With Google+ out soon, all I am left to say is “is this the Facebook Killer“? It was just a few years ago that Facebook made its début and took over the social communities around the world with a storm. It became a social phenomenon and the competition among the social networks got fierce. Although Facebook has been at the top its game for quite some time now, the prophecies have been whispering about the next big thing. Have they come true lately with Google+ and is it “hulk” enough to fight the battle with the current social networking Gods like Facebook or Twitter? Time will tell. However, there is something about this new social networking tool, especially the features and the creativity it has brought to table that tells us it has the potential to sweep some of its major contenders clean.

Google+ Easier than Facebook?

Google+ is your new friend. It is the latest social networking site for users around the world to get connected. The idea behind the website is to improve sharing and the features it is offering are pretty tidy compared to what Facebook has to offer at the moment. Sharing does look easy: features like Circles, Hangouts and Sparks are some of the major attractions for users right now.

Circles

Allows you to share stuff on the web with appropriate audiences. Now you can choose which content you wish to share with which contacts. Very clever. You add friends to your circles and start sharing.

Hangouts

This is the video chatting feature of the tool and you can easily see who is online so you can drop-in for a quick video-chat.

Sparks

If you wish to be fed the stuff you are into and things that excite you, then Sparks does one hell of a job. It actually saved information such as articles, videos and so on that it thinks you would appreciate to use later on.

There are other features like 1+ button which is similar to that of a “like” on Facebook. With a Google+ account users also tend to enjoy unlimited photo storage on Picasa. “About” section is much more colourful and rich compared to what other social platforms offer. You can experience many other features which are new to social networking sites once you join Google+. It is worth an experience.

Google+, the Next Big Thing?

Now the question which probably seems to be rising in almost everyone`s mind is whether this social networking tool is the next big thing or not? Anyone ever used Wave or Buzz? Is Google+ just another temporary flick that will sink to the bottom, sooner or later? Or does it have what it takes to make the mark and take over the web like Facebook and Twitter did? Consider the power of Facebook and Twitter for promoting products and event? The major competition that Google+ has at the moment is these two very big social networking websites. Some social networking analysts suggest it could muscle out both, while others think it will not.

Google has some major advantages over its competitors though features like Circles, although some of these are not essentially new. But, the company has smartly put these features upfront, that is all. Facebook has the same feature (“friend lists”) but it has been in the dark for so long that people don’t even realize it even exists anymore. Similarly the chat feature, Hangout,  is clearly more interesting on Google+ where you get to have a video chat with friends and then there is your Gtalk which exists in Gmail and shows up the same in Google+. Facebook’s chat option and Twitter`s Direct messages (DMs) and @mentions now feels a little too basic compared to what Google+ offers. There also issues like privacy concerns and mobile apps where Google is likely to get more votes from as well. So will Google muscle out Facebook and Twitter? We think it is a little too early to say that. Facebook and Twitter are way too big for that at the moment and millions of users are signed up on these websites and use them daily, particularly as there are means to automate parts of these social media tools. So until most of our contacts move to Google+, Facebook and Twitter are here to stay. It is possible that Google will prove to be an addition to the number of social platforms we have at the moment, because it is definitely going to be interesting to Hangout on Google+!

Google+ is armed with the latest features and is here to stay. It has creativity, innovation and offers easy-to-use features, which is a perfect recipe to win users. Sharing has become much easier as well and the rest of the features are just icing on the cake. Whether or not it will be successful enough to overcome its competitors is impossible to say right now, but what we do know for sure is that it is going to be a nice addition to the existing social networking sites. People are likely to get attracted to its rich and cool social interaction tools. Experience Google+ yourself and decide.

