Crafting a Winning Social Media Engagement Strategy

There’s so much social media being thrown around…

So much that people often forget the important things. Damn! When it comes to hitting the bull’s eye on the social web, you definitely want to pull off a killer social media engagement strategy.

Getting the right objectives, ideas and tools of the trade is how it has to start. You can’t just jump right in and start posting anything and sharing everything!

It’s absolutely easy to foster engagement on Facebook pages as well as increase your Twitter following, but you need to have a solid, workable plan to act as a support base. In this article, I’ll focus on what you need to do/understand to come up with an effective social media engagement plan right off the hook…

Know your Audience, UNDERSTAND their Necessities

Knowing your audience is really important as it helps you decide the people whom your product or service is meant for. More importantly, ensure that you address the needs of your audience to help you connect with them all through.

For instance, if your website is all about ladies’ shoes, make sure you inform them of the latest trends of shoes, designs, what shoes are comfortable, the materials they are made from, etc. This way, you have got a real shot at impressing them as well as boosting your sales figures in the process.

1: KEYwords are KEY

Keywords are an absolutely essential social media engagement tool. If you’re starting off from the wrong road, chances are that you’ll never get to your intended destination. Social media managers who’re excellent in search engine optimization know well what people are looking for when they find their business on Google.

You can use the right keywords to direct the targeted audience to your services and products. Use the Google Keyword Planner and Wordstream to find reasonable keywords for your online presence/website. If you need help coming up with some real kick-ass keywords, check out this Hubspot guide on keyword research.

Remember that the battle starts with the keywords…

…so if you are targeting the wrong terms, it might just as well not be easy to rank anywhere near the top with your social media content.

If you find that some of the keywords you have in mind are too competitive, go for long-tail keywords as they are easier to rank for (basically, longer keywords have lesser competition in the search engines).

2: Look for Gaps and Opportunities

Looking for gaps and opportunities can be quite a tiresome and time-consuming task, but it’s something you definitely want to do for your social media goals.

Identifying social media engagement opportunities is all about trying to estimate search and referral volume. If you have content on your website/blog but the social referral volume is lower than the search volume, then you have a gap. On the other hand, if there’s substantial search volume for content that relates to what your target audience may be interested in, you have an opportunity you can leverage.

Make use of analytics data related to your social media presence to see what’s going on behind the scenes, so that you might be able to identify gaps that need to be filled in.

3: Meta Tags

Yes indeed.

Meta tags do play a very crucial role in both SEO and social media engagement strategy. The title and description of any content you post to your blog, social media profiles or anywhere on the web needs to be optimized in line with your best keywords.

The key to a long-lasting social media strategy is to pull people from elsewhere on the web and direct them to your social profiles.

This way, you’ve got a real hold on them. People often check out their Facebook and twitter profiles several times a day. And if you can get them to voluntarily follow you through content you’ve provided elsewhere on the web, you have a real shot at developing a relationship with the.

4: Understand the Competition

Of course, you are not ranking at the top of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn because you have competition. Finding who the ‘other guys’ are is an important part drafting a strategic social media engagement plan. You’ll need to use the search engine results pages to identify your competition. Create an excel worksheet and make a tab for each of the competitors you are researching on.

What are they doing on social media?

Can you be able to track their social media activity using any analytics platform?

Are they fostering enough social media engagement?

How often do they update their Twitter and Facebook account?

What are you doing differently with them, and how?

Who’s who on Google when it comes to ranking for the same keywords you are interested in?

Ideally, answering these questions will open up your mind as well as enrich you with key information for the laying out of your social media strategy.

Another great way of getting to know your competitors is to use the SEOMoz (Moz.com) keyword difficulty tool. One of the best social media engagement tool around anywhere, the keyword difficulty resource gives you a pretty good idea on your competition as well as keywords.

Using this tool is simpler than might imagine…just type the keyword you are looking for and click to search. The difficulty score and authority comparison will give you the top-listed results and at the bottom you can be able to shift your results to an excel sheet.

You can also target 3 or 5 competitors for each category. The more competitors’ sites you pick the more work you will have to do. This will help you understand who the front-players in your niche are and what they’re doing to play the top-game!

