Sunday 24 April 2016

How to Use Facebook Ads to Target Traffic for your Business?


5 Simple Steps to Advertising Success on Facebook


Currently Facebook has more than 400 million users and it is anticipated that by the end of 2012 that number will have reached a billion. If Facebook were a country it would be the third largest in the world – that really puts things into perspective now doesn’t it. That means that your ideal target consumer likely can be found in Facebook land. But you need to know how to find them, and that’s where we can help. Here are 5 simple steps to advertising success on Facebook.

1. Target Your Market One of the powerful things about Facebook is that you can easily target who will see your ads using a number of different variables that include age, geography, gender, workplace, education, relationship status, demographics, etc. as well as keywords.

2. Attract Then Engage You will have to make a decision about where you are going to direct people – it can be your website or your Facebook application, group, event, or page. What’s nice about Facebook ads that promote pages is that Facebook includes a drop down “Become a fan” option. People are not required to visit your page to take action. Facebook ads are an excellent tool to promote events, get new fans, promote content, build brand recognition, and go much deeper and build trust. The amount of space you have is small so make sure to use it smartly. You get 25 characters for the headline to grab attention and then 135 characters for the ad itself.

3. Budget Facebook ads are similar to AdWords. You bid on keywords and compete to have your ads shown. You can select either CPC (cost per click) where you pay each time your ad is clicked or CPM (cost per thousand) where you pay per 1000 ad views. To begin your campaign you’ll need to set your budget.

4. Test You should always test your ad campaign. Facebook makes it pretty simple, although h all ads have to be approved by Facebook. Create a number of ad versions. Then you will be able to easily see which ad is performing the best.

5. Analyze After you launch your ad campaign it’s important for you to start to track and tweak. Facebook gives you with a tool that provides insights on actual demographics compared to targeted demographics. This reporting makes it easier for you to determine which advertisements are working and where your ads are failing.

Use Facebook Page to Drive Traffic to New Business

If you aren’t yet convinced on how a Facebook page can benefit your new business by driving traffic to it, you need to look at some of the stat recently released. The fact of it is, we live in a technological world that is more and more driven by social media. In the past year businesses using Facebook have experienced significant growth. Most small business owners recognize just how beneficial a Facebook page can be for them.

Setting up a Facebook page costs you no money. It’s easy to create, run, and develop, and it has the potential to bring new customers on board. New businesses can quickly gain exposure for their page by incorporating Facebook ads that link back to the Facebook page.

Facebook ads make it very easy to target your market based on age, gender, location, hobbies, interests, career, eduction, work, etc. This means you can quickly bring targeted traffic to your site and provides you with the opportunity to begin bringing customers in much faster than in previous times.

A survey of more than 1,500 businesses saw 48% of these businesses with increased sales as a result of their presence on Facebook. 60% of those who were surveyed and who had not yet created a Facebook page said they planned to do so within the year. 30% said they planned to within the next six months.

Of course, it takes more than just having the Facebook page. Like so many other tools that’s exactly what the Facebook page is. Being the page is on the site of the social network giant it’s no surprise that it has a great deal of power. Facebook has launched technology that gives you the ability to be able to create a storefront on your page. You no longer have to drive traffic to your page and then to your website. You can do it all right on your page.

Facebook is working to show the world that it’s no just a place where college kids poke each other, post party pictures, and stock their friends. Facebook has the potential to be the largest eCommerce social networking opportunity on the web, and more and more businesses recognize just what it can do for their business.

New businesses that recognize that a Facebook page can give them a head start on getting their new business rolling, are on the right track. They’ll reap the benefits of a Facebook page for years to come.

How to Use Facebook for Business

If you are using the web for your business, you have probably heard about the benefits of using Facebook for business. If you haven’t it’s time you did. Let’s look at some of the most common ways to use Facebook for business.

1. Get a Facebook vanity URL so that users can easily find you. A vanity URL can be the name of your business, a product, etc.

2. Post business updates to your wall that focus on the business activities.

3. Add your Facebook URL to your signature line for email, marketing campaigns, and other social media outlets so that prospects are able to find you.

4. Combine Facebook with some of the other social medial tools such as LinkedIn or Twitter. For example, someone asks you a question on Twitter, then post your answer to your blog and link that to your Facebook page. You see how you can bring things round circle and create cohesion.

5. Post a picture of your product brand or a professional photo of yourself. It’s always great to use a logo whenever possible.

6. Use your page to grow your branding. Add basic information to the page including links to your company website, information about the company, a mission statement, a newsletter subscription, etc.

7. Make sure you update your Facebook page regularly with helpful information, answers to questions, promotions being offered, etc. Remember the more you can engage your fan the more times they will visit, and the more people they will share the page with.

8. Use your page to promote your sales, new products, upcoming events, etc. Take full advantage of what a page can do for your business.

9. Use Facebook search feature to find other fan pages related to your industry, business, career, or location and then network with these pages.

10. Use Facebook ads to bring people to your page. Pages that are interactive and offer the individual value with have no problem turning visitors into fans. Remember those fans can share with their friends and those friends can share with their friends. You can see how you can quickly grow your page.

Facebook for business isn’t a secret anymore. However, not everyone has learned how to maximize the value of the Facebook page to grow their business. Start with these ten tips on how to use Facebook for business and you will be well on your way to learning the true power of Facebook  and business.

Grow Your Business Through Facebook Networking

Facebook networking has grown from personal to profession. This growth and change is partially a result of the young crowd who first came to Facebook have now grown into adults becoming professionals, entrepreneurs, and partaking in the business world. Facebook networking continues to grow and attract new people. Today more than any time in the past this is not something you can overlook. Social networking for business growth is  a viable option. Let’s look at how Facebook networking can benefit your business.

Great Exposure – One of the things Facebook is famous for is the potential for endless exposure. It’s really unbeatable. When it is used strategically and consistently, you will notice that increase in your company’s visibility. Make sure you are posting comments, tips, advice, and offers regularly. By doing so, you will build credibility and respect, which in turn will lead to increased revenue.

Improve Google Rank – The Facebook page application allows you to create your professional page for your business, products, or services. You can create links to your website within the page, or within any other reference links you’d like to include, such as for books you’ve written. Yet another way to help improve your Google rank.

No Cost Marketing – If you use the Facebook page in combination with other applications you will discover that there are a number of excellent tools you can use to market your products/services and promote your business. It will take you a little while to learn how to use all these tools, but you will master them. Then you can decide which ones are right for you.

Target Your Ad Space – Facebook allows you to create targeted ads on the Facebook site that lead back to your page. You can easily track how the ads perform using Facebook analytical tools.

Once your page is up and running, there are few things you can do to help you get the most out of your page. Make sure there are no photos posted that show your business in an unfavorable manner, or that are too personal. Keep your personal life off the page. Create a page with minimal distractions. Keep it clean and easy to navigate. Make sure you make regular posts and keep the page interesting so your fans continue to return.

Finally, give yourself to learn all the ins and outs of running a page. Take advantage of the tons of information out there that can help you maximize the value of your page, and don’t forget to network with like minded businesses.

Maximizing Your Facebook Page

By now you may already know that having a Facebook Page is a wise marketing move. But do you know how to maximize your Facebook page and get the most out of it? You’ll want to read on for some quick tips on how to increase your fan base and your profits.
What many Facebook users do not know is that you can reach out beyond Facebook to improve the value of your Facebook page. For example, did you know that you can connect your YouTube channel to your Facebook page so that your fans can view any YouTube videos you’ve posted right from your Facebook page. You can also connect to your Flickr Account or the SlideShare app, which is similar to a YouTube app. All of these will add depth, interest, and increase the visitors to your page.

You should consider adding a dislike button to the status update on your page. At one time or another we have all wanted to dislike a post or a status update. Now you can allow your users to ‘dislike’ or ‘like’ a post. To enable ‘dislike’ you just have to install the Status Magic App and then post your updates using the app.

If you want to generate some new leads make sure you create a call to action. You can optimize your page using lead generation. Did you know that links that are shared in Facebook actually have a high impact on search engine results page rankings?

Take advantage of things like polls. Post a question and then choose ‘add poll options.’ You can use polls to acquire feedback from fans on page content, products, wall posts – really your possibilities are limited only by your imagination. Polls can increase participation while at the same time providing you with valuable information.

You can also customize who will be able to view the posts you make. This is Facebook’s solution to Google+s Circles. You can now set your page so that posts will only display to a certain language or location.

