Seth Godin on Why You Need A Home Business

Seth Godin on why YOU need a home based business! Your day job ain't that secure any more and things are changing fast. Don't become the next casualty!

Want to know how to jump on board with some of the internet's top marketing genius's who are earning multi millions? Jump over to HERE now!

5 Ways to Leverage Your Social-Media Following to Close Sales

Like all savvy business owners, you’ve invested significant resources into building up a social network you are proud of. You’ve got a wide fan base, enough “likes” and “followers” to make you feel validated, and have begun to generate engagement among your consumers. You’re on every major platform and a few of the newer, more experimental ones. You’ve seen and done it all - now you simply have to sit back and relax, right?

While the benefits of having an extensive online social presence are numerous, many businesses – particularly small businesses – are not utilizing their networks to their fullest potential. Social media is about public relations, yes, and there is long-term value in keeping an open dialogue with your customers. But there can also be intrinsic value in your social network – opportunities to make money that you might be missing. Here are five simple, low-cost ways you can generate sales directly from your social network.

1. Instagram pop-up sales

If your company isn’t on Instagram, you should consider it. Independent business owners can offer products direct-to-consumers within seconds by snapping a photo and posting it, along with a price, to their social network. In this manner, even a one-person operation can generate sales through social media. Small brick-and-mortar operations can also use this method to reach a wider audience than they might be able to locally. You needn’t base your entire business model on Instagram. Try offering flash sales on overstock through photos.

2. Facebook 'members only' coupons

Facebook is probably the most widely used social platform among corporations, but many of these companies aren’t sure how to use Facebook to gain more customers. Try offering members-only coupon codes that promise a discount to loyal followers. If you offer meaningful coupons, you can refresh relationships and directly drive sales. You will likely also pick up some new customers in the process.

3. Kickstarter campaigns

You may not consider Kickstarter to be a social media platform, but don't overlook its potential as a sales-generation tool. Gaming companies, in particular, have discovered that they can use Kickstarter, in conjunction with their other social media tools, to generate sales of a game before they even develop it. They then have a committed return on invest in advance, something almost unheard of for small corporations. It’s a great way to test your market before committing significant funds to production and advertising.

4. Blog tours

Some niche markets have already begun to harness the power of bloggers in moving their products. With a little research up front, you will find a group of bloggers willing to feature your product over the course of a few days or weeks. Some PR firms are even starting to offer this service as part of your social media package. Not every business model lends itself to a blogger campaign, but if your products or services seem to fit, especially if your company runs its own blog, this can be a powerful way to generate sales at a minimal cost.

5. Twitter contests

Smart companies have turned Twitter into a money-making machine by making their followers part of the creative process. Mom-and-pop shops can ask their fan base to vote on product designs, color schemes and slogans to generate interest. Ultimately, the consumer feels involved enough in the merchandise to purchase it.

Take another look at the toolbox of social media that you already have at your disposal before investing in costly ad campaigns. Your network is full of consumers who already like your brand. With a little time and effort, you can generate new sales in an unconventional way.

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Les Brown: Why People Fail

Only 1:35 seconds, but you need to see this!

Meme Marketing: The Right and Wrong Way to Leverage Internet Obsessions

It doesn't matter if you're an avid tweeter, a Tumblr addict, a Redditor or a BuzzFeed junkie, there's one thing you can't avoid on the Web: memes.

Memes are everywhere, and just about anything or anyone can become one. Grumpy Cat, Alex from Target, Overly Attached Girlfriend, Success Kid — all of them started out as normal, everyday people (or animals), but were somehow catapulted into the Internet spotlight seemingly overnight.

So what exactly is a meme? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a meme is "an idea, behavior, style or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture." The term was actually coined in 1982 by writer and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.

But while the term itself has a much broader history, you most likely know memes as those funny pictures with puns and jokes overlaid on top in bold, white lettering. Other examples of memes are viral videos like the series of "Harlem Shake" videos that took over the Internet in early 2013. 

Memes may not seem like much to most people, but to marketing professionals, memes have all of the potential in the world. Why? Here are four major reasons: 

• They're already viral.Whatever you're trying to market, you want people talking about it. Since memes already saturate the Web, latching on to such content can be a great way to get your brand noticed online.

• They're easy to make. Anyone with an Internet-connected device can make and upload a meme in just a few minutes. Whether you use an existing meme or create your own, it doesn't matter. The end result is a free or cheap way to increase your chances of going viral.

• They're incredibly shareable. Since most memes are images or videos, they're ideal for sharing on social media. Every major social network from Facebook to Pinterest supports image and video files, so using memes increases the chances that your content will be shared across many platforms and channels.

• They make campaigns more relatable, especially to young people. Marketers and advertisers are constantly looking for ways to interest young people, and memes are a great way to do just that. Additionally, memes are generally funny, and incorporating them into your campaign can show your potential audience and customers that you know how to have fun, making your brand much more relatable.

For these reasons, it can be tempting to use already-created memes to your advantage in your marketing strategy. This is often referred to as "memejacking," and if it's done right, it can really push your social marketing over the edge. But memes can be tricky, and if you mess up, it can be pretty embarrassing.

Here are three important steps to memejack the correct way:

• Understand the meme, first. If you're unsure of the correct way to use a meme, don't just try it anyway. Go to KnowYourMeme.com, search for the particular meme you're interested in and read up on it before you even get started. If you use a meme incorrectly, it can seriously backfire and make your brand look out of touch.

• Don't waste time. Some memes stay popular for years, and others fall flat after a few months or even days. If you're going to memejack, do it as soon as possible. Otherwise, you could end up using it too late.

