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Get Social with New Music

Social Media for BusinessYou may or may not know that MySpace was originally created for bands to connect with their fans and to attract new listeners. Well, MySpace may no longer be the place to go, but social media remains a place for music artists, bands, athletes, and celebrities to connect with their fans and share the latest. We’ve written a blog about social media in sports, specifically on sports adding their Twitter names onto jerseys and other articles of clothing. Recently, the NBA became the first sports league to reach 5 million Twitter followers. Music artists have also been influenced by the growing social networks.

In a Mashable article, the Counting Crows discuss their presence on a peer-to-peer file sharing platform called BitTorrent. The site allows for users from all over the world to share music, television episodes and movies. It’s catching on with music artists in hopes for generating new fans. By sharing music for free, even some new tracks, it allows listeners to get a taste for the music without committing to make a purchase. Sharing music for free proves that no matter how old a band may be, or how old fans may be, there are still opportunities to share talent and find new listeners and supporters.

In addition to peer-to-peer file sharing platforms, more recognized social network names are also influencing the lives of musicians. Adam Duritz, singer in the Counting Crows, discusses how Twitter changed his life. He uses the social media platform not only for the Counting Crows, but also personally. He discovers new music and new people, which have certainly brought some influence to the band. Through his experimentation, the Counting Crows as a whole have played around with many forms of modern technology in order to get music out to as many people as possible, while connecting with them on a more personal level as well. (If you’re a fan of the Counting Crows, keep an eye out for a possible talk show coming live from Adam Duritz’s apartment to connect with fans directly!) With new advancements in technology, the band has been experimenting with various ways to chat and discuss their music with fans. For example, Google+ Hangouts have been a common venue to surprise fans all over the country, and the world.

Duritz not only is responsible for the Counting Crows’ social media accounts, but also uses social media personally to look for new blogs, new sites and new music. He finds a lot of inspiration from Twitter, Facebook, Daytrotter and is even surprised by the new music Pandora can find for him.  On the subject of his personal life, Duritz believes that although not everyone should be able to know everything about him, he likes that social networks are, in fact, social. To quote, “there is something powerful about being social on them.” Although social networks are great for advertising and marketing, the greatest benefit is their socialness and their gateway to connecting and being social with fans.

What do you see as the most powerful thing about social media?? Let us know in the comments, or join in the conversation on Facebook & Twitter!

-Alyssa : )

Twitter & Blogging: Like Peanut Butter & Jelly?

 

So you have your blog all set up and ready to go, but you have one problem: twitter for blogging ideasWhat do you write about? When it comes to blogging, in most cases, you can write about pretty much anything. Current events are always good because people are seeking more information about them. Watching the news or reading the home page of your browser can help you get ideas about what people are buzzing about. If you want to really find out what people are talking about, whether it be locally, or globally, social media is also a good place to search. Chances are you’re already on Twitter interacting with people; why not use it to also pull some inspiration for your next blog? Here are some tips on how to use Twitter to help you write your blogs:

Read the newsfeed. This allows you to see what news sites or other organizations are talking about, while also seeing what individuals are buzzing about. This is a great way to not only get news, but also see the conversation about that news.

Follow! Especially if you are blogging about community or state specific things, this can be a great way to find out about events and news in your area. There may also be accounts just dedicated to local events or for local places, these could make great follows as well. And always remember to follow your customers and clients!

See what is trending. Your location can be the nearest major city or your country, depending on your blogging.  This is a great way to see what people are talking about.  Sometimes if a name is trending I will search for it to see what makes it relevant. If the celebrity or sports star is trending, chances are there’s a reason.

Explore the #Discover button on the top of Twitter. This will show you the top headlines being tweeted about, and can be a great place to find direct links to blog topic worthy stories. Finding them here is also proof that people are interested in that story and talking about it. When you share your blog post later, you know your Twitter community will be interested in your take!

Activity can be found after you’ve clicked #Discover, at the top of your page. This allows you to see beyond people’s tweets, to who they are following, what they are favoriting and retweeting. This is also great because you can see who’s being added to lists, and check out the relevant lists.

