Month: December 2014

  • 4 Reasons Why Blogging is Important for your Business

    There is some debate out there as to whether blogging is still relevant in today’s social media marketing environment.

    Regardless if you are a small business, or a multinational company, blogging is integral to your online content marketing strategy.

    Here are 4 reasons you need to blog:

    1.  Drive traffic to your website

    2.  Increase your SEO/ SERP

    3.  Position your brand as an industry leader

    4.  Develop better customer relationships

    Drive traffic to your website:

    Your blog gives you the opportunity to create relevant content for your customers. Use this as a marketing tactic to drive traffic back to your website.

    Make the blog on your website the foundation for all of your social media platforms.

    Your business might be on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or anywhere else. Post links  – with relevant visuals – of your blog articles to your social sites. Give your social followers a reason to click through to your website.

    Additionally, post inbound links directly in your blog articles, to drive traffic to specific landing pages of your website.

    Increase your SEO/ SERP:

    Blogs increase your SEO. Fresh content is still a key to beating out your competitors in the search engine results page.

    Use keywords in your articles. List out the keywords, topics, and categories you want your business to be found with. Use these words, and related expressions when writing your posts.

    Of course, whether you actively seek these out or not, blogging regularly about your business, industry, product or customer lifestyle will naturally increase your search keywords. Being intent about your words will only increase results.

    Keywords and topics on your website are a significant way in which Google (and other search engines) find your site for these searched words.

    Position your brand as an industry leader:

    Well written articles demonstrate your company as an industry leader. By posting topics which resonate with your market and show your knowledge, you are marketing your skills for your business, service or product too.

    If you are a retailer, for example, write blog posts about your products. Your customers will get to know you as the knowledge source for the products they want.

    If you are in B2B, post articulate, well researched articles about your service. Become the hub, or the place to be, for your industry.

    You are building trust, too. The more you can show that you are well-versed in your field, the more likely your consumer will trust you to supply what they need.

    Your customers additionally benefit from the learning you provide them.

    Develop better customer relationships:

    Blogs provide another source to deepen the connection with your customer. By connecting directly on your website, your clients are able to get to know your business or product from the comfort of your online home base.

    Use this. Again, build trust by being a source of information. Consumers like to be informed, and appreciate that you are the one teaching them.

    Additionally, just as on your other social sites, respond to comments and interact with your consumer. If they have questions about a product you are writing about, respond to them directly on your website. Unlike many social sites, a blog is generally searchable on your site for some time. Your website comments last longer than on a Twitter response or Facebook post. Other customers will see your interactions too.

    Source: Wishpond
    Written by: Krista Bunskoek, PR and Content Marketer @ Wishpond

     

     

  • Student Intern Wanted!

    Rockstar Technology is looking for a student intern to start over the Holiday break and possibly during the second semester. The position will be an introduction to the web design and internet marketing industry – specifically working with the marketing team on content generation and learning how to evaluate a company’s online presence.

    This will be a paid internship. Internships are very beneficial for college applications as well as for entering the job market.  Ask anyone – internship experience is HUGE.

    Requirements

    1. Gotta be a Rockstar in some way and able to explain why. Quick learner, self motivated, attention to detail – all are important to us.

    2. Upper class students in the Keller area that have transportation and a desire to work in the business, technology or design industry are welcome to apply. Internship will be 5-10 hours per week – 1-2 days after school at our office or at home.

    Step 1 – email jeff@rockstartechnology.com – introduce yourself, tell me about your plans for school or career and why an internship is important to you.

    Step 2 – interviews will be done as early as next week. Intern will be chosen before holiday break.

    Visit www.rockstartechnology.com  to learn more about us or follow up on social media.

    imagerockstar-banner

  • 11 Unusual Social Media Tips to Drive Branding, Clicks and Conversions

    Effective social-media marketing helps build successful businesses. A recent study by Shareaholic, which tracked 300,000 websites over four months, suggested that social-media referrals now lead to 30 percent of websites’ overall traffic.

    If your business website falls below this benchmark, you may want to consider if your social-media strategy is working. Then again, if your site receives more visits from social media than that rate, you might still want to know what more can you do.

    Here are a few strategies to boost social-media marketing to positively impact business growth and sales:

    1. Create custom-formatted tweets. Most tweets can become lost in live feeds that seem to stream on with no end, but custom formatting tweets is sure to catch a reader’s attention. Line breaks or a unique font color add welcome change to the monotony of short-form messaging. To have a tweet from your business stand out even more, include a refreshing emoji or a fun symbol, which you can copy and paste from services such as iEmoji.com.

    2. Write longer posts. Though Twitter won’t budge on its 140-character limit, Google Plus is a platform that encourages conversation that can begin with a longer post. For example, a July 7 post by Mike Alton, a St. Louis., Mo., consultant received dozens of comments and more than a hundred +1s.

    3. Build Facebook Groups. As organic reach for the Facebook pages of companies continues to diminish, entrepreneurs, marketers and publishers should instead consider creating and managing Facebook Groups. The advantage is that members can opt in to receive direct notifications about updates.

    4. Insert embedded call to actions. Add a bit of spice to common Facebook posts and generate even more customer leads. To add call-to-action buttons that drive clicks and traffic, follow Econsultancy’s super simple tutorial.

    5. Market across many social platforms. Convert Facebook fans into Twitter followers and LinkedIn connections into contacts that circle your profile on Google Plus. Then by regularly sharing on every social network, you (and your company) will forever be top of mind among your followers.

    6. Facilitate meaningful connections. Your clients, customers and users are incredible people, and when you identify like-minded folk, encourage them to interact with one another, over and over again. You will birth relationships that will always reference you as a common interest, reinforcing their love for your company’s brand.

    7. Crowdsource user-generated content and showcase powerful visuals. Leverage platforms such as Pixlee to surface and distribute moments that demonstrate the true meaning of your company’s brand to customers.

    8. Be a little weird. Playing it safe guarantees nothing. Instead, take a few calculated risks that may prompt your audience (and their friends, fans and followers) to admire your company’s authenticity and laugh, smile and share.

    9. Stand behind your actions. The best entrepreneurs know when to fire a bad customer and can do so without regret. Last year Liberty Bottleworks boldly responded to a wildly upset customer with what Adweek described as a “polite but eviscerating reply.” Because the company was forward, honest and entirely reasonable, it won massive support from social-media users and gained many new paying clients.

    10. Put a positive spin on things. Rather than joining angry mobs, say something positive and uplifting about important issues that your audience cares about. Social-media users are more likely to follow you if you share happier updates. Emotions are contagious and people enjoy optimism.

    11. Provide a bit of structure. When requesting replies, nudge your followers into a certain mind-set. An open-ended question without any guidance on your part may result in only a handful of canned replies. By suggesting a certain format for responses, you’ll see how creative the responses from your followers will become, and if you’re lucky, they’ll also be thinking about you and your company.

     

    Firas Kittaneh
    Contributor
    CEO at One Mall Group, Entrepreneur, SEO and Ecommerce Expert
    Source:  Entrepreneur.com