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Six Examples of Solid Facebook Marketing

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Facebook is a very powerful, extremely viral social networking and micro-blogging platform that has catapulted many businesses to new levels. It has enjoyed a famously popular online exposure and an ever-increasing appeal to corporations, social networkers, and online entrepreneurs.

Some companies who recognize the Facebook effect experience enormous brand recognition and success that accompanies their marketing efforts. These six companies are currently enjoying successful social networking, high traffic to their sites, and a branding experience that they credit to Facebook.

1. Pringles

The famous potato chip snack company is quite popular on Facebook – something to the tune of over 3 million fans! The site’s attraction is more than the snack lover’s interest in their wares, but for their comedic and crafty use of their product videos.

The videos are a mixture of professional, commercial-style shoots and others that were taped possibly using personal video recorders. All of the videos are entertaining and funny, but without fail in each video, Pringles brands themselves very effectively through visual marketing.

2. Dell

If Facebook fans ever needed a reason to love a computer manufacturer, Dell has given them one – if not several. With over 100,000 fans and several niche Facebook pages, Dell is the company who proudly embraces a green campaign and makes a conservation commitment to their Facebook followers.

Each time one of Dell’s fan’s picks a friend, Dell plants a tree on their behalf. This effort is a part of their commitment to creating a healthier planet, additionally making a donation to The Conservation Fund to plant up to 150,000 trees. How’s that for social interaction?

3. LawListings

LawListings Facebook

LawListings has a very engaging Facebook page that is a good example of visual quoting: They put together well-branded visual quotes and engage their Facebook audience with that content.

This Facebook Page is a great example of effective Facebook marketing even in tough niches.

4. Pizza Hut

The pizza chain giant has over one million fans on their page. What makes their site so viral? Their generous interaction with the pizza community. They tag other users on Facebook, make it fun and very sociable by allowing fans to upload various pictures, images, photos and artistry depicting their brand in various ways.

Some of the fan photos are with family, creating a visual imagery of unity, while other photos that are incorporated onto their page are snapshots of different Pizza Hut restaurants or paraphernalia.

5. Harley-Davidson

The motorcycle giant has over 700,000 fans on their Facebook page and use several marketing methods to attract and retain those fans. Much of the information on their site consists of photos and videos, but there is a heavier focus on information and updates about their product and the motor bike industry at large.

Fans flock to their pages to sneak a hopeful peek at what the upcoming bikes will look like and to read about any changes in their current bike line. Harely-Davidson is definitely an industry leader with a proven track record. Facebook has helped their online marketing efforts by reaching a technical aspect of their customer pool.

6. Starbuck’s

With one of the highest number of fans on Facebook, Starbuck’s remains at the top because of their frequent and engaging interaction with coffee lovers everywhere!

They are very involved in the local communities and abroad, and use videos, blog posts, surveys, and coffee giveaways to appeal to their customer base. Starbuck’s takes the time to carefully groom their social networking page to be sure that they effectively reach their customers, making them an outstanding industry leader.

Further reading and resources:

Any other great Facebook marketing case studies? Please let us know!

How to Add a Contact-Us Form to Your Site

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The last three times I have gone to contact someone through a website, there has been no contact page. I am not joking or exaggerating, there was no contact page at all. One of the three had a little, tiny blurb mixed into too much text providing an email address, which was a very strange choice in design. But otherwise I would have had to go through their social media accounts to speak to them.

I was very disappointed with this turn of events, because at least one of the blogs I contacted barely used their Twitter and I never got a response, and another still hasn’t read their Facebook message. Why wouldn’t they be more concerned with connecting to their readers? And why wouldn’t they take the five minutes it requires to install a plugin (these were all WordPress sites), and create a Contact Page?

After all, implementing ways to hear back from your site users is one of the most important elements of any landing page.

Create an Awesome Contact Page Fast

I don’t want anyone else to make this very pointless mistake. Not when it can be rectified so easily.

First of all, the Internet is full of free tempates and tutorials for you to handle almost everything at home. If you are looking for beautiful forms, here’s a great selection of free HTML5 and CSS3 contact form templates for you to choose from. There’s also a great tutorial on how to edit those here.

If your site is not on WordPress, here’s a good selection of other available content management systems and useful resources to learn using them.

Here are six WordPress plugins for making a contact page that is fast, easy and effective.

1. WP Forms (or WP Forms Lite)

When someone who has no website building experience first gets the more advanced version of WordPress, they can feel a bit intimidated. Getting the plugins down can be hard, and there is a learning curve associated with any new software. WP Forms was made to cater to those beginners, and is probably the easiest form builder around.

