Creativity summed up

Okay, a thought just came to mind and I felt compelled to share it with you in this blog post….It revolves around the act of creativity and how it influences the minds and emotions of people to think, be inspired and/or take action. The recent buzz around content marketing as the ‘new SEO’ has its foundation on creativity. Whether you put together a slide-deck, shared your thoughts visually on an Infographic OR record a podcast, you were involved in the process of creating something you felt would resonate with a target audience.

Lets focus on Creativity the links would follow

As cliche as this may sound: ‘The cream does rise to the top’ - the best works of creativity are usually rewarded with attention and this rings true with the democratisation of media & communication i.e. social media as we are our own broadcasters.

I shall leave you with a piece of advice: when creating OR curating content, try as much as possible to push the boundaries with more and more creative content. Half the battle of SEO would be won. All that would be left would be the promotion of your highly creative content (this is equally as important as being creative).

Reward creatives….they can take your brand sky high.

SEOs….Create Something is a post from: Fuzz One Media Blog

Social media crises are an expected risk businesses face today. Everyone is exposed to online dilemmas provoking long lasting problems which have the potential to particularly impact your brand’s reputation, both online and offline.

Social Media Crisis

So what is your strategy to avoid this problem? To start with, it is important to differentiate between a social media crisis and a social media issue so you can react to either one. Crises are recognised by signs of powerful, negative relatable emotions that outweigh common sense. They encourage viral behaviour and get clients, fans, staff and others flustered. The problem with these crises is that they are often unpredictable and go viral in an exceptionally short space of time!

Social Media Issues

A social media issue is a less of a worry compared to a social media crisis – however this does not stop it being something that needs to be addressed promptly! It is still negative as the issues have the potential to becoming viral. These take place online about your brand. Although they do not threaten any severe long-term negative impact on your brand’s reputation or bottom-line, consequences of ignoring them could be severe. Examples of potential social media issues vary from negative comments being posted online to negative customer service issues or negative press. If these issues are not promptly resolved then they can lead to bigger, media crises.

Here are 5 steps you can apply to prevent social media crises:

1. Build your foundations on a strong business - think further than having social media presence over several sites, figure out the most important ones to devise your personal strategy. Although there isn’t a one size fits all answer to this, we can use this infographic to find the right roots. Like roots, they need the right conditions to grow into trees, and your set up should follow this technique:

2. Safety matters – make sure you have a team that can organise and prepare for possible crises.  Responding fast is crucial! They need to assess and spot the risk that social media and the online world present to your business or organization. This is typically done with a vulnerability audit or risk assessment. Taking the necessary steps to prevent the preventable risk will help greatly!

3. Formation factors – being able to link all social media efforts across the company. Developing a plan to protect and prepare your company against the unpreventable risk will help, but also expect the unexpected.

And lastly, the two E’s:

4. Enablement – this allows employees to be able to achieve their goals through support and by being adaptable.

5. Enlightenment -you need real time action for responses to business processes and planning. Make sure your entire team can perform efficiently. They should be able to detect, respond and resolve a social media crisis and a social media issue. You could even try a mock test to see how on the ball they are!

5 Steps To Prevent A Social Media Crisis is a post from: Fuzz One Media Blog

Smartphone usage today has provided connections to others so powerfully it has become harder to disconnect ourselves from the addictive world of Social Media. It has become almost effortless to send a tweet, post an update or send a text message which all save time, it has become the easier option over calling. Here are some informative slides looking at what Social Networking is used for and it’s importance.

We learn (from above)  that Social Networking is a way people most commonly use to reach out to others and like to feel a sense of belonging (below).

The infographic (below) from Browser Media looks into how much of an effect Social Media has on daily lives. The study investigates how much the UK uses social networking sites and what activities are being sacrificed as a result.