5: Content is KING

As goes the popular truism…’content is everything’.

Search engines are increasingly becoming quality-content conscious. Indeed, high quality content is the best way you get to create an affirmative user experience as well as rank for keywords you are targeting.

Sharing absolutely powerful content one of the best social media engagement ideas you can actualize for better visibility and increased referrals. I recommend that you follow the “80-20” approach, which means that 80 percent of the times, you are providing useful content, while 20% of the time you are promoting your products/services.

Find helpful articles that your audience might like and post them on your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles. See what they comment about it…what type of content do they seem to like? Can you fine tune your sharing of information based on what works?

As you keep interacting with your fans on social media, you will get to understand their needs better, and thus be in a position to fine tune your posts to match these needs!

6: Learn from your Competitors

This important social media engagement strategy tip works like magic, all the time!

When it comes to the competition, you don’t just leave it at defining them. Track your competition to know what makes them successful and milk some social media engagement ideas out of that!

Go beyond the comparison of title tags and look deep into their products and services, or how they present them to their audience. The idea is to identify those unique qualities that make people visit their social media profiles as much, and emulate them!

Once you get a good idea of what there are doing to ‘look good’, try to be more creative than they are.

Carry out a content-and-feature comparison with your competition that includes resources, widgets, tools for social presence and promotion, landing pages and content. Find out what people like about your sites feature and also what they dislike.

Bear in mind your buyer persona (the profile, needs of the people you are targeting), and what their aims are. Success is only realized when your social media engagement activity crosses paths with their aims and goals.

Make use of the following search and social media engagement tools to collect essential data: –

  • Website Grader
  • SearchCLU
  • Covario
  • SEOMoz Crawl Test
  • InLink
  • Competre
  • AttentionMeter
  • comScore
  • Hitwise

7: Expand your Connectivity

The question of how many social media platforms you should subscribe to – in order to effectively advance your business as well as professional marketing interests -has been a constant issue of debate. Nonetheless, for the good of your social media engagement strategy, I recommend that you set up shop on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. An active and well-planned participation in all these five networks can generate enough buzz to get the right information out there.

Once in a while, it’s also important that you leverage social bookmarking platforms such as Digg, Delicious and Folkd when sharing content, you’ve created on your business website or bog. If you use an attention-grabbing title, such platforms can help generate a widespread audience across the World Wide Web.

8: Measure Results & Refine your Social Media Engagement Strategy

Take a break after about a month and measure your progress. How well are you doing?

  • How many new likes have you accomplished for your Facebook page?
  • How many new LinkedIn connecting have you acquired?
  • Has your Google+ circles expanded, is twitter becoming more accommodative for you?

If you don’t like the answer to any of these questions, you need to take a break and think about where you’re going wrong with your social media engagement strategy. Are you posting the wrong content? Think about your target audience and what exactly they might be looking for on the web. This way, you can fine-tune your activity to perfectly address their concerns. There are dozens of both free and paid social analytics tools that you can use for this.

9: Images do Matter

If you have in your mind that images of your products do not contribute to the success of your social media campaign, you might want to re-think that. When clients are searching for products, they not only consider the results given but also the images on the product on your social media profiles and website. As goes the popular marketing adage, ‘consumers are visual’. Share fantastic images of your products on your social media profiles and see how many people pay attention.

Use just clear product images and give them appropriate names. However, avoid coming across as too ‘salesy’. A good idea is to use images when you’re doing discounted promotions or offers.

Kissmetrics states that photos attract 53 percent more ‘Likes’, 84% more click-throughs and 104% more comments.

10: Multiple Postings, Multiple Timezones = More Engagement

If you have an international following, this is a major social media engagement strategy. Some of the best-known people in the social world, including Guy Kawasaki, often post the same content several times. The reason behind this is so as to reach followers in different time zones. This can greatly enhance the response generated by your social media content. Consider posting some of your best content several times within the length of the day. This however does not apply to YouTube, as you might not want to post the same video twice.

Just Getting Started? Consider Some Advertising

What if you just created your Facebook page or Twitter account?