• Make sure it's appropriate. If your business has a very serious reputation, and therefore a very serious audience, using memes could actually offend people — the exact opposite of what you want.

There's also a big distinction between using a meme that already exists and creating your own memes. So how do you know which path is the right one for your business? It all depends on your existing clout on the Web.

If you're a new company looking to go viral, using existing memes is probably the way to go. They're already popular, and if you use them correctly, it's a great way to get noticed, especially on social media. Having a great sense of humor on the Internet can earn you more followers, who will in turn share your content with their friends.

If you're an existing brand with a lot of followers, creating your own memes (so long as you have a great concept for them) could help you outshine your competition. You already have a lot of influence thanks to your follower count, so you have a better chance of making your memes go viral. Plus, your followers already see you as a brand they can trust, and creating your own memes will show that you're funny and relatable, too.

No matter how popular your brand is already, if you use memejacking the right way, it can seriously boost your business.

Need some examples? These three companies have all taken memes to the next level:

• Denny's: One of the few brands that does Tumblr marketing well, Denny's succeeds mostly because it embraces the use of memes wholeheartedly. The restaurant chain regularly shares hilarious images. A notable example? Denny's made a parody of advertisements for the gold iPhone 5 by sharing a picture of pancakes with the text "Pancakes" stylized like the iPhone advertisement, with smaller text reading, "Always available in golden." (You can see more of the company's memes here.)

• Wonderful Pistachios: The snack food brand has created several commercials that are based on viral videos, including one with "Keyboard Cat," a viral video and meme that dates all the way back to 2007. The company's Super Bowl spot featured South Korean singer-songwriter Psy and played off his hit 2012 music video for "Gangnam Style" (which now has over 2 billion views on YouTube).

• Seamless: You've probably used the Seamless website to order takeout before, but if you're not following Seamless on Twitter, you're missing out on some great laughs. The account regularly makes food jokes and puns, but Seamless really shone during this year's Academy Awards season when it shared its own "#OscarNomNoms" memes, which turned Oscar-nominated movie posters into food puns like "The Wolf of Waffle Street."

But not every business has had such good luck with memes. If you really want to try memejacking for your next marketing campaign, make sure you don't make the same mistakes these marketers did:

• FAFSA: This summer, the Federal College Financial Aid Twitter account posted a tweet that read, "If this is you, then you better fill out your FAFSA" with a still from the movie "Bridesmaids" that read "Help me, I'm poor." However, given how many people struggle with student debt, the tweet was very poorly received. FAFSA later deleted the tweet and shared an apology. "We apologize for the insensitivity of our previous tweet. Our goal is to make college a reality for all. We're very sorry," the organization wrote.

• Kia/Cheezburger, Inc.: This memejacking fail is particularly disappointing because the Cheezburger Network is a collection of meme websites — as in, the organization should've known better. The company teamed up with Kia (yes, the car company) in 2012 for a campaign it called "Season's Memeing," which encouraged users to create Kia-themed memes in an effort to win a gift card. Many of the memes that were created didn't make sense, and the Internet was none too pleased.

• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:The organization made a huge meme mistake when it borrowed the "doge" meme (you might recognize it as a picture of a Shiba Inu dog with colorful text overlaid that says things like "wow" and "such doge"). In its attempt topromote Obamacare, the organization not only used the meme inappropriately, but also posted the wrong picture. The overlaid text said, "So health insurance," "Very benefits," "Wow," "Many coverage," "Much affordable" and "Such Healthcare.gov." It's no wonder it fell flat.

If these memejacking horror stories didn't scare you away, there's some good news: Thanks to the overabundance of memes on the Internet, no matter what your company does, there's probably one out there that's perfect for your marketing campaign. And whether you create your own or you jump on another meme's bandwagon, just make sure that the rest of the Internet is laughing with you, not at you.

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4 Basic Steps to Turn Web Visitors Into Brand Ambassadors (Infographic)

The brand ambassador is a highly coveted but oft-elusive tool in the marketer’s arsenal; the golden snitch of the marketing world, if you’ll forgive a "Harry Potter" reference.

If brand ambassadors are what you crave, you’re in luck.

In just four easy steps you can take someone from casual visitor to your online properties to a bona fide brand ambassador who inspires others to share in their love of your brand.

What are those four easy steps? It’s in the infographic from Seychelle Media.

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8 Online-Marketing Terms Business Owners Must Know

If you’re like most small-business owners, you spend your day providing a great customer experience that sets you apart from your competition. The quality of your service is key now that digital word of mouth is the most effective form of advertising. This doesn’t leave much time to stay current with the latest online-marketing developments.

To help navigate today’s brave new world of digital marketing for small business, as well as outline principles that are critical for your success, I’ve outlined eight terms that should be in every small-business owner’s vocabulary. Understanding the “why” and “what” will improve your marketing efforts and ability to attract and retain valuable customers.

1. Online presence

What: Your online presence is everywhere your business info can be found online and on mobile apps.

Why: In today’s connected world, establishing a proper online presence is absolutely critical. Consumers use the web to make their final decision. According to a Nielsen study, four out of five Yelp users visit the review site before making a purchase.

Whether looking for a new business or researching a known one, potential customers will use search engines and social platforms to find the information they need. To help get you started, here are 24 free places to list your business online.

2. CTA 

What: A call to action prompts a customer to do something (for example: “Call now.” “Click here for 10% off.”). Testing different CTAs as part of your marketing will help you find out which is the most effective for your business. 

Why: As a small business, it doesn’t matter how enticing your online presence is if you do not present a clear call to action. Even the most interested consumers need a clear next step and possibly an incentive to move forward.

3. Conversion

What: Conversion is the step from your marketing effort to a customer taking action. A conversion could be an email or call, but most often a direct purchase.