How to create an effective social media strategy

This year, Facebook commanded an active audience of 600 million users. In the United States this accounts for one in every four people, in the UK 23% of people use Facebook and 1 in 13 globally access this social networking tool. Business growth is increasingly tied to digital engagement. But what is engagement anyhow and how do you establish an effective way to judge the ROI of such engagement? It is important to thoroughly examine those questions before embarking on any serious social media strategy. One common misconception is that simply having a Twitter account or a Facebook page means that you are done. Herein lies the problem. In the digital world, the old adage “if you build it, they will come” is simply not true. You need to build it, nurture it, tear down and rebuild it, and then repeat. Constantly. It is not an easy process. There are, however, some tricks to employ to make it slightly less time consuming.

1. Clearly Establish Your Objectives

What is your purpose for going online? Is it to make more money, raise awareness about your brand or product, or something else? Putting these in bullet points will help you later- when establishing the metrics for measuring ROI once you get the ball rolling.

2. Identify the Person/people and Hours You are Willing to Dedicate

Effective social media strategies can be time consuming. Make sure that whoever is tasked with executing these measures actually has enough time to do them. Another way to become more efficient is to automate parts of your social media strategy.

3. Identify Your Target Platforms

Last year Facebook’s fastest growing demographic was women over 55 years old. This has been a total game changer in the eyes of many- an indication that older, more affluent people are migrating to social media as a means to engage with their communities. Twitter is also a powerful tool to use to increase your brand and engage people.

4. Prepare an Outline

This is a precursor to your overall digital strategic marketing plan. Determine what your goals are for using social media in your business. Evaluate the tools, platforms and technologies available to you to achieve your goals and objectives. Once you have an outline, it’s time to examine the tools you will be using to execute your objectives. During the inception process, your main objective should be focusing on: the audience.

5. Your Audience

Find Your Audience

Examine the product or service you offer. Who are your buyers or consumers? Where do they reside, collaborate and converse online? A good place to start is by scanning the audience of your competitors’ blogs. Technorati (link http://technorati.com/) is among the largest blog search sites available. Run a search on the site, and find 5 to 6 of your competitors. The regular commentators on these sites comprise a good example of your audience.

Listen to Your Audience

This is a commonly skipped step. Social media offers a 2.0 experience to its users. Web 2.0 is a term used to refer to the phenomenon that occurs when users are given the opportunity to converse directly with each other and the companies and businesses that they choose to relate to.

In a real world example, compare it to a face to face conversation. There is an opportunity for talking, but also an opportunity for listening. Any good conversationalist will tell you that listening is as important, if not more important, than talking.

Listening on the web can be one of many things. Monitoring hashtags on Twitter , reading blog comments, ‘liking’ your competitors on Facebook and establishing Google keywords are good places to start.

Analyze Your Audience

You’ve found them and listened to them. What are they talking about? What platforms do they use to communicate with each other and your competitors? What information do you have that could be of use to them? Answer all of these questions and plug them into a visual spreadsheet.
Now that you’ve established your objectives, who will carry them out, where and why, it’s time to piece all of that information into a digital marketing plan. Stay tuned for the next post, where we will be examining how to do just that, along with establishing effective analytics tools to be on top of making every ounce of effort bring the outcome you desire.

So now you have a Twitter account, but you’re not sure how to utilize it for your business, how to connect with your customers, or how to build your brand awareness. Well, here are 25 great tips, tricks, and secrets for using Twitter to promote your business:

1. Ask your followers questions about what you provide, this will encourage participation and interaction. People like that.

2. If possible you should try and have at least two people tweeting, it really expands the variety of content being tweeted. Make this clear in your profile and sign off each tweet with the initials of the person. This makes your messages more personal.

3. Tweet about other businesses, other products, and services that you have personal experience with and you can talk positively about. For example, review a book in your area of expertise and let people know what you thought.

4. Provide advice that is relevant to your industry, it will build your reputation and credibility.

5. Send out a tweet to thank new followers to show them you are in a fact a human user and let them know your appreciation.

6. Take advantage of  Twitter Search or Twellow to find others in your relevant industry.

7. Use URL Shortening tools like Goo.gl or Bit.ly, to shorten the links you put in your status updates so you can fit more content in.