Questions and answers:

• Who is spending the most time social networking? Women spend a lot more time social networking than men: 60 minutes per day vs. 48.
• How much time are people spending on social networking? An average UK adult will spend 2 years and four months on social networking sites over their lifetime.
• Who admits to sacrificing other activities to satisfy social networking habits? Surprising sacrifices including real-life socialising (14%), sleep (10%) and even sex (8%).
• What is social media replacing? More women than men are prepared to forfeit household chores in order to use social networking sites.
• What is the highest statistic found per age group? 92% of 18-25 year olds use social networking sites.
• What is the Average use of social media in minutes per day, by city? Regionality has a role to play in social networking, with people in Sheffield spending twice as long (72 minutes per day) as people in Edinburgh (35 minutes).

Conclusion

Everyone is bound to have their own opinion but the results reveal how dependent the UK is on Social Networking. Would you prefer a phone call with someone or an instant message? With social media evolving at such a rapid pace it will be intriguing to see just how much growth occurs from here.  What are your views? How much time do you allocate for social media? Your comments below would be much appreciated!

Looking at Social Networking: how distracting is it for you? is a post from: Fuzz One Media Blog

Given that Pinterest is now the 4th largest Social Media platform by user-base, you would expect brands to take it seriously…well not quite as we have dug out some examples of poorly set-up and managed Pinterest accounts. You will be surprised how some well known brands are not making the most of this Social Scrapbook. Our previous blog post: 5 Ways Brands Can Stand Out On Pinterest & Gain Followership showcased examples of well set-up Pinterest boards.
So without further ado, here is our list of 12 ‘business-to-consumer (B2C) brand’ Pinterest boards that need some social media TLC:

#1 Waitrose doesn’t have enough Boards

Waitrose’s Pinterest page is so bland considering it is an upmarket chain of British supermarkets. Although they do have specifically targeted boards such as Halloween and Christmas, they have only pinned 247 times! This really limits how far the brand is likely to spread on Pinterest. Compared to their main website (which has not even been verified on Pinterest!) it does not replicate the high quality and trusted produce which they are renowned for. Compared to our previous article Tesco showed initiative with their creative variety of boards for a number of their products.

#2 Fatface has limited pins

Like Waitrose, Fat Face’s Pinterest page has been slow to take off, with the reasons being obvious: they have yet to verify their website and only seem to be pinning to 4 boards – shocking! With such a wide variety of clothes on offer and excellent photography, it seems a shame they are not making full use of Pinterest in the same way they are on their main site. Fashion as we all know is a top category on Pinterest, structuring boards to cater for each type of clothing on offer for Men, Women and Kids would be a great way to improve their page: e.g They could have a Pin Board specifically for ‘Coats and Jackets’, ‘by Season’ and ‘by Collection’ .

#3 Clarks Shoes have boring covers

Finally some more boards to show on Clarks Shoes Pinterest Account! However, not all the covers shown are inspiring to viewers. Their “SS13 preview board“ only has one pin: a dull looking set of shoes on a shoe-rack! Pinterest is driven by unique pictures and this one unfortunately does not cut it. Having said that, the Pin Board Fan pics! demonstrates a brilliant use of Pinterest, by linking images provided by customers (via twitter) wearing their shoes.

#4 The Body Shop shows an untidy layout

For an internationally renowned brand, The Body Shop’s Pinterest board has only 641 followers, which seems disappointing. One of their boards actually has celebrity endorsement: The Leona Lewis for The Body Shop Board but with only 9 pins appears limited. Their main website on the other hand is neatly organised and quite easy to get around. Wouldn’t you think that their Pinterest Boards should adopt the same consistency?
Make up and beauty products are highly popular on Pinterest and you would expect this brand to thrive from it, by contributing to community boards related to their values and products.

Bobbi Brown, another cosmetic brand on Pinterest has 14,585 followers. They make use of community boards, have verified their website and have ensured a clutter-free layout. It’s easy for potential customers to navigate their way around and enjoy a neat and consistent array of striking images.

#5 Hotel Chocolat needs more eye candy

If you have ever been in one of their shops or visited their website you will no doubt have had a luxury, up market chocolatier experience. Their Pinterest Page does not quite have the same feel. Although their pictures look nice (as usual), they only have 13 Boards which might explain why they only have 337 followers. The use of sharing their content to other communities who love chocolate would work a treat as well as avoiding white backgrounds on Board Covers.