Save time and become more efficient opting to use third part applications like HootSuite to schedule your Facebook posts so that they post into the future. Just don’t get caught up in automating your page and leaving it to the bots to run because your fan base will significantly suffer if you do.
Finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the Facebook official blog, where you will find all the announcements for new features. You can give yourself a head start by finding out about these features before others do. After all, it’s a game of strategy so stay ahead of your competition. 6
Turning Facebook Ad into Business Success

While large numbers log into their Facebook account only to chat with friends and find the days gossip, just as many log into Facebook for business, having recognized there is an advertising jackpot here equivalent to winning the next Powerball. Smart business owners have recognized that Facebook advertising has some distinct benefits over other advertising opportunities.

When you place ads on Facebook you can easily target your market. Of the half billion users on Using Facebook a business can easily target those demographics and interests that apply to the product they are marketing.

When you are using Facebook ads it is a much different process than using other ad platforms. With Google AdWords you match keywords on the various pages that come up when a Google search is done. With Facebook, your ads can be specific in a single user’s profile. So rather than targeting your ads to products or services, with Facebook you will target people. For example, rather than targeting the product iPad with Google ads, you would target the people who use iPads on Facebook.
Facebook personal pages are different than Facebook business pages, although they do share similarities. With a business account you cannot view user profiles, add new friends, or interact with people the way you can with personal Facebook pages.

With a business page visitors can “like” your page and become a fan. You can tweak your business page preferences listing in a relevant category, and even dividing the content on your Facebook page so that each has its own tab. Facebook offers you precise metrics to show you how well your page is doing. You can use this information to help improve your page, and your visitor count.
When you have 25 people connected to your page, you are allowed to reserve a username for your Facebook URL. For example, let’s say you chose the username PetesPets then you would have a URL that looked like this facebook.com/petespets making it much easier for visitors to locate your page. A Facebook page is faster and less expensive, to design and bring to the site than establishing a custom domain name and website.

On Facebook all you have to do to begin your advertising campaign is create an ad entering the URL for the website you want traffic to visit. However, if you want to enjoy true success those ads will lead traffic to your Facebook page where there is interaction between staff and customers or potential customers. Those are the companies that maximize their advertising campaign. And remember your Facebook page is free – that’s a win-win wouldn’t you say?

Build Your Brand With Facebook


You are a prospering company with a winning brand. So do you really need Facebook? And can it really benefit you? The answer is a resounding “yes.” Facebook is like getting free space at a world tradeshow that will have more than 500 million visitors. Truly, it’s revolutionary. Those that recognize the value it offers will continue to build stronger brand recognition.

You may have the urge go full speed ahead and compete with other business pages that already have millions of fan. Don’t! Instead take some time to develop a solid strategy that will help you build your business and your brand name. You may be surprised to learn it is more important to have an engaged fan base rather than a large fan base. Build a recognizable voice and focus on those who will actually use your brand. Just because you have more than one product line, does not mean you should automatically build Facebook pages for all of these products. Instead, figure out who used which products and which will fit the Facebook market best. Then build a page on that product and focus on building brand recognition for that page.

It is very important to determine who your target market is and how you are going to communicate to these people. Remember people are busy so no matter what your product is you are going to have to build value to get them to pay attention to your page. Some of your efforts will be through trial and error but before long you’ll have it determined. Facebook can aid you in broadening your brand recognition, and establishing what your company is about.

Who is your target market? It’s a must to figure this out. Is it college students with no money? Busy moms? Professional men? Once you know who your market is, you are ready to target using profiling through Facebook. This is one of the tools that make marketing and building brand recognition so powerful with Facebook.

You should make a minimum of one post per week to your page. The more the better. Also the more they engage the visitor the better. You can also use your page to promote sales, offer coupons, and do various activities that engage the user.

Deal with customer issues immediately – If a fan posts about a problem or makes a complaint on the wall, it’s imperative that you deal with the issue immediately, to ensure there is no negative message to other fans.

When you decide to pull posts do it with care – Of course you should always remove posts that are truly offensive or comments that are really inappropriate. Those that are just out of line should have a professional response. While many would like to see certain posts pulled, the problem is if you start pulling posts you break the authenticity of your page. Here’s how you decide if a post should be pulled. If you were in a town hall meeting, would the police be escorting the messenger from the building. If the answer is yes then go ahead and pull the post.

That’s it – you are ready to get busy building your brand with Facebook!

Using Contests and Freebies on Your Facebook Page


The word is out – the best kept secret on Facebook is no longer a secret. Businesses are flocking to Facebook to setup a page to build brand recognition, grow their customer base, and increase their revenues. So how do you stand out from the thousands upon thousands of pages vying for the Facebook users’ attention? Well one way that has shown extreme success is by using your Facebook page to promote contests and free giveaways.

One can take lessons from some of the biggest companies such as Proctor and Gamble, who use their site to promote products on sale, new products, and coupons for free or discounted products. When you engage the fans and provide something that’s free whether it’s a giveaway, a sample, a draw, or a contest it brings fans to the page.

This type of advertising also increases your following as fans are likely to share with their friends and so your fan base grows. Here’s an interesting statistic. If the average number of friends a person has is 150 and you have 1000 fans that means you have the potential of reaching another 150,000 people.
Not so long ago it was easy to draw the attention to your Facebook page and collect fans. Today, it requires marketers to think outside the box, become much more innovative, and ensure that they have  a strategy in place that will help you stand out.

One method is to incorporate Facebook ads, which take those who click the ads to your Facebook page. When you create Facebook ads you have a great deal of flexibility and you can target your traffic to a level seldom seen elsewhere. You can target your audience by age, gender, location, income, education, and a host of other traits Facebook users have shared. Targeting brings you the traffic you want. However, you also should make sure you don’t go to the opposite extreme, and narrow your target too much. This can eliminate potential customers.

You should always experiment with different ad combinations to find out which work the best and bring you the most traffic. Facebook will send you detailed metrics on all of your ad campaigns. This makes it relatively easy to see what ads are successful and which ads are a flop.
If you are new to advertising on Facebook you need to pay attention to how your users engage there. It’s a good idea to run your ad campaign and then reinforce that campaign on your page.
Facebook has the potential to help you grow your business and improve your revenues. Why not get started now?


Tips for Mastering Facebook Marketing

Businesses are recognizing the potential to help them achieve their marketing goals. In fact 62% of B2C companies and 41% of B2B companies use Facebook.

1. Create a Facebook Page, not a Facebook Profile – This is the first thing you need to do. To maximize your company potential create a page not a profile. It’s simple to set up your page. Just follow the step-by-step instructions.

 2. Claim Your Page’s URL – Create your business page. Then to make it easier to find and more sharable you should create a recognizable URL. It will only take a minute.

3. Auto Publish Your Blog Content – You can start to populate your page wall with your blog content. If you have a business blog connect your blog so it auto posts the new blog content to your page. We should mention that auto posting is not required. It is just a tool that’s helpful for those that are far too busy. You should also make sure that it’s a real person that is engaging the fans.

 4. Ensure Blog Post Meta Descriptions are Complete – If you’ve posted a link on Facebook you already know that it pulls in a short description with the photo. It pulls this description from the meta description on the page. Make sure the blog content you decide to publish on your page is complete and that it’s enticing.

5. Always Create a Custom Page Tab – One of the most recent changes to Facebook pages is that you can no create custom tabs, which is a great way to reduce the clutter on your page. Think of this as your landing page.

6. Create a Welcoming App – You can use a custom tab to create your welcome app. Use the page to welcome new visitors to the page, and then to encourage them to like the page.

7. Use Facebook Insights – If you are not familiar with Facebook Insights you should be. These are analytical tools that can provide you with useful information relating to your visitors and they can help you better understand your fans.

8. Be Sure to Tag Other Business Pages and Other Users – Prior you were able to only tag other users, but now you can actually tag other Pages, as well. First make sure you allow others to post content to your page. Then make sure it is interactive. This will ensure that when people post to your wall they will likely tag your page in the post.

There 8 tips are a great place to start with mastering Facebook for your business.

For many businesses their fan page is an important part of their social media advertising campaign. To maximize your success on Facebook you should ensure you have addressed these 5 key areas.
Network With Additional Platforms If you want to build a large following it will require you to network not just on Facebook but on additional platforms. One method that works well is pushing your website traffic back to your Facebook page. Victoria’s Secret has done this with their highly effective PINK line and campaign. Too many businesses don’t have the necessary dedication. Instead, they expect consumers to just automatically find them. Sorry folks, it doesn’t work that way.
Create Resources Some pages are used as a connection hub. However, others offer relevant information to consumers. The information is used to present the consumer with value, while at the same time it creates a connection with your brand. Branding exercises are key to your Facebook success and growing your business.

