20 TWITTER PROMOTION INDEAS FOR YOUR BUSINESS

20 TWITTER PROMOTION INDEAS FOR YOUR BUSINESS

New Tool Helps Politicians Advertise on Facebook

New Tool Helps Politicians Advertise on Facebook

New Tool Helps Politicians Advertise on Facebook

Have you ever come across political advertisements on Facebook? There’s a real science behind those ads, and a new service is aiming to help politicians understand and use that science to better connect with people.

Socialitical, a project of Targeted Social, is a social media company designed to help politicians reach potential voters on Facebook.

Corey Gottlieb, the company’s managing partner, says Socialitical’s goal is to become a “one-stop shop for campaigns and PACs.” The company has two of the six 2012 presidential candidates already on-board. But it’s not just gunning for the big clients – it wants state and local politicians to sign on, too. And the company strives to make the process of buying ads easier for all politicians.

Socialitical provides three types of services to politicians. First are “creative services,” which involve standard social media optimization (SMO). Next are “core services,” where Socialitical’s employees get more involved. They fully manage a candidate’s Facebook presence and handle all creative writing, while providing insights (easily shared with campaign staff) into every ad campaign’s performance. Finally, there’s “social listening,” which offers monitoring of social media “buzz.”

Using the information that Facebook users provide about themselves, (including city, ZIP code, level of education, age, gender and marital status) Socialitical can very precisely target specific demographics of users. That makes a lot of sense – you wouldn’t speak to a 65-year-old AARP member the same way you’d speak to a 20-year-old college student, so you shouldn’t advertise to them the same way, either. That data can also be used to target people in key battleground states, which are crucial to national political campaigns.

Socialitical’s approach is heavily video-centric. Users who click on a client’s ad are taken to a custom tab on a politician’s page where a video plays, so users who click ads are instantly interacting with a page. A politician’s page could also leave a cookie in a user’s browser, helping Socialitical to target campaigns to certain demographics outside of the Facebook platform — the “holy grail” of Facebook ads, Gottlieb says.

Every advertisement designed by Socialitical gets pre-approved by a politician’s campaign. Information about prior campaigns are archived to help Socialitical’s staff learn about what worked and what didn’t, improving their product in the long run. Socialitical delivers important metrics, like click-through rates and cost-per-like, in easily readable and sharable formats. A sort of “success speedometer” and other charts show an advertising campaign’s success in comparison to its previously agreed-upon goal.

All this makes Facebook a unique and powerful platform for politicians looking to reach out to voters.

For the majority of his career, Gottlieb was in the television sales industry. He says that, given his TV experience, he’s “blown away” by the metrics that Facebook can deliver and the precision with which different groups of people can be targeted.

What’s nextfor Socialitical? Gottlieb says the 2012 elections are just about to heat up, and he expects to be hearing from plenty of politicians at the state and local levels as they gear up for November.

What do you think about political advertisements on Facebook? Let us know in the comments below.

Role of Micro blogging Sites in Branding and Marketing a Company.

We are living in a world of technology where each and every day there is enhancement and an addition in the available technology. These technologies have helped us promote and market our websites effectively and in less time.

Social Micro blogging

We have moved to 21^st century where whole world is a village, we like to keep in touch with our dear ones and this liking has made Micro-blogging sites an important part of our world. Today micro-blogging websites like Twitter and Tumblr have created a space in our day-to-day life. Micro-blogging site are thus the best medium for brand promotion and marketing oneself, as over here people are continuously active and like to experiment new and seek creative ideas and advertisements.

Social media Networking is now one of the fastest growing advertisement and marketing industry. Companies now believe in having a place for their company profile in these micro-blogging sites and thus create Pages and Groups for continuous update and in order to be in touch with their audience.

Performing these activities, like regular update modification of content in these micro-blogging sites and advertising them is a time consuming job if done by fresher or one who does not know the exact place and timing where and when to post the advertisement and update the profile and content related to the company.

This is where Companies like Creative-Edge comes; Creative-Edge as the name states is a company where Digital marketing and Digital Branding of companies is done in a new and creative way.