#6 Zizzi Ristorante lacks activity

For a Fresh Italian Food Restaurant, Zizzi Ristorante’s Pinterest page has a disappointing lack of activity with only 5 pinned images! Their Twitter account on the other hand is very active with 10,745 followers, so why are they not using visual appeal of Pinterest to drive in their marketing message as a fresh Italian food restaurant? There is a disappointing lack of photography here. Their main website is also very well laid out with striking imagery and great user experience. It really is a shame seeing such a weak Pinterest account. Food a hugely popular category on Pinterest and so there really is no excuse!

#7 Nike Football is too bland

It is a massive disappointment that this is all Nike Football have to show on their Pinterest page! With such a well structured website that fully engages with viewers, you would think that their Pinterest page would work equally as well for them and make use of their broad range of products on offer, spread across a wider range of categories. All the captions are unimaginative such as Country specific Kits e.g ‘Brazil Kits’ which does not inspire people to view the content. Let’s see some more categories, products, videos and customer interaction on your page Nike Football.

#8 Abercrombie & Fitch is incomplete

This American retailer focuses on casual wear for consumers aged 18 to 22 and has over 300 stores in the United States alone, with a rapid expansion internationally.  In addition it operates three offshoot brands: Abercrombie kids, Hollister Co., and Gilly Hicks.  Their Pinterest Accounts all have a considerably high followering but the content could be broadened, considering that they are such well-known fashion label.

Their pins are limited (242) and do not cover anywhere near the amount of clothes they have on offer. Their board names are often to long to read. It really looks like a rushed job.

Abercrombie Kids doesn’t have any pin boards at the moment but Hollister Co. and Gilly Hicks mimic A&F with similar basic content. None of these pages are verified as Official brand pages which could be a factor to why they are not getting as much traction as brands like Estée Lauder who adopt a well laid out page with indiviual sections covering all of their products. They have ensured eye catching cover photos have been used and have pinned 969 times to date allowing much more brand coverage through re-pinning. They also follow more than just other affiliated brand pages.

#9 Debenhams don’t use relevant covers

Being a major high street retailer founded in the eighteenth century as a single store in London that has now grown to 165 branches across the UK, you would expect content from all areas of their store and website to be replicated on their Pinterest account. Their Pinterest only has a few pins in each board and the organisation is limited: its all over the place!

Harrod’s Pinterest account shows an ideal retail setup:

• Eye catching photography
• Has a mix of well named Pin Boards
• Integrates Instagram
• Have verified their website
• Gives their exact location
• A unique touch: all the boards tell a different story

#10 McDonalds needs to place more important boards at the top!

McDonalds is the world’s largest fast food restaurant chain, serving around 68 million customers daily in 119 countries. Their Pinterest isn’t the worst we have seen, but it should certainly be aiming higher seeing putting this into account! There should be more pictures of the actual food for a start and a sort around so that more important boards get more of a feature. They do make use of video streaming which is good though!

#11 Bacardi looks more like a Lifestyle page than for Cocktails

On first glance, it looks like someone’s personal Pinterest page. Surely you would think their Pinterest page would focus on Cocktails in varied ways? No, instead it is more lifestyle with a Cocktail or two thrown in. The whole point is to spread related products or a theme for the company which is why they are struggling to get much traction from re-pins and comments.  Their cocktail pins are getting gaining a bit of traction and so hopefully they would pick up on this!

#12 Carphone Warehouse has left boards empty

What makes it worse is that the empty space should display current ‘Deals and Offers’. With everyone always on the look out for the best ‘Deals’, it is shocking to see no pictures!

Bonus: Phones4U…All Community Boards?!? Come ON!

Here’s a bonus image from Phones4u’s Pinterest:

There is only one category that isn’t a community board named ‘Smartphone Accessories’. I would have thought that it would make more sense to prioritise displaying boards for different brands of phones, gadgets, accessories, videos and perhaps stores!

Conclusion

By showing you what not to do, I hope I have shed some light on how to improve your Pinterest account! Do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you’d like some help with organising and managing your Pinterest accounts.

