Tag Archive for blogging

30 Oct 2012
blogging • facebook • marketing • SEO • social media • social networking • twitter

Get more Traffic to your Blog with StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon is great for traffic

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while – rebranding and creating a new website got in the way! I had a surprise a couple of months ago when I checked my Google Analytics and discovered that  my top social traffic source was StumbleUpon.  This was a first for me – in the past my top social referral sources have been either Facebook or Twitter.

stumbleupon

 

StumbleUpon is a social bookmarking tool.  This is not quite the same thing as a social network (such as Facebook or Twitter).  However, Wikipedia defines it as a “discovery engine that finds and recommends web content to its users”.  StumbleUpon has been around since 2001,  so the platform pre-dates the likes of Facebook by quite some time.

StumbleUpon’s own explanation of what they’re about:

We help you easily discover new and interesting stuff on the Web. Tell us what you like, and we’ll introduce you to amazing web pages, videos, photos and more that you wouldn’t have found on your own.

Again according to Wikipedia, StumbleUpon reached 25 million users in April of 2012.  That’s a lot of people who could be sharing your content!  Here’s a short video:

What is StumbleUpon?

Basically, StumbleUpon is a tool that people might use when they’re bored and just want to browse the web.  Based on a selection of interests that the user adds to their profile, StumbleUpon shows web pages related to those interests, and clicking the “Stumble” button generates a new page each time.  The user can then click a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” icon to show whether or not he/she likes that piece of content.  This “trains” StumbleUpon, so that even more relevant content is shown to the user.

You’re probably wondering by now what this has to do with generating traffic to your website.  Well, the more times a page is liked, the greater the chances of it being shown to more users.  If your content generates a lot of likes,  more Stumblers are going to be shown the page and guess what –  you see an increase in traffic!  It really is that simple.

So how do you get your content onto StumbleUpon? Firstly, sign up for an account. Then, every time you write a new blog post or article, make sure you give it a thumbs-up in your StumbleUpon account.  This is very easy if you use WordPress and have added a social sharing plugin such as Digg Digg (this is the one I use) –  all you need do is click the StumbleUpon icon.

 URL Shortener

su.pr url shortener

 

A less well known fact about StumbleUpon is that it has its own URL shortener – su.pr. This is a fairly recent (2011) addition to the platform. When I’d got over the shock of seeing that most of my traffic came from StumbleUpon, I thought about what I’d changed recently.  I soon realised that the reason for the increased traffic was the fact that I’d changed the URL shortener used by another WordPress plugin – Tweet Old Post.   This plugin automatically sends links to previous blog posts to my Twitter account (with accompanying explanatory text).  When someone clicks the link in Twitter, they are taken to the blog post framed within StumbleUpon’s platform.  Thereafter, if the Twitter user gives it a thumbs-up, it gets shown to more StumbleUpon users and it’s easy to see how this can result in more traffic. (see example below)

 

If you don’t already use StumbleUpon,  do you think you’ll give it a go now?  There’s no reason not to!  You should also consider using su.pr as your URL shortener of choice,  for the potential traffic boost if nothing else.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences with StumbleUpon and URL shorteners in general – please share in the comments! And why not “stumble” this post if you find it helpful?

Need help getting started with social media for your business? I’d love to work with you, so go ahead, take the first step! Contact me on 01777 249075 or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

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06 Jun 2012
business growth • facebook • marketing • SEO • small business • social media • social networking • twitter

Social Media Gurus – Do They Exist?

Expert or Guru?

