Viral Seeding Explained

Everyone knows that one of the most effective ways to gain traffic to your site or push your product to new levels is to use viral marketing.  Essentially this is publishing something (an article, video, image, animation or even a full web page) and having it spread across the internet based almost exclusively on users viewing it and then sharing it with their friends through their blog, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Youtube accounts or other means.  While some things that go viral online happen organically or even accidentally, more and more companies are intentionally helping their content to go viral.

One essential element of helping your content go viral is called viral seeding.  This is a method used by marketers where they will publish the item they want to go viral and then help ‘launch’ it in front of a set number of people to help get the ball rolling.  This could be done through paid traffic or creating accounts on Facebook or other social networks with thousands of active followers and then sharing the content with them.

This is effective because when someone sees something interesting they are far more likely to hit the ‘like’, ‘share’ or ‘re-tweet’ buttons if they see that it has already been done by hundreds or even thousands of people before them.  This is essential to the social landscape of these sites.  People love finding and sharing new items that are either funny, interesting or pull at their heart strings in some other way.

How to Perform Viral Seeding

When performing a viral seeding campaign it is important to keep a few things in mind to help it become as successful as possible:

•    Multiple Fronts – You can’t just make a quick post on Facebook and hope it will spread. Sharing it on all the major social networks including Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and others is essential.

•    Diverse Users – Ideally you want to have your content shared to different people on each of your social network accounts.  If you have the same people following your Twitter and Facebook accounts, for example, you have too much overlap.

•    Utilize Videos – Uploading a video about your content can be extremely helpful.  If your video is the content you are promoting then make sure to place it not only on YouTube, but on all the popular video sharing sites as well.  If your promoting something other than a video you can add videos talking about it or ‘reaction videos’ showing people watching it.

•    Enter the Blogosphere – If you own your own blog or blogs make sure to make a post about it. If you don’t you can reach out to bloggers and ask them (or pay them) to write about it, or simply create your own new blog about the content.

•    Web 2.0 – Sites like RedIT, StumbleUpon and Digg can be huge when it comes to viral seeding. When something catches on fire on one of these sites it can result in tens of thousands of visitors overnight.

admin Social Media, Video Marketing, Web Marketing

Social Media Advertising On Platforms

Many people use social networking sites – Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus – to advertise their business. The debate about using these sites is not new, and millions of people around the world use them to promote their services and products.

There are many proponents and opponents to using social media as an advertising medium. People who say yes to this kind of advertisement platform cite the recent uptick in social networking users who purchase various stuffs thanks to the ads.  People against it say advertisements have no place in the social media sector where people find, meet and interact with friends.

How does social media and advertising go hand in hand?

Based on several studies and surveys, there are certain types of ads that work better than they would on social media platforms. Of course, to get more responses from users, you need a certain type of ad for the social media site. There are many marketers who use Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter to boost their brand and business awareness and benefit to a significant extent.

Besides increasing awareness, their ads are instrumental in bringing more users to purchase their products and services. According to the folks who like this idea of ads, it’s easy to find product reviews and brand research, which makes it simpler for consumers and makes them want to use the social media platforms.

Who Does It Work For?

Of course, social media advertising does not work for everybody. Marketing experts says it can be beneficial to businesses so long as they use the four Social Media Marketing elements in their marketing efforts:

1. Understand their prospective consumers
2. Can target those users with interesting, eye-appealing content
3. Check on whether or not the ads will complement the current social media content
4. If the business has a proficient social networking existence on the social media sites to acquire the rich dividends.

There have been numerous studies and research done on popular webstores during the festive season such as on Amazon, Best Buy, Target and wal-Mart

Researchers watched online buyers’ purchasing behaviors. A significant number of the Internet consumers were already fan or followers of various brands on Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites. It noticed that the popular Internet stores had a 51 percent increase in consumers after they saw ads on the social media websites. It’s a very uplifting figure for Internet marketers who want to use ads on these platforms.

