CyberBlog
Read our blog to find out more about social media marketing and SEO news and get free tips on online marketing.
Social Media Etiquette – 5 rules to keep in mind
We all love to say that social media is the natural extension of our social lives and an obvious upgrade to the way we exchange information, this being true, a logical conclusion is that you must follow some basic rules of social media etiquette in order to maintain or establish a respectable online reputation for your own brand, that being yourself. A good start to doing just that is to follow these five simple rules that we have put together for you:
- 1. Start and stay authentic
Long gone is the era when we could get away with a parallel “digital identity”, chatting with strangers hidden behind a nickname. It is now a norm that you present yourself on social media platforms with your true name and an up-to-date photo of yourself. Nobody will take your social media profile for serious, no matter on what network, if it is not a genuine representation of who you are and what you do. (Think about all the invitations you get from LinkedIn users who haven`t even bothered to upload a profile picture, or about those Facebook profiles with a phony-looking name inviting you to like their new page. - 2. Connect with a purpose
Whenever you wish to connect to a peer, business prospect or a long forgotten acquaintance, include your motive for reaching out in a personal message, it is only polite! - 3. Share wisely
Posting content through your social media accounts is not so much different than sharing interesting news with your friends, except in the first case your voice can reach a far greater number of people. As your “base” of social media connections gets larger, you must think twice before posting or sharing a piece of information. Is this going to offend someone in any way? No matter if it was only meant to be a joke; it can still negatively affect your online likability. - 4. Reply timely
A direct message on twitter, a “tag” in a Facebook post or an invitation to connect on LinkedIn, they all deserve your attention and apt response, it is only social! - 5. Spread some love
Even though social media is the first place to go when you have experienced bad service at a restaurant, take a minute to consider the opposite situation. Use your influence not only to express and try to correct flaws in our society but also to encourage good examples of professionalism and social responsibility. Support your hair stylist if she decides to open a Facebook fan page by liking and commenting, social prove will always be more than welcomed for her business.
A Step-by-step Guide to Advertising on Facebook
Think about the way you find information about products and services. Are you watching TV ads? Listen radio ads? Or consulting a search engine or a friend?
Social media is an important marketing channel that help businesses to get found and to engage with potential buyers on the web. With effective Facebook advertising you can fuel your lead generation campaigns.
What makes Facebook a unique advertising platform is that it provides one of the most targeted advertising opportunities.
In this article we will present a step-by-step guide on how to create killer Facebook ads.
Get started. To get started, visit https://www.facebook.com/ads/create/ and choose your destination URL.
Once you’ve selected where your ad should link to, decide what you want to accomplish. If you want to direct traffic to your website, what should success look like? Do you want to promote a product? Or maybe you want to send traffic to your Facebook Page.
To build your social media presence by driving fans to a Facebook page, select Get More Likes. If you want to promote specific content on Facebook such as a blog post, select Promote Page Posts. With Advanced Options you can see all creative and bidding options in one place.
When writing your ad text, make sure to explain what you are advertising, the details of your products, services, and offers. Include call-to-action.
When you are setting up the ad keep the box next to “People liking your Page” checked. So in that way you will get the benefit of “social proof.”
Decide who to target. The second step is to choose your targeting options. Targeting will determine the price for your ad as well as who is eligible to see your ad.
Define the budget. For the last step, select a payment type and budget for your ad campaign. Scroll down to the “Pricing” section and click on the “Set a Different Bid (Advanced Mode)” link. This will show you a suggested range of bids that are currently winning the auction among ads similar to yours.
Split testing. It’s tough to nail down a successful strategy unless you do some testing. Run multiple ad variations at the same time and use the Ads Manager to determine which ones deliver the best results for your business.
Get ideas from the ads board. To get some ideas you can always take a look at all the ads that are currently running and targeting your demographic by going to the Facebook Ad Board. This is a good place to start.
Are you using Facebook’s advertising platform to complement your business’ Facebook marketing efforts?
What kind of results have you seen?
5 Tips When to Promote a Facebook Post
Social media has never been inexpensive, it has only been different expensive.
Most of the social media marketers are well aware that the reach of the organic content posted to a Facebook fan page has been limited by Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm.
In other words, when you post an update to your page, that update would only reach a limited number of your fans’ news feeds, because it ranks and shows content based on the likely interest of a given user.
On average Facebook pages reach only 15% of their fans with a typical Facebook post.
If you’re looking to get more fans to see the content you share on Facebook, it’s time to consider not only quality content, but also promoted posts.
When do you promote a Facebook post?
