Why Facebook restrict your post reach

Monday 29 October 2012

Just what is going on with this security feature "reCAPTCHA" ?


Friday 19 October 2012

Introduction to Pinterest



In my 8th blog in a series introducing Social Media I would like to introduce you to Pinterest.  
      
Pinterest allows you to share pictures or videos, like an on line picture board, or “pinboard”.  These may be your own pictures and videos or they may be pictures and videos you have found and wish to easily and quickly share with others, like visual bookmarking.   

Social Media is about getting your messages found by others.  So when a platform like www.pinterest.com  arrives making it easy to publish and share your visual content, positively encouraging others to share your content – and when this platform enjoys a meteoric rise in popularity – its time we had a looksee.

Lets deal with the terminology.  An image or video added to Pinterest is called a ‘Pin’.  Pins are added to a ‘PinBoard’, which is a collection of Pins with a common theme.  The act of sharing a Pin on a PinBoard is called ‘Pinning’.  If you like someone else’s pin and decide to repost it, this is a “Re-Pin”.  And finally, there’s the “Pin It Button” – this is a button placed on a website making it easy to share content onto Pinterest from the website – Pins added via the Pin It Button carry back links to the originating web site, which is good, very good. 
 
Take Social Media statistics with a pinch of salt, suffice to say all the charts and infograms are showing Pinterest has established itself in the top Social Networking sites.   Pinterest has the ability to take your message viral in hours, and Google is full of case studies - Googling “Pinterest  Success” and I received 25,400 results.

Finally - Pinterest is about to enjoy an explosion in popularity because until very recently you could only join Pinterest by invitation.   Now anyone can open a Pinterest account... so if you have visual content to share - now you have the means and ... its FREE.

Tuesday 9 October 2012

YouTube for Business



Hello, and welcome to our Seventh Social Media Blog.  Today - we are getting all creative and going multimedia.  This time we look at YouTube for promoting your business.



YouTube is a video hosting web site that will host up to HD quality videos up to 15 minutes in length, longer if you validate your account – and all for FREE.  Once your video is uploaded to YouTube, you can easily share this content via your social media channels, attach video’s to your LinkedIn Profile, company pages etc.  And easily embed your video’s on your websites.  Moreover – viewers can easily share your video too.

Why host your videos on YouTube ?  Well....
1.  YouTube is the world's largest video sharing website (300 hours of video loaded every minute)
2.  YouTube is the world’s second largest  search engine.
3.  YouTube is owned by Google
4.  It’s FREE, and you get analytical data on views, demographics, sources etc

Why use Video for Business?  Using video allows you to engage with clients allowing them to get to know you and your business.  Using video turns a static website, or profile into a dynamic, multimedia presence.  Video makes a viewer use more of their senses making your message more memorable.  And right now it is unlikely your competitors will be using video – so you can grab competitive advantage.

If you’re Worried who would watch you video, here’s some tips
1.  Introduce yourself and your business
2.  Make your video informative, educational and engaging
3.  DO NOT simply sell
4.  Consider offering training or instruction / user guides
5.  Close with a call to action and don’t forget Links to your web site

And finally – there are SEO benefits from using YouTube.  You can add keyword ‘tags’ to your YouTube video, these tags are indexed by search engines, remember Google own YouTube, which greatly enhances the chances of your video being found, not forgetting to use those important links back to your web site.


Monday 1 October 2012

Facebook for Business



Hello, and welcome to our Sixth Social Media Blog. This month we look at the largest social media platform of them all – Facebook.  Why Facebook for Business?  How about, over 1.6 Billion active subscribers and the second most popular web site in the world. 


Most people consider Facebook as a social web site useful if you wish to market your business to consumers.  However, Facebook presents the usual opportunities for all businesses -
   - Get found by people searching for your products or services
   - Connect with existing and potential clients

   - Create communities around your products or services
   - Distribute your content
   - Generate leads for your business

With Facebook, people create and engage via their profiles.  Businesses use Pages (and Groups).   Facebook encourage this by offering functionality for business that is only available via pages.

Difference between Pages and Profiles.
 
 - Pages can have multiple administrators.
   - Pages are by default public, helping ranking in searches.
   - Pages are categorised by business type, helping with more focussed search ranking.
   - Personal Profiles have friends by reciprocal acceptance, anyone can be a fan of any page.

Facebook also have Groups, that can be used to create interest and promote your business.  

A Facebook Page is like a diary or blog.  You updated it. Use it to promote your business, website, or other entity.  Recent change - ‘Likers’ can also post. 
 
A Facebook Group is like a message board.  You moderate it, it has a purpose or focus, and contributions / conversations are posted to it by you and other members.

Creating a Facebook Page for your business is very easy and FREE, so - no excuses.  Check out http://www.pagemodo.com

Pages have a number of benefits –
   - Page updates appear in fans' news feed. 
   - Pages appear in the "suggestion" column. 
   - Pages are visible to non-Facebook users, and can be crawled by search engines.

AND Facebook Pages have their own URL - http://www.facebook.com/247BusinessNetworking