Chances are that you aren’t going to be getting hundreds of likes by the day. As part of your preliminary social media engagement plan, you ought to get people to boost your presence. Make sure that you invite your friends, existing customers as well as colleagues. If you still have the numbers to make new followers feel at home, consider paid advertising. Paid advertising works fantastically for Facebook pages, and you can get as many likes as you want per day. Basically, all you do is setup a daily budget and configure a sponsored ad. You can filter to target your audience appropriately. Facebook shows the ad to the right people and gets you started on the right footing.

Today, social media is a key aspect of the online success process. Of course, you need to promote your products or services, as well as create brand awareness. Implementing the strategies covered in this post should get moving in the right direction. You’ll be able to take your LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Facebook and Video Marketing campaigns to a whole new level.

Best Ways to Make Money Online in 2022

The world wide web has revolutionized the global economy and created numerous ways to make money online. Most of these opportunities revolve around publishing high quality content and performing ‘gigs’ on various platforms. It is important that you watch out for those ‘get rich quick’ schemes because they often turn out to be a waste of time. Based on our extensive research, below are the 6 best ways to make money online in 2022.

1.      Blogging

Blogging is a time-tested way to make money – and it has been for a long time. As long as you can write well and convey your ideas clearly, then you can make it happen. The first step is to identify a niche that you are interested in. You’ll then need to purchase a domain name and set up a website. Nowadays, you can just hire a freelancer to set this up for just a few hundred dollars. Once you have your website running, focus on keyword research so you can identify areas of opportunity in your niche. You may either do the content yourself or hire a freelancer to do it at an affordable price. Make sure you spend the time to interlink and optimize your blog in order to attract traffic.  

2.      Freelancing                   

Freelancing is one of the best ways to make money, especially in the era of remote work. Companies are looking to access the global pool of talent at more affordable pricing. Some of the top freelancing platforms to try include Upwork.com, Fiverr, and Freelancer.com. Fiverr is good for small gigs starting from $5. Upwork offers an extensive selection of online jobs ranging from customer service to accounting, writing, software development, and digital marketing.

3.      Digital marketing

Almost everyone is trying to take their business online so they can access more customers. Naturally, this creates more opportunities for individuals who are well versed in digital marketing. You can focus on areas such as social media marketing, paid ads, and more. One of the best things about this area is that there are numerous online courses that can help refine your skills and build up your competence. As soon as you are able to get results with your marketing efforts, people will be ready to pay for your services.

4.      Content creation

There are numerous opportunities for content writers. Business people are always looking for individuals who can craft excellent website content along with optimized blog posts to attract organic search traffic. Some of the best places to find writing work include freelance platforms such as Upwork.com and Fiverr.

5.      Selling stuff

More and more people are making decent money selling things online. This could range rom arts and crafts to old clothes. The idea is to build your own eCommerce site or utilize existing platforms such as eBay, Craigslist, Poshmark, VarageSale, Swappa, and Etsy. Whatever platform you focus on, make sure that you optimize your listings so that they are compelling to customers and rank well on search.

6.      Video creation

Video is a great way to make money especially if you are comfortable on camera. You really don’t need to be a Hollywood star to succeed at this. Just select an area that you are comfortable with and create awesome content. This can then be uploaded on platforms such as YouTube or Tiktok. You may also create online courses especially if you are an expert in a specific area.

Conclusion

The key to making good money online is to pick one area and then focus on it. It may be hard especially when you are just getting started but persistence will get you there. There are tons of online resources that will help you guide you through.

7 Excellent Tips for Marketing Your Blog or Website

Setting up a website is the first step towards cultivating a profitable online presence for your business. However, you still need to go out there and perform activities to optimize and market it. The idea is to enhance ranking on search engines such as Google while also attracting more customers from other websites and platforms. This article highlights X excellent tips to market your website or blog.

1.      Focus on SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is very important when it comes to enhancing the presence of your business website or blog. The idea is to get your content ranking where users can see it so as to attract traffic. Start by performing keyword research to figure out what phrases your target audience may use to find your content. Once this is done, you can focus on content optimization and marketing. Make sure that you have a comprehensive strategy that addresses both on-page and off-page SEO.

2.      Google My Business

Google My Business offers a perfect opportunity to help rank your local business. The idea is to capture essential information that prospects can in turn use to find your business from search, mobile, Google Maps, and other Google platforms. Make sure that you add the correct information, including your website and contact details, so customers can find everything they need.

