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Tag: Facebook

  • 5 Sure Ways to Get More Facebook Shares

    5 Sure Ways to Get More Facebook Shares

    More investors are reaping the perks of using social media as a marketing platform. You must do this right if you want to be part of the business individuals who use social media sites like Facebook to their advantage.

    Social sharing is one of the proven ways of driving more traffic to your business. This means that if you are relying on the medium to market your business, you must create top-notch quality that will impress readers to a point where they will want to share it with their friends, relatives, and other networks.

    When your visitors share content with others, more people will get to know about your entity. You will also benefit from more links leading to your website.

    This will typically result in you enjoying top Google position as you will gather more ongoing traffic from the post. If this is not happening already, here are five tried and tested methods that you can use to improve social sharing.

    1. Often post updates when your audience is online

    It is important to post fresh content when your audience is online, so that they do not miss anything you have to say. Posting after every hour may not give you desired results as your readers may deem this as excessive.

    Try and find the right time to post on a daily basis to give your readers something to distract or entertain themselves.

    Go through your data to identify the best time to post. Easily access this on the Facebook Page Insights on the post tab to know when your fans are mostly online.

    This data can help you make educated guesses on the best posting time. It is advisable to experiment with different times both non-peak and peak hours to find out what works best for your brand.

    2. Track progress

    Find out the number of shares Facebook from service providers who specialize in tracking Facebook shares.

    This is the best way to track progress, especially when you are not in a position to stay online at all times. The results will let you know how you performed in the sector.

    Keeping tabs on the shares is important because you will get to know the content that you should be posting and the ones to ignore.

    3. Come up with posts specifically for Facebook

    Content that might work well for Twitter or Instagram may not necessarily work for Facebook. For instance, GIFS are perfect for Twitter and hashtags incredible for Instagram, but both do not perform well when used on Facebook.

    Make sure you create appealing content that will bring in the results you want on Facebook, if you want other people to spend their time sharing it with others.

    4. Include eye-catching videos and images

    Adding videos and images to your content can help to get the attention it deserves on Facebook. This, however, does not mean that you should go out and pick any images or videos available.

    Try not to include typical pictures. Instead, go for the eye-catching ones that are bound to evoke emotions from viewers. Try and make your audience think, cry, or laugh.

    Use a great combination of filters and colours to make your images stand out to increase chances of them going viral. Maintain an excellent thumbnail when using videos to draw attention, so as to achieve the maximum engagement.

    5. Ensure social sharing works on mobile

    Many businesses tend to ignore this fact, something that can hurt their business in a huge way. Note that more traffic nowadays comes from mobile devices.

    For this reason, you must make sure that your social sharing icons work perfectly across various mobile devices.

    Numerous options are available when you want to make this possible. An example is installing plugins that will include share buttons on your pages.

    Test this first before installing to make sure it works in the right manner.

    Running a business website or blog today is no easy fete. You must find the right ways to market your products, if you want to stay in business for a long time.

    Facebook shares are one of the ways to keep you at the top. Make sure you are constantly producing shareable content on Facebook, so that you can work with effective social media campaigns.

  • Facebook hacked? 5 Easy Ways to Save Your Account

    Facebook hacked? 5 Easy Ways to Save Your Account

    Love it or hate it, chances are that you own a Facebook account – either by being dragged into it by friends, family or employers, 9 out of 10 people hold an account. I was one those who were badgered into creating an account by a close friend of mine, around 8 years ago.

    At first I really didn’t want it or know what to do with it. Then I realized that they had games…that was enough for me to become hooked, and I started to access my account every day, then several times a day, and now every 20 minutes or so, I am on for one reason or another.

    Adding friends is easy, and soon I went from one single friend to 200. Finding out that not all people using social media have your best interests at heart, is somewhat…depressing.

    Finding out the hard way is devastating! Having your Facebook hacked is something that I never thought would happen to me. After all, I am not a person of interest; I am just an average Joe, who works a 9-5, who enjoys video games and seeing friends and family on the weekend.