One Final Thought

Most people do look at the popular social media sites as the place to talk with and find old and new friends. However, you can also use them to promote your products and services. Many brands are using them today for this very reason! You can do the same thing with an effective, structured and competent strategy.  What do you have to lose with these types of ads?

admin Social Media, Video Marketing, Web Marketing

Link Building in 2013 and beyond

New Linknami version? Why would we create a new version when the existing one is a unique and effective white-hat SEO link building suite?

It has to do something with title of this blog: Link building in 2013 and beyond!

Our goal was always and still is to create efficient marketing tools that stand the test of time.

Even though the old version offers tools that are very powerful in terms of SEO and link building (because they are in fact white hat tools: Contextual links with no foot print, since every single link is agreed on mutually and set manually by webmasters without any specific network pattern, meaning that you decide where to link to as long as its beneficial to your website visitors (only limited by the total number of blogs in the system)) we have decided to end the cat and mouse game and offer complete online marketing and advertising tools that are even more reliable and longer lasting than most SEO tools.

Link building in Google’s terms is to create great content, then connect with fellow bloggers in your industry and wait until they link to your content. This sounds brilliant in theory. However according to our 13 years of experience in online marketing, the reality is that in the majority of industries and markets, even when posting nobel-prize worthy content, you are barely getting any link at all or at least not worth the effort you spent on creating the content.

Link Building of the future will be all about sharing your content via blogs and social media virally to get natural backlinks. In the years ahead, not only links will be important, but social signals like likes, +1′s, tweets, shares and even simple mentions within context (semantic web) will come into play and increase in importance by the day. This means that it is important to connect to as many relevant experts, influencers and authorities as possible within  your industry, who then spread word to their blog visitors, fans, friends, followers and circles. Link exchanges lasted a few years, blog networks lasted a few years, but this is the way to build links from 2013 onwards up to the next decade.

So how do you find relevant users in your market? Common social media monitoring tools find influencers based on people who write around your brand and keywords on blogs and social networks. You then would need to contact and pitch them one by one by yourself or hire someone to do that. Similar to way link building used to be, it is a very tiresome and highly inefficient activy until finally someone agrees to link to you or spread the word and usually this person doesn’t do it out of pure goodwill but usually wants you to return favours along the way.

Here is where Linknami comes into play. Linknami combines the whole process of finding influential people in your industry, contacting them and spreading your information into one powerful, easy to use tool that allows you to promote your blog posts, brand, products, services and events on industry experts blogs and social profiles in your or even their own words. Making it a highly effective word of mouth marketing method that is most likely to go viral and those visitors, fans and followers are where you will get relevant backlinks, likes, tweets and +1′s from. Completely naturally, just as Google dreams of.

• -For new sites it is a great, organic way to get noticed and way more efficient than cold contacting people and pretending to be friends with them
• Large established businesses can create targeted traffic campaigns about their new products and events that go viral.

Since Linknami is a true marketplace, you can still earn money by sharing hot stuff on your blogs and social profiles.

Signup or login to your Linknami user area now and connect your blogs and profiles to earn money or create your social media campaigns that get you buzz, targeted traffic and social signals.

admin Blog Marketing, Link Building, Linknami, Social Media

The tremendous growth of Social Media means that it has become the center of Online Marketing but not without a reason. Facebook is the largest Social Network known to man and the center of the Social Media along with Twitter. What it means for you is that, it is also your best platform to market. No good business can opt out of Facebook Marketing if they want to stay at the top. Here are a few things that should be kept in mind about Facebook Marketing.

Know the trends

If Social Media Marketing is about one thing, it is about the trends. People on social networks like Facebook  are responsive to trends and their response makes the social network itself revolve. Hence the most important thing in Facebook Marketing is to know the trends. Trends are like the waves, you catch them and they give you a ride forward. Social Media Marketing Tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social and the likes help in getting to know the latest trends.

