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How To Create An Effective SlideShare Presentation And Make It Popular

October 8, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

SlideShare one of the most underrated social networks for getting more visitors and subscribers. I was inspired by successful Kindle author Steve Scott who mentioned how he was able to get over 1,000 extra subscribers from SlideShare in just three months. After hearing that, I decided to do some searching. Besides, wouldn’t you want an extra 1,000 subscribers?

That’s why I gave SlideShare a try, and since then, I have been amazed at its potential. These were the three things that amazed me the most:

#1: The number of followers you have is not as important on SlideShare.

You do not need to have 1,000 SlideShare followers to get 1,000 extra visitors from your SlideShare presentations. SlideShare presentations are shared all over the web on different social networks and get embedded on blogs.

Just to give you an idea, Mashable gets more traffic from SlideShare (a little under 10,000 followers and 32 total presentations) than from Google Plus (over 3 million followers and 10 daily posts) and YouTube (over 130,000 subscribers and 2,300 videos). All of the numbers are true. There is also a SlideShare expert who gets more traffic with 100 SlideShare followers than 4,000 people on Twitter and Facebook combined!

#2: The average blog visitor from SlideShare will stay longer than the average blog visitor from somewhere else.

This means the people who see your SlideShare presentations stick around longer. Although that is definitely long enough to read through some of your articles, it may also be long enough for someone to enter their email and subscribe to your blog.

#3: SlideShare is popular and only growing.

SlideShare has a global Alexa rank under 150, and it shows no signs of plummeting. Big organizations and people such as The White House and Guy Kawasaki are using the social network. I came aboard when I heard about SlideShare’s great potential for marketers, and I expect other marketers to come on board too.

Here’s How You Create Effective SlideShare Presentations That Become Popular

Now that you know why SlideShare is a powerful social network for getting more traffic and subscribers, it is important to create an effective SlideShare presentation that gets a massive amount of traffic.

The quality of your SlideShare is one of the decisive factors that determines how far it spreads. There is marketing involved with any product, but you can’t be polishing junk either. In order to create a quality SlideShare presentation, it needs to have these four components:

More pictures. SlideShare is ideal for sharing pictures, but you want to make sure you have permission to use your pictures. PhotoPin and Pixabay are two free picture services with a variety of options available.
Better looking pictures. The look of your pictures and the overall design of your presentation have a big impact on how far people go in the presentation as well as how many people share it.
Call to action. Make sure you have a link that allows the people viewing your SlideShare presentation to visit your blog and/or subscribe to it.
Compelling topic to your target audience. That means you are not using SlideShare to show everyone what you ate last night. For me, that means using SlideShare to offer digital marketing advice.
In Conclusion

Now, before you start abandoning all of the other social networks for SlideShare, there are a few important things to note. The first thing is that you need to bring in some views to your SlideShare so it can become more popular. This is where the audience you have already built on your social networks and blog is very valuable. After you SlideShare gets enough views, it will be promoted in SlideShare’s different sections, and that extra exposure will also get Google’s attention.Effective SlideShares spread on the web. Chances are you have seen one of them well before you saw mine about getting more Twitter followers. Some people have gotten hundreds of thousands of views on their blog just from SlideShare. What are your thoughts on SlideShare? Have you used it in the past? Please share your thoughts below.

5 Social Media Tips For Success

October 6, 2014 by Marc Guberti 10 Comments

There are billions of people using social media to interact with their friends, grow a big audience, see what celebrities are up to, make connections, or for various other reasons. If you are one of the people who wants to grow a big social media audience and make connections, here are five tips that will help you out with that.

#1: Be on multiple social networks.

The more social networks you have, the more places people can find you. Out of all of the social networks, Twitter brings in the most traffic, but Pinterest also brings in numerous visitors on a daily basis. Some people have interviewed me because they found me on Pinterest.

When you are utilizing numerous social networks, it is also important to focus most of your time on one of those social networks. If you master one social network, you will be able to grow a large audience on that social network. After you master one social network, you should then aspire to master another social network that you are using.

