Successful social media experts know what it takes to make social media work for you. Aside from including regular updates, relevant posts, and stand-out content, make sure that you stay involved in each social network in a personal way.

Make Your Social Media Profiles Stand Out

Fill out your profiles in full, and learn what constitutes best practices for profiles on that particular network. Each network has its own personality that you should mind, but let your personality shine through too.

Make the Right Connections

If you can connect with experts and movers and shakers, you’ll be able to get more traction because if you can have a conversation with them, all their followers will see it.

Make Your Business Pages Interactive and Informative

Don’t skimp on making your pages represent your business appropriately. On each social network you can create pages that look awesome and get results.

Share Relevant Industry Topics

If you want to quickly become a go-to expert, find relevant industry news and share it with your followers. Don’t worry, giving it away works.

Join the Conversation

Don’t just be a robot by posting things without ever commenting and entering into discussions with others. You want to jump right in and talk to others just like you would if you were at a live social gathering.

Learn to Use Hashtags Correctly

Hashtags help you organize and search for relevant content on social media. Always use the # before the word, use no punctuation, keep it as short as possible and use letters and numbers.

Advertise Strategically

Running advertisements on social media is a great way to get the word out about a new product or service. However, be strategic when running an advertisement so that you know exactly what you expect to achieve with it.

Use Sponsored Ads and Posts

When you have something important to get across to your audience, it’s important to use sponsored ads where many eyes are on the post. Mind your budget.

Be Yourself When You Post

When you are in a discussion on social media, outside of representing your business you are also representing yourself. Be who you are so that your social media presence has a personality.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel when you get involved with social media marketing. Follow the experts and do what they are doing. Focus on differentiating yourself and being a real person with a unique voice that represents your business.

When you’re on social media, you want to get lots of engagement. Having said that, driving engagement can sometimes be a tedious task. But if you understand what you want, you can ensure that it happens by planning for it, using the right systems to ensure it happens, and then learning from it so you can do it more.

1. Develop an Integrated Content Marketing Strategy

You want the content you share on social media to integrate with the content you publish on your blog and website, email, and elsewhere. It should all have a purpose and a reason for being and a goal in mind.

2. Create and Share Content That Is Member Focused

When the content you create and that others have created is focused on what your audience want to know, need to know, and have an interest in, it will keep people interested. It will make them want to check out your blog, open your emails, and participate more because it’s about them.

3. Share Video Content to Your Groups

Using video content is also a good way to get more engagement. People are more likely to comment on videos, share videos, and even watch the video over text-based content. This is especially true if the video is short and to the point.

4. Tag People in Posts

When you are sharing someone else’s content, or mentioning someone in your content, or think someone would be interested in the content, tag them so that their name shows up to themselves and to others (depending on their privacy settings). This is a great way to get their friends to look too.

5. Schedule Your Content for the Best Times

Using data, determine when the best times and days are to share information with them, and then use scheduling features to share at the time when more people are more likely to see the post.

6. Write Better Headlines to Get Attention

Your headlines matter a lot because some people will just pass over your shares if the headlines aren’t written correctly. You don’t want to trick people, but you do want to get their attention, so it’s a fine line to walk when considering how headlines affect open rates.

7. Study Your Audience Insights

Remember that data is important, so study the data available to you on each platform that you use so that you know the right content to share at the right time and how to get more engagement where your audience is at the time.

I would assume that when you decided to become an FSBO and sell your property, you have done your homework and researched on how to be an FSBO. If you haven’t then I urge you to first research on what to expect when you sell your property as an FSBO. Now if you’re able to do your homework, you might have come across some articles that states that there are about 90 percent of for-sale-by-owner that fail to sell their property. However, you have to also understand that this number may not be accurate as the success of an FSBO would highly depend on how much effort you put in. It is not enough to have your property to have a for sale sign, you also have to make every effort to make sure that you will be able to put your property for sale in front of as many eyeballs as possible. More people who knows that you have a property for sale means the higher possibility of having a potential buyer of your property.

So how do you increase the visibility of your property for sale? Some would use traditional media to advertise their property for sale, although that may be one way to go it is going to be very expensive and a problem for FSBO. But do not fret there are other ways on how you can promote your property for sale. One of them is to use the services of a flat-fee mls provider, flat-fee mls is a process where you only pay a flat-fee to have your property be placed in hundreds of MLS listing sites among other services inclusive.

