If you are taking advantage of social media platforms in your marketing efforts, you probably already know the kind of traffic you can create by linking to Facebook and Twitter. Recent news, however, suggests that a large percentage of teens in the past year have left Facebook for Twitter. And, with the buying power of the teen and college-age population growing steadily, businesses might want to take note of where these kids are spending their time online. Twitter has slowly crept to the forefront of all social media outlets, so any marketer looking to promote to teens would be well-advised to jump aboard. Why?

1. Use Twitter to Monitor Your Brand
More than any other social media site today, Twitter gives you the ability to watch exactly how users are experiencing your brand in real time. You can see who follows you, who un-follows you, where your followers come from and what types of devices they are using to access Twitter. This is a huge amount of free marketing information at your fingertips, as long as you know how to use it. Try building a base of followers by following teens that seem like they might be interested in your products or services. Once you have a nice sized group, you can sign up to receive information on your trends and followers by searching for un-follow apps within Twitter.

2. Make Connections
Obviously the entire point of branding through social media is based on making social connections. But the great thing about Twitter is that connections are easily made. You don’t have to request users to befriend or follow you. You can follow them first and hope they return the favor. You can also check out who follows your followers and reach out to them as well. Twitter is also a great way to connect with similar brands or entities that will have your best interests at heart and built-in teen followers.

3. Make Announcements
Sure, it’s cool to post your newest product on your Facebook page and see the “likes” rack up. But, how do you know whether or not your customers are even aware that you have posted something new? Unless they check their newsfeed, they probably aren’t, and it’s looking like less and less young people are tuning in to Facebook updates. Twitter is a great way to make announcements that your users are much more likely to see in real time. Also, try mentioning some of your followers or re-tweeting things from popular sources and watch as your teen following grows.

4. Set Your Tone of Voice
Because Facebook has become more of a static platform than Twitter, it has already begun to feel a little dated. With Twitter, you can communicate directly and in real time to all your users, or just one. Twitter provides a more dynamic way to create a tone of voice for your brand and encourage young people to interact with it. In other words, to a teen, a Twitter profile is going to seem much less stuffy and distant, and they may be more likely to interact.
By-line:
Alvina Lopez is a freelance writer and blog junkie, who blogs about accredited online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: alvina.lopez @gmail.com.

Market to Teens by Switching from Facebook to Twitter is a post from: Page One Business

In just a short span of time, Facebook has already become a force to be reckoned with. It currently has about 250 million users in more than 140 countries worldwide. According to cnn.com, Facebook is now the number 1 site online. With such a huge number of registered users, it is no wonder why online marketers all over the globe have started using Facebook to promote their products and services. Facebook marketing is all the rage these days. The thing is many neophytes are doing it all wrong. Yes. There is a proper way to market using Facebook. Here are four easy ways to market in Facebook.

· Create a Facebook fan page. Making your own fan page is a practical way to market on Facebook. There are business owners who create a personal account for their brands. Don’t make this mistake. With a personal account, people would have to go through the trouble of adding you up or approving your friend request. Plus there is a 5000 friend limit for personal accounts. Pages, on the other hand, don’t have a limit to the number of likes it can have. Plus people won’t have to “add” or “approve” you. All they have to do is click “like”

· Make them “like” you. Once you have a fan page, the next step should be to market your fan page. Make some noise on Facebook. Get people to “like” your page. Now there are many ways to do this. You can do it the hard way. You can campaign individually to your friends and request them to like your page. You can chat with them, send a PM or post on their walls. This can work. However, it’s a very time consuming process. And remember that time = money. Or you can hold a contest or a promotion. Give them an incentive for liking your page.

· Put large photos on your page. Check out the fan pages of Chanel, Kitkat and McDonalds. They all have one thing in common. They have tall profile pictures. If you want people to notice you, don’t put miniscule pictures on your page. Make them big, bold and eye-catching.

· Put a welcome tab. Check out the pages of Ben and Jerry’s and Coca-Cola. They have a huge welcome tab that just grabs your attention. A welcome tab is important because it tells people in a nutshell what your page is all about. You can put a video of your latest product or a picture of your current promos.

