Common social media questions and concerns include:

What kinds of social media accounts do I need? Facebook? Twitter? Instagram?

What will I post about? Who cares about what I ate for breakfast?

Do my clients really use social media? Is it a big waste of time?

The questions vary but the concern remain the same. How will social media help my business?
The answer is simple: social media will increase your bottom line. Social media marketing, done correctly, will increase brand awareness, keep you connected to your customers and community and will make you more money. That’s what’s really important right? According to Forbes, 80% of executives believe social media engagement leads to increased sales.

Some marketers will tell you a bunch of fluff as to why you need social media, but I’m here to tell you the cold, hard facts.

You need social media because your competition is using it.

You need social media because your customers are looking for you online.

You need social media to monitor what people are saying about you. People are talking about you and your business online. It’s your choice if you decide to listen. Wouldn’t you want to respond if someone posts a negative review of your products or services? I would.

Let’s say you decide to make the jump and start a social media strategy. The most important step is defining what social media success looks like to you.

Picture yourself a year from now, what has to happen to make you believe social media marketing was a great choice for you? Maybe it’s 50% more customers in the door, or perhaps you sell 10 times more “X” product. Brainstorm your goals and timelines before creating your first social media account. Afterwards, track your results. If you aren’t meeting your monthly social media goals, re-evaluate your strategy. Do your research. Get some professional help. Social media is a cost effective way to reach your business objectives and increase your bottom line. Stop worrying and get started!

Until today, Twitter used the content of tweets among other algorithms to shape their interest graph. Advertising on Twitter wasn’t high on the list of priorities for most professionals. The folks at Twitter are looking to take their advertising features to the next level with keyword targeting in timelines.

5 Things to Know About Keyword Targeting in Timelines

1) It’s available in the full Twitter ads UI and through the Ads API

2) Your ads are sent to Twitter users based on a) keywords in their recent tweets and b) tweets with which the users recently engaged

3) Twitter users won’t notice any different in the Twitter experience

4) Twitter has tested keyword targeting with clients like Walgreens and they noted that users were significantly more likely to engage with Promoted Tweets using keyword targeting in timeline than other forms of targeting in Timeline

5) Starting today, keyword targeting in timelines is available to all Twitter users across the globe

Keyword Targeting Example

Let’s say a user tweets about how hungry they are for Chinese food and it so happens that a Chinese food restaurant is nearby. That restaurant could now run a geotargeted campaign using keywords (Chinese + Food, etc.) with a link to a coupon page or other deal. This means the local user looking to purchase Chinese food would most likely see the promoted tweet when logging into Twitter.

How to Set up a Keyword Targeting Campaign

1) Create a Twitter for Business Account

2) Enter the keywords you wish to target

3) Decide if you want to use phrase match or onordered keyword match

4) Specify other targeting options such as geographic location, location, device and/or gener

Twitter is moving in the right direction with keyword targeting. It’s important to mention that Twitter is also including negative sentiment filtering, which is very important, because you don’t want to target people that are speaking negatively about your product or service (it’s important for you to respond to them in other ways, but not advertising).

According to Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim, 70% of mobile searches led to action on websites within one hour. That is an impressive conversion rate if you ask me. Additionally, forecasters predict that by the year 2013, there will be over 1.7 billion million Internet users.

As a small business owner, have you checked out what your website looks like on an iPhone, Android, iPad, Kindle Fire or a Windows phone? If it’s not mobile friendly, you can kiss 40% of your mobile website viewers good bye. There is no excuse good enough for not having a responsive website in 2013. Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of only focusing on modern browsers when creating their website discounting the importance of mobile. Check out our previous post on business development trends for mobile devices for more information.

How To Take Advantage of Consumer Online Searches

1. Make sure your website is mobile friendly.

2. Make sure all of your contact information is correct and up to date.

3. Make sure your mobile website isn’t cluttered. Think Apple. Lots of white space and striking images.

4. Give your mobile viewers the choice of seeing the standard site as well.

5. Have clear, intuitive navigation

A great mobile website is great for business, especially because 70% of mobile searches are leading to online actions. In addition, there are many features that mobile-optimized sites can have including click-to-call phone numbers, maps and GPS information. These sorts of features allow your customers to connect with you and your business as fast as possible.

These are some of the first things to consider when building your mobile website. There are many other options and abilities that we’ll discuss in another blog post including customization, content stacking, UI guidelines, etc.

Have you recently created a mobile website? Have you noticed an increase in traffic? Let us know in the comment section below!

Should you be interested in creating a mobile site for your business, please contact me directly at samantha@shiftdigitalmedia.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

LinkedIn announced in a blog post and slideshow presentation, Start a Conversation by Mentioning Your Connections on LinkedIn, that LinkedIn members can now mention connections and companies in status updates. This is great news for entrepreneurs and small business owners who utilize LinkedIn for business development. Now you can easily start conversations with 1st connections by mentioning them instead of just hoping they’ll see your status update. Similar to Twitter and Facebook, you can engage with your network by mentioning them in status updates.

How to Mention Connections in LinkedIn Status Updates

1. From your LinkedIn Homepage, start typing the name of a connection or company you wish to mention in your status update box or comment field.

2. As you start typing the name, a drop-down box will appear with a list of your connections and companies you follow. Select the connection or company you wish to include in your comment or status update.

3. After finishing your comment or status update, the mentioned company or person will receive a notification alerting them that they have been mentioned on LinkedIn. It’s as easy as that!

It should be noted that you can also mention other LinkedIn members (such as 2nd connections) already engaged in the comments section of posts on your LinkedIn homepage. This means it’s easier to carry on conversations with people that you aren’t connected to (yet) in real time as they happen.

This new feature will roll out to all English-speaking LinkedIn members today. LinkedIn also mentioned that you’ll be able to mention people in places other than the Homepage (perhaps Groups, Profile pages, etc.) very soon.

How does Facebook Offer this Type of ROI?

Facebook is connecting the dots between purchasers and their purchasing habits thanks to their own data and that of their partner, Datalogix. Just in case you don’t know what Datalogix is (I didn’t), they are one of the largest companies that offer integrated database marketing and digital media. Their goal is to leverage audience purchasing information to increase online and offline sales.

