Why Social Media Is Important for Your Career

Social media had an image problem.

MySpace was where teenagers wasted their time and shared fluff. YouTube was for viral videos, cats and cute children.

But then it got serious.

Facebook worked out how to make itself attractive to major brands and grown-ups. Twitter became the place where influencers made a difference and reached large global audiences in real time. LinkedIn became the de facto social network for any thinking professional.

That social media fad has become a generational trend.

The social web is now woven into almost every nook and cranny of our personal and business lives. How we look online has become an important component of our persona and who we are in a digital world.

So creating, polishing and taking control of your personal brand online is now essential for the modern professional.

The content you create on social media now defines you, and social networks amplify your content creations as people discover and share them. 

Why build a personal brand online?

In the past, security was having that same job for 40 years. Then you collected the gold watch, put on the slippers and put your feet up. Your identity and life centered around your employer. The job defined you.

That has changed.

It is estimated that the modern professional “millennial” will have 15-20 jobs during their working life. (Source)

No longer is your security employer-centric.

Your personal brand and how you control and define it have become vital. Starting your own online brand with your own blog or website as a hub will be the journey of a lifetime. It will evolve just like your career.

If the benevolent corporation is no longer your career foundation, then it’s key to start building your brand assets online. 

Social media amplifies your personal brand

Our online world has become an extension of who we are. This virtual sphere is becoming real.

If you work in a knowledge industry (that’s most of us these days) or the creative arts, then it is essential to define and market yourself online. Influence, knowledge and power have been digitized.

There is no turning back.

If you want to continue to be effective and relevant, there’s no other choice. Jobs, careers and businesses are being created, driven and determined by the social web.

Your blog is your home base, and the portal where you publish your content.

But social media is where that content becomes distributed and amplified as people discover your content on social networks and share it with their friends.

So what social media outlet should you be using to build a powerful personal brand online that will enhance your career?

Twitter

Recent research shows that Twitter’s role is much more than sharing breaking news in 140-character snippets.

It is now a social network that gives online influencers a platform to share their content and build powerful distribution globally. Build an audience before you need them.

You need to think of yourself as a media company.

That means content and distribution are paramount if you want to stand out. So start growing your followers now.

LinkedIn

Many people and businesses incorrectly use LinkedIn.

Do you get that constant stream of people wanting to make connections and then they turn up the next day and ask you to buy something? Does that work?

Number one tip: Add value to your connections through sharing great content that you create and discover. Give till it hurts, and then you will earn the right to sell.

Also make sure your LinkedIn profile is a good representation of your personal brand. Join groups that will enhance your online presence. Use it to create powerful personal business networks.

Again, continue to grow that network.

SlideShare

SlideShare is underrated.

Creating presentations and sharing them on SlideShare is a great enhancer for a personal brand. It positions you as an expert, because experts present.

It’s also very visual, and visual content is shared more than just text.

A tip: You can also embed SlideShare presentations on your LinkedIn profile.

The other social networks

OK, so there are other social networks. The rise of mobile-centric platforms such as Pinterest, Instagram and Vine should also be considered. It just depends on how much time and resources you have at your disposal.

There are some new entrants including Meerkat and Periscope. Live video streaming is predicted to feature in the future. So keep your eyes on that.

Wrapping it up

Building that personal brand online is not a zero-sum game.

Start creating content today on your blog, and build distribution for it on your social networks. In 10 years time, you will be way ahead of your peers and have a bank of great content (a digital asset) and tens of thousands of followers (your distribution network) that will market your brand for free as they share.

Take control of your future career. Over to you.

Disclaimer: I’m compensated by University of Phoenix for this blog. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

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7 Pointless Traffic Generation Tactics You Should Stop Using Today

Traffic generation is a standard metric for most content marketers.

With two-thirds of marketing professionals citing website traffic as the most effective content marketing metric, brands must understand how to drive visitors without compromising quality.

Unfortunately, as SEO and traffic generation practices have changed over the years, many mistakes have become intertwined with effective tactics. From keyword stuffing to writing low-value content, there are many seemingly well-established SEO practices that can greatly harm your website traffic and damage your brand’s credibility.

Instead of giving up on your content marketing strategy, determine what tactics are harming your website and how you can resolve these issues.

Here are seven traffic generation tactics to avoid at all costs:

1. Stuffing content with keywords

Adding keywords to content without a strategy can drastically hurt your website traffic. Whether it’s including irrelevant words and phrases or a high volume of keywords, these are harmful SEO tactics. Not only can Google mark your website as spam or lower your page ranking for including irrelevant keywords, your customers will feel betrayed by your use of misleading information.