Twitter is a great tool for interacting with clients and potential clients, but can also help with your blogging, who knew? When you log onto Twitter in the morning, don’t be afraid to do some exploring, it could be a cure for your morning writer’s block, or should I say “blogger’s block”?

-Brittany 

Coupon-Love for your Favorite Fans!

Facebook for BusinessMany of your friends and followers expect to receive not only valuable information, but some sort of promotional offer from your business as well. To be exact, 58 percent of people who “Like” a business page do it for the discounts or promotions. Well, lucky for you small business owners, Facebook now lets you create coupons on your Facebook page! For local business pages, Facebook has a new feature called Offers. You can share coupons on your timeline, which your fans can then share with their friends! The greatest benefit for you – the Facebook feature doesn’t cost you a thing. So how do you go about creating a Facebook Offer? Let me explain:

First, understand that if you are not categorized as a “local business,” you will not have access to this feature. To check, go to your page’s settings. Under “Basic Information,” you should see “Local Businesses & Places” before your specified sub-category. If your business is considered “local” on Facebook, then you will see the feature on your timeline above your status box (where you would typically post something).

Social Media for BusinessA Facebook offer has the following:

  • A headline – this is your call-to-action, so make this clear for your fans and followers.
  • A thumbnail – this is a square image to go along with your offer. For best results, use an image which represents your offer, rather than your logo.
  • A redemption link – you can limit the number of people who can utilize this offer, or make it unlimited.
  • An expiration date – for word-of-mouth results, make sure you give your fans time to share it with their friends!
  • Terms & conditions – keep this as simple as possible, but this is where you can specify details about the offer.

You will be able to preview your coupon before it is posted, and make edits as necessary. Once published, visitors to your page can redeem the offer by clicking on the “Get Offer” link on the coupon. The coupon will be delivered to their email address associated with their account. The user can then print it or show to coupon from their mobile phone at the local business to redeem it.

Oh, and don’t forget about the benefit of measurable ROI! The coupon is only available on Facebook so you will be able to attribute individual sales to specific Facebook campaigns. Pin the offer to the top of your timeline to promote regularly, and look into Facebook advertising to expand your reach! For those small business owners who have tried it, did Facebook coupons work for you??

-Alyssa : )

Responding to Your Online Customers

 

 

Here at Whale of a Blog we always encourage you to form a relationship, and communicate with your customers online through social media. Did you know that social media users spend 21% more on brands that exceed customer service expectations? It’s true, and it could be great for your business. People trust what they read online more and more. This means beyond reviews, they are looking to see what their friends are saying on different social media outlets. If a friend checked into your business on Foursquare, they’ll probably ask how it was or if their friend “likes” your brands page on Facebook, they’ll ask why.

Customer service isn’t just a niche in your company; it involves constant contact with your customers online. If someone is reaching out to your business on social media, whether their feedback is negative or positive, there are some rules to keep in mind. Not handling it the right way could result in bad PR and immediate spread of bad reviews from that customer. First of all, it’s important to recognize you MUST respond to the feedback, ignoring your customers is the worst thing you could do. The interaction could make or break a great opportunity to build customer loyalty. If you keep these 7 rules for responding to your customers online in mind, and inform your employees of them too it can help your business, and eventually your bottom line.

  • Be timely.responding to customers online
  • Don’t auto-respond.
  • Leave it for the frontline.
  • Keep it professional.
  • Keep it short.
  • Thank the customer.
  • Fix the issues.

Most of these are self explanatory, but a couple of them are worth discussing further. One that sticks out to me is “leave it for the frontline”. This puts emphasis on the actual answers your customers receive. Leaving it up to the experts at your business is a great way to make sure you’re not just “responding”, you’re giving them the information they want.  This continues with the suggestion to “fix the issues”, even if there isn’t a quick fix for the problem , make sure your customer understands you are working on a solution.

Things may be changing in customer service, but there are still rules that stay the same. If you’re offering your customers a great service or a great product that is the best thing you can do for them and your business. It’s also still important to be genuine with your customers, and listen to their feedback. Knowing your weaknesses is always helpful in continuing to grow your business!

