social media

Your Online Security Guide to Protecting Your Online Presence

April 18 in Blog by marketing morgan | Comments Off

When was the last time you Googled yourself? You may find that Google knows more about you than you know about yourself!

A recent study from Javelin Strategy and Research showed that more than 12 million people in the United States were victims of identity fraud.

Online security is an issue in today’s digital world. Despite privacy acts, you can never be too cautious. While you should always assume that everything you put on the internet is public, there are steps you can take to decrease the chances of being personally hacked.

Many online social sites like Facebook and LinkedIn ask for your birthday. It is ok to enter the month and date, but we suggest leaving out or hiding the year you were born. It is not because your “old,” but hackers have a far greater chance of successfully stealing your identity if they know your age.

Avoid clicking on suspicious links while you peruse social media sites, especially Twitter. Seventy percent of identity theft attacks stem from links that ask you to visit a scam website via a private message. Restrain and don’t click! No one is spreading nasty rumors about you, at least not on Twitter!

As social media experts, we see many profiles that have left their information, posts and photos public. By doing this, you are helping thieves easily access your personal information. Statistics show that 30 percent of Facebook profiles are not set to private and 14 percent do not know their Facebook privacy settings. With that said, inform yourself of your social site’s online privacy settings. It’s not fool proof, but it’s a good start to protect yourself from being hacked.

Create strong passwords. This seems silly, but many people use their pets’ and/or a child’s name. If the password requires a number, many people use the number “1.” Don’t do this! Create a strong password with a mixture of letters, numbers and special characters. Two out of five people use similar passwords for various accounts. Protect your social and financial accounts by being password savvy.

Tagged Facebook, Jacksonville, LinkedIn, online privacy, personal information, privacy acts, security, small business, social media

Google+ for Small Business

February 12 in Blog, News, Uncategorized by tweetingtony | Comments Off

Previously Google+ Brand Pages were working against a handicap. Businesses that gave them a shot quickly either abandoned their pages or closed them entirely. The problem was that companies had no way of reaching out to prospective customers. Unless you were the admin of a well-known brand such as Ford you were likely frustrated by the lack of engagement and quickly threw in the towel like many others. Since then Google has been working to improve their social network and it’s looking like they’re finally on the right track.

In December 2012, Google gave business pages the ability to engage with users even if users did not already have that business in their circles. For example, TMC can now comment on posts by users who may not have heard of +Thomas Marketing Consulting. This is something that Facebook business pages cannot even do. But, they didn’t stop there…

Hangouts on Air

Companies that offer seminars can take advantage of Hangouts on Air, letting invited viewers join in from across the world. They can fully interact, ask questions, and just about anything else short of shooting spit-balls. Have a new product to show-off? Hangouts on Air is perfect for hosting a Q&A Session. After the hangout is over, a live player of the hangout will be posted to your Google+ page and your YouTube channel for other to see. Unless you want to make it private, of course.

Communities
Communities are groups of like-minded people. If you’re a Photoshop fan, simply join the community and you’ll be greeted by a wealth of people sharing their own photos, personal experiences, and even a tip or two. Have something you really want to share? Invite your new found brethren to an event or hangout. Starting a Bacon parlor? Join a foodie community and spread the word of your delicious treats and bask in the constructive criticism of your peers. You could even start your own community. ‘Bacon Lovers of Jacksonville?’ Why not? I’d join! When you see content that’s relevant to your favorite community somewhere on the web, hit the +1 button and share it directly to your community.

Google Local
You may remember Google’s $125 million Zagat purchase and recent $23 million acquisition of Frommers. That was a strategic move to integrate local business reviews into its own ecosystem. That’s quite a bit of money for most, but to put it into perspective, Google wanted to pay a reported $6 billion to acquire Groupon to address the same market.

So, if you’ve once been put off by the lack of engagement on Google+, it’s time to dive back in. el gooG has an abundance of business tools (most are free of charge) and they’re all starting to run in parallel to a common goal.

