Big Five of Social Media for Business

Using Social Media channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs and YouTube helps increase visibility and your Google rank too. Optimizing these channels in the right way will help drive traffic to the website. Most brands and organizations use these top five social media platforms in their business and incorporate ways to gain profitability. Social Media Optimization is the need of the hour. Brands like Starbucks, Zappos, Dell... use these social media platforms to the maximum and reap various benefits.

Having a Facebook business Page is the first step to getting the most of social media. Recent reports state that more than 3.5bn pieces of content are shared each week on Facebook! There are more than 50% of the brands marketing on Facebook, as it helps build relationships and establishes credibility and trust. Having a Page that talks about your brand and selling your brand image to millions of people online is the key. Initiating discussions, polls, and making it as interactive as possible gets people coming back to your Page for more. Making it as visual as possible with images, videos, interesting contests, and give aways etc. is a great way to optimize Facebook.

Twitter, the best microblogging site is growing in leaps and bounds! Twitterers are blogging on things that matter and on every field and aspect of life. Tweeting can be done anywhere anytime thanks to various mobile and iPhone applications. News, images, videos etc can be easily shared in a short span of time. Twitter allows users to follow like-minded people and share ideas and knowledge faster than any other platform. Following the right profile and updating tweets must be looked into. Overdoing it gets very annoying, also tweets don't last long. Hence make sure to tweet at the right time using the right tool. Hashtags allow one to follow and search information in an organized way. There are various Twitter tools out there that help you follow the right profiles, schedule tweets, add images, videos etc... Do try them out and optimize Twitter for your business in the right way.

The most popular Video Sharing Site, YouTube, is another way one can optimize social media. It is the third most visited website. Most brands today have a YouTube channel that has videos that talk about their company, products, offerings, demos, interviews, events, announcements and many more. Some have third party videos that do the job of spreading the message for your brand. Having a YouTube channel lets you add friends, who comment on your videos, subscribe to your channel and this in turn increases views which are the only measuring factor for YouTube. It’s streaming two billion views per day!

The world's largest PNS – LinkedIn, is getting businesses and organizations hooked onto it. It is seen as a channel that not only gets you grab the right job and business deals, but also where professionals ask questions, participate in discussions, conduct polls and arrive at what's best for their business and career. LinkedIn now has 70 million members, with one million company profiles! Places like India are seeing a rapid growth in LinkedIn users. The integration of various LinkedIn applications such as Twitter, Slide Share, Polls, Box.net make the platform more appealing. One can have a personal profile, group profile or a company profile on LinkedIn, each having its own merits.

Lastly, it’s the good old blogs that give you the liberty to share views and opinions on just about anything under the sun. Blogs need to be optimized so that it is read by people who matter; also it ranks high in search engines... Blogs that are updated regularly have greater chances of being ranked high in search engine results. Incorporating RSS feeds is another way to increase your blog subscriptions, and followers. Having a blog that talks specifically on a nice subject is the key. Company blogs like Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have been great examples. Blogs are an excellent way to market your brand image, sell products and services, maintain and acquire customers... and many more. Blogging and then tweeting your blog post, sharing it on Facebook, MySpace is a good way to share your content, which in other words is known as Interlinking.

Get the most of these big five for your social media...

Source: www.jeffbullas.com

Blogs as a marketing tool

Social media channels like social networking sites, microblogging sites, blogs, photo sharing sites, video sharing sites, social bookmarking sites, document sharing sites etc help branding and the number of businesses gaining profit from these sites, is increasing by the day. Blogs have a great impact on social media initiatives that businesses want to venture into. The advantage of using blogs is, that a detailed story can be posted which encourages feedback and comments. It leaves a lot of room for discussion. It helps to increase the morale of an organization, it leads to sales, it helps build the reputation and image of an organization, and brings about customer relationship management among others.

Blogs can be of various kinds, some use blogs as a personal diary, writing in their views and experiences of life. Some write blogs on specific topics catering to a particular section of readers. For instance there are blogs dedicated wholly to photography, gardening, movies, dogs... There are also organizations who blog for either internal or external marketing. Some organizations maintain an internal blog that looks to inform employees about the organization, its projects, and acts as a medium where information is communicated and exchanged via a single platform. Internal blogs help in the time of communication crisis, brings about a consensus among people, and makes the process of exchanging knowledge and information faster.

There are also company blogs which are maintained by the particular company to give an insight into the culture of the company, to promote products and services, to get quick feedback and to generate more customers. For instance, a camera company has an interactive blog that allows customers to give feedback on the product and suggestions on how they can improve the product. These are corporate blogs that are maintained by a representative of the company or by the CEO. For instance, it was Robert Scoble who started blogging about Microsoft giving an insight into the happenings at Microsoft. He gave a human touch and feel to the blog that made it popular. Other popular corporate blogs are that of Sun Microsystems, and Fastlane.

Blogs are a good medium of promoting business online as it helps to promote new products and services giving customers latest news and updates. It acts as an effective PR and marketing tool helping both the clients and the customers. Also they rank high on the list of search engines and are easily accessible. The reach is greater compared to other marketing methods. Branding one's blog brings about new visitors, building links, gaining subscribers, and developing content that will draw search engine traffic for years to come. The best part of having a blog is that over a period of time, it brings in loyal readers who give good feedback. Hence companies need to develop blog posts that are specific and well targeted.

In and Out of Blogging

How blogs falter:

1. Blogs with no focus.
2. That lacks direction and voice.
3. That aren't updating latest regularly.
4. If they are a dumping ground for notes that wont make the paper.

What direction to move actually:

1. Blogs should focus on one main topic and write more on them, and if necessary hover around them for more topics and information.

2. These days there are many bloggers, and eventually you have to write innovative or new topics that puts to ahead of them and sustain the competition.

3. There has to be a focus on the topics to set a firm base.

4. There should not be just a copy-paste work from other sites and articles, rather there should be a fresh look to the topics and also that there can be new things added to the present topic.

5. We should update the blog once in a day; may not be new topics atleast, we must modify and make an already written topic much interesting.

6.Reply to the comments in a well mannered tone, than harsh voice. Have the patience and mind to thank if the commenter if they have corrected your mistakes, or added value to your article.

7. Keep track of other similar blogs that of yours, may not be as a competitor, but to learn what you want and update more on them and add the extra tinge to your post.

8. Keep writing for other blogs that are in the same line as that of yours. Never hesitate to ask things in a forum and also to reply what others ask, or to accept your mistakes (if any).

9. Have an idea of the future posts that you are planning to write.

10. The most important thing is the name of the blog. Many people may not think this as an important aspect, and think that they can do the best in reaching the people. This is the biggest folly that many commit. So, first decide on the topics on which we will keep writing, and then search the web for the names that we can name our blog to be, which give a gist of what our blog is all about, than making people guess what it could be. Many people make the mistake of attaching their name or pen-name to the blog name, which is professionally incorrect. This might be fine with a personal blog, not for a professional and a serious blog that is intended to share good and genuine knowledge.

Among all knowledge banks, blogs are the hot favorite for people in general. So, the blogs must have a clear vision on the topics that we write and we plan in future. One of the most important thing that many don't think is that longevity of the topics and their availability and necessity; because, if the topic that we start writing should have an unending development in that field and we get loads of topics to write.

The topics should not repeat in different dates or under different headings; which can irritate the reader. If the article is too big, then its better to split the topic to 2 or 3 (or more) parts, so that people don't keep scrolling and get uninterested in the post.
We can invite many people to write posts for us, thus increasing the scope of fresh topics and ideas.
Finally what we have to do is the appearance of the blog. It should not reflect our personal taste, instead reflect our professional touch.

Dedication towards the blog can make the blog rise to popularity quickly, even though it takes a little longer to get established; but the wait is worth a fortune.