No Dislike Button For Facebook Thank Heavens!

chrisberkley.com

It's always an interesting challenge when a piece of social media news gains so much momentum that it actually sweeps the global news on almost all fronts. So it has been today as news has broken that Facebook are working on a 'Dislike Button'. The thing about this news is that it's being massively oversimplified and even taken out of context. In the broad strokes Mark Zuckerberg did say that they are indeed approaching the testing phase for a dislike button, but it's nowhere near that simple.

The news is drawn from a wider statement Zuckerberg gave in an answer to a question during public Q&A. You can watch his full answer in the video below, but to summarise, what Facebook are actually going to be testing is an option which allows users to register empathy with posts that might not necessarily be positive. Have you ever seen a Facebook post which you wanted to show solidarity with, but couldn't think of anything to say? Liking a post like that feels uncomfortable, as if you're supporting the bad news, rather than the person, this is what this new feature will account for.

Regardless of this, news outlets are all leading with 'Facebook are bringing in a dislike button'. It's pretty typical behaviour, and a lot of people are going to irritated when they find out that it's not what they thought. They deserve to be irritated, if you ask me, because the dislike button is and always will be a flawed, insipid concept which would be utterly unwelcome on Facebook.

One of the worst aspects of social media is the way that everything and anything seems to be laboured with a rating system. Everything anyone says on Reddit or YouTube or wherever gets either a positive or a negative score and the notion that you can't just talk, you need to talk for points is threatening to ruin social interaction and fan the flames of the troll inferno.

Imagine if Facebook added a down vote option, every elated post about passing a driving test or getting a new job would have its wings clipped by a storm of attention-craving dirt-bags hammering the dislike button like it's their job. Silent upvoting is already a nasty enough phenomenon in and of itself but adding a negative spin to it would just make things a thousand times worse.

How exactly will this 'sympathy button' actually work, though? I'm not certain that a button that just says 'sorry' or 'feels' will really be workable, it would probably be better to replace the liking system with something that's emblematic of support. I'm not sure how you would represent that visually, but I'm sure the Facebook crew have figured something out. Having one system which applies to all comments, updates, shares, images and everything else besides never made a whole lot of sense anyway.

The propensity to steer clear of a definitive rating system is one of the things I've always liked about Facebook. Social media shouldn't be another conduit for social hierarchy, no matter how hard people try to turn it into one. Things like cyber-bullying and trolling are always going to bubble to the surface on any platform but the people behind the platforms should at least take the responsibility not to unwittingly make it even easier. So ignore the headlines, but if you really want to spend all day disliking posts, stay on Reddit, or seek therapy.

http://www.socialsongbird.com/2015/09/facebook-isnt-getting-dislike-button.html

Affiliate Marketing - How To Shorten The Odds Of Netting An Amazon Sale

Amazon Associates

One of the popular ways to make money online is through Amazon Associates, which is Amazon's affiliate program. In order for you to make money with Amazon all you have to do is simply include links to Amazon products (that have your Associates ID in them) on your blogs, blog posts, websites, articles and social media posts. Then when a purchase is made through your Amazon link and that product is shipped to the customer you automatically earn a percentage of the product's retail price. 

You start off with 4% and then when you sell seven products in a given month your percentage increases to 6%.

The great thing about Amazon Associates is that people don't actually have to buy the products you feature for you to earn. As long as they get to Amazon through one of your Amazon links it doesn't matter what they buy; you will still make money.

So, how do you increase your chances of getting an Amazon sale? Keep on reading to find out.

How to Increase Your Chances of Getting an Amazon Sale

When you write a post or article your goal is to include more than one link to an Amazon product. Doing that will increase your chances of the customer actually getting to the Amazon website and hopefully making a purchase.

What you should do instead is pick some keywords that exist in your article or post and then search for products on Amazon that relate to each of those keywords. Once you find a relevant product for each keyword turn each keyword into a link that will direct people to that product. People reading your article will be interested to find out more and therefore be more likely to click on one of those Amazon links. That will bring them to Amazon and may end up resulting in an Amazon sale and some money in your pocket.