You can use one of their many contact page templates with drag and drop functionality, and fully customize it to fit your needs. It is compatible with responsive websites, and they offer instant notifications of contact so you never miss a message. There is a free version also available, if you don’t mind skipping some of the advanced features.

2. Formidable Pro

If in addition to your contact form you want to be able to display data, you may prefer Formidable. It is a great tool for extendable forms and information that will be posted across your website.

I have seen it used to great effect on joint Contact and About pages that sim to show the person why they should contact them. Something that I personally like very much. They are a bit more costly, but effective.

3. Ninja Forms

Looking for something totally free that just creates great looking forms for you to use? Then Ninja Forms is your best bet. It provides easily adjustable settings that customize the form, and leads you through every step of the way.

They provide widgets and shortcodes to integrate into WP seamlessly. Plus, they are translation ready.

4. Contact Forms 7

This is an oldie but a goodie, and one that is still being supported by the developer in spite of its age. It is very basic, just a fill out form from the plugin’s dashboard.

There are no bells or whistles at all, which can be considered a good thing. The results are a very clean, functional contact form.

5. Pirate Forms

Want to make your contact form more feedback based? You may like Pirate Forms, then. It gives you full control over customization, and has the option of sending emails via SMTP.

It has a recaptcha generator, so you can try and limit spam.

Manage Your Leads Like a Pro

Putting up a form is just the first step. Don’t forget that as your site is going to become more popular, you’ll be receiving hundreds of email requests and pitches. You need to manage and organize those properly.

One good way to keep an eye on your mail is Cyfe. It connects to Gmail, your CRM or anything else under the sun. Put simply, Cyfe lets you keep a lot of pieces of your marketing under one roof.

Cyfe leads

Different Forms for Different Purposes

I am a firm believer in cold contacts for guest blogging. I have sent out my fair share of unsolicited offers and while they don’t all work, about a third of the time they do. The ones that almost always succeed? Those that come from sites with a Write For Us page.

To attract guest bloggers, some of them quite well established, put up a Write For Us page yourself with a set policy on posts. You should get some interesting pitches and offers from people of varying talent and influence.

10 Simple (But Important) Things To Remember About Business Directories And SEO

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business directoriesBusiness directories represent a proven way to be found on Google search. While directory sites don’t enjoy the same SEO clout they once did, they can still improve organic search rankings, especially when local searches are conducted.

The main difference related to how directories affect SEO today as compared to ten years ago is that they no longer improve a site’s backlink profile. As Google has evolved, so has the algorithm for search engine optimization (SEO), ensuring higher quality sites with relevant content always rank highest.

There are different types of business directories and it is important to recognize the differences. Featured web listing sites are high-quality directories you want to focus on as you get business listings setup. These types of directories have a better reputation. Sometimes you have to pay a fee to be featured on certain directories. Many are free though.

Below are 10 things you should remember about business directories and SEO.

1. Be careful about which directories you join. Review the site first before adding your business to the directory. The legitimate web directories that you want to be included on will edit your listing. You don’t want your business name in a directory if the directory does not have strict editorial requirements, it can actually have a negative impact on your website ranking if the directory is one of the low-quality sites.

2. Getting your listing setup “right” is important. In cases where the service your business offers is specific to a particular country or region, then you list your site there. When submitting your website information to a directory, always use the official website name. In the description section of your listing, do not use words like best or cheapest. These superlatives may be edited out by some directory sites and also make a negative impression on consumers.

3. Business owners are losing business if they don’t add their listing to well-known directories. This is true even in small towns where you might think everyone knows everybody else, and that ever resident knows about your business. There are always visitors and new people moving in who might be looking for the service or product that you are selling.

4. Be sure to add your name to the Google My Business Directory. Since Google drives this directory as the largest search engine, you want to be sure to get your free listing here. By not taking advantage of your free listing, you might be opening the door for a competitor to hijack your listing by adding their own phone number to your phony listing. Not only can business be lost in situations like this, but your business reputation can also be affected if the company under-performs using your name and Google listing.

5. When you create your Google my Business listing, be sure to remove the check from the box that says, “make this my website address on Google search and Maps.” This is important because if you leave that box checked then the free URL from your Google website will be used and substituted for your corporate website address, possibly losing traffic you want that is directed instead to your corporate site.

6. It is always a good idea to track your directory signups. That will allow you to review the progress made. This will also prevent you from signing up for a directory more than once which can be confusing for customers if somehow they both go through the system.