These days it seems there are scores of social media “experts”, “gurus”, “consultants”, “strategists” and almost any other word that describes someone who supposedly knows all there is to know about the topic.   I get quite upset when  I’m referred to as an expert or guru, because I am still, and will always be learning. Definition of Expert

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many web designers, SEO specialists and internet marketers are reinventing themselves as social media experts because social media ties in with their other areas of expertise, but can they really keep all these balls in the air? Let’s look at a few Wikipedia definitions: GURU –  a Sanskrit term for “teacher” or “master”, especially in Indian religions. In America, the meaning of “guru” can be used to cover anyone who acquires followers, especially by exploiting their naiveté, due to the inflationary use of the term in new religious movements. (Yikes –  a definite no-no!) EXPERT - An expert  is a person with extensive knowledge or ability based on research, experience, or occupation and in a particular area of study.  (OK, but social media is still pretty new –  how extensive is extensive??) CONSULTANT - A consultant (from Latin: consultare ”to discuss”) is a professional who provides professional or expert advice.  (Yes, that’s a bit more like it) STRATEGIST -  a person skilled in strategy   (hmmm – quite – click the link to see the definition of strategy!) If you were looking for someone to help you with social media for your business, would you be impressed by the above handles?

If not, what should you look for?

How will you know who to add to your shortlist of social media ……….(insert word of choice here)?

  • Check their social media profiles.  Are they updated on a regular basis and is there plenty of interaction with followers?  Actual numbers of followers aren’t as important as good engagement and interaction.  But if someone claims to give advice on Facebook management, but hasn’t updated their own page in months, it’s not terribly convincing……
  • What sort of things are they posting?  At least 80% of the content should be useful information (blog articles, hints & tips etc) and/or interaction with followers.   Be suspicious of anyone who never engages and only posts self-promotional updates.
  • Have a look at their followers –  do they include a good proportion of businesses in the same niche, as well as varied types of local businesses? This is an indication of good content being shared by someone who is well respected locally.
  • On Twitter, are they on a good number of lists? Again this shows that the person is well thought of.
  • Check the website – is it up to date, is there a blog?  Are there clear links to social media profiles and ways to share content easily?
  • Now it’s your turn – start a conversation with whoever you consider to be “walking the walk”.  Ask for a free consultation – essential in order to find out whether social media will work for you.
  • Be suspicious if you’re recommended to use multiple social networks straight away –  this is very unlikely to be necessary for more than a tiny minority of businesses.  A good social media adviser will work closely with you to determine the most suitable network(s) for your business,  and also show you how to integrate social media with your current marketing as well as your online and offline activities.

Have you had to search for help or advice with social media?  How did you go about choosing the right person for the job?   Share your experiences in the comments!

Get help with social media

Need help using social media for your business? Take the first step! Contact me on 01777 249075 or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

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30 Apr 2012
blogging • facebook • google plus • linkedin • social media • social networking • twitter

What to say on social media

Help – what do I say on social media?

This is a “frequently asked question” in my experience, and it seems that many business owners wonder what to say on social media.  They are worried about saying the wrong thing,  and/or they simply can’t think of enough different things, or indeed anything at all, to say to make social media activity worthwhile.  A common misconception is that people only use social media to post about what they had for breakfast…

It’s not unusual for people to feel that they aren’t interesting, or they don’t want to sound like they’re bragging, and they know it’s not about what you had for breakfast……so their perception is that they don’t have anything useful to share on social media.

Newsflash…

…you don’t have to post about yourself or your business most of the time!  Here’s the thing:  there’s absolutely no need to continually produce original content to post on social media, in fact it’s far better not to.  Sharing other people’s content is far more valuable and will go a long way towards building your social communities and generating interaction and engagement. A good rule of thumb would be to make at least 80% of your social media updates not directly related to your own business or products.  However you can – and should – post links to your own blog articles whenever you produce them.  If you don’t already have a blog for your business,  you might want to read this article I wrote last year.

Ways to find shareable content

If you’ve just set up your social media accounts –  we’ll assume you’ve chosen Facebook and Twitter to start with – I’d recommend not posting anything for the first week or two.  Instead, just watch and learn from others.  Run a few searches to find other businesses in your niche, follow them,  then keep an eye on the type of things they post.  Do you find any of it interesting?  Chances are that you will – you might click a few links and find yet more useful information.  Would your colleagues also find it interesting?  Go ahead and share (on Facebook) or retweet (on Twitter).  Congratulations,  you’re learning what social media is all about!