If your article or post is about a specific product you can still include more than one Amazon link. All you have to do is search for other products on Amazon that are similar to the one you are writing about. When you are done talking about the product mention a similar product or two and link each one to the corresponding Amazon page.

Another thing that you can do to create more Amazon links is turn your images into clickable images that will direct people to Amazon. If you can't make your images clickable what you can do is turn the caption for those images into Amazon links.

Some DON'Ts When Including Amazon Links in Posts or Articles

When you include Amazon links in your posts and articles here are some things you should refrain from doing.

Never include too many links. When you include too many links in your articles or posts you come off as being spammy and that is never a good thing both in the eyes of readers and in the eyes of search engines.

Do not include links to Amazon products that are not related to the content of what you are writing about. Doing that makes your article or post spammy and may hurt its search engine ranking.

Do not paste the actual Amazon link directly into your post or article. Amazon affiliate links are very long. Pasting them directly into your content not only makes it confusing to the reader but also makes the page look cluttered and unprofessional.

When you turn your images into links do not take people to Amazon products that are not displayed in the images. For example, if your image is of a specific book do not direct people to an Amazon product that is something entirely different or even a different book for that matter. That gives readers the impression that you are misleading them, which may result in them not returning to your content and will lose you potential Amazon sales.

http://lovebuglena.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Increase-Your-Chances-of-Getting-an-Amazon-Sale

How To Use Twitter as a Professional Networking Tool

Twitter is more than just a method to share your thoughts regarding any particular subject. It can be a powerful tool used to develop a vast professional network. As more than 300 million active users take to the site on a regular basis, there are a number of opportunities that could be waiting for you. By taking the time to learn what the system can offer, you can improve your reputation among many in a fairly short amount of time.

Here are five best practices on how to use Twitter as a professional networking tool.

1. Mention Others

When you mention someone in a Twitter post, that person will receive a message. This will not only get his or her attention, but it could also influence further conversations that those individuals may have with others. Should you have a comment or information regarding a specific topic that interests that individuals, they may respond directly to you improving your exposure.

However, don’t overuse mentions, especially if you’re trying to sell something. If a person didn’t respond to your mention after one or two mentions, it’s very likely that she won’t respond at all. If you keep on insisting, you’re likely to get blocked by that user.

2. Use Hashtags to Archive Conversations

Using hashtags can put your post among those that are involved within specific conversations. This is another good way to get the attention of others, which could possibly lead to boosting the number of followers you have. The more often you contribute something to conversations in this manner, the better are your chances of connecting with anyone else that sees your post.

Some best practices for using hashtags are:

Don’t #spam #your #followers #with #hashtags;

Use no more than two hashtags per tweet;

Keep hashtags relevant to the topic of your tweet.

3. Be Informative

Although Twitter is akin to a digital soapbox, you may want to refrain from being unprofessional. Leaving informative comments or sharing your knowledge can not only help others, but it improves your reputation. People such as Jason Hanold Chicago not only share information regarding their fields of professionalism, but they also include informative articles across the Internet by linking it within the text. Being helpful and insightful in this manner will contribute to your online success.

To save time finding relevant topics, leverage tools, such as the “Explore” tool from Klout to find recent and trending articles from key sources that you could share through your Twitter account.

4. Posts Images

According to Twitter Analytics, images receive a greater degree of interest. Posting images within your tweets related to your field may increase your exposure as others are able to favorite and retweet the message to their own followers.

A stud that analyzed the content of over 2 million tweets sent by thousands of users over the course of a month, showed that adding a photo URL to your tweet can boost retweets by an impressive 35%. 

Should you post something that could go viral, it’s conceivable that you could reach thousands of people in a very short amount of time.

5. Engage Those You Follow

While it may be unlikely that you’ll get the attention of celebrities you follow, you may be surprised when you comment on a post by one of the professionals in your list. Replies to any post will send a message to the person as a notification. He or she just might respond to you giving an opening to become acquainted with that individual.

If you’re a small business, take the time to reply to questions, comments, suggestions, or complains from potential and actual customers. If you’re present on Twitter, think of it as another channel for your to interact with your customers. Just like you would call back a customer that leaves you a voicemail or write back to a customer that send you a letter, you need to reply to those customers that contact you on Twitter.