Give before you receive

Social Media should be be a win-win platform, where everyone wins. You do not need a back door approach at all. This is how Social Media and hence Social Media Marketing works, give them what they want and they will give you want you want. Simple ways to do that:

• Post News about your company/product that will keep your fans updated and they will follow you just for that.
• People love visuals! Facebook is more about Pictures than other forms of content. The bigger the picture, the better. Relevant pictures of your product, people involved etc is one of the most effective ways to get your audience hooked. Hence pictures of products, coupons, events and people involved with your company/product is a very good strategy in Social Network Marketing.

Make your Landing Page attractive

With Facebook you can design your own landing page. This feature allows you to expand your thinking and come up with an attractive landing page inviting people to like your page. Red Bull has done a great job with their landing page, directing attention to their Like button. They also attract the viewers with the promise of a reward for liking their page.

Create and encourage Polls and Contests

Polls are the easiest way to go viral in Facebook. Ask the right questions and people will ask their friends and their friends will ask their friends and it goes viral. Polls bring people to your page and they also engage your fans. Contests are also very effective at this. Photo Contests can easily be orchestrated and done successfully. Ask your audience to take a photo of them with your product. Famous brands like Dominos, Levis and many other brands promote their Facebook Page through photo contests.The photo contest winner is decided by the maximum likes the contestant gets and hence he is sure to promote your page indirectly.

Be active and respond to your Fans

A Facebook page is like a Fan club. If you don’t mind your fans, eventually you will lose them. Respond to the comments and posts by your fans. This makes them feel welcome. Investing in your fans is the best way to get more.

Use Facebook Ads and Promoted Posts

When you know who your target audience is, using Facebook Ads and Facebook Promoted Posts will give you a real boost. Using these features, you can advertise your pages exactly to who you want. Filtering based on age, country, sex and interests can really get you fans of your target audience.

Be simple, don’t overdo it

The easiest way to lose in Social Media Marketing as well as in other types of online marketing such as search engine optimization is to overdo it. Be simple in your approach and show what you stand for and that is all you need to do to be successful in Facebook Marketing.

admin Facebook, Social Media, Web Marketing

6 Social Media Viral Marketing Campaign Tips

You probably don’t have a viral marketing campaign like big brands in your industry. You can however reach an audience and have your material shared which will bring you a great deal of growth.

You don’t have a guarantee of going viral but you can learn a few lessons which you can apply to your marketing so you can make an impression with your own product.

Promote One Feature

Be sure that you’re promoting one feature that people are going to have an interest in. Don’t try and sell the whole story and all the product’s features when you’re marketing. People will find stories like this very hard to digest fully and thye may ignore the message. Try to focus on one feature of the product that makes it unique and something that no one else offers. This makes the story easy to understand. People will want to check out the product and share it with those they know. Take something you have that no one else does and push it with your marketing efforts.

Make Your Announcement in the Right Publication

When you’re ready to announce your product make sure you use the right publication to do it with. When you’re a young company, there will only be a very few blogs and other publications that are going to cover your story. Make sure you pick the right company so you get the biggest bang out of your marketing efforts. If you’re pitching technology then use a technology publication if it’s a self-improvement then use the best self-improvement publication that you can.

Have a Focus on a User Story

People want something that will improve their lives not something that has a bunch of features. You can explain your product better by using a story. Find someone that has used you product and make a story about their experience. This can go a long way to getting the trust and customers that you need.

Make the Signup Process Streamlined

If you have a confusing product or signup process you’ll quickly lose customers. Make it easy for people to sign up so you convert the browsers into users of the product you’re trying to sell. Work on the percentages and try to convert more of your users into customers. Make the process easy and you could greatly increase your overall sales.

Figure Out How and Where your Product Could Go Viral

Find out how your product is going to be shared with other people. There will be several factors that determine if the information is going to be shared or not. You can provide incentives such as making the customer feel like the product is benefiting them in some way. People like to tell their friends about cool products thye are using and gain bragging rights. Give you users the ability to share their experiences with your product and this can help you drive more sales spread the message about your product to other people.

Offering a Quality Product

Make sure that you are offering a great product for your customers. If your product helps people or saves a problem for them this is what you want to achieve. Give your users a great experience with your product and this will be your most powerful marketing tool and your message will spread online because you have a great product.