    I didn’t think that I would ever attract the wrong kind of interest, but hey, love and crime is blind, so they say. I am not a particularly technical person, I know a thing or two about protecting my PC and mobile devices, but these guys don’t play games, they are in it for the win and if you are not fully aware of your security options and countermeasures, you could be in for a nasty surprise.

    Facebook hacked? No problem… No really, don’t panic!

    Well of course you will panic, because darn it you probably went and spilled your entire life’s story between messages and post updates. I know of people who store their credit cards in messenger, can you imagine the level of trust they have with the internet?

    The truth is, if you are online, then you are open to an attack. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are, if you are unlucky enough to be targeted then there’s a chance that you will have your personal information and maybe even financial information liberated from you and placed in the hands of ruthless scammers.

    They won’t hesitate to drain you of every penny you own, and with the dedication even create some new debt under your name.

    Ok so I panicked, what can I do?

    Having your Facebook hacked is no joke. To make sure that you aren’t the victim of some pug-nosed spotty oink that has nothing better to do than to steal from the moderately poor, you can follow the below steps!

    1. Alert Facebook: You’ve had your Facebook hacked so get straight to telling them about it. The quicker you move, the less chance you have of losing your account. Once you regain control do not fall short from the power of the mighty password. You should always make a unique and jumbled up password that is longer than 8 characters. Use a mix of numbers within letters and do NOT save it on your mobile devices.
    2. Up your game: Choosing a good security app is vital to your mobile devices security. Always have security apps installed in every device and refrain from using public PCs or connecting to free WIFI unless its secure. Scan all of your devices to detect any bugs or viruses that could be hidden.
    3. Call your bank: if you suspect that hackers have gotten a hold of your banking information, inform your bank and have new credit cards issued. Place a ban on opening new loans, credit cards or overdrafts, unless you visit in person.
    4. Tell your friends You should post a message for your friends to see, incase that whatever infected your account, has gotten to them. If you had your Facebook hacked, chances are they have received a message from “you” asking them to click a link. Warn them so the virus doesn’t spread!
    5. Don’t Panic: There is nothing better than a clear head to handle a bad situation. If you are cautious and do not have personal or financial information spread out over social media or even stored on your mobile devices, then you should be OK. Just remember to report it, gain control of your account and begin to excise some damage control.
  • Build Your Brand By Advertising With Pubsio, Google, And Facebook

    Build Your Brand By Advertising With Pubsio, Google, And Facebook

    The secret to business success online is not building a better mousetrap. It’s getting more people to recognize that you’ve done it.

    Using the Pareto 80/20 principle as an illustration, 80% of your success is about using advertising and promotion to build your brand while only 20% is based on creating a superior product.

    Unfortunately, advertising is a two-edged sword. If done right, it can help you carve out a name for yourself. If done wrong, it can cripple your business, seducing you into spending more money than you make.

    Avoid these 2 Common Mistakes

    New business owners often make two mistakes. They prefer free traffic over paid traffic, and they prefer traditional advertising over newer forms of advertising.

    3 Problems with Free Traffic

    It may appear sensible to use free sources like blogging, social media, and forum marketing to get noticed online. After all, since you’re not spending any money, you can’t lose money.

    However, when you look a little deeper into it, this is not a practical way to scale up a business fast. This is because using free traffic generation methods fails for three primary reasons.

    One, these methods are huge time hogs. You have almost no time left in the business day to do anything else.

    Two, these methods take a long time to work. In the meanwhile, your business is earning little to no revenue.

    Three, they force you to work in your business rather than on it. Since you’re spending most of your time on getting traffic, you have no time for business innovation, improving conversions, and increasing customer satisfaction.

    The Problem with Traditional Advertising

    People like traditional advertising methods because they appear to have stood the test of time. However, this is a logical fallacy because advertising is subject to the laws of “psychological entropy.” The longer a form of advertising is used, the less effective it becomes.