Tagged Communities, Frommers, Google, Google Plus, Hangout, Jacksonville, news, Plus, SEO, small business, social media, Zagat

Planning your Social Media Strategy for 2013: The Blog

January 14 in Blog, News, Uncategorized by tweetingtony | Comments Off

If you’ve been to a TMC workshop lately, you’re aware that heavy rain is an ongoing theme and this was no exception. The heavy downpour of showers that started early that morning and pounded throughout most of the day caused the majority of the class to show up a little late. The TMC team was of no exception. social media strategy Planning your Social Media Strategy for 2013: The Blog

Social Growth of 2012
2012 was a huge year for social networks. Facebook especially, it hit 1 billion users. To put that into perspective, 1981 was 1 billion seconds ago (Source: http://tinyurl.com/SecondsAgo). That’s pretty impressive growth for a company launched in 2004. Until you look at the huge growth building over at Pinterest. At a meager 12 million users, Pinterest is growing faster than any stand-alone site… ever! Twitter has jumped to over 555 million users. With 1 billion tweets every 2.5 days it’s no wonder why Twitter is the best tool for interacting in real-time. Google+ has pushed its way to 170 million users and is the best platform for driving visibility. Keep in mind that it is a product of the search-giant, Google and has become heavily integrated into Google’s search functionality. LinkedIn has 150 million users and is the #1 platform for networking. It takes a bit of dedication, but is well worth your times and devotion. Then there’s the newest of the social platforms, Socl from Microsoft. It’s still in its infancy. Don’t run from it, but don’t run to it either.

Looking Toward 2013
“Will Facebook continue its reign atop the social hierarchy? Will businesses get better
returns on their social media investment? Will your CEO finally learn to tweet?” -Fast Company

-Nowadays over 50% of U.S. consumers have smartphones, making them all easy targets for video content. Not only will there be an increase of video being posted to the web, but there will also be an increase in commercial video being published by small and medium sized businesses.
-It may be back to the drawing board for Twitter. The average user spends only 21 minutes per month on Twitter, probably because of all the noise and clutter. I don’t foresee Twitter collapsing altogether, I just feel they’re in line for a thorough overhaul.
- SoMo (social mobile). As deeply integrated as smartphones have become into our day-to-day lives, it was only a matter of time before companies started to harness the power of tracking your daily routines. Companies like Google are now modeling their ads around the habits of the users. Find yourself at the beach a lot? Chances are you’ll soon find ads for sunscreen lurking at the top of your mapping app of choice. Less than excited about the excessive wait to get your oil changed? Foursquare’s new point system bases the rating of companies on the things we have to say when we check-in as opposed to the old “Check 1-5” method.

Workshop Follow-Up
Someone asked if Jessie had a preferred app for scanning business cards into her database and if there was an app that could be used in conjunction with LinkedIn. You may be surprised to know that Jessie takes an old-school approach with business cards. She’d rather collect the cards and add her own personal notes of the meeting, giving a more personal touch that she can later look back on. As for the app in question, CardMunch allows you to scan someone’s business card, view their LinkedIn information and see which contacts you may have in common. It’s a pretty neat little app from the people of LinkedIn.

In closing, I’ll leave you with the Top 5 Critical Mistakes in Social Media:
1.) Lack of Plan and Strategy.
2.) No Priority with Content.
3.) Automated Posting by Linking Social Media Accounts.
4.) Lack of Desire to Learn.
5.) Unrealistic Expectations.

Planning your Social Media Strategy for 2013: The Blog

Tagged 2012, 2013, cardmunch, class, Facebook, forum, foursquare, Google, Jacksonville, pinterest, seminar, social media, solomo, somo, strategy, workshop

Scheduling Status Updates for Facebook Business Pages in the Future

June 13 in Blog by marketing morgan | No Comments

Facebook’s newest feature is the ability to schedule status updates for the future without using a third party app. While it’s quite simple, the key is to avoid spelling and grammar mistakes because there is not an edit feature once you have clicked “Schedule”. Let’s take a look at how to schedule a Facebook post for tomorrow.

First, type in your status update or upload your photo/video like you normally would. Do NOT click “Post,” as this will automatically publish your update. Instead, click the little clock in the left hand corner.

Once you click the clock you will be prompted to enter the year, month, date and hour/minute that you would like your Facebook update to publish on. Now click “Schedule.”

You are done! To check your updates go to the top of your admin panel, click “edit page,” and scroll down to “User Activity.”

Here you can view your posts that you have scheduled out for the future. Remember, while you cannot edit the content of the post, you can edit the time you have scheduled it for!

Tagged 2011 social media statistics, digital marketing, Facebook, Facebook for business, grow your business online, marketing, power of social media marketing, social media, social media campaign, social media websites, social media-sharing

Five critical mistakes businesses make with social media

May 10 in Blog by leading lady | No Comments

When training many small to medium-sized businesses to effectively use social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, there are five critical mistakes that I come across consistently. There is no concrete answer on how to be successful in social media due because every business offers different products and services to different target audiences. However, there are best practices that companies should be aware of and work diligently to implement. Here are the top five mistakes that businesses make when leveraging social media.

