Social Media

Social Media Is Not For Making Money

August 3, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

You can try to make money on social media, but that’s not how it works. When people look for the extra dollar to put in their pocket, they give social media advertising a try. They use Sponsored Tweets, MyLikes, or something similar. Have you used any of those advertising options? Whether you have used them or not, chances are you have heard of them. I used to be just like anyone else and use these advertising services, and there was a point when I even recommended them.

However, social media is for building connections and getting people to visit your blog. It’s on your blog where you make the money, and social media is used to get more people to visit your blog. If you tweet an ad, you are losing out on a blog visitor who may have bought one of your products.

The next time you hear about Ad.ly links, sponsored posts, or anything like that, refrain from using those types of content in your social media strategy. A social media strategy that is going to bring in long-term revenue instead of the short-term revenue from advertisements is one that brings people to a blog with products available.

What are your thoughts on social media advertising? Please share your thoughts below.

Are You Guilty Of These Five Twitter Mistakes?

August 1, 2014 by Marc Guberti 14 Comments

Twitter is growing, and its growth shows no signs of stopping. Even as it Twitter continues to grow, mistakes are still being made at a regular basis. Some of these mistakes make you look like a newbie while others hinder your growth and make you look like a robot. Out of all of the mistakes people make on Twitter, there are five mistakes that show up the most.

Not engaging with your followers. You need to engage with your followers to build strong connections. Your audience gets to know you better if you interact with them. If you do not engage with your followers, then some people will think you are a robot. Here are some ways to engage with your followers.
Not having a good avatar. If your bio picture is not a picture of you or your company’s logo, then you do not have a good avatar. Your avatar is how people see you on Twitter, so make that avatar something that people would be happy to see. If you are looking for an avatar, just take a good selfie of yourself with your phone and use that for your avatar.
Tweeting too much. Many people send out 10 tweets within 1 minute. That is too many tweets to send out in a short amount of time, and some people will get irritated to see the same person on their timeline 10 times in a row. That may result in some people in your audience unfollowing you.
Not tweeting enough. I always got confused when the blogger contradicted himself/herself, but this contradiction makes sense. People hear that tweeting too much results in unfollows, but that kind of tweeting refers to sending out too many tweets at once. You can schedule tweets throughout the day so your followers read your tweets at a comfortable rate. I send out one tweet every 20 minutes. Ever since I made the move, I have gotten more engagement and followers.
Not sharing enough of you the right way. “The right way” is in Italics for a reason. Many people promote themselves just for the sake of promoting themselves. Readers want value and won’t click on a link just because it’s your blog post. Your content needs to be the type of valuable content that your targeted audience wants to read. In addition, if your content is valuable for your targeted audience, they will want more of your content. In this case, you can tweet links to your blog posts all day long, and your followers will be grateful for the value.

Twitter mistakes are made too often. If you are making these mistakes, then you need to get them fixed as soon as possible. Are you guilty of these mistakes?

I Heard That The Same Blogger Gets Boring After A While

July 30, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

I must be really boring then!

Here’s how I heard about this: I happened to be looking on the web for articles about blogging. I am always on the lookout for new nuggets of information about my niche. One of the articles I stumbled across mentioned that reading content written by the same blogger gets boring after a while. The article went on to explain why a blogger needs to get guest bloggers to write for them.

I disagree with that. And it’s not just because I am the only one who writes content for this blog.

A blog does not get boring just because the blog posts are being written by the same person every time. This blog has over 1,000 blog posts written by the same person (that would be me) and readers stick around anyway.

There is certain content that does get boring after a while. This is repetitive content in which a blogger writes about the same thing every week. It gets annoying to see something similar to what you read a week ago. Imagine reading a blog post called “10 Ways To Get More Twitter Followers” today and then later in the week reading a blog post called “11 Ways To Get More Twitter Followers” written by the same person with the same methods except one method got added. That is the typical boredom that readers to not appreciate.

If a blogger’s content is valuable and worth sharing, then people will stick around regardless of who is writing the blog posts. Everything on the Quick Sprout blog was written by Neil Patel, and that blog also happens to be one of the most popular blogs on the web.

In the beginning, people don’t care about the author. They only care about the author if they believe the author’s content was valuable and worth sharing. It is at this point when the reader cares about who the author is. Instead of wanting another author, the typical reader will look for more content written by the same person. If all of the blog posts on your blog are written by you, then your readers won’t have to search all over the web for you. They are already at your home on the web–your blog.

If your blog is all you, readers will only be able to read your content. That means when a reader likes one of your blog posts and reads others as well, that reader starts to like you. The reader likes what you offer to the masses with no price tag attached. The more free content your readers go through on your blog, the better the chances are that the reader buys one of your products.

If the content never gets boring, then the blogger never gets boring. Chances are this is not the only blog you will visit today. Chances are you will read other blog posts on the web with different perspectives on different (or possibly similar) topics. If you build a powerful presence on your own blog by being the person who writes the content every time, then you will grow a strong reputation for providing valuable content. Having the kind of reputation is what encourages people to spread your content and buy your products.

Anyway, you must be really bored right now since this blog post was written by the same person…AGAIN.

The Five Worst Social Media Tips You Will Ever Hear

July 25, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

In the big, complex world of social media, there are now thousands of social media experts. Some social media experts are very popular while others are finding their way. With thousands of people sharing advice on the same topic, there will be perspectives and methods that contradict each other. As a result, some people hear poor advice and end up implementing the wrong methods, or they implement the right methods in the wrong way.

This results in frustration because people are not getting the results they expected to get. Instead of having to guess whether certain methods are good or bad, I am going to provide for you a list of five of the worst social media tips you will ever hear. By knowing the mistakes now, you won’t make them later.

Only be on one social network. If you are only on one social network, then you are not able to utilize the advantages of the other social networks. 80% of pins on Pinterest are repins which means you can take advantage of how easy it is to spread on Pinterest. You can use Twitter to take advantage of concise conversations that allow you to build stronger connections with your followers every day. Then there’s YouTube which allow you to take the advantage of being able to upload your own videos. Relying on one social network to grow your social media audience is no longer an option. You can have your best social network (for me, that would be Twitter), but do not just rely on one social network.
Be omnipresent on all of the social networks. I plead guilty to using this tip. Omnipresent means being active on every social network including Kik, Yelp, and all of the other ones. Instead, that should be rephrased to be omnipresent on all of the big players. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, and GooglePlus are some of the big players.
Don’t post too much. I used to reluctantly tweet every hour because I thought people would not like that I post too much. I thought I was going to get more unfollows and see my follower count spiral downward. However, after trying it out, I ended up gaining followers. On Twitter, I now tweet once every 20 minutes. Not only do I get more followers, but I also get more engagement.
Respond to everyone. No matter how valuable your content is or how remarkable your story is, you will get two kinds of people: the haters and the spammers. Some people will be jealous of your success and be quick to shoot you down. These people will say things like “Your blog post was the worst thing I have ever read!” In addition, spammers are very common on any social network. Here is the typical example of a spammer on Twitter, “CLICK here to learn how I gain 550 FOLLOWERS every day,” and most people who tweet that have well under 1,000 followers. There is no reason to respond to these people because you will not be able to build the type of conversation with these people that evolves into a strong connection and potential sales.
Do not follow many people. People do not know about you unless they hear about you. Clicking the follow button and following other people is a way for them to hear about you. If you want to be one of those people with 1 million followers who is only following a few of your best friends, the chances of that happening are unlikely. I’m not saying it’s impossible (some people have already done this), but you need to be famous in order to get that kind of attention without having to follow a lot of people. There was a point when I was following 12 people and had 1,667 followers. The problem with that was I did not get past 1,700 followers for about three months. Think about that. It took me 3 months to get 33 new followers. That’s horrible, and that primarily happens because I did not follow anyone within that span of time.