You can get thousands of new users even if you’re not the “latest thing.” Be sure to study your product and then market it the best way. Your promotion will be determined by the market so go out and look at what people want and promote in the right place. Keep working on you marketing even if you start getting sales as you’re work isn’t done yet. Keep trying to get more conversions and pushing forward. If you do this you’ll keep making sales and reach the gaols you have set for yourself, your company, and the product.

admin Facebook, Social Media, Twitter, Web Marketing

In search of a way to better your engagement on Google+, you will find four ways to improve your engagement below.

Google+ is set apart from other social networking sites, thanks to its unique set of capabilities and culture.

Below are four ways that are proven to build engagement and expand business networking:

1.) Follow people who are relevant to your business

When you are investing your valuable time online, focus on a target audience, or connect with people who may be interested in your product or service. Focusing on those who may be interested will increase your chance of sales.

Finding people who may be interested in your product or service is the tricky part. Utilize the search on Google+; it can make this task much easier with the various options you have to choose from.

When using the search box located at the top of the site, you will need to type a keyword. Typing a keyword will present you will real-time updating stream related to your keyword. When looking at this, on the right hand side, below the search box, there is a keyword dropdown box. This is where you will want to select iPeople or Pages, in order to help find people based upon the topic in the keyword search. These search results will provide information based upon all people or pages that have the keyword you typed in their profile.

This makes it easy to find relevant people! Though if you want to view posts based upon the keyword search, then you need to select iGoogle+ posts. One you do this, it begins to stream posts; keep in mind it is possible to pause the stream if it begins to move to quickly.

2.) Comment On Posts of your circles and friends

In order to build an active and engaged audience, you need to take the time to do more than just follow people. Interacting with others, through commenting, is a great way to encourage furthered engagement of your audience.

Building an active social network through commenting in an excellent strategy to use, especially when taking the added search and SEO benefits.

3.) Participate in Hangouts

Hangouts are a popular, fun way to meet new and exciting people. Nowadays, videos are closest thing we can to interacting with some one in real life, without actually meeting the person. This also allows you to further your connection with the person.

About twice a month, perform a “steaming” Hangout. In preparation for the event, give your audience a change to win win something.
You should go far beyond merely sending out email newsletters, and text message updates. Instead take it to the next level with full interaction and engagement with your audience. By nurturing these relationships, you will gain more exposure, making your message more memorable. The more memorable your company is, the more likely you will increase you sales. Visual engagement, such as videos, is one significantly influential method to making your company memorable.

Give Hangouts a chance; even if you are not a social person, it is a fun easy way to connect with your audience.

4.) Share High-Quality Content Only

Creating and sharing only quality content is critical to your success. This is also important for commenting and re-shares. Quality content will continue to encourage interactions from your audience.
Sharing other people’s quality content let’s your audience see you appreciate them and their opinions. This will also encourage further engagement through continued conversation with your audience.

You can determine the types of content by viewing what your followers like and re-share. By doing this you can provide quality content that will keep your audience interested and engaged.

Google+ is quite similar to other social networking sites, when it comes to building engagement that is. The key is engagement. Engagement will make your product or service memorable, and help increase your sales. Take these tips and apply them to a platform to help build your engagement on Google+

admin Google, Social Media

Social media channels like Facebook enable brands to maximize impact by leveraging a framework beyond mere Fan acquisition.  Reach, impact, and ROI can be optimized using the Brand Page as a control panel and concentrating on the following dimensions to deliver on broader marketing objectives:

- Fan Reach – Exposure in the News Feed
- Engagement – Fans interacting with Brand Page marketing content
- Amplification – Viral delivery of marketing content from Fans to Friends of Fans

On Facebook most leading brands achieve a monthly Amplification Ratio of between 0.5 and 2.0.  This means that their earned media exposure of Fans to Friends is extended by 50 to 200%.  Focusing on tactics that optimize Fan Reach and Engagement or supplementing with paid advertising will help these ratios increase even more.

Linknami allows you to multiply your reach by connecting with social influencers and topic experts.