To make sharing easier,  try setting up a few lists in Twitter and in Facebook.  This allows you to curate content from like-minded people or those in the same field of business as yourself,  without having to trawl through updates from all of your followers.  You can then simply visit your lists daily and quickly find anything of interest that you feel is worth sharing.

From my own viewpoint, I’d be lost without Google Reader.  It has been a real goldmine of information for me and I spend time every day going through my list of blogs and sharing links on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus.  (I don’t share every link to all networks, I am selective about it).  Take a look at my previous article on Google Reader to learn more – I highly recommend you set up an account if you’ve not already done so – it’s free :)

Interact with others

Once you’re feeling comfortable on your chosen social networks and are starting to build a community, you will want to start giving back to others, perhaps by recommending them.  If you see a request for help and you know someone who offers that particular service,  all you have to do is reply and tag / @mention your contact and guess what, everyone benefits and you might well gain a new follower and/or potential customer.  And it goes without saying that if anyone recommends you, you should respond quickly and thank them.  This is one reason why you do need to visit your social media accounts regularly, to check for messages and mentions so that you aren’t leaving someone waiting and wondering why they’ve not had a response to their question.

And finally…..

The burning question – YES!  It is OK to mention yourself, your products and services occasionally.  But try to keep the self-promotion as subtle as possible.  For example, I might post something like “Need help using social media for your business?” with a link to my website.

Get help with social media

Need help using social media for your business? Take the first step! Contact me on 01777 249075
or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

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01 Mar 2012
blogging • business growth • facebook • google plus • linkedin • social media • twitter

Content Syndication with Social Media

What is content syndication, anyway?

 

keyboard

 

 

 

Let’s look at a couple of definitions:

The act of syndicating a news feature by publishing it in multiple newspapers etc simultaneously

Making information on a website available (preferably in digest form) for a wide range of uses, prime examples of which are RSS and Atom feeds. Syndication is a great way of making news updates, blog entries and podcasts immediately available to a Web audience.

Basically then, syndication is a way of sharing content across a number of platforms or publications simultaneously.  I’m sure you’ll agree that it would be beneficial to your business to be able to share your latest product news, forthcoming events etc with hundreds or even thousands of interested viewers.

How could this happen?  When you publish your blog post, or details of your event, you share it with various sites. These sites may then republish to other sites, and so the process becomes exponential.  From one piece of content you get multiple shares, therefore reaching a huge number of people.

Let’s say you have a business blog and you write a new post each week. Do you write, publish and walk away,  in the hope that visitors will mosey along to read it?  Sorry, but that just won’t happen!  You need to take a proactive approach and push that content out far and wide.

Get Started with Content Syndication

Here are 7 simple ways to get your content in front of more eyeballs than you ever thought possible……

  1.  If you haven’t already, set up a RSS (“really simple syndication”) feed for your blog.  WordPress blogs have RSS built in, and for additional benefits, use a service such as Feedburner.
  2.  Add a link to your latest blog posts on your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.  Whether you also add them to your personal profiles on Facebook and Google+ is up to you (may not be appropriate for every post)
  3. Add Facebook Like & Share, Google +1, and Tweet buttons to all your posts,  newsletters, event listings and product pages.  If you’re using WordPress it’s simple to do this via plugins (there are scores that do this job, but that’s a topic for another post!)
  4. Use a service such as ping.fm to share your content to scores of online directories
  5. Share your updates to Facebook and LinkedIn groups that you’re a member of –  only if the content is appropriate for the group, of course.
  6.  Always encourage people to share, retweet, like, and +1 your content. This gets you in front of an increasingly wide audience.
  7.  Given the recent exponential growth of Pinterest, I’m also going to encourage you to “pin” your new content whenever appropriate.  (If you haven’t signed up for a Pinterest account yet, seriously consider doing so!)

Benefits of Content Syndication

Aside from what we’ve already covered (getting your content in front of thousands of potential clients/customers), what are the main benefits of content to you and your business?

  •  It’s a cheap way of reaching far more potentially interested people than you could ever hope to speak to individually or even collectively.
  •  You’re boosting your online visibility by making use of social media, thus gaining massive SEO benefits.  You’re already using Google+ aren’t you??
  • When people see you everywhere online,  they get the subconscious message that you are an expert in your field – as a result they’re more likely (a) to come to you as a client  and/or (b) to recommend you to others.

Do you use any other methods of content syndication and do they work well for you? Share below in the comments!

Need help with content syndication? Take the first step! Contact me on 01777 249075
or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

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26 Jan 2012
blogging • social media • social networking • twitter

Interview – Lilach Bullock, Social Networking Pioneer

Lilach – Mumpreneur Extraordinaire!

 

Lilach Bullock

 

Lilach Bullock is a social networking pioneer, business consultant, mentor and personal brand expert.  One of the most dynamic personalities in the world of UK social media, she is frequently credited with the accolade of being the first in the industry to actively leverage networking.

 

She launched and then sold her first business within three years of becoming a mother. Even now, she juggles a demanding home life with commercial commitments. Lilach’s contribution was recognised nationally, when she became a finalist at the Best MumPreneur of the Year Award, presented at Downing Street, where she was praised for her entrepreneurial efforts.

Lilach blogs over at http://www.socialable.co.uk

  1. How did you get into the social media industry, did you have previous experience or work your way up?
    I fell in love with social media in 2008 when I had my first business which I sold just over 2½ years ago. I immediately saw the potential of how social media can help businesses and offered social media marketing to my then clients. Whilst I didn’t have any prior experience I did (and still do) spend a lot of time researching how to use the various different social networking channels, and different tools available

  2. What challenges have you found in the workplace?
    That more and more people are jumping on the band wagon and are providing social media marketing services with very little experience/knowledge in the industry. A challenge which I’m finding increasing is people stealing my content and passing it off as their own.

  3. How have you overcome those challenges?
    I try and provide great content and always give value. I’m a great believer in practising what you preach and have a large network across all the social media channels. I think in any business it’s important to stand out and be different and work hard at building my brand and being as creative as I can be. I also spend a lot of time researching the latest trends and news and try and stay one step ahead of my competition.
    Whilst I find it frustrating people copying me I’m learning to see it as flattery!

  4. Who is your ideal customer?
    I work with solo entrepreneurs, coaches, online businesses and some of my very best work has been with charities looking to boost their social media presence. Some of them are start up’s and therefore don’t have a social media presence whilst others have been in business a while and need to be leveraging social media.

  5. How do you find them? What marketing tips do you have?
    All my clients find me and are a mixture of referrals/recommendation as well as finding me online via many of my social networks together with my blog.
    I spend a huge amount of time online and haven’t been to a network event since I sold my business. I find that I can get better results with my time online.
    I also think that by having a good social media presence attracts people to me as they often ask me to create the same results for them!
    In terms of marketing tips I recommend you don’t just do one method and test/measure which marketing methods give you the best results. You should never “put all your eggs in one basket” and that applies to your product/offerings, i.e. think about having multiple income streams and also your marketing methods. You never know what is going to happen and in business things change very quickly.
    Remember that whilst social media is free it’s very time consuming to get effective results from and your time is essentially money.
    If you’re new in business network like crazy but make sure it’s targeted, know your ideal client and how to reach them. Always do your competitive research and try and be different. Stand out, don’t be shy and don’t be afraid to be controversial.
    My biggest tip of all is to give value and heaps of it. I get so much positive feedback from my blog for sharing loads of tips and that’s made a huge difference in terms of my content going viral, increasing traffic and ultimately getting sales.
    Don’t be afraid to try new things and don’t be afraid to do “old school marketing” For example, writing letters (as oppose to sending emails) can often have better results.

