THE "WATCH-OUT" SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS 2014

IDEA-BASED ECOSYSTEMS

The primary reason people use social media is to showcase their own identities. It's essentially like a giant selfie. This is why a local cupcake shop will get more Facebook likes than a local construction company. It's a reflection of who we are. Any time you can tie your brand to the identity of the customer, you'll have a win on your hands.

THE AGE OF INFORMATION OVERLOAD

In recent years, people have gone from information hunger to information overload. People would almost rather give out their social security number than their email addresses. But if you can become the go-to source for relevant information on a specific topic, customers will seek you out like they reach out to Upworthy and Pinterest.

SELL IT IN THE VIDEO

Internet users are more likely to finish a 30-minute video than they are an article. If you're not using online video, you're missing a big part of your audience. Plus, customers are increasingly making purchases directly through videos. A few examples: a new service called Insay and Target's "Falling for You" video campaign.

THE 4-SCREEN REVOLUTION

Consumers frequently use multiple devices at once--TV, mobile phone, laptop, and tablet. It wouldn't be pretty surprising if in 10 years, all that might be one device, but in the next two to five years, we actually expect an increase in the number of devices we are using at once. For companies, the challenge is to find ways to interact with users on multiple screens and to cope with ever-shrinking attention spans.

DECODING DIGITAL SIGNALS

Analytics are very significant to understand customers and change ways on how best to reach them. If 50 percent of your traffic is from mobile and your website isn't optimized for mobile phones, you're going to lose half of your traffic right there.

BUILD THAT SOCIAL LITERACY

All of your employees need to be social media savvy, not just the social media team. Each individual should be a creator, curator, and connector, and organizations should focus on agility, aggregation, and adaptability. Above all, people should be posting content that is relevant to the customer. You don't want to be like the person on Facebook who only shares updates about their dog.

THE POWER OF REVERSE-ENGINEERING

Companies should look beyond their own niches and industries when it comes to marketing ideas. Sometimes a company in an entirely different industry will have a great marketing tactic that none of your competitors have ever considered. So, watch out and think outside your comfort zone! Here's a good example!

GEAR UP FOR TWITTER'S NEW PROFILE!

Announced early last month, the Twitter profile update will soon be required for everyone on the service. Beginning May 28, all Twitter users will have the new profile, which has already been rolled out to new users and some existing users in the past month.

It's unclear how many people currently have the new profile, which features larger profile and header images, new timeline views and the ability to pin a tweet to the top of a profile page. Twitter did not immediately respond to Mashable's request for comment, but based on Twitter reaction to the design change, it appears that a number of users are still using the old layout (and aren't happy about the impending switch).

DO YOU NEED A WEBSITE? HERE'S THE CHECKLIST~

WHY FIT-IN WHEN YOU CAN STAND OUT?

Why be “just fine” when you can be awesome online? Try out at least one of our social media tricks and watch what happens to your posts online! Entrepreneurs and marketers are always looking for social media tricks to give them an edge on their competition and to attract more people to their social media sites.

#1  Give people a peek into your life outside of your work

Let’s just face it – we are all voyeurs and often wonder, “What does that person do when they are not talking business?” This is a good strategy because you will find people being attracted to you because of a shared interest or passion. 

#2  Use humor 

Being serious all the time is boring. Adding some laugh increases engagement levels. Again, a way for others to connect easily to you and a really simple social media trick to use. Try scanning Pinterest for some ideas – that’s a great place on the web to grab some interesting visuals.

#3  vCita pop-up box on your website.

Install a program like vCita on your website. Program it so it pops up when someone comes to your website. vCita, for instance, lets a visitor connect with you immediately and set up an appointment based on your calendar. Use it and do a free 30-minute call with anyone who wants to ask a question related to social media. Visitors simply choose a time that works for them, based on the availability that is put up on your calendar and who knows? Maybe they’ll turn out to be your client! Easy, engaging, and unobtrusive, right? 

TIP: If the visitor to your website chooses to close the tab, it won’t pop up for them again while they are on my website.


#4  Make your own quotes 

Quote all by yourself. You can use programs like Quozio. All you need to do is extract something brilliant from your blog posts and make a quote out of it. Quozio allows you to save all of your quotes and they have many different templates and fonts. You can share them on different social media sites. Something you wrote may go viral if you’re lucky!

#5  Ask for the like, or share, or subscription.

Don’t be shy. Especially if you make YouTube videos, you can put an annotation on your screen and say the words, “Please subscribe to my channel.” If you don’t ask, you probably won’t get the subscription, especially if you are new on social media.

That was simple right? You don't really need to do all of these at once. Like we said, just one at a time and that'll do the magic. Please don't hesitate to share any other tips with us!