Takeaway

Twitter can be an invaluable tool for a variety of reasons. From a professional standpoint, it’s a free service that gives you the potential to network with those that can help you in your career. Don’t underestimate how much can be accomplished inside 140 characters.

http://idaconcpts.com/2015/08/21/how-to-use-twitter-as-a-professional-networking-tool/

How To Rank YouTube Videos on the First Page of Google

I’ve been using videos to market our startup Process Street for the last few months and have been getting some great results with video bringing in a steady flow of views, leads and customers.

Now, you might already be aware that video is an important marketing tool in today’s online world — that’s why products like PowToon exist — but the way I use video might be a little different. See, I’m not using video in a traditional sense of putting it on my website and using it to convert customers or explain ideas (although I do that too), I’m using these videos as pieces of content to rank in Google to bring in organic search traffic.

Why Video is Awesome

Creating videos in this way is similar to creating blog posts or landing pages for SEO, but with some important benefits.

Firstly, YouTube videos rank well in Google. Like really well. Since YouTube is owned by Google, and is already an extremely high authority site, chances are that a piece of content you put on YouTube will rank higher than your own site, especially if your site is new and doesn’t have much authority.

Posting content on YouTube also lets your content be discovered when people search YouTube, which is the second biggest search engine in the world, bigger than both Bing and Yahoo. Moreover, optimizing your videos to rank in Google automatically optimizes them to rank in YouTube too, bringing an additional traffic stream you otherwise wouldn’t've had.

But what is really great about ranking in Google search is that it’s search traffic, the best kind of traffic for a product like mine, which is solving a very specific pain point for businesses. This kind of traffic brings us customers from huge enterprises which I otherwise would have had a hard time identifying and marketing to.

How I Rank YouTube Videos

In this post I will explain the process I use to optimize and rank my videos in Google. Here are a few examples of terms my videos are ranking for in Google:

Standard Operating Procedure Software (Google Search|Video Link)

Business Systemization (Google Search|Video Link)

Sharepoint DMS alternative (Google Search|Video Link)

The amazing thing about ranking videos for these kinds of keywords is that, even though they might not have a ton of traffic, they are VERY targeted visitors, people searching for that exact kind of product.

I am not going to talk about how to make a video in this post. If you want to learn more about creating videos, I recently wrote a post on how to create a startup explainer video plus PowToon has a number of great tutorials on their blog.

In this post I will show you how to optimize your videos and get them ranking for your target keywords.

On Page Optimization

The first thing you should do before uploading your video is prepare you keywords, title and description.

Keyword Research

When ranking YouTube videos it’s good practice to target multiple long tail keywords in the video. This will bring in more traffic as you rank for multiple terms with just one video.

For example, this video I did on checklist software is ranking for Checklist Software, Checklist Software Tool and Checklist Template Software.

You should find a keyword to target based on the content of your video. This is pretty easy: type a few variations into the AdWords Keyword Planner tool and find the one that ranks the highest. There are a few tricks you can do to find keywords that have low competition, but for the sake of this guide I am going to a assume you already know what keyword you want to rank for before you created the video.

For our example, lets use “Tree Removal Miami”

Tree Removal Miami

Once you have your primary keyword, it’s time to get to work building a list of secondary keywords and constructing a title and description for your video.

Below is a video I made for a friend teaching him the process of keyword research and constructing the title and description. In the video I walk through two example keywords “Tree Removal Miami” and “Electrician Miami”. The video is an over the shoulder of me doing it, and runs about 30 minutes if you need a detailed explanation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA1mVPF3DQE

(Spreadsheet from Video)

Build Keyword List

Take your primary keyword and put it into the AdWords tool, then pick 3-6 other keywords that have the highest search traffic and are related to your product. You can also use Uber Suggest to find the most common searched for terms after your keyword.

This is the keyword list I came up with for Tree Removal Miami

tree removal miami

tree removal cost miami

tree removal service miami

tree stump removal miami

palm tree removal miami

tree removal services miami

emergency tree removal miami

tree removal company miami

tree removal miami FL

tree removal cost miami FL

tree removal service miami FL

tree stump removal miami FL

palm tree removal miami FL

tree removal services miami FL

emergency tree removal miami FL

tree removal company miami FL

Video Title

Use the keyword list to construct the title. Weave in as many of the keywords as you can with the title still making sense and not looking like spam.

