Social Media Users – 10 Secrets of the Best Social Media Users

If you’re still waiting to see if social media marketing is worth your time, I have one question for you, what are you waiting for? Forget about all of the talk predicting social media marketing is going to play a big role in the future; it already is.
Forward-thinking web development companies are using social media to gain invaluable connections with their audience and to increase their online visibility. And they’re reaping the benefits of their marketing efforts.
Authority, inbound links, visibility, and trust are just a few of the things active online brands are earning through this form of marketing. So, are you ready to jump aboard the social media train? Here are 10 steps to creating a successful social media marketing strategy.
1. Do Your Research- Every successful marketing strategy is based on good research. You can’t just blindly go to a social media site to submit your content and expect immediate success. You need to find social media sites that fit your niche. For example, if you’re trying to promote your medical business, you should find sites where health related articles tend to be popular.
2. Interact with the Community- The biggest rookie mistake in social media marketing is to completely ignore the community. It’s called social media for a reason. Take advantage of the social platform by interacting with the community. The closer you become with community members, the more likely it is that they’ll help promote your content.
3. Write for Your Audience- This is Writing 101, but many people tend to ignore it. If you want your content to go hot, it has to be tailored toward the audience on the social media site. When you’re interacting with the community, get to know their likes and dislikes. Also, take note of what type of stories tend to get the most attention. You’ll see patterns develop in the types of themes and content that consistently go hot.
4. Be Relevant- Relevance is the key to social media marketing. Don’t believe me? Just go to the front page of Digg or any other social site. The vast majority of the top content is related to late-breaking news. Be the first to break a story in your industry; or, give your unique insight on a hot news item.
5. Keep it Short- Internet users don’t like reading long passages of text. They tend to scan online content rather than taking the time to fully read it. For this reason, you need to accommodate their reading habits by keeping your content short and easy to scan. Brief paragraphs and bold, descriptive headings are great ways to make your content more scanner-friendly.
6. Focus on Design- When users come to your page to read your content, are they greeted with a clean, welcoming website design? If not, they might just turn around and leave your site. Remember, it’s not just enough to have great content; how you present it is important as well. Use a design scheme that’s easy on the eyes and that assists the reader in scanning the content.
7. Stop Trying to Sell- Another social media marketing rookie mistake is to constantly try to sell your products. Sure, the ultimate goal of marketing is to promote your brand, but you’ll never gain any respect on these networks if you’re constantly pimping out your products. Instead, contribute useful content that the community can learn from.
8. Create Great Headlines- I don’t care if your article is good enough to be the cover story in Time Magazine. If it doesn’t have a great title, it won’t get any attention on these sites. Think about it- thousands of users are submitting content to these sites all day long. What makes someone click on a post to read more? An eye-catching title.
9. Help Out Others- This goes back to #2 and #7. If you want to become a top user on a certain social media site, you have to help others out. Don’t just submit and promote your own content. Find useful articles from different sources that your audience will enjoy. By promoting content that’s not yours, the community will begin to see you as a great resource for relevant information.
10. Convert Hot Content- One mistake many social media marketers make is to not capitalize on hot content. If you’re fortunate enough to have a piece rise to the top, you need to make that attention last. How can you do this? By creating another great post to follow the hot one. That way, when visitors come to your site to read the popular post, they’ll see you have new content. Ride that wave as long as you can!
The bottom line with social media marketing is there are no shortcuts to success. If you put in the time and effort, your brand will experience numerous benefits. Set realistic goals for your marketing campaign, and stick with it to the end.

5 Hidden Features of Facebook

It’s a little like Facebook’s version of the Easter egg extra you can find in a DVD of one of your favorite movies. Only instead of getting inside director’s jokes that you might not have known otherwise, these features are here to make the experience of having a profile on Facebook one you can customize deeper while still protecting the privacy of. And that’s saying a lot considering that not every Facebook user has yet to convert their home page to the timeline and tailor it to fit their professional and personal needs.
Maybe you already know about these options and maybe you don’t. But employing a “blink and you miss it” tactic can have you missing out on some great opportunities for your account.

1) Facebook Email
Under your contact info tab on your Facebook About page, you’ll find alongside any other email addresses you have featured one that features your public username followed by @facebook.com. Before you worry that there’s a special inbox to your Facebook email filled with messages that you haven’t been receiving, keep in mind that this address is for your Facebook messages inbox (that tiny conversation bubble sandwiched between the friend requests and notifications symbols at the top left hand corner of your page. Any messages you get to the username@facebook.com address will be added there with a little red number that will pop up as a reminder of how many you have.
You can also send messages to the @facebook.com address without using Facebook. Traditional email systems like Gmail can receive and send these messages. Responses sent out via username@facebook.com are formatted to look like they came directly from the social media site with your profile picture, name, and message all included.