You should promote Facebook posts that show early viral promise. Still there are 5 questions you should consider before clicking the “Promote” button:
1. Has it been at least 6 hours since publication?
2. Will the post still be relevant 3 days from publication?
3. Does the post include call-to-action that creates desirable behavior?
4. Does the post exceeds 1% engagement (fan engagement=(likes+shares+comments)/number of fans).
5. Do you want to promote a specific offer (offer, discount, Facebook contest)?
How much should you budget?
This depends of the number of fans on your fan page. The price varies from $5 to $1000 or more per post.
What’s your take on promoted posts? Do you think they’re a great way for businesses to get more attention? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Is Digital Marketing the New Traditional?
In today’s digital era, digital marketing is experiencing rapid growth. There’s something new to learn everyday. And as the importance of digital marketing increases, some businesses wonder whether they should forgo traditional marketing altogether and stick to digital marketing solutions.
The question is: If digital marketing is better, perhaps the ad budget needs to be shifted accordingly?
Some of the advantages that are driving marketers to put a growing portion of their budgets into digital marketing are:
-
Cost Savings: with digital marketing you can reach more of your target customers and spend significantly fewer dollars than you would if you were paying for traditional marketing.
-
Personalized Messaging: digital marketing allows brands to specify exactly the target demographic for each individual ad in a campaign. Digital is just as creative of a canvas as other channels.
-
Easily Measured: When you place an ad in the newspaper or a magazine, it can be difficult to assess the direct sales impact for your business. With online marketing, everything can be tracked and adjusted if needed.
-
Viral Value: brands that post content to social media sites are able to plug into consumers who are willing to share that content with their networks.
-
Relationship marketing: digital marketing, especially social media allows 2-way communications with consumers. By working hand-in-hand with the prospects and customers brands can co-create a more meaningful, personalized, and lasting experience.
Is digital marketing replacing traditional?
Brands should be aware of the shift to digital marketing. We do not expect it to completely replace traditional marketing, however it would be short-sighted to ignore its benefits.
An effective marketing campaign should incorporate a balanced mix of both. No matter the channels you choose, the fundamentals of marketing haven’t changed since Mad Men ruled the marketing world. There is still a need to conduct market research, develop strategies to reach your target audience and create compelling content that will engage them.
In order to determine if you as an organization should forgo traditional marketing you need to look at your target audience and plan channel approaches accordingly.
Is your target demographic almost exclusively online? If so, perhaps you should target your efforts exclusively towards digital marketing.At the end, by reaching consumers where they are (whether that is on traditional media, or online) with a consistent marketing campaign, brands can ensure that their omnichannel presence is felt and recognized.
In your opinion what are some other benefits from digital marketing? Share your thoughts and opinions in comments below.
4 trends happening right now in social media
“If you don’t know where you are going, you might not get there”
-Yogi Berra
Predicting the future is not an exact science. We made it through 2012 without facing the Mayan Apocalypse, and now we are up to on what might happen in 2013.
In social media terms, the future is rarely predictable. The explosive growth of Pinterest for instance, on the social media scene last year came to many as a surprise.
But what if you had a glimpse into the future?
There are always trends in social media that can be predicted with a certain degree of confidence, and the best marketers have already mapped out their destination.
MOBILE FIRST. More people are using smartphones and tablets to access social media.
Nielsen’s Social Media Report 2012 found that 43 percent of U.S. users said they now use smartphones to access social media, with 16 percent connecting via a tablet.
For marketers this means that mobile has to be your top content priority this year.
A PICTURE IS WORTH 1000 WORDS. Image-based social networking is on the rise. Sites as Instagram and Pinterest prove that visual content is worth 1000 words, or in Instagram’s case, $1 billion.
A few days ago Facebook also announced that they’re changing the News Feed to a more visual-focused style.
Prepare for this trend by creating content that is visually compelling. If you post links and text-based statuses, you can think about how those ideas can be converted into visuals.
Infographics, photos, video, and other forms of reach media will increase over the coming years as people look to digest more information faster than ever.
SOCIAL LISTENING A KEY CONSUMER ACTIVITY. Social media is transforming the way consumers around the globe make purchasing decisions. Consumers are using social media to listen and learn about other consumers’ experiences (70%); find more information about brands, and compliment brands (53%).
This is an opportunity for you to educate consumers through compelling content, improve customer experiences and maintain strong customer relationships.
MULTIMEDIA ENGAGEMENT. Are you interacting with social media while watching TV?
According to the newest study by Nielsen having a mobile device on-hand while watching TV has become an integral part of consumer routines – 41% of tablet owners and 38% of smartphone owners use their device daily while in front of their TV screen.
In the following year, businesses will experience growing complexity in managing the emergence of multiple channels and technologies. To adapt marketing will become more integrated, real-time and inbound.
A lot can change in the following year.
Share your thoughts and opinions? What other trends do you anticipate to emerge this year?
Link Building: you are doing it wrong! Are you?
Link building: where does it start
Let’s just put the word out at the very beginning: It starts everywhere! It may NOT come as a surprise to you, if you are at all involved in SEO, that finishing your on-page optimization will just announce the beginning of the headaches. Link building is a very important aspect of the SEO strategy. It must not be ignored. It must not be neglected. It must not be forgotten. This is something that adds contentiousness to the SEO battle, and will distinguish you from your competitors if done correctly. Needless to say, it will destroy your website’s rankings (you might even get dropped from the listings) if it is done wrong.
“You are doing it wrong” activities
Quantity in links is what matters. The more links the better? Nothing could be further from the truth. Trying to get all the links you can, will not only do any any good to your site, it may actually get your site penalized. Low quality links, that come from irrelevant, low PR sites will do you more harm then good. It is particularly important to build links that are relevant to your website, and your website’s industry.
Paying for links is a good idea. This is a #MegaFail in the SEO world. You will lose money, and you will not get results (just like flushing money in the toilet in the real world). Google doesn’t like websites that pay for links. Directories and other sites asking for your money know this, trust me. They have just chosen not to listen go Google. And if you think you can trick the biggest search engine in the world (a.k.a is mostly responsible for your website’s revenue) you have another thing coming.
The automated software will do the job for me. This is another wrong way to go. There are many automated software solutions on the Web that claim they are absolutely harmless. The truth is, they are not. They will promise you thousands of links, but what they will not mention is the fact that Google will pick up on their linking patterns and penalize the website. Most of them have a habit of applying for links on certain parts of the day, or certain days of the month. Google will pick up on this, and you will be stuck explaining to your boss, (or worse – your client) why the website disappeared from the search results.
“You are doing it right” activities
Monitoring my competitors will give me link ideas. Looking at where your competitors have gained links, and trying to get links there is a very good approach. There is nothing morally or any other kind of wrong in doing this. SEO is a competitive and transparent landscape. Everyone has access to your website’s links, and you may cry all day and night about it, or you may see the positive in it – you have access to competitors links too!
.edu and .gov links will help my website. Again, good thinking! These are the kind of links Google loves. They show Google that your website is important to non-profit, government or educational facilities and you will be rewarded for that. Try to get more .edu and .gov links, and do your website a favor.
Great content will get me the results I need. If we are talking about quality SEO activities this is hitting the spot. Not only is great content the main generator of links nowadays, it will continue to grow as an SEO factor in the future, and you can quote me on that. Social media helps quality content spread like a wildfire these days. This means more links for you.
Link building: where does it end
Well, this is an easy one as well. It doesn’t. Link building is not something you can “finish”. It is something you have to continue to try hard at. If you scroll back to the first image of this post you will see the beginning of a linking network… It is the starting linking network that you need to turn into the image below.
The State of Social Media – January 2013 (Infographic)
The new year of 2013 is well under way, winter as we know it in our part of the world is fading away and Social Media seems to only get stronger and more present in our every day life.
In the past year, every major Social Media site has reached a milestone of their own kind and they continue to do that. We at Cyberlink Media have gathered some key points in order to give you a picture of the state of Social Media for the opening month of the new year, January.
By the time it took you to read this, 70 new profiles were already created on LinkedIn, see it for your self below.
The State of Social Media – January 2013 (Infographic)
![The state of social media january 2013 The State of Social Media January 2013 (Infographic)]("http://cyberlinkmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/The-state-of-social-media-january-2013.png "The State of Social Media January 2013 (Infographic)")
Who are LinkedIn leaders in Europe? (Infographic)
Do you know which country in Europe is the leader when it comes to LinkedIn adoption?
Today we share with you our infographic that shows just that, along with the percentage of LinkedIn penetration in several countries.
The numbers that you can see are the result of the LinkedIn members estimates by country that can be found in LinkedIn’s “Advertise with us” section and the latest estimates of the population of several European countries.
The popularity of the professional networking site is on the rise too, LinkedIn has recently passed the 200 million members mark and continues to grow at a rate of 2 new members per second.
There are plenty of reasons why professionals all over the world choose to join in and spend time on LinkedIn, here are just a few:
- Business networking
- Lead generation
- Job seeking
- Headhunting/Recruiting
- B2B marekting
- Personal branding
Take a look and feel free to share our latest piece of information.