Why: The goal of your marketing should be to drive conversions. You need to decide in advance how you define a conversion. This way you know what to track and what you want to achieve.

You want to minimize drop off between someone seeing you online and actually making a purchase. Remarketing can help with this.

4. Remarketing

What: Remarketing is following up with consumers that have interacted with you or your marketing before. For example, sending email or a text messages to existing customers with the goal of building loyalty or getting referrals, feedback and reviews.

Why: Remarketing to your existing customer contacts is one of the most important online-marketing activities for small-business owners. These customers already know your business and are much more likely to engage and convert via effective marketing. 

5. Referrals

What: Referrals are new customers that have been directed to your business by other customers or companies.

Why: A trusted recommendation is more powerful and effective than any type of advertising. By using targeted-remarketing messages you can encourage this type of digital word of mouth.

6. CAC 

What: Customer acquisition cost refers to the dollar amount spent to acquire a new customer. For example, if you work with a marketing service that you pay $1,000 and because of their work they deliver five new customers, the CAC of this marketing effort is $200.

Why: Your end goal is new customers and revenue. It is important to understand how much each of your marketing efforts cost to achieve that goal. This will help you evaluate your marketing efforts. Make sure you know about the CAC when working with a marketing service.

7. CLTV 

What: Customer lifetime value is the dollar value of a customer relationship -- based on the total profit you expect to earn from that client over their time with your business. So if your service costs $50 and customers generally buy this service five times throughout their lifetime, the combined dollar value of all these transactions, or CLTV, is $250.

Why: CLTV is an essential concept in marketing, because it determines how much you can spend on your marketing. Generally speaking, any marketing effort where the CLTV is higher than the CAC delivers a return on your investment and is something you should continue to invest in. So don’t just look at marketing in terms of costs but how it adds to your bottom line!

8. Cloud computing

What: Cloud computing, sometimes called software as a service or web-based software services, simply means business services such as email, storage or accounting supplied over the Internet. Using the cloud is increasingly popular with small-business owners because it’s more affordable and makes it easy to update the services.

Why: Using cloud computing for your marketing is a smart approach as it’s affordable and makes it easy to update and integrate any services. For example, customer-relationship-management software is a marketing tool that many large companies have been using for years, however it is now well within the price point and time-commitment range for small-business owners.

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What (Millennial) Women Want: One Marketing Strategy Doesn't Fit All

If you ask many of today's business-to-consumer companies about their target market, "women" and "millennials" are likely to come up a lot. The fact that marketers are going after these two segments should come as no surprise: The buying power of consumers who belong to these groups — especially those in the intersection — is rapidly growing as Generation Y continues to grow up and enter the workforce. But reaching female millennials successfully isn't always as easy as you might expect.

Where many marketers go wrong is casting too wide of a net with this group, and making broad assumptions about the individuals within them. In fact, two Advertising Week 2014 panels said that marketing strategies that rely too heavily on stereotypes about millennials and women are becoming less and less effective. Gabie Boko, executive vice president of marketing at accounting software provider Sage, agreed that these tactics need to be scratched from your playbook.

"When marketing to millennial women, one size does not fit all," Boko told Business News Daily. "Not every woman is a mom. Not every woman is a high-powered executive. Not every woman likes pink. Stereotyping in your marketing is one of the quickest ways to alienate potential buyers. Instead, you need to tap into their true buying needs and preferences."

"Marketers often loop all millennials into one large target group and make the assumption that they act and behave in all of the same ways, which is just not true," added Michael Dill, managing partner of integrated marketing firm Match Drive. "Millennials are like colors — they are all different shades, and marketers need to understand what particular shade they are selling to and why."

If you're trying to market to this fast-growing, highly coveted group, here are a few tips to keep in mind. [Marketing to Millennials: How to Capture Gen Y Consumers]

Research, research, research. In order to think beyond the stereotypes of millennial women, you need to do your research. Speak with them directly and learn about what they want — and whether that aligns with what your company offers.

"Narrow your focus to the women who will likely be the early adopters or best fit for your product," Boko said. "You must understand their community deeply and try to see your brand through their perspective. The effort you put into learning about and understanding the women in your market will show in your marketing."

Leslie Canter, a marketing representative for audience intelligence tool People Pattern, noted that listening to social media conversations is incredibly important in helping you learn about your target group and discovering what motivates these people.

"[Find out] what people are actually talking about," Canter said. "[In terms of] shopping habits, what really resonates and is important to these people?"

Think about the screen and context. One challenge brands face in reaching the millennial generation is the dramatic shift in communication habits ushered in by the digital age. Dill noted that marketers have had to rethink their traditional advertising and retail models and adapt them to the multiscreen world of Gen Y.

"When millennials watch TV, they don't just sit there, staring at the screen," Dill said. "They often watch two different screens or more, or they engage with their friends while watching. They stop, they go off and then come back."

Ilana Stern, founder of wedding fashion retailer Weddington Way, said that the context of brand connections — browsing on a smartphone while waiting for the subway versus shopping on a desktop during work, for instance — makes a difference in how you should choose to reach out to millennial women.

"Millennials are consuming content in a variety of [ways, and] their goals and mind-set change depending on the context," Stern said. "Brands need to meet them where they are, with simple and straightforward messaging and experiences that cater to these contexts."

Make a connection. As more millennials shift to online and mobile shopping, ensuring a seamless experience across all devices is important. But just as important is finding ways to authentically connect with millennials through your marketing efforts.