    You do yourself a disservice, for example, when you use inexpensive and inefficient advertising like banner advertising and print advertising.

    Banner ads work less efficiently than before. Over time, many people have developed an aversion to even looking at them. Seasoned marketers refer to this as “ad blindness.” Today, other advertising media works much better.

    Print advertising is still effective for brick-and-mortar businesses, but most readers rarely bother to copy a web address they see in a print ad into their computers.

    Where to Advertise

    You can get inexpensive, highly-effective advertising to build your brand and attract traffic by using sources like Pubsio, Google Adwords, and Facebook Ads.

    How to Use Pubsio

    Pubsio offers an advertiser in-site specific display and in-text advertising. As an advertiser, you have the power to leverage advanced optimization technology through total control of your own account. The account management software allows you to make key decisions to drive ad performance. You can access it at any time, get support when you need it, and get comprehensive reports to analyze your income stream in real time.

    You have full control of the many different elements of your campaign. For instance, you can control how often ads are served.

    How to Use Google Adwords

    The mechanics of how to set up your ads are explained by Google, and much useful advice can be gleaned from Google’s blog called Inside Adwords.

    However, a profitable strategy is up to you.

    One excellent strategy is to start with a small budget.

    Using the right keywords and the most relevant ads can limit your budget to $10 or $20 a day.

    If you are spending more than this amount to get results, then you need to research your keywords again or figure out how to make your ads more relevant. Tweak long-term keywords to find those that are customer-focused and industry-specific. The right keywords will give you the highest click through rate and conversions.

    Once you get results with a small budget, scale up your campaign with a larger budget.

    How to Use Facebook Ads

    Facebook ads provide focused consumers. To get the most value for your budget, target specific demographics and reach out to them with relevant ads. Targeting reduces wasting money on consumers who click out of curiosity with no intention of buying.

    Again, you only need a small budget to test out the efficacy of your campaign. A budget from $10 to $20 per day budget is more than enough.

    Quicksprout suggests that you use Facebook ads as a way to build relationships: “Once you have driven all of these fans to your page, it’s equally as important to continue to engage with them. While it may be nice to gain some quick sales with a few advertisements, many sales cycles require more relationship building.”

    Paid Advertising Can Be Free

    Although free advertising costs time and labor, paid advertising can free up time, labor, and dollar costs.

    Although this sounds like a paradox, there is a simple logic to how you can make your paid advertising free.

    First, study the science behind each of these three platforms before you spend a dime.

    Then, only spend a small amount to test the system.

    Finally, when you have reached a point where you earn much more than you spend, then your advertising is free. Advertising can be considered free if it pays for itself and leaves you with much more money than before.

  • Impact of Facebook News Feed Changes and Like on the Online Profile of Your Business

    Impact of Facebook News Feed Changes and Like on the Online Profile of Your Business

    We already know that Facebook is making several considerable changes to the design of news feed. This particular change or development will not only affect one billion online users, but it will impact online advertisers who use the platform to promote their products and services.

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  • How to Stay Safe With Social Networks

    How to Stay Safe With Social Networks

    If you own a business – online or offline – or just enjoy creating a website or blog, then chances are you will inevitably be involved in one or more social networks. Social networks have taken off tremendously in the past 8 years or so, and it seems most people seem to have used social network in one form or another. Today, networks such as Facebook and Twitter, have become an important part of reporting events and daily lives more than any form of news.

    Of course, as with many things in life, social networks are not immune to risks. Unfortunately, many people have had malicious things happen to them, their friends, or their family because of social networks. While social networks can be tremendous resources, it is important to understand what you can do to stay safe while using online social networks.

    Securing Your Social Network

    If you bank or perform financial transactions online, then you know how important security can be. When it comes to social networks, you should approach those sites in a similar manner. Whether it is a bank or social network, both types of sites contain your personal information that you don’t want known to strangers.

