Category: Facebook Alternative

Our society is making major changes every day, and social media is dictating some of these changes and is influencing how our society operates. As a result, whatever changes we see in society will have a definite impact on what happens in our schools. To run effectively, schools cannot ignore these societal changes. That’s why our students and staff need to develop positive experiences with social media usage in our schools. Schools and school districts that decide to embrace social media are utilizing new technology to inform, educate, and prepare students and staff for the 21st century.

Each school year the following question will have to be answered: What if a student or staff member is using their personal social media account off school property in a negative, inappropriate, or confrontational manner that has an impact on the staff or students? Additionally, does this usage impact the student’s ability to learn at school or impact the educational day? If it does, then the school should have the right to investigate and issue appropriate consequences. This is an important problem that has impacted schools from all over the world. It is vital that our schools address this problem in their student code or face the possibility of students, staff members, or both disrupting the school.

In an effort to be pro-active, schools and school districts have decided to prevent problems from occurring by teaching students the proper way to use social media. Schools are now showing their students how social media can be used to collaborate on school projects, find summer jobs, participate in online chats, discuss books read in class, share and receive positive information on the school’s Facebook page, keep up with what’s happening around the world, do research, share successful educational stories, secure classroom information, etc. Teachers can use Twitter accounts to send homework assignments to students, provide classroom information for students, and have classroom discussions. By embracing social media, schools are empowering their students to communicate more with their classmates, which will develop a stronger community of learners.

School employees should have procedures in place for how they use social media in an effort to monitor how educators use their personal and school accounts to interact with students. Schools should consider employees using their personal accounts to communicate with students as inappropriate and as grounds for termination. While this might sound harsh, sometimes staff using their personal accounts with students can lead to the appearance of an inappropriate relationship. In particular, staff members should never have a student’s pictures posted on their Facebook. These concerns should be addressed at the first staff meeting of the school year, and staff members should sign an agreement that the school’s social media account be used for teaching purposes only and not for reaching out to students.

Overall, schools know there is a lot of abuse involved with the use of social media, but research has shown that schools that take the time to educate their staff and students on the proper usage are developing a community of learning that will be productive in the 21st century

According to Common Sense Media research, teens now spend an average of nine hours a day glued to their devices, with tweens not all that far behind at six. And that doesn’t account for tech’s use in our nation’s classrooms, nor all the computer-required assignments that follow our children home after school.

Billed as a learning tool, many teachers now incorporate the likes of Twitter and video games into their lessons, negatively impacting attentions spans and critical thinking, right there along with spelling and writing skills.

As for the teachers who refuse to jump on the ed tech bandwagon? They’re called “resisters” and are often criticized as being old school and way behind the times.

Fortunately, they are not alone.

Among the concerned is Steve Fischer, eBay’s chief technology officer, who sends his children to a Waldorf School instead of his local tech-heavy public one; so, too, do many Silicon Valley employees.

That’s because founder Rudolf Steiner designed the Waldorf curriculum to focus on the academic, artistic, and practical with an eye toward developing students’ imaginations and getting them ready for the real world–no screens required.

The result for everyone else’s kids, though, is a tech-driven world, both in and out of school.

Indeed, Common Sense Media CEO and founder Jim Stryer calls the amount of media tech in children’s lives “mind-boggling.” As he notes, it dominates their world, and they can’t seem to resist its lure.

One result: Multi-tasking. Now, 50% of teens say they “often” or “sometimes” use social media or watch TV while doing homework; 60% say they text and 75%+ listen to music at the same time.

Pushback is growing, though, with outfits like the Truth About Tech: How Tech Has Kids Hooked.” Sponsored by Common Sense Media, the Center for Humane Technology, and others, it held an event in D.C. earlier this year. Its mission is to expose the techniques used by tech companies to hook our kids and find a way to ensure their digital well-being, as well.

As the Center points out, “Technology is hijacking our minds and society.”

And it’s all been done intentionally.

In fact, Facebook’s founding president, Sean Parker, has admitted that he and other higher-ups came up with “a social validation feedback loop” that makes the social media platform addictive.

At one point, another early FB exec, Chalmath Palihapitiya, accused his company of creating “short-term dopamine-driven feedback loops that are destroying how society works.”

And though he tried to walk back that statement, it still has legs, so to speak.

Even Apple CEO Tim Cook gets it. Though childless himself, not only does he set firm limits on his nephew when it comes to social media, he doesn’t consider it a success if we’re all are using tech all the time.

As it is, 50% of teens feel they are addicted to their mobiles, with 60% of their parents agreeing.

Confided one teen, “I would rather not eat for a week than get my phone taken away. It’s really bad.”

Moreover, Jean Twenge, a San Diego State University psych professor and author of iGen, says that heavy–5+ hours a day–device users are:

• 56% more likely to say they are unhappy;
• 27% more likely to be depressed; and
• 35% more likely to have one risk factor for suicide.

These numbers are substantiated by numerous experts and backed by brain-imaging studies, too.

Nevertheless, Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, author of Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids, notes that none of us wants “some buzz-killing truth-sayers telling us that the emperor has no clothes,” and that the devices we’re so attached to pose a problem, especially for kids’ developing brains.

Regardless of the disturbing evidence, though, Facebook is not stopping, not by a long shot.

Not satisfied with its current 2.13 billion users–supposedly all 13 and older–it’s now aiming lower with Messenger Kids, created with children as young as six in mind.

This video, calling, and messaging app lets kids connect with friends and family via tablet or smartphone, and it boasts that countless parents and children’s advocates had a hand in designing it.

However, many of those contributors received funding from Facebook…

Meanwhile, among Messenger Kids’ boasts: Parents must first approve of all contacts, and it gets kids and parents chatting with each other in “a safe, controlled environment.”

Safer than what, face-to-face conversations?

Countless child development experts and others disapprove.

Organized by the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, a number of them recently sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg urging him to take down Messenger Kids. Citing its potential for harm, they pointed out that young kids aren’t developmentally ready to handle social media, online relationships, or the misunderstandings and conflicts that can arise from them.

Nevertheless, Messenger Kids is still up and running, so…

Bottom line: Keep it personal, not virtual.

Social media is literally changing the way projects are cast. All other things being equal, if three actors are up for a role on a big project, chances are the actor with a substantial following will nab the role. This means that if you’re a savvy actor, you’ll start building your social media empire BEFORE you’re up for a series regular.

If you’re like some of my clients, the thought of using social media for your acting career can be completely overwhelming. I’m here to tell you – don’t panic! Here are four simple steps you can use to get your social media mojo started, giving you a leg up on the competition!

1. Start Small

There are many social media platforms to choose from, but my advice is to start with one and get really good at it. If you’re already using Facebook anyway, why not start there? Do you love taking photos? Try Instagram! Maybe Twitter is more your speed. No need to overload yourself right away. You can always add another once you’ve got the first one down.

2. Create a Plan

This is where you can get creative! Keeping your actor brand in mind, think about some themes that you would like to post about regularly. For example, do you have a charity that you work with? Do you like to make people laugh? Are you a foodie? You can also repost or retweet other people’s content, and give them a shout-out. Of course, don’t forget to post your acting successes, too!

3. Make a Schedule

Once you have some daily themes in mind, it’s time to schedule your posts for the week. I recommend using a free app like Bufferapp.com or Hootsuite.com. I’ve found that scheduling daily posts ahead of time (for the week or the month) is much more efficient than trying to post every single day.

4. Be Social!

It’s called social media for a reason, so be sure to spend a little time every day responding to your likes, retweets, mentions, and other people’s posts. Reciprocation goes a long way, so keep the dialogue going with your peeps!

5. Watch the Clock

Be careful not to fall down the rabbit hole. Social media sites are made for you to kill time, so be mindful of how you’re spending yours. Fifteen minutes a day is all that’s needed to stay social.

Marketing on social media the right way can take time to understand. Many of the social media sites are a way to make new friends or speak to existing ones.

Already an internet marketer? If so, you will already understand and be aware they are more than just for entertainment and escapism. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and many more have become a way to make money if the right strategies are in place.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so many more are entirely made to make you money. However, you must understand you need to take some time and effort to get recognized by other social media users.