"Millennials interact with brands differently than prior generations," Stern said. "It's not about push marketing and brand endorsement. They value the opinions of their peers and community. Millennials wants to feel informed and involved, not just someone you're marketing to. Connect [with them through] values that drive them, such as happiness, passion, diversity, sharing and discovery."

"Millennials care as much for what a brand stands for as they do for the product that the brand makes," Dill added. "To millennials, both the brand story and the company's integrity matter a great deal.Think about [millennials] first, rather than thinking about how you want to sell."

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DubLi on Net Worth Commerce 2014

Dubli gives you cash back and more. Click here to find out more!

#SocialCurrency: How a Leisurewear Brand Became a Social Media Hit

Today's brands know the value of social media. It's the most powerful, least-expensive word-of-mouth advertising tool out there, and you can engage far more individuals through follower retweets and shares than you can through most other traditional marketing channels.

While consumers are usually happy to post about their brand experiences anyway, one way to sweeten the deal and encourage even more social interactions is to offer a monetary incentive for active social influencers. Last week, a pop-up store in New York City did just that to boost social media engagement for its opening weekend, and was able to reach 21 million social media users with its hashtag, #SocialCurrency.

Customers who visited the OnePiece pop-up store in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood beginning on launch day (Nov. 7) were able to take part in the Social Currency program by connecting their social media accounts to the company's ambassador system, PieceKeepers. Once synced, the PieceKeepers platform calculated the customers' total social following across all linkable platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Vine, Pinterest, YouTube and LinkedIn) and computed it into a dollar amount. Every 500 followers equaled $1 toward a purchase, and customers could earn an additional $20 when they uploaded and shared a hashtagged image from the store.

oday's brands know the value of social media. It's the most powerful, least-expensive word-of-mouth advertising tool out there, and you can engage far more individuals through follower retweets and shares than you can through most other traditional marketing channels.

While consumers are usually happy to post about their brand experiences anyway, one way to sweeten the deal and encourage even more social interactions is to offer a monetary incentive for active social influencers. Last week, a pop-up store in New York City did just that to boost social media engagement for its opening weekend, and was able to reach 21 million social media users with its hashtag, #SocialCurrency.

Customers who visited the OnePiece pop-up store in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood beginning on launch day (Nov. 7) were able to take part in the Social Currency program by connecting their social media accounts to the company's ambassador system, PieceKeepers. Once synced, the PieceKeepers platform calculated the customers' total social following across all linkable platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Vine, Pinterest, YouTube and LinkedIn) and computed it into a dollar amount. Every 500 followers equaled $1 toward a purchase, and customers could earn an additional $20 when they uploaded and shared a hashtagged image from the store.Source

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Bad Customer Service Montage

Some very funny clips here. Have a giggle!!

To Keep Your Brand's Social Engagement Strong, Focus on These 3 Questions

Q: What are some of the most effective social strategies you've seen to encourage long-term engagement with a brand?
-- Jacqueline Clary

A: This is a fantastic question and one I often get asked. I say “often” as not every business sees social media as a long-term engagement mechanism. The amount of times I hear that a company only uses social media because they think they ought to has diminished over the years, but there are still some out there who don’t get that digital is here to stay, and therefore fail to embed it deeply in their future plans.

Defining “long term” within any customer life cycle is tricky and depends on the company and the product or service you’re trying to sell, but with any integrated marketing strategy is needs to start with the brand. You need to know your mission, understand who your competitors are and create experiences that are discoverable, memorable and shareable.

When you have the brand right and everyone in your company is breathing into it, you can use social media as a way to keep authentic engagement going as part of an integrated approach focusing on these three questions:

1. Are you being agile?

Social-media engagement is real time, so are you set up to respond quickly to any call outs or questions? Do you have a response protocol set up to deal with frequently asked questions and what happens if a crisis ensues? Consumers on social media have little patience, so having the right processes set up to disseminate answers is important before your competition slips right in there and whips that potential customer away from under your nose.

Being agile also means having the ability to react quickly to outside opportunities. Do you have a content calendar set up with some ideas for future events or holidays and supposing a major celebrity wants you to help them #BreakTheInternet? Do you have steps in place to take advantage of situations like that?

2. Are you being delightful?

So much of what we see on the Internet can frankly be depressing. Cat videos and suchlike do so well because they make people laugh and make them feel good. There is other kinds of content that has meaning too and gives people a positive experience that shines above the mundane. While I’m not suggesting you dash out to your local animal shelter, I think brands that do well long term have their customers’ well-being in mind. They get that it pays dividends to invest in ways to tell stories, either of their own, or by welcoming those from their loyal following,

3. Are you being unexpected?

Even as recently as three years ago, if you asked anyone in the street what a meme was or if they knew what was trending right now, you’d have probably drawn many a blank stare. In 2014, consumers are way savvier when it comes to marketing and how brands are trying to engage them, so making sure you aren’t following the herd in your niche will help you stand out a little bit more. Engaging your followers with an element of surprise now and again doesn’t mean a complete change in direction, it just means changing up what you share and how you interact so your marketing doesn’t become predictable and mundane.

If the average Tweet has a lifetime of 18 minutes and the brand content reach of Facebook could be next to nothing now without paying for it, a long-term engagement strategy across social channels might seem too much of an investment given the ever-changing nature of digital. But being agile, delightful and unexpected in an integrated way through your marketing will go a long way to creating experiences through which your target audience will want to stay engaged with you for the long haul.

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Apple's First Social-Media Guru on the No. 1 Way to Market Your Brand

Peter Friedman ran social media for Apple before it was even called social media. Working directly with Steve Jobs starting back in 1984, the Harvard Business School grad oversaw AppleLink, which spun off as the beginnings of AOL (America Online).

Live and online from about 1985 to 1994, AppleLink was Apple’s first online community for users, third party developers and Apple product dealers across the world.

Fast-forward to today, 18 years since Friedman, author of The CMO’s Social Media Handbook (LiveWorld, 2014), left Apple to launch LiveWorld, the social media content company he is still chairman and CEO of today. We’d say the leap worked out quite well for him.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company has grown to become one of the most trusted names in corporate social-media marketing. LiveWorld’s client list reads like a Silicon Valley A-List roster, boasting heavy hitters like Intuit, Cisco, Hewlett Packard and Flipboard, to name a few. There’s also Dove, Pfizer, General Electric, Sony Ericsson, Nokia and, well, you get the point.

So, what's Friedman's top social-media tip for building buzz around a brand? Party like a rock star.

Create a fun, upbeat environment -- on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, on all of the social platforms your brand has a presence on -- in which your current and potential customers can talk to each other. The key, Friedman says, is to encourage them to chat up your brand together, as if they were at a killer party at your house.   

“My favorite metaphor for social-media marketing is that you’re throwing a party,” a Fedora-topped Friedman told us this week at the C-Suite Network Conference in Marina Del Rey, Calif. “When you build a really good party, everyone wants to come.”

But no one wants to hang around at a party where the host gets up in front of everyone and talks about himself the whole time. “Everyone will say, ‘Whoa, what an ego this guy has. He doesn’t even care about us. His schtick is getting boring. Let’s leave and we’re never coming back.’”

In social media, think of your target customers as your party guests, as potential brand ambassadors mingling amongst each other. Foster connections and conversations between them by posting social content about topics that resonate with them 80 percent of the time and only weave in brand messages 20 percent of the time. It’s a delicate but critical balance.

“When you have a good time at a good party, people go, ‘Wow! This brand really understands us. They make a great party. I want to come back to this brand’s party and bring my friends. Then people will equate their positive online experiences with your brand with your products and your services.”

Think about it. What kind of social media party are you throwing for your customers?  

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Interview: The Richard Branson Business Plan

Richard Branson on his Business Plan!

Capture, Engage and Convert Customers With Visual Branding

In the time it will take you to read this article, there will be over 900,000 tweets on twitter and 7.5 million posts on Facebook. With that much content generated, how does a business get noticed and stay relevant? The answer: visual elements.

Human beings are wired to react to pictures much more so than text alone. We did, after all, spend tens of thousands of years enjoying the vast and beautiful open expanses of new breathtaking landscapes long before we used letters and numbers to communicate.

This also explains why our attention has shifted so dramatically over the past few years from blogging and text status updates to picture updates, and why social-media sites such as Pinterest, Instagram and Snapchat have burst on to the scene and become our favorite social sites. In fact, Instagram will soon surpass Twitter in the number posts per day.

Of course, many companies do and should continue to produce meaningful and engaging content, but to get noticed, adding a visual element to your posts will not only encourage and generate more engagement and sharing, but will also help to further establish your brand.

Creating visuals can be intimidating, especially for the “creatively uninclined.” It does not need to be, however, as long as you put some thought up front and create the foundation for your overall visual branding strategy. Here are four tips and resource to getting started.

1. Colors and patterns

Maintaining a catchy color scheme will not only grab customers' attention but also create a consistent message about your brand. It is best to stick to no more than four colors, all of which speak in some way to your company’s brand and mission. Do not choose haphazardly, as color combinations can send their own message.

Using an online resource, such as Paletton.com, can help you find complimentary blends of colors by experimenting with its color wheel. A site such as DeDraeve.com can take a digital picture and instantly provide you with a matching color scheme. Remember to keep track of the HEX or RBG code as to be sure to use the exact colors in all of your online and print marketing.

2. Images 

After you have selected a color scheme, it is time to consider images for your visuals. You will use these images to add emphasis to a message or as backdrops to content posts.

If you are using your own photos, be sure to use a camera that can create high-quality and high-resolution photos. If you lack the equipment (or the photographer’s eye), a number of sites offer stock photos for sale or lease. I have used and have been happy with Dollar Photo Club, which for a small fee provides access to millions of great stock photos.

You can also find some free selections, such as those found at Death to the Stock Photo. If your budget can support it, Getty Images has an absolutely fantastic selection of amazing photos, for sale or for licensing -- but they are not cheap.

To give your photos a personal touch, consider running them through a "filter," which will give them a unique look and feel. Specific apps, such as Photoshop, can do this for you, but you can avoid the cost and opt instead for the standard filters on apps such as Instagram. To get a little more daring, consider one of my favorites, Pixlr-O-Matic (available online or as an app) for thousands of different filters that are easy to use.

Again, be sure to have a consistent look and feel with each of your images.

3. Layout

Another way to differentiate your content and your brand is to use a specific and consistent layout for your visuals. For instance, including a watermark logo in the same corner of every picture or post will help consumer instantly recognize the content as yours.

One company I like is Canva, which provides a huge assortment of template layouts for almost all major social-media channels. It also has a huge assortment of free designs and photos, and upgrading is rather affordable. Again, with your picture filters and color scheme, consistency is key for building that visual brand identity.

4. Typography 

The style of font that you use with your brand (called typography) is as important as colors when trying to create a consistent message. Carelessly slapping Comic Sans on your website and marketing materials can send the wrong impression.

Instead, research your options and determine which fonts go best together. Also, make certain not to choose too exotic a font, as some web browsers will not recognize the font and the effect will be lost.Google Fonts is a great place to find free fonts as well as the "code" needed to integrate it into your website.

At some point, it does seem altogether likely that the Internet will simply explode under the intense pressure of tens of millions of photos being uploaded every day. Of course, I jest.