-Brittany

Photo Credit: FxFix

The Secrets Behind Google’s Search Results

 

 

So in the past, we have described Google using spiders. Essentially, the Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. spiders go out and crawl through the Web (aka the Internet) and “feed” off of meta data and keywords. But would you like a more detailed explanation of the process of a Google search? HubSpot describes the process of how a Google search works, in a nutshell – so now you’ll know why certain websites are getting ranked higher than others, among other mysteries! Keep in mind that this is not the easiest concept to put into a nutshell!

how search engines workIt used to be that Google would crawl for several weeks, 30 days to be exact, and then would take a week to index its findings and then push the information out to searchers over the next week. Google works differently now. The ranking algorithm is still primarily determined by PageRank since the better PageRank, the more likely Google finds the page. What’s different is that Google now breaks the web down into segments and crawls each night, refreshing the main base index with new crawl information. Google now quickly finds updated content on web pages.

After crawling, Google indexes its findings. Indexing relates to the relevance to a particular search term. Documents are in document order, rather than word order – which is reversed from the way it was before. An index breaks down a search by each word. For example Home Insurance is two words. Therefore, Google crawls for Home and for Insurance. Google then orders the documents for future searches.

Next comes Google’s rankings. Using the same example from above, there are pages ranked for the search term Home Insurance. Rather than giving you terms that just have Home or just have Insurance, Google searches for results which have both. Google searches the page itself, backlinks to the page and anchor text to the page. Figuring out which documents have both search terms is the first half of the process. Then Google ranks which pages are going to come up first. Although I mentioned that Google puts a strong emphasis on PageRank while deciding relevance order, it also considers over 200 other factors. The key is to balance relevancy and authority (note: the higher the PageRank, the better the authority). Of course, there’s still over 200 other factors, so the process of coming up with the results is still referred to as Google’s “secret sauce.”

So to simplify once more, after someone types something in the Google search how search engines workbar, Google sends its machines out to their assigned segments of the Internet and they come back with what they think is relevant. Google then finds the “needle in the haystack” results from this group and displays them in ranked order, as well as showing the search term in its context on the page. Keep in mind, this is all done within half a second or less!

For marketers, knowing how Google works is important to your keyword strategy. You want to optimize your site and relevant pages with search terms which your target audience might use. To really be able to optimize with Google, you’ll have to also get familiar with those 200+ other factors that it’s using to rank web pages. But Google is constantly changing – so don’t get behind! Check us out on Twitter, Facebook & Google+ for more information on the Google algorithm as we find it!

-Alyssa : )

Photo: kxs783kms, john-wayne

Use Local Marketing to your Advantage

Social Media marketing for small businessOne of your competitive advantages over the big name brands is that you’re local, right? Your next question should be: is my business ready for a local search? Sure, a lot of people want to find products and services in their hometowns. Well there are local business owners like you who need to be sure that your website pages are localized. When the search engine spiders crawl your site, they’ll know to include you in the results. Of course, social media efforts can help you be found locally, but start by focusing on your website itself. Take a look at these 5 ways to get your website ready for local search!

Add geographical content – For example, your physical address, directions which include street and town names, maps, names of local communities. Google AdWords can help you develop a list of local keywords to optimize your pages as well. Geo meta tags are ignored by Google, but used by Bing. If you want to check them out for yourself, Geo Meta Tag tool can help you create your own.

Make your internal links and external anchor text local. If you’re linking to other pages in your site, use local words in the text. For example, rather than just homeowner’s insurance or auto insurance, Encharter Insurance uses Massachusetts Homeowner’s Insurance or Connecticut Auto Insurance as the hyperlinked text. If you’re linking externally, such as on LinkedIn or in directories, implement a local keyword strategy there too.

social media marketing & local listingsExplore the use of rich snippets. First off, what are rich snippets? These provide a summary of information about Google’s search results at a glance, such as number of reviews, price range, and location. This makes it easier for searchers to decipher you being local, and helps Google label you as a local business. Google provides a tutorial for how to use rich snippets.

Become a community content resource. Add a blog to your website. You can create local content including event calendars, coverage of local events, etc. Encharter Insurance sent out our social media team to take photos of Patriot’s Day in Lexington, Massachusetts. You can relate local content back to your business. Additionally, you can utilize this as an outlet to partner with local non-profits.