Instead of stuffing your content with as many keywords as possible, write high quality content your audience will use as a valuable resource. One way to do this is to think about the questions your readers type into Google and transform these questions into powerful blog posts that provide needed answers.

You can also use platforms such as Quora or Reddit to find out what discussions customers are having about products or services relevant to your industry. These results will help you determine the keywords people use to discover your brand.

For example, let’s say you’re an interior designer who specializes in kitchens. Make a list of common questions asked by your audience, such as “What is the best color to paint my kitchen?”

As you analyze search results, you might notice that “best color to paint kitchen” would be a valuable keyword to use in your content.

2. Building as many backlinks as possible

When it comes to link building, it’s all about quality over quantity. While it might seem like a smart traffic generation tactic to have thousands of links directing to your website, this practice can actually hurt your SEO.

Use tools like Buzzsumo to find out which websites have the top authority in your industry. Once you’ve found a few high-authority websites, determine whether or not their content is relevant to your brand. After you have a list of pages where your website would be a great fit, reach out to the outlet about linking back to your content.

Another way to avoid backlinking mistakes is to link your content to your social media platforms. For example, include a link to your most recent blog post or a landing page in your Twitter bio. You can also submit your links to websites like StumbleUpon and Digg to generate more traffic.

3. Focusing only on page rankings

For many marketers, it’s a high priority to make it to the top of Google’s search results. While page ranking is an important factor, it’s also smart to avoid putting all your eggs in a single basket.

There are many elements influencing your page ranking. A 2015 study of 150 marketing professionals by Moz found that 88 percent of respondents believe mobile-friendliness will influence page rankings. Additionally, 81 percent believe a visitor’s perceived value of the website also influences page rankings.

Instead of worrying about how high your website is ranked, think about the different strategies you can implement to drive results for your brand. For example, can you include more optimized landing pages? Are you able to produce content that immediately answers a question? By thinking about these tactics, you’ll be able to tweak your website so it appears in top results, thereby generating more traffic.

4. Writing low-value content

In the early stages of content marketing, there was a lot of pressure on webmasters to blog as often as possible in order to boost website traffic. As a result, many marketers published large volumes of content that didn’t offer much value – and when Google changed its algorithm to penalize websites that publish low-value content, these sites were hit with lower page rankings and decreased website traffic.

Content marketing today is much different than it was five years ago. When creating content to increase traffic, it’s essential that anything you write should offer value for the customer. According to a 2015 study of 442 marketing and sales professionals by Conductor, more than half of respondents found quality content creation as their most valuable SEO tactic.

As you implement your content creation strategy, there are a number of elements to consider. First, who is reading your blog? Do visitors read your content to find answers to problems, or do they simply want to learn about your product? It’s also important to format content in a way that’s both easy to consume and entertaining. Once you understand your readers and how they consume content, you’ll be able to deliver information that drives traffic to your website.

5. Duplicating content on different websites

Have you ever written an amazing blog post for your company’s blog, and then pitched it to an outlet to be published as a guest blog? Although this is a great way to gain exposure for your brand, it can also hurt your website traffic.

There are numerous pros and cons to republishing content or submitting it to syndication services. Sure, while doing so is a great way to increase the number of backlinks pointing at your site, it also has the effect of driving traffic for other websites. Additionally, if your content is published on several different outlets, it becomes difficult to monitor whether or not every website is publishing the correct content or making unauthorized changes.

One of the best ways to avoid these obstacles is to focus on publishing extremely valuable content on your blog and promoting it on social media, while also creating high-value content exclusively for submission to syndication services or guest blogging opportunities. This is an effective way to position your website as a resource and drive traffic back to your website, and you won’t have to worry about other websites generating traffic from your original content.

6. Including too many large files and complex coding on your website

Research by Kissmetrics found people expect websites to load in two seconds or less. If your website is taking too long to load because of large images and complex coding, this is likely to be a culprit behind your poor traffic.

According to Moz, 58 percent of marketers believe website speed influences page ranking. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to ensure your website is loading quickly. First, use tools such as Google’s PageSpeed Insights to determine your page speed time and identify valuable solutions to improve your loading time. It’s also important to assess the size of your images. If your files are extremely large, they’ll need to be compressed to speed up loading time and better capitalize on the traffic coming to your website.

7. Driving traffic without a conversion strategy in place

Okay, to be fair, this one isn’t about generating traffic so much as it is about making sure you get the highest possible value out of the traffic that does wind up on your pages. After all, why bother driving traffic in the first place if you don’t have a defined conversion path on your website to capitalize on their interest?