You need to have an effective strategy that will help you build an audience.

Understand unless you are already a well-known celebrity, no one knows you, so your audience does not know what you represent, and why you need to build up an image on your chosen social media platform, if not on more.

Engage with them regularly. Does this mean you need to have an existing store or business? Quite simply, no, not unless you want, or already have one. You may even be a current business owner already looking at how marketing on social media can take you and your company forward.

As your audience grows and you gain a more significant following, newer opportunities will present themselves.

Once you have gained a decent following, there are then many ways to start making money on social media.

Today with celebrities, many brands are turning more and more to well-known figures in the public eye who already have an audience, and usually, this will be in the millions. These people are otherwise known as ‘social influencers’.

With the aid of a well known public figure, companies can get their products promoted and endorsed by them.

They know their followers will copy their every move in many a cases, it would seem.

If you too can create a good following, and with the right strategies in place, there is no reason why you can’t, then do not be surprised if a company or companies reaches out to you asking for their brand promotion. Companies know this is a great way to reach a targeted audience.

You only need to look on social media, television or whatever social media channel you prefer to see, the brands that are continually being endorsed. The simple truth is marketing on social media works, and it works very well if you know what you are doing.

Whether or not you are considering marketing on any platform, it is essential, if possible, you find someone. It can even be in your immediate locality who you think is a local celebrity and who might be willing to endorse your product or service. Do you remember ever boing told, ” if you don’t ask, you don’t get”, this is so true of today’s marketing world.

Are you a big arts and crafts lover? Do you have a talent for it yourself? There are billions of users worldwide who love this, and if you were marketing on social media, you would most probably find there are a lot of people who will be interested in what you do.

I love seeing the talent of others, it’s fascinating to see what someone can achieve and sometimes with tiny things.

Their art of making is truly a craft.

Using the medium of different platforms, you can showcase your talents very quickly, if you know what you are doing.

You may already see many things being advertised on Facebook, Twitter, and many others. Marketing on social media is a science and done correctly, the rewards can be significant. Done incorrectly, and you can end up losing a lot of money on advertising costs, time, effort and ultimately disappointment in your results.

However, running a business and keeping your audience constantly engaged can be quite a challenge. To post regularly and the content to be relevant can also be quite a challenge. If you are not careful and continuously track what you are doing, it can become too much.

With all of the hard work it takes to get your business up, running, and profitable, it’s no wonder why so many entrepreneurs struggle to find the time to maintain their social media presence.

That’s why I’ve invested in figuring out little social media “hacks” – tools and methods I can use to maintain my presence, grow my followers, and make money with social media WITHOUT actually adding to my workload each day.

In this article you are going to discover 7 of those time-saving social media tools:

1) Tweet Adder – With this piece of software, you can automate sending Direct Messages to new Twitter followers (a great way to offer your followers free gifts for following you on Twitter, thereby building your list in a completely automated way). You can also quickly and easily generate lists of relevant people to follow without ever having to log in to the Twitter platform. Easy peasy!

2) Pay With a Tweet – With this piece of software, you can offer followers an alternative to opting in with their name/email address. Instead, they can “pay with a tweet”(they tweet a message out on their Twitter profile, and in exchange, you give them access to your offer). I like to use this to kill 2 birds with one stone: adding value to my list, and building my list. The way this is done is by only allowing existing newsletter subscribers the option to pay with a tweet. When your subscribers send their tweets out, the tweets will contain a link leading back to a landing page which DOES require an opt in. So anyone who clicks from their tweet is then required to opt in to the mailing list, thereby growing your list (again, without any added work)!

3) Meet Edgar – The typical social media scheduling softwares that entrepreneurs use (ie. Hoot Suite and Sprout Social) still require quite a bit of manual work because you have to enter the days and times that the posts go out for each profile. You also can’t re-use content automatically (you have to actually re-enter it in the system). With Meet Edgar, you can load in a bunch of content in bulk and let Edgar choose when to schedule them. And, the more content you post, the smarter Edgar gets (so if a certain post is getting a lot of traction, Edgar will re-use it automatically to help increase engagement on your pages). Love it!

4) Fan of the Week – This app is a great way to show some love for you most active fans on your Facebook fan pages. Each week, the software evaluates which of your fans was the most engaging on your profile, and will reward the fan by announcing them as the “Fan of the Week”. This is an easy and automated way to keep your followers happy!

5) Hub Spot Blog Topic Generator – One of the most challenging parts about social media is coming up with stuff to post about. This includes coming up with blogs to syndicate on your social media. With this tool, you can enter in a couple words related to what you want to write about, and it will generate a list of blog topic ideas for you.

6) Canva – Unless you’re a graphic designer, creating branded graphics for your social media posts can be a pain in the neck (and if you hire people to do it for you, it can cost a pretty penny). I’m techy, but I’m not a designer, so what I do instead is use Canva to create my social media graphics. I customize their Free Layouts with my brand colors, images of myself, and quotes or messages that would resonate with my followers.

7) WooBox – This one’s pretty neato, because you can do quite a lot with it: Contests, Coupons, Quizzes, Polls, Social Media Landing Pages, and more. But the social media “hack” and time saver feature they one that allows you to set it up so that whatever you post on your Fan Page automatically posts to your Twitter. Now, the downside of this is that your content on these platforms is the same (so why should someone bother to follow you on Twitter?) and if you post a longer post, it’ll show up weird on Twitter. But, if you’re super strapped for time, keep the length of your posts in mind, and set up another means for why people should follow you on Twitter (ie. giving followers a unique freebie for Twitter followers only, using Tweet Adders Direct Messaging feature mentioned in #1), then it’s totally worth it.

Armed with these 7 social media tools, you will be able to build a following of fans who love you without having to sacrifice hours each day to coming up with content, creating posts, and thinking of ways to create engagement. (woohoo!)

Now go out there and get sh*t done!

<3 Amanda

Participation in one or more social media platforms is now a given in both the professional and personal spheres. Nearly every Solopreneur has a presence on at least one platform, even if that participation is not active. Social media has the potential to provide benefits to business owners, the self-employed and the traditionally employed, but in order to reap those benefits, one must understand how this resource can best function within specific circumstances.

The first question to consider is, who’s listening? Do those you want to reach participate in social media for their organization’s needs or just for their own career? That answer will determine which platform to choose. The second question is, what is your business? Your third question is, will social media function for you as a sales tool, marketing tool, or PR?

Twitter is king when having conversations with current or potential customers about your business or industry is the goal. Tweet an announcement of the class you’ll teach, the conference you’ll attend and your thoughts on a presentation you’ve just heard. Store owners tweet the arrival of new merchandise; restaurant owners tweet the daily specials; musicians tweet the dates of upcoming performances or new music releases.

LinkedIn is the platform of choice for the traditionally employed and Solopreneurs who offer business-to-business services. I think of LinkedIn as my adjunct website, where I can announce professional victories; provide a link to an article that my connections might like to read; or announce an upcoming conference. LinkedIn Groups lets me interact with peers in my industry and exchange relevant information, success stories and challenges. Recruiters looking to fill jobs are known to peruse LinkedIn in search of qualified job candidates to interview.

Define how social media can function for you, based on the business you’re in and the way your customers use social media. If prospective customers like the look of the landscapes you design or the sound of your jazz combo and feel comfortable judging the value you provide online, then social media directly impacts the sales process and is for you a sales tool. Facebook’s Fan Page will likely be your platform of choice.

If potential customers use Twitter memes to discuss industry developments, then marketing is your social media strategy. Use the platform to establish your bona fides as an up-to-date, in-the-know thought leader. Promote your expertise and develop a following by sharing a steady stream of relevant information (content) that will benefit prospects. Tell, don’t sell.

Peer-to-peer PR is the function of LinkedIn. Stay abreast with what colleagues are doing professionally and announce your achievements as well. Make recommendations and endorsements for those with whom you’ve worked, in either a paid or volunteer position, and receive commendations in return. Those looking to hire employees or Solopreneur consultants might peruse LinkedIn for candidates and referrals for project work, so keep your profile current and complete.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Social media has impacted our society in many good ways. Our lives have been made easier. Pretty much anything we want to know is quickly found at the end of a mouse click. We save time and effort by ordering products and planning travel online. We easily catch up with friends on numerous social media sites. But, there is also a down side..