3.      Leverage Video Content

Video content is key to a comprehensive optimization strategy. There are billions of hours’ worth of YouTube content consumed daily. It’s no wonder that YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine after Google. Statistics show that up to 73% of potential customers are more inclined to purchase your products after they watch a video. This makes sense why you should actively create and publish video content on YouTube and on your website.

4.      Leverage Email Marketing

This is another excellent avenue to boost your online reach. Over 3.5 billion people use email and online businesses can use this channel to push deals, promotions, contests, and discounts. It is important, however, that you learn how to optimize this method because your prospects probably receive dozens of emails per day. You need a way to separate your messaging from the competition, otherwise nobody is going to open your emails. If you do not have the time to learn more about email marketing, consider hiring a seasoned expert who can ensure that you succeed.

5.      Maintain a Blog

Many websites run a blog so they can share important content with their audience. This is also an excellent way to use content marketing for better search engine ranking. Focus on finding long tail keywords that do not have that much competition. Create long-form, optimized and engaging posts on these keywords and then publish them to your blog. With time, these should help you attract some organic traffic from search engine results pages as well as improve your website’s keyword profile.

6.      Build Backlinks

Backlinks are links from external websites directed to your websites. These are perceived as ‘votes’ by search engines and thus are an important inclusion to your website optimization strategy. Some techniques that you can use to create a strong backlink profile include guest posting, creating links with images, and connecting to industry experts. The more backlinks you have from established, authoritative websites, the higher your website will rank on search engines.

7.      Offer Giveaways

Hosting giveaways on your website is another great way to increase reach and promote your business. Consider asking people to share your links for a chance to win a gift. You may also publish an insightful industry report and then give it away for free in exchange for a user’s email address. This will help increase subscriptions and thus drive targeted traffic to your website.

Conclusion

When it comes to online marketing and optimization, keep in mind that what works for one website may not necessarily be what works for another. The idea is to evaluate each method based on the success you are getting and adapt accordingly. Using analytics tools can such as Google Analytics can help you make sense of all the data points.

Long Term Care Insurance Quotes Rate Increases

Q&A with client on Long Term Care Insurance quotes past and future potential rate increases

Client:

Please explain Nonforfeiture Benefit.

Difference between Step Rated and Compound increase options.

What is List Bill payment method?

Don’t see cc option for ongoing payments.

Are companies other than the long term care insurance quotes you sent likely to have lower premium increases? Percentages of past long term care insurance quotes increases on worksheet seem astronomical. 25-35% every year or two? Is this right? Doesn’t make sense if I already pay for inflation protection. Please clarify.

Compare LTC:

1) the non-forfeiture rider adds about 15% to the long term care insurance quotes cost and it would give you the ability to drop your policy at any time and all premiums you put in up to that point are set aside by the company. In the even you end up needing care you’d have the premiums paid to use as benefits. 99% of people who buy one of the long term care insurance quotes we sent end up keeping it so it’s probably not worth the money.

2) The step rated will grow both your benefits and premiums that percent each year. This is only used by us for older clients who buy a policy in their 70’s who have a much shorter time horizon.

3) For small group plans, you’d be direct bill for your long term care insurance quotes and they would mail you a good old paper bill when do.

4) You can pay with a CC just on the first year’s payment. They send a bill going forward and don’t allow a CC because of the fees. No LTC company will allow CC payment indefinitely and in fact, there are only two companies where you can make the first year’s payment by CC.

5) They all have had increases except a major mutual company. They however has not been selling it for nearly as long, the one we sent started in 1981 and the major mutual in the year 2000. The industry underpriced the risk on those older policies from the 1980’s and 1990’s as they were just learning the actuarial numbers. The long term care insurance quotes being sold now have corrected for those miscalculations such as women file 68% of claims so now the one we sent charges women more than men, don’t diabetics who take insulin, along with other health related changes. In short, they just take the healthy now.

The 25-35% increases were not in all states and across the board. They have to file state by state as different populations file claims at different rates. It certainly was not every two years, the policies that allowed the increase made them break the increase up over a three-year period. