How To Start Winning The Social Media Game

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Start Winning with Social Media

With the glut of social media networks available for us to choose from, how can we decide where to focus our efforts? 

Take two or three networks at a time so that you don't get overwhelmed. That way you can monitor your progress to see where your traffic is coming from. Let me help you start to narrow down or hone in on which social network you're going to get started with. 

First, here is a list of the 5 major networks you need to consider:

• Twitter
• Google+
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest

Next, use the process of elimination to remove two or three based on your own personal likes and dislikes - or perhaps you're pretty sure your niche will or won't do well on.

For example, my daughter Nikki has a fashion blog called Chic Renegade, so in her case, she doesn't try to force her content to fit over on LinkedIn where most of her blog posts aren't appropriate for the demographic of users. However, Nikki also has a Marketing business where she does custom WordPress set-ups and event promotion and curation. This one is called Lidyr Creative Marketing Agency. This type of site is a perfect fit for LinkedIn. 

Should You Start With Google+ or Facebook?  

Here's my recommendation - if you don't have an established network on Facebook already, at this time, I would not suggest you get started with Facebook. The exception to this is if you are ready or able to invest in hiring a professional Facebook strategist to manage your promotion, don't go it alone. Keep up with your family and friends as you have done in the past but there is just too much noise over there and the only way to make an impact with your content is through strategically placed advertising. 

I would focus on Google+ instead. Find a good, spam free, community on Google+ and plant your flag over there. You are going to get more bang for your buck and more visibility in search on Google + than can can on Facebook at the moment.

What about Pinterest?

Pinterest is not just for women! Check out the Manly Pinterest Tips Show hosted by Jeff Sieh and featuring:

• Wade Harman (Wade interviewed me in a previous episode of this podcast)
• Mike Allton
• Les Dossey
• Stephan Hovnanian

So don't limit yourself as far as Pinterest is concerned. You might be surprised to learn that Pinterest is now branding itself as a search engine in it's own right. And speaking of search, you'll also find that Pinterest boards and profiles rank high in Google search. 

I use the example of my podcasting board on Pinterest. If you search Google for "Podcasting on Pinterest", the board is currently in the top spot - and it has been for weeks. :)

I also share how I made some great connections working at my day job in niche industries like Additive Manufacturing (aka 3D printing), Transportation, and Medical Devices just to name a few. 

Rules of Engagement

Regardless of which social networks you decide to master, be sure to have profiles established on each one of the sites I listed above. If you want to take things a bit further, use a site like Know.em to claim your profile names across multiple networks. That way when someone searches for your name, you'll dominate the search results.

You might think this tip goes without saying, but I'm going to say it anyway - don't be a spammer! Don't just share your own content. Share more of other people's content and you'll find as time goes by, that other people end up reciprocating and sharing your content as well. 

Here are five communities you can join to find great content to share and the other members will give you a head start with winning the social media game:

• Triberr (watch my tutorial here and here)
• Viral Content Buzz
• Blog Engage 
• Social Buzz Club affiliate link
• BizSugar

Next episode, we'll take a closer look at a few of these and explore additional tools and resources like TailWindApp and Pinwoot, to help you save time and cross the finish line a lot sooner. 

iTunes Reviews

There are a few reviews of the podcast in iTunes and I'd love to share them with you. 

Hopefully you will be inspired to leave a rating or review for this podcast over in iTunes or Stitcher. 

How To Use Images and Titles To Connect With Your Audience More Effectively

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FIND NEW EPISODES HERE: http://ileanesmith.com/podcast

Using Good Images Helps You Connect With Your Blog's Readers

The effective use of images can evoke an emotional response from your audience. With the right image you can tug at the heart strings of people visiting your blog. Images can also make your blog posts more memorable and leave a lasting impression that compels people to interact with you and share your content. Keep in mind that before you embed those high quality images in our blog posts you need to have the rites and permissions to do so. That's why it gives me great pleasure to announce that:

Today's Sponsor for the Show is Depositphotos

Visit the homepage of Pinterest and as you scroll down the page you will be taken on a roller coaster ride of emotional highs and lows. You can go through a range of emotions that span from mouth watering hunger to the warm and fuzzy comfort of cute puppies or small children.

Facebook is another site that is very image focused. Posting great photos on Facebook is a strategy often recommended by top marketers as a means to increase your EdgeRank on Facebook. Google search is another area where images are vital. Especially now that the profile images of those who have claimed their Google Authorship, makes their listing on the SERP's stand out and more clickable.

Viral Content Buzz adds Pinterest

Viral Content Buzz is a social sharing service from +Ann Smarty and +Gerald Weber that will make it easier for you to promote your blog posts, but they have also included a Pinterest sharing component to the site now.

Take part in the Grand Viral Marketing Contest at Viral Content Buzz, by joining the site and submitting your article and images to be shared within the community.  [Contest ends July 12th 2013]

Tools for Taking Screenshots

Since I create a lot of tutorials and instructional material I often use screenshots to illustrate my point. There are two Chrome extensions that I recommend using:

• Awesome Screenshot Extension for Chrome
• LightShot Extension for Google Chrome Tutorial

I also like to take screenshots when I'm not on the internet and I need to demonstrate offline tasks and activity and for that I use Screencast-o-matic. It allows us to add annotations and draw arrows if we need to point something out.

Enhancing Images with PicMonkey

PicMonkey is an online image editing service that integrates very nicely with Google Drive (watch the tutorial below for complete instructions). You can do basic editing, for example you can crop, resize, recolor, rotate, etc. But you can also use PicMonkey to enhance your photos with borders, special effects, overlays, text and so much more. 

Take a look at the image that I used for this post. I got a "phun" stock photo from Depositphotos and used PicMonkey to add a drop shadow, a border, a picture frame and the colored text caption beneath the image. You can have a lot of fun with PicMonkey so be sure to watch the video for some additional tips and tricks.

Podcasters are increasingly making use of blogs and I'd like to encourage those of you who are podcasting to make good use of imagery as well. Recently got a chance to chat with +Daniel J. Lewis from The Audacity to Podcast and we talked about how important it is for podcasters to have a blog. You can listen to that interview here: The Audacity to Podcast Episode 129

Blog Post Titles Take The Connection a Step Further

During that interview with Daniel, I was really pleased that he mentioned the effectiveness of the blog post titles that I use on Basic Blog Tips. The fact that he mentioned the titles meant a lot to me because I put a great deal of effort into crafting those titles so that they are attractive. Good post titles are another way that we can get an emotional reaction from our audience and grab their attention.

One example that I refer to here is a post I did on Basic Blog Tips. Be sure to listen in and pay close attention to how I combined imagery and the post title to make a lasting impact on my blog's visitors and commenters.

Other links and resources mentioned in this episode:

Shout out to Justin Germino from DragonBlogger for a cool introduction

Viral Content Buzz
Follow me on Pinterest
+Cynthia Sanchez from Oh So Pinteresting
Udemy
+Daniel J. Lewis
The Audacity to Podcast Episode 129
Google+ Comments
+Chris Lang
If You Wait for Perfection You Might Miss the Boat!


Watch this tutorial for enhancing images: PicMonkey Tutorial With Google Drive Integration

What's your experience with using images? Do you think using great images and titles makes your audience return to your blog faithfully?