12 Online Retail Brands with Really Poorly Set-up Pinterest Boards is a post from: Fuzz One Media Blog

As Pinterest approaches it’s 3rd anniversary (it was launched in March 2010) it would be prudent to say that it is approaching maturity as a social media platform brands should pay more attention to. Pinterest was recently valued to be worth $2.5 billion and as at February 2013 has 48.7 million registered users- I’ll be fair in concluding that Pinterest is here to stay!

So how can brand managers or marketers take advantage of Pinterest? We have curated some best practices successful Pinterest Business pages have adopted below:

#1. Brands are Using Original Content

Not only is this exclusive to your brand but it provides your target audience with useful insights from your blog posts, infographics, videos and pictures of course. These three brands have made their content visually enticing for the viewer, which is why their accounts work successfully:

1. Zara – All of their content reflects their brand as well as being original handpicked high quality photos linked to their website.
2. Tesco -Offer unique pin boards covering wide subject areas with  most recent on top line.  It reflects their business’ focus in alternative ways, for example the James Bond Pin Board also promotes the film release and they are also focusing on the upcoming Mother’s day.
3. Topman – Is proving to be a successful search site for Menswear and fashion trends. Like Zara, they use original high quality images from their photo shoots to provide  varied pin board categories. They aim to inform as well as interest the target audience by boards such as What You’re Pinning… and linking their Instagram account to a board named Instagrammin’ is a very direct and straightforward method to send photographs to Pinterest using a mobile device.

#2. Go for Quality and Not Quantity

Although Pinterest is used so vastly doesn’t necessarily mean your work will be re-pinned, in fact only the best quality pins go viral.  Studies have shown that Brand’s content reaches dramatically further through using Pinterest and not just relying on the main site. Re-pin content that visually captivates or inspires you, there’s no point sharing masses of photographs that don’t give you this feeling. Be competitive and search across different platforms for images like Google images, Tumblr and blogs. Pinterest alone is not enough!

Here’s 3 brands that have quality content:

1. The Perfect Palette – inspiring colours for bride’s weddings. Large array of pin boards to choose from, first line supports own work. All cover photographs for boards are extremely vibrant and uplifting.
2. Real Simple – supports creativity, being practical and finds inspiring solutions to ensure life is made easier as a result. Broad array of boards so not to clutter pins and they make use of community boards.
3. HubSpot – marketing themed, organised categories for each relevant topic, also part of a Pinterest Community. 

#3. Show your Brand’s Personality & Values

In order to gain trust and appeal, showing what really matters to the brand must stand out. This way people with the same values will be more inclined to interact.

Here are 3 different ways brands have done this:

1. The Beauty Department - Is for all things feminine! They have opted for divided section for different topics so as  not to have too many pins per board. Beauty, happiness, hair, health, home & makeup are the topics covered so it has been made very clear for women to find what they are looking for.
2. HGTV - Thoroughly inspiring ways of showing  home decorating ideas, DIY projects, crafts, party ideas and design. They also have their own community board which is a a great way to interact further as people are invited to contribute their own pins to your hosted pin board which makes them feel included as well as spreading your brand across Pinterest. Their cover photos are beautiful with Seasons and Special days featured. It is not just their own work although lots is published.
3. Apartment Therapy – ‘Saving the world, one room at a time.’ shows a broken down easier way to go about decorating apartments, and works well following round each of their pin boards.

#4. Contribute to Communities & Interact with your Target Audience

Like any Social Network, the whole idea behind it is to be social! It works both ways, the more you contribute to other communities the more likely you are to up your followship dramatically from re-pinners who like your photographs. Interaction with your target audience builds stronger connections.

These brands are active users of this trick:

1. Whole Foods Market – part of multiple communities. The world’s leader in natural & organic foods. Very broad community choice.
2. Travel Channel -Main aim to inspire travel – spreading this across different communities. Food, cultures and amazing places.
3. Nordstrom - a fashion specialty retailer of clothing, shoes & accessories. Broad range of own communities and others for support.