Another possible way to have your property for sale, promoted is to use the power of social media. It is free and it would not cost as much as traditional media if you choose to use social media paid advertising. You might be wondering on how do you start advertising your property for sale via social media. Here are some easy steps which you can follow.

1. Choose Your Platform – you do not have to look far, everyone may have a social media account, this is where you should start, choose the platform where you are already in and have friend and or followers to which you can promote your property for sale. If you do not have an account in any of the social media platforms out there then it is time for you to have one. In this case choose a platform that you know that your friends are mostly using. Once you sign up start adding your friends and start posting your property for sale. And start the word of mouth about your property snowball.
2. Post Your Property for Sale – nobody wants to have their property social media timeline to look like an advertising platform. Although we have suggested that you post your property for sale on your account, do not post the same thing everyday. It pays to also post something interesting to your friend even if such is unrelated. Make sure to also nurture your relationship with your friends using your timeline rather than having your timeline turn into a newspaper classified ads. In addition, make sure that you make your post public so that anyone can see it.
3. Engage and Answer Queries – once you get queries on your post about your property for sale, make sure that you immediately answer their questions and do so professionally. Remember with social media, as long as your post is public, people can freely see your posts.

These three simple steps is a start for you to use social media to make sure as an FSBO that your property for sale can get much more exposure beyond the traditional media could do, not to mention that this could be done only for a fraction of a price if not free and with the aid of flat-fee mls listing, you will surely get that deal.

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.

As I’ve said repeatedly, “It’s called social media for a reason.” How do you gain traction with people on social media? Not by telling them things, but by asking them questions.

When you make a post, go ahead and finish it with an open-ended question, something like “What do you think about the topic? Post your thoughts below.” BTW, and open-ended question is one that doesn’t automatically elicit a short, one or two word answer like “Yes” or “No,” “red” or “blue.” It asks people to express their inner views on a subject, to answer expansively.

Of course, the other part of the social media equation is interacting on other people’s posts. In order for you to be seen, you need to do more than write your own posts. Of course, other people are asking questions on their social media posts. Some of them are asking closed questions, to be sure. “Am I right – yes or no?” A few people will be asking open-ended questions. Either way, when you reply, your voice is added to the conversation. More importantly, your on-line name or handle is added to the stream of information flowing past the eyeballs of others.

If you look for advice on marketing, a metric crap-ton of people will shout a single-word piece of advice at you – “Content!” What they mean is that you should be creating unique information to put in front of others to grab their attention.

But here’s a bit of content the so-called experts tend to overlook: asking your own questions on other people’s social media posts.

Let’s say, someone makes a post about carpet cleaning. Yes, I use that industry in a lot of examples. So let’s say a person posts that you should steam clean your carpets at least every six months. Go ahead and ask your own question! Like with your own posts, open-ended is best. “In addition to the 6-month cleanings, should I also clean before a holiday gathering?” You could switch that to a closed-ended question: “Which is best, cleaning before or after a holiday gathering?”

If you can’t think of a relevant question, it’s okay to ask for examples and clarification. I can guarantee there are plenty of other folks out there who would like additional examples or a different explanation. “Is there a different schedule you’d recommend for a carpet in the reception area of a business?” “Can you give an example of a hotel lobby carpet cleaning process?”

Asking relevant questions, ones that dig deeper into the subject of the post, are often nearly as good as – and sometimes better than – the original informational posts, and will get your name out there as someone who knows what they’re talking about.

The whole idea of promoting content on social media is to increase the content’s visibility, generate traffic and thereby increasing the conversion rate. With so much time and resources being spent on promoting the content on these platforms, it becomes imperative to analyse if your promotion strategy is bearing fruits.

Brands also need to analyse not only if their measures are generating positive results but also how much they can gain from their SMO promotion tactics. Tools like BUZZSUMO can be used to collect the list of pages that have ever been shared on Social Networks. Google Analytics can be used to compile the list of pages that have attracted traffic.

Analyze Traffic

Prepare an audit spread sheet for social media. Create a spreadsheet for the social media channels you want to track. Each social media channel will be analyzed individually. Google Sheets can be a useful tool for the purpose.

Investigate the followers – their growth and behaviour.

Just visit each social network and find the number of followers. For better insights, use the social media Analytics and check the follower growth. The number of followers on each media, at what rate they are growing and how they behave can be tracked, and necessary steps to make improvements can be taken.

If tracking each social media channel is difficult for you, a tool like CYFE can be used to monitor the follower growth of your top social networks together.