The appropriate conversion strategy for your website will depend on your products, services and goals. If you’re simply trying to capture leads, your conversion path might consist of an opt-in form and an incentive for completing it. If you’re selling multiple products – especially bigger ticket items – your conversion funnel might include lead magnets, multiple calls-to-action and other features. Regardless of the approach you take, you need to have a strategy in place, and you need to test it continually to ensure that it’s converting as much of your traffic as possible.

Although traffic generation remains to be a top challenge for marketers, understanding the best and worst strategies will help you develop and implement an effective strategy for your brand. By keeping these traffic generation mistakes in mind, you’ll improve your website traffic and keep visitors coming back for more.

What are some of the most ineffective traffic generation tactics you’re aware of? Share your thoughts or experiences in the comments below.

Guest Author: Alex Bashinsky

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Why Today is the Best Day to Start an Online Business (and how to do it)

Ever wanted to work from a tropical beach in the Bahamas?

How about working from home and creating a steady income for your family?

If someone asked you this 20 years ago you would’ve said they were crazy. But with more than 2.4 billion people online, the internet represents the ideal marketplace for chasing those dreams.

I’m not saying you should quit your office job right now. But how about taking baby steps toward building an online business?

“But I don’t know anything about coding, design, and business!”

There are plenty of entrepreneurs who aren’t techies, but have developed successful online businesses. You can do the same, by following the steps in this blog post.

So, would you like to know what you need to start an online business today?

Step 1 – Pick a content management system

[Image credits: Memphis CVB]

It all starts with your online home- your website.

Almost nobody creates a website from scratch because it simply takes too long. You can easily manage your website through what is called a Content Management System (CMS), a software that provides a friendlier way to update content, publish blog posts, create event pages and so on.

The most widespread CMS in the world is WordPress, which empowers 60+ million websites all over the world. Two of the main reasons it earned such a large adoption are the increasing number of available plugins (free and paid), and it’s huge, vibrant community filled with developers, designers and many WordPress advocates who can be great resources when you need help.

Step 2 – Make your website stand out

[Image credits: Steven Depolo]

A theme is like the dress you will add to your “core engine”. And since we’re talking about WordPress, you’ll be overwhelmed by the number of results for a Google search such as WordPress themes.

So, before you start looking for a theme, clarify in your mind what the goal of your website will be:

• Will you sell goods?

• Will blogs be an important aspect?

• Will you feature content just for some of your users?

Don’t forget that the first impression plays a key role in the success of your online business. So don’t get over-excited by seeing the thousands of free themes and invest some money in having one that perfectly represents your business value.

If you don’t know how to code it yourself, consider outsourcing the customization of your WordPress theme to high-quality experts who can work their magic for you.

Step 3 – Build the 4 pillars of your online business

[Image credits: Phil Roeder]

Once you have the “home” of your soon-to-be business ready, you should focus on creating the basic elements of an online business.

With this in mind, your next goal is to create the 4 pillars that will enable your business.

You’ll need:

• A homepage

• A landing page to collect email addresses

• A blog section

• A “showroom” page

Your homepage has to grab your target audience’s attention while providing a clear selling proposition, which is what you’re offering to them.

Landing pages are the perfect tool to collect email addresses and other information (like names, job titles etc.) from people interested in your offer.

A blog or “news” section helps you publish relevant content regularly to generate leads and rank on search engines like Google.

The “showroom” page is a page not about you, rather about people who support you or have bought a product or service from you. Testimonials, reviews, positive comments, and all that could reinforce the perceived value of your offer.

Step 4 – Turn your website into a selling machine with plugins

[Image credits: 401k]

Since all the main pages of your website are now in place, you should focus on empowering your website with what it needs to become a selling machine.

Are you running an e-commerce store that sells goods? Are you selling subscriptions to a service? Maybe you are running a membership site?

You’re in luck because there are plenty of great WordPress plugins that can help you out with all the features you need.

Specifically, here are the top plugins for each selling type you could check out:

• Top plugin for selling digital products: Easy Digital Download

• Top plugins for e-commerce: WooCommerce and WP e-Commerce

• Top plugins for membership websites: Paid Memberships Pro and MemberPress

All these plugins provide incredible support to their customers, but if you need a little extra help – contact Codeable.

Step 5 – Set up an email list

[Image credits: Heather]

Now that you’re able to sell to your website visitors (and accept payments), you should capitalize on your efforts. Everyone knows that publishing great content is a powerful way to attract new visitors to your website and rank better on Google. But that’s just the first step. To build a successful online business you have to create a mailing list.