If you like our infographic please share it on your blog.
![Who are LinkedIn leaders in Europe? (Infographic)]("http://cyberlinkmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ "Who are LinkedIn leaders in Europe? (Infographic)")
What do your LinkedIn connections see when you browse their profiles?
We will start this short post with yet another question:
-What do you want them to see?
There are currently three options in the settings menu of LinkedIn concerning this feature. Each one of them is suited for different purposes, so let start with the first one:
1. Your full name and headline
- Choose this If you want to grow your LinkedIn Network and get more profile insights
If you have this option checked and then visit Joe`s LinkedIn profile, then Joe will get a notification that you viewed his profile with your full name and current job position included in it along with your profile picture.
This setting can prove the best one if you want to grow your LinkedIn network. Consider it this way, when Joe sees that you have viewed his profile, there is a great chance that he will also view yours and maybe dedicate a minute or two to the content you have provided on it. This leads to the possibility of connecting and furthermore establishing a relationship that may someday grow in some sort of business opportunity.
Another plus of this setting is that it enables you to have full access of your LinkedIn profile statistics available in the “Who’s viewed your profile” section of your LinkedIn Home Page. There you can track how many people have viewed your profile on a weekly basis and also see how many times you have come up in the LinkedIn search results.
2. Anonymous profile characteristics such as industry and title
- Choose this if you only want to provide a hint as to which industry you work in
This time what Joe will get as a notification is “Someone in the marketing function in the Finance Industry” viewed your profile. This option is almost as limiting as the next one, since having it set won’t let you access your profile statistics we mentioned earlier.
3. You will be totally anonymous
- Choose this one if you prefer to anonymously browse LinkedIn profiles
With this option set, when you view Joe`s LinkedIn Profile, he will see nothing in terms of your name or the industry you work in.
This setting would be applicable for you if you intended to study certain LinkedIn members and the content of their profiles prior to approaching them by sending a connection request.
Let`s say you want to grow your LinkedIn network but grow it only with fellow marketing professionals with specific interests related to social media. This will require quite some browsing and checking the interests of a number of LinkedIn profiles, which does not mean you will be sending invitation requests to all of them since all will not fulfill the criteria you have set (them having interest in social media).
Having the “anonymous” option checked you will prevent for all of these profiles you have browsed to be informed that you did that, because let’s admit it , viewing someone`s profile and stopping at that could say something like “ I saw what you do and what you`re interested in, and i do not want to connect with you” , and that`s not that much social , isn`t it ?
If you have any opinions on the subject we will be more than happy to discuss at our LinkedIn group Social Media Mk. Also , follow us at our company page to stay updated with the trends in the industry.
How to say “Hello” on LinkedIn
As in many occasions in life, simplicity beats everything else, say it just like this: “Hello Steve, I’ve been looking at your profile and I can see we have a lot of interests in common. Would love to connect and maybe chat some time. Cheers!”
LinkedIn is not that much different than the real world… except that it is. You do not have the opportunity (not yet mind you) to walk down the street or enter a party and instantly see every person`s name, occupation, interests, educational background, work experience just hovering over their heads, therefore you do not get the chance to use an opening line like the one that you can see at the beginning of this post.
Approaching someone on LinkedIn is that much easier exactly because of the detailed info you can see about them, displayed on their profiles.
One thing that LinkedIn and real world communication have in common though, is that the opportunity for first impression only comes once, when you actually make the contact with someone you do not know in person. Baring this in mind, this early phase of connecting has to be recognized as a very important and unique moment that should be carefully executed.
Here are some basic rules when it comes to making initial contact on LinkedIn – sending an invitation for connecting.
- 1. ALWAYS write personalized messages when hitting the “connect” button.
Sending out an invitation request accompanied with the generic LinkedIn message “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” does not give the impression that you really want to connect with them. - 2. Use groups as a reference when you initiate contact with someone for the first time by choosing a group that you both are members of. This gives additional highlight to the point that you both share similar interests.
In addition to this you can significantly upgrade your potential contacts reach by joining Linkedin groups relevant to your profession and interests. - 3. Follow-up all accepted connections with a short “thank you” message. Here`s something you can use : “Thanks for accepting my invitation to connect, we`ll be in touch”.
After you go through these steps you will hopefully gain yet another relevant LinkedIn connection and then you can start thinking about how to meaningfully engage with them.
For more discussions on the topic join us on our dedicated LinkedIn Group:
