Back to Basics: Common Social Media Terms You Need to Know

With a constant influx of new social media platforms (and constant updates to old ones), it’s easy to get confused about the latest social media lingo. Even worse, different sites use different terms to describe the same thing, which makes it even more confusing!

So today, I’m going to explain ten of the most common social media terms to help you navigate today’s social media landscape. Here we go!

1)   Followers/Friends/Fans. While most sites (Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc.) use the terms “Followers” to describe the people who subscribe to receive your posts, Facebook uses “Friends” for personal profiles, and “Fans” for Pages.

2)   Tweet/Blog/Status Update/Pin. All of these refer to posts you create and share as the original poster (OP). So, if you share your opinion on an article from USA Today, then that is an original post. Twitter uses the term tweet, Tumblr users blog, Facebook users post status updates, and posts on Pinterest are called pins!

3)   Retweet/Reblog/Share/Repin/Regram. Facebook is the most accurate here, by simply using the term “Share” whenever another chooses to share your content with their own followers. Twitter uses “Retweet,” Pinterest uses “Repin,” Instragram uses “Regram,” and Tumblr uses “Reblog.” Getting people to share your content is important on any new site, because it exposes you to potential new followers (aka a large prospective client pool).

4)   Like/Favorite. “Liking” (on Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, or Instagram) or “Favoriting” (Twitter) a post is a way to say you enjoyed it without sharing it on your personal feed. However, it won’t necessarily encourage other people to then retweet you.

5)   Bit.ly. If you spend much time on social media, you’ll eventually come across links from bit.ly (or ow.ly, t.co, etc.). These are just shortened links that help users stay within the character limit requirements social media sites impose. They also help sites like Twitter (which uses t.co) limit the risk of users being taken to virus-laden pages. Using a site like bit.ly can also offer additional benefits, such as the ability to track the number of clicks each link gets.

6)   Hangout. This is the Google+ video chat service that allows you to video chat with up to 10 users at once. It’s becoming more and more common for businesses to conduct remote calls, small webinars, or client coaching sessions via services like Hangout.

7)   Hashtag. A hashtag is an annotation that goes in a social media posts. They serve two main purposes: additional commentary or a way to index posts. If it’s additional commentary, someone might post “#ilovemydog” on a post that features a picture of their dog, or “#didntseethatcoming” on a post about being surprised. Really, it can be anything! For the latter, the purpose is to help other people find the posts. For instance, hashtags that use a trending topic allows those searching for the topic to find related posts. Even a general hashtag like “#retirementplanning” can help interested parties find your post.

8)   Engagement. The rate of engagement refers to the number of people who interacted with your post, whether they like, share, or comment on the post. A high engagement rate improves your reach, and helps you get new followers.

9)   Reach. This refers to the number of people who see any individual update you post. Surprisingly, this is rarely the same as your number of followers due to Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm, which we’ve covered in the past. If no one interacts with the post, fewer people will see it. If people engage with the post, then you’ll have some of your followers, plus the followers of anyone who interacted with the post!

10) Cover photo. Different than a profile picture, this is the large photo that goes at the very top of your profile. While profile pictures are almost always square or round, cover photo size requirement vastly vary from platform to platform. Always check the individual sites for specifications before getting one designed!

I hope this clarifies some of the most common social media-related terms! If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch! 

by Lindsay Dicks - CelebritySites

The Power of Testing - Website Optimization

Often times, companies either stick with what they’ve always done, or they make haphazard changes without checking to see if they’re helping or hurting their business. Either way, you can lose out on clients and purchases. However, you can make sure the changes you’re making are the best for your website with some simple testing.

The key to effective testing is to test one thing at a time. You can’t test a color change and a text change at the same time; the results won’t tell you which change made a difference!

Using your call-to-action as an example, here are just a few things you might want to test:

• Size. This applies to both the size of the call-to-action box and the text, and it can be different for different audiences.
• Location. While having your call-to-action above the fold is almost always the best idea, different placements might work for you, depending on the overall layout on your site.
• Color. Color psychology is a frequently studied subject, and it would be worth looking into the affects different colors can have on users. After all, you want to make sure your call-to-actions match the feelings you’re trying to evoke.
• Text. Of course, testing your wording, font, and font size are all great places to start!