Establish a Resource That Keeps Them Coming Back If you want your fan page to have value, entice new users, and keep the existing user base. Remember these are all potential consumers. Offering coupons and contests specifically on your Facebook page and for Facebook users is a good way to entice people to come to your page and keep returning. Many companies use campaigns that say “Click on the Like Button and you will get (insert coupon or product here).” This is a great way to build a long-term, large community

Empower Pages That Pre-Exist If you want an example of how social media can work, Coca Cola’s Facebook page is a great example. Two Facebook users who liked Coke started the Facebook fan page. What began merely as a fan page became the largest product page on Facebook. Rather than Coca Cola coming along and taking over the page for themselves, they rewarded all the fans of the page by offering them a tour of the Coke facility in Atlanta. The page remains with Coca Cola’s blessing.

Be Sure to Target the Right Demographics Occasionally, a Facebook page is built but it doesn’t grow. This can often be a side-effect of the demographics of Facebook. Some brands, simply don’t or won’t have a strong Facebook presence. Let’s have a look at Facebook demographics then you can decide if it’s right for your business.

* 53% of users have kids * The average income is over $60,000 annually * More than 50% of users are college kids * Females make up the larger portion of users
Demographics change quickly and are relatively easy to get, so make sure to do your research before undertaking your Facebook page.

Do You Really Understand the Value of Facebook for Your Business?

Facebook – there’s a lot of buzz around it these days, especially when it comes to what it can and cannot do for your business. Well one thing is for certain. If you are not taking advantage of Facebook pages then you aren’t running your business in this century.

Facebook offers both groups and pages and many have trouble determining which is the right choice. Pages were launched back in 2007 when Facebook noticed that people were attempting to connect brands in ways that didn’t work with the current Facebook structure. Since the inception of pages there’s been confusion. That’s because groups and pages have overlapping features.
Think of Facebook pages just as you would an individual’s profile. They can have friends, post pictures, and fans can post on the wall. Pages also show updates. It’s also what you want for your business.

You Facebook page will be most successful if you create it in such a manner that you actually engage your fans. It’s one thing to post updates, product information, etc. but it’s quite another to actually carry on a conversation with a fan. It’s been proven that those pages where there is a great deal of conversational interaction do far better than those that are more one sided.
You can grow your page even faster by taking advantage of Facebook ads and pointing them to your page. Contests, coupons, and free stuff always peak interest and bring more people to your page. Try to think outside the box even just a little.

Marketers are becoming very interested in measuring social media return on investment. Up until recently site traffic was the measure of marketing success but things are changing with the focus moving towards the value of fans and the positive buzz that’s created around them.
In a recent survey 20% of respondents felt Facebook had shown them a significant return on investment. That number is rapidly growing. Now is a good time for your business to get on board and learn the full value of a Facebook page.

If you’d like to have a look at some successful Facebook pages, we recommend that you have a look at some of these pages. * Zappos * Skittles * Harley Davidson * McDonalds * iTunes
The sooner you recognize what a Facebook page can do for your business the sooner you’ll begin to enjoy the business growth, increased brand loyalty, greater market share, and increased revenue.

Do You Know the Marketing Benefits of a Facebook Page?

Facebook pages have become the chosen solution for companies that are looking to create brand recognition and advertise on Facebook. Pages are interacted in a similar fashion to the groups, where fans can post links, photos, videos, and engage in discussions that are going on.
You have a great deal of flexibility when you set up a page, including what you will allow fans to do. Pages are much more flexible than groups, allowing you to add applications that will enhance your page. For example, let’s say you own a restaurant. You might want to show restaurant reviews so you would add the reviews application to your page.

When you setup a Facebook page you can choose from a number of ways to communicate with your fans. Pages are able to send updates to fans, which appear on their home page as notices. You can target by age, gender, location, etc. on your updates. These updates can include text or hyperlinks. Pages can even send updates on status. Then fans can comment on the status or ‘Like’ the status. This feature was introduced in 2009 and made pages much more interactive.

Pages use Facebook in-house analytics engine, so you can gain insight as to what is happening on your page. You can quickly see if your fan base is growing or shrinking, the number of unique views, pages views, number of wall posts, videos played, etc. With this information you can ensure your campaigns are doing what you expected. You can then quickly make adjustments when needed.
A Facebook page can have a number of administrators, who will be responsible for moderating, uploading, and updating content. Any actions that are taken as administrator will show the page name as the initiator, not your personal name. This means the administrator(s) personal life stays private. This also means the page administrator can comment on their own personal posts under the identity of page administrator, which can be a handy tool when one is trying to get threads active and get fans to engage.

It’s a well known fact that pages that are stimulated with ongoing conversation on the thread, have a significantly higher fan base, which translates to higher brand loyalty, and awareness of your business. A Facebook page costs nothing to set up, there are no monthly fees associated with them, and they provide a company with a significant amount of benefit when they are used correctly.


If you are looking to grow your business or build greater brand loyalty you should explore what Facebook pages can offer you.


Social networking has become an important tool in online marketing. When we talk about social networking most of us think of Facebook. There’s certainly no question that Facebook can help maximize your business success. So let’s learn a little bit more on how to make that happen.
The first thing you need to do is choose to setup a page. If you have previously setup a group you should put a link on the group and send them to your page. Cut your losses. There are a number of reasons why a group isn’t right. The main reason is that updates on your group page will not be sent to all of the followers live stream. Unless someone actually goes to the group page, they’ll have no idea what you are up to. That’s not going to do your business any good.

When you create your page make sure to complete all the options that are presented to you. New visitors tend to stop on the info tab. Take the time to create a nice logo image. In Facebook it’s called a profile image. This image can be a maximum of 200 pixels wide and 600 pixels tall. This means you have plenty of room to create a memorable impression. Take the time to look over all the settings for the page. Choose the setting for who can see the page, who can see the posts, who can post, etc.
Next customize the landing page. This is buried but Facebook does let you set a default landing tab for visitors who are not yet likers. In order to set a landing page you will have to create a new tab. Then go to the edit page admin screen and select manage permission from the menu.

Once your page is set up and running it’s time to start to post blog content to your Facebook wall. There are tons of reasons why you should do this. In fact there are millions of reasons – they are called Facebook users and they spend a large amount of time on their news feeds. There are all kinds of apps that will let you automatically post to your page’s wall. It’s less work. Of course, you can certainly post manually if you like.
Facebook lets you allow visitors on your website to login using your Facebook profile information. It does sound great in theory, but make sure you give it the right consideration before making a final decisions. Think about who your audience is, and whether they will be okay with using their Facebook account to log into your website.

How to Create Your Facebook Business Page

You might already have a personal Facebook account to keep up with friends and family by sharing information, photos, ideas, etc. Yet when it comes to running a business page many are intimidated. Worry no more – we’ll walk you through the steps to getting your Facebook business page up and running.

1. Pick a Classification Facebook gives you six classifications you can choose from when creating a page. * Cause of community * Brand or product 13
* Entertainment * Local business or place * Company, organization, or institution * Artist, band, or public figure
The classification helps you to rank better in more relevant searches. After you select a category, you will be asked to fill out your business name, location information, etc. When you are setting up your page make sure you input the information the way you always want it to be as you are unable to make changes later.

2. Complete the Basic Info Upload a photo that represents your business visually. If you have a company logo that’s what you should use here. If you don’t have a logo then consider  picture of staff or maybe the business building. Add your URL, and bio. Then you will be asked to invite friends.

3. Fill Out the Page Choose “edit info” and then add any pertinent information on your company. You can add your hours of business, business description, location, and email address.

4. Make Use of all the Features There are a lots of great features Facebook offers those with business pages. Start with clicking on ‘get started’ which will bring up multiple steps you can follow through and set up to get the most out of your page. Here are just a few that are worth trying. * Invite your friends. * Tell your fans. * Post status updates. * Promote this page on your website. * Set up your mobile phone.

5. Time to Track By now, you have built your page and shared it. If you have built it right it reflects your business accurately. You can play around with your page and tweak it. Track your changes see what works and what doesn’t – tweak some more. Use Facebook insights to get stats on your page. This helpful tool can make it easy to see what’s working and what isn’t. Now that you know how to create your Facebook page, it’s time to bring targeted traffic to your site and begin to reap the benefits that Facebook can offer your business.

Building a Powerful Facebook Presence

For those of you who have already created a Facebook presence it’s time to build a presence that’s just that much more powerful. Facebook is constantly changing and evolving, so it’s vital that you keep on top of what’s happening on Facebook and then make sure your page makes the most of it.
It is estimated 2012 will see Facebook reach more than one billion active users. Over 700 billion minutes per month are spending on Facebook. If you can funnel even a sliver of this time to your Facebook page, you’ll be in a powerful position to experience exponential growth and profits.