  6. What advice would you give to women starting out in business right now?
    Set yourself goals of what you want to achieve within 6 months/a year. Find yourself a mentor who can help you, keep you focused, support and motivate you.Be prepared for things to go wrong, they inevitably do! Try and have a backup plan and set yourself realistic goals so that they’re achievable.Understand that a new business takes time, don’t believe and get lost in the hype of how easy it is to run a business. If it was that easy everyone would be doing it. Be prepared for lots of hard work.

    Make sure you know your numbers and your business model works.

    Take action! So many people attend webinars/buy products/events on how to run a business etc. but ultimately no amount of courses will make you money. You have to do this yourself, there is no magic wand. I see many people buy product after product, attend courses and before they know it, 6 months down the line they’ve spent a lot of money and haven’t achieved anything and all they have left is a case of information overload. So if you go on a course/buy a product take the time to follow up and apply it in your business before buying another one!

  7. Do you have any hobbies?
    Social Media?! Spending time with my family, I have a beautiful 7 year old daughter Emily. I love zumba when I have the time. Eating out is always a favourite, going to the Theatre and pre-Emily I used to love going to comedy clubs and have seen pretty much every UK comedian before they “made it”!
Many thanks to Lilach for this interview – I’m sure you’ll agree that she’s shared lots of invaluable advice – I shall certainly be referring back to it frequently! Don’t forget to head over to Lilach’s blog where you will find plenty more great tips and tricks :)

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30 Dec 2011
blogging • business growth • digital marketing • facebook • facebook pages • small business • social media • twitter

Ready for 2012?

New Year Initiatives For Your Business

 

New Year 2012 I have spent the last few days going over my successes and failures of the last year, and deciding what direction I will take with my business in 2012.

My achievements so far are modest, but I’m confident that I am heading in the right direction. I’m not foolish enough to expect instant results – to establish a well respected and trusted business takes years.

What I’ve achieved in 2011:

  1.  I made the decision in April to set up a business as a social media consultant.
  2.  I launched this website having had little experience of WordPress, and have learnt so much more about the software during the year.
  3.  I took advantage of free resources – Business Link, ebusiness club, Angle, and HMRC workshops, thus educating myself on many aspects of business and marketing
  4.  I attended a number of paid seminars and workshops
  5.  I have realised that social media is just one marketing technique and it must combined with a range of tools for an integrated approach - hence I have educated myself on various other marketing techniques.
  6.  I set up a Twitter account and a Facebook Page and worked very hard to build up an engaged community of followers.  This has begun to generate interest and enquiries.
  7.  I have added training/coaching to my range of social media services
  8. I have joined a business mentoring group which I feel sure will add value to my future development.
  9. I’ve taken on the role of Operations Assistant at my local 4Networking group. This will consolidate my networking activities and help me to become better known in the area.
  10.  I’ve established closer relations with a few business colleagues and have scheduled collaborative projects for next year.

My Plans for 2012:

  1.  Consolidate my networking activities and concentrate on building trust with a range of local businesses.
  2.  Continue and develop an initiative (in collaboration with others) to help business mums with young children who want to network but are hindered by lack of childcare / inconvenient timing of meetings.
  3.  Deliver social/digital media training workshops at venues in the local area.
  4.  Gain experience in public speaking (hopefully no. 3 will help with this)
  5.  Target specific business niches to market my social/digital media services.
  6.  Establish a client base for social media management programmes.
  7.  Get involved with live-tweeting/blogging events
  8.  Further develop my WordPress skills so that I can offer website/blog setup as an additional service.
  9.  Establish additional collaborative partners in order to broaden my range of services.
  10.  Last but not least – I will not allow those who have set themselves up as my enemies (in my personal life) to get in the way of my business aspirations!
I’d love to hear your plans for 2012 and what you’ve learned from this year – please share in the comments :) And a VERY Happy New Year to my readers!

Need digital media marketing advice? Take action now – contact me on 01777 249075
or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

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