Once you’ve chosen your tests and had the design changes set up, then you need to pick a program to use to set up your test. There are many different options, but today I’m just going to cover a few of the most well known.

• Google Analytics Content Experiments. While this program is free, it does require coding to be able to do the tests.
• Optimizely. While you do have to pay for Optimizely, you only need to make one-time coding updates, which makes testing simple for those without an on-staff developer. Plans start at $17 a month.
• Unbounce. This is also a paid service, but it features a simple drag and drop update interface that makes it extremely easy to use. Plans start at $49 a month.
• Five Second Test. This tool allows you to test first impressions of your content by giving testers five seconds to view your content, and then answer some questions of your choosing. It’s a great way to check on the quality of the first impression your site gives. Plans start at $20 a month, but there are free options available.

One last thing to keep in mind: testing isn’t a one-time thing. Just because a specific wording or color works this year doesn’t  mean it will work next year. And if you’re a site with frequent repeat visitors, the same set up may lose effectiveness over. For the best results, constantly experiment to find out what’s working for you! 

For more visit - BizSocialWeb.com  

original by Lindsay Dicks

Five Ways to Improve Engagement

Five Ways to Improve Engagement

Many professionals are catching on that having a well-planned website and continuous content are an important way to help you brand yourself in the Internet age. However, too many are throwing up dry content that could only be interpreted by someone in their own field. If potential clients can’t connect with your content, they’re not going to buy your product or services!

To help you create more engaging content, I’m going to go over five tips to help make it easier for current and prospective clients connect with your content. Let’s get started!

1)    Don’t use jargon. While you want to show your clients that you are the expert in your field, you need to be able to do that without a minimal amount of jargon. And even more, you need to explain to be able to explain words that prospective clients will be unfamiliar with.  in simple, clear terms. If they can’t understand what you mean, they won’t understand why you’re the expert.

2)    Connect emotionally. If people are looking for your services, there’s a reason why. A couple may be excited to beef up their retirement planning so that they can enjoy an active free retirement where they are free to explore their interests. A small business owner might be feeling nervous because he’s in trouble by the IRS. If you can show how you can bolster their joy or assuage their fear, they’ll be much more likely to engage with you.

3)    Show, don’t tell. You can’t just tell prospective client you can help them, you need to prove it. Luckily, there are many ways you can do this: sharing statistics from studies that prove your point, sharing the stories of other clients you’ve helped, weaving testimonials from happy clients into your bio, creating videos or graphics that clearly demonstrate the facts … this list could go on for a while. If you can back up your opinions with facts and success, prospective clients will begin to trust you.

4)    Keep it brief. With people spending so much time on social media, most people are becoming more and more accustomed to reading shorter blocks of text online. After all, Twitter’s limit is 140 characters, and studies have shown that posts with between 100 and 250 characters get 60% more likes, comments and shares on Facebook. That’s not much to work with! Although your website content certainly shouldn’t be that short, it’s important to keep in mind that attention spans are definitely decreasing online, with most readers only reading about 60% of articles online.

5)    Draw them in early. The first ten seconds a visitor spends on a webpage are the most important. This is when most people “bounce,” or choose to leave after only one page. If you can get them to stay for those first several seconds, you’re likely to get them to stay on a page for at least two minutes, and then hopefully visit other pages on the site. This is why having an engaging title, and interesting, clear first paragraph are so important.

If you follow these fives tips, you should start to see a difference in the amount of time people spend on your pages, and the frequency with which they share your content. If you have additional questions about how to improve engagement for your content, don’t hesitate to get in touch! 

orignial article by Lindsay Dicks

FAQ19 How Do I Keep My Video Content Relevant?

http://www.JennFosterSEO.com FAQ19 How Do I Keep My Video Content Relevant? To create content that is relevant and current, you simply need to video yourself doing the activities, events, speaking engagements you already have scheduled.  Check out how you can get to Page one on Google by texting your name and email to 801-901-3480
website: http://www.JennFosterSEO.com
Video: https://youtu.be/NpmtvtVM8Lo

Amazon’s New Online Video Platform Doesn't Need To Beat YouTube To Win

Amazon Video Direct lets creators get paid to upload videos. That doesn't mean the company is trying to be YouTube.

by Nicole LaPorte 05.12.16 1:25 PM - Article here:

This week Amazon ratcheted up its attack on online video platforms, going squarely, it seems, after YouTube and Vimeo, and to a lesser extent Netflix and Facebook. Its new service, Amazon Video Direct, will let anyone upload video content to Amazon and its ad-free Prime Video service, and take home a share of revenues from rentals, sales, and streams.