MailChimp and AWeber are the most used services when talking about email marketing. Since the former is free up until 2000 subscribers, we recommend starting with that.

MailChimp has a huge, helpful, and clear documentation for how to get started.

The most important thing you should create at this stage is a page where your visitors can subscribe to your newsletter. These kind of pages, called landing pages, are crucial to any online business because they’re fully committed to turning traffic into leads.

Leverage the idea of giving away free stuff in exchange for someone’s email address.

If you have no idea where to start – put together your 3 most read blog posts, add a nice cover and some graphics and voilà you’ve got a free ebook for your subscribers.

Infographics, white papers, cheat sheets and checklists are the most common type of “freebies” you can easily provide your readers.

Step 6 – Manage your social media presence effectively

[Image credits: Jason Howie]

With so much new content published every second online, just hitting “publish”  isn’t enough to get exposure for your online business. That’s where social media marketing steps in to bring your content to a wider audience that it wouldn’t normally reach.

Since you’re at the beginning of your business journey, you’re probably in charge of everything that your online business needs. Taking care of the social media can quickly become a long-hours activity you don’t have enough time to focus on.

Here are two powerful tools that will make your social media activities a breeze.

Buffer

Buffer helps you schedule social updates and links from your website or blog. This means you can optimize your time while providing social updates about your latest blog post or new product throughout the day.

If you want to know your followers’ most active hours on Twitter, just use Followerwonk and analyze your own followers. For Facebook, just look at your page’s insights and publish accordingly.

Hootsuite

Spreading your content and updates is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to social media.

Another important part is to monitor relevant conversations about your business in real-time.

To do that, you should consider using a tool such as Hootsuite and its column-based interface.

 

Thanks to the ability to create separate columns, you’re able to keep track of mentions, replies, saved searches for relevant keywords to your business and also hashtags. To start using Hootsuite, just read this quick start guide.

Step 7 – Create unique visuals that will amaze your visitors

[Image credits: David Goehring]

Written text is ok. But an image along with text is more powerful.

Our brain loves visual content, and it processes it way faster. For your message to be better understood and (hopefully) shared around more, include imagery with your blog posts and social updates.

Don’t worry, even if you aren’t a designer and haven’t worked with photo editing tools, you’ll be able to create some pretty cool imagery.

How?

Here are some great image creation tools;

Canva

With a huge library of free resources, like fonts, icons, layouts, symbols, photos and a pre-formatted canvas – you’ll love Canva.

Just pick one or more element from their library and you’ll be able to create a unique visual in minutes.

Placeit

With Placeit you simply upload your image or screenshot on one of the many available mock-ups and download your creation.

Find stock photos and edit them

Finding cool stock photos to use at no cost sounds like mission impossible – but it’s not.

There are a bunch of websites that aggregate the best high-resolution stock photos every day. One of the most interesting ones is Unsplash, from Crew. If you don’t like it, there are many more worth looking at.

Wrapping things up

Creating and growing an online business isn’t easier than creating any other “real life” business.

The key difference is it’s convenient. It’s way more affordable since you won’t need an office for quite some time. Most of the tools you use are free (or cost low monthly fees), and many of them offer trials so you can evaluate whether they’re a good investment or not.

So if you’re good at something and always wanted to create your own business, today is the day to take that first step because everything you’ll need to pave your future entrepreneurial path is in your hands.

No more excuses!

Guest Author: Matteo Duò is Content Strategist at Codeable, the #1 outsourcing service for WordPress providing top-notch WordPress experts to small businesses, agencies, and bloggers. Wanna know know more about WordPress and entrepreneurship? Check out Codeable blog.

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Online Marketing Approaches That Are Vital For Success

The very best internet marketing strategies generate the greatest levels of success for any online company. The following 6 online marketing methods are crucial for your online company to endure.

1. Branding

Your site visitors have to see your business as a professional and also respectable venture. They are less most likely to purchase or remain from a site if it looks affordable, sloppy and messed up. A properly made site assists to boost internet site conversions and creates an excellent standing with the search engines, which consequently, aids for higher positions. Important elements for site design include easy to use navigating, clear page design as well as design, great use of photos as well as speedy packing times.

2. Content

Top quality content on your website keeps your readers interested, improves natural website traffic from the online search engine as well as urges repeat site visitors. Your content material should work, thorough and also address issues for clients. Incorporating a blog to your website is a fantastic method of adding material on a constant basis as well as your blog posts can likewise be shared on your social media web pages.