OFFERS? WHO'S GAME FOR IT?

CUSTOMERS ARE JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU...

The content, tools and process of sales are ever changing! Today’s infographic will give you an idea as to what your customers expect of you. The focus on building relationships with clients have never been more pertinent. As communication is chiseled down to statues and tweets our society is more receptive to 140 characters of description with an image. Infographics, videos and polls capture the customers attention and provides them with instant information.

Customer relationship management has changed the landscape of online marketing. Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook help business engage with a customer on a personal side. Customer engagement is at the forefront of modern business to business sales. As we continue to interact with each other at new speeds, creating relationships will take new innovative ideas.

KEEP THE GUEST BLOGGER IN YOU ALIVE

For all the newbies out there who're wondering what blogging is, keep calm and look at the pic. It's as simple as that. All you need to do is put your idea into writing. So get down with a pen and paper and do something awesome today!

GUEST POSTS - WELCOME!

Guest blogging is a method used by bloggers to increase blog traffic where bloggers write posts to be published on other bloggers' blogs. 
Guest blogging can work in one of two ways:

--> You write a post to appear on another person's blog.

--> Another person writes a post to appear on your blog.

SOCIAL MEDIA: PROBLEM #7

SOCIAL MEDIA: PROBLEM #6

SOCIAL MEDIA: PROBLEM #5

SOCIAL MEDIA: PROBLEM #4

SOCIAL MEDIA: PROBLEM #3

SOCIAL MEDIA: PROBLEM #2

SOCIAL MEDIA: PROBLEM #1

SOCIAL MEDIA: 7 PROBLEMS 7 SOLUTIONS

The most common mistake of businesses is that they dive into uncharted waters and expect to float despite their inability to swim. Translation in social media marketing language: most people plunk in their efforts and their capital yet fail to learn the ropes first. 

In anything we do in life, knowledge and awareness is a must. If not, that’s the equivalent of going straight into college without passing through elementary. So, even if you are intelligent, you may not have acquired other skills necessary to survive.

When marketing via the social media channels is no exception – you must know what the most likely problems you will encounter in order to be ready. So what are these common hurdles?

We're going to tell you 7 major problems that Marketers face on Social Media along with their solutions - one for each day of the week! Keep following us and keep yourself out from all these problems. Click here to read problem #1 and it's solution!

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SOCIAL MEDIA: HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR A BUSINESS?

Most Businesses that use social media as a part of their Marketing strategy treat social media as a broadcasting medium. At first blush, social media feels like a cheap and powerful bullhorn. It is, but don’t be surprised when blasting messages in one direction–from you to them–only generates a trickle of traffic. The trick is to get people involved, and keep them involved.

The Action plan: Since the dawn of retail, sweepstakes and giveaways have been a great hook. For ideas, query contest or sweepstakes or giveaways on Google. Maybe you’ll read about how a computer store sold more laptops by holding a contest for free iPads that required people to make their entry on the store’s Facebook page. Formulate a similar marketing campaign that fits your niche. If you have a bakery, you could hold a contest for free customized birthday cakes by requiring participants to enter on your Facebook page. Voila! Not only have you scared up more customers, you also have an instant focus group to test your cakes and other goodies.

Click here to find out what social media really does for a Business!

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THE TREND SETTER

In a world like today which is non-existent without communication, there's one undoubted winner, giving us super powers to build the bridge to cover up any long distance separation. Be it sharing photos, emotions, a great piece of news or anything that grabs the eyeballs, we have just one way of communication to make the world go round. So who's this winner? Click here and find out who the trend setter of today's communication is! Don't forget to let us know your views!

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SOCIAL MEDIA VS SEO - Who wins?

                              

With Social Media turning out to be the trend-setter in today's marketing scenario, there is a huge crowd that still goes by the fact that Search Engine Optimization is what really fetches the sale. Well, let's see who the winner of this battle is - Click here to find out the winner.

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FACEBOOK FOR BUSINESS?

Social media has become a crowded space, and picking out the best channels for your company to invest your resources could pretty much be a daunting task. If you hop on the bandwagon for every new social network, you may not be able to keep up with the demands. So what’s the best social media platform for your business?

You’ll want to consider your industry, your resources, and your goals for being on social media, but there is one network that should be weighted more heavily in your decision-making process- FACEBOOK! It's is still holding onto its crown as king of social media, and it’s the best place for your company to devote at least some of its energy. Are you thinking Facebook for your Business? Here's why!

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THE AGE OF INFOGRAPHICS

What was the last time you read a long boring article on the internet? No pictures.. Just blah blah! We bet it would have been pretty long ago. Infographics are the trend setters now and any information presented with pictures and stuff that looks funny is what people are really looking out for! Here are ten ways to make your Infographic a super hit!

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