The great thing about taking this approach is that each time you master a social network and know how to grow a big audience on them, it gets easier to repeat the process on the other social networks. Some of the knowledge needed to get 100,000 Facebook likes is identical to the knowledge needed to get 100,000 Pinterest followers.

Being on multiple social networks gives you an advantage, but it is important to focus most of your time on one social network: your most successful one.

#2: Post more often throughout the day

One of the things that so many people forget about is that there are different time zones for different places in the world. That means some people will be awake at different times than you. Here is a typical scenario of why this knowledge is important.

Let’s say you live in Florida, and it’s five o’clock in the morning. You may be wondering who could possibly be looking at your social media posts at that time. Here are the people who could be looking at your social media posts:

People in the United Kingdom. At the same time it is 5 am in Florida, it is 9 am in the United Kingdom.
People in Germany. At the same time it is 5 am in Florida, it is 10:05 am in Germany.
People in Japan. At the same time it is 5 am in Florida, it is 6 pm in Japan.

I can go on, but this is enough information for me to make my point. Posting more content throughout the day will give more people a chance to see your content regardless of their timezone. When you put your content in front of a large amount of people, your content can spread farther.

#3: Post specific content

One of the most important things to do on social media is to post specific content. Posting specific content will make it easier for people to know what you specialize in. If you talk about a plethora of unrelated topics, your audience will be confused. Your message and what you talk about needs to be as clear as possible to your audience.

I am known for posting content related to digital marketing, productivity, and motivation. All three of these topics are connected because you need motivation to be productive, and you need to be productive in order to be a good digital marketer. Then, you need to know about digital marketing so you can optimize your presence on the web.

Many people who want to learn more about digital marketing also want to learn about productivity, motivation, or both. That way, the content you post on your social networks is the same content that your audience is looking for. If you send out some social media posts about baseball, other social media posts about fashion, and a few other social media posts about food, you are going to confuse your followers. Posting specific content eliminates this problem and allows people to know what niche you are in.

#4: Include pictures in your posts

Some social networks such as Instagram and Pinterest require a picture in every post. There are other social networks such as Twitter and Facebook that do not require pictures. The only problem is that because it’s not a requirement, many people miss out on adding pictures to their social media posts.

Posts with pictures get more engagement than posts without pictures. The most retweeted tweet of all-time has a picture, and that’s not a coincidence. If you look at the tweets I send out without pictures compared to the tweets with pictures, you will see an incredible difference. Some of my pictures with tweets have been retweeted over 100 times. Most of my tweets without pictures get 1-5 retweets (I only get this many retweets per tweet because of my tweeting frequency. It all adds up though). Pictures have the power to boost the engagement for any post on any social network.

#5: Be consistent

You need to post at a consistent and frequent basis. Posting less times than expected will result in fewer people seeing your content and following you. In addition, when you are implementing your social media strategy, you need to implement it consistently.

There are many people who learn about a new social media strategy that works wonders for other people, give that strategy a try, and then never go back to that strategy again. The reason is that the people who became successful by implementing a certain strategy became successful by implementing that strategy over a long period of time.

Let’s say your goal is to get 10,000 Twitter followers, and you encounter a strategy that results in 100 Twitter followers every day. You can implement it in one day and get another 100 Twitter followers, but you need to implement the same strategy for 99 more days in order to get 10,000 Twitter followers. If you implement the strategy on one day and then forget about it for the rest of the week, the strategy will not have a big impact on your presence.

In Conclusion

Social media success is something that takes time, but it is not nearly as hard as many experts say. It is possible for anyone to be successful on any social network, and these five tips will be very helpful in your quest to dominate social media.

Which tip was your favorite? Do you have a 6th tip for social media success? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

6 Ways To Make Your Tweets Shorter

October 3, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

If you are just like the masses, there have been some days when you thought you were going to send out a tweet but realized it was over 140 characters. Although there are over 500 million tweets being sent out every day, Twitter’s 140 character limitation has resulted in millions of tweets never being sent.