Media and Relationships

Research has found that these sites can have a negative impact on relationships and may even contribute to divorce. A spouse may spend so much time that they neglect family time and hurt relationships. The temptation is there to look up former girlfriends or boyfriends and connecting could trigger past feelings and/or start an affair. One recent study from the journal, Computers in Human Behavior, used information gathered from U.S. Facebook accounts and found a link between social media use and decreased marriage quality. The study showed:

Using social media is negatively correlated with marriage quality and happiness, and positively correlated with experiencing a troubled relationship and thinking about divorce.

A twenty percent annual increase in Facebook enrollment was associated with a 2.18% to 4.32 % increase in divorce rates.

Reasons cited for these effects refer to “virtual adultery” and “internet infidelity” as being one of the culprits. Electronic communication may make users feel more open and free in their communication with others. It can be done anonymously and is easy to use to conduct an affair.

Social Media Used as Evidence in Divorce and Custody Proceedings

What you say on may be used against you. A recent survey conducted by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, showed that almost 99% of its member attorneys have seen an increase in evidence taken from smartphones (including text messages) and other wireless devices during the past three years. All were used for proving infidelity and other types of misconduct in family-law cases.

What Not to Post

While you’re married, even if divorce seems likely, avoid disparaging your partner on social media or using your Facebook page to vent about your relationship. If you need to vent, confide in a trusted personal friend in private or talk to a counselor or therapist. Airing marital laundry, even to your “friends list,” can make matters worse and might be used against you if you do file for divorce. Bottom line: If you’re considering divorce – even if you plan to file for divorce online and expect it to go amicably – take some precautions on social media.

100 Social Media Post Ideas That Are Crushing It

Are you in charge of posting something on your company’s social media platforms and you dread it most days. What on earth are you going to post… today!

But if this your job let’s reverse that yucky feeling in your stomach each day and tap into the most effective post ideas currently on the planet and turn your day in ooooh instead of aaaagh.

While Facebook maybe losing a few followers it’s still the ‘granddaddy’ to be on. Instagram is great for a younger market and LinkedIn is gaining momentum. Decide where your buyers and sellers would hang out on, and post there.

Let’s get stuck right in.

100 Real Estate Social Media Post Ideas

Promoting You

1. What do you do – sell real estate, property manager, leasing consultant.

   This is a great time to show followers you tapping in a for sale sign, attending an auction or even a listing (but keep listings to 20% of your posts).

2. Offer a free report or guide

   Produce a suburb price report and offer it free in exchange for an email address.

3. Introduce a new product or resource

   Many agents have affiliations with landlord insurance suppliers, property maintenance services or easy pay options to collect rent or pay marketing costs. Let you readers know each offerings benefits.

4. Build your newsletter subscriptions.

   Grow your email database at every opportunity you can.

5. Promote your team

   Spotlight a team member and promote them. Let the world know about their special skill and or unique personality.

6. The one day sale for your social media platform followers

   Let your Facebook followers know you are giving 50% off your marketing packages today.

7. Highlight your business strengths

   Point out what you are good at. Aim it to outshine your competitors. “Our agents live locally”.

8. Celebrate a milestone

   Have you been in business for 1, 5, 10 or 20 years+. Did your office or team member win an Award at your franchise’s Award night?

9. Promote you team winning an award

   Get a team shot and highlight your staff.

10. Rejig and re-use old content

    With reach percentages down, not everybody will see your content. Therefore you can re-post old content and it’ll mostly be fresh.

11. Let your customers do the talking

    Grab some of your best testimonials and post them. Third party sources like Rate My Agent are a good source for these.

12. Have a giveaway

    Giveaway a stamp duty or commission calculator in exchange for a readers email.address. What about a bundle of real estate investing books?

13. Promote an event

    Got an auction coming up, let the world know about it. What about an investment seminar?

14. Get an insight into your most popular posts

    Go to Audience Insights or download the Facebook Pages app and discover which posts have been your most popular and repeat!

Promote Others

1. Who’s your favourite fan

   Give them a shout out. Promote their business.

2. Interview a local business

   Grab a video camera and shoot a quick video or Facebook Live with your local barista. Do you think he/she might become a big advocate of yours.

3. Interview an industry expert

   Chat to a marketing expert on why it’s important to promote a property when it’s listed for sale.Who do you know is a tax depreciation expert? Get them to discuss property investment breaks. It’s good for your expert and your followers.

4. Do you support a charity?

   Let the world know. Give them a plug. Redirect readers to the charity’s donation tab.

5. Express your gratitude

   Talk about how blessed you feel by being part of your community.

6. Spotlight an industry influencer

   Grab a media heavyweight like Mark Bouris and ask him for an interview.

7. Say thanks

   It’s a word not used often enough. Tell people you are thankful for their support.

8. Mention a competitor (if you are game)

   This will test your mettle but it might have a big upswing for you. Followers with see that you are confident about mentioning other competitive companies and the opposition will most likely give you the thumbs up.

Inspirational

1. Post an inspirational post

   These are among the most viewed posts on the planet. While not many will admit to it, almost all of us love to be inspired.

2. Tell your story

   Think your story is boring or you’ve got nothing to say. Think again. We are all unique and what may appear to be dull to us might be very uplifting to others.

3. Talk about another inspiring person

   It might be somebody who is close to you eg Mother, brother or boss or somebody who has influenced you eg Nelson Mandella, Tony Robbins.

4. Post a motivational quote

   Go to your favourite motivator and post one of their quotes BUT acknowledge them in the quote.

5. Beating the odds

   Have you overcome a challenge? Beaten a huge obstacle. Post your story. What about an improvement in your career? It’s all inspiring.

6. Your daily routine

   Routines are usually boring but when listed they can be very inspiring to others. Let people know your wake at 5, walk until 6 and read an uplifting book until 7 am five days a week.

7. Have you mastered the ‘work-life’ balance thing

   Not many have but if you’ve got a few secrets, share them. Some people have four day weekends every two months. Others bush walk two weekends a month. What’s your secret sauce keeping you from burnout.

8. Who’s a joy to be around?

   Share their story. We need more joy in our world

Timely Posts

1. National holidays

   Post something about Christmas, Easter, Father’s Day or Labor Day. Why not add a competition to this like a colouring in competition.

2. Industry news

   Interest rate cut announcements from the Reserve Bank are always well read. Everybody wants to know how their hip pocket will be affected.

3. Weather influences

   What if your area or neighbouring area is being affected by fire, water or wind. Post Emergency Service details advising people where they can get help.

4. Sporting event

   Is it a sporting holiday in your city? Let followers know. Connect this post with others to send it viral. eg AFL Grand Final.

5. Special events

   International Women’s Day, National Left Handed Day, Queensland Day. Google a calendar of special days for more ideas.