Paid, Earned and Owned Media can be used to create a virtual cycle of brand impact through the unique marketing channel that Facebook represents.  Businesses may use display ads (Paid) to attract Fans to their Brand Page (Owned).  This Brand Page is used to connect with people for marketing communications that reach Fans and Friends (Earned) in the News Feed and Timeline sections of the website.

Brand awareness can be maximized through the use of Sponsored Stories and Promoted Page Posts (Paid).

The reach of earned media exposure can be improved by the use of concentrated social media campaigns, like those executed during key marketing promotions.  Increased awareness and consideration among exposed Fans and Friends of Fans could very well translate to higher brand purchase.

The causal effects of earned media exposure on Facebook Fans and Friends of Fans can be isolated using a test vs. control methodology. In the case of Starbucks, exposed Fans and Friends of Fans showed statistically significant lifts in in-store purchase incidence for each of the four weeks following earned media exposure.

Both Starbucks and Target are experiencing cumulative lift in purchase behavior among exposed Fans and Friends of Fans, providing strong evidence of a latent branding impact of earned media exposure.

Another major retailer documented that exposure to Facebook Premium Ads drove significant increases to both online and in-store purchase incidences over a four-week post-exposure period.

admin Facebook, Linknami, Social Media

If you’ve got a Facebook business page, you might be wondering how you can make it successful. Based upon an internal study Facebook recently revealed, the best way to get your business message out is to post content on subjects that relate to your business. The study looked to recognize how topic posts were related to customer engagement, helping marketers know what content of theirs is most effective in bringing fans to their business page – through Sponsored Stories promotion and Facebook Ads.

A Look At The Facebook Study

The study conducted by Facebook, studied one month’s worth of posts from 23 brands that spanned six industries. Facebook classified every post into three different buckets:

1 – Brand-Related Posts – “Here is why I went to this theme park….”
2 – Posts About Services/Products – “We opened a new restaurant. Drop by soon!”
3 – Posts Unrelated to Brand – “Its your holiday, go and have fun!”

What Did The Results Find

What Facebook learned was that most posts were brand-related posts and were the most noteworthy indicator of page engagement. Facebook specifies that an “engaged user” is someone who’s clicked somewhere on your post. Basically, it means a person has executed an act on the post including but not limited to:

- Clicking on a shared link
- Liking it
- Commenting it
- Sharing it
- Viewing a photographs
- Watching videos
- RSVPs an event
- Answering posed questions

Facebook suggested several content posting concepts to think about – all depending on what your marketing goals are

Goal 1 – Generate Likes – Facebook suggests you post topics that deal with your company brand and use the call-to action like “Like this if you…”
Goal 2 – Generate Comments – You need to make a post that’s in relation to your brand and post a question that gets people talking.
Goal 3 – Generate Shares – The website recommends you make posts that are in relation to your brand and add in video content, photos, etc.

Use These Ideas Along With Your Own Ideas

The results of the Facebook study is probably one you might already expect. It’s fairly simple to understand why the support on posts related to specific products would produce less engagement. On the other hand, a user following your Facebook brand, already has an interest in it, which means they wanted to follow you. Thus, any post not related to your brand/business is not necessary. That’s why placing attention on content that relates to your brand is the single best source of bringing traffic to your Facebook business page.

Thus, it’s important for marketers to use the information Facebook has learned and combine it with their own knowledge to make decisions that are best for their Facebook content approaches.

admin Facebook, Social Media

Here is my take on the buzz generated recently regarding google penalties for over-optimization, unnatural link building, blog networks, Matt Cutts comments, etc. (yeah, getting in there as many related keywords as possible lol)

As in real life, you have to differentiate:

A) Are you a new site trying to link bomb your way to the top for a specific keyword?
You don’t rank anywhere. Meaning you do not have any competitors yet.
Say ‘hello’ to your webmaster tools notification and google penalty.