Before you delete your Facebook account due to privacy concerns, you should know that Facebook is not identifying your name to corporations. Instead, they are connecting their data with Datalogix’s data in a “double-blind” method. Yes, Facebook can match your ID with information it sources via Datalogix, but Mark is promising to keep that information private. Are you convinced?

What Does This Mean for Facebook Advertisers?

As a small business owner, you’re probably wondering about how this information will benefit you. If this data is correct, and Facebook is able to match purchasing data, you will be able to laser focus your advertising campaigns on powerbuyers, occasional buyers and the occasional purchaser. You’ll also be able to target people who purchase products from your competitors. It’s hard to compete with that offering (think Google Ads).

It’s commonly accepted that approximately 50% of digital ads and TV commercials aren’t seen by their target audience. The new and improved, laser focused Facebook ad has the ability to re-caliber those statistics.

As a marketer, it’s important to research how and when people purchase your products. What are their purchasing habits? What else do they purchase? Who are your competitors? Pairing your findings with your Facebook advertising strategy will vastly improve your results. You’re marketing budget will also be much more effective and efficient. It’s also important to keep up to date on Facebook updates including their updated newsfeed and how to personalize your Facebook settings and applications.

How often do you use Facebook for marketing now? If you’re not a big Facebook Ad fan, will you consider using them now? Why or why not? I look forward to hearing your comments below.

How to Customize Your Facebook Page Application Image

1. The first step is designing your Facebook Page application image. The image size should be 111 x 74 pixels to fit the application button size perfectly. I use Photoshop to design the image. Pick a relevant image for your button: Twitter bird for Twitter, Pinterest logo for Pinterest, a Newsletter icon to sign up for your newsletter, etc. You can also use a branded image for your firm as long as you get it to fit 111 x 74 pixels in size. Get creative and take a look at what other companies are doing if you need inspiration.

2. Save the image you create to your desktop in a .jpg or .png format for easy access later on.

3. Go to your Facebook Page and click on the downward facing arrow button next to your Facebook applications.

4. Go to the Facebook Application that you wish to change the image of and hover over the top right hand corner of the icon. A pencil button will appear. Select this button and click on “Edit Settings”.

5. A menu box will appear. Click on “Change” next to Custom Tab Image and upload the image from your desktop that you created in Step 1. You can also change the name of the application that will appear underneath it here as well next to “Custom Tab Name”.

This is just one of the many ways your business can customize your Facebook Page for optimal branding purposes. You should also consider updating your cover photo image, taking advantage of Facebook ads, updating your profile picture and your album images. Facebook recently updated their newsfeed so they might update their business pages soon as well. Stay tuned for more details!

I’m sure everyone knows what a newsfeed is, but just in case you’re one of the 6 billion people on the planet that don’t have Facebook yet, the newsfeed appears on the homepage of Facebook and it includes status updates, photo albums, videos, check-ins and news stories.

According to the Business Insider, the update will include a lot more video and larger pictures. Their prediction is based on a conference call Facebook had with Wall Street Analysts on January 30, 2013 to go over their fourth quarter earnings report (yikes). Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told analysts about how well Facebook ads were performing, particularly in the newsfeed. He went on to say that these ads will get even better when Facebook can do more with different kinds of media, hence the video prediction. Facebook recently launched passive location logging app marketing as well. Mark is definitely keeping those engineers busy!

What does this mean to the average user? Get ready to see more video ads on the homepage of your Facebook account. Advertisers are willing to pay a pretty penny for video time on our beloved social network. As always, Facebook will show you ads that it believes you’ll be interested in.

If your business uses Facebook for marketing purposes, you should be very excited for this development. You’ll be able to use video to tell your customers and potential customers stories about your business, and better build your brand. Remember, advertisers have been paying millions of dollars for TV commercials for over 60 years. Do you think there’s a difference between TV commercials and these potential Facebook video ads?

There’s one thing holding Mark back from creating Facebook video ads right now and he claims that it’s “product design”. In other words, Mark doesn’t want to turn people off with video ads they’re used to seeing video in the newsfeed from brands they like and friends. This is what Mark had to say on the topic:

Historically, advertisers want really rich things like big pictures or videos, and we haven’t provided those things historically. But one of the things that we’ve done in the last year, as you’ve seen, the organic News Feed product that consumers use are , moving towards bigger pictures, richer media, and I think you will continue to see it go in that direction. And then, I think a lot of the success of products like Instagram is because of that. It’s very immersive even on a small screen, it’s a wonderful photo product, and when you have those form factors for the content that gives you the ability to offer those form factors for advertising as well. So I think you see the trend there in terms of where it’s going and that’s just naturally going to make it, so we can deliver much more engaging advertising experiences than we were traditionally able to do and when we didn’t have those types of content in the system.

What do you think?

How much would you pay for a video ad on Facebook? As a personal user of Facebook, would video ads turn you off? Please feel free to leave your comments below.

Did you recognize the lyrics of the wildly popular will.i.am hit Scream & Shout that quotes Lil Wayne? If you don’t follow Donald’s Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, he likes to tweet about himself and his successful business strategies. The tweet was retweeted over 1000 times before getting deleted.

Mr. Donald Trump (or whoever tweets for him) responded within 15 minutes saying that his account was hacked. He went on to say that his team were “looking for the perpetrators” according to Mashable. I’m not sure how they would be able to do that on their own but hey, he’s Donald Trump!

Mr. Trump went on to say, “Twitter will soon be irrelevant if lowlifes are so easily able to hack into accounts.”:

Although I trust Donald’s opinion when it comes to finances, I don’t think Twitter will ever become irrelevant. But I do believe this is an important reminder when it comes to protecting your social media accounts.

How to Protect Your Social Media Accounts

Passwords

Create unique passwords for each social media account and use a combination of numbers, upper and lowercase letters and symbols. I know you’ve probably used the same password a couple times. Make sure you go change them after reading this article. If you use the same password for each account, all your social media accounts are at risk as perpetrators know most people are guilty of this. A recent article in PR Daily recommends that your passwords should be between 12 – 16 characters.