Recruit some local contributors. You can also partner with other local businesses who serve the same market. For example, Encharter Insurance has a Partner’s Program where we help advertise for other local businesses. Invite these businesses to contribute content to your blog – you get content and they get their name out there! You can also create videos and/or add directory pages.

Don’t forget about the value of your customers. You can ask them for reviews, referrals and possibly video their testimonials. By implementing these tips on your website, you’ll find your site being portrayed as local in Google search results, and also benefit from more traffic! (Don’t forget to set up your Google Places & Yahoo Local Listings pages as well!) What are your tips for portraying your business as local?

-Alyssa : )

Photo: localmedia, BlendLocalSearch

Communicating with Social Media:The Best Tools for You

 

When it comes to social media and your business, it is sometimes a maze just to figure out which venues and applications you should be using. Hopefully we’ve helped you sort through the uses of some of the most popular platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest, but what else is out there? I recently came across a list of the Five Best Social Media and Communication Tools of 2012. It offers insight into a couple of applications that can be great for organizing your social media accounts, and just “hanging out” with customers or employees.

twitter hootesuite small business social mediaHootSuite is a Web App that can help you better communicate because you can have all your social media accounts in the same spot. If you’re running a small business and trying to utilize social media it can become a juggling act. HootSuite allows you to manage up to five accounts on the free version. This means you could have your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google + accounts all in one place.  You can also add up to two RSS feeds. It’s almost like having an intern!

Topsy is the Google of social media, it lets you search to see what people around the world are saying in their public status updates. This can be a great tool if you are looking to see what people are saying on social media about your industry or a particular product. You can also use Topsy to search for certain areas or even just to see what the public is saying about the latest buzz story.

Looking for a way to search Twitter bios? Follower Wonk can help you find people based on what they are telling the Twitter world about themselves.  You can also compare up to three Twitter feeds to see who they follow, who follows them, and how much they tweet, which could be a great tool for researching competitors or potential customers.

If you’re looking to have a face-to-face conversation, but can’t be in the samegoogle + social media business place, try Google+ Hangouts. All you have to do is download a simple plug-in and you can video chat with up to 10 people. It shifts the screen to whoever is talking in the group, which allows you to feel like you truly are “hanging out” with those people.

If you don’t have a Google+ Account, or you don’t want to download anything, you could also use AV by AOL. This only allows for you to set up a chat with only four people, but can be another great tool for meetings and appointments.

Times are changing, and social media is one of the perfect examples of just how quickly things are changing.  It’s always a good idea to have help in managing your many social media accounts, or a simpler way to meet with employees or customers in different locations. Which of these would be most helpful to your business and could you see yourself utilizing? Let us know!

-Brittany

Photo Credit: Aris kids J Fouellet1

Google + Changes & Your Business

 

Google + is constantly growing as a platform and there are some new changes google plus changesthat could be better suited for you and your business. Most see Facebook and Twitter as more important for their small business, but the changes to Google+ take into consideration some of the features of both platforms. The new changes indicate that Google also sees Facebook and Twitter as competition, and is willing to make some changes to answer the demands of people that prefer those platforms. So what are the new changes and how can they help you? Take a look:

Header Image & Profile Photo Changes: Your basic photo will go to the right top corner, and you now have the ability to add a larger banner type image as well. This change mirrors the idea of timeline on Facebook, only with more options. On Google+ you can have one large photo or five photos that come together for a scrapbook look. Also, double check your original photo because it may appear grainy now that it’s larger!

Customize Your Navigation for Business Communication: You can now choose which circles appear on your top navigation, by clicking circles on the left and dragging your favorites to the top. Two circles are allowed to be at the top, choose which ones are most important to your business. With one click you can check up on the people in these circles so it’s a great way to connect with customers or employees regularly.

Page Promotion on the Right-Hand Sidebar: There is now a box on the right for pages they recommend to you, it appears those pages are determined by pages others in your circles follow. This leads many to believe your business can end up in those boxes, the more circles you become a part of. When you hover over those pages, the page header and profile picture are displayed. This is just another reason to have an eye-catching photo!

Trending topics & Explore Section: There is also a box on the right that displays the trending topics which used to only have appeared after searching. This means more people are using those trending topics, and if you’re discussing them it makes you more visible.  You can also use these topics to explore what others are saying on the topic. Sharing and engaging with other pages can also help your to gain more visibility.

