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Amid the normal litany of online marketing experts decrying that Pinterest’s newfound popularity will be short-lived, it’s probably worth saying at the outset of this post that I don’t think that using Pinterest for SEO is necessarily any more of a panacea than Facebook, Twitter or Instagram is. These are all just tools that can help you build a following and target your audience. With that said, there are some particularly attractive things about Pinterest that make it worth jumping on the bandwagon for. Pinterest is a Short-form Medium This might seem weird, but because most pins on the site are short, bite-sized things, Pinterest visitors stick around longer than on similar sites, like Tumblr. The culture of Pinterest is that of do-it-yourselfers, makers and seekers. Everyone is looking for cool ideas, products and images that they can then curate and share. A site like Facebook is trying to be everything to everyone. Pinterest has distilled itself down to an image sharing...

With jobs as scarce these days as Koala bears and Hemingway first editions, it can sometimes seem like an uphill struggle to get anywhere. With hundreds of people going for the one position the minute it is advertised, it is always helpful to know the tricks of the trade and be one step ahead of the game. There are several ways to discover jobs which are yet to be advertised and be able to get in there with your CV before anyone else even knows about the position. Here are our tips for finding out about the jobs which don’t technically exist yet…  Get your CV there This is a great way to give yourself as much chance as possible of getting noticed by a potential employer. If you have applied unsuccessfully for advertised positions or simply can’t find any suitable job opportunities advertised, this might be a great option for you. Target companies which are leaders in your choice of industry or the ones you wish to work with. Leave no stone unturned in trying to find out t...

Social media marketing is defined as the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites .   By now, most of us know how valuable social media marketing is – some would say it is an essential part of any marketing campaign. For small businesses, social media marketing is especially appealing because it is free.   However, “free” is a bit misleading; there isn’t any currency exchanged, but plenty of resources – mainly time and manpower – are forfeited. Therefore, it is important that small businesses use the most beneficial marketing practices available.   Check out these four ways to boost your social media presence.      1.   Be a person, not just a company. Naturally, you will use your social media account to share information about your business, links to your blog posts, and publicize upcoming events.   However, you shouldn’t use social media solely for promoting your business.   You are, ...

Social media presents new opportunities for lead generation. Historically, marketers were forced to rely upon market research companies, cold calling, and surveys to ascertain consumer attitudes and trends. With the rise of social media, customers discuss their interests, activities, and hobbies in a permanent and public medium. This presents new opportunities for lead generation campaigns and makes it easier to tailor an existing campaign to a particular audience. Generating New Leads Over one third of all new leads today from Internet sources stem from social media. However, generating new leads through social media can be challenging. Everspark Interactive, an Atlanta based SEO agency, points to many social media users being savvy about mailing lists and low quality products. Distributing spam posts across comment pages and bulk mailing activities will not therefore get results. An effective social media campaign requires popular and credible individuals to distribute ...

Cloud computing has become extremely popular over the past couple of years because it offers users a cost effective alternative to building and managing IT infrastructure in-house, as well as great flexibility in accessing information. For small business owners, cloud computing can offer a number of benefits, one of them being the wide variety of application available that make it easier to get work done. Here is a list of five cloud apps to help you achieve your business objectives. 1) ZenDesk When starting a business that employs the latest in technology, information technology support can be a costly, yet critical expense. Fortunately, ZenDesk is here to clear that up. ZenDesk offers a large team of tech experts who are available to handle any number of technology concerns, even for small business owners. With ZenDesk, you no longer need to scour the Internet for answers or pay expensive fees to in-house IT employees or consultants - everything is provided for you on...

Website sales are often referred to in terms Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO), which looks into the amount of visitors your website gains and the percentage of these that actually make a purchase through your website. Your site's success in convincing your visitors to part with their money depends upon a variety of factors. If you are looking to make money online, it is vital to assess your site and make improvements where ever necessary, as it can be inhibiting the true potential of your business. Photography... Considering the fact that quality photographs and a product description is all it takes for someone to decide whether they want to make a purchase or not, it is surprising to see how little attention is often devoted to this aspect of website design.  It is important to ensure that your photographs are of a high quality, showing the items at different angles, and if possible and applicable, in use. For example if you sell jewellery, an image of the item being w...

A good book can transport you to new worlds, teach you to do something new, expand your mind and help you learn new words and phrases - all with a nice cup of tea in your hand. Just how does reading expand your vocabulary? Context is Everything Words don't exist in a vacuum. People don't wake up one morning able to answer difficult crossword puzzles, it's a combination of good memory, practice and a lifetime of seeing those words in context and being able to extract them from your mind at the time they're needed. Students might find that flashcards with vocabulary and ideas they need to learn, will imprint on the short-term memory, but for words to go into the long-term memory banks the brain needs to see them in some context. Without this context the brain finds them hard to remember for any length of time. Reading a wide variety of books is a great way to see words in their natural habitat and help the brain to retain them and get a feel for how they can ...

Successful home based entrepreneurs have been talking about the importance of internet marketing and online reputation management for quite some time now. The key to their success, they claim is through their ability to learn and adapt (read aptly respond) to the challenges thrown at them.  Education is the key to empowerment and empowerment means excellent business practice and sustainable growth. Far too many home business ideas and products fall at the very first hurdle and learning how to overcome initial resistance is a matter of finding the right information and the right skill set. Some internet marketing advice and education for home businesses can help you market your business to right people. The Right Audience for Your Products or Services Marketing your business is relatively simple; marketing your business to the right people is somewhat more challenging. The internet, despite its global nature is actually extremely niche oriented when it comes to marke...