Security

Don’t tell anyone the passwords to your social media accounts. If you do have to give someone access for some odd reason, change it afterwards. If you’ve hired a social media company to handle your tweets, or an employee does it for you, make sure to change your password should this arrangement change. Change it to something completely different that the previous employee won’t be able to figure out.

Email Account

Make sure that each social media account is connected to one email address that you are in control of. I would recommend using a trusted email client such as Google. I can’t tell you how many times I haven’t been able to access a client’s social media account because it was connected to a previous employee’s email. It might be tiresome to see social media notifications all day but at least you’re in control. Make it one of your 2013 social media resolutions to keep your social media accounts safe!

How do you manage the security of your social media accounts? Please let us know in the comments below.

What are Promoted Tweets?

Promoted Tweets is a paid service created by Twitter in September, 2011 to “amplify your message with targeting options on Twitter.com and across mobile devices to reach the right person, in the right place, at the right time,” according to Twitter. In a nutshell, your business crafts a attention-grabbing tweet that sums up your offerings nicely and Twitter places it in search results or user timelines. Twitter’s geographic targeting increases the relevance your predetermined target audience sees it and clicks “follow”.

There are two types of promoted tweets: Promoted Tweets in Search and Promoted Tweets in Timelines. Search is used when users are searching particular terms in Twitter’s search field. The promoted tweets will appear at the top fo the results page. Timeline is used to amplify messages to your followers or users who are like your followers. Again, your tweet will appear at or near the top of the page when users log in or refresh their homepage.

Should Your Business Use Promoted Tweets?

This is the golden question. Should you set aside part of your marketing budget for Twitter’s promoted tweets? My answer is yes, you should definitely test out Twitter’s promoted tweets but make sure you do it right.

• Add pictures, videos and graphs or other visual displays to your promoted tweets to explain the offer and get attention
• Create a strategic plan regarding the content and graphics you will use in your promoted tweets.
• Consider your product offerings that are being offered in these promoted tweets and re-evaluate after the promoted tweets are over. How did the strategy work? Did you get an increase in sales?
• Take a look at what your competition is doing when it comes to promoted tweets. Are they using them? What are they saying?

Overall, Twitter’s promoted tweets service is a great way for your business to establish a strong identity on Twitter according to Hashtags.org, and to promote your services and goods. Twitter’s paid service doesn’t cost much and can go a long way if used correctly. The secret of promoted tweets is to make sure you’re targeting those people who are actually interested in your offerings. Using promoted tweets is also a great way to increase the number of warm leads you acquire from Twitter as well.

Do you have questions about Twitter’s promoted tweets service? Please feel free to contact me anytime at samantha@shiftdigitalmarketing.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Facebook Passive Location Logging App Features and Details

• The app is scheduled to be released in March, 2013

• The new Facebook app is meant to help Facebook users find nearby connections and would run in the background. This means it would be running continually, even when the app isn’t on.

• Facebook created the app to benefit from the portion of its 1 billion users who use mobile devices. This is because Facebook could sell businesses ads based on a Facebook users’ location and mobile habits.

• The new app may cause privacy concerns as personal location information would need to be disclosed for the features to work properly. As always, we’re sure Facebook would have the option to opt-out of the location logging app.

• Peter Deng, a product director from Google, is leading the team working on the new app as well as engineers from Glancee and Gowalla, both location-based social networking businesses that Facebook acquired.

What You Need to Know About Facebook Passive Location Logging App

You may be shocked to know that Facebook already records your GPS movements when you post status updates or photos with your mobile device. This new application would track your whereabouts in the “background” of Apple’s operating system.

Many Facebook users have already agreed to this sort of tracking in Facebook’s data-use policy. It states that it will use your location information to tell you and your friends about people and events nearby, or to offer deals that you might be interested in. This also includes relevant ads.

There are already apps such as Find My Friends that are constantly tracking your location to help you keep in touch with your friends. These applications tend to lose business due to privacy concerns.

How Businesses Can Benefit from Facebook’s New Passive Location Logging App

Businesses will benefit from Facebook’s new application by creating customized location-based alerts based on the user info Facebook provides via the app. According to Latitude, 55% of smartphone users are more likely to visit a retailer’s store after receiving location-aware alerts. This is great news for businesses who get involved with location-based marketing.

Are you interested in learning more about location-based marketing for your business? Please contact me directly at samantha@shiftdigitalmarketing.com.

Sure, you could view Instagram pictures via third party applications, but it wasn’t the same #instagram experience. The main feature that separated Instagram from other competing social networks was the ability to use it from your desktop computer. Things changed last week when Instagram announced to the world that “you can now browse your Instagram feed on the web – just you like you do on your mobile device. Go to instagram.com and log in to your account to give it a try.”

I logged in to my own Instagram account this morning to give it a test drive. It’s not often that we marketers get to blog about big changes like this (unless it’s Facebook, but we don’t count them anymore).

Here’s the lowdown. You’re greeted with you Instagram feed upon logging in and it looks very similar to the mobile version. And like the mobile version, you heart photos by double clicking them with your mouse or by clicking the like button. Instagram recommends that you shrink your browser down to a single column to get a more authentic experience.

You’re not able to explore or view the news tab via the desktop Instagram version. As always, you’re not able to upload photos via the desktop version as it’s Instagrams belief that photos should be uploaded while you’re “on the go, in the real world, in real time”.

Hubspot pointed out that when you view the newsfeed on Instagram.com, you will see that hashtags come up as plain text instead of linking to a stream of common images. I love this feature in the mobile version and search #Vancouver often to see beautiful pictures of my city. Hopefully they’ll add this feature soon.

Marketing Your Small Business with Instagram

Instagram has always been a great choice for business development in today’s age of visual content marketing. Not to mention It’s easy to figure out and easy to maintain. And now it’s even easier as you can keep the feed open on your desktop. When customers like or comment on your photos, you can respond lightning fast when they’re most likely to respond and engage with you. This change also means it’s easier to delegate this commenting and responding duty to other people within your firm that might not have an iPhone or Android device.