#5. Run Competitions/Contests

Not only does this promote your brand well but it also provides a sense of belonging for the target audience through positive content with a competitive twist for encouragement to be part of it.

These brands have made the most of this:

1. Honda – #Pintermission Honda reached out to five influential pinners—chosen by the number of followers they had—and challenged them to a #Pintermission: a 24-hour break from Pinterest to bring something from their boards to life. To help the pinners complete their chosen activities, Honda gave them $500 apiece.
2. Peugeot’s Panama Puzzle - French car maker Peugeot’s Panama unit recently ran a contest that awarded fans who completed a Pinterest puzzle. The brand’s Pinterest profile featured images of cars running over two or more boards. In each case, a board was missing. To get the missing pieces, fans had to go to Peugeot Panama’s Facebook Page or website.
   

   Peugeot created several boards showing varied models with pieces missing.
   People can search for and find these pieces, pin them on their own boards and share it with Peugeot. The first five people to complete their boards win prizes.

3. Guess 30th Anniversary Campaign Featuring Claudia Schiffer

Summary…

In addition to the above, I would advice brand managers and marketers to own and use a personal Pinterest account.

Experimenting around Pinterest can help you understand how Pinterest can work for your Brand. Treat it like a portfolio, it needs individuality and structure.

5 Ways Brands Can Stand Out On Pinterest & Gain Followership is a post from: Fuzz One Media Blog

Facebook recently made a major announcement of not just a new feature but a new PILLAR to support its existing pillars: Timeline & Newsfeed. This pillar was coined ‘Graph Search’.

It allows Facebook’s users search for precise information within Facebook. It has been described as a cross between Google, Yelp and LinkedIn. I’d personally describe it as being more like the “Siri” in the Social Media space. With Graph Search, Facebook users are able to search Facebook for a much more refined set of results than before. Search results include: Pages, Places, Groups, Apps and Games all based on information shared and connections. e.g. The search “Phones my friends like” would be returned with the results of brands they have liked on Facebook.

As Facebook’s first “beta” product that requires a waiting list, it has only been released in the U.S so far. There is no certified date yet revealed to bring it to the UK, which gives time for marketers to prepare.

Here are four ways marketers can get the maximum out of this Graph Search:

#1 Focus on Getting ‘Likes’ to Your Facebook

Facebook Graph Search is based on the ‘likes’ & ‘recommendations’ which can be likened to word of mouth recommendations. What this means is that it is vital your page is liked by the friends of a person searching for your product/service. ‘Likes’ will now play a Primary Facebook Marketing Metric.

e.g. If one needs a dentist, this can be done directly by searching trusted friends opinions through Facebook without even requiring you to ask them directly. However, this can only work if the companies have created an existence for themselves on Facebook. Without connections or likes from people that use them, this procedure becomes invalid

#2. Focus on Improving Your Facebook Places Page for More ‘Check-Ins’

Potential customers within the vicinity of a local business, are able to “Check In” to a local business’ Facebook Places Page.
Facebook Places ‘check-in’ data would be factored into Graph search – here is a scenario: your friends have checked into a coffee shop via Facebook a total of 15 times in the past year and you ask Facebook graph search to recommend the best coffee shops in the same area. It would look into their check-in data and make a recommendation based on their check-ins. What might be great would be the integration of ‘reviews’ to Facebook Places pages.
If you manage a local business that has both a Facebook business page & Facebook Places page, be sure to read this guide to help merge both pages.

#3. Put As Much Information in Your Facebook Page

It needs to look complete including: an inspirationally summarised ‘About’ Section, adding achievements to your ‘Timeline’ as well as well captioned photos. All the information needs to be of a high quality which is posted regularly to retain interest. This will then help you to encourage everyone to share and contribute more. Another way is from asking for Feedback or ‘Likes’ and ‘Comments’ on posts or photos which can increase results and exposure.

#4 Get Ready to Increase Your Facebook Advertising Budget

Facebook already relies on advertisements for revenue and these will extend to the Graph Search. This extends opportunities for businesses as your adverts become more tiered towards the target audience looking for that particular product or service.

Here’s the official Facebook Graph Video…

Facebook graph search is poised to be a game changer in the world of Social & Search marketing. The question remains whether more people would rather use Facebook as a place to ask questions rather than Google. The relevance of it’s results would definitely play a significant role to it’s success. The other challenge is the mental mindset from users: most users of are attuned to using Google for search & Facebook for socializing. That is why Google+ as arguably had it tough getting accepted as a mainstream social media platform (which is gradually changing). Whatever the case, digital marketers have to keep abreast of this space.

I shall be blogging more about Facebook Graph Search as it comes out of beta, so watch this space!

4 Ways to Optimise Your Facebook Business Page for Facebook Graph Search is a post from: Fuzz One Media Blog

History tells a recursive story; technological superior and more tactical armies take the spoils in battle.

In today’s fast paced and ever changing world of business; timing, technology and strategy are key ingredients to winning in the rumble for ‘marketshare’. HMV’s demise is a peculiarly sad story of a business that used to be at fore of technology in its industry but went on a gradual demise because of its refusal to innovate at the right time. Timing is essential and the stakes are usually awfully high for businesses.

We don’t have to look too far afield for examples of failing old world businesses structured to work in the industrial age, struggling to put their head above water in the current information driven ‘big data’ age.

Blockbuster killed by Netflix, Amazon singlehandedly shut down and reconstructed the publishing industry, annihilated bookstores like Borders and shut the doors of well-established electronic retailers like Comet and Jessops’. Apple’s iTunes arguably laid the final blow on HMV’s music sales.

With some purporting that Amazon is ready for disruption - no one is safe in this ever dynamic yet brutal battle for customers, data and market dominance.

There is a grappling insider account of HMV’s demise from a ex-marketing executive, Philip Beeching who had been with HMV for 25 years on City AM. Up until about 2002 (just after the dot.com crash), due to HMV’s heritage as a 91-year-old high street retailer of music, film and games it was poised to become UK’s answer to Amazon if it had the right leadership.

Philip best sums up the reason for HMVs demise and the demise of other businesses to follow:

“It was a mixture of hubris, arrogance, and a feeling of invincibility that failed HMV. It was overtaken by the march of technology faster than it could ever imagine. And by the time it started reinventing itself and diversifying into other areas, it was too late.”

Let this be a lesson to business leaders to attune themselves finely with technology by surrounding themselves with extremely knowledgeable people and as much quality tech intelligence as possible.

As a digital marketing professional, I hear quite a lot of people still archaically refer to fellow colleagues as the “IT Department” - this disgusts me.

Tech is a lot more than the caricature the characters on IT Crowd play it out to be. It involves an in-depth understanding of business, marketplace (positioning), strategy and execution. Businesses really need to be streamlined and interwoven with both internally generated data, publicly available data and purchasable data. Using and acting on the data requires business acumen, tactics and seamless organisational collaboration.

I shall leave you with these wise words from Nassim Nicholas Taleb:

“But the effort to avoid small mistakes and minor pains makes larger ones more severe.”

The focus really has to be on embracing small failures in a bid to make large gains in tech and not the other way round.

Lets embrace tech.

Photo credits: Sameer via Flickr

Technology Wins Wars: The Demise of HMV, Lessons for Digital Marketing is a post from: Fuzz One Media Blog

Google+ is a bit of a late comer to social networking and hasn’t yet achieved the massive number of active members that Facebook and Twitter have. However it’s important to remember that it’s still early days for Google+ and brands such as Cadbury, H&M, TIME, Red Bull,  and Coca-Cola have already exceeded hundreds of thousands of followers by making use of business page features provided by Google+ to market their brands.

The business tools “Private sharing for your organization”, “Video meetings integrated with Gmail, Calendar and Docs”, and “Administrative Controls” are all “free through the end of 2013 while we continue to add more features and administrative controls designed for organizations.“

For those who already have their business page, here are our 5 Google+ Business Pages Features to Boost your Marketing:

#1. Business Pages Audience Engagement (*new) 

Probably the most noteworthy update for business pages has been the enabling of pages to interact with users that haven’t circled them. This means less waiting around for others to find you, and more putting yourself out there.