The ability to create stunning presentations via your computer has come a considerably long way in the last few decades. It started with PowerPoint, which still has an impact in the business world and its ease of use makes it a crowd favorite. However, these days software and technology developments have combined to make rigid, static presentations a thing of the past. These days it is all about multi-media and interaction. Presentations of Old In the not-too-distant past, PowerPoint was the preferred choice. From corporate presentations to training sessions and seminars, most of us have sat through hours of (often boring) slideshows. The problem was that, these presentations were often slow-moving, the display poor and moving from slide to slide could be difficult. It also left the presenter rooted to one place within the venue and audience participation was often difficult to achieve. The net result? A presenter who is struggling to keep the audience engaged and an audie...

The Web and online marketing grew by leaps and bounds in the past few years. Semantic advertisements and content curation are all in the rage these days, and social media has practically became the number one marketing medium for online marketers. With the advent of these new technologies, many would think that e-mail is well on its way to its own imminent death. But, they're wrong. E-mail is very much alive and kicking. The reason for this is that e-mail marketing entails a different set of dynamics that sets it apart from traditional web advertisements or social media. Still can't figure out why e-mail is still effective after all these years? 1. E-mail is amazingly cheap. Compared to other forms of advertising, e-mail is a whole lot cheaper. Hundreds of e-mails can be conveniently sent with just a click of a button. Combine e-mail marketing with social media and you've got yourself two online marketing powerhouses that are both effective and ch...

The Web is growing exponentially and so are its users. Among the popular web browsers, Firefox remains the surfers’ favorite due to its reliability and speed. We know that the continuous use of web browsers over a period of time will slow down its speed. As a web browser, Firefox also has such speed decline issues. Let us look at ways and means to boost up Firefox’s speed. 10 tips to boost up your Firefox speed are as follows: Reduce page loading time – Use “Pipelining” to improve the speed of Firefox by following these instructions: -           Enter “about:config” in the Firefox address bar and hit enter. -           You will get a message like “I’ll be careful, I promise!”, just click on it -           A label bar will appear on the window. Enter “network.http.proxy.pipelining” -         ...

Also known as CRM, Customer Relationship Management focuses on establishing and maintaining positive rapport with all your customers. The quality of those relationships is very important to the ongoing success of your business. In fact, by utilizing various strategies to monitor and support those relationships, your business can benefit in a number of ways. Here are a few examples. Customers Stay With You Once you have earned a customer, it is important to put an effort into building a strong relationship with them. If you don’t, then the customer is likely to respond to a competitor who is willing to invest more time and energy into the relationship. By proactively taking steps to create ongoing communications with the customer, you are able to incrementally build loyalty. As a result, the client is less inclined to spend time considering the goods and services offered by others. Companies that do not invest time into relationship building, tend to see customers leave as ...

333 links from one Infographic share…. Meet Pinterest, the flirty social media princess! Pinterest is the flirty prom queen of Social Marketing. So good looking, so adored, so easy….. She's every girl's heroine (and heroin) and she has the Social Marketing boys drooling. So, how do you charm your way in and get the most out of Pinterest Social Marketing? 1. Remember to include your links It may sound obvious but if you're uploading from your hard drive, you need to go into "edit" and add your link. Similarly, if you're sharing from another page (as many do from Stumble Upon) you will need to change the link to your own. Be careful though, Pinterest's terms and conditions leave you in a precarious legal position if you violate copyright law! 2. Name your boards Unlike the uber sexy Google Plus, Pinterest doesn't allow for anchor text. The best you can do is name your board with your keyword, that way at least the link appea...

What do you get when you try to force a Mountain Lion through a Window? Complete cooperation now that Parallels Desktop 8 is here to save you. The much-anticipated new release of this desktop visualization program is out this month. With Parallel Version 8, the newest Windows and OS X system coexist peacefully on a Mac. It is a Parallel World The world consists of people who swear by Mac, ones who can’t live without Windows, and the tweeners – those geeks that want them both. Parallels 8 is designed with the tweeners in mind. This variety of software became critical when Apple made the switch to Intel chips. That one little hardware change left some businesses in a quandary. They needed to support both Windows and Mac on one system. Parallels is a prize for employees who work at home on their Macs, but use apps from an office that is strictly Windows. Technically, Parallels is an emulator software program, sometimes called a desktop simulator. This is a fancy way of saying it t...

When you want to get your customer to do something, you need to tell them to do so. In the world of eCommerce this is known as a ‘ call to action ’, and can relate to imploring your customers to purchase a product, sign up to a mailing list or join the site as a member. Whatever it is you want your visitor to do whilst they are on your site or going through your email, you need to give them the positive reinforcement and ‘call to action’ they need to make the decision on the spot.  Here are a few ways you can strengthen your calls to action and see a better response from your targ et online audience. 1. Focus on your subject lines Online readers love to skim, and will quite often read only the subject lines of an article. So if your subject lines seem uninteresting or are full of technical jargon, your readers are likely to fail to absorb any of the details on the page. Popular and successful subject lines typically feature offers, discounts, freebies or big brand names...

When a company wants to develop a strategy for their coverage on social networks and social media interactions, it must follow several important steps. Whilst these are not exhaustive rules, they will at least put you on the path to social media success. I have personally applied these rules with several blue chip clients. The steps towards your social media strategy are as follows: Analyze the ecosystem; also called web 2.0 auditing Define what your objectives are appropriate to your target Define which social media networks you will be using Organize Internal Resources Set up Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and targets to help you measure success Define Appropriate Indicators for the Social Media Strategy Of all the steps listed above, the one most critical to your success is being able to define appropriate performance indicators for your company’s social media strategy. It goes without saying, and is obvious that the performance indicators are important for ...