Spot unevenness in traffic

All the top social networks have built-in analytics to show the number of impressions you content receive. The impression is the number of people that visit your social media content.

Use these built-in analytics to find out the amount of traffic over a period. Like Google search console can collect the pages that have earned impressions in Google. Twitter Analytics for impressions on Twitter. The graph will show if there is any highs or lows on a particular day for any network. This can be looked into, and the causes can be ascertained as to what drove higher or lower traffic on a particular day.

Like for example, you find that on a particular day the traffic on your Twitter account was double than the other days. And this was the day when you posted more content than usual on your account. This would mean that to generate higher traffic, posting more content might be beneficial.

Examine user engagement

Increase in traffic and followers are meaningless if it doesn’t convert into higher user engagement. The amplification rate (the number of reshares and retweets per post) and the applause rate (retweets, likes, repins etc.) can make you aware of the user engagement with your content. A good user engagement can mean that the followers like what you share and are interested in your content and vice versa.

Accordingly, steps can be taken to improve the current situation. Viewer comments can provide valuable insight for these improvements. Social media Analytics can be used to find out the number of clicks and traffic on your content. Every click will not result in traffic. If there is a high discrepancy in the number of clicks and traffic, then this must be looked into to find the cause.

Conclusion

Evaluating the performance is a time-consuming process but it is essential to do so. If you have a good team for Digital Marketing then they can take care of the evaluation process or you can hire a good SEO Services Provider to assist you.

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

It has been quite a while since we last discussed social media etiquette for business. However, there is a lot to be said on the subject. In this article, we will give you new insight into an extremely important aspect of professional behavior.

The rules to follow

At this point, social media is certainly not new or mysterious although it evolves at an extremely rapid pace. New aspects of the various social media channels are being introduced frequently. Of course, there are the basics of proper etiquette and then there is another layer that is certainly worth consideration. Just to think about the history of social media etiquette for a moment, it all started in the 1990s and just evolved from there to what it is today. In the beginning, nobody really had a clear sense of how to behave exactly. There was a bit of a trial and error situation initially but, at this point, the proper etiquette is pretty well established.

Undoubtedly, there are certain behaviors that are obviously wrong to everyone who experiences them. In those cases, it is easy to understand right from wrong. Then there are those behaviors that are more subtle and those are less obvious and more difficult to determine whether they are right or wrong or just a personal preference. One thing that makes it easier at times is that some of the social media channels will provide you with their rules of etiquette. That leaves no wiggle room on your part. Whether you agree with those rules or not, you have an obligation to follow them if you wish to be a part of that particular social media channel. It is the rules that have a subjective element to them that need to be determined. The sad fact is that if you can’t figure those out, you may get into uncomfortable situations that you are not entirely sure how to get out of. In addition to following the etiquette rules of other people’s choosing, you should also come up with your own rules as well. That will help to guide you and it will make things a lot easier on a day-to-day basis.

One thing that makes it easier at times is that some of the social media channels will provide you with their rules of etiquette. That leaves no wiggle room on your part. Whether you agree with those rules or not, you have an obligation to follow them if you wish to be a part of that particular social media channel. It is the rules that have a subjective element to them that need to be determined. The sad fact is that if you can’t figure those out, you may get into uncomfortable situations that you are not entirely sure how to get out of. In addition to following the etiquette rules of other people’s choosing, you should also come up with your own rules as well. That will help to guide you and it will make things a lot easier on a day-to-day basis.

Contribute something of value to others

When it comes to the content that you are sharing, you want it to be educational, valuable, compelling, and you want it to make your readers want to share it with other people whom they know and trust. In fact, your ultimate goal is to get your content to go viral through the actions of the people who are reading it. If you are going to achieve that, your content must not only be well-written but also exciting to read. You may think that having to meet all of those criteria is quite a burden. However, once you start to write and to share valuable content that other people have written, it will start to go much smoother. You will see! It is a really good idea to sit down and think about what you want to write before you actually do any writing at all. You want to write content that resonates with a large number of people, that the person reading your content can use to improve his or her business, is in the friendliest format, that fulfills the needs and wants of the people who read it, and that is available to your readers at a time when they will be inclined to read it. If you accomplish all of that with your content, you will succeed.

Write personal messages

Automating certain things is really valuable and convenient. However, when it comes to responding to other people online after they have made an effort to reach out to you, that must be done personally. After all, you are trying to build a human relationship with the other person. There is no way that offering a canned message will suffice. If you do that, the human/emotional element will definitely be missing. Without it, you will not get anywhere. People don’t appreciate being treated like they don’t matter and that is exactly how an automated message will make them feel. How would you feel about it?

Be timely

Not only should you respond to other people personally but you should also respond to them quickly. You probably would not want to wait a long time for the other person’s response so why would you think that the other person would feel any differently about that? Again, it all goes back to building a relationship together. In order to do that, you need to interact as humans. If you are overwhelmed with work, you should ask someone else (who is connected to your business) to respond on your behalf. No matter what, the response needs to be the human kind. The fact is that the comments that you receive online will not all be positive. The negative comments are the ones that are even more urgent and critical to answer. That is all part of your relationship-building. If you address concerns quickly and manage to rectify them, you will be earning trust and credibility, which are two of the building blogs of a solid relationship.

Show some class

As a parallel, think about the divorced couple with children. The shared custody and each one speaks bitterly about the other to the children. We all know that to behave in that manner is inappropriate, destructive, and just plain wrong. Okay, now you can apply that concept to whether you choose to be respectful when you are speaking about your competitors. The fact is that your competitors are not doing anything wrong by giving you a run for your money. They are in exactly the same position as you. They have a brand and products and/or services that they believe in. Their wish is to improve someone else’s experience based on that brand and those products and/or services. Don’t you feel exactly the same way? Chances are that you do. Don’t say negative, disrespectful things about them. It makes you seem insecure and petty. If you have confidence in what you are doing and what you are offering to other people, there is no need for that. It all starts from within you.

Make your content as shareable as possible

The format of your content is very important when it comes to making it easy for other people to share it. If you follow the rules of the particular social media channel to which you are posting, it will be a lot easier to share your content. As you are probably aware, some of the social media channels have length restrictions. As difficult as that is, you need to do your best to respect those. Otherwise, your content will be truncated. That certainly will do you (or your content) any good.

Always put your professional foot forward

You are probably well aware of the fact that you have social media for personal reasons as well as for business. Of course, what we are discussing here is a business. You need to ensure that you keep any personal element out of your interactions on social media for business. It is just not appropriate. You should make sure to have separate accounts for personal and for business. Trust me when I say that if you don’t do that, your professional connections will not take you seriously. If that happens, you will not succeed in business.

Conclusion

Social media etiquette for business is critical to your success. The chances are great that you are already doing most of what would be considered proper etiquette. You may have to adjust some minor things that didn’t occur to you before but it really is no big deal. What should drive your behavior at all times is respect and admiration for your other people. Of course, you need to make sure that your content is in no way offensive to anyone and that it helps other people in some way. That should be another (and very important) motivator for you.

One thing to do on social media is to write content for your posts. Posts are what keep your social media active and your audience engaged. However, it’s imperative that you have a strategy so that you can get the most out of your social media interactions.

Understand Your Customers

You need to know who your target audience is so that you can recognize what type of posts will get more traction with them. For example, some audience members will be insulted by certain types of comedy. Others will respond very well to it. Know who they are so that your posts can be targeted.

Watch Your Competition

It’s always a good idea to check out what your competition is doing in regard to social media posts. Don’t just copy what they are doing. Instead, observe whether or not the competition is getting a result or not from their actions, and note how you can do it better or differently.

Know the Goal of the Post

What action do you want your customers to take when they read the post? Do you want them to click through to read more? Do you want them to like, follow and share? You need to be clear about what you want them to do in order to get action.

Add a Relevant Image

People respond best to relevant images on social media. You can make memes and infographic using free software like Canva.com for your social media posts. A nice image, watermarked with a relevant quote will do wonders.

Write Content that Gets Attention

When you share a meme or a blog post or other type of post write content about it, and what you want your readers to do about it.

Ask Your Audience to Share

Never forget to ask your audience to share your posts. You can also invite them to take memes and infographics off your website to share. Just set up a new page that lists all the watermarked images that your audience can share.

Respond to Comments

Don’t just ignore the interaction that is happening on your social media pages. Always respond, and add comments to the discussion. Answer questions, and be kind. Even if someone is rude, don’t respond rudely. If you have to, delete the rude comment and let it go.

Writing social media posts that get a discussion going and inspire people to share and interact is an art. You’ll need to try different tactics to see what works with your particular audience. But, be sure to always have a call to action on the post so that your audience knows what to do.