7. One of the reasons online databases are so valuable to business owners is because they direct mobile search. Considering the growing number of local searches and how people traveling through your town are prone to conduct a search for restaurants and other businesses via their mobile devices, competitive businesses who want to compete should always be sure to add their business to high-quality local directories.

8. Different search engine directories are aligned with that particular search engine’s map. There can be a lot of overlap between the directories. For this reason, it is not always clear how to categorize a listing. Proceed with caution or ask questions. Some directories will change your category if they think you chose the wrong one.

9. Using a good online ranker tool is recommended as a way to monitor your competition and how well their pages are doing in search results. Some tools to check out are Ahrefs, Alexa, and Rank Tracker (plus, there are many more SEO tools and plugins out there to check out). When revising your corporate strategies, it is always helpful to understand how well your business is doing in comparison with your competitors so that you can make adjustments as necessary.

10. Directories worth mentioning and adding your company information to are: Jasmine Directory.com, DirJournal.com, Aviva Directory.com, and Alive Directory.com. These are reputable business web directories because they’re all apply a high editorial discretion. Local directories such as Yelp.com, Yahoo Local Directory, and Bing My Places represent high-quality options to get your name out to local consumers who are looking for local businesses.

Here’s a list five directories worth website your business into:

  • Best of the Web (BOTW) offers a web directory, BOTW Local, Blog Directory and UK & Ireland Directory. With 25 million people searching this directory per year, Best of the Web represents an excellent opportunity to get your company name out there to be noticed. There are a range of categories worth checking out
  • Jasmine Business Directory in cited in several books and journals as being a directory that has a very high editorial discretion. Compared to BOTW, each listing added Jasmine Directory has its own details page where businesses address is listed (according to the directory’s guidelines only if the business owner or representative submits those details) and Google Map is used. Thumbnails are also another available feature.
  • Aviva Directory is a general web directory. While many of the websites and blogs listed in this directory are added by Aviva’s staff, a business or blog owner can pay a fee and have their site reviewed to be added to the directory. Editors are strict and have rules prohibiting adult material.
  • Alive Directory is another Google compliant directory worth listing on. First, you should search for your name to see if you are already on the site. Then, if you don’t find your name, you can submit your listing for approval. Hot categories listed are Business, Shopping and Regional. There are discounts given for bulk listing that start at 20 percent and can go up to 50 percent.
  • Directory Journal offers a few listing types with some attractive features. Photos and keywords can be added to enhance your listing. During the last couple years DirJournal mixed their general directory with their local directory.

Getting listed on local directories makes good business sense. According to Nielsen in 2016, 74 percent of consumers check review sites when online looking for information. Yelp is a popular local directory.

With millions of eyes on the site daily to get information before spending decisions are made, this site represents and important option for business owners. Based on this data, there is no reason not to claim your free Yelp page. Facebook is another popular review site where you can claim your free business page.

It is important not to automate your directory submission effort. You want each listing to b unique in some way. By considering this important fact, search engines will work in your favor and you are less likely to be penalized.

Conclusion

It is clear that more business is done each year on the internet. Even in cases where consumers want to see and touch the merchandise before buying, many people are doing their research first online, before driving to the store. Business owners who want to compete in this digital world where companies are evaluated online before buyers show up at the store, must recognize the power of local searches or risk being left behind by savvy competitors.

Taking advantage of the free listings on directories that are compliant with Google means you will benefit from the power of this monster search engine. Reviews sites are also being used to decide where to go to get what they need. Trust can not be underestimated when courting new buyers.

As mentioned above, not all business directories are created equal. It is important to be discriminating when adding your business to a business directory. Be sure there is a strong editing staff and they don’t accept “spammy” listings for non-businesses. The directories mentioned in this article represent excellent options for business owners. If you sign-up with these directories, your business will benefit from the exposure.

Image source: Pixabay

Must Have Resources for Learning About Investing

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Investing can be scary. When you are new to the concept you don’t always know what it is you are doing or how it is you should begin. Stocks? Mutual funds? Index funds? 401ks? IRAs? Know where to put your money, in what amount and how often is a source of anxiety for young people in particular. But investing for life’s many changes, from buying a home to children’s college funds to retirement, is crucial.

The internet is a valuable tool for learning how to invest at every level, from beginner portfolios to diversifying well established ones. Here are some tools to help you learn and invest with confidence.