These days if you want to take your online success to the next level you need to use Facebook. Have Facebook in your marketing strategy if you really want to succeed. A recent study asked 4,000 Facebook fans of 20 top brands about their spending habits and here is what they found: - 28% of Facebook fans compared to non-fans are likely to continue using a certain brand - 41% of Facebook fans compared to non-fans are likely to recommend a product they are a fan of to a friend - On average Facebook fans spend an additional $71.84 annually on a brand  compared to the non-fans
Research has shown that Facebook fans will spend more money yet another reason to build a powerful Facebook presence. According to Syncapse - 28% of Facebook fans are likely to be brand specific - 41% of Facebook fans are likely to recommend a product they are a fan of to one or more friends - The average value of a Facebook fan is $136 annually

People are going to buy from those they trust. Facebook allows you to build two way communications with current and potential customers. Make your page a place where fans want to stop by often. Have interactive dialogue, make informative posts, offer coupons or giveaways, and more. Build your Facebook page to best reflect your products and services and who your target market is.

For example, the demands and needs of college students is going to be much different from single moms or entrepreneurs. This means you need to know who your target market is in advance.
There are many who have cracked the secret of making Facebook pages as a valuable marketing tool, that maximizes their revenues and the numbers of brand loyal consumers. Don’t be afraid to learn, try, and explore. Keep what works and toss out what doesn’t, but never forget that Facebook pages do work, and they work exceptionally well.


Learn the Secret to Successful Facebook Ads

If you are an advertising or marketing professional, then it’s likely you have either used Facebook ads or at least are aware of them. These ads are often referred to “Facebook ads,” or “paid social ads.” The fastest growing digital media channel is Facebook ads. However, that still doesn’t still tell the picture.
* More than 50% of the social network users are between the ages of 25 and 34 and they say they cannot possibly live without their social media. * 90% of all internet users visit a social networking site at least once a month. * 74% of consumers will be influenced to buy a product/service after soliciting social media feedback. * 60% of Facebook users that become fans of a page will recommend that fan to another friend.
The demand for social media has continued to grow by leaps and bounds. Advertising success on Facebook will require you to fine tune your craft so that you can maximize your page and reap the most benefit. Let’s look at the top secrets to success.

1. Automate your ads so that they refresh and rotate on a regular basis. Users have become very good at blocking out ads, which is why it’s so important to keep the ads eye catching and changing regularly.

2. When it comes to targeting on Facebook one can become very specific. When you introduce segmentation into your marketing program it creates efficiency. As a paid advertiser you should take advantage of the demographic targeting you can easily do on Facebook.

3. There are thousand so ads and bins on Facebook, so it is important that you make use of the automated bid technology that is available. It will help you to maximize your bidding for ad placement and stay within your budget.

 4. It’s important that you track more than just the engagement (your Likes). You should track all KP’s including the return on investment, demographics, and psychographics.

5. Learn how to leverage your PPC and SEO data. By doing so you will be able to better target your market. Make sure you look at the data relating to the keywords that are driving conversions. Make sure you test target these keywords.

6. Test targeting of ‘Friends of Connections.’ Many are unaware that the Facebook targeting option lets you target fans whose friends are also connected to the page. This has great potential! With the average Facebook user having more than 150 friends. If there are 1000 Facebook fans on your page that means you have the potential to reach 150,000 people. You can see the power and the potential here.

These top 6 secrets to successful Facebook ads will get you started on reaping the benefits of Facebook ads.

If you haven’t yet recognized the value of Facebook when it comes to your business, then it’s time you did before you get left back in the dark ages. Facebook pages are available to all business owners and best of all they are free. For those of you not familiar with Facebook pages let’s get started.
On Facebook, you can set up a page where you can tell the world about your business, promote your business through contests, sales, and other methods, and most importantly interact with your customers and potential customers.

To get the most out of your Facebook page, rather than posting on a continuous thread, make sure you actually chat with your visitors. Think of ways to start a conversation that will get plenty of action. Then think about content that you can spread that has the potential to go viral.
Those that are fans on a business page will stop by regularly if you have cool things going on it that interest people. You can link to cool items on your website, or just put cool things right on your Facebook business page.

One notable example, that’s been kicking around, is about a Baton Rouge Community Coffee business, who began to share their memories from childhood of being able to have a little coffee with milk in it. This topic resulted in all kinds of great conversations at before they knew it their fan base was growing by a thousand fans every week. Community Coffee says Facebook is one of their top five income generators. There is no requirement to maintain a page to advertise on Facebook. However, savvy business owners combine a business page with their ads to maximize their benefits.

To make the most out of the ads you place on Facebook, you want to maximize the amount of traffic they drive to your website or Facebook page. When you log into Facebook, you can click on the link to “create an ad. ” Then just click the “I want to advertise something I have on Facebook” button, or the “Suggest an ad” button. In a split second Facebook will throw together an advertisement for you that utilizes text and an image from your site or page. You can then upload a different image or change the text any way you wish to tweak the ad.

Next you’ll need to refine your targeting based on profile information. Facebook automatically fills in ads based on the likes and interests Facebook users have chosen on their profiles. What you need to do is click the continue button after your ad has been generated, and get down to targeting the demographics for your ad. This includes workplace, age, education, gender, interests, language, and even Facebook connections.
There you have it – you are well on your way to building success through Facebook.


How to Create a Successful Facebook Ad Campaign

According to a 2011 report the cost of advertising on Facebook has risen by 40% for CPC (Cost Per Click) advertising. This rise in cost is the result of the increased number of Facebook ads being purchased. The secret is out that Facebook ads work, as a result there are more users and the competition is high so you pay more.

In addition Facebook felt it had room to increase its prices without affecting demand. Since the cost of advertising is rising, more than ever you need to know what the best practices are for Facebook advertising to ensure you get the most value for your money.

Social ads will work three times better than the traditional Facebook ads. The addition of sponsored stories has led to a higher click through rate, ad recall, brand lift, and an increase in recommending new ads. Users can now ‘Like’ content of an ad, share, comment, see which friends like the same ad content. This makes it easier for ad content to be spread through word of mouth.
When you retarget your existing fans it can increase your acquisition. If you have already build up a fan base that’s the size you want, but you are hoping for more engagement, then you need to use ads that will re-engage the audience in a way that helps to increase the overall visibility of your Facebook page. When you increase your engagements with fan, you increase the number of fans that like your page. Remember 70% of the time if a person becomes a fan on your page, they like your brand and they will send traffic to your page or website. So make sure you are getting the maximum value out of your ads.

Try to use simple copy that requires no thinking. Facebook users like to browse through their profile. They don’t want to have to stop so that they can read in-depth content that has a message that’s confusing. You need to keep your ad copy short and sweet. Oh yes and let’s not forget relevant. By doing so you will get the best CTR.
When running an ad campaign you will need to target your demographics. However, one of the most common mistakes made on Facebook is to make the target too tight, thereby missing out on potential fans and customers. Research has shown that a more broader targeting focus has shown to be the most successful when it comes to advertising campaigns on Facebook.
Finally, make sure that you rotate your ads often so as to avoid ad blindness. Facebook users have become very good at blocking out ad content. In order to engage them you will need to make sure your ads change frequently to spark interest and follow through.
Facebook ads can be a huge income booster when used correctly. You are now on your way to getting started, so why wait another minute?

Use Facebook Ads to Target Traffic

Targeted traffic means potential paying customers. Trying to target traffic on the internet can be difficult. Using Facebook ads makes it much easier to target traffic and therefore maximize the right kind of traffic to your website or Facebook page.

To set up an ad campaign on Facebook:
 1. Click the link to “create an ad”

 2. Then just click the “I want to advertise something I have on Facebook” button, or the “Suggest an ad” button.

3. Facebook then quickly generates an ad for you by pulling text and an image from your Facebook page or website.

4. From there you can make changes to both the text and image to refine your ad message.

Once you’ve created your ad, it’s time to refine that ad to target the right traffic. On Facebook you will do that using the profile information users reveal when setting up their Facebook profile. Your next step is:

1. Click the continue button after your ad has been 

2. Now you need to target your traffic. This includes choosing things like educational level, workplace, gender, language, age, etc. You can even include Facebook connections.

You’ll want to narrow down your target market so your ads are well focused. Facebook is smart and will not let you narrow your search so much that it’s detrimental to your advertising campaign. For example, a good narrowed down target market might include selling energy bars to people in the California area, that have participated in 5 mile marathons. You can establish the ad for a specified time period that might be a certain day, time, week, etc.

Let’s look at a couple of ad examples. A bakery might target a specific area and then create an ad for a free cupcake on your birthday. A retailer selling android phones might target those using iPhones and offer a free upgrade.

Now, what Facebook won’t let you do is try to target let’s say energy bars and iPhones. Instead you could create two ad campaigns – one for energy bars and one for iPhones. Facebook stops you to ensure you are not narrowing your search too much to make your ad campaign ineffective.