It’s an incredible addiction that drives people to stay awake for all hours at night checking their phones, tablets, or computers, in order to see who is looking at them. What is the point? People who judge their worth by this type of response are not worth much. They are missing out on personal contact with those who can make a difference to them and who are able to support them as they progress through life.

The really bad side is the way it opens up an avenue for bullying by others who act against your interest. Young kids commit suicide because of this and it works both ways. Without the support of personal friends and families this is driving people to do horrible things.

Terrorists are also using social media to recruit others to their cause. They are able to get inside the heads of their victims as the conversations are private and dangerous. Many have fallen for it and are either dead or preparing to die on suicide missions.

This is the modern world and everything is now so available that authorities are at a loss to deal with it. Videos designed to distract and engage people for hours on end are often fake stories that are meant to shock. Over the Christmas period some of these were so disgusting and detrimental to individuals targeted that one wonders the motive behind them.

The frightening thing is how believable they are. Without going into details and giving them publicity the claims made would have been helpful to those seeking to destroy people’s faith in certain politicians, tennis players, and others.

This is the rubbish that pervades the minds of children and is inciting more of the same. Some do extraordinary and dangerous acts to post on the Social Media with the purpose of getting people to click on the videos or imaged. The number of hits adds to their psyche as something that boosts their ego.

While the psychiatry benefits or harm are not published they should be. This is a dangerous time-wasting pastime that is worse for some than taking drugs. It is a drug and it is highly addictive as one can easily spend an hour or two without even being aware of how much time has passed. It detracts from normal learning and family time while important things ar missed.

Nothing can or will change the habits of people and one should look to the amount of money made by the company to know that the goal in making one addicted is money. These sites are great advertisers and they get highly paid every time one is exposed to an ad. This is what should be noticed by those who can’t avoid connecting to them.

Review: the “Social Media LookUp System”

The “SOCIAL MEDIA LOOKUP SYSTEM” is about connecting with people and offering a different way to make sales, but in a smarter way than the more traditional sales processes.

It could be the perfect fit for you and your business!

1. You choose only the best leads/prospects available.
2. You select only leads/people who look to match the solution you offer.

The Social Media Lookup System software serves up massive amounts of information, just by entering an email address…

The Social Media Lookup System is simple to understand and it`s easy and fun to use!

It`s designed to help people in any sort of Sales Biz. It`s for sales professionals, direct sales people, network marketers, affiliate marketers, coaches and many others.

How does Social Media Lookup System benefit you as a business owner?

• You just need email addresses.
• Plug it into the software and you will access significant amounts of data.
• Then ask about a likely prospect – Is this someone I want to connect with?
• Will this be a person I can and want to build a business relationship with?
• Does my business offer the solution to the person`s problems and needs?
• You can replace much of your advertising budget with this software.

SUMMARY:

1. With ‘Social Media Lookup System ‘you are in complete control of who you connect and engage with’.
2. You pick those ideal customers, clients, buyers, affiliates, team members, partner producers, people you coach, referral partners… whatever your niche, small or large.
3. You will become more efficient and more effective!
4. You will confidently approach selling, well-armed with relevant information about prospects you can really help.
5. The system puts you in prime position to connect and engage!

Bonus: You have a ‘Contact Management System’ designed specifically to help you further organise your business activities.

Compare “Social Media Lookup” to your other lead generation methods?

• Do you currently get high quality leads?
• Can you target individual prospects?
• Are you in charge of the leads/prospects/clients you want to work with?
• How time efficient are your current processes?
• How cost-effective are your current processes?
• Are you happy/disappointed/not satisfied with the quality of leads/customers/clients you get now?

Do other lead systems feel a bit like throwing spaghetti at a wall; you wait to see what sticks!

Quote worth quoting: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete”. B. Fuller

Verdict:

1. “Social Media Lookup System” – is a system to generate professional sales leads & home business leads.
2. You find quality leads and ideal prospects.
3. You will have more time to build trusting relationships.
4. This is “advanced technology methodology” for sales.

If baby boomers were the “Me Generation,” then it’s not too far-fetched to call Millennials the “Me, Me, Me Generation.”

By every standard, we are all becoming more interested in extrinsic values. An increasing number of studies is showing narcissistic personality traits are on the rise.

It’s not clear just how big of a problem this trend is, but everyone agrees that it’s not a positive shift. The causes of these changes in self-perception are various and complex. But if there’s one thing that can’t be denied it’s that they map almost perfectly onto equally rising trends of social media use.