Hashtag Crazy

Real Estate Hashtags

1. #realty
2. #brokerage
3. #realestate
4. #listing
5. #greatvalue
6. #Realtors
7. #NAR
8. #luxuryrealestate
9. #mansion
10. #HUDhome
11. #foreclosure
12. #househunting
13. #makememove
14. #luxuryliving
15. #homegoals
16. #housegoals
17. #investmentproperty
18. #emptynest
19. #broker
20. #realestateagent
21. #locationlocationlocation
22. #FSBO
23. #ICNY
24. Listing hashtags
25. #openhouse
26. #offmarketlisting
27. #pocketlisting
28. #newlisting
29. #homeforsale
30. #renovated
31. #marblecounters
32. #eatinkitchen
33. #motherinlawsuite
34. #petfriendly
35. #dogsokay
36. #catsokay
37. #condo
38. #coop
39. #twofamily
40. #midcenturymodern
41. #colonial
42. #Victorian
43. #bungalow
44. #shotgunshack
45. #starterhome
46. #cashcow
47. #caprate
48. #dreamhome
49. #fixandflip
50. #turnkeyinvestment
51. #curbappeal
52. #justsold
53. #selling
54. #townhouse
55. #brownstone
56. #frontporch
57. #parking
58. #pool
59. #whattheheck
60. #openhouse
61. #offmarketlisting
62. #pocketlisting
63. #newlisting
64. #homeforsale
65. #renovated
66. #marblecounters
67. #eatinkitchen
68. #motherinlawsuite
69. #petfriendly
70. #dogsokay
71. #catsokay
72. #condo
73. #coop
74. #twofamily
75. #midcenturymodern
76. #colonial
77. #Victorian
78. #bungalow
79. #shotgunshack
80. #starterhome
81. #cashcow
82. #caprate
83. #dreamhome
84. #fixandflip
85. #turnkeyinvestment
86. #curbappeal
87. #justsold
88. #selling
89. #townhouse
90. #brownstone
91. #frontporch
92. #parking
93. #pool
94. Branding hashtags
95. #yourbrokerage
96. #realestateexperts
97. #referrals
98. #yourpersonalbrand
99. #reducedfee
100. #discountbroker
101. #your farm area + expert
102. #your farm area + brokerage
103. #your farm area + personal branding
104. #yourfarmleader
105. #yourbrokerage
106. #realestateexperts
107. #referrals
108. #yourpersonalbrand
109. #reducedfee
110. #discountbroker
111. #your farm area + expert
112. #your farm area + brokerage
113. #your farm area + personal branding

Your Personal Favourites

Let people into your private world and share a few favourite things.

1. What’s your favourite book?

   It doesn’t have to be about real estate. Are you a C T Mitchell fan? Is romance your favourite genre.

2. Favourite podcast

   What industry podcasts do you listen to? Is there a great podcast on food that you wouldn’t miss. Share it with your followers.

3. Favourite YouTube channel

   Do you watch Gary Vaynerchuk for your daily dose of inspiration. Does Mel Robbins lift your day?

4. Favourite resource

   What’s one thing you can’t do with out? For me it’s my automated email provider GetResponse. Do you rely on the fitness app My Fitness Pal. Share yours.

5. Favourite indulgence

   Are you a secret chocolate eater? Do you love an iced cold chardonnay at 5 pm? Can you not do without hot chips and gravy?

6. Favourite influencer

   I’m a big Seth Godin fan. I need my daily fix. Who is yours. Let the world know.

7. Favourite online university

   Udemy gets my vote. 30,000 course on just about everything you want to know about and do.

You The Expert

1. Write an article

   Blogging is still big and is great for your website’s SEO. Promote the article link via Facebook or LinkedIn and gain more readers.But you’re not sure how to write an article.

2. FAQ Friday’s

   In real estate we get a lot of questions asked over and over again. Instead of being reactive to the questions, why not be proactive by posting say every Friday at a regular time like 2pm your answers to frequently asked questions.Video is a great way to do these as it also introduces you and your team to your audience. The videos don’t need to be long; 2 minutes is ample.

3. What’s working now?

   I’m not referring to posting your marketing secrets so your competitors can copy but rather letting your buying and selling audience know what’s working well.Evidence removes doubt and the more times your post results of your marketing campaigns or auction programs producing outstanding results the more often incoming buyers or sellers will adopt your recommendations.

4. Spotlight an Award winner

   Do you employ a top selling agent who has just picked up a coveted award? Is the Property Manager of the Year working with you? Is it you? Tell the world.

5. Short How-to-videos

   Let people know how they can bid at an auction by posting a short informative video. Are you good at giving makeover tips? What about quick renovation ideas that can be completed in under 15 minutes.

6. Infographics are cool

   Infographics condense information into an easy to read document. Because they are viually enticing, infographics have become very popular.

7. One-on-one coaching live

   Do you coach people in real estate. Are you seeking more clients? Live video coaching calls demonstrate your style and assist in getting you more business.

8. Money making tips

   Everybody likes to save money. Post ideas about gardening tips that don’t cost a fortune. Show ideas about recycling.Vintage wares are making a comeback and can be very trendy.

9. Solve a problem

   What are the top 10 problems your landlords face regularly. Create posts around these and promote to your Facebook page as well as including in your email blasts.

10. Quick Hacks

    Know a little tips passed down through your family and gets a great result quickly. It doesn’t have to be about real estate. What about your Grannies tip of adding lemonade to your scone mix to make them rise more and be fluffy to eat.

Ask A Question

1. Create a poll

   Do you think interest rates will rise this month – yes or no? Would you sell your house using the auction method – yes or no?

2. What’s your favourite

   Bedroom colour. Your spring flower choice. Again you could combine this with a prize. eg Tell us your favourite flower and we’ll give one lucky follower entry to the Sydney Flower Show.

3. Fill in the blank

   The best coffee shop in Richmond is __________

4. Get some feedback

   How are we doing? Can we get your feedback? What do you think of our new website? We’ve just updated the signs on our shop – what do you think?

Let’s Get Personal

1. A Fun Fact

   Bet you didn’t know this about us/our company/our property manager

2. You on holidays

   Post a pic of you on your latest holiday. Perhaps end it with a question. What’s you favourite holiday destination? Are you a beach or snow loving person?

3. What are you reading now

   Show the latest book you are reading. Are you a subscriber to a rel estate publication – show it. Are you just chilling out with the latest copy of Mindful. Let your followers into your world.

4. Relaxation time

   How do you relax? An afternoon by the pool? Coffee with friends? A massage?

5. What’s on your bucket list

   Post a pic of the Orient Express if that’s on your bucket list. Perhaps you are a little more daring and you want to parachute out of a plane.

Stand Out Pictures

1. Before and after photos

   Has one of your clients recently done a home renovation? Show the before and after pics. Landscaping and no landscaping. The before dilapidated fence to the now white picket stand out fence.

2. Behind the scenes

   Show some pics of your team hard at work. “Getting your home ready for sale takes a lot of dedicated effort. We want to get it right for you”.

3. Before and after selfie

   Are you on a diet? Show your before and after pics. What about weekend and work day pics.

4. Show a demo

   Do you use a software program that benefits your landlords. Post it to highlight what it does which in turn shows your point of difference

5. Sneak peek

   What’s coming. Everybody loves to be first in. Are you changing brands? Post a pic of your old shopfront signs coming down and a glimpse of the new brand.

Conclusion

Using the social media post ideas for real estate will save you time in coming up with ideas. If you take these ideas and put them into a scheduler you’ll cut down your time even further.

The post ideas will help build your engagement on your platform. Pick the platform where your customers hang out and you’ll get the best reaction for your channel.

Get started today, be consistent and start growing your brand.

Want to have all of the above organised for you? Want to cut down your thinking time even further? Grab thi s social media calendar today where all the work has been done for you.

Nowadays there is huge competition prevailing in the online marketplaces. Thus, it has become very important to improve your online sales process and provide a better user-friendly experience. However, you will need effective tips to connect with your potential customers on your social media channels. By using the right plan, you can improve the experience of your visitors and create more sales.

In this post, you will explore seven tips for improving online sales using social media:

1. Use messaging services to offer excellent sales support

You must focus on providing sales support by using native chatting within every social network. By using conversational e-commerce you can use the messaging services that will help you to personalize, automate and customize your communication. These messaging apps have become great go-to-choices for many customers. It helps them to directly interact with companies as these apps have increased engagement and retention rates.

So, if you aren’t using messaging apps to automate confirmations and for selling, you’re losing a big social e-commerce opportunity. However, make sure to be careful while using automated chat apps such as Facebook Messenger Bots.

2. Analyse conversations about your brand and services

When it comes to participating in conversations with your customer’s social media is the most effective tool. However, the continuous attack by customers make it difficult to determine the useful information. Thus, keeping an eye on your users online activities will help you to understand the confusing situations. You will be able to generate more leads and create effective marketing strategies.

Brand listening is the skills of developing important insights by analysing your clients’ conversations about your services, brand, and competitors. However, you will need to need to focus on more than simply monitoring your official social media accounts.

3. Encourage your users to share their personal experience

There is no doubt that the success of every social media is not based how much they talk about themselves. Instead, it depends on how much their customers talk about their services and brand. Thus, you must provide your customers an option to share their experience before, during and after making a purchase.