B) Are you an established site, already ranking in good position for a keyword (page 1-2…3…?, see ‘Summary’ below) and trying to get an even better rank?
Don’t believe the hype. Have no fear. There is just no way that Google can penalize sites for getting too many links (or any other off-page optimization technique for that matter) in this case, exactly due to the ‘competitor-issue’.
I could buy software to link bomb my competitors for a few dollars. I could even download it for free through torrents.
The same applies to more sophisticated solutions, such as autoblogging software. I could set up 100 auto-blogs in 1 hour, all with low quality auto-generated content and links pointing to my competitor. Then submitting a google spam request within a week, to make it look more ‘natural’.

C) Beware: If you are an established site trying to rank for a completely new (or ‘somewhat new’ etc., see ‘Summary’ below) keyword, A.) may apply to you as well

Summary:

To sum it up, the better your site’s status for a given keyword gets, also considering the overall competitiveness for that keyword, the less likely it will be for you to receive a penalty.

All google can do is getting better at detecting unnatural link patterns and simply ignore them when ranking an already established site.

The buzz und fear they generate every once in a while is just making their life a little bit easier in this regard. Penalty notifications are going out a lot, but they are usually for new site/kw issues or on-page issues.

Attention: Regardless of your site status in search engines, they can and will penalize you for everything you do on-page (doing too many keywords, linking out to sites that themselves engage in the shady on and off page tactic mentioned here and offer no real value to the user) since you are in full control of your own site.

admin Google, Link Building, SEO

Thanks to Google Panda’s recent updates and an internet-wide shift to more LSI usage, rather than more antiquated SEO marketing methods, guest blogging has become an extremely popular (and highly effective) technique to drive traffic to your site. In return for quality content, your site has the opportunity to gain higher rankings in the search engines, as well as the chance to receive a variety of other benefits. Given the shift to more “people friendly” posts, guest blogging is a wonderful way to link build and increase awareness of your site, product, or service.

The Benefits of Guest Blogging

There are a number of perks to guest blogging. Firstly, you can achieve quality backlinks and boost traffic to your site at no cost to you. Also, you have the potential to greatly increase online awareness of your site and can even gain some credibility as an expert in your particular niche. Probably one of the best things about guest blogging, however, is that you can achieve vital contacts in your industry and build relationships with those who are in a position to improve your rankings and allow for you to reach your target audience.

Guest Blogging Tips

Should you decide to begin guest blogging, then there are a few things that you should know, in order to get the most benefit from your posts. Here are the top 3 guest blogging tips:

1. Target Blogs that are Worthwhile

There are a variety of site which give you the ability to look up a blog’s ranking, such as: Open Site Explorer, Google Webmaster Tools and Blekko. These sites can give you a blog’s backlinks, while Firefox’s Rank Checker enables you to check the sites page rank (site’s that have a rank of 4 or below are generally not worth your time). In addition, you’ll want to carefully examine the blog site, to make certain that it has the elements that make it both legit and not overly saturated with spam or broken links. The blog should also be update regularly and it should have an “about us” section, as well as frequent activity when it comes to comments.

2. Make Sure that the Blog is Relevant

Rather than simply submitting requests to guest blog to a variety of blog sites, you should only contact those that are relevant to your field or industry. For example, if your site pertains to the stock market, then it really won’t do you any good to ask to guest blog on a site that has to do with children’s games. You’ll want to pick a blog that is relevant to your niche and already has some sort of following. You can easily find blogs that are associated with your niche by inputting your industry and then the word “guest blog” into any search engine. Also, if you want to target a particular demographic or region, then you’ll have to type that into your search as well.

3. Provide Content that is Superior

Always make sure that your content is informative and attention grabbing, as your guest blog post will be your chance to make a first impression with the blog’s readers. You’re doing this guest blog to drive traffic to your site, so try your best to convince people to click over to your site without seeming to much like a sales person. You can do this by finding pertinent data and including it in an infographic that is to be placed on the blog, and you can include a short line at the end of the post which talks a bit about you or your site alongside your picture.

If you would like to find guest blogging opportunities or if you are looking for guest posts to add relevant content to your blog, login now and head over to the free tools section in the user area.

admin Blog Marketing, Link Building, Web Content