The reason why many of these tweets are not sent out is because shortening tweets is something that proves to be too daunting without the right knowledge. Even if your tweet is 140 characters, you should definitely make your tweets shorter. On average, tweets with 70-100 characters get more retweets than any other tweets of any other character length. That means making your tweets shorter is very important, and here are six ways to get it done.

Use a link shortener. I have seen many people using TinyUrl to shorten their links, and I used to use TinyUrl as well. While they get the job done of shortening the link, there are better options available. Bitly is by far the best link shortener because it saves all of the links you shortened so you can easily tweet the same link, and you get statistics that show you how many times your links got clicked and when they got clicked.
Use text message language. When you are running out of characters or have too many characters, use text messaging language. You becomes “U,” before comes “B4,” and the word and becomes “&.” You will be able to save numerous characters this way, but only use text message language if it’s the only way to get under 140 characters. Do not use text message language just to get to the 70-100 character range.
Drop the punctuation. No one on Twitter is going to accuse you of bad Grammar if you forget the comma in 1,000 or forget the period at the end of the sentence. This may sound like a silly way to save up on characters, but when you have a tweet that is 142 characters, this method is a very useful way to get under 140 characters.
Look for shorter synonyms. It is entirely possible that the reason your tweet is over 140 characters is because you are using big words. If your tweet is 143 characters, and one of the words in your tweet is “awesome,” you can replace the word “awesome” with “cool” to bring the tweet down to 140 characters. All you have to do at that point is send it out.
One sentence rule. You should have a one sentence rule for a majority of your tweets in which you only write one sentence. Granted, there will be some instances when you will have to write more than one sentence for a tweet, but by practicing this rule, you will catch yourself going above 140 characters less often.
Tweet an image with the words. If you find no way to shorten your tweets, put the words in an image and tweet that out in typical meme style. This allows you to send out a tweet with well over 140 characters (in the picture) without worrying about Twitter’s limitation.

Twitter’s 140 character limit is a way to make it easy for people to read a variety of posts. It is easier to read 100 tweets than it is to read 100 Facebook posts that are 500 characters each. One of the unintended consequences of Twitter’s limitations is that some users are prevented from sending out tweets. These five methods to shorten your tweets are designed to reduce the amount of times that problem occurs.

What were your thoughts on the list? Do you have a 7th way to reduce the amount of characters in a tweet? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

5 Tips For Using LinkedIn For Your Business

October 1, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Although LinkedIn is commonly used as a way for someone to find a good job in their area, it has many benefits for businesses as well. There are many businesses that use LinkedIn to get customers and appear on big media outlets. One person I know used LinkedIn to get written about in Forbes. If your business is not on LinkedIn now, you need to get on, and if you are on LinkedIn but don’t know what to do, here are five tips that you can implement so your business does better on LinkedIn.

#1: Build connections with the right people

Although there are many millions of LinkedIn users, there are only two types of connections that are the right ones to have. The first type of connection is a connection with a targeted person. Targeted people are the type of people who would be interested in your business’ message right when they connect with you, and these people could also become customers. If you write books about social media, and the person you connect with wants to learn more about social media, that person will be attracted to your books.

Some businesses, brick-and-mortars in particular, should make sure most of the people they connect with live nearby. If you are have a brick-and-mortar store in California, most of the people you connect with should be from California who would want to buy the products in your store. The great thing about LinkedIn it that you can find and connect with people based on their country, state/province, and city. That means if you are the brick-and-mortar store in California or anywhere else in the world, it is easy to find the connections who live nearby.

If you want to see how likely someone would buy one of your products, take a look at that person’s bio, posts, and some of the people who that person talks to. If you can conclude that the person has an interest in products or businesses similar to yours, these people may be open to your business and buying products from you.

The second person to build a connection with is the person who would give you a business opportunity. If you want to be a public speaker, connect with the people who have hosted public speaking events before.

#2: Interact with those connections

Just because someone connects with you does not mean that person is going to immediately buy your products. That’s because you need to establish a certain level of trust that entices this person to buy your products. Creating a friendship between you and this connection is essential towards building that trust.

