Three Top Social Media Networks and How to Best Use Them

By Montrie Rucker AdamsSeptember 10, 2014 Blog facebook, Instagram, linkedin, search engine, social media

Last I checked, there were well over 200 major social media networking sites (and that’s growing). From About.me to Instagram to Zoopa, people are finding creative ways to connect.

With so many from which to choose, how can you know which is best for you?

Instead of trying to go through the entire list, following are the top three for business:

LinkedIn
Worldwide, 300 million members are just one reason every business should use the network as part of its media strategy. It’s great for recruiting employees, but beyond that a blog post or research paper shared on the site can grow your network and extend your reach as it is shared on both LinkedIn and other networks. An active news feed will keep your network engaged with your business.

Google+
This network is great for extending your search engine results. Being on it helps with your overall ranking. Your posts on the network will also be indexed by search engines. Links on a Google+ intro page can help your page be found in searches and drive traffic to your website.

Facebook
With over 500 million active users worldwide, a business page here creates an opportunity to engage directly with customers. Create a content calendar to keep your customers active on your page. Page insights will give you insight into which posts are working best. They also tell to which posts your customers most respond so you can strengthen the bond between your business and customers.

There are also sites for book lovers (aNobii, LibraryThing), research scientists (Epernicus), photo sharing (Instagram), cooks (cucumbertown) and baby boomers (eons.com).

There’s something for everyone, but Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn are leading the pack in business.

Answering Your 5 Questions About LinkedIn

By Montrie Rucker AdamsNovember 14, 2013 Blog facebook, linkedin

This May, LinkedIn celebrated its tenth anniversary. There are now over 259 million users in 200 countries. Though millions are considered connected or “linked,” there are still new people wanting to know the best way to use the social network.

LinkedIn is a good networking resource for business development. Forging business connections, joining groups and finding sales opportunities are some of its benefits. Using it differs from other social media like Facebook. Following are answers to common LinkedIn questions. Continue reading Answering Your 5 Questions About LinkedIn

Why Sharing Blogs Correctly is a Good Idea

By Montrie Rucker AdamsJuly 10, 2013 Blog blogs, facebook, linkedin, traffic, twitter

If you have a business, one of the best free marketing resources you can use is a blog. If your website does not include blogging capabilities, you should consider it. Most people use social media to share blogs written about other businesses, products and services. Sharing your blogs on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn and other social media platforms are great. It’s never a bad idea to share. That’s what we learned in pre-school, right? However, this will drive web traffic to those companies, not yours.

By setting up your blog and sharing your content – you will drive traffic to your website. There are five key reasons why this is a good idea. You can…

acquire new customers
drive more traffic to your website
build quality relationships with your customers
provide a way to interact with customers and followers through comment boxes
build trust by providing quality and reliable content worth sharing

The more you blog and share, the more traffic you will start to receive. If you have good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) built inside your website and/or blog, you will probably see even more traffic.

Your blog should focus around your business, products, services and most importantly …. your expertise on the subject matter. Write your blog like you own it and write from personal experiences. People like “stories,” so incorporating stories into your blogs that mix with your business will also be very helpful.

Lastly, don’t overdo it! Keep it short, sweet and informative. There is no need to write a blog a day. Your plate is full, so three per week is fine. Schedule your blogs to go out at varying times of the day and different days of the week. Remember… your audience is all over the world… and in different time zones. Don’t miss out on an opportunity to share.

Happy Blogging!

Business Going Stale? It May Be Time to Re-focus, Re-think and Re-brand

By Montrie Rucker AdamsJuly 5, 2013 Blog branding, facebook, linkedin, marketing, rebranding, twitter

If you’ve been in business for a while and sales and service requests have dropped, it may be time to re-focus, re-think and possibly re-brand.

A friend found that her original business slowed tremendously. She started thinking about re-branding – starting with a new name. Her immediate concern was if people would know her by the new name. What if current clients couldn’t identify with her? After careful consideration, she decided to start a different company – with a new name – but providing the same services and adding on a few new ones.