But the reality is that we will continue to prefer visuals with or in place of our content, simple because we are able to consume and react much faster to visuals than plain text. If you do not believe it, then consider the study that found that presentations with visual aids were 43 percent more effective in persuading audience members to take a desired course of action.

In the end, just be sure to follow these tips and create effective visuals, as visuals that miss the message can do more harm than good.

What do you think? Do you have more advice or resources for your fellow entrepreneurs? 

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Start Preparing Your SEO for the 'Internet of Things'

Get ready for an online marketing revolution that’s coming in the form of smart home technology, or what’s now evolved into a greater concept: the Internet of Things.

Smart home technology has been around as long as the Jetsons -- as early as the 1960s. Although it has generally been regarded as a luxury for wealthy homeowners, things have changed. Today, electronic devices ranging from thermostats to door locks are Wi-Fi enabled.

The term “Internet of Things” is a new name for an old concept many of us are already familiar with -- the smart home. Say hello to an entire world of interconnected smart residential devices designed to make our lives easier, more efficient and more connected to the internet.

The Internet of Things has recently been in the news since Google announced last month its agreement to purchase the burgeoning home control company Nest Inc. for $3.2 billion, making a gigantic leap into the smart home industry, as well as an interesting, albeit implied statement on the future of online search.

If Google has any idea what its customers want, paid ads probably won’t show up unsolicited on the company’s smart devices. However, they will likely show up for the same reasons they always do -- people are either using free services that are paid for by ads, or they are performing Google searches. And this is where smart devices in the Internet of Things get interesting for SEO marketers.

SEO professionals are soon going to need to optimize for smart things, or the Internet of Things as a whole. Either way, a new crop of devices will be connected to the internet, and Google is going to be there.

Of course, search won’t be the main function of a smart thermostat or refrigerator, but if you need to search for a recipe while you’re in your kitchen, you may just tap into the most convenient web browser available, located on the fridge right near your stove.

This changes SEO. Once enough people have smart devices in their homes, mobile and desktop will no longer be the only two SEO realms that marketers will need to worry about. Residential will become the third.

Predictions for residential SEO:

• Local search optimization will become even more important.
• Local search will split into two arenas: residential and mobile.
• Psychographic data will grow in value as residential marketing increases.
• Content marketing will dominate residential SEO efforts.
• Ecommerce SEO will continue to focus on mobile and desktop search.

Of course, only time can tell how the Internet of Things will really change SEO. The most important thing for marketers right now is to keep smart devices in mind. You may not see the explosion of residential SEO for a few years, but you can definitely start preparing for the inevitable, and that means preparing a mobile content strategy.

So start thinking residential, marketers! You can begin by investing in your mobile content marketing efforts. Residential will surely be similar to mobile, so there has never been a better time to start focusing on mobile SEO.

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Facebook Ads: 10 Steps To Get More Fans, Leads & Profits - FREE webinar ...

Free Webinar with Mari Smith. Let me know your thoughts.

7 Steps to Facebook Success - Free Facebook Training with Mari Smith

Exceptional FB training from Mari Smith.

How To Create A Custom Facebook Landing Page For Your (Business) Profile...

More great informational video for you. You really have no excuse NOT to take action and get your business moving on Facebook!!

How to create a Facebook Business Page in 7 Steps - Facebook Small Busin...

Great way to learn how to create your Facebook business page - get into action now!!

Facebook Marketing - How to Use Facebook to Promote Your Business - Part 2

Really useful series and here is pert 2. Enjoy!

Facebook Marketing - How to Use Facebook to Promote Your Business - Part 1

Cool video on how to use Facebook to promote your business.

Customers Want Answers on Social Media — Don't Leave Them Hanging

If you think you're seeing more and more brand interactions on your social feeds, it's not your imagination. According to a recent report by social media management tool Sprout Social, the number of social media messages customers send to brands has increased by 77 percent since 2013.

"The general volume of social [messages] increased, and that's not surprising," said Andrew Caravella, vice president of marketing at Sprout Social. "What is surprising is how many of those messages are inbound toward brands and how many require a response."

The 2014 Sprout Social Index found that the number of customer messages that need a response or issue resolution (i.e., questions about products or complaints about services) has doubled in the last year. The problem is, the rate at which brands respond to these messages has actually gone down: Five in six messages that need an answer from a brand never receive one. [For a side-by-side comparison of the best social media marketing services, visit our sister site Top Ten Reviews]

So why do businesses fail at giving customers the responses they need on social media? Caravella said that it's partly due to the overwhelming volume of responses, which may indicate that businesses simply don't have the right tools and resources in place to manage their social media activity. But he also noted that social networks weren't originally created with businesses in mind: Instead of just using social media for branding and marketing, companies now have to adapt and learn to use it for a number of other purposes.

"Social networks were built for personal use," Caravella said. "It's a relatively nascent channel [for businesses, and] it's changing and expanding into other areas of business — talent recruitment, customer care and service, etc. It's a big undertaking, [and] people want to get it right."

Based on the Sprout Social Index, Caravella offered the following tips for small businesses that want to boost their social media presence and keep up with the tidal wave of messages and mentions they receive.

Know your capabilities. Based on both your bandwidth and your available staff and time, conduct an internal social audit and understand what you're capable of, as well as your limitations. That way, you can determine how to best allocate your resources. It's better to have a very strong presence on two networks than a mediocre presence on four.

Focus on response rate and time. The companies that do social media best are the ones that make a concerted effort to engage with and address customer comments and questions that come through on their feeds. Depending on how many social interactions your business receives per day, it may be impossible to respond to each and every customer. But it's a good idea to get to as many as you can in a timely manner, whether the sentiment is positive or negative.