Now that you know the five worst social media tips, you know what you need to avoid. I did not make all five of these mistakes simultaneously, but I have made them all throughout my career. Identifying these mistakes allowed me to go on a better path and get better results for the time I put into social media. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional mistakes that you would like to mention? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

Why Facebook Is Still Worth It

July 22, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

It seems like every other month there is another article about a mass exodus on Facebook. Every time these articles make the news, more businesses question the significance and importance of having their own Facebook Page or being active on the Facebook Page these businesses already have. This is the point when everyone seems to ask if Facebook is still worth it. Is growing an audience on a “social network in decline” still worth the effort?

I was one of the many people who asked myself this question. I created a Facebook Page a long time ago and had not updated it for months. When I decided to go back and start updating that Facebook Page, another article came out saying how Facebook is losing people. I wondered if what I was doing wouldn’t be worth it, but then I came to a realization.

Social media is going to stick around for a very long time. That means Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, Instagram, Vine, SnapChat, LinkedIn, YouTube, and all of the other ones are going to be with us for a very long time. Social media is where people get to easily interact with one another. Local stories such as #BatKid become international inspirations. Social media changed Egyptian politics. Social media allows us to stay updated about what our favorite celebrities are doing. Social media has changed the world and is not going to go away anytime soon.

Now let’s go back to Facebook. It is a social network, but unlike social media in general, losing an individual social network is not going to be extremely catastrophic. If Instagram goes down, you’ll know it when you see #InstagramDown on the list of trending topics. People just move on from one social network to the other.

It is important to realize that even though there are articles that mention Facebook losing millions of users, Facebook is still the second most popular website on the web. With the occasional jump to the #1 spot, Facebook has not lost its strong grip of popularity and influence in the world. Facebook users are also more engaged and stay on Facebook longer than most social media users.

Facebook is still the largest, most popular social network on the web and is therefore still worth it. Create that Facebook Page in peace knowing that it can end up thriving later on. Continue to post on Facebook knowing that there will be people to like your content. The time you invest in Facebook can lead to more blog traffic, sales, and connections.

5 Useful Methods To Get More Repins On Pinterest

July 21, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Pinterest has a distinct advantage that none of the other social networks have. Its users share a higher percentage of content than other social media users. Out of all of the tweets on Twitter, only 1% of those tweets are retweets. On Pinterest, there is a much different picture. 80% of all of the pins on Pinterest are repins. That means the chances of your content spreading on Pinterest are very high.

Spreading on Pinterest requires you to generate a small push. After you get the small push, other users will hear about you and see your pin. That results in more repins and your content spreading farther on Pinterest. However, many people struggle to get the small push needed to go viral on Pinterest. Few people have pins that have received over 100 repins let alone 10 repins. I am one of the lucky few who has been able to get one of my pins repinned over 100 times. You may want to get your next pin repinned 100 times or at least get to the 10 repin milestone, and here are five useful methods that will help you with that.

Make your boards specific. A pin on a specific board is seen by a target audience who likes that specific topic. The people in this audience would be very likely to repin your pins on that specific board because it is about a topic they already like.
Pin motivational quotes. Pinstamatic is great for pinning motivational quotes. Most of my repins that got over 100 repins happen to be motivational quotes.
Pin about a variety of topics. On Pinterest, it is okay to extend out of your business. In fact, it is recommended. Pinning about a variety of topics attracts a larger audience of people who will want to repin your pins.
Follow other people. Some of these people will follow you back, and this method has the potential to bring in hundreds of new followers every day. In addition, these people will be more likely to engage with you and share your content since they know you are following them.
Repin other people’s content. If you repin someone else’s content, that person may decide to return the favor by sharing your pins on their account. If you repin 100 people’s pins, and those 100 people returned the favor by repinning one of your pins, then that’s an extra 100 repins that you may have never gotten.

Getting your content to spread on Pinterest will allow you to grow your audience and get more traffic. What are your thoughts on these methods? Do you have any additional methods about getting more repins that you would like to share? Please share your thoughts and advice below.