8. One of the strongest ways to get involved in the community is to re-tweet what others are saying and comment on other’s tweets which you find interesting.

9. Take advantage of some of the great applications Twitter has such as Twitpic, FileSocial and TwitPay. These will work in tandem with your on-going Twitter campaign.

10. Exchange your business card with other professionals through the Twitter Business Card application Twtbizcard.com.

11. If someone follows you, follow if you can but remember that 10 000 people will have a lot to say. If you go down that route, use ‘Lists’ to filter out the noise.

12. Try to use a human photo rather than a company logo; it shows your followers and other users that you are a real human and not out there to push your product at every given moment.

13. Take advantage of link tools mentioned above (Bit.ly) as they provide you with data who clicked your link. Great for ROI!

14. Use hash-tags to start targeted conversations about key topics. Word of warning, don’t overdo them, there is nothing more annoying when someone Tweets: #Morning all on #Twitter, I have bought an #awesome #Sony… you get the picture.

15. Take advantage of social media dashboards such as Tweetdeck, it will allow you to keep track of all your important accounts and same you tons of time.

16. Use Twitter to run discounts, deals, and promotions for your products and services but remember that the more you ‘push’ products the more you also push people away.

17. You can also use this tool to handle customer complaints because of your followers see that you truly care about unsatisfied customers, it will build your credibility and reputation. This is a proven fact.

18. If you have company events, try to take some photos and post them on Twitter using a service like TwitPic for all your followers to see what it’s like inside your organization. No, not that picture, the other one.

19. Hold Tweeups, which are basically like online meetings held on Twitter – they can be great for networking in a relaxing environment.

20. Use scheduling tools to pre-schedule your business tweets, this way you can schedule your tweets for the day and it can save you a lot of time. Auto-Tweeting can be useful if you’re promoting a competition or for promotional periods not to engage customers, for that you need to be available.

21. Sync your account with your mobile phone so you can tweet on the go. Also sync your account with your blog so that new blog posts are tweeted when they’re published.

22. You can also take advantage of Twitter’s hashtag search tool where you can search out keywords which are trending and interact.

23. If you are launching a product or service, build anticipation through your micro blogs.

24. Try and brand your profile by customizing the background of your Twitter profile, though this may prove tricky as it will depend if the follower uses the old or new version of the service.

25. If you find it difficult to spend longer periods of time on your account, try to share when you are online and available to Tweet: Mon – Friday 9-10am and 5-6pm. People appreciate honesty.

There are literally thousands of ways you can use Twitter to improve your communication with clients and increase your brand, can you think of any other ones?

Use the Power of Twitter to Drive Customers to Your website

Let’s face it, no one can deny how fast Twitter has grown in popularity, which is due to its effective way of keeping your social network updated in real-time. With so many people owning an account, it becomes crucial to utilize this form of social media as a way to increase the amount of qualified traffic to your site as well as to keep them notified of any upcoming products or events that you think is important to share. But before you decide to go full out in using it as a way to gain new customers, keep in mind that you should never depend on the links from this website for link juice, as they use no follow tags. However, a link’s value does not only depend on whether there is  NoFollow tag attached to it. Good quality Tweets will ensure you are Re-Tweeted which means greater SEO potential. For more detail about the NoFollow on links in tweets so this great post The Twitter NoFollow Myth Debunked.

Twitter can help to increase your brand

What can Twitter do for my business? Keep in mind that Google now has real-time searching incorporated into its engine, which in turn focuses on any type of social media site that is regularly updated. To get the best out of your accounts, make sure to choose a relevant username, and when you use keywords in your tweets, always insert the primary keywords as this helps to keep things relevant. It is this type of relevancy that attracts the right type of prospects to your website. It also ensures that your content is not seen as spam, as everything you are submitting is relevant and useful for the prospects that are following you through your Twitter account.

If you want to find out about key ways to use Twitter to help spread your ideas or products take a look at 25 Ways for using Twitter to increase your brand