1) There’s no plan or strategy. I have seen many businesses set up Facebook and Twitter accounts, and then let them sit dormant. A stale account will do nothing to help grow your business. In fact, it can harm your business. My suggestion is to create at least a six-month social media plan, and stick to it. Strategize with a local consultant, mentor or friend who specializes in social media, and remember to have fun with it. Social media is a way to show off your company and build lasting relationships with your customers.

2) Content is not prioritized. A business should always try to stick to the 80/20 rule. This rule states that content and messaging should be 80 percent informational and 20 percent promotional. Social media is a pull system, so stop pushing. Your customers do not want you to hound them every day to come into your store or buy your products. They want you to bring valuable information to them and prove you are a resource to them and a thought leader in your industry. You want to feed your fans and followers great content and create conversation on platforms that are relevant to your marketing plan. For example, do not set up an account on Pinterest just because everyone else is doing it. If the platform does not fit your model, excel in the platforms that do. Thanks to the Internet, there is a lot of great content at your disposal. Engagement is everything.

3) Automated posting by linking social media accounts. Linking Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts is a huge social media no-no. While it sounds contradictory because many social sites encourage it, you do not want to push the same message out across all sites simultaneously. Twitter enforces a message length requirement and encourages multiple tweets a day due to sheer volume of tweets. However, Facebook encourages a more in-depth message for less frequent posting. Each platform hosts a different audience in a different atmosphere. Speak with them appropriately.

Read the Full Article in the Jacksonville Business Journal

Tagged 2011 social media statistics, business journal, business workshop, digital marketing, Facebook, Facebook for business, Florida, grow your business online, instagram, Jacksonville, LinkedIn, LinkedIn Platform, linkedin strategies, modern marketing, pinterest, power of social media marketing, professional social media, social madness, social media, social media marketing, social media-sharing, traditional media, Twitter

Social Media Plans: Your Accountability Partner

April 19 in Blog by marketing morgan | No Comments

Social Media has taken over the digital marketing world and is casting a shadow over traditional media outlets. Businesses know they need to be on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, & Instagram, but many small to medium size business are unsure how to do it effectively.

Social Media plans are key to building your online brand presence. With a plan in place, you can begin to build brand awareness, improve customer service, drive traffic to your Web site, generate leads and strengthen relationships with your current consumer base.

The first step is accepting responsibility for the page. Committing head-on to social media is the toughest step, but you will be well on your way to engaging with your customers and strengthening your online presence. Once your company has a Facebook page or Twitter profile, it is important to post regularly with relevant content for your fans and followers. Each social platform must be monitored on a regular basis to ensure user activity is not being neglected.

A plan will help you to become a forward thinker, allow you to map out holidays, plan contests and will hold you accountable to post content as scheduled. The generator of this plan should always be seen as an accountability partner to make sure your company stays on track and your social media platforms are flourishing.

To learn more about social media plans and best practices available through Thomas Marketing Consulting – call 904-651-7976 or e-mail info@ThomasMarketingUSA.com for your complementary consultation.

Tagged 2011 social media statistics, business workshop, Facebook, Facebook for business, grow your business online, LinkedIn, social media, social media campaign, social media marketing, social media-sharing, Twitter

“Strategies for a Successful LinkedIn Experience” Workshop Registration Now Open

November 7 in Blog by leading lady | No Comments

How to Turn Connections into Clients

**Limited to 20 people**

Who should attend: Professionals who already have LinkedIn accounts and are looking to maximize their LinkedIn experience.

LinkedIn is “the world’s largest professional network on the Internet,” according to its website. For individuals, it’s a powerful networking tool to find colleagues and industry professionals. For businesses, it’s highly effective for recruiting talent and for marketing the company. LinkedIn profiles allow people to establish professional identities with their work experience, community involvement, education, and other pertinent information.

Are you getting the most out of your LinkedIn experience?

What you will learn:

The benefits of LinkedIn
The basics of utilizing LinkedIn
How to navigate the home page, profile, groups, answers effectively
How to complete your profile effectively
How to gain new connections
Coaching on how to position oneself as a “thought leader” and “resource”
Linkedin etiquette and best practices
The importance of having a strategic plan in place

$35 per person or
$60 for both Linkedin and Twitter workshops

Twitter for Business – Tuesday, December 13 (AM)

Tagged business workshop, Florida, Jacksonville, LinkedIn, LinkedIn for business, marketing, professional social media, social media, social media marketing