There are some limitations on targeting on your ads. Improving targeting of those over the age of 64 is still in the works by Facebook. Targeting internationally and targeting those that have their relationship set as complicated are not possible.
As you set your choices Facebook shows you how many Facebook users will likely see the ad you are placing and the estimated cost.

Issaquah search engine optimization company offered SEO and Web Design and Development Services for your online business. 

Tuesday 19 April 2016

Do you want traffic to your website? Take this guide for your success, right now!

Every website owner dreams of having a huge stream of traffic to their website. Without missing my words, having a website without traffic is meaningless because the traffic is your audience. The unfortunate bit is that most people do not get enough traffic required to reach their goals. With traffic, the ideas that would go through your mind as a website owner are endless. The milliondollar question now is, "how to get traffic?"

For now, you might as well give that Google search some rest from punching all the keywords like; how to get traffic, free traffic and the like and start concentrating on this book. I have compiled a very comprehensive list of 30 ways that will help you drive unlimited traffic to your website. If you invest your time into the methods that I am about to reveal, am pretty sure you will succeed in getting a nice stream of traffic to your website.

I believe you must be supercharged right now and are ready to get some traffic to that website and get the most of out of it. However, let me clearly put it out that these methods do not work over night, some take a bit longer to implement and some take less time and the results vary, but all the same, you will get some traffic. The major problem that people have after buying a course or reading a great eBook such as this is taking action. People do not take action and see no results or they want to get results overnight. The Internet world requires time and time is what you should put in and add a bit of patience to it. If you are ready to learn, keep scrolling we will get down to business and give you 30 awesome methods to get unlimited traffic to your website.

1. Banner Advertisement  

This is a great way to get some good targeted traffic. Simply put, banner advertisement involves getting some banners on other website with the aim to draw traffic from them. There are two ways to go about this.
Firstly, you could find high traffic websites and then send the website owner an email that you are interested to put a banner linking to your website. From there, you agree on the fees and then place your banner ad on their site. Sometimes, some sites that do know that they already draw huge amounts of traffic already have a service or sell banner ad spaces on their websites. Usually, you will see words like; "your ad here" or "your banner here for $xxx."

On the other hand, you can search for banner ad brokers or banner services. These websites have traffic services ranged in different classes according to price and traffic. They already have many websites on which they put their banner adverts so, depending on the type of service you want, you get traffic accordingly. This option is far more expensive compare to the first option since it carries away the trouble of searching for websites you want to place a banner on.

2.YouTube Video Marketing  

This is yet another powerful way to tap into unlimited traffic. The first thing you will have to do is create a YouTube channel that is focused on the niche that your website is concerned. It helps to have similar themes as the website does so that your visitors see the link between the two and enhance your website brand.
Next, you create videos concerning the niche that you are involved in, for purposes of this book; we will take weight loss as our niche example. So, you create a weight loss YouTube channel and then create weight loss videos. You could start by creating videos such as tips for losing belly fat or maybe keeping in shape the easy way. All in all, the videos must also be relevant and very helpful to viewer.
Furthermore, the video must have a link to your website somewhere. So, you could have the link within the video, by adding your watermark (powered by YouTube) linked to your website or channel. You could also consider having the link in the description box right below the video or you could have it in the video which can be seen as the video plays. All these options can be used at the same time for maximization of the chances of the click through.

One of the most important things that your video should have is a call to action. The thing is that once the viewer finishes watching the video, they are left in suspense and there is a chance for their mind to wonder around and go view something else. So, in aim of controlling the viewer attention, a call to action to subscribe to the channel or click the link to your website is a very feasible option. By having them to subscribe, you have them within your reach because every time a new video has been uploaded they are notified. On the other hand, by having them to click the link then you are simply redirecting traffic to your website.

3. Build an Email List 

Most website owners rely on organic traffic also known as search engines as a major source of traffic for their websites. With time, the search engines have also brought in their various updates that change the way they operate and determine what ranks out on top. As a result many have lost out on a great deal of traffic. So, it is only wise to make sure that you as a website owner capture every visitor that comes lurking on your site. This is where email list building comes in.
An email list is built by visitors who come to your website and opt in with their mails to get updates or other benefits from the site. So, all you have to do is create an opt-in page and have an email service provider which you use to build the list. Two email service providers I can clearly single out are MailChimp and Aweber.

This email list that is built is then used, to promote products, alert users of new updates or new posts made to the websites. This in turn helps build a long term relationship with the visitors hence also making it easier to drag them to your website.

4. eBook  

EBooks are another great of getting unlimited traffic to your website. There is a perception of authority whenever a visitor gets to find a free eBook in collaboration with great content on the website. When you combine the two, they are more willing to get their hands on the eBook.
So, the assumption is that you as a website owner are an expert in particular field related to your website. However, this may not always be the case hence there is a need to outsource the writing of the ebook. So, you head over to sites like fiverr, iwriter or ordesk among others and find the writers to write your eBook.

An eBook is a great tool when it comes to traffic generation because it can be used in two ways. The first being that it can used as a free give-away for all those who opt-in on the email list or you could simple add a link to your eBook back to your website. In the second option, as the book is circulating amongst many individuals. People will want to find your website especially if the content in the book is great.

5. Forum participation  

Depending on the niche that your website belongs to, you as a website owner should join forums within the same niche or those that are very closely related. Apart from learning from the forum, it can also be super source for targeted traffic. This is so because a forum is made of people who have one or closely related interest which brings them all together. So, if the forum is about ladies boots, then if you have a website to do with ladies shoes this could be a plus for you.

When you join the forum, you must observe the trends and learn which type of posts made on the forum get the most attention. Develop similar topics which are well researched and very helpful. Your posts should be good enough to become some of the few authority posts at the website. So, when referring forum members to external links, they trust you because you are a top contributor. So after doing this a couple of times you get them to check out your website not as a website owner but as a top contributor from the forum.  

6. Solid Content  

If you haven't been considering this then it's high time you did. Creating quality content is simply irreplaceable. With this you create a long lasting relationship with your readers and a possible large following. Every day, we have readers looking for information and if they got what they were looking for from your site last time, it is very likely they will hit the bookmark add button without second thoughts.

Great content is also a good strategy to staying in good terms with the search engines. Keeping in mind that these are one of the best sources of traffic around, you wouldn't want to be stepping on their toes. Search engines aim at providing high quality content to their customers and wouldn't direct traffic to sites that do not deserve.

So you would be asking, what solid content is? This is content that keeps the readers engaged and informed at the same time. In simple terms, at the end of the article the reader should be able to get the help that they wanted or solution to the problem that they had in mind. Furthermore, they should be able to read through the whole article until the end without being bored.
In essence, great content is vital for creating a royalty relationship between the reader and the website owner. Great content can also be used as a catch for your website visitors to opt-in with their emails and help you build your list.

7. Image optimization  

This is one part that many miss and think is natural, but can also be a great to pull in some massive traffic. A simple guess I would throw in right now is that your website has some images on it, but are you taking advantage of this?

Bare in mind that search engines also have a functionality to search for images from websites. How do they do this? They search the tags attached to image or the image name. When building websites with platforms like word press, you have an option of tagging the image with names related to the image and article it has been placed in. So, when someone is searching for articles related to the image tags placed they get your image as part of the image search results.
Well, that is not all. After tagging your image with the appropriate keywords, you would want to also let other sites know that you have this image on your websites. Just like when you share a new blog post via Facebook, Twitter or Stumble Upon, you should share it via Pinterest, social media site where pictures are shared. If your picture is interesting enough, it will surely get pinned by many and get many shares. However, for this to be more effective you must link the image on Pinterest to your website.

Lastly, you want to keep your readers on your site as much as possible. So, as an extra salt to pepper, you must link your images to other pages related to the article or image with the idea that, for instance, if the reader is reading about quick ways to lose weight and the image is showing a man with a large belly, then you could link this to an article about losing belly fat.

8. Article Directory Submission  

There are plenty article directories online, the likes of EzineArticles.com and ArticleCity.com. Here you submit your articles and get to link them back to your website.

The best way to go about this is to firstly, read through highly rated articles related to you your niche so that you have an idea of what type article gets the most attention. From there, get to work and start writing on the desired topic related to your niche. The article has to be of high quality and also fun to read because if the readers do not get to the end of the article where the link usually is, then the whole purpose is defeated.
In essence, the more views you get the more chances that your readers will want to find out more about the product, service or topic you were writing about by clicking the link to the website.  


9. Website Directory  

These are also a great way to of drawing some unlimited traffic. A good number of internet users use website directories to find particular services or products that they want hence you might as well call it a website yellow pages. Some, directories are free and for some you need to pay and the rules and regulations from each directory differ.