Under the program, Amazon Video Direct, content creators will receive either 55% of revenues from rentals or sales of videos, or $0.15 per hour streamed, with a cap of $75,000 a year. There's also the opportunity to sell videos as an add-on subscription to Prime Video through the Streaming Partners Program, or to have them stream to any Amazon customer with ads, in which case the creator gets a 55% share of ad revenues.



The swelling online video ad market and the growing number of online viewers (who to an e-commerce company like Amazon are essentially customers) are spurring everyone from social media giants like Facebook to newer upstarts like Vessel to go after video creators and woo them with ever more advantageous deals. The play also expands Amazon's dive into video content, which it has been aggressively pursuing in recent years with original series like Transparent, Mozart in the Jungle, and an upcoming Woody Allen series

Interestingly, Amazon's new proposition isn't that much more financially appealing than YouTube's, but the fact that it is giving creators a great deal of flexibility and empowerment to determine how and where their stuff is streamed is a savvy move on Amazon's part. YouTubers have long complained about the power that the Google-owned company wields over them, even as it has made some of them very, very rich. Many have complained about the 60-40 revenue split with AdSense, while YouTube Red, the company's $9.99 a month subscription service, incited grumbling that YouTube was forcing some of its stars to go behind a paywall. So even if Amazon isn't offering to print money for creators, selling AVD as a "self-service" platform is a way for it to amplify the message that it's putting creators first.

Built on the idea that more content will drive more Prime subscriptions, and the idea that "if we can have customers engage with our content, they will spend more time shopping.

Still, uploading videos to Amazon is more cumbersome and time-intensive than on other video sites: Uploaders must include their credit card and social security number, and videos must be captioned (Amazon offers a fee-based service that will build caption files for each video). And videos don't appear immediately as they do on YouTube, Facebook, or Vimeo: The company says it will take 3-5 days before your video appears online.

But the process indicates the emphasis that Amazon is placing on attracting professional and semi-pro video creators, the sort that draw large fanbases and millions of views. It's also signed on companies like Conde Nast and The Guardian, who will upload their video content to the platform.
Amazon already spends an estimated $3 billion annually on its streaming video content, and according to estimates by Piper Jaffray, boasts between 57 million and 61 million Prime subscribers, compared with Netflix's 75 million monthly subscribers. Meanwhile, eMarketer estimates that digital video advertising will grow by 28.5% this year to $9.84 billion, and nearly $2 billion of that pie will go to YouTube, which boasts over 1 billion monthly users.


Of course, the ultimate beneficiary of AVD is Amazon itself, for which AVD is—more than anything else—a marketing tool. "This a continuing strategy of Amazon to utilize content to promote its underlying business model and deepen engagement with customers, which will ultimately lead to more and more sales," said Peter Csathy, CEO of Manatt Digital Media.

In other words, he said, Amazon's is thinking, "If we can have customers engage with our content, they will spend more time shopping."

The platform can also deepen Amazon's relationships with its sellers. Small businesses, say, can create marketing videos or clips that tell their story (or even just creative content) and then drive viewers back to their retail page.

Will it work? Amazon's biggest challenge will be to direct eyeballs to its new video offerings. Are Transparent fans going to want to see user-generated clips made by video stars? Amazon's credit-card-carrying users skew older than either YouTube or Facebook. And Amazon lacks the sociability of those sites, where content is constantly shared and liked by communities of friends and fans.

It's not likely Amazon is not going to run YouTube, which has a decade of experience on its competitors, out of business. But if the real end goal is to capture a few spare minutes of its customers' attention, and encourage a new subscription to Amazon Prime or a retail purchase, then it's on its way to winning.