Prior to December 2012 pages could not comment, +1 (like) or share posts that were made by users that hadn’t circled (followed) them, now all of that has changed and given business’ the ability to do more inside Google+ through interacting with public posts.

#2. Google+ Communities

Something that sets Google+ apart is it’s communities feature. For business’, thanks to the aforementioned update, it provides categorized access to potential followers. You should be aware there are some restrictions here as shown below.

Here we have a screenshot of my own account the way the Fuzz One Media page can see it. You’ll notice that the page cannot add me to a circle (a list of friends, followers etc.) as I haven’t yet followed the page, and that it can comment on my public posts but not my posts to communities.

It can however +1 and share the posts I’ve made to communities. You’ll also notice that because the public post is locked, it cannot +1 or share it.

One more capability Google+ has just allowed is the ability for owners and moderators of a business page to create communities through their page.

This popped up on our Fuzz One Media page in early January 2013 encouraging us to create a community where we could give our “fans and customers a place to get together”.

#3. Google+ Hangouts

Hangouts, as Guy Kawasaki said in his e-Book “What the Plus!”, are a little like “Skype on steroids”. They allow you to have a conversation using webcams with up to nine others. Not only this, but you can broadcast your hangout to an unlimited number of viewers. This means, for example, if you are interviewing a high profile figure in your business genre you could create a post a day or two before the event that contains a link inviting followers to come and watch the hangout. Anyone who finds the link can attend, not just your followers.

There is also the option to then save it your broadcast instantly to YouTube through Google+, handy if you already have a high number of subscribers to your channel.

#4. Google+ Events

The Events feature on Google+ is a good tool to have in your arsenal for whenever you want to interact with your fans and create discussion. Besides using the Events feature for organising local events such as staff parties and meetings, by making your event an “Event On Air” anyone from the public (not just those you who are in your circles) can attend and upload photos in real-time to a shared photo album, comment, +1 and send invitations. The guest list is limited so choose the users who will create the best discussion of your topic.

You can also integrate this with Hangouts on Air to promote a public hangout well in advance, but remember not to create it as a hangout, instead, a few hours or a day before it will begin create an additional field under “Event Options”, “Advanced Options” and paste the Hangout on Air URL into the YouTube URL field.

#5. Ripples

Ripples is a feature that can propel you to getting into more users circles, providing you know how to use it. It’s a feature that as soon as any post has been shared publicly, can show you who the biggest influencers are. Ripple works best on posts that have been shared a few dozen times, but even with less you can still use it to find who your biggest influencers are.

The UK Web Design Association suggest that you create a circle of influencers to build on and post content to, as these are the people who are sharing your content.

Extras

Finally, using Google Chrome can really enhance your experience of Google+. Here are a few extensions we think will improve your time on Google+:

• Replies and More for Google+ - allows you to reply to author and commenters’ using +mentions by clicking on a “reply” link and also allows you to share to Twitter, Facebook and Emails.

• Google Translate for Google+ - useful for getting the gist of what a commenter has posted if in a different language, however it should be noted that it isn’t completed accurate and will most likely not recognize any slang.

• Do Share – schedules your posts so you can write them in advance and post them while your target audience is awake. For this to work Chrome must be on and you must be logged in.

• +Photo Zoom – hover over an image to see it enlarged.

5 Google+ Business Pages Features to Boost Your Marketing is a post from: Fuzz One Media Blog

Over the past 18 months, SEO processes as well as SEO strategy has immensely changed. Whilst SEO is still very much rooted as a technical discipline, a significant degree of SEO is verging more and more towards a creative and marketing mindset that touches the nerves of humans OR an audience that search engines are getting better at understanding. SEOs are starting to think about their audience first with engaging content before optimisation for search engines.

I quite like the direction the industry is headed at the moment and have put this infographic together that details both the OLD Vs. NEW approaches to SEO. It should hopefully shed better light as to where SEO is headed and give you an idea on how to align your digital marketing activities with these changes.