It is a universal fact that we like to do things for someone else if we have a great conversation and develop some type of friendship. You are more likely to buy a product from your best friend than someone who you do not know. You want to interact with those connections so you are able to develop friendships.

Regardless of whether you have a few dozen or a few thousand connections, you should make it a point to interact with as many of your connections as possible. Some of these people may buy your products because they enjoy having conversations with you while others will present you with new opportunities. You never know how these friendships will pay off later in your journey.

#3: Promote your blog and products

LinkedIn is a great place to promote your blog and products. LinkedIn allows you to include links to your blog and products in your bio and leave descriptions for them both. Promoting your blog and products gives your connections a place to go after the conversation develops.

The ideal strategy is to promote your blog above all of your products. Then, make sure your blog is optimized to get email addresses and sales. The people who visit your blog long enough may decide to go back to your LinkedIn profile and see what products you have. The more enticing your description is, the more likely someone will be to buy one of your products.

#4: Create a LinkedIn Group

A LinkedIn group is a place where like-minded people are able to talk about a common niche. Like-minded people may buy products from you, and many of them will be great people to interact with. You will be able to learn more about your niche and empower others at the same time!

One of the perks to creating your own LinkedIn Groups is that you are able to make announcements which get sent to everyone’s inboxes. This could be a way for you to tell people about a discount for a product or promote the launch of another product.

However, with great power comes great responsibility. You want all of these like-minded people to stay in your group. That means constantly telling people about your products will make your group seem more like a way for you to do a big sales pitch than anything else. You should only send 1-2 announcements each month that promote one of your products and have other announcements that do not promote your products.

#5: Post status updates often

Let people know what you are doing next so you are able to build buzz for what you are doing. How is your next product going? Do you have any discounts your customers should know about? Did you recently write a blog post and want to share it with everyone? Posting status updates may also spark email conversations which are the best kinds of conversations to have to get more sales and subscribers.

When you post status updates, keep it related to your niche. LinkedIn is a very business savvy social network compared to the others which means most of the people who go on your LinkedIn account will want to learn more things about the niche you are in. Instead of telling people what you ate for breakfast this morning or going off-subject, constantly talk about your niche so your connections know what to expect when they view your LinkedIn posts.

In Conclusion

LinkedIn is a powerful social network that has a variety of possibilities. Using LinkedIn for your business has the potential to boost sales and bring more traffic to your blog. What are your thoughts on using LinkedIn for your business? Do you have any other methods that you use LinkedIn for? Please share your thoughts below.

20 Awesome Twitter Statistics That You Need To Know

September 30, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

There are a wide variety of statistics that people are using to make decisions for their brands. Some bloggers look at their traffic statistics to determine what to do next while Twitter users look at their individual statistics on TwitterCounter. Another group of statistics that are at times overlooked are the statistics on entire social networks such as Twitter. Here are the statistics you need to know:

23% of Twitter accounts are in the United States.
Twitter users are three times as likely to follow a brand as Facebook users are.
42% of users learn about products and services via Twitter.
19% of users seek customer support on Twitter.
78% of Twitter users are active on mobile.
49% of Twitter users have an iPod.
Over 500 million tweets are sent out every day.
There are 271 million monthly active users on Twitter.
There are over 100 million users who are active on Twitter daily.
The average user spends 170 minutes on Twitter every month.
29% of millennials (ages 15-34) use Twitter.
29% of Twitter users check the social network multiple times every day.
There are approximately 20 million fake Twitter users
50% of Twitter users are male and 50% of Twitter users are female.
11% of Americans tweet every month.
In Q2 2014, Twitter timelines got 173 billion views.
81% of millennials on Twitter check the social network daily.
50% of UK users have tried a new restaurant based on Twitter recommendations.
The average number of tweets per Twitter user is 307.
There is also a cool website that allows you to see how many tweets are sent out in real time. You can get to this website here.

Those are the 20 Twitter statistics that you can use to make decisions for your business and identify how your target audience uses Twitter. What were your thoughts on the statistics? Did one of these statistics catch your eye? Do you have another Twitter statistic that you know of? Please share your thoughts and statistics below.