2) Custom Username
We spoke about this one a lot in the first of the five hidden features. A Facebook username can be created by logging into your account settings tab and clicking on the bar marked “username” which customizes the web address for your profile, making it look a little something like (to borrow the name of the company I own) https://www.facebook.com/mycorp.
The trouble with the username is that you can only change it once. Until recently was the opportunity made available to switch it over a second time and it’s doubtful that third time will be the charm here. When creating a username for your account, it’s suggested to use a variation based off of your own name which makes it easier for friends to find you and to list your account on a professional networking website or on a resume. You can also use periods when creating said username.

3) Life Events
Yet another reason to make the switch over to the timeline if you haven’t already! On the Facebook timeline you have the option to write a status, post a photo, check in to a place, or create a life event. Life events are open to everything from the school you attended to the places you’ve travelled to and even with the relationships you have with other Facebook users. While you might not feel inclined to feature all of your life events that Facebook offers the ability to feature (first tattoo? new license?) you still have the option there to write about and share with close family members and friends.

4) App Settings
This one might not be a hidden gem on Facebook but it makes for an interesting timeline of its own to see just how many apps you’ve authorized to interact with your account. Under the account settings tab is where you can find and clean out the app settings if they no longer apply to being used with your profile. Kind of like viewing a blast from your Facebook past if you were really into the apps. Pieces of Flair or Bumper Sticker, anyone?

5) The Facebook Archives
Under the account settings tab, click on general settings. Underneath “language” you should be able to find a button marked “download a copy of your Facebook data.” Here’s where you can get a copy of your Facebook history downloaded featuring the posts you’ve made on your wall, the photos you’ve shared, the names and email addresses of your friends, and more.
There’s even an expanded archive download available that includes as Facebook puts it, “historic info like IP addresses we store about your logins to Facebook.”
Definitely far from a blink and you miss it moment.

Making Money Using Facebook - Internet Marketing

We Internet Marketers are always researching the most profitable ways to make money online and promoting our business to targeted people. Facebook is the most powerful social media system that we can use today, totally free, so why not use it in our advantage to promote our business?
So... How do we make money online using Facebook?
Interesting question, Facebook can be treated as a direct portal that will drive targeted visitors into your webpages, where you promote a product or where you just want to get more people signing up into your lists. Facebook CAN do that in a very powerful way... let me introduce you the Facebook PAGES!
What is a Facebook Page? It's just like your personal profile, but will be treated as a stand-alone "Profile" where you can promote your business. You won't have any "Friends" in a Facebook Page, instead you will have "LIKES", and those Likes will come from people visiting your Page and finding the content interesting for them.
What is the Power of this, you might be asking? When someone Likes your Page, he will start receiving on HIS wall all the comments and updates that you make into your PAGE. So with a single comment you can reach hundreds and hundreds of people.
Just imagine you have a Page with 100 Likes, 100 persons that are connected to your business, regularly checking your updates. When you post something new, this post will get posted on all those person's Walls. And what can happen next? EVERY friend of those persons might be watching his Wall, and they WILL notice your post as well!
Are you beginning to see the power of this? a single post can go VIRAL very easily!
But please notice that it is not that easy to achieve this task. As any real and well planned Internet Marketing strategy, you have to invest time and effort to build a good-looking Page with good content, that attracts people's attention. If you are serious in this business, you will find Facebook as a fantastic source to promote your business.
Now let's discuss how to get Likes...
First of all, you need to know right away that this process takes time, you won't get 1000 Likes from one day to another.
You can buy traffic you might think, let me tell you that I tested this myself and it didn't work. I bought 1000 Likes to my Fan Page and I found that all those people were unresponsive, but unresponsive at all.
So, my best advice to you is to just work on it by yourself, and be patient.
Let's review some quick TIPS about how you can promote your Fan Page to the Facebook community:

1. Recommend your Fan Page to your friends, using your main Profile. And tell them to spread the word. This maybe is the fastest way to get some activity into your Fan Page, but it will only depend on how much friends you have and how cool they might be to help you out.
2. Join related Fan Pages. Just search for them, find those that have daily activity, both from the owner of the page and from people posting comments on it. Like those Pages and post comments on them. But beware, please DO NOT make spam promotion because it is very annoying, just add some value into your posts, share with the community links, videos, some articles made by you maybe, and I assure you that people will notice your Fan Page when they see you contribute good things to them.
3. Make Posts in your Fan Page regularly. Same as point 2, but with your Fan Page. Dedicate no more than half an hour a day doing this, just seek for some valuable content that people might see helpful, and share! If you have an active website with good content, you will already have LOTS of information to share in your Fan Page. Same applies with videos, articles that you might already have.