A recent evidence has shown that 1 out of 3 Facebook user has first shared, liked and commented the product prior to purchasing it.

4. Provide easy and quick buying options on your social channels

These days we can see a great expansion in retail sales that are driven by social channels. In these channels buying buttons play a major role in generating more sales. With the help of the buy buttons your clients can make smooth and secure purchases from within the social networks. This reduces the need to follow a multi-step process and limit it to a single click sale process.

5. Feature User-generated content (UGC)

The content that is created and shared by your customers, followers and fans on social channels also generate content – User-generated content (UGC). They either create it instinctively or through other options like giveaways or contests. Curating UGC’s work effectively for e-commerce businesses. Usually, people who see UGC are 97% more likely to buy your services, according to Business Insider.

The content generated in the form of images by the customers also work effectively. In fact, 77% of online shoppers choose Instagram pictures when they were to make a choice between UGC (like images posted on Instagram’s) and professional images (given on the pages of product description). When you use authentic pictures it works as a social proof, enhance your ad performance, attract high-intent visitors from Instagram to product pages and improve on-site conversion rates.

6. Develop seasonal and business-related content

Almost all eCommerce businesses create effective business-related according to the seasonal calendar. They perform very well in generating sales, creating special offers, incentives and emails. They also outdo at stocking their social channels with announcements about all related seasonal e-commerce activities.

But when you create seasonal content that isn’t highly promotional most stores fall short. Therefore, it is best to stay organized with an effective content creation platform on your social media channel.

7. Create social-friendly visuals

Nearly all businesses using social streams are hard pressed to create social-friendly content. As users are more knowledgeable and they avoid generic stock images. According to a Chute Digi day Study over 70% of users find it at least two times more effective to use pictures than only written content alone.

However, the problem arises when a web owner is not able to hire a professional designer. In that case, you can consider using Buffer’s Pablo, which offers more than 600,000 royalty-free photos to choose from. On the other hand, if you need pictures for graphics and infographics, using Venn gage will be a great option. It offers hundreds of design templates to generate detailed images quickly. These templates are usually are categorized into Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. So, you can choose pictures according to your level of expertise.

As the year 2018 has started it makes sense that in this new year what could be the biggest social media changes that can be expected.

Typically, the world of social media has witnessed a continuous growth in technology and innovation. Every day some new innovations are seen, or new announcements are heard.

So, let’s discuss the prospective trends that can follow in this year and ways in which the social media managers can plan for these changes.

1.Continuous growth in the Live video content.

Recently Facebook announced some changes to its News Feed algorithm that will change itself based on the type of content users that shifting from the user’s friends and families to the type of content or pages which the user’s followers. This further implies that it is going to initiate an intensive discussion among the users as they share a content in their own private network.

2. Messaging apps will be an important mode of communication.

Today there are various messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat etc. Almost 4 billion people use these kinds of messaging Apps to communicate with the each other. These kinds of Apps provide a much faster and easier way to contact people. In fact, using messaging for customer service is more far more scale and lesser to cost especially for businesses and customer services.

3. Virtual reality on the rise of better marketing experiences.

In the era of Artificial Intelligence Virtual Reality is making the headlines. With its unique features, it creates a memorable experience unlike other mediums in the field of marketing. In fact, due to this brand are instantly acknowledging its value.

4. Voice search and AI will be the game changer

As the development continues the voice-powered devices which are quick in responding to the verbal commands are heavily dependent on Artificial Intelligence. As we can see in the market that some voice controlled for personal help are being built into a few devices that we use such as smart speakers, TVs etc.

The other innovation where Artificial Intelligence plays an important role is in autonomous vehicle technology continues to progress. Based on this technology, it is apparent that voice activation will be certainly used for the self-driving cars too. As these kinds of vehicles will be equipped with voice-powered capabilities that will allow the drivers to execute other functions like making phone calls without taking your hands away from the steering.

5. A boom in Live Streaming

There will be an outgrowth of Live streaming and we are going to see a lot more to it. The presence of Live Streaming will increase as it works. For instance, through this technology, we get an upgrade in the phones every day.

6. Online Hangouts will be the order of the Day

The online hangouts are trending fast with the Generation Z which believes in more of socializing and partying. In fact, Online Hangouts goes hand in hand with the VR.

7. Influencer Marketing will be at the Focal point in the Social Media Engagement

The influence of marketing is a Big business with a billion-dollar riding on it. In fact, there are many people mint money up to 6 figures through influencer marketing.

It has a huge impact on the millennials in making their career choices and kind of choices they make in everyday life such as the kinds of products they want to buy.

8. Making stories with Instagram

From a marketing standpoint, the Instagram stories will have a lot of relevance as compared to another marketing platform. There is a flood of Instagram stories which accounts for almost 10,000 followers.

Do you know that your teenagers must pay attention to their social media habits at least by their junior year in High School? If they don’t then you as a parent must step in and do something about it.

Back in the 1960’s colleges did not care about teenagers and their social skills online to enter into college. Although in the 21st Century it seems to be the biggest Bling in successful college entries. As a parent I can testify that I have limited time, energy and money to help my teenager get into a great college. The cost of living has decreased, my Budget and funding is limited. Even when the teenager chooses a college there is no guarantee that a reliable job market will be there in the end of their educational degree of choice.

QUOTE: “In 2008 only 10% of Colleges checked applications social media activities and now in the year 2012 approximately 80% of colleges check social media activities.”

Isn’t that startling?!!

What is social media? It is photo’s videos and graphics that show and reveal the gifts and talents of future college student’s activities. There are so many great social networking sites to be a part of and be a part of a community. FaceBook, YouTube and Twitter are the big three that most are online with sharing today.

Diane Griffin suggests parents ask their teens what social network sites they participate on and to see what they post online. If it is not “college approval” then the teen needs to consider changing it to become more professional to get into a great college. Parents need to ask and become aware of this to help a teenager get into a college more easily. Diane also talks about how the teen can talk to alumni of a college to get a feel for the college and also feel more comfortable if they want to visit. The alumni student might be able to take your teenager through a walk-though of the college a year or so before the final decision is made. I know as a parent I would want that for my daughter now.

This is a wonderful book for parents and teenagers to fully equip you with the knowledge of what to do before your teen tries getting into a college. Diane’s book will give you “A Novice’s Social Networking Cheat sheet,” which every parent of a college bound teen should have.” The cheat sheet helps me now as my daughter will attend college in the fall. I have already applied for and got approval for filling out the FAFSA form. Please look it up if you need future assistance.

2012 Jackie Paulson All Rights Reserved

As a business owner or marketing strategist, social media is an important tool to increase brand awareness, we can see social media like a cocktail party, where you can have networking and fun. I will explain 10 Must-Haves in your campaign to rock your social media strategy.

1. BE INTERESTING.

According to BBC News the average attention span is less than 12 seconds, thanks to multiple devices and a lot of distractions is really hard to stay focused and maintain the audience entertained. The only way is generating interesting content in relation to your service or product, there are a lot of formats according to each channel like videos, interactive images, and useful information applicable to their needs.

The best example is TED Talks, their content is about generating content through guest speakers of the most trendy and interesting topics in different industries.

2. BE AN EXPERT ON YOUR AUDIENCE INTERESTS.

Rule number 1. The more you know about your target, your strategy perform will better. Who are you talking to? What do they do? Why they buy your product/service? What are they doing? Where are they from? Which type of content are they interested in?

Netflix knows us well, if you are watching comedy movies, they will recommend other ones of the same type, the recommendations are driven by machine learning algorithms analyzing your interests and behaviors.

3. BE PART OF THE INFLUENCER TREND.

The storytelling of influencer marketing is more realistic, and the followers can feel connected and identified with their daily life. Marketers are increasing their budget on influencers thanks to the impact on their audience.

Fiji water did a partnership with the influencer Danielle Bernstein who is a fashion blogger offering workout videos with her personal trainer. The goal was to highlight the importance of hydrating if you want to feel and look good, the campaign name is #weworewhat with #bodyworewhat.