Tree Removal Service Miami FL | 555-555-5555 | Low Cost Emergency Tree Stump Removal Company

Video Description

The description should include ALL your keywords, woven into legible paragraphs that again don’t look like spam.


Tree Removal Service Miami FL | 555-555-5555

Low Cost Emergency Tree Stump Removal Company in Miami FL. Get lowest cost services on your emergency tree removal.

We guarantee the lowest tree removal cost in all of florida for tree stump removal. Contact us today for a free quote from the most reliable tree removal company in Miami FL.

Video Tags

For the video tags, just copy and paste in your keyword list. Easy.

Advanced Optimization

There are also a couple of advanced optimization techniques that I hear good things about. They are:

Transcript (adding a written transcript to your video can help the search engines crawl the video and give you higher rankings)

Annotations (again adding more text to the video helps with search)

I haven’t tested these myself yet but so far I have been able to get to the first page of Google for a number of terms just using the methods above of optimizing the Title, Description and Tags then doing the off page optimization steps outlined below.

Off Page Optimization – Backlinks

Now your video is uploaded and optimized, it’s time to start ranking it. Ranking a YouTube video is pretty similar to ranking any website where the main ranking determinant is the number of backlinks you have pointing towards that video. YouTube has another factor however and that is the number of websites that have actually embedded the video, making it slightly different to creating backlinks for traditional websites.

Here is a list of YouTube ranking factors in order of importance:

Embeds
Links with Anchor Text
Links without Anchor Text
Social Signals

Below are the strategies I use to rank my videos on YouTube. Keep in mind that these are not all the strategies that exist, and that there are many ways to get backlinks and embeds.

Submit to Social Media Properties
Share on personal Google+ and company
Share on company Facebook page, like it, share it
Share it on twitter company account
Retweet on your own account
Submit to Onlywire

Onlywire is a service that lets you manage over 30 web 2.0 properties from one control panel. It’s awesome to get a quick backlink shot of 20-30 links to any post or video you publish. Submitting your video to Onlywire won’t move the needle much but it takes just a second to do and the more links the better. I use Onlywire quite a bit as I use it to build links to every Web 2.0 post, guest post, video, forum post, profile, etc. that I create. This is a really easy way to get a quick link boost.

Plus you can pay someone on Fiverr to set it all up for just $5, an effective, cheap and automated way to do social bookmarking submissions.

I talk about submitting to Onlywire a lot in the rest of this post. This is not a necessity though, merely a shortcut. There are other social tools to help you manage various social networks, or you can simply submit to them manually for free. However, Onlywire is the easiest tool I have found, and it’s what I use in my business.

Post on Site

Create a blog post or landing page on your website. A general rule for a landing page is that it should have 300-500 words of unique content. The keyword should be included in the title and the body. The keyword should be linked to the YouTube video, the video should be embedded onto the page and you should also link out to an authority site. To beef up the page further, add the keyword into an h1 tag and as the alt text of an image.

This formula should be followed when posting anywhere, including your site, other blogs you own, or Web 2.0 sites.

Here is a quick checklist:

300-500 words unique content

Keyword in title

Keyword in body

Keyword anchor text linked to video

Embed video

Authority link

H1 tag with keyword

Image with keyword in alt text

Once you have published your post to your site, don’t forget to promote it. Submit it to social bookmarking sites, Onlywire and across the web. If you are looking for more places to promote your content, try this checklist.

Post on Blog Network

Create a blog post on a personal blog or other site you own. If you don’t own any other web properties, now might be a good time to create a blog. Having a second web property such as a blog is a great way to get additional exposure and backlinks for your videos.

I have a few older blogs that are still around and have some decent authority so I use them to write posts and embed my videos in, like this one I did on standard operating procedure software.

Once you have published your post to your blog using the same format as above, submit it to Onlywire.

Submit to Profiles

Company profiles and business directories are another great way to get embeds for your video. Depending on your niche you can embed your video onto your LinkedIn page, Angel List profile, or Yelp listing.

These are great quick ways to not only get backlinks to your videos but also to generally increase your branding as a company.

Remember to submit your profile pages to Onlywire to get some secondary link juice.

Guest Post

Write related guest posts for other sites and find meaningful ways to link or embed your videos into the guest post. This is one of the most powerful ways to get links to your videos. In fact, I am doing it right now with this post. Another example of a guest post where I embed and link to a number of my videos is this post I did for the Startup Chile blog.

Remember to promote your guest posts too! Submit them to social bookmarking sites and Onlywire.

If you want to learn more about guest posting, try these guides:

Advanced Guest Posting

10 Resources to Make You The Best Guest Blogger Ever

Create a Post on Your Web 2.0 Properties

Another great way to get embeds, links and views for your videos is to publish them on your Web 2.0 sites like the ones listed below. Use the same format as when submitting to your blog or website.

There are a lot of different Web 2.0 sites available, and it can take a bunch of time and resources to post on all of them, so I have broken them down into Tier 1 and Tier 2 sites. Start with the Tier 1 and, if you have the time, keep posting onto the Tier 2 sites.

Tier 1

WordPress.com
Blogger.com
Tumblr.com
Medium.com

Tier 2

LiveJournal.com
Soup.io
Webs.com
Doomby.com
Hpage.com
Sosblogs.com
Blog.com
SnapPages.com
Jigsy.com
Beep.com
Tripod.lycos.com
Ucoz.com
Jimdo.com
Bravesites.com
Newsvine.com
Storify.com
Over-blog.com

Whether you are posting on Tier 1 or Tier 2, every time you create a new post, make sure to submit it to Onlywire.

Keep on Linking

As you continue to write content, do presentations, post on forums, etc., remember to keep linking back to your videos when you can. The more links you can get back to your videos the better they will rank over time, so keep on plugging them wherever you can.

If you do the linking optimization tips above and actively work on generating links and embeds to your YouTube videos, they will rank in Google and bring in a targeted, free flow of traffic.

http://www.powtoon.com/blog/rank-youtube-videos-first-on-google/

5 Reasons to Develop Your Personal Brand

Personal branding allows a professional to show the world what he or she is about as an individual employee. A personal brand can show the skills and qualities that someone has, defining what makes them important or different. In a competitive world, it is very important that individuals are able to find an edge on their competition.

Here are five reasons you need to develop your personal brand.

1. Showing Value

Personal branding gives you all the control and power. If a person is well-connected and trusted by customers, peers and co-workers they are more likely to be respected by their employer. Employees can create impressive social media profiles to showcase their ability, connections and interest. You can achieve professional autonomy by creating a brand that proves your value and worth as an expert.

A strong professional can be part of a strong team to make a strong company.

2. Building Self-Awareness

Personal branding allows you to show what matters to YOU. Your brand becomes about the skills and interests you have and are interested in, not what your job or environment might has dictate. If you’re lucky, your job and your interests will intersect. 

3. Improving Visibility

You might think that avoiding having a social media presence altogether is the answer; after all, no information is good information, right? But you won’t be better off avoiding a professional role on social media – you will just be limiting yourself and your potential for growth. Instead, use social media as an opportunity to show professionalism and prove a value in the industry. This visibility could result in unexpected opportunities or a professional advantage down the road. 

4. Establishing and Achieving Goals

A personal brand helps determine who you are and where you are going. Without clear direction, you might get stuck in the rut of your current path. A personal brand will help you consider how you define your current place and where you want to be in the near-distant future.

In order to get to a place you feel proud of, you need to have specific goals laid out. Goals that aren’t clearly defined and measurable are doomed to fail. Personal branding gives each professional the opportunity to pinpoint where he or she wants to go and how that could be accomplished with checkpoint goals along the way.

5. Career Advancement

Everyone wants to advance their career, right? You don’t want to stay in the same position forever, never learning, never growing. Personal branding provides the opportunity to work on improving their own value and edge on a personal level. The person who is concerned with their public presence is better able to make waves that will get them noticed down the road. It is far more difficult and offers far less impact if you build a brand at the last minute due to need, rather than building a brand over a long period of time with a small measure of foresight.

http://www.everyonesocial.com/blog/5-reasons-to-develop-your-personal-brand