How to Share

Did you like the infographic? Please feel free to share it by using the embed code below. All feel free to leave a comment in the comment area further down below.

The New Face of SEO: How SEO Has Changed [INFOGRAPHIC] is a post from: Fuzz One Media Blog

To produce a quality blog post you spend hours researching, writing, rewriting, searching for, or even creating your own graphics. Eventually all this hard work pays out and the result of a really good piece of content but this just half of it. In order to share that exceptional work of yours with as many people as possible, you need to promote it. What is the point of being awesome if no one knows? Here are some tips that would help you reach out to a much wider audience.

Social Media

Sharing your blog post across all your social media profiles is a must. This is the easiest and most efficient way to inform your followers that you have some quality content to share. Best of all, your followers are most likely to read your post as they are already showing a certain interest to what you share. You should be aware of  the best times to share content on each social media platform though.

1. Facebook – share your blog post on your personal profile and business page, you can also use Facebook ads – promoted posts

2. Twitter – schedule tweets about your blog post a few times a day for the next couple of weeks but change the words so it does not look too spammy

3. Pinterest – create a board specifically for your blog posts and pin them all on it

4. LinkedIn – share it on your LinkedIn profile, company page (RSS feed) and any groups that you are part of

5. Google+ – make sure you share it publicly not just with your circles

Bookmarking Sites

Another good idea to promote your blog post are bookmarking websites. Many people tend to use those to find content that matches their interests so you cannot afford to miss them.

6. StumbleUpon – create an account and start stumbling your post

7. Digg.com – submit it to Digg to help other people discover it

8. Reddit.com – the most popular bookmarking website, your post should be on there

9. Delicious.com – another bookmarking website with increasing popularity

10. Technorati.com – top search engine for blogs

Your Contacts

Make sure you everyone from your contact lists knows about your new post. After all, they’ve signed up for your newsletter, RSS feed or got in touch with you because they wanted to see what you have to say.

11. Newsletter – include your new blog post in the newsletter

12. Groups & Forums – share it with groups and forums you belong to

13. Signature – you can include it in your email signature

14. Email it – take it one step further and email it to your contacts, asking for some feedback – what you think is great may not appeal to others as much

15. RSS feed – it automatically pushes your new blog post to those who are signed up

Other Blogs

If you have written a great blog post and you audience love it, then it might be a good idea to reach out to other relevant blogs and try to spread the word about your amazing post.

16. Comment – find relevant blogs and comment ot them, inserting a link to your post but make sure you add value to the discussion, don’t spam

17. Offer it as a Guest Post – a smart blogger is always looking for a good content so you can offer it as a guest post on another blog, after you give it a twist/rewrite of course

18. Ask for a link – you can ask influential bloggers in your field to link to your blog post when discussing a relevant topic

19. Submit for a reprint – some blogs might be willing to re-publish your post if they really like it

20. Exchange Links – join a blogging community and exchange links with relevant blogs

Syndication

An easy way to spread your content across multiple platforms. Below are ten websites that would help you syndicate your blog post easily

21. IFTT.com – allows you to syndicate your blog to over 50 different sites

22. BlogCatalog.com – connects you with other bloggers to share ideas and posts

23. DemandStudios.cm – distributes your blog post to publishers like USAToday.com, Salon.com and eHow.com

24. Amazon.com – submit your blog post to https://kindlepublishing.amazon.com/gp/vendor and you would get paid when kindle users read it

25. NetworkedBlogs.com – get found and get more traffic, when you submit your blogs

26. AllTop.com – syndicates content in all major categories

27. Scribnia.com – the source for reader reviews of the web’s bloggers and columnists

28. Syndic8.com – syndicates blogs covering a wide variety of topics

29. EvanCarmichael.com – very good site for business related content

30. Outbrain.com – syndicates your blog to sites like CNN.com and FastCompany.com

For a visual representation of the info check out the infographic below by Launch Grow Joy

30 Places to Promote and Generate More Traffic to Your Blog Posts is a post from: Fuzz One Media Blog