Investing Resources

  • Investopedia – Investopedia is a reference site that operates like Wikipedia, only for all things investment related. If you are looking for information on specific investment strategies and a good overview of financial matters, it is a fantastic place to go looking.
  • Reddit – Reddit has an endless list of subreddits dedicated to all aspects of making, spending and growing money. You can find incredible information and speak to both professional advisors and people who have been doing their own investing and can give you pointers based on what worked for them. Subreddits  r/investing and r/stocks are very popular and related directly to investments. For broader information such as budgeting, paying down debt, growing money, paying for college, saving and more, check out r/personalfinance.
  • Motley Fool – Want to know the latest news on the market? Then check out Motley Fool, an awesome blog with posts that cover every element of the financial sector and personal financial matters. They also have an active community where you can discuss things with others who are making their money work for them.

Investment Tools

  • Coin Flare – The cryptocurrency market is notoriously volatile and many investors don’t want to risk it. But if you want to learn more about it and invest in some crypto before the next surge, Coinbase a great website and app to use.
  • TDAmeritrade – One of the better known investment brokerage dashboards on the web, TDAmeritrade allows you to open various types of accounts based on goals and fund them as you like, with recommendations customized to your settings. The fees are relatively low and it is an easy way to start taking your finances in hand to secure your financial future.
  • Betterment – Betterment is popular because it builds a portfolio for you and manages it in the most tax-efficient way. All investments go into two possible areas, or a combination of both: stocks and government bonds. They handle financial planning, retirement investing, trusts and more. All fees are based on percentages annually, taken from your current portfolio worth. Their digital portfolios ($0 minimum balance) are .25% and premium ($100,000 minimum)  is .40%.
  • Acorns – Don’t want to worry about selecting stocks yourself? Acorns will select them for you based on how aggressive you want your portfolio to be. From there they will invest your “spare change”, which means anything you spend equaling up to a rounded dollar. So let’s say you buy a coffee for $5.80. They would round up and invest $0.20 into your portfolio. You can also select monthly contributions per week, month or day.
  • eTrade – This one isn’t as popular because the fees can be higher, but eTrade does offer more advice that can help you get a handle on the market and how you are investing in it. If you are planning to trade often it is worth it but if you are more casual or only intend to trade occasionally it might not be for you.

Have a tool or resource for the list? Let us know in the comments!

Image source: Pixabayi

How to Keep Yourself Motivated to Build Your (Online) Career

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If you have motivation, you can overcome almost any situation.

~Peter Marshall (source: 51 Greatest Motivational Quotes)

No matter what it is you want to achieve, be it building your personal brand or capturing your dream job, it can be a long and grueling path to reach the goal you have set for yourself.

Staying motivated is hard at the best of times, which is why it is incredibly important to keep track of your progress, making good use of milestone targets to let you know you’re on the right track.

Unclutter Your Environment

Clutter effects a lot of areas of our lives. Researchers say it negatively affects our productivity by preventing us from focusing.

Motivations requires a lot of focus: On our goals, tasks and daily process. To get motivated, you need to focus.

It all starts from your home. An uncluttered home is the first step to clearing your mind and getting motivated.

Set up Your Inspirational Workplace

A big part of being motivated (especially whe you lack tangible goals) is being inspired. Inspiration moves us forward, helps us come up with creative solutions and make our work process much more enjoyable.

Whether you work from home or from an office, spend some time to set up your workplace the way it helps you get inspired. Natural plants, pictures, inspirational quotes help many people get inspired and motivated.

Home office

Buffer offers a great guide on how to set up lighting in your environment to boost your creativity. Here are a few ideas for you:

Share Your Goals with Your Relatives and Close Friends

Letting people who are close to you know what you are trying to achieve is a great way to encourage this kind of behavior. Families and friends are quite likely to check up on your progress regularly, especially if you are doing something they know is important to you.

These kind of support networks can be extremely valuable when trying to achieve a particularly difficult goal, as for many nothing beats regular encouragement from other people when trying to stay motivated.

Use Social Media Communities and Online Support Groups

Engaging your social networks to help keep you on track can be as simple as just telling your friends you are trying to quite smoking. However, in the digital age we do have more options available to use when it comes to letting other people know how we are doing. The usual suspects such as Facebook and Twitter are a good start, as that way, everyone you’re in regular contact with will know what you are trying to do (which can lead to a lot of encouragement and feedback).

Alternatively you could join an email group or forum dedicated to your particular goal (if its something you could do alongside other people striving for the same thing like weight loss). These kind of online communities are dedicated to helping their members achieve certain life goals, providing invaluable advice and neutral feedback to people who otherwise might not have anyone appropriate to turn to.