If you aren’t using Instagram within your business and would like to learn more, please contact me directly at samantha@shiftdigitalmarketing.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

As a social media consultant, I am constantly advising my clients to use Twitter. In fact, if I had to pick one social media platform to use, Twitter would be my number one choice. Many of you know me from my blog, Social Media for Law Firms, and I built my brand (and company) mainly by networking on Twitter (and blogging on a regular basis). Twitter engagement isn’t rocket science, it’s digital conversation in 140 characters or less. It’s not all about what you ate for breakfast or what color nail polish you’re wearing. It’s about finding your target market online, listening to them, engaging them and taking the conversation offline. Here’s how to get more engagement on Twitter

How to Get More Engagement on Twitter

Find Your Target Audience

Who buys your products and/or services? How old are they? Where do they live? What brands do they wear? What other products do they buy? Create client personas and be as specific as possible. Now, create a Twitter account and find your target audience. An easy way to do this is to find your competition’s Twitter accounts and see who they follow and who follows them. Create a private list of all your competitors and monitor their Twitter habits. Follow the same people if they fit your target client personas. Simple right? You can also use social media monitoring tools such as Sprout Social to find your target clients on Twitter based on location too.

Listen and Engage With Your Potential Clients

Now that you found your potential clients, listen to them. How do they interact online? Are they a consistent bunch? Do they log in often? What do they talk about? Listen to them for a couple weeks so you get a good idea of their online habits. The trick here is to jump in when you can add something of value to the conversation. This will definitely get you more engagement on Twitter. Don’t just jump in and ask Jane Doe to buy your product, it won’t work. The social media crowd is a critical bunch and they are used to brands trying to sell to them. Offering tools is a great way to engage your target audience according to One Social Media as well. Also, it’s a good idea to add a face to your brand. If you have to have a logo for your Twitter account, make sure you add your initials to the end of each post (like this ^SC). It’s a good idea to also offer something of value to your potential clients. Do you have a useful white paper, how-to article, coupon? Make sure it’s relevant to your conversation.

Take the Conversation Offline

This is the critical step on how to get more engagement on Twitter. How you do this will depend on what your product or service is. For example, I’m very familiar with the legal world. Many of my clients took the conversation offline after offering something of value. After giving away a white paper, they would follow up a couple weeks later and suggest they have a meeting at a coffee shop to discuss the subject further. Or, they would suggest they meet at a conference, etc. You get the picture. Social media is useless unless you take the conversation offline in some matter. The point is to get more sales, more engagement, more brand recognition, etc.

I hope you enjoyed my article on how to get more engagement on Twitter. Do you have any tips to add? Please feel free to share them below. Also, if you’re interested in learning more about how your company can use Twitter for business development, please feel free to email me directly at samantha@shiftdigitalmedia.com.

2013 Smartphone Marketing Trend #1

55% of those who have clicked on a mobile ad have an annual income of more than $75,000 according to Hip Cricket. As a small business owner, your target audience should have the means to purchase your products and/or services right? Smartphone owners have enough money to purchase devices that aren’t cheap. This also means they have a high enough income to potentially purchase what you’re selling.

2013 Smartphone Marketing Trend #2

85% of mobile consumers use their phone while shopping in store according to Jiwire’s quarter three report in 2012. This leads us to believe that the trend will continue in 2013. Customers are now checking out reviews and comparing prices while browsing in your store. Pull out your smartphone and see what your website looks like online? Afterwards, check out the competition. How does your site stack up? Have you checked your Yelp reviews or Google reviews lately? This is extremely important for your marketing plan in 2013.

2013 Smartphone Marketing Trend #3

For our final trend, we look to Group M who informs that 45% of customers shopping in-store will purchase online for a 2.5% discount; 60% will leave and purchase a product online for a 5% discount. This is very important information when creating your marketing plan for 2013. How do your customers research the products they purchase in your store? How much are your competitors selling the same items for? Do your competitors list their prices online? Do they have an ecommerce section? Again, how does your mobile presence stack up against the rest?

I hope you enjoyed this article on 2013 smartphone marketing trends. Contact us today to have one of our specialists look over your mobile website and tell you about location-based marketing. We look forward to hearing from you!

1. Don’t show any personality. Are you obsessed with The Real Housewives of Vancouver? Do you attend the World Beard and Moustache Championships? Don’t be bashful when it comes to showcasing your personality. The last thing we need is another snoozer social media poster. Obviously you can’t post about your interests and likes all the time but you get the idea. Talk about your favorite pastimes once in awhile and you’ll connect with other like-minded individuals. You might land some new clients as well!

2. Don’t be afraid to voice an unpopular opinion. Are you a republican or a democrat? Do you think Casey Anthony is innocent or do you think she’s guilty as sin? Don’t be afraid to be a little controversial or opinionated when it comes to social media, you’ll get more sales as a result too. Feeling comfortable doing this can take time. It took me over a year to really disagree with people online. Remember, if you’re an employee representing a brand’s social media account, you’ll need to ask about what your parameters are.

3. Don’t disappear. The last thing you want to do is post like crazy for a week and then disappear. Your social media accounts will become ghost towns of activity and your followers will wonder what’s going on. They’ll unlike, unfollow and unfriend and move on. Make sure you set aside some time each day to devote to social media. I know it can be exciting at first and you’ll want to spend all your waking moments alone. Please, resist the urge. I made the same mistake and suffered social media burnout.

4. Don’t make spelling mistakes on your website or social media posts. This is one of my biggest pet peeves in life (and I know I’m guilty of it as well). If you aren’t the best speller or you don’t know when to use there, their or they’re, have someone else read over your posts first. Making stupid mistakes makes you look… well, you know. Social media lingo isn’t perfect but it’s not terrible either.

5. Don’t self promote 24/7. You know those annoying people that love to talk about themselves all the time? They love to tell you about their latest accomplishment, car, house, job, etc.? Don’t become one of “those” people. Ask other people how they’re doing. Offer help. You’ll be surprised at the personal connections you make.

Like anything in life, there is a right and wrong way to use social media for business development. These five mistakes above are the wrong way to use social media. They’ll make you look selfish, clumsy and boring. Here are some other social media fails you need to avoid as well. Do you have any tips to add? Please share them below.