"People are on social media for recognition, [to know] that what they say matters," Caravella told Business News Daily. "People love when businesses acknowledge and recognize them, [whether with] a favorite, retweet or actual response."

Understand your customers. Pay close attention to the way your customers talk about your brand, whether it's directly to you or indirectly to their friends and followers. Knowing how your customers feel about you can help you better understand your strengths and weaknesses as a business — and better serve customers' needs on social media.

Don't get hung up on the numbers. Engagement rates, rather than follower count or number of "likes," are the hallmark of true social media success for today's brands. Caravella noted that businesses should focus more on improving engagement than upping the raw numbers.

"Growth comes organically, by having conversations, responding and being participatory," he said. "If you have a million followers and don't talk to them, [it's not effective]. If you have a thousand but build relationships with them, that's more useful."

Originally published on Business News Daily.

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Coolest Marketing Campaigns and Ideas Ever

This is very cool and can give you some ideas on how you might be able to
make your own brand stand out a little more than it currently does.
Food for thought anyway!

Let me know what you think.

5 Affordable Ways to Make Your Online Profile Stand Out

As an entrepreneur, you have a variety of profiles across all the major social-media networks and various industry-association websites. With all those profiles across the Internet, you should take some time to make them look polished so you stand out.

How you do you do that on a startup budget? Easy. Here are five affordable ways to make your online profile look great.

1. Consistent branding

Consistent branding doesn’t cost you a dime but can cost you customers or clients if your profile is all over the place. When someone sees you or your business online, everything should look and feel the same across all your profile pages. Use the same bio and keep the same header and photo. Keep it consistent. It’s free to do and essential to implement.

2. Professional headshots

You’d be surprised by how affordable professional headshots can be. Check out websites such as Togally.com that offer pre-set packages for photography sessions across a variety of needs, including professional headshots. The best part? It only allows previous customers to rank and rate photographers, so unlike Yelp, you know the reviews are actually from previous clients.

Headshots packages start as low as $50. That’s a price every startup founder can afford.

3. An excellent bio

If you aren’t a writer, you should reach out to a professional writer to help you position and brand your bio for each of your online profiles. You should have on hand a variety of bios that are boilerplate across all online needs, from Twitter to online conference speaking bios to LinkedIn. Have your bio custom tailored to a variety of lengths by a pro.

You can find a writer through sites such as Fiverr, where you provide the word count and topic and a professional who matches your desired expertise ranking will help craft your bio by the word.

4.  Great graphics

Another great way to make your profile stand out and to keep your branding consistent is to reach out to a designer who can create custom graphics tailored to your brand that are optimized to a variety of all social-media background sizes. Designers on sites such as Dribbble.com are affordable and you can see past examples of their work. Ask your designer ahead of time if they can re-skin the graphics for all online outlets.

5. Consistent updates

Most online profiles are dynamic. A free and smart way to have your online profile stand out is to contribute valuable content. Share posts and comment on your LinkedIn profile, like and share from Facebook, update content on YouTube -- you get the point. For all of the places you have online profiles that allow interaction, maximize that free opportunity to stay relevant and engaged with the audience.

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Season's Tweetings: How Twitter Affects Holiday Shopping

Twitter affects a lot of things in peoples' day-to-day lives: How they communicate with each other, how they get their news and more. So it should come as no surprise that the social network affects how people shop, too, especially around the holidays.

One in 3 consumers have tweeted asking for advice about holiday shopping, according to new research from Twitter. And good news for businesses: 39 percent of consumers are likely to tweet about their holiday purchases, while 62 percent are likely to tweet about a business because they want to share a positive experience.

Respondents also talked about their spending habits. On average, Twitter users plan to spend $800 on holiday purchases this year, and 7 in 10 of the Twitter users said they purchase gifts for everyone on their list, along with a few for themselves. 

So when do Twitter users hit the stores? Forty percent said they plan to start shopping before Thanksgiving this year, while 25 percent said they will wait until December. This gives brands a wide timeframe to market to their audiences. [4 Ways to Entice Holiday Shoppers with Social Media ]

Here's what shoppers want to see on Twitter during the holidays:

• Deals and specials only shown on Twitter: 44 percent of respondents
• Sneak peeks at new merchandise: 44 percent
• Ideas for holiday shopping or gift giving: 36 percent
• Links to a business's online store: 35 percent

Twitter suggested that businesses take advantage of these trends by interacting with people who tweet about their businesses and answering those customers' questions.

"When you tweet back, you'll create a positive experience that's more likely to be shared, helping you generate more positive word of mouth for your business," the company wrote on its blog.

The social network also advised brands to tweet out helpful shopping tips and teaser photos of new products, in addition to promoting discounts and sales.

The study was conducted with research firm Millward Brown and surveyed 500 U.S. consumers who use Twitter at least once a month and are involved in holiday shopping.

Originally published on Business News Daily.

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Motivational speaker: LES BROWN - I'M GOING TO MAKE IT - how to talk to...

The great Les Brown. Let me know what you think of this video.

9 Hot Mobile Apps for Instagram

What are the best mobile apps for Instagram? Which apps are used by people who are experts in the platform?

Sue Zimmerman is a world-leading expert in Instagram and I recently interviewed her.  She shared some amazing tools and tips for Instagram with me, and I’m going to share them with you!

Note:  Sue mainly uses iPhone apps but we have included some Android alternatives, too.

What You Will Learn From This Post

• Tools that will make you more effective on Instagram.
• How the tools are used – you will get plenty of ideas of how you could be doing better on Instagram.
• Plus, watch out for a free download where Sue shares five exclusive tips that will help you rock Instagram.