There are two ways to draw traffic from website directories. It could be directly or indirectly. The directly being that once you list with the directly, users will find your website listed on the directory and will click and get to your website. In this case, you would only want to submit to high authority article directories. You could check the page rank to hint to you or you could follow up on what people are advising on the best directories to list on if you plan to get to draw mainly draw traffic from directory users.

The indirect method is where you get backlinks from the listing that has been made. The search process is slightly similar. You will have to find websites with high search engine authority. This is so because backlinks will only count when it comes to search engines. One rule of thumb that I have learned is that the stricter the submission rules of the website to the directory, the more authority they have with search engines. Usually, they do a manual assessment of the website, a great example DMOZ. You could consider submitting to websites such as Family Friendly Sites, Greenstalk, Splash Directory and Clash.

 
10. Press Release Submissions  

These have been and are still effective today. Press release sites have very high authority with the search engines and are also a great place to draw traffic from directly. Some press release sites have subscribers to whom they distribute links press releases that they have opted in for.
The beauty about large press release sites is their ability to widely distribute your press release to readers, which is a plus to you site. If your press release is comprehensive and helpful to readers some may also refer to your press release which is linked back to your website.
Accordingly, by submitting a press release to a press release distribution website, your press release gets a wide audience which when hooked will click the link to your website and follow through. In addition, it will also act as great way to get high quality backlinks for search engine ranking.  

11. Facebook  Page  

I couldn't go on telling you methods of drawing unlimited traffic without mentioning Facebook now could I? Well, Facebook as one of the largest social media sites keeps on growing with time and that's where a lot of people spend are spending their time.
What you have to do here is head over to Facebook and create your website's Facebook page. This page must somehow resemble what your websites is like. Similarities to consider include; the "about" information that you enter and the page theme.

The next step that you will have to go through is getting likes for your page. You can always start by sharing the link to your page to friends and family just to give the page a little boost. Otherwise, you must then advertise your page on the Facebook adverts to get more targeted likes using the Facebook advertisement manager. This function lets you have a targeted audience of the adverts, based on age, country and gender. So, if your page and websites are middle-aged ladies, then your campaign will be focused on the respective age and gender. In addition, remember to change the adverts frequently so that they do not become familiar and stop being effective. With such type of advert campaigns, it is only wise to have a fixed budget set per day that you can afford so that you don't go beyond what you can afford.

Furthermore, you will need to engage your Facebook followers by adding some short but helpful tips or quotes that they can read and follow quickly. Remember, this a social media network and not a blog because most readers will be likely to have a short attention span. So, when you have a new post or a new feature or product you would like to share to your esteemed followers, you share it to your Facebook page and the readers are most likely to click through because of the reader-writer engagement that you created.

12. Twittering the Twit  

Do not get fooled by the name of this method, it's nothing more than having a Twitter account for your website. As you may already know, Twitter is another social media site that is being used by even large corporations, that is just to show you how powerful it is. So, thanks to such social media platforms, the playing field has been leveled such that even you may get the opportunity to tap into this source of website traffic.

You will need to create a twitter account and explain a bit more about your website in the description box. Remember to add all the valuable keywords in this description. You also have a chance to add a link to your website on the URL space provided too.

The next thing will be getting followers. Your main focus will be to follow those people or other website Twitter accounts that are in the same niche as you are. For instance, if you are in the weight loss niche, you will follow Twitter accounts of celebrity trainers or companies that trade in weight loss products.  
Furthermore, you will also need to update you Twitter status frequently. The updates must also be related to the niche that you are operating in. These updates must be helpful and can also include keywords related to the niche, but do not stuff keywords such that the Twit will not even make any sense.
With time, people interested in your niche will follow your Website's Twitter account and the other accounts that you followed are also very likely to follow you back. So, with a large following you can easily share a new post or other links from your website to your followers via your twits.

13. Continuous Website  Development  

You can agree with me that the more user-friendly your website is, the more likely you are to have repeat visitors and enjoy natural sharing of the links to your site. So, work continuously on the optimizing your website to make the user experience memorable. Simple things such as layout or website design can simply put off visitors and make them hit the return button quickly.
A disorganized website shows unprofessionalism and derails the trust of the visitor and your website could be labelled spam. Take some time to look at some of the best websites in your niche and you could find the answer to why they are the best website in the niche. Do not reinvent the wheel just make it a bit better by coping some layouts and you can use different designs. It's very likely that
they took some time to research and have had the resources to do so, which you may not have, so you take advantage of such things.

If the copycat strategy may seem a little too involving for you to do, then you can consider asking feedback from your visitors. Ask them, to tell what they think about the recent post or anything that they think can change in order to improve their experience at your website. By asking visitors such questions, they unconscious create a trust blanket in your website and perceive your website as that which reader-focused and they like that. Such visitors are most likely to return especially when you take into consideration their thoughts (although you can't take everything).

14. Social Media Share Buttons  

Whenever you read something interesting on a website, you want to let other people know that you read it and want to share it with friends. Well, what other better way to share such information than social media. With that same thought in mind, you add social media buttons on your posts.
If you are using Wordpress, then this can be done easily by adding related plug-ins or the Wordpress Jetpack plug-in which is all inclusive and has a the social media buttons module which includes Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and Pintrest among others.


After readers read your post they are free to share it using the social media buttons next to the post. The more the share buttons that the social media buttons module has, the better. You will then be able to draw traffic from those social media sites which the post has been shared to and at the same time a few backlinks which are a plus for your search engine rankings. In addition, the search engines also take a look at how interactive your site is and social media signals are one of the ways they use to measure that factor.

15. Blog Commenting

You may have heard of blog commenting from other sources, but if you aren't familiar with this method then you are in luck. Blog commenting is where you simply comment on other blogs in order to attract attention from those who view your comment on the post to your website.
Firstly, you will need to find blogs to comment on and the best way to start is find a blog directory where you can easily go through and find blogs that are within your niche. A great example of a blog directory is Technorati. At Technorati you will find so many great blogs listed there and all you have to do is find the right blogs to comment on.
Blogs are built with the purpose of interaction so, they always have a field to comment in and most of the times they also have space where you can provide the URL to your website. So, if you found a nice blog post to comment on, then go for it and comment.

However, your comments should be rich and helpful (contentwise). It is also helps to go for fresh blog post where there are no comments because this will give your comment much room to be viewed.

Furthermore, you could use the field where you put your name as part of a keyword which you are targeting. Do not over do this, but some blogs may view this as spam and will not accept your comment and even block you, but those who know the art of blog commenting will accept your post without hustle.

In effect, the great comment will help you get more visibility from the readers of the blog and they will click your username and visit your site. This is very effective when it is a high authority blog because that means it has a high readership. In addition, if the blog had a high page rank, it will also in effect give you a high backlink as well resulting from the blog comment with your link hence boosting your ranking in the search engines.

16. Reverse Engineering 

As the name suggests is based on working backwards on the aim in mind. In this case, you create a blueprint of sites that are doing well with their traffic or ranking well on the search engines. So, in order for you to find out, you apply such tactics from what you see on the onset and try to figure out the strategy they put in place.

One of the strategies you can follow is your competitors' backlink creation. So, you will need a tool that can show you your competitors' backlinking strategy. I recommend using Traffic Travis or ahrefs.com. These tools will show you the source of the links that your competitor has. You can then build your links in a similar fashion.
In addition, you can also follow through using the same procedure to find out which related websites they network with or share links to. If the competitor is making plenty sales or has huge following you could also follow some strategies such where the social media sharing button is placed or opt-in box for emails is for maximum utilisation of your visitors.
In essence, you will be able to copy ranking and traffic factors from your competitor simply by studying various strategies that they apply. So, a comprehensive compare and contrast moment will reveal a lot to you.

17. Tell Your Visitors What You Want  

Sometimes, it is just that simple. When you visitors come to your website, a clear intention that you want to stay in touch with them is good.
For instance, you tell them that you want to have their email address so that you can alert them of the next blog post of the second part of the post which you will post soon. Also consider situations like where you want the visitor to help spread your content. You could ask the visitor to share the post if they enjoyed it and most visitors do so, especially if they enjoyed it. They wouldn't be willing to share if they did not.

18. Guest Blogging  

This is another great way to draw traffic from high traffic blogs to your website. This involves writing a guest post on a high authority blog. So, the magic behind this is that when the visitors of the high authority blog see your post they will want to know more about you and go to your site and also bookmark your site or maybe subscribe your RSS feeds.
Now getting to work, you will need to find some high authority blogs within your niche. As advised earlier, the best places to start are sites like Technorati. After finding a blog, you send the blog owner an email telling them about your intention of posting on their blog. Some will accept and some will decline and some will want the topic you want to write on or they may give you the topic themselves. Once the article is done and is ready, they will review it and accept your post and you have a link back to your site.