After you get some people Liking your Fan Page, you will start generating automatic traffic each time you post a comment on your Wall. Those people will have your post commented on their wall, and their friends will notice it as well. Viral Traffic for free!

Top 10 list of the best home based business ideas, 2012

If you are looking to start up a home business then look no further than this top 10 list of the best ways to make money online, from home.
I hope you’ll find something to inspire you to startup today. There’s no time like the present (and don’t forget about me when you’re sipping pina-coladas off the deck of your yacht ;)

1. Specialist consulting

If you have experience or skills then one of the best ways to make money is by providing niche industry wisdom and expert advice. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in.
Start blogging about what you know. Offer to help people by providing knowledge. Answer questions other sites, blogs and forums.
Once people recognize you as an expert they will trust you, and you can start leveraging that trust to make money by offering services and consulting in your niche.

2. Boutique online store

Do you have a passion for designing cushions? Do you love making gourmet cupcakes? If there is something you love doing, then do it online.
Set up an eCommerce store. Blog about what you do. Make your content exciting and visual so that your passion transfers to visitors who just have to buy.

3. eLearning content

If there is a subject you are knowledgeable in, or know plenty of people who are knowledgeable about something, then use that to make money.
Set up a subscription based service to train people. Offer them courses, complete with exercises and marked online quizzes. Award them with certificates upon completion.

4. Specialty reviews

Do you love fine dining? How about wine tasting? Does staying in luxury hotels appeal to you?
Start up a blog and begin reviewing local products and services. Do a good job and local merchants and retailers will quickly catch on to the value of being reviewed by you. Leverage that demand to make money, as well as using ads and affiliate links to generate additional cash from readers.

5. Innovative local services

There are a million and one things that get in people’s way each day. If you have a smart idea about how to help, then set it up.
idea: If you have a pickup you could offer to pick up people’s old furtniture for free. It saves them time and money taking it to the dump. You can then resell it via your website.
idea: People hate queuing at local grocery stores after work. Why not let them pre-order from your website and have it waiting for them. They don’t have to pay for parking, fight with crowds or wait in queues. Well worth the small amount you charge for the service.
With limited resources, you’ll have to start local. But franchising to different towns and cities is a great option for growth later down the line.

6. Online real-time tutorials and lessons

Google+ offers incredible resources for video conferencing and online hangouts. Why not offer one hour lessons by video online? People can sign up on your website and access live tutorials and lesson, possibly followed by some Q and A for added interactivity.
You don’t have to charge much, and as the word spreads you could end up with thousands of students attending each lesson.

7. Niche blogging

Blogging is a great way to make a residual income. It’s definitely a medium term investment though, so it’s only viable if you are passionate about your niche topic.
Use social media, SEO and Internet marketing to build up traffic volumes, engage with readers and earn their trust. Make money from advertising and affiliate links.

8. Remote PA

If you’re planning on working from home full-time, then why not offer to help people who can’t find enough hours in the day to do everything they need.
Preferably offer services that you can perform online such as research, administration, writing, editing, and so on. Otherwise, focus on the local market… especially if you need to run errands.
The more you can work online, the more scope there is to hire low maintenance virtual office workers to expand your business.

9. Discounts & deals

Times are tough. People appreciate finding high quality services and products at low prices. Scour the web for the top deals and pass them on to your readers. Make sure you do it in an exciting, interesting and unique way – there is a lot of competition in this industry.
Alternatively, start local. Approach local merchants and retailers and get them to run specials which you promote. As you build up a following, the tables will turn and it will be merchants who approach you to write about their specials. Leverage that demand to make money.

10. IT

Do you know how to build mobile apps? How about games? Are you a guru in a forgotten programming language? Are you an incredible graphic designer?
Hardcore IT and technical skills are well suited to online home based business. All the coolest companies were started in garages, bedrooms or dorm rooms by IT nerds.
Use your website to show off your abilities. Convincing clients to take you on is difficult at first, but, providing you do a good job, referrals will keep new clients coming in.

How To Make Money From YouTube - Do You Know That YouTube Surpasses Two Billion Video Views Daily?