Difference Between Self-Esteem and Narcissism

Self-esteem is generally regarded as a positive and healthy trait and is sometimes confused with narcissistic behavior.

The fundamental difference between the two is that self-esteem stems from real and measurable accomplishment, while narcissism comes from a lack of it.

When people achieve tangible positive things in their lives, their self-esteem naturally rises. That’s a good thing. Having high self-esteem is one of key factors in having a stable mental health.

In a narcissistic person, conversely, it’s the lack of accomplishment that drives the behavior. That’s exacerbated by the presence of social media. Narcissists act out fear of failing, and further, a fear of being perceived as failures.

These feelings of inadequacy start to inform people’s decisions and that creates a co-dependent relationship with social media.

The Role of Social Media

In a world filtered through social media news feeds, the criteria for truth can become warped.

If a person is put into a situation where the things presented on social media easily pass the required criteria for truth, they’ll be incentivized to trust those channels more and more.

This, in turn, results in a disregard for actual concrete accomplishment. After all, if what is presented on social media has a real-life impact on their lives, why should it be treated as if it doesn’t?

The “offline” world becomes ever more uninteresting. And people can’t be entirely blamed.

If putting stock into your social media persona has a better return on that investment, why wouldn’t we all want that? Sure, there are long-term implications and complications, but most humans aren’t long-term thinkers.

What’s the Big Deal?

It might seem harmless or simply eccentric at first glance, but this narcissistic behavior has serious downsides.

Many negative trends in mental health can be traced to this behavior with some certainty. People, especially younger generations, are exhibiting higher rates of hyperactivity disorders.

One can easily see how the exploding rates of body dysmorphia can be linked to this as well. In a world that prizes the perfect selfie, not having one can be a source of consternation.

Addictive personality disorders are also on the rise. Many studies have shown clearly how addictive social media can be. If you’ve ever felt anxious when the connection goes down and you can’t check the notifications and refresh the news feed, you know what we’re talking about.

All this adds up to steadily climbing instances of depression in young people. For many people who want to focus on their intrinsic values, it’s terribly disheartening to live in a world that disparages them for not embracing extrinsic values.

Social Media, the Perfect Connector or a Clear and Present Danger?

It’s not going too far to say that social media is definitely to blame for some of the narcissistic tendencies in our modern world. Study after study has shown circumstantial links between the use of social media and the rise in narcissistic traits.

The question is what to do about it? We can’t simply get rid of it. Any coherent plan must include social media as present in our lives in some capacity. Perhaps we should focus on how we can turn back the dial and use social media to deliver the benefits that it very clearly can with fewer consequences.

Social media marketing is an excellent way to boost your business and profits. However, there are many common mistakes that people make when engaging in social media marketing.

If you are making any of these mistakes, don’t worry. It’s never too late to correct your social marketing and make it better.

Not Engaging with Your Followers

When your followers make a comment on something, share or ask a question, don’t wait too long to respond. If you have someone monitoring your social media, have them inform you of ongoing conversations and potential areas of engagement.

Not Filling Out Your Profile Completely

Incomplete profiles make your business look either sloppy, or fake. If you want to be taken seriously, fill out a complete profile with a good profile picture, your company logo/banner and information so that you can be contacted outside of the network.

Not Focusing on Follower Quality

Some people make the mistake of focusing on the quantity of followers rather than the quality. You want to concern yourself with finding followers who are potential customers.

Not Posting Regular, Relevant Updates

If you aren’t active posting things that resonate with your audience, then you’re not going to get any traction. If you plan to be successful with social media marketing it takes perseverance and patience, not one-hit wonders.

Not Choosing Your Channels Wisely

You don’t need to be on every single social network. Be on the channels that your audience love and that will work out fine.

Not Automating Some Actions

There are a lot of things, such as scheduled updates, that you can automate on social media. Be sure to use scheduling when possible as long as it doesn’t make you look robotic.

Not Interacting Personally

Every chance you get, it’s important to make spur-of-the-moment updates that are relevant to your business and your goals. This will make you look more real in the eyes of your followers.

Not Personalizing Messages for the Channel

Sending out a mass message, using software, to all of your social media networks that you’ve connected with, is a big mistake. Most of the time, you’ll have leads who are on more than one account. If you do this they’ll quickly feel bored or worse, spammed.

Using social media to market your business is a proven technique to get more customers, make more sales, and increase your bottom line, but only if you avoid these mistakes. Take one at a time and make the improvements needed to get on the right track so that you make your social media marketing profitable for your business.

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.