In order to get the best results from the post, the article must be of high quality; very engaging and exciting to read and must show your expert knowledge in the field as well. If you are not very good at writing, then it's also best to consider outsourcing a writer from the various freelance websites at your disposal. The beauty about guest blogging is the simple fact that you rely on the high authority blog to shine out. So, basically you are building on an already built glory.

19. Website Loading Time  

Nobody wants to wait a long time for the website to load not even you I guess. The question is, how fast is your website loading? A great way to benchmark test how fast your site is loading is by selecting 3 to 4 competitor sites that have great traffic and timing their loading of certain pages such as the home page and a page with a post on it.
What to do if your site is slower - Consider removing all unnecessary plug-ins - Consider revising your theme because these vary in sizes - Consider reducing the sizes of the images (these usually take the most of time)
This factor should be checked on frequently in order to ensure that you are always on the right path and that you are caught unaware. Website loading time is also used as a factor to determine search engine page rank by the search engines themselves.  

 20. Quality Hosting  

Never compromise on hosting. I know how tempting it is to go for cheap hosting in order to keep your monthly hosting cost low, but this could be recipe for disaster. You do not want to find yourself directing visitors to a website that is down just because the hosting servers are down now. Invest in the best hosting services possible.
There are many reliable hosting services available and at a reasonable price as well. For quality hosting, you should be prepared to pay an average of $10 per month.
So, after having troubled yourself to create backlinks to the website and posting those blog posts this should be the least of your worries, but if you do not have reliable hosting or you are with a hosting company that you know is unreliable then consider some other options. You could go through some forums to find out the best hosting package for your needs and also some reviews on these hosting services.

21. Interview Experts  

Imagine if your site was computer software review site and you had an interview with Bill Gates. Imagine the tonnes of traffic you could get if this story was shared over and over again. Well, am not saying you should get Bill Gates you should try to get someone as popular as Bill interviewed, but you may get someone well known within the niche that you are operating in.

You will start by identifying the closest experts in your niche. For instance, if you are in the weight loss niche, an expert could be someone who has come up with an exercise that will help people get rid of belly fat or maybe a doctor who has come up with formulation to help ladies slim quick by taking a particular combination of foods or simply an owner of a weight loss product. These experts can give a professional input about a certain topic within the niche and people are likely to follow.
In effect, your articles or posts will carry more weight and are likely to get more shares socially and visibility. In addition, your readers will build more trust because you involved a perceived expert in the field, therefore increasing the royalty rate amongst your readers.  

22. Under-­‐Promise and Over-­‐Deliver  

This strategy has worked for many physical and even online businesses and I believe it will work for you too. If you are selling products of your own or promoting other peoples products then you can pounce on this strategy and apply it too. I know it's very tempting to give away all that you are offering on your website before someone opts-in or buys a product, but it is only better to tell them enough to take action and blow their mind with the hidden bonuses or other goodies after they complete the action.

 
For instance, if you are promoting your own product or service and the customer has purchased the product. You send them a follow up email to see if they are having any problems using the product or if they have faults noted and let them know that your support services are available everyday and the like.
All in all, this aimed at improving the customer experience. If the customer had a very good experience with the service, then he or she is very likely to recommend your website to others and they too are very likely to return sometime.

23. Web  2.0 Sites  

These are websites that allow you to publish content on them on a more or less similar fashion like blogs, but they are quite different. These sites are very easy to use and have set modules. They also allow you to link back to your website a few times in the article.
They tend to rank very well in search engines and you would want to take advantage of that. These sites are built around online communities and these are the direct sources of traffic for your content published. So, you able to select the niche in which your content belongs to so that members of these sites can easily find them. In addition, these sites allow you to link your site to through RSS feed which will highlight new posts made on your websites; this is definitely a plus for you. By creating great content, you will also be able to create some loyal followers of your content


published on these sites. Remember, if you cannot write well enough, try learning, and if you still can't, then consider outsourcing.
Two popular web 2.0 sites that I can single out for you are Squidoo and Hubpages. Their properties are the same, but they operate with different rules. Hubpages has the strictest rules such that it is relatively easier to publish your content on Squidoo. All in all, they rank pretty well and can get you some high quality backlinks not only through the search engine rankings but also the social sharing feature that they have.

24. Keyword Research  

If you are into search engine optimization, then this is a very important tool to use. Keyword word research is very important as it gives you the direction on which keywords or niche to build your website around. On the other hand, if you have already built a website, then you could use the keyword research to enhance your visibility in search engine results. The thing is that there are people who are looking for particular things online and they tend to use some similar terms over and over again, this is the core of keyword research. So, if a person is looking for ways to unlock his brand new mobile phone, then they use words like; "how to unlock mobile phone type XYZ" or "phone unlocking services", these are what are known as keywords. In essence, you are trying to find the keyword that will bring you the most traffic.


So, if you intend to do a keyword research you could use keyword research tools. These tools help you identify which keywords that have the most search volume. Some of these tools are free and others are not. The most basic keyword tool you can use is Google Keyword tool. Google Keyword tool is easy and free to use, all you need is your Gmail account and login and you are good to go.

25. PPC  

PPC also known as Pay Per Click is also another way to drive some unlimited traffic. In plain English, this is expensive traffic, but can work wonders if done properly. The Pay Per Click services are usually provided by search engines such as Google and they charge quite a lot. The cost differs from keyword to keyword. For instance, if you plan to run a Pay Per Click campaign with Google, then you will use the Google Keyword tool which also shows you the cost.
So, according to your budget and Keywords do your research and select the keywords that you can afford and follow instructions through to setting up your campaign and checkout. Pay Per click work really well when you have squeeze page or an opt-in page to capture the visitors. As I said, since this is expensive traffic, you must make every penny count hence the recommendation of a squeeze page.


26. Getting Your Website Reviewed  

This is another way to get noticed online. In this case, you get to someone with a high authority blog to review your site or someone who provides website reviews. Though this is not for free, it's good for exposure to the bloggers visitors and others that may stumble upon the review and this can also help create powerful backlinks for your website. It will cost you an average of $50 to get your website reviewed.
In order for you to get started, you can find a website review site or you can search for a blogger who can review your site through blog searching on Technorati and contacting asking them for a review. On the other hand you can head over to any of the freelance marketplace websites or blogger review sites and find a freelancer you like.

27. Backlink  Count  

If you want to make the most of search engine traffic through search engine optimization, then this is for you. In backlink count you ensure that all the backlinks that you have created count. It is a huge waste of time to create a hundred backlinks and only twenty count to the search engines. So, in this strategy you ensure that all the backlinks created count and you will need to follow a few steps.

 You will need to create an excel sheet listing all the backlinks that you have created including the link which you have made and the date. Include more columns on the right which are labeled ping and RSS feed. After creating the backlink, you will have to Ping the backlinks once every week until they get crawled by search engine spiders. In addition, you can bundle these links by using a feed aggregation tools online and then also ping the link of the aggregated feeds. Repeat the pings once every week until the count of the backlinks changes. You can use Traffic Travis or ahrefs.com in order to monitor the change in number of backlinks created.

28. Do not Install Ads  
Depending on the purpose for which your website has been created, it is only wise not to put ads for other websites on yours. Although you would want people to click on your banner advert and come to your site, you wouldn't really want to be the one sending them traffic. This is all for the simple reason that traffic is not easy to get, just think about it, I am having to explain to you thirty ways on how to drive unlimited traffic and after applying all these tips, you send it to another site for a few bucks, not so wise huh?

Not that monetizing is a bad thing, but you must only send that traffic if you are ready to. Consider keeping away adverts from your site and rather encourage your visitors to buy your product or opt-in with that email address. Unless you are satisfied with the list of the emails collected, then you can start adding other means of monetizing.

29. Domain Magic 

Find domain names that related to your website products or services. It is even more of an advantage for you to use keywords in your domain names. In case you were thinking of building a website and buying a brand new domain name, consider squeezing in that keyword to your domain to help boost your search engine rankings when that keyword is searched.
In addition, if you can afford to find an old domain name, then go for it. Old domains have the advantage that they have some backlinks created already before the site was brought down. The search engines also consider age of the domain when ranking websites.

After you have all applied all the strategies that are on this list and all those that are not, it is only wise to assess the outcomes of your efforts. This will help you do things more efficiently and it will also help you know what is working faster, better and effectively.
I recommend that you use Google Analytics to monitor your sites progress. With this tool, you will be able to measure the bounce rate of your website, the traffic volume, the keywords which are bringing you the most volume and other important factors that will help you optimize your site.
After assessing your site progress on the traffic, you can then rinse and repeat the strategies outlined until you get you desired output.