3. Search Engine Optimization

SEO includes implementing a variety of Internet marketing strategies to make sure that you could get to the highest online search engine positions for the key phrases on your site. More than 90 % of people looking online check out sites that are on the initial page of search results. The essential elements of SEO include new material, material size, appropriate key phrases, labeling photos, links, and typeface decors.

4. Social Media

Social network has a substantial role in internet marketing methods today. Social network websites have high website traffic and customer data which make it possible for companies to get in touch with particular and targeted markets. Social media is an essential part your internet marketing strategies. When individuals check out and also discuss your content on social media it is recognized by the search engines and will certainly boost your search engine optimization, it straight supplies web traffic to your site and.

5. Mobile

Over 25 % of net customers just access the internet through a mobile phone. If your internet site is not completely responsive to checking out through a mobile or tablet tool it will certainly affect your search engine rankings and your internet website traffic will certainly drop. The value of mobile marketing will continue to expand as online connection boosts making it feasible for even more people to browse online with their mobile phones during the day no matter where they are.

6. Video Advertising and marketing

Video advertising enables you to get to big viewers that are searching for your services as well as items. Posting ideal video clips to sites like YouTube and Vimeo can develop your on-line presence significantly. Video delivers the ideal interactive tool for your advertising messages.

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What Should An Affordable SEM Service Include?

As a company owner you have probably listened to the globe SEM being thrown around in advertising and marketing conferences. Whether you understand it or not, Search Engine Optimization is imperative to the success of your business in an on the internet atmosphere and also without it you are not going to achieve high positions in search results.

Prior to you start recognizing exactly what economical Search Engine Optimization services ought to include, it is essential to comprehend exactly what these three letters means and how they can affect the success of your business online. Search Engine Optimization means seo, which is regularly transforming and also evolving, which is why it's so difficult for business to manage their own Search Engine Optimization projects. Unless you have hrs of time to spare every day, it's worthwhile working with an expert business to manage your advocate you and also aid push your company forward on the internet on your behalf.

Search Engine Optimization consists of a host of not the same aspects from utilizing key words that your clients will consider when searching for services and products you provide, to guaranteeing that your location is clear on every little thing you do to appeal to the regional algorithms used by Google. SEO could be remarkably discouraging, complicated as well as challenging if it isn't really something you understand as well as utilize daily, something you keeping up to this day with as well as have total confidence that you are improving your brand presence and also not hampering it.

The very first point that budget-friendly Search Engine Optimization solutions need to consist of is an evaluation of your site. Every little thing must be examined from the use of keywords to the layout of the layout as well as the speed in which pages load to navigation throughout the website, making sure that your clients appreciate the most effective online experience when seeing your internet site.

Your web site is an impression your clients will have of your firm. You require a professionally created site which is simple to utilize and fast to tons. The online advertising and marketing company you pick to assist you with your project must additionally onward a sitemap of your site to the search engine companies, making sure that your firm obtains observed and also gets the recognition that you should have relocating forward.

The company needs to likewise focus on your off web page campaign, this includes everything from press releases to posts and also blogs. Each one must be composed concentrating on just what will certainly interest your consumers, the writing ought to be top quality and interesting, with mindful usage of key phrases.

Years ago affordable SEM services was just using a host of keywords, both lengthy tail as well as short tail keywords, stuffing them right into a piece of writing which would suffice. With search engines currently focusing on their own individuals experience, exactly how key phrases are used has actually transformed to eliminate over stuffing and also instead concentrate on being appealing and also interesting.

Even more, you will certainly want your cost effective Search Engine Optimization services to concentrate on your neighborhood company. Google has placed an algorithm in place which focuses on local. This implies that every page on your web site needs to have your address and also area, you have to open up a Google+ account and also verify your site, address as well as e-mail in order to comply with their policies. This will aid drive traffic to your site as well as firm every day as people search for specific items and searches in their place.

The final point you will certainly wish to guarantee is offered as part of your budget-friendly SEM solutions is links. Web link building is critical to your SEM success. You could not completely understand web link structure, but it could assist boost navigating throughout your website and also off website, driving more visitors to your website every day.

Storm Mind Layouts is an ingenious internet marketing firm offering clients featuring branding as well as imaginative services to assist them attain success. The company caters to companies of all sizes and in all industries, providing them featuring budget friendly advertising and branding solutions to meet their specific needs. Storm Human brain Designs supplies exceptional degrees of customer support and assistance featuring a range of services to fulfill each clients one-of-a-kind advertising and marketing demands.