4. BE EMOTIONAL.

We are human beings and even we live in a connected world, we want to feel different emotions on ads and campaigns to take the experience to the next level. The campaigns that get a connection with their audience are the ones who will last for a long time in their minds.

Dove is the brand taking the beauty perception as its core strategy, they don’t sell soaps, they sell beauty to women empower them to gain esteem.

5. BE FUN.

To engage your audience, you need to be unique and enjoy this job. Choose a game, a funny quote, a meme, depending on your service or product to get your audience attention.

Test, measure and repeat, you never know how your campaign is going in comparison with other campaigns, just make experiments and make them run to see what happens.

6. BE AWARE OF YOUR DATA.

Imagine if you just do campaigns and don’t measure their performance, you maybe will get the results you want but, you don’t know what exactly is causing a conversion or working with your audience. With your data, you can optimize your campaign and bidding.

A great example is Amazon, do you imagine this revolutionary business without data? Data gives the information and the information gives the power.

7. BE INBOUND.

Inbound marketing is a whole strategy to increase the traffic to your website and create conversions to get new customers. Content marketing is one part of that strategy, the first step is identifying the pain points of the brand and competitor’s analysis. Then, create a persona (with the information you have on point 2), create content offering value to your audience and make it with a CTA (Call to Action) where you can redirect them into a landing page and you can proceed with a sales strategy.

Chipotle captured gaming fans, chipotle fans with a successful inbound strategy about “Chipotle Taste Invaders” with a laser tag shooting burrito, fighting against additives and educating the customer about the burrito ingredients.

8. BE CREATIVE.

Remember you need to captivate your audience with your campaign and it’s not necessary just explaining the products and services. One of the best campaigns is Metro Trains with “Dumb ways to die” with catchy music and cartoon characters getting in the top 10 on iTunes in 24 hours.

9. BE HONEST.

And this is a little related of why influencer marketing is so successful now, the truth is that you will obtain your customer’s loyalty and retain them with honesty and transparency; if they trust you, you are a winner. Put yourself in a scenario where you are really hungry and there is a new restaurant that someone told you about it, but you’re not 100% sure of how healthy it is, then, you realized they cook your meal in front of you; that will make you feel confident about how they prepare the food, what type of ingredients and if it’s fresh. The same happens with your company, the more transparent your product or service is, the better your audience will accept it.

One company with a lot of negative comments about their quality food is McDonald’s. To attack this, the company creates a transparent marketing campaign called “Our Food. Your Questions” Where McDonald’s answer all your concerns about their food.

10. BE A FRIEND.

This is my favorite part, to see the importance of these channels. Back in the days, we wouldn’t think about Facebook to a way of communication of resolving inquiries or issues with a brand. Today you can take Customer Service to a whole experience making it so personal like you’re in the store, providing that, you are saving time, energy and effort to the customer having a satisfied customer or just changing their perception if they had an inconvenience.

The best example is a lovely response from Lego, who could just reply with a “standard message” but it was so personalized and unexpected that went viral to all channels.

Check out your current campaign strategy and think about the above information and try to implement it to your own business.

Megan, a college sophomore at Indiana University, punched her credit card number into a website with a mailing address somewhere in China. She needed to buy a new $800, 36″ plasma TV with FREE DELIVERY for her Sorority House. Seems that there was an “accident” that found the old TV in the bathtub wearing a pink tee shirt and a happy face drawn on it with lipstick–the day after a weekend “study party.”

Megan’s dad at home in Park Ridge, IL meanwhile, shreds enough junk mail daily to stuff enough scarecrows to protect all of Iowa’s corn crop, and he melts old credit cards on the stove and burns every other document that list his name-even the bill from the lawn mowing service for raking leaves. He believes that punching in a credit card into a computer is like giving his cash to the devil to buy coal. Too risky.

Generational differences in how ecommerce and communication online is perceived, accepted or not is a hot topic and the biggest challenge for marketers to get Megan’s dad to pony up his credit card to buy online, trust the system or sign up for a social media site and get hip, man. Like any other technology, change is unwelcome when it involves a lot of reprogramming the mind as well as the remote control. Simply suggesting a shift in how to view a topic can be enough to get a new dialogue started.

One way to define these differences in generational views of the web is to use a invented word to describe this phenomenon. Here it is: Ecabulary. Yes, it sounds more like a medical term describing a part of your lower gastro intestinal tract, yet it’s a easy way to differentiate some subtle and big shifts in psychology of using the ecommerce more each day.

Psychology and the internet–how we buy, sell , research, learn, listen, talk, etc. is still less than 20 years old. Concepts of trust, intimacy, emotions and expectations are falling under different levels of personal adjustment and acceptance based on demographics, gender, race, culture, religion, education, geography, as well as the sophistication level of one’s employer and the technology utilized in daily work.

Here’s a list of some examples of old vocabulary expectations and new ecabulary realizations highlights differences and perception of consumers regarding ecommerce.

Relationship-Elationship: We think of relationships in a more emotional aspect of the human connection: see, touch, smell, hear. We’re able to use all our tactile senses to size up relationships as they grow. Elationships are fragments of data, we don’t always know where, what, why, how or who that “someone is” behind the font or even the picture. Their voice to us is words. No inflection, cadence, accent, pacing, breathing, laughter, sadness, etc. We begin to form opinions of this someone from only a few clues-relying on our bias, stereotypes and level of intellect to form judgments or rationalize the situation. Trust and commitment is a deeper concern and lingers on.

Intimacy-Etimacy: Intimacy is a highly charged word in humans; a word saved for special things, special people and rarely used by us in a casual context. Intimacy in ecommerce can be dangerous to our emotional balance because we want to believe the person’s expressions and sincerity in whatever dialogue we’re having, yet the lack of tactile clues and belief of a viable, validated/legitimate peer leads to perpetual suspicion for many people. Etimacy is much more restrictive and guarded than what would be described as intimacy.

Authenticity-Ethenticity: Authentic suggests a certain grounded-ness and genuineness to something be it a product, food, recipes, friendships and the like. Ethenticity relative to products, services and social network relationships are missing parts of human touch and the chemistry that goes with it. Fragmented conversations, days between twitters, tweets and postings creates inconsistent messages, raising doubts to the authentic intentions of the relationships. Delayed gratification becomes a lost art.

Deal-Eal: Doing business, making a deal on a handshake and a promise is not part of our web world. Enter ecommerce and the “Eal.” No face, no handshake, no voice-only a PayPal logo, a security firewall that “looks authentic” and we give our credit card number to a stranger because the website looks legitimate, or should we say “egitimate?” Either way we’ve become more conditioned, even desensitized, to giving away data we long held in total secrecy unless we say the eyeballs of the person we’re making the deal.

Emotion-Eemotion: Similar to intimacy, emotion can be based on words written, photos that could be real or stock photos from Getty Images. Graphs, testimonials, a video presentation, as well can be 100% truthful, yet because no physical presence, a slight doubt can linger. No voice inflection, eye contact, sweat on the forehead, the broken arm in a cast, the child standing next to you. For us primates that have been programmed for face recognition, ecommerce is a challenge.

Opportunity-Epportunity: Suspicion hangs over ecommerce as long as deceptive people and thieves live on earth. Risk is ever-present and we continue to seek more checks and balances the higher the price tag goes. Brand name businesses have the edge in the trust factor.

Reputation-Eputation: Social networking sites are getting better at dismissing the fakes. LinkedIn and others have filters and kill switches that will cut out those who are reported as liars or deceptive. Big companies have an easier time selling their brand as legit than the plasma TV folks online in China, but this is changing.

Voice-Evoice: Tones, pitch, timbre, baritone, tenor, nasal, bass, soothing, irritating, authoritative, dimwitted-all describe human voice. Evoices lack the human element of comparing/contrasting and reference points. Evoices can’t elicit memories or help us retrieve clues to help us make decisions or confirm impressions. Evoice is hard to create a brand called “individual personality” or humanness that helps ground us. A customer service tech named Steve, living in India, is hard to accept for some skeptics living in Omaha.