Creative-Edge performs these activities in the best possible way, as it itself has created its place in these micro-blogging sites so it can understand the use and technicalities of these Social micro blogging site, optimizing them according to their use and desire of the company for whom they are working.

Creative Edge has a team of 15 members employed to look after these Social media networking, facebook marketing and Digital media planning. It is not that it is only expert in these platforms of marketing but apart from these it is best in Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization and such technical services related to marketing and branding of a company or individual.

Source: http://www.creative-edge.in/

Moving From Physical Banners to Digital Banners

With constantly improving and technically growing world, India is also racing head, India has moved on to Digital Banner advertisement from Physical Banner advertisement. Physical banner advertisement includes banner advertisements like Hoardings, News paper banner advertisements, Magazine banner advertisement, while Digital banner includes Banner space on websites, blogs, matrimony sites and portals of different kind, in short it is a space which is devoted for marketing and promotion purpose.

Sample of Digital Banner

Today demand of digital media planning is increasing day by day, and companies of all sort is looking for professional and experienced Digital branding companies. In India there are many digital branding companies and at least one is established every fortnight. Digital media planning consists of many different forms, it has videos, photos and contents involved in it but it is always digital banner which attracts the attention of the majority of the audience. Even bulk SMS and Email services do not help one grab majority of audience as compared to web banners.

Contents and videos are very less observed compared to banners. If digital banners are well planned and executed, then we can find them on majority of website and at the time we open a website we will come across one or many banners, helping the company grab attention of majority of audience resulting to their marketing and promotion.

In all there are still many ways in which one can grab an attention of audience but they are either very time consuming like Search Engine Optimization of websites or are very expensive. But above all it is branding which matters, many companies spend fortunes after their branding but it is not certain that all of them are successful and achieves positive result. To make the fortunes of expenses of such companies after their brand promotion into their investment Digital media planning companies like Creative-Edge came to action.

Creative-Edge is among very few such companies which not only helps the companies guide their right way to brand promotion but also on the same side helps them by giving them just and affordable budget for the project, saving their huge amount of money.

Source: http://www.creative-edge.in/

4 Things to Know When Planning a Social Media Contest

Social media has revolutionized the way companies run sweepstakes, contests and promotions. Specifically, social tools have made it easy to accomplish things that weren’t possible a few years ago. Maybe too easy.

Some companies forget that social media promotions are subject to various laws, special requirements and unique risks. Let’s review four of the most important considerations before your company takes on a social media promotion.

1. Know Your Terminology

People often use the words “sweepstakes” and “contest” interchangeably, but the words refer to two different things. In general, a sweepstakes refers to a promotion in which prizes are awarded based on chance, whereas a contest awards prizes based on skill. However, don’t assume that a promotion is skill-based just because it doesn’t include a random drawing. Different regions and states have different definitions of what constitutes a skill, so it’s not always easy to determine which side yours falls on.

Why does it matter? Sweepstakes and contests are subject to different sets of laws. The first step toward ensuring that you comply with the laws is determining exactly which ones apply.

2. Know the Laws

Most importantly, you can’t require people to make a purchase or payment in order to enter a sweepstakes. In most cases, you can create a method of entry that involves paying money, as long as you also provide a free method of entry option. Ensure that both methods are treated equally, and that you clearly disclose the free option. Be careful — if you get this wrong, you could be in violation of criminal law.

You have more flexibility to require a purchase in a skills contest, but it’s not easy. Remember that states define skill differently, so a promotion that qualifies as skill-based in one state may not qualify as skill-based in another. Moreover, some states prohibit purchase requirements altogether, even if winners were selected based on skill. If you intend to have a purchase requirement, you will have to exclude these states.

Most states require companies to make certain disclosures about their promotions. It’s tempting to simply copy what another company has done recently, but it’s dangerous to assume that another brand got it right, or that its disclosures apply to your plans. In addition to the disclosure requirements, keep in mind that some states may require companies to register, and even to post a bond, before they can launch certain promotions.

There’s a lot to consider before you even begin to research other laws that involve promotions, privacy, intellectual property, tax, etc. If you’re not an expert in this area, work with someone who is.