After a few months of sharing this new identify on the Internet, specifically Twitter, LinkedIn groups and other group forums, she began receiving random inquiries. As time went by, her business has picked up even more.

Sometimes, you have to leave your comfort zone in order to focus. Sometimes, in order to be successful, you have to seek out other relationships besides friends and family members. One mutual friend, I’ll call her Dana, was able to experience a rise in new business – merely by changing her identify, re-branding and marketing herself to a different audience. Below are six tips she shares about the process:

Get out a piece of paper and write (yes, I said write) down your current business name on one side, draw a line vertically down the paper and put your new business name on the other side.
Under the current business – write down your products and services and other offerings. Then duplicate that under the new business. If there are any aspects of the current business that won’t be included in the new one, don’t write it. Under the new business, if there are new services/products you want to offer – include them.
Under the new business – write down Twitter and Pinterest. (Dana didn’t include Facebook or LinkedIn, but you may want to consider those as well).
Also under new business – write down several domain names. Keep them short and sweet so prospects can find you. It also makes your email address shorter and easier to remember.
Now, register for a new Federal Tax ID number and register with the state in which you do business. You can also revisit the SBA for opportunities you may have missed the first time.
Lastly, purchase your new domain name and hosting. Find a reputable web developer to design your new site.

If you’re in a business slump, it may be time to do what Dana did…look beyond your comfort zone – your hometown, friends, family and former clients. The World Wide Web is open 24/7. If your business is one that can take advantage of something new (and most are), then think about re-focusing, re-thinking and re-branding. You may be surprised at your results.

64 Google+ Content Strategies [Infographic]

By Montrie Rucker AdamsJune 24, 2013 Blog facebook, google hangout, google+, infographics, linkedin, twitter, yourtube.com

As I was reviewing some of my bookmarks, I came across a blog written by Maria Peagler, founder of SocialMediaOnlineClasses.com and an award-winning publisher and author, who had written this article for Copyblogger back in February. I don’t know how I missed sharing this, but it’s never too late to share.

In this article she expands her discussion on a few of her favorites from this list. You can read them here – http://www.copyblogger.com/google-plus-content-strategies/. Below is an Infographic that breaks down Google+ into areas you can use to create your own branding strategies.

Like this infographic? Grab a proven framework for content marketing that works from Copyblogger.

I hope you will find this useful. If you have a chance, please let me know how it works for you.

Does Your Social Media End at 5pm?

By Montrie Rucker AdamsJune 19, 2013 Blog facebook, hootsuite, inbound marketing, linkedin, sharing, social media, twitter

Occasionally I receive emails from my web developer who also assists VMI with our blogging and social media activities. She often reminds me that social media doesn’t stop when I shut down. “Your business is open 24/7 and is seen all over the world…. and in different time zones… so why don’t you tweet after 5pm?,” she asks.

Back on May 3, 2013, she sent the following email out to her clients – Subject: “Does Social Media Stop on the Weekends.”

To my social media clients,

A client recently contacted me to see if I would also do their social media on the weekends. I said sure because social media is ongoing – it’s going on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. To be honest, why share only during your regular business hours. Your website and business technically is open for business all over the world. Are you missing an opportunity to reach out and touch one of your customers in a different city, state, country? Time Zone matters!

This intrigued my client because I told him that I now have clients in Alaska (4 hours behind me), California (3 hours behind me), Texas (1 hour behind me) and one in London, England which is 5 hours ahead of me. So what about the people in those areas? Are they even seeing what you tweet/share? Probably not if you are doing it only in YOUR time zone.

Donald Trump says, “Your Fired!”… My Client says, “Girl, you are HIRED.” Made me laugh.

As I was reading a few news items and blogs today, I came across a blog from Inbound Marketing Agents entitled, “Social Media 101: Your Perfect Posting Schedule.” There is a great infographic found in the blog stating the best time to post to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest. For instance, the best time to post to LinkedIn is from 7am to 9am and 5pm to 6pm but not between 10pm and 6am. It says avoid posting in the evening because traffic fades. I am also assuming that in most places, many people may be asleep.