These are just four of the most basic ways to market using Facebook. They are easy to do and you won’t have to spend a cent! So what are you waiting for? Give these tips a try today.

“Amy C. is an interior decoration aficionado and online marketer.  She also likes testing and trying new home and office decorating themes.  In addition to being an interior decoration hobbyist, she enjoys designing calming solar fountains and glass art.  Amy invites you to browse her delightful collection of glass vases “

Four Easy Ways to Market in Facebook is a post from: Page One Business

Facebook pages work best if you are a major retail B2C brand or company.

In this list I have not included musicians, entertainers, actors & actressess or movies which we covered in the last post the “The World’s 20 Most Popular Facebook Pages“. Like Twitter the top ranked on Facebook are celebrities who attract passionate fans to their sites.

Here we look at the Top 10 Global companies or brands that are not a rock star, movie star or a musician.

Starbucks has pursued a focused social media and digital marketing strategy including making broadband wireless free in its stores and also adding value by providing digital content free.  Digital marketing as a percentage  of marketing spend including social media is growing much faster than traditional marketing. Ford has announced that it will be spending 25% of its marketing on digital which is 100% more than the market average of 12% according to Reutersand is concentrating a lot of dollars in social media competitions due to its success with itsFord Fiesta Movement campaign.

You will notice that Facebook is often used for promoting competitions as Starbucks, Skittles and Converse display on their pages below.

1. Starbucks: 16,366,438 Fans (Ranked 10 Globally)

They are not the top ranked Facebook page for not following best practice Facebook strategies and so this page  includes a call to action (see, join and send), asking to engage with their fans and integrating and linking other social media channels in their Facebook page.

2. Coca-Cola: 15,863,959 Fans (Ranked 13 Globally)

Coca Cola displays the importance of  a multiple media strategy to spread its brand images, video and content by including

• Twitter
• MySpace
• YouTube
• Flickr

in its Facebook page right near the top.

A call to action is seen with its call to “Click to become a Fan”. It also promotes their fans to drive engagement. Images and video have always been a strong part of Coca Colas traditional marketing and this brand marketing is maintained on its Facebook page.

3. Oreo: 12,616,818 Fans (Ranked 26 Globally)

Making heroes of your fans is always a good Facebook strategy and Oreo displays this with its major banner on the left with a Fan displayed from Georgia, USA (Catherine M).

Oreo doesn’t link to any other social media like Twitter or even its website.

4. Skittles: 11,912,772 Fans (Ranked 30 Globally)

Competitions or games have proven to be a great way to engage fans and Skittles does this with a Game called “Mob The Rainbow” which is consistent with its brand. Twitter is integrated and its website.

5. Red Bull: 10,634,430 Fans (Ranked 36 Globally)

So Red Bull wants you to “like our page” so provides a big image with a call to action, it is very clear that it wants to grow its Facebook fans. Red Bull with its action and sport focus also provides a Tab to take you to its athletes page. There is only one link which takes you to its website.

6. Disney: 9,227,053 (Ranked 42 Globally)

Video is centric to Disney so here on Disney’s Facebook page we have an online video promoting its latest film “Tangled”. Good to see it promoting and integrating its Twitter and YouTube Channels.

7. Converse: 6,473,795 Fans (Ranked 71 Globally)

Want to have a bit of fun. Converse put together an online tool that allows you to make a cool and maybe strange profile. No social media cross channel promotion here.

8. Pringles: 6,322,323 Fans (Ranked 82 Globally)

Engagement here is encouraged by the Facebook page asking you to join the Conga line so it is good to see the call to action being implemented, again no other social media links in evidence or even a website.

9. ZARA: 6,312,517 Fans (Ranked 83 Globally)

Images are vital to fashion so strong fun photos are an important part of ZARA’s Facebook page. They promoting other media with a  Zara Fashion Magazine but there are no calls to action.

10. iPod: 5,952,748 Fans (Ranked 89 Globally)

Apple’s reinvention in the last 10 years started with the iPod. Its Facebook design doesn’t seem to  match its design finesse that we have come to see on its products. Bland but obviously a successful Facebook page by making the top 10 company and brands globally.