If you would like help with your social media strategy, please feel free to contact me at samantha@shiftdigitalmedia.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Here are five ways you turn people off with your LinkedIn photo (and some quick fixes too):

Mistake #1 – Not Adding a LinkedIn Photo

If you’re not going to add a photo to your LinkedIn profile you shouldn’t have a profile at all. I hate seeing the generic male or female outline. I hate it even more if I can see your smiling picture on your website because then you can’t even blame privacy issues. Fix this mistake by getting some professional pictures taken. You can even go to Walmart if you don’t want to spend a lot of money. People are better with faces than they are names so adding a picture will make you more memorable as well.

Mistake #2 – Using Your Favorite Instagram Picture as Your LinkedIn Photo

Remember that great picture you took in the bar with your BFF? Don’t use it as your LinkedIn photo unless you’re in the nightclub industry. LinkedIn also says you should drop the swimsuit photos and wedding shots. First impressions count and your LinkedIn photo will be seen by potential clients and human resource managers who might be interested in hiring you.

Mistake #3 – Using a Black and White Image

Don’t use a black and white image for your LinkedIn photo. Colored images are preferred as that’s what you’ll look like in person.

Mistake #4 – Using a Different Photo on Your LinkedIn Profile than Your Other Social Media Accounts

Companies use the same logo (or a very similar logo) on all of their branding documents. You should do likewise with your social media accounts. Don’t use different photos for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, etc. It will be easier for people to remember you as well. Personally, I add a lot of people on LinkedIn after chatting with them on Twitter. It’s easier to find contacts if they use the same image as well.

Mistake #5 – Choosing a Busy and Complicated Picture

Keep it simple when choosing your LinkedIn Photo. Don’t use an image with a complicated background no matter how pretty it looks. A simple head shot is best. Make sure you’re wearing professional attire as well.

The biggest takeaway from this article is that your LinkedIn photo should be simple and professional. Save the beautiful sunsets and wedding photos for Facebook. Your photo should be engaging and inviting as your photo is the first thing people see when visiting your LinkedIn profile.

Do you have any tips to add? Please feel free to share them in the comments below. Also, if you’d like help optimizing your LinkedIn profile, please feel free to contact me at samantha@shiftdigitalmedia.com any time. I look forward to hearing from you.

Using social media for business development and marketing purposes is the first step in your social media strategy. How you use the social data gathered through Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, Sprout Social and other social monitoring tools is what will set you apart from the competition.

According to the Social Media Explorer, social media strategists within organizations spend approximately 2.5 hours per 40 hour-work-week analyzing social media analytics. This includes social media measurement and reporting. What happens during these important 2.5 hours? Here are three examples of how businesses use social media intelligence:

1. Find your brand advocates. Using Google Analytics, you can easily find which websites are linking to your website on a regular basis. Open Google Analytics, select Traffic Sources, click Sources and then choose Referrals. Here is where you’ll find all the websites that link to your website. Check out the various sites and you’ll most likely find other blogs that are talking about your services and/or products. Thank them via their comments section. This is how relationships grow via social media.

2. Improve your content strategy. Are you stumped for ideas when it comes to blog writing? Don’t worry, it happens to me too. I use social media on a regular basis to see what other people are talking about. I scan Facebook, Twitter and my favorite blogs to see what’s on people’s minds and what’s causing a lot of buzz. Don’t forget to check the comments section on other blogs too. If a topic is causing a lot of discussion, you know it’s a great idea to write about. Add your own spin or perspective.

3. Analyze your social budget. Which social media platforms generate the most leads for your business? When it comes to social media, return on investment (ROI) is important. Analyze your efforts across all your social media channels on a regular basis to see which platforms work the best. Re-evaluate your social strategy every three to six months based on this information. This is one of the most vital aspects of social intelligence as it’s most likely what your boss cares about the most; increasing the bottom line.

How does your business use social media intelligence? How much time do you spend analyzing your social data? Please feel free to share your thoughts and insights in the comments below.

How to Block My Birthday Calendar on Facebook

Step One

Click the gear icon on the top of your Facebook Page and select Privacy Settings

Step Two

Select “Blocking” from the column of commands on the left hand side of the screen

Step 3

Scroll down to the bottom of the next screen until you reach the Block Apps Section. Start typing My Birthday Calendar in the text book. When the pesky app shows up, click on it and it will be added to your list of blocked apps on Facebook.

You can thank me later for all the free time you’ll have now that you’re no longer receiving those pesky My Birthday Calendar app requests on Facebook. Please note that you can block all applications on Facebook with the above method. I have 132 blocked applications to date. I can’t stand receiving Farmville, BranchOut or anything else. I did have a quick stint with Bejeweled but that was long ago when I had free time!

Although the My Birthday Calendar app is harmless, it’s important to remember that some apps on Facebook are mining for data. Be very careful about which apps you choose to use. Even if your friends choose to trust various applications, that doesn’t mean you need to do likewise. You have to remember that these applications are free for you to use and why would any company create free apps? It’s not for your pleasure and enjoyment, trust me! To see the apps that you’ve currently approved on your Facebook page, go to your App Settings Page. You’ll be amazed by how many you’ve allowed!

In the past, I’ve written about Twitter’s new tailored trends simplified and the ultimate Twitter profile cheat sheet. These articles are meant to educate you about the various Twitter functions and how to make a rockstar Twitter profile. Today, it’s all about how to actually acquire new clients from your Twitter social media activities. In other words, I want to show you a couple tricks on how to actually improve your bottom line using Twitter. Using Twitter’s advanced search function, you can actually find leads that are looking to purchase products and services.

The great thing about Twitter is that all tweets are public unless someone makes their tweets private (which doesn’t happen very often). Unlike Facebook, Twitter users tend to not worry about privacy as much. This is a great feature for business owners like you because you can directly connect with leads the moment they express interest in your products or services.

How to Find Leads on Twitter using the Advanced Search Function

Let’s pretend you’re a plumber and you’re looking for plumbing leads. Your number one goal is to find leads that need plumbing services. Your first step is to determine the exact tweet you’re looking for to find leads. Twitter folks love to ask their network for advice and referrals. Depending on the size of your lead’s network, they can be presented with a number of options within moments from people they trust. Your goal is to find these tweets and respond to them in an engaging and helpful manner. Here’s how:

1. Go to https://twitter.com/search-advanced. You’ll be presented with a number of fields. Focus on these three fields: “All of these words”, “Language” and “Question ?”. In our example, we would type “Plumber” in the “All of these words” field, select English from the “Language” drop-down box and select “Question”. You’ll be presented with a list of tweets that meet these requirements.

2. Once you determine which leads you’d like to follow up on, introduce yourself to the lead with an @reply to their initial question. This is done by hitting reply to their tweet and introducing yourself and how you can be of assistance. You could say something like, “I would be very happy to provide you with a quote for the plumbing service you require…”. Remember to keep it conversational and don’t be too salesy. Your lead is looking for someone they can trust, not spam.

3. You can easily save your search for later so you don’t have to go into the advanced Twitter search mode each time you want to search. Do this by logging in to your Twitter account and typing your search terms (in our example, the terms would be plumber lang:en) and hitting search. You’ll see a button that says “save this search”. Now you’ll be able to easily search Twitter for leads on a daily basis.

Twitter is a great social media platform for finding leads. Using Twitter’s advanced search function is a great method to do so. It’s an extremely simple strategy that you can easily use on a regular basis. Do you have any other business development tips for finding leads on Twitter? Please feel free to share them in the comments below.

If you’re interested in finding leads via Twitter, please feel free to contact us anytime. We look forward to hearing from you!

American Apparel Hurricane Sandy Promotion

American Apparel decided to jump on the back of Hurricane Sandy to offer a special promotion of 20% off for shoppers that lived in affected states. The kicker here is that they added the wording, “In case you’re bored during the storm.” Thousands of people took to Facebook and Twitter to voice their criticism over the tacky ad.

Lesson: No matter how tempting, don’t create promotions based on national disasters.

London Olympics 2012 Banned Brands

The London Olympic 2012 were an exciting time for fans all over the world. Unfortunately, the Olympics committed a huge social media #fail by not allowing athletes to mention brands via social media that weren’t official sponsors. Furthermore, brands that were not official sponsors were not allowed to create an association with the Olympics.

Lesson: Social media is all about engagement and freedom of speech. It’s hard to harness what’s trending across the globe at all times.

McDonald’s #McDStories

McDonald’s is usually spot on when it comes to promotions and marketing, however, this wasn’t the case with McDonald’s #McDStories and #meetthefarmers. McDonald’s asked their fans to post their fond Happy Meal stories via social media. This backfired in a huge way as users decided to share horror stories instead of happy memories. In theory, McDonald’s paid to promote a trend that resulted in a ton of bad publicity. McDonald’s did admit that his marketing ploy did not go as planned.

Lesson: Remember, social media can’t be controlled in any fashion. It’s important to have a backup plan if the worst should occur.

NRA Pro Gun Tweet during Aurora Shooting

The National Rifle Association (NRA) posted a tweet in favor of guns as the mass shooting event was unfolding in Aurora, Colorado. In defense of the NRA, the tweet was scheduled using Hootsuite but it still came across as insensitive during that horrific event.

Lesson: Brands must use caution when scheduling tweets and social media posts. When tragic events or national disasters occur, look through your scheduled tweets so you don’t look like a jerk. You should also consider stopping your scheduled tweets during the day of a traumatic, global event.

Microsoft gets Political

Back in September, a Microsoft employee who managed the Microsoft Twitter account posted a negative tweet about conservative Anne Coulter. He or she had made the mistake of tweeting from their company account instead of their personal account. The Microsoft account had replied to a tweet from a former US labor secretary with this, “@RBReich your granddaughter’s level of discourse and policy > those of Ann Coulter.”

Lesson: If you’re a social media community manager and you manage multiple social media accounts, be very diligent about posting your personal social media posts from your personal accounts.

We hope you enjoyed our post on the top 5 social media fails of 2012. Do you have any to share? Please feel free to post them in the comments below.

In 2012, we’ve seen a number of updates and changes at Facebook. For example, in March of 2012, Facebook launched the App Center, an online mobile store where you can purchase applications for Facebook. Then there was the initial public offering on May 17, 2012 where the company was valued at $104 billion. On July 12, 2012, Facebook added a Gay Marriage icon to its timeline feature and finally, Facebook released an update to its iOS app which didn’t impress all users.

It’s important to stay up-to-date on all the changes going on over at Facebook so your business can exploit each feature accordingly.

Here are 15 different ways you can boost Facebook engagement on your Company Page:

1. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas which means it’s time to start giving to your local charity. Why not give a donation to a charity or cause each time someone likes your Facebook Business Page? Amassing likes is a whole lot easier when the “Liker” associate the ‘Like’ as being a step in the right direction for a movement or cause that they agree with.

2. Join relevant Facebook Groups relating to your industry and contribute something of value to the community. Do you have a white paper or resource they might find useful? Be a good neighbor and add to their discussion. Down the road you can ask people within the group to like your Facebook Page and you can do likewise for them.

3. Get involved with Facebook advertising. Facebook is the master when it comes to targeted ads. Where else can you target people by relationship status, age, location, interests, etc.? Facebook ads are easy to use and you can spend as little (or as much) as you like.

4. Consider using the “Suggest to Friends” feature of your Facebook Business Page. A word of caution, you should only invite people that will find your page useful.

5. Don’t be boring and bland (unless that’s your branded style). Consider being a tad controversial to get noticed. Make your Facebook Business Page interesting so it stands out from the rest. Write about hot topics. Don’t be afraid to share your opinion and start discussions.

6. Ensure that all information on your Business Page is correct and up-to-date. This includes addresses, phone numbers, web addresses, summaries and about sections. I don’t need to explain why this is important!

7. Encourage discussion and be the fun and interactive person everyone knows and loves! Talk to your readers and keep them coming back. Reply to their questions in a timely manner, “like” their comments and start engaging discussions. Ask your fans for feedback relating to your business. You’ll be surprised with the great advice you get!

8. Hold a contest. Here are the Facebook Rules on how to hold a contest. If done correctly, this can lead to tons of exposure for your page. You can use apps like Booshaka or Shortstack. There’s a lot of talk about how Gamification is increasing Facebook Page Engagement. Get involved.

9. Come up with engaging status updates that include the words “Click Like or Share if….” This is a very simple formula and it’s all about whether people agree with you or not. Choose something that you’re sure 50% to 100% of your fans like. Including images in these updates is a great way to increase engagement. A number of our clients have had great success with this strategy.

10. Ask open-ended questions that get your fans thinking. Some of these questions include:

• What do you think about…. ?
• How do you feel about…. ?
• What happens when you…. ?
• What are your goals related to… ?
• Why do you…. ?

11. Consider creating status updates using these words: “Click this link...” to get fans to read a story or perform a particular action. These can include:

• Check out this blog because…
• Check out our latest press release…

12. Invite your newsletter list or email subscribers to like your Facebook Business Page. If your company has a newsletter list through Constant Contact or MailChimp, write a newsletter article asking people to like your page. Make sure to include a link to your Facebook Page. You can also import email lists.

13. Add your Facebook Fan URL to your email signature. Wisestamp offers a free and simple way to do this for Gmail.

14. Offer an incentive to people to “Like” the your Facebook Page. The more valuable the incentive is, the more people will be compelled to do so. Examples of exclusive content could be a video, an exclusive whitepaper, PDF, picture, etc.

15. Ask all of your employees to link back to your Facebook Page as their place of employment and encourage them to get their friends to “Like” the page as well. If you hold Facebook Contests, encourage your employees to share the promotion with their friends.

So you want to increase engagement on your Facebook Business Page. You want to be engaging and keep your fans coming back. You want to actually improve your bottom line via your Facebook endeavors.

These 15 tips are a great way to get started. Do you have any tips to add? Please feel free to share them in the comments below!

One of my most popular blog posts over at Social Media for Law Firms is 20 Awesome Facts About Twitter – 2012 Edition so I decided to pen another similar post focused on the social media platform for business, LinkedIn.

I often wonder what kind of coffee the folks at LinkedIn drink because they have been rolling out a tremendous amount of updates recently. These range from revamped profile pages, updated LinkedIn Company pages, the ability to follow thought leaders, endorsements and much more. They’re doing something right because as of October 16, 2012, LinkedIn has over 175 million members. If you haven’t joined LinkedIn yet, I hope the following facts convince you to get started. Please feel free to add your own facts and comments in the comment section below.

20 Awesome Facts About LinkedIn – 2012 Edition

• LinkedIn has over 175 million members as of October 16, 2012. To put this in perspective, LinkedIn had 32 million members in January of 2009 Tweet This Stat!

• Users are joining LinkedIn at 2 members per second Tweet This Stat!

• LinkedIn added 50 million members in 2011 alone. It took them 6 years to add their first 50 million users! Tweet This Stat!

• The United Kingdom and Brazil are tied for third place as the largest countries on LinkedIn. Brazil just hit 10 members. India is second place while the United States is number one Tweet This Stat!

• LinkedIn is expecting to reach 5 billion professional searches in 2012 Tweet This Stat!

• There are over 1 million groups on LinkedIn. These groups contain between 2 and 250,000 members Tweet This Stat!

• The mobile version of LinkedIn is it’s fastest growing service Tweet This Stat!

• The LinkedIn mobile app had 12 options in 2011 and approximately 1 million users. In 2012, LinkedIn cut the number of options down to 4 and they saw an increase in the number of users from 10% to 23% Tweet This Stat!

• There are over 28 people searched on the mobile app per second Tweet This Stat!

• Over 75,000 developers are using LinkedIn’s API’s in their own products and services Tweet This Stat!

• LinkedIn gets over 2 billion network updates viewed weekly Tweet This Stat!

• There are over 175 thousand new LinkedIn profiles created every day Tweet This Stat!

• There was 3 billion searches on LinkedIn as of September, 2012 Tweet This Stat!

• Over 25 million LinkedIn profiles are viewed every day Tweet This Stat!

• There are over 2 million LinkedIn Company Pages on LinkedIn Tweet This Stat!

• Over 1 million publishers have implemented the LinkedIn share button on their sites Tweet This Stat!

• Recently, 150 thought leaders were requested to create articles for LinkedIn on various topics. These individuals consisted of 1 Nobel Prize Winner, members with over 2 million followers, 1 McArthur Genius, 29 New York Times best seller book authors, all from 11 countries Tweet This Stat!

• There are over 10 million endorsements provided on LinkedIn everyday Tweet This Stat!

• The new LinkedIn homepage has been rolled out to over 175 million users Tweet This Stat!

• There has been over 200% more social interactions since the LinkedIn homepage was redesigned Tweet This Stat!

I hope you’ve enjoyed the above 20 facts relating to LinkedIn in 2012. Do you have any other interesting tidbits about LinkedIn? Please feel free to share them in the comments section below.

If not, take a close look right now. A poorly designed mobile website is more detrimental than not having a website at all. Going mobile should be one of your top priorities as there has been a huge surge in web traffic (103% to be exact) to leading ecommerce websites over the past year. If you sell your products and services through an e-commerce section on your website, this post is a must-read for you!

Everything You Need to Know About Mobile Websites

1. There has been a 103% increase in mobile web traffic to leading eCommerce websites.

2. The iPhone and the Android are the most popular smartphones used to make online purchases. This is important information as each type can have different type of website displays. It’s important for you to test out your website on both devices.

3. Smartphone users engage in many shopping activities including making purchases (of course), sharing product photos, searching for store locations, recommending items, research and checking Yelp listings. The most popular activity is sharing product photos which stands at 37%. Searching for stores is tied with product research at 35%. These statistics remind us about the importance of mobile websites.

4. The average purchase made via smartphone is $97.00

5. U.S. consumers spend an average of 1 in every 10 e-Commerce dollars via a mobile device.

6. The most popular mobile marketing tactic in use is creating a mobile friendly website. This is followed by mobile apps, mobile versions of email, mobile messaging campaigns and location based targeting.

7. 1 in 3 mobile device users share their location. This is important to know if you are interested in location based marketing.

The above information about mobile websites reinforces the importance of having a mobile optimized website. Mobile marketing isn’t a fad or trend to be ignored. Take some time to do a mobile audit and view your website from a variety of different smartphones. It takes time but it’s worth the investment! Remember to track your website traffic and conversion rate after you enable your mobile website – you’ll be impressed!

How is your business taking advantage of this boom in mobile e-commerce spending? Have you noticed a big jump in website traffic from iPhones and Androids? Let us know in the comments below.

• Is your website engaging?
• Does your website turn customers away?
• Do you know which website features need to be updated to increase your conversion rate?

A conversion can be defined as the specific action you want your web visitor to take to take when visiting your website. This action may be making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, downloading a white paper or registering for an event.

Here are three keys for conversion optimization success:

1. It’s imperative that you choose the right tools for conversion optimization. There are literally thousands on the market and they have very distinct methodologies for testing different aspects of your website. Tools can range in price from free to quite expensive.

2. Think like your customer. Is it easy for them to purchase your product? Sign up for your newsletter? Download your whitepaper? Have you set realistic goals when it comes to how quickly these actions can be performed?

3. Take a look at your current CRM data and target individuals accordingly. Perhaps you can set up different optimizations for different customer groups (customer tenure, likelihood to refer to your site, value, etc.)

Website conversion optimization is an integral part of your digital marketing strategy that most businesses ignore. A proper conversion strategy will result in higher revenue and a more optimized budget. Conversion optimization is an ongoing process that needs to be evaluated on a periodic basis. It’s easily testable, and you’ll also be able to track your return on investment (ROI).

Overall, conversion optimization success depends on a number of factors. Three of these factors include choosing the right tools, thinking like your customer and using the CRM data that you already have. Don’t skimp on your conversion optimization as it’s an investment is sure to pay off.

Here are 12 eCommerce best practices you need for a solid digital marketing strategy:

1. When a customer creates an online profile on your website to purchase your products or services, allow them to use their email address instead of a creating a username. It’s easier to remember and always unique.
2. Use breadcrumbs on your website to help customers know where they are in your online store. Amazaon.com uses this process so you know it’s good.
3. Ensure that your contact information is always available and easy to see. This way as soon as a customer has s question or concern, he or she can get in touch right away.
4. Add a visible search field that is accessible from each page of your website, especially your ecommerce section. Your customers need to find the products and services they are looking for. Make it easy for them.
5. Add a recommended items and related products feature to the eCommerce section of your website. This practice can lead to more sales as customers see related products and services.
6. Make sure you have calls to action strategically placed on your website. These can include promotions, deals, campaigns, etc. A well designed graphic with a call to action can go a long way when it comes to increasing sales on your eCommerce site.
7. Consider adding relevant security badge images to your website. Some people still consider online shopping as a dangerous practice and well placed badges will ease the mind of a worried shopper. This is a great way to build trust on your eCommerce site.
8. Break up the ordering process into smaller bite sized pieces. Online purchases can be a long-winded process. Creating smaller steps that allow the customer to see where they are in the process helps.
9. Did you know that the majority of customers that abandon purchases do so during the order process? One way to help prevent this is to add copy to each order page that answers potential questions and builds credibility.
10. Make sure that the cart and its contents are visible at all times. Customers like to feel in control of their purchases and this practice helps.
11. Another eCommerce best practice is to show all fees in the shopping carts. We all hate hidden fees so be as transparent as possible at all times.
12. It’s imperative that customers see a confirmation page before confirming their order. This allows them to review their purchase and make changes as necessary. Make sure this page allows people to easily make edits and re-calculate their total cost.

We all know that happy customers turn into repeat customers. Creating a user friendly eCommerce site will help keep your customers happy and coming back for more. Because each business is unique, eCommerce sections should be tailor made to best meet their needs and objectives.

Here at SHIFT Digital, we specialize in developing custom made eCommerce sites for all types of businesses. If you’re interested in having us take a look at your current site or want to develop a brand new one, contact us and we’ll be in touch within 48 hours.

All of this writing has got me thinking about how I’ve sucked at blogging. Do you find that when you’re busy writing client and business related content, your personal blogging efforts suffer? I love to write my own, somewhat quirky, content and miss doing so tremendously. Writing is therapeutic to me and it’s one of my favorite things to do. So, i”ve made a personal goal to write at least one post per week on the Shift | DIGITAL blog. Please hunt me down if I’m not here next week okay?

Here’s 3 Ways to Not Suck at Personal Blogging:

1. This tip comes from one of my favorite people, the extremely smart Lindsay Bell-Warner. I was wining to her on Facebook about not being in the mood to write content, sort of like a depressed, uninspired artist. She responded, ” Yeah, but sometimes you have to *force* yourself to be in the mood – then once you start writing it starts happening, you know?” Lindsay is 100%right, Tonight I forced myself to sit down at my computer and write. I minimized everything else on my screen, and made sure my kids were in bed, and the words starting flowing. On a side note, If you don’t follow Lindsay online, start now. You can find her on Twitter at @belllindsay.

2. Create a simple editorial calendar for your personal blog. I advise all of my clients to keep an editorial calendar to maintain a consistent blogging schedule. Your editorial calendar should include a realistic frequency of posting. For example, if you’re new to the blogging realm, start off with once per week. Once you get used to that, build from there. Keep this schedule and don’t schedule other tasks during your designated writing time.

3. I love it when I’m in the mood for writing. The words flow and blog posts practically jump from my fingertips. If you find yourself in a mood like this, write as many blog posts as you can so you have a few in the queue. This way, when you have days where you can’t find the time to write, you won’t be up the creek. Having this backlog of posts will keep your blogging routine consistent and your readers will thank you. This sort of goes against point #2 but stuff happens!

All in all, maintaining your personal blogging is very important to meeting your business objectives. Your blog is where potential clients get to know the “real” you. It’s also where they do their due diligence. Give them lots of fresh content by maintaining a blogging schedule. You’ll be thanking me later!