Though many people have heard about ways and means as to how to make money from YouTube, the fact is that not many people know what exactly it is all about. They may have some sketchy details but most certainly they will not have the right knowledge to put such sketchy details into practice.
However, the fact of the matter is that there are many ways and means by which we can learn how to make money from YouTube. This is because of the simple reason that the sheer viewership of YouTube is mind boggling to say the least. Each day more than a billion people visit YouTube for either listening to their favorite album, or for the purpose of watching their favorite movie or even for the purpose of learning something more about their line of business and commerce. Hence, there is no denying the fact that YouTube is the best place to be in if a person or company is looking for viewership of their products or services. It is the right place for people to make some great money, provided they know how to go about it. This article is basically aimed at making people aware about the various ways and means by which people can learn more about the different ways to make money using the sheer viewership strength of YouTube.
If you have a website having a great product, service, concept or business ideas, then the best way you can translate it into money is to make more and more people visit your website and see the details. Towards this objective, YouTube is indeed a great way of driving more traffic to your website. All you have to do is to come up with a smart and sleek video promoting your website or the products and services that you have on it. The next thing is to upload it onto YouTube. Upload is free on YouTube and hence you need not spend any money to advertise on it. You can also include a link in this video which will take the viewer to your website. The more number of people liking your video, the better are the chances that they will visit your website to gather more information. This could ultimately result in higher sales and revenue for your products and services.
If you do not have your own website, you need not bother. You can create your own videos sharing information about your affiliate products and services. As mentioned above, you can also have a link which will take the visitor to the affiliates' website. If such visits results in sales, you could be paid a commission, which could create a lot of additional passive income for you. Hence this is considered a very simple but effective answer to the question how to make money from YouTube.
If you have your own products and services, you can upload videos talking about your products and services. If people like your video they are certain to click on the link and gather more information about your products and services. This indeed is a great way of advertising your website and could be the perfect answer to the query how to make money from YouTube.

New privacy fears as Facebook begins selling personal access to companies to boost ailing profits

Facebook is embroiled in a new privacy row after it began selling access to users in order to bolster its profits.

The social networking site is allowing companies to trawl through its 900m users looking for email addresses and phone numbers so it can better target adverts.
The changes mean that if you hand over any details when you buy something - as many consumers do - that company can now track you down on Facebook.

The measures appear to be a cynical attempt to sidestep restrictions imposed on Facebook by US regulators due to earlier botched privacy changes.
They have already sparked calls for an official investigation by campaigners who claim that the public have not been properly notified.

The new measures, which have been in effect for weeks, will affect consumers who have handed over personal data when they buy something, which is the majority of people given the rise of Internet shopping
Retailers will then be allowed to compare their own databases with the information on Facebook.

For example, an airline will now be able to target adverts at a consumer who had recently taken a flight to Barcelona.

A mobile phone company could also advertise upgrades to somebody who was nearing the end of their contract.
Another disturbing element is that the adverts could appear on a user’s computer even when they are not on Facebook.
The social networking site is also increasing its monitoring and will work with US-based company Datalogix to see what consumers are buying.
Facebook claimed that there are safeguards attached to the new measures.

Phone numbers and email addresses will be replaced by hash symbols so nobody actually knows who the person is, even if they can track their behaviour.
Users will also have to give permission but campaigners in the US have said that changing the settings is ‘confusing and ineffective’.
The Electronic Privacy Information Centre and the Centre for Digital Democracy have already asked watchdog the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the arrangement.
In a joint letter they said: ‘Facebook did not attempt to notify users of its decision to disclose user information
‘Neither Facebook’s Data Use Policy nor its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities adequately explains the specific types of information Facebook discloses, the manner in which the disclosure occurs, or the identities of the third parties receiving the information.’
Facebook is under pressure to improve on the £1.1bn it makes each year from advertising after its disastrous stock market floatation which saw its shares fall by more than half their value.
Last year it was forced to overhaul its privacy policy after the FTC ruled it had been lying to its users for the past four years.
The serious violations included allowing other companies access to users’ personal information - even after they deleted their accounts.
Under the tough agreement - which applies Britain - Facebook agreed to independent periodic monitoring for the next 20 years to stop it from re-offending.
It also vowed to obtain users ‘express consent’ before making privacy changes.
Facebook privacy engineer Joey Tyson said: ‘As we pursue our goal of making the world more open and connected, we have designed our service to show ads that help people discover products that are interesting to them.
‘We also recognise that our users trust us to protect the information they share on Facebook.
‘Maintaining that trust is a top priority as we continue to grow.’