Jimmy Adams works at RebatesValley, a Coupon Website. RebatesValley Provides Bagking Coupon,  overstock coupon code and coupons for various online stores. Please visit rebatesvalley.com 

The World’s 10 Most Popular Company Facebook Pages is a post from: Page One Business

The social networking sites have been the innovative advertising means to boost sales and uphold oneself. Twitter and Facebook are the predecessors on this means for digits. The Facebook is somewhat diverse with the system since you could throw plenty of friend requests to folks you recognize, to your friend’s friends, and even to somebody you aren’t familiar with. Twitter, on the other hand, is dissimilar. It is a micro blogging social networking site where persons calls for people to follow you and not just for the reason that they recognize you, but because they find you mesmerizing.

And why do several folks find you out of the ordinary? It may be for the reason that you write down blogs on some interesting things or maybe you have huge views on some societal stuff. Famous persons, selling persons, advertisers and every person who care for societal gathering online is using Twitter. So if you are one of them, it is vital to get a well-built hold of followers, who would tweet your tweets on their loop as well as assisting you to have additional strikes. To reveal in advance, the quantity of followers are necessary to have a powerful profile on Twitter. Yet, watchfulness should also be experiential when trying to boost your followers at once, as Twitter puts a stricter decree into practice in their follow and follow back terms.

There is abundance of customs to move up your Twitter followers. You just have to make certain that you don’t Spam. Spamming is not an excellent scheme. It’s wrong to downpour users with plenty of unwanted messages and allocates bad links on Twitter. These are a small number of techniques to boost Twitter followers devoid of being perched. You could also make use of Twitter Counter to have a footpath for new users who go after you each day. You could even find out those people who ‘unfollow’ you after a small amount of tweets or so by other Twitter applications.

Hope you can hit upon a lot of important information which will lend you a hand to boost your Twitter followers exclusive of being suspended on the exceeding subsection. Let us all remain watchful and be moral as we go for the means that would best benefit us in terms of business or the other way. Just always commit to memory to do the right things in the right way as to either it is slow or fast.

Jimmy Adams works at RebatesValley, a Coupon Website. RebatesValley Provides overstock coupon code, drugstore.com coupon code free shipping and coupons for various online stores. Please visit rebatesvalley.com 

How To Boost Your Twitter Followers is a post from: Page One Business

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have become a bone of contention in the workplace, with more and more companies blocking access to these sites through their networks.

Software security company Clearswift revealed that the number of businesses that ban access to these sites has jumped to 19 percent from only 9 percent last year. Worldwide, it is estimated that almost 60 percent of managers have blocked at least one social networking site from an employee.

What’s the reason for employers’ communist stance against social networks? Facebook and Twitter are considered major time suckers, hindering employee productivity which is of course what the companies are paying their staff for.

Two years ago, IT company Nucleus Research reported that companies that allowed full access to social networking sites experienced a 1.5 percent drop in employee productivity.

Using social networks also raises concerns regarding company privacy and security breach. According to IT security firm Kaspersky, social networks are now ahead of email as the most widely used tool to spread malware.

Facebook, for one, is notoriously being used by cybercriminals to spread malware which, when installed on a user’s computer can send out information stored in the machine. Some Security experts warn that some Facebook apps, including the highly popular dating apps, can be vector for malware. Just imagine if sensitive corporate information could land in the hands of the bad guys of the Internet?

So maybe we can’t entirely blame employers for thinking that Facebook & Twitter and work don’t mix and should never ever happen simultaneously — at least not while you’re on their payroll.

In Britain, employers take the no-Facebooking-and-Tweeting-while-working policy as a serious business. Nearly half of the firms there forbid their staff from using social networking sites during company time.

In Germany,  automobile giant Volkswagen and HeidelbergCement, a construction materials firm, are just two companies that strictly ban their employees from logging on to social networking sites while working. Germany and Australia are the leading countries with the highest rates of blocking social networks in the workplace.