New Hangouts Page: You can’t view this while in your business page, but on your personal account you now have the ability to view YouTube video chats that are happening live. This can be a great way to network and meet other people, check for public hangouts in your business field.  You also have the ability to host your own hangout. You can attend regularly scheduled hangouts, or record important hangouts.

Enhanced Photo Albums & Videos: Photos and videos are bigger than ever on G+, literally. Photos and videos appear without borders and their larger size gives more proof of the importance Google places on that content. You can be creative and use photo albums like great power point slides you have, share YouTube videos, or share photos of your staff with people in your circles.

Easily See who’s Engaging with Your Page: Simply click on the “share” or “+” icons on any post and you will see the activity. This allows you to see a thumbnail and name of every person or page that has engaged with that post. Other businesses are utilizing how easy it has become to see this information as well, which is an encouragement to be commenting and +1ing others’ posts.

Easily Switch Between Page Admin & Your Personal Account: You can now switch between your personal account and page more easily. It’s as simple as using the photo on the right hand corner and the “pages” logo on the navigation on the left.

As Google+ continues to become more user-friendly, the usage is likely to increase as well. Set up your profile today, if you haven’t already, and start connecting!

- Brittany 

Photo Credit: xicowner

Extra! Extra! Read All About it…On Social Media?

Social Media for BusinessAlthough I am a part of the so-called “younger generation” and have grown up with social media and the Internet in my life, there are youngsters younger than me who have literally grown up with social media in their lives. Individuals around my age and younger are relying more and more on social networks such as Facebook & Twitter to get their news information. Traditional news outlets are becoming more scarce. I remember in middle school and high school when local newspapers first started feeling threatened by the Internet. Today, major news events break out on Twitter before they do on online news stations.  Let’s take a peek at some of the statistics on social media versus traditional journalism.

Due to the rise in smartphones and tablets, over 50 percent of people have heard about breaking news through social media rather than official news sources. Almost fifty percent of people read their news online versus on print media three times per week. Furthermore, online news revenue surpassed that of print newspaper revenue in 2012.

Television news accounts for 59.5 percent of people’s top news source. This is followed by newspapers with 28.8 percent. And in a very close third place is social media with 27.8 percent of people using this as their way to get news. Of this 27.8 percent, the majority get their news from Facebook (59.5%), followed by Twitter (19.9%) then YouTube (12.7 percent). Of course, social media isn’t all bad since it is a top referrer to news sites. Traffic from social media to online news sites has increased 57 percent since 2009, but still only nine percent of adults get their news from Facebook or Twitter very often.

Breaking news frequently hits first on social media. Here are the top eight news stories that broke out via social media first. Of these eight, six were through Twitter:

  • Egyptian Uprising (on Facebook)
  • Protestors killed in Bahrain (on YouTube)
  • Hudson River Plane Crash
  • Hilary Clinton won’t be in a 2nd term Obama cabinet
  • Announcement of the royal wedding
  • Whitney Houston’s death
  • Newt Gingrich running for U.S. president
  • Osama bin Laden raid and death

social media newsOf course, social media news has its pros and cons. On the pro side, it’s immediate, everyone can report it (and report it quickly), and cell phones can go where TV news cameras can’t. On the other hand, Twitter only allows 140 characters to tell the story and there could be missing facts or inaccurate information. Additionally, the integrity of the news could be compromised by unreliable sources and amateur reporters could put themselves in dangerous positions trying to get information. Not to mention that almost 50 percent of people have heard breaking news through social media which turned out to be false.

For now, news should be verified through a creditable news source. However, there is the belief that one day, social media will be the go-to for news. I look at my niece and nephews who are fluent in technology at such a young age and imagine that these kids probably will not grow up reading newspapers or even checking out an online news site as a first stop. When the day comes that The Incredible’s and Dora the Explorer are replaced by ESPN and The Today Show, I imagine that social media will be behind the change in the source of news. Only time will tell. For now, they watch their children’s shows and I continue down my path of a mix between television, online news sites and social media – the traditional American these days.

What about you?? Where do you go for your news?

-Alyssa : )

Photo: mashable.com, roymorejon.com