Keep Track of Your Progress

For some staying motivated will be a personal affair. A lot of people will only share their goals with those closest to them, relying for the most part on their own willpower to keep them going through the more difficult stages of their journeys. If that sound’s like the more appealing option to you, make sure to at least maintain a regular journal of your activities.

Keeping track of your progress, so that you can see whether or not you are achieving the targets that lead to your goal, is the best way to make sure you don’t stray from your intended path.

It can be as simple as keeping a pen and paper style diary. Though it may prove to be easier to use a more high tech solution such as an online goal tracking website or some kind of office application software (such as Open Office or Microsoft Office).

You could even combine the two tech options by using some cloud based office software like Google Docs or Evernote (as these can be accessed from multiple devices which make them easy to keep updated). Colorlib has a great list of many more productivity tools that can help you manage your to-do list and monitor your progress.

Productivity

Whatever method you choose to employ, as long as you keep a clear view of your goal and have a real understanding of your progress towards it, you should be well set for keeping yourself on the road to success.

Featured image via Pixabay

6 Marketing Platforms to Add to Your Toolset in 2018

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Beginning of the year is great time that we should start going through our business resolutions. Updating your marketing tool list with newer, more up-to-date platforms that can bring your business to a new level is the first step to take. Here’s my top picks of marketing platforms to try in 2018:

1. DirJournal: Get Listed

Are you into local business or do you have a verifiable location where your customers come to visit? If so, you need to verify your business with Google but not only that! Get listed in other high-quality directories to build citations and targeted traffic.

dirjournal

DirJournal is a great place to start because it’s one of the highest-quality directories I’ve ever seen. It also serves both local and global businesses, so you may want to apply to get listed right away.

2. Salesmate: Organize Your Leads

Have you been doing your homework when it comes to verifying and organizing your leads? 2018 is your year to start doing that!

Salesmate

Salesmate is a great platform that organizes your new prospects, gives you a customized library of templates for better email pitches, finds the sources for sales targets, books appointments, and a ton more. All from a single tool that integrates in plenty more apps including Gmail, WordPress, Shopify and more.

3. Topvisor: Research and Organize Your Keywords

Topvisor doesn’t bother with the majority of data it could be mining. Instead, it goes right to the good stuff from the very first step. Using the top ten search results, Topvisor then creates keyword clusters within those results to offer you the most powerful, direct clusters possible for each page of your website.

It works by automating search queries, taking all the keywords from the top ten results and forming groups that are related to one another for each page on your site. You can customize each search, such as how many keywords are needed in the return for it to create a cluster and begin gathering key phrases to use.

They have a free version, with paid versions beginning at $29 per month. It isn’t a very feature heavy tool but it doesn’t have to be. It does exactly what it says and goes from there.

Colorlib has a great list of more SEO tools to look into if you are looking for more affordable options.

4. LSI Graph: Up Your Keyword Game

How are you Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords? Is your SEO suffering because you haven’t done enough LSI focused research?

lsigraph

The LSI Graph will do it for you. Just put in your keywords and it will generate LSI’s on your behalf. Not only will it give you a fairly exhaustive list for free, but it will provide you with an ebook that teaches you how to properly use these keywords.

5. SpyFu: Research Your Competitors

Your competitors are doing something right if they are taking all your customers away. Their content strategy is likely a part of that and you can bet they are keeping their keywords a part of the process.

While you shouldn’t copy their keywords (your own strengths will be in what works for your brand, not theirs) you can get an idea of what they are doing and learn from it. This can help you to discover gaps they aren’t filling, which provides you an opportunity to fill it instead. See? It is sneaky!

Spyfu

There are quite a few tools that help with this. My personal favorite right now is Spyfu, which lets you search and download all of the competitor data you could want. LXR also has a great free tool that isn’t as thorough but still helpful, especially if you are on a budget.

6. Ahrefs: Audit Your Site

Finally, we have your own website. Looking back over your content over time, your social media posts and your emails and feedback from visitors, what is it that people are bringing up over and over again? Patterns from a website audit, especially of your blog, is a great way to see what your already existing audience is reacting to.

An example would be a blog post that got more attention than the others. What was it about? Did other related posts also do well?

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a nice tool that provides a thorough website audit report and runs its tools on a monthly basis to offer you a regular update.

Are there other SEO platforms you are using? Please share them with me by tweeting to @jessytroy