 Want to Listen to an Audio Version?

Instagram Statistics

• Instagram has 200 million active users and this number is growing rapidly
• 75 million of these users are active every day!
• 20 billion photos have been shared.

(Source: Expanded Ramblings)

Here are the 9 Instagram mobile apps recommended by Sue Zimmerman:

1.  Videohance – Create Awesome Instagram Videos

On Instagram, you can create 15-second videos but, as this was only introduced in 2013, the majority of content shared on Instagram is imagery.

What this means is that there is an opportunity to stand out with video, and Sue recommends using videos in addition to photographs.

Videohance is a nicely designed iPhone/iPad app that makes it very easy to edit videos for Instagram.  Here are some key features:

• Add filters and effects, adjust white balance, contrast and exposure.
• Apply Instagram filters to change the look of the video.
• Add sound, trim bits out of the video.

Videohance was developed by the same developer as Word Swag – see later.

An Android alternative is Videoshow.

2.  iWatermark – Protect Your Pictures

If you are concerned that people will take your images and use them, you may want to watermark them with the iWatermark app.

You can upload your logo and/or your name and date.

Protect your pics

If you don’t want to add a full watermark, you may just want to add a small logo at the bottom of the image so that, if it is shared, people know the source.

3. Flipagram – Create Video With Your Pictures

I met Sue at several conferences and she is constantly snapping pictures of people.  Instead of just posting single pictures all the time, Sue creates a story around the pictures and compiles this into a video using Flipagram.

You are limited to videos of 15 seconds, but you can adjust how quickly the images will be displayed within Flipagram.  This means that if you have more than 15 images, you can still fit them in.

Sue recommends that you put text on the first image to describe what the story is about.  For example, if you are at an event, create an image that displays the name of the event and/or hashtag associated with it.

An Android alternative is Videoshow.

4.  Diptic – Create a Scrapbook of Images

Diptic is a tool for compiling a group of images into one, using a scrapbook-type effect.  Here is an example:

Create a scrapbook of images

There are 179 different layouts you can choose for your photos.  You position your photos and customize the surrounding frame.  You can apply filters, add text, adjust colors etc.

Diptic is available for Android and iPhone.

Alternative  – Sue also likes PicFrame (Android and iPhone), too, but finds that Diptic is easier to use. It’s worth trying out both to see which one suits you.

5. Camera+ – Improve the Quality of your Photos

If you have taken a picture that is not great quality, you can use Camera+ to improve it.  For example, use the ‘photo flashlight’ functionality to brighten it up.

Here are the main features of the app:

Features of Camera +

Camera+ is available for both iPhone and iPad.

6.  Repost Whiz – Repost Other Users’ Instagram Content

Sue uses Repost Whiz for reposting other people’s content.  When you repost content, it’s essential to give attribution to the person you are reposting from, and Repost Whiz nicely highlights the attribution to the original sharer.

This app is available for iOS and Android phones.

7.  InstaSize – Resize Your Images

InstaSize takes any photo and resizes it to fit Instagram’s parameters.  It is particularly useful for long, horizontal photos.

There is also additional functionality available with this app such as the ability to:

• Apply filters
• Apply a variety of stickers to your photos to make them stand out ( e.g. Walter the pig, Supercat, Pusspins!)
• Add filters and overlays
• Add backgrounds
• Edit/crop pictures.

Here is an example of an image that was ‘Instasized’ and then brought over to Word Swag, where Sue added text to it.

Resized image that has also been Word Swagged!

InstaSize is available on both Android and iOS devices.

8.  Word Swag – Put Text Overlays on Images

Word Swag is one of the main tools that Sue uses and, if you install the app, you’ll see why.

It’s perfect for taking an image and adding text to it.  You can add text in all sorts of fonts and sizes and easily position it any way you want on the image.

Word Swag makes your images stand out and it’s so easy to use.  Here’s an example of a Wordswag image from Sue.

Such a cool app

The Android alternatives are Photofy, Rhonna Designs or A Beautiful Mess.

9. Emoji app – Add Emojis to your Images

In case you don’t know what emojis are, here are some created using the Emoji> app.

Cool symbols you can use

They are cool symbols you can use to create something a little more interesting with your picture.  Every so often, you can use them to help your image to stand out.

EmojiArt is a similar app for Android devices.

Other Tools

Here are a couple of other tools that Sue uses to help manage her Instagram accounts (she has six of them):

Iconosquare

Sue uses Iconosquare mainly for analytics on her Instagram accounts, but it also provides a range of other functionality including:

• Instagram viewer – view, comment, like, repost any of your Instagram photos through a really nice viewer application.
• Management tools –  Reply to comments with emojis, mark comments as read, view all comments.
• Promote – Enable the Facebook app to display your Instagram feed on Facebook, create a photo gallery widget on your website, give access to non-Instagram users.
• Competition – Run Instagram competitions.

Schedugram

Schedugram allows you to manage and schedule multiple accounts with multiple users.  Sue posts a lot of content in real time but uses Schedugram for any necessary scheduling.

Sue’s Instagram Accounts

Take a look at a selection of Sue’s Instagram accounts to get ideas on what to post:

http://instagram.com/suebzimmerman

http://instagram.com/theinstagramexpert

Free Training

Sue provides some free training as part of her Instawesome Instagram course.  You should really sign up, see link below.

Click here to sign up

Summary

Instagram is a rapidly growing platform with over 200 million active monthly users.  Don’t be surprised if this rises to 500 million users in the near future.

Visual marketing is so important and Instagram is a visual tool.

Are you going to invest more time in it after this article?  Which tools would you use?  Are there any other iPhone or Android apps you’d like to share?

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