographic by Umpf.co.uk

  I have written a number of articles on this blog about why I think Google+ is better than Facebook and how it offers many real advantages for both individuals and businesses.
 It is clean, it is efficient and, most important of all, it is Google's intention to make it the spine of its search engine.
 So why then do I spend only a fraction of the time on it that I do on Facebook, when, the truth is, I really don't even like Facebook? Because my friends (and a billion other people) DO like Facebook and, if I want to hangout and interact with them, that's where I have to be, much to my chagrin.
 It seems I am not alone in this.
 In May, RJ Metrics reported poor engagement and marginal social activity on Google+. The study sampled some 40,000 random Google+ users, but only users who have a public timeline. However, the numbers paint a bleak picture for Google.

• The average post on Google+ has less than one +1, less than one reply and less than one re-share.
• About 30 percent of those 40,000 users who made a public post never made a second one.
• Among those who make publicly viewable posts, there is an average of 12 days between each post.
• After a member makes a public post, the average number of posts they make in the months following declines steadily.

 "If I was one of those random users, all the above would’ve been on point," writes Brandon Koch, an inbound marketing consultant at Mainstreethost, a digital marketing and business development company, specialising in SEO, paid search, social media, content marketing and web development, in an article titled: "Facebook Reaches 1 Billion Users and What it Means for Google+."
 "Since signing up a few months ago, I posted twice on my Google+ account — all after the onset of this blog post. I’m not in search of an alternative to Facebook, nor are my friends. In fact, very few of them use anything other than Facebook."
 But still, there are many good reasons to use Google+ that are explained in detail in Koch's article and I recommend you read it.
 It is a better mouse trap but the jury is still out on whether the world wants or needs a better mouse trap. But I will still continue to use it, as I know the content I post there is indexed and every back link and recommendation I get on Google's own platform, can only help push my websites and blogs higher up the search engine results.

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Pinterest: how to use it to enhance your SEO and build your business

 I have to admit, I didn't get Pinterest at all. I figured it was a sort of digital scrap-booking thing, where housewives with nothing to do could collect recipes they would never cook, find pictures of shoes they wished they could afford and swoon over photographs of toyboys they fantasized about.
 But I kept reading reports that, although Pinterest is the new kid on the block. it is responsible for driving more traffic to websites than Google, Youtube and Facebook combined.
 So I figured I'd join the housewives because, a tool that effective, simply can't be ignored and because, one of the other hats I wear, is that of portrait and wedding photographer.
 I can say without doubt Pinterest is driving and has driven traffic to my two photographic sites www.bighilt.com and www.portraits-of-distinction.com. Not huge traffic, but traffic I probably would not have got otherwise.
 There is no doubt, I am not yet using Pinterest to its full potential -- I'm still learning and I continue to research it. And, as such, I came across three articles I found useful and that I think many of you may find worthwhile.
 "Pinterest Cheat Sheet and Tips to Better Use the Network" by online entrepreneur, Francisco DiTesco, contains an infographic that sets out, 'the best times to pin', 'what sorts of images to post', 'including keywords that can be searched' and 'how to best make use of the visual platform'.
 "Four Tips for Building your Small Business Brand using Pinterest" written by Stephanie Flies and published on Viral Heat, offers small business owners tips on how to:

•  Pin, pin and pin some more
•  Add additional pinners
•  Promote your Pinterest account and 
•  Build your Pinterest following.

 A lot has been written about Google's latest efforts to put an end to dodgy Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques and, how websites with shady, irrelevant, backlinks are being penalised in the search engine results. But, according to Alok Raghuwanshi in his article "Enhance Your SEO Efforts with Pinterest":
 "As Pinterest is one of the best social networks, so its domain authority is excellent. The more popular a domain name, the more likely it is to appear in search engines' (results), so your pins will be greatly visible.
 "The more links you create to point back to your website from Pinterest, the better your results will be."

My Pinterest photographic board.

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The ultimate guide to surviving Google's new algorithms

 This post will be short.
 It will direct you to an article written by Jenna Scaglione, titled your "SEO survival guide for 2012 and beyond" that was published on site-reference.com. Right now it seems everything Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts have advised webmasters to do, so their sites can rank higher up in Google's search engine results, should be tossed out of the window.
 Google has come down hard on websites that try to "game" the system and, if you've followed the counsel of "experts", even though your site may be a 100% legitimate, authority-site, it may already have disappeared into the depths of the search engine wilderness.
 As I've written in many articles, it's going to be -- no, it already is -- all about quality, legitimate content. And that means "natural" content, not stuff copiously seeded with keywords and dodgy backlinks -- do that and expect to be penalised!
 Ms Scaglione has, in my opinion, written the ultimate guide to surviving and prospering in this age of harsher Google algorithms. Her article is well worth reading.