4 Tips to Building Your Non-Fiction Fan Base With Facebook Live

Posted by Arthur Gutch on Fri, May 06, 2016 @ 12:07 PM

• inShare5

Building a non-fiction readership is all about becoming an expert in your field. The more you make yourself the go-to person for questions in your niche, the more books you're likely to sell. One of the best new tools you can use is Facebook's new streaming video tool, Facebook Live. This allows you to broadcast live video right onto your Facebook wall. Fans will see your live broadcast and can ask questions right while you're speaking, making for a great interactive experience between you and your readers. It's absolutely free, making it one book marketing tool you can't afford to pass up .

How to Use Facebook Live

You'll need an Android or Apple mobile device to stream from. For now, this program doesn't support webcams. Open the status bar on your Facebook page as if you wanted to make a post. You'll find an icon of a human being -- that's the live button. Click on this button to prep your livestream. Choose who you want to see the stream -- everyone on Facebook, only friends, or just you -- and write a description for your livestream. Press the OK button and you're streaming live. 

Preparation

You won't do any good just randomly deciding to post a livestream on an odd Thursday afternoon. Begin by choosing a day and time when you think many of your readers will be home and online. Advertise your livestream by posting multiple times on Facebook the day before and the same day. This allows fans to adjust their schedules to include time to watch you. Include a teaser in your posts to interest people in watching your livestream.

What to Livestream

As a non-fiction author you've got a distinct advantage when it comes to material to share with your fans. Do a weekly Q & A session about your niche. If you write about container gardening, cover one plant or planting technique each week. Put your device on a tripod and do live demonstrations, allowing a few minutes at the end of the show for questions. Talk about exciting discoveries you've made in your niche, or do a live survey with your readers about their opinion on some controversial topic in your subject. Every niche has got something that everyone's talking about. Why not lead that discussion?

Tips for Great Livestreams

Plan to stream for 5-7 minutes. It's enough time to allow questions, but not so much that you bore the always-moving Facebook crowd. 

Remind viewers to follow you so that they can get notified about future livestreams. Mention this once at the beginning of your show, and once near the end.

Add information and links to the livestream on your website and your other social media accounts.

Vary the setting of your livestreams if possible. Take your viewers on mini field trips. Let them see your knowledge about the subject matter in a different way besides books.

Keep the Faith and May the Force be with You!

If you need Online Marketing, Web design or Publishing Contact Biz Social Boom - 801-901-3480

www.BizSocialBoom.com

FAQ 18 How Can I make sure that the right people watch my videos? Video Marketing Tips

FAQ 18 How Can I make sure that the right people watch my videos? Video Marketing Tips 

http://www.JennFosterSEO.com FAQ18 How can I make sure that the right people watch my videos?
JENN FOSTER is
one of today’s national leading online and mobile marketing experts, is the founder and CEO of Biz Social Boom, a company dedicated to helping business owners of all sizes thrive in today’s highly technical world of product and service promotion.  From local brick and mortar stores to online entities to large international corporations, Jenn’s years of experience and expertise has helped hundreds become front page news on all the major search engines.  She is dedicated to helping businesses use powerful new online and mobile marketing platforms to get visibility, traffic, leads, customers and raving fans.

A graduate of Utah State University, Jenn is an award winning web designer, author and sought after speaker.  She has been a featured speaker at such events as the Kim Flynn’s Internet Marketing Boot Camp, Utah Crowd Funding Association, and the Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce and the among others.  She was also an expert guest on Keith Shannon’s Expert Authority Podcast, The Teach Jim Show on Blog Talk Radio.  Jenn has been named one of America’s Premier Experts® and will soon be highlighted in a major national publication.

Coming from a family of successful entrepreneurs, Jenn grew up around thriving businesses and understands from the ground up what it takes to create, run and promote winning companies.  Combining her education, knowledge and life-long experience, today Jenn teaches people and businesses globally how they can get found in today’s virtual world, how they can engage prospects on their terms and how to continue to connect and follow up with prospects to convert them to customers.  By utilizing her proven techniques, Jenn confidently guarantees her clients will be on the first page of Google Search in their local market.

http://www.JennFosterSEO.com