Identity-Edentity: Like the Second Life site of make believe for adults, our identity outside ecommerce is composed of experiences we’ve left with others, as well as the residue we take with from them. Identity, as defined as “you” is complex and ever-changing in our perceptions of self as we grow, learn, love, fail, or succeed. Edentity can be made to be magically perfect. Flaws, faults, blemishes and age lines can be erased liked the ecommerce video ads wipe soap scum way in two seconds. One’s edentity can be intentionally or unconsciously fabricated to fit our modified public self we choose to present and leave the wrinkles and bad stuff off the record. Like the weight stated on your driver license: it never changes for some people.

Peers-Eers: Credentials, accomplishments, press, media exposure, pages on Google can suggest more power, fame-even wealth than is actually the case. Illusions abound and smoke and mirrors are on sale now. Peers know you one way, but Eers only see the face of the public relations spin and marketing angle whether be your Facebook, LinkedIn, your alumni bio, or your company profile. What appears on screen can be distorted and presumed to be something more or less than what the real person behind the credentials is all about. Good or bad, the consequences of basing decisions solely on Eers words can last a long time.

Perception-Erception: Like reputation and Relations, Perception is based on combined experiences a person has to form certain biases, or heuristic devices to make fast decisions. Ecommerce affords more tools to the intended marketer to sway or dis-sway a person from doing something without more data, clues or time to decide. “If you don’t purchase these tickets in 2 minutes, they will be put back into the For Sale slot.” Decide NOW!

Attitude-Ettitude: Attitude is courted by intention and self-confidence status. Ettitude can be masked and distorted with phrasing and pictures to persuade based on guilt, fear, loss, authority, scarcity, social proof, habit, consistency, among other elements of persuasion theory. Attitude when turned to Ettitude takes time to sort and define all the messages and intentions.

Energy-Egerny: Personal energy is more than physical activities like gestures, fast walk/run, facial movements, rate of speech, etc. Energy is an aura that surrounds a person in ways we can’t always define. Intellectual, sexual, athletic, business energies are all different. Egerny is subjective, and, once again, be manufactured to be what the provider wants to present. Like edited video tapes, different messages can come from the same mouth.

Credibility-Eredibility: Longevity, loyalty, success, value-all part of credibility. Eredibility relies on ecommerce policies and others to police the web to sort through the bad product and swindlers. Credibility remains with compelling value, stayed products and consistent reviews. Longevity in business is not a ecommerce value due to its adolescence age. Value is the operant word.

Behavior-Ehavior: Bad behavior/Bad ehavior all get noticed fast and word spreads even faster. Fortunately, some things remain the same.

Believe-Elieve: One phrase describes the similarities: Trust from other sources to confirm our impressions.

If you’re selling products and services via ecommerce, ask yourself these questions as you constantly revise your marketing/branding/deliverables via the latest technology:

1. Does our product or service marketing tools point to strong trust and consistency in the vocabulary/ecabulary of ecommerce?

2. Do we allow/encourage/direct the customer to utilize as many human senses as possible to experience our product/service to make a decision faster and confidently?

3. What can you do to add one more emotional trigger for the customer’s sense of sight, sound, touch, taste, smell that will keep their attention longer?

4. Is there a way to allow the customer to become more interactive and experiential in the purchase or review as they shop?

These four questions allow you to consider not only all the tactile potentiality of a customer’s needs, but encourages you to look for other add-ons of experience and tie-ins/alliances to secure all the senses. For example, offering free music downloads, humor utilizing with video or clever ads, coupons, videos that instruct, etc. seek out alliances and successful outlets that generate that certain buzz that you desire. Ride their wave, rent their waves if you have to.

Lastly, watch for themes, traditional events/celebrations and current events to tie the customers present sensory states that are being bombarded in our 24/7 world of news updates and tie your story and products/services into their real need right now.

Follow these ideas and you secure more revenue, er, evenue for your business from Megan…and her dad.

Hosting a contest is a very effective marketing strategy that has been around long before the internet. It’s been around a long time because it works. It helps bring in buyers, cause a buzz, and spread brand awareness. A good contest can pay off for years to come due to the publicity that occurs long after it’s over.

Know Who You’re Targeting

If you don’t know what your goal is and who you’re targeting with the contest, you might not succeed. Is your goal to get more email sign-ups so that you can nurture them and sell to them later? Is your goal to sell products directly? Setting this part up right is essential to your success.

Choose the Right Type of Prize

This is another essential component of your contest. If you don’t select the right prize, you may have freebie seekers joining. You want the prize to be related to your product (or be your product) and something only the audience who wants the product will be keen to get.

Add Incentives to Act Now

Don’t let the contest go on forever. Make it short and sweet so that you can get onto the real thing fast. A contest that lasts too long will get boring for people. Don’t give it more than a week, but do talk about it more than the week leading up to it to give them notice.

Track and Test Everything

When you set up your goals, you’ll want to match each goal with something you can track using your analytics software. You can use Google Analytics or if you’re using special software such as email software, it may have native tracking solutions to use. Don’t assume why things are happening as they are; know why by studying the data.

Build Up to the Contest

Don’t just launch the contest on the first day. Instead, talk about it while you’re planning it. As you talk about these things, you’ll be creating buzz and excitement about the contest in advance, so people will be ready to go when it launches.

Stay Excited and Show It

When you’re hosting a contest, it’s up to you to jazz people up and get them excited. Talk about it before, during, and after. Do Facebook Live videos so that people can hear and see your excitement. Excitement is contagious.

Follow Up

Don’t just let the contest be over and die. Instead, make sure you follow up with people who got on your list due to the contest, to affiliates that did very well, and to your audience by letting them know about the winner that you brag about via your social media and blog.

Let’s explore becoming a blogger and the proper use of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn advertising on your blog and website. Facebook and Twitter have very specific instructions for using their logos, but it seems that on the Internet, very few people are following those guidelines. If you have any questions, you should ask your attorney. Having said that, there are common practices that webmasters and bloggers are using to promote their brand on these social media sites.

It is not legal to take someone else’s brand and alter it. But the Twitter and Facebook logo are everywhere and that is what has made these social media sites so famous. Facebook and Twitter both have trademarks on their logo and their iconography. For example, Twitter’s trademark is the little blue bird. They have their name and logo trademarked, therefore, you can not alter them.

Their guidelines are important so pay attention to those guidelines in relation to their name and logo allowed use. Legally you can not take their brand or trademark and alter them. Both Facebook and Twitter do allow, however, certain kinds of things. Facebook allows webmasters to use the “F” in a square and use it on your branding and include text, for example, “Fan us on Facebook”. They do not allow you, however, to use the F in a different color or FB in a different color. These are their general guidelines. Twitter, on the other hand, does not want you to put a T in side of a blue square. So what you as a webmaster need to ask yourself is whether or not you want to comply with their general guidelines. If you have any questions, it is best to ask an attorney or read their guidelines on the Facebook or Twitter website.

It is not recommended, for example, to use a little F or a little T on any of your online branding at all. A little T that says “Follow us on Twitter” or a little F that says “Fan us on Facebook” could actually cause your website to lose valuable traffic because all this does is encourage visitors to leave your website. It sends people away from your website to the social media giants. Instead, what is recommended is to employ the widgets that are available for webmasters to put on their site so that visitors can like you on Facebook or follow you on Twitter without leaving your website. The old way of doing things is sending someone away from your website. The new way is to keep your hard-earned visitors at your website. By using these widgets, visitors can become a fan or a follower without ever leaving your website. Keep visitors on your website while at the same time encouraging them to be fans or followers. It’s a win-win strategy.

Your Blog and Your Web Hosting Account

Content marketing is a well-known successful way to market a business online without spending a great deal of money on advertising. Blogs are a main way to attract leads and educate prospects. With some companies, all their leads come from their blog and they do not need to do any advertising whatsoever. Instead of spending a great deal of money on advertising, these companies post 500 word articles to their blogs on a daily or weekly basis. Many business owners have been able to leave their 9-5 jobs because of blogging. These companies use blog posts as their number one strategy for advertising. Build a strong following by blogging. It is a great way to start without advertising and spending a great deal of money on a start-up. Blogging is a cost efficient way to build a company online. With your own web hosting account, you will have blogging software that makes it easy to get started blogging and posting your content on your own website or blog.