If you’re working in different time zones, you can always adjust your post times. If you’re using Twitter, there’s HootSuite, an online tool that helps you schedule when your tweets will go out. I’ve talked about HootSuite before in my blogs.

Take a look at their blog. They have useful tips for creating a posting schedule that will meet your posting needs.

Montrie here’s the link to the blog – http://www.inboundmarketingagents.com/inbound-marketing-agents-blog/bid/294669/Social-Media-101-Your-Perfect-Posting-Schedule

Google+: What’s New and Why You Should Use It

By Montrie Rucker AdamsJune 17, 2013 Blog facebook, google hangout, google+, infographics, linkedin, twitter, yourtube.com

It seems that the mediums for sharing information will never end. There is, and probably always will be, a way for you to connect to anyone, anytime and anywhere.

Are you familiar with Google+?

Google+ has a fresh new look. Looking at it – it reminds me a little bit of Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter all rolled into one. PR Daily wrote an excellent breakdown of some of the changes to the Google+ platform. A few of the items noted that I particularly find interesting include:

#3 – Infographics will display in a nearly useful size at full length in the new layout. The estimated dimensions are 503 × 930 for desktop viewing. An influx of infographic posts is likely. Keep an eye on ensuring readability.

#7 – A Hangout is now any form of group communication. This can include Video Call, Group Chat or Group Calling. This new feature means many messaging and calling products can now merge.

#8 – Google has released a standalone Hangout app that replaces Google Chat and allows for text and video chat across Android, iOS, and Chrome.

#12 – YouTube expands its live-streaming feature to all channels with more than 1,000 subscribers.

Some of these can prove very useful when communicating with business colleagues, family and friends. No need to set up multiple accounts with different service providers – you have one-stop shopping right inside Google+.

To view the entire lis , go here (http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/19_things_you_need_to_know_about_the_NewGooglePlus_14559.aspx. You may find you have more favorites that I did!

LinkedIn Endorsements: Another Form of Poking

By Montrie Rucker AdamsMay 10, 2013 Blog endorsements, linkedin, references

A few months ago, I began to get emails from LinkedIn that said, “Such-and-such has endorsed you.” I thought, “What is this? What does such-and-such know about our business. I guess I must be doing something right.”

Well, back in September 2012, LinkedIn announced a new profile feature called “Endorsements” which allows co-workers, clients, business associates, etc., with the ability to recognize an individual’s skills and expertise.

How does it work? By visiting a connection’s profile, you are presented with an Endorsement box. In the box you will see skill sets the connection has placed in their profile. If there is a skill set for which you would like to endorse them – and it is not there – you can add the skills or expertise. However the connection must approve these before they will go LIVE and appear under their endorsement area.

So how reliable are these endorsements? Over time, I have had to opportunity to sit back and peruse various profiles of people I know both personally and professionally. At first, I saw endorsements that I believed. I knew that the connection had those skills. I either know them from working with them directly or I know someone who has. However, as the feature has grown in popularity, I have started to notice it has turned into a form of “poking” someone so that the other person will endorse them. Poking is a feature on Facebook that was designed to nudge another person or to attract attention to a friend. It seemed fun at first, but then people started to get angry and wondered why that feature was even there – “it’s annoying” most people have said. And… Facebook has now removed the featured and most people haven’t even noticed it.

People are starting to loosely endorse connections . They may not necessarily know their skill sets. They want endorsements.

The bottom line: Know who is endorsing you and know who and why you are endorsing a connection. You want your relationships on LinkedIn to be authentic.

Introducing LinkedIn Endorsements from LinkedIn

How to Build Your LinkedIn Company Page

By Montrie Rucker AdamsApril 24, 2013 Blog branding, business pages, linkedin

There are a lot of people with businesses on LinkedIn. Building your company’s page will allow you to showcase your brand and connect to your business’ target audience.

The following video is part of a Webcast provided by LinkedIn and HubSpot. Who better to learn from than the pros themselves on, “How to Build Your LinkedIn Company Page for Business Success?”

http://youtu.be/6jbnZfVZb2M

I hope this video will help you get your business page built on LinkedIn. Try it and let me know what you think.