30. Are you into YouTube Marketing?  

If you are, then here are a few tips you can use to draw traffic to your video or YouTube channel which you can also use to redirect traffic to your website
Well, before you create a video do keyword researches to find out which keywords have the most traffic volume or you could simply adopt those you are using on your website. However, a separate research will need to be done for YouTube tags.
 
You can use PowerPoint or other video software to create the video. Once done, name the video with the keyword you are aiming for. Add the link of your website in the description box and make use of the description box to describe the products or services you are promoting.
Use massive bookmarking strategies to rank the videos. Consider using software such as Link Robot or outsourcing bookmarking services from freelancers which can outsourced on websites such as fiverr.com. Rinse and repeat the process for best results.

Conclusion  

Well, I do practice what I preach. I know that the moment you were going through this book you expected to find 30 ways on how to draw unlimited traffic to your website and you found a bonus in the end, this is a typical example of the "under-promise and over deliver" strategy. All the same, am glad you had set your time aside to go through this book and learn a few tips and tricks to help boost your website traffic.

Getting traffic is never easy and applying all these strategies one at a time is not as easy too. All these are time consuming and I don't really expect you to apply all methods. In view of this, I am of the idea that you should only take in what you think you can apply, although more is better than a few. Where possible, I recommend that you outsource some of the services you think you cannot do.
The strategies outlined in this book are Google post panda and penguin. So, they are still effective. Remember, if you are aiming at search engine traffic; try to be as natural as possible by expanding your traffic sources.

I used to be one of the guys who after reading or learning things would shelve them away in some folder on my laptop until I realized that I was simply wasting my time. If only I had applied what I learned straight away, I would have been more successful online than I am today.

Visit our main website at bellevue search engine optimization company

Monday 18 April 2016

Is Your Business Social Enough?

From Flexpoint Digital Marketing Consulting
Today, social media platforms have invaded and taken over public consciousness. It has become a big part of day to day routines and an indispensable communication tool for people to connect and stay in touch. Consumers have used social media presence as one of the integral basis of a company’s legitimacy, reliability and viability. Businesses today are judged based on their Facebook or LinkedIn profiles, and consumers expect companies to respond to the concerns and queries they have tweeted within the day or within the hour.



Suffice it to say, social media has managed to steal the thunder away from traditional marketing methods. Modern marketing strategies today have a mix of social media tactics as its integral component for reaching business goals.


Discover the Social 5-Pack  

Highly competitive companies have taken the aggressive path and actively pursued the “Social 5-Pack”, made up of: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube. This is in line with the aim to engage their target market and existing client base in order to fill the top of the sales funnel as well as understand the prevailing consumer preferences and behaviors to ensure brand loyalty.
However, signing up and maintaining multiple accounts on all social networking sites is not as easy as it seems. Jumping right in without any in-depth understanding of the social media process can prove to be potentially detrimental for a company, which can lead to exposing its online presence at serious risk and leading it towards an unproductive direction.  

Take the Reins of Your Online Presence  

Given the power of social media, it is critically important for businesses to work through their strategies and develop processes to lead to scalability, efficiency, and successful social engagement. This eBook provides you all the necessary information to understand the full potential of social media, as well as how your business can harness its latent power so you can make smarter decisions on how your organization can effectively incorporate it into your company’s marketing and communications mix.
If you want to drive your business forward, you need to make sure it stays social, current and relevant in consumers’ consciousness. Discover how social media can become your most effective and influential marketing workhorse. This eBook will equip you will all the important information on how to get started and how you can use social media to your full advantage and rake its long-term rewards.    

Understanding the Value of Social Media Buzz and What It Can Do For Your Business
These days, social media is the buzz word in marketing and a global trend that has gotten everyone of every age engrossed in one, two and possibly even several social media sites. Everyone is on it, in one form or another. But what is it exactly?

Social Media Explained in Plain English

The term social media has been carelessly tossed around and used too often in online marketing. But what is it really about? In essence, social media incorporates the use of online technologies and methods that allow people to share personal opinions, content as well as swap insights and perspectives with the rest of the world.  

Social media content can take different shapes and forms:
 Text – often used to write or put across personal opinions or posts  Images – photos are used to display anything of interest  Audio – podcasts can be created to other users to download  Video – video content can be shared to engage, entertain or educate
Among the most popular social media sites at the moment include:

 Social Networking: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+  Wikis: Wikipedia  Video Sharing: YouTube  Photo Sharing: Instagram, Pinterest, Flickr  News Aggregation: Digg, Reddit   Online Gaming: World of Warcraft

The New Approach to Branding and Communication – Moving Beyond Marketing


Social media has paved the way to a more powerful communication channel for companies to publish their marketing messages – all without the exorbitant cost. While we all know social networks is generally used by businesses to engage their target market and study consumer preferences and behaviors, the truth is, it has other equally powerful features that you can incorporate into your marketing strategy, with highly rewarding payoff at that.

Here are other areas in your business that you can apply social media to drive success:


 Customer Service – One ideal example of this is Best Buy. With their Twelpforce, employees are empowered to provide prompt assistance on issues and queries. The ability to respond and react quickly is very critical in today’s market, especially in influencing and changing perceptions. Even if a concern has not been resolved immediately, customers will feel their issues were acknowledged and given attention in a timely manner.
  Internal Communications and Collaboration – Small and large organizations can largely benefit from social media, in terms of file sharing, collaborative editing and knowledge sharing.
  Recruitment and Retention – A lot of employees today decide on whether they want to be a part of an organization or not based on information derived from social networks. It can also present a powerful tool in sourcing social channels that exists through professional networks.
Understanding the Social Media Ecosystem

To effectively use social media to your full advantage, it is important to take time and learn how the ecosystem works and the emerging habits of the “social consumers”.  Consider each social networking site as a town and the ecosystem basically pertains to the infrastructure of that town.
Your knowledge of the ecosystem will provide you a virtual map to navigate your way around the streets and how to find the path towards connecting with your target market. According to the latest study conducted by Chadwick Martin Bailey, consumers who are both Twitter followers and Facebook fans of a certain brand will not only recommend it products or services but also buy from those brands. In the same study, consumers reveal that brands that do not engage in social media are perceived as “out of touch” and outdated.

So the main idea here is to focus your social media efforts on the power users who command influence within their social networks. However, it is also important to note that connecting with medium and light users will also help your business earn social proof and trust.

Converting Leads to Sales: The ROI of Social Media

Like any business endeavor, you naturally want to have a fair idea on the return of your investment in social media and not simply jump right in just because it’s the popular thing. The ROI cycle of social media can be separated into 3 stages.

Stage 1: The Launch  
At this stage, 100% of your focus is on setting up accounts on the 5 Social Packs: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube. While there are a number of other popular social networking sites, the 5 are considered to be the critically important ones. You simply can’t afford not to have presence on all 5 platforms.

The Launch stage is more of executional with the primary goal of getting started. Here are the details of this stage:

Approach: Executional Objectives:  Social Media Presence Focus:   Short-Term Results: Negligible
At this point, you won’t be able to expect any significant impact or derive results.

Stage 2: Management At this stage, about 60% of your company’s efforts will be focused on developing the 5 social media sites. About 10% of the focus is directed towards the creative and brand offer and 20% on setting up quantitative metrics like inbound links, traffic, Facebook “likes”, etc.   The remaining 10% will be focused on qualitative metrics such as survey results, pools and studying brand sentiment.

Approach: Tactical Objectives:  Customer Engagement Focus:   Mid-Term Results: Increase in Traffic

Stage 3: Optimization During the Optimization stage, 25% of the focus is on gaining more leverage on all 5 social media platforms, and 30% will be distributed to creative and brand offer development, as well as the quantitative and qualitative metrics. The other 25% of the focus will be directed to

Improving the conversion rate and the optimization of campaigns. The remaining 20% will be used to measure success of the campaign which will be the basis of your ROI.

Approach: Strategic Objectives:  Social Media ROI Focus:   Long-Term Results: Increase in Revenue

Despite what many social experts claim that ROI of social media cannot be measured, there is actually a way to measure it. This process will require a better understanding of your customer lifetime value (CLV) or the average revenue generated by a customer during their entire engagement period with your products and services. This figure will be used to compare the results that have been generated on your campaign in social media.

For example:   
If a typical customer spends about $10 every month on a particular product and has been a loyal patron of a certain brand for about 3 years, this equates to the average customer lifetime value of $360.00.

Most companies are willing to spend about 10% of their CLV for the acquisition of new customers. This means, they are willing to spend $36 to acquire a new customer who is expected to spend $360 all throughout her engagement with the brand.

So if your social media efforts will cost you $36, 000 for one full year, and your campaign will be able to generate 1, 000 new customers every year, then you definitely have a clear winner in your hands.