Traits of Successful Bloggers

What are the traits that someone should have to become a successful blogger? Start with the notion that there are five roles that people play. Every person has at least one of these traits or roles.

Five Traits of Successful Bloggers

1. Are you a dreamer? You are a visionary and you want to tell people about it.
2. Are you a good storyteller?
3. Are you a teacher?
4. Are you a persuader? Every person has an opinion.
5. Are you a curator? A collector of ideas is a helpful trait for blogging.

The idea is to take that one trait that you have, recognize it, and build on it. Some people have more than one of the above traits, which is also good. An example is to take your trait and incorporate real-life events into a blog post. Successful bloggers have one trait and everybody does have one of these traits. If you have more than one or even all of these traits, it is even better. Some people have a natural tendency to blog. Ask your friends or family members to tell you which of these traits you have in your DNA. You will get some interesting feedback.

Do You Need to Be a Good Writer to Be a Good Blogger?

When people think of writing, they think of Pulitzer Prize winning books. That is not the case with blogging. With blogging, you need to be a great conversational writer. Do you have an easy, natural way to get your point across? If, for example, you can sit down with a person and have a drink with them and enjoy a good conversation with that person, you can be a blogger. As a blogger, you wouldn’t talk to that person like you are in a board room, but rather you would talk to that person like they were your friend. You need to be able to communicate in a way that builds rapport and relationships.

How Is a Blog Writer Different Than an Article Writer?

A blog writer is looking to start a relationship that is very personal. Your own opinion is infused in that writing. Even the structure of blog writing is different than articles. Your blog articles need to be intimate and give the reader a feel for who you are. It is very personal. Be a conversationalist. Have a dialogue that is easy for people to follow. Speak in every day terms and your blog writing will resonate with people. If you have trouble starting a blog article, you can always talk it out and record it, then transcribe it back into text format.

Technology That Can Help You Write

There are a lot of great technology options that can help you to write. Text-to-speech tools like “Dragon Naturally Speaking” let you talk and have it transcribed. If you have an iPhone, Siri will do it. Use your voice to write the article and save time. This technique is also helpful if you have trouble writing because it makes the task more of a conversation, rather than writing. This is exactly what blogging involves.

It is not just about text. Video blogging is another way to advertise using blogging. Writing is only one way to express yourself on a blog.

How Do You Decide if You Have What It Takes to Be a Blogger?

1. Do you have an obsession with a topic? This goes beyond with a passion for a topic because if you are talking or writing about your topic every day, you must be borderline obsessed with the topic, otherwise you might not be able to sustain yourself on your topic. You don’t want blogging to be a chore so choose a topic that you are obsessed with.
2. Are there others like you? If you start a blog about a certain topic, you need to have an audience that is interested in your topic.
3. Assess whether you have a marathon or sprinter mind-set. Successful bloggers have one of these two mind-sets. In some cases, a successful blogger can take years. Define your craft, take time, put yourself in a zone of kicking out content, refining it, and realistically looking at what your vision is for your blog in two years. Expect nothing to happen for two years because blogging definitely takes time to become successful. In the beginning, don’t expect any re-tweets or comments for a while. For the first three years, you can literally have only one or two hundred visitors visiting your blog. When you finally figure out essentially the kinds of blogging strategies that “work” in your industry, that’s when you will see results. Eventually, it is very possible to have several hundred thousands of visitors to your blog which can lead to a completely sustainable business of your own as a result of blogging. It doesn’t have to take you that long to be successful. In the early days of blogging, no one really knew what they were doing. The good news is that now there are many strategies outlined on the Internet that can give you a head start. No point re-inventing the wheel.

Tips on How to Create Content

Stick with it. Know that you are fighting the good fight. Train your brain to notice potential topics by writing down every idea that pops into your head. It doesn’t matter if you are writing these ideas on post-it notes, index cards, or on your iPad. Just let your brain learn that every good idea is going to be noticed and used in some way.

Turn content creation into a habit. Set aside some time for at least a couple of weeks when you tell yourself that it is your “time” to create content. Make a daily appointment with yourself. If you are a night person, set aside a couple of hours, for example, between 10:00 and midnight. Turn content creation into a habit. Content creation during your most productive time of day will help you to kick out some great material because it will become a habit.

Done is better than perfect. Some great bloggers are such perfectionists and are constantly refining and refurbishing their content, but because they are never done with it, the content stays in their draft folder forever. You don’t want your content to stay unfinished. Just get your content out there. Get leverage with yourself by telling people how much content you plan on releasing. This will give you added motivation to deliver on what you have promised by increasing the frequency of your blog posts. You will feel like you need to follow through. Get content out on a regular basis, but be careful with the word “regular”. Be reasonable. Find your tempo and stick with it.

How Do You Find Ideas for Topics to Write About?

If you are super passionate about a certain topic, your friends and colleagues will ask you questions about it. Take notes of those questions because each one can be a blog post. Every time someone asks you a question, pay attention to it. Look at the news section at local book stores or other stores, such as Walmart, and take note of the headlines. What are the headlines and how are the other writers leading up to those headlines in their articles? Crack open the magazines to see how others are addressing news or general topics. It adds fuel to the fire and gives you quick ideas.

Multi-purpose your content. If, for example, you give a presentation somewhere you can take that presentation and multi-purpose it into two or three blog posts, possibly even more. Metaphors are important. If you like to do something, you can use metaphors and write about them in many different ways. You can talk about a topic many different ways.

How Do You Draw People to Your Blog?

To get more readers, you need to be relevant. The daily news is your friend. Look at what is being talked about and find a way to connect it to your topic. This draws people into your blog. Tap into the trends of the moment. Hang out at the watering hole, like forums or other blogs and find out what the audience is being fed. Find out where the audience is hanging out and join in. Be helpful to that community and a fixture in that space. See what people want and jump in. Find out what people want, then write about it. People will see your advise and eventually, people will notice you and come to your blog.

Content hubs are websites that collect a certain type of content and use that to attract an audience. For example, SlideShare is a content hub that collects presentations. They have a really large audience of people looking for presentations. Re-purpose your content and put them on those content hubs and your audience will grow exponentially. You will bring in readers from many different sources.

When you write special reports and package them up in PDF format, take them and turn them into online special reports. Every page can be a blog post. Because the pages are interlinked, Google will see it as relevant and not only index it, but list it higher in searches. That type of content can become very successful. Drip the content out over time and Google will take notice of your interlinked content. If the content is focused on one theme, it will do really well.

Email and Blogging

The connection between email and blogging is very important. Email is critical to a blogger. If you have an email list, you can get people back to your blog on a regular basis. When people join your opt-in email list, you should email those people to let them know whenever you have a new blog post. When things are on your mind, email the people on your list. It builds a relationship. Building a maintaining an email address list is absolutely necessary to build your success over time. If you have a blog, get an email opt-in form on your blog immediately. Most of the people that come to your blog are new after a new blog article is posted because RSS (really simple syndication) has a pull and draws people in. So, the advantage of capturing those visitors’ email addresses is that you can re-seize those peoples’ attention and mobilize them. Write a special report and a good piece of content and people will join your email list. By capturing names and email addresses, you can build a loyal following. When you have something to sell, your email list makes all the difference in the world. Some bloggers say that their email list is what feeds their family. Create a product and offer it to your subscribers.

Your voice is unique. Everything that you have to say is important. There are a lot of bloggers out there, but you owe it to yourself to try. With all the blogging tips and strategies online, you can get up the learning curve very quickly and become a successful blogger.

Web Hosting and Blogging

Which software should you use for blogging?

WordPress is currently the most popular blogging platform. In many cases, you can get it for free with your web hosting account. And it is easy to install. For example, some web hosting providers offer WordPress installed with just a few clicks of your mouse inside your web hosting control panel. Don’t be intimidated by the technology. WordPress is easy to use and easy to learn. There are no barriers that are holding you back. So, start blogging and start today building your email list to build a loyal following. And when you ask yourself why you are working so hard to crank out content. Well, it’s because you are a blogger.