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New Google update mauls Exact Match Domains

One of the most commonly-used tricks to get your website to the top of the first page of the search engine results, is to have a domain name that exactly matches the most popular search engine phrase for the product or service you sell.
 So, if for example, you are a wedding photographer plying your trade in New York and planning to set up a website for your business, the likely advice from Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) experts would be, head over to Gooogle's Keyword tool and see what sort of search-phrases customers are using.
 There you would see the phrase "New York wedding photographer" is searched for approximately 22 000 times per month. So, if you could register the domain name as www.newyorkweddingphotographer.com (you can't, someone already has) you would almost certainly be guaranteed being near the top of the search engine results and get a lot of traffic and (hopefully) business from those 22 000 searchers.
 It was an easy way to "play" the search engines and many people made money building Adsense sites by doing just that. But it is a practice Google does not like and, as far back as 2010, Google bigwig, Matt Cutts warned they were looking into it.
 And now, what he promised has happened. Matt Cutts tweeted a warning about the upcoming change on September 28, and followed up the announcement with this tweet:

 "The EMD algorithm has opened a can of worms all of its own. It’s not a part of the Panda updates that rolled out earlier this month and, it’s not a Penguin update. It’s an algorithm specifically targeted to knock low-quality EMD domains from the top of the SERPs into Google oblivion," writes Nell Terry, in an article on Site-reference.com, titled "New Google Update Kills Exact Match Domains."
 Her article present some interesting insights and numbers. EMD site-influence has already fallen by over 10% on a day-to-day basis and, while that is good news when it comes to getting rid of the junk, spam sites, authority sites with exact match domains are also being mauled. For example, www.teethwhitening.com, a site with 228 pages that previously ranked #4 has dropped below the first 10 pages in the search engine results.
 I have no idea where Newyorkweddingphotographer.com previously appeared in the results but I stopped looking when, by page five, it was not yet listed.
 So what's to do?
 According Ms Terry, there are three fundamental truths about the new age of SEO:

1.  Brand your website
2.  Don’t use EMDs – even partial matches
3.  Use high-quality mixed-media content throughout your sites

 "I think the era of microsites is officially over," she writes. "One element of ranking now is selecting a memorable, unique (maybe even catchy) domain name you can build a brand around. You also need consistent social signals. Heaps of long, high-quality, thoughtful, original content. Heaps. Great backlinks from high-PageRank sites in your niche.  Videos, user interaction, great design…"

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Unlocking your blog's earning power

 I would be prepared to bet, the vast majority of bloggers dream of creating a blog that produces huge streams of cash every day.
 It's the great Internet dream we see promised in countless online adverts: "Earn even while you sleep or sit on the beach." But the truth is, for most bloggers -- and I include myself here -- that is exactly what it is, a pipe-dream.
 We clutch at straws of hope that adverts, Google's Adsense and affiliate products linked to our blogs, will produce rivers of cash and create a residual income that will last for many years and permit us to sit back and enjoy a life of relaxation and luxury.
 But, if my experience is anything to go by, that is unlikely to ever happen. I am convinced that ship has sailed. Online advertising is now so all-invading that readers ignore. When was the last time you even took note of a Google advert, let alone clicked on it? Exactly!
 And the analytics on my blogs prove that -- in my case at least.

Band-waggon

 While I know, some blogs make a fortune from ads run on them, the fact is, almost all of them climbed aboard before the band-waggon left.
 So does the old adage of "build it and they will come" still apply? They may come but getting them to respond to the adverts is another matter altogether. If the business model is solely based on your blog attracting readers in the hope they will click on the adverts displayed on it, it's likely to be a long, road with only limited chances of success.
 Is blogging then just a waste of time? The answer is a definite...it depends.
 What is the purpose of your blog?
 Is it there just to sell ad-clicks and products in cyberspace or, is its main purpose to build credibility for you, your business and the services and products you offer in the real world. If it is the former, then blogging probably is a waste of time, particularly in light of the new algorithms Google is putting in place. In that case your time probably could be better spent on some other, money-making venture.
 In an article titled: "The 4 keys to unlock your blog's earning power", written by Michael Chibuzor and published on Johnchow.com, the writer makes a strong case for bloggers to monetize their time rather than trying to monetize their blog.
 "Sell a part of your time to someone via consulting. Better yet, become a contractor and help small, mid-sized and corporate firms to recruit freelance writers, web developers, virtual attendants and so on. Be the middleman/agent and earn a passive income," says Chibuzor.
 "Tele-consulting is another way you can monetize your time. You could earn a decent income for every hour you work with someone. I usually charge $50 – $300/hour as a content marketing consultant."

Brick-and-mortar world

 It's a truism I discovered, almost by accident. All significant income generated by my blogs was the result of the credibility my writing has established and, because of that, getting hired to do something real in the brick-and-mortar world. For example, I got new clients who pay me to write content for their blogs and websites, others have purchased fine art photographic prints and I later this month I will meet with the country's leading educator of journalists to explore the possibility of doing some training for them.
 So is it possible to achieve the blogger's dream of "operating in the virtual world and earning pots of cash while you sleep"? Maybe but I'm not sure it's worth the effort. For many of us, our time would be much better spent, working on a blog that supports our endeavours in the real world.

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The 10 commandments of using Pinterest for business -- an infographic

 I recently came across a fascinating website run by Amy Porterfield and although I'd never heard of her it would appear she's pretty famous and has been featured in or by Forbes, Mashable, Huffington Post and Problogger, to list but some.
 Amy is a social media strategist and co-author of "Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies". She helps entrepreneurs across industries establish strategies to maximise the power of social media and increase the success of their online marketing efforts.
 And, there is no doubt, when it comes to social media matters and using those platforms to grow your business, she can both talk the talk and walk the walk.
 Her blog is an incredible resource for marketers and small business owners and, because Pinterest is currently such a hot topic, an article titled "The 10 Commandments of Using Pinterest for Business" caught my attention.
 For anyone who wants to know how to use Pinterest, this is it. I'm not going to rehash all that was written. Go and read the original and bookmark it. However, I will post the infographic from her site that explains it all beautifully.

A clearer version of this image can be seen at the original article or here
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