But the threat of malware and corporate data loss aside (which can easily be skirted around by using one’s cell phone instead of the company’s computer when accessing Facebook and Twiter), does the use of social networks in the workplace really reduce personnel productivity or enhance it? Depending on which side you care to listen to, it can actually work both ways and merely depends on the user how he utilizes these sites.

According to a study conducted by the University of Melbourne, employees who are allowed to use social networking sites during office hours are 9 percent more productive than the social networks-deprived ones. According to Brent Coker, Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing (WILB), which can run the gamut from reading online news, to updating one’s Facebook status or online dating profile, to playing online games and anything in between, actually improves workers’ concentration because it allows them to “zone out a bit” from time to time.

These findings, don’t apply to those battling Intenet addiction who will inevitably be less productive at work if allowed to have their way with the computer, cautions Coker.

Coker’s argument is shared by John McTigue, executive vice president and co-owner of marketing firm Kuno Creative.  McTigue says allowing employees access to social networking sites at work contributes to “collective workplace happiness” which in turn contributes to increased productivity.

So perhaps the boss who catches his secretary replying to a message on Zoosk, a popular Facebook dating app, shouldn’t be too quick to show her the door.  What employers should be doing instead, says Facebook and Twitter advocates, is to empower their workers by allowing them to embrace the Web 2.0 era.  There should be a clear policy, however, regarding what employees can and cannot share on social networking sites.

This article was presented by Matt Fuller. Matt writes about a variety of online dating and social networking topics including online dating Australia tips and free dating sites for women reviews and relationships advice for single people.

Should Employers Ban Facebook in the Workplace? is a post from: Page One Business

Originally I added the Members widget but recently see Google Friend Connect has a lot more interesting widgets. Some of these could be very useful to someone who wanted to promote their blog and business.

Social Bar

Let users sign in, view other members, leave comments, and see recent site activity from the top or bottom of your website. I am going to add this one as soon as I find time to figure out how to add it to the Thesis theme. A short trip to the support forum should do it.

Comments

Let users post comments and video links. Posts can apply to a specific page or an entire website.

Ratings and Reviews

Let users rate and review content on your page — books, photos, songs, etc.

Interests Polls

Ask your visitors questions relevant to your site via a poll that adds to their profile. Answers can enhance AdSense and the featured content gadget. This gadget works in concert with the Interests feature.

Recommendation

Let users recommend their favorite pages, surfacing your site’s most popular content.

Featured Content

Display content from your site based on the interests of your site’s visitors. Using Google site search, this gadget will automatically display content that matches the interests expressed by your site’s visitors.

Newsletter

Help members sign up for your newsletter by providing their email address if they haven’t yet specified one.

I like the Newsletter a lot. The way this set of tools can be added as needed is a good way for this to work. Look for some more of these items to arrive here soon. In the meantime please signe up with my Google Connect.

Taking a Second Look at Google Friend Connect is a post from: Page One Business

SEO can be a natural results of socializing online. Optimizing for social networks needs to include attractive content to encourage people to find and like what you publish enough to save and spread your message.

There are ways to make SEO more of an intended consequence. A resonate harmony exists between you and those who find what you discuss interesting. Ringing your bell where those who appreciate the tone of your message means they will listen. How do you find these people is the question begging an answer.

Think for a moment where you go to find what is interesting to you. Are you participating in these discussions, are you contributing? If you don’t know that much about some topic you want to be involved in, are you asking questions?

Facebook and Linkedin both have many interest targeted groups anyone can participate in. Cultivating relationships  in places of shared interest is fairly easy. People naturally connect around shared interests online and offline. Make sure they are aware of your blog, your other networks, and what you offer.

Places like Propeller, Digg, and Mixx operate heavily around friends promoting each others links. Your profile is linked back to your site, it may or may not be dofollow, but people will find their way if you are involved in the community.

Targeting followers with Twitter can be done by going to search.twitter.com and searching terms related to what you do and following those who are writing about that. When you share your message with humans they may link to you or share your message with others.

Is Social Networking SEO? is a post from: Page One Business