    Here is a few tips to help keep you safe when using social networks:

    Create a strong login. While you may not be able to choose your user name, as some networks automatically may use your e-mail address, you can choose a strong password. Create a password that is long and strong. Ensure your password is at least 10 characters in length and contains letters (both upper and lower case), numbers, and punctuation and symbols. When it comes to passwords, the longer a password, the strong it is. You also don’t want to use the same password with other sites, so ensure that it is unique. If you have trouble remembering many passwords, you should look at using a password manager such as LastPass.

    Encrypt you connection. Most, if not all social networks, now provide an option to secure your connection using SSL. This encrypts any data that is exchanged between your computer and the social network. If the option is enabled by default, and it is available from the social network, you should enable it. Web browsers will display “https://” beside the URL of the social network, and also display a lock icon somewhere on the browser windows to indicate the connection is encyrpted.

    Be aware of phishing e-mails. Many times you may receive an e-mail reportedly from a social network, however, many times it could be criminals trying to get you to divulge your social network user ID and password. Such e-mails will usually contain a link to a malicious site that is disguised to look like the real social network site. If you receive such e-mails that you are unsure about, then you should manually open your browser window and log into the social network directly. From there you should then check for messages from the site.

    Be wary of link scams. While e-mails are a major way for criminals to obtain information, they may also post malicious links on social networking sites. Such links will usually take you to a site that infects your computer with malware. You may even receive suspicious links from a friend after their account has been compromised. If you are unsure, or suspicious of a link from a friend, you should call them up and ask them about the link.

    Be aware of what apps you have installed. When you add or install an app through a social network, be aware that the quality control process may not be enough to prevent malicious apps from appearing on social networks. Many apps require specific access to your account, so you should understand what permissions you are providing to each app, and what happens after the app is installed. Ensure you only install apps that are well-known and trusted, and only if you need to install the app.

    While we all like to use social networks for different reasons, it is important to take the necessary steps to keep yourself, your friends, and your family protected. Social networks can be a very useful tool for a variety of reasons, but you must also be aware of the malicious activity that can occur if you are not careful.

  • Smartphones Manufacturers Continue to Innovate in 2013

    Smartphones Manufacturers Continue to Innovate in 2013

    This is gearing up to be an interesting year in smartphone innovation, with the releases of Samsung’s Galaxy 4 and Facebook’s Home. Many are eagerly awaiting the new Google X and Apple’s first cheap iPhone.

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  • Facebook Screams to Zero-Day Java Exploit: Is Your Account Compromised?

    Facebook Screams to Zero-Day Java Exploit: Is Your Account Compromised?

    Facebook recently discovered a zero-day java attack roaming the internet which it happened to be one of the targets. According to Facebook officials, this attack was discovered on victimized computers belonging to Facebook engineers. The zero-day java attack was designed to download and installed a collection of unseen malware programs in victimized computers but was deciphered when a suspicious domain was found in Facebook’s Domain Name Server request log.

    The perpetrators of this attack injected the code on the HTML of popular Mobile Developer web forum which tends to victimize any visitor that has java enabled on their browser.

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  • Spicing Up Your Social Media

    Spicing Up Your Social Media

    Social Media has become a tried and tested method of promotion for your website and with every algorithm tweak and change that Google and the other search engines are doing social media is becoming more and more important. Google indexes links that come from Twitter and other social media sites (though it is still in talks with Facebook over its user content) and as links are phased out and smart semantic web associations between terms (generally referred to as co-ocurrence) become the norm these social media mentions are only going to become more important. Facebook’s latest announcement, Graph Search just made social networking even more important than ever.

    Up until recently you could rely on backlinks to get your site higher in the SERP classification as any Search Agency professional would tell you. But if people do not search for your site through conventional search engines but rather stay within their social network and try to get a customised result from within their social network the whole point of Search Engine Optimisation is moot. Of course not everybody will use Facebook’s Graph feature and, indeed, not everybody has Facebook so there will still be a great market for SEO, even if links will likely keep dwindling in importance.

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