3. Know the Platform Rules

Some social media companies restrict the types of promotions you perform on their platforms. For example, the Facebook Promotions Guidelines state that a user can’t award someone a contest entry simply for liking a page. Instead, users and brands must run promotions via apps on a Canvas Page or Page Tab. Facebook also requires companies to make various disclosures, and prohibits brands from notifying winners through Facebook. Check the guidelines for the complete requirements.

Google+ has taken a different approach to promotions. The Google+ Pages Contest and Promotion Policies state, “You may not run contests, sweepstakes, offers, coupons or other such promotions…directly on your Google+ Page.” In other words, you can run a promotion on another site and include a link to it on your Google+ Page, but that’s about it.

Twitter has guidelines too, but most are designed to prevent spamming. For example, Twitter asks that companies discourage people from creating multiple accounts, and from posting the same tweet repeatedly. For example, a brand that awarded a user who tweeted the same message the most times would likely be in violation.

Violating platform guidelines can get you kicked off the platform, so make sure you know these rules.

4. Know the Risks

Most of the social media promotions recently gone wrong have not failed due to broken laws or platform rules. Rather, companies failed to account for risks inherent to the social media space. Social media is interactive, but remember that the more control you turn over to consumers, the less you’ll have.

Public voting produces some of the biggest problems. If you allow the public to determine a winner, you’ll almost certainly have to watch for cheating. In some cases, cheating can be so extensive that it will derail your promotion. Indeed, some companies have spent countless hours trying to plug holes, respond to complaints and regain control of their promotions. It’s fine to allow consumers some input, but don’t give them complete control.

Cheating isn’t the worst that can happen — lawsuits pose a big threat. For example, Quiznos ran a contest that asked people to create videos showing why their subs were better than Subway’s. Then Subway sued Quiznos over some of the entries. Be careful what you ask customers to submit; if you encourage them to provide problematic content, you may not be able to distance yourself from that content later on.

Before you launch a promotion, spend some time thinking about possible setbacks, and take steps to plug potential holes before consumers exploit them. A little work up front can save you a lot of time, aggravation and legal fees later.

Resource: www.mashable.com

SEO Penalty by Google – BLOOP - "Backlink Over Optimization Penalty"

Some SEO experts believe that building too many links within a short span of time and which is based on a similar anchor text can caused the website to be red flagged by Google since it may give the impression that the those links have been acquired abnormally by using automated scripts or link building software.
This may result in the Google BLOOP or the “Backlink Over Optimization Penalty”. It is caused by the some inexperienced and so called expert over optimizing the website.  The over optimization may result in Google penalizing the website and its rankings as it frowns on such illegal activities.

Some of these activities which may cause a red flag include:

1. Building too many links in a very short time which may be categorized as excessive link building by Google. Google frowns on artificially pushing the website rankings and aggressive link campaign may cause more harm than good. Let’s say a site has been getting 10 to 15 links in a day and all of a sudden it rises to 1000 links. This will look unnatural and is not recommended.
2. If you are using similar anchor text in all of the links, then it may cause a penalty as well. This gives the impression of spam and is not recommended.
3. If you are using the same IP or related IP addresses for the SEO campaign, then Google will catch it and penalize the site.

Google likes natural SEO and some of the penalties that may arise due to BLOOP are:

1. The 30 penalty – This affects the whole domain
2. The 950 penalty – This affects only some URLS and only some particular keywords.
3. Index Exclusion or Complete ban – If the website has violated the quality guidelines and is using black hat techniques’ in the campaign, then a complete ban may be enforced by Google. Google stops indexing the website and it is excluded from  the search engine result pages

How Do You Avoid the Penalties?
You should take care of these things to avoid the penalties:

1. Try building links naturally without any blips. Content and natural linking is the key.
2. Avoid keyword stuffing in the page title, description, alt tags and in the page content.
3. Don’t use links farms and shady linking practices.
4. Never use cloaking and doorway pages.

The key focus for your website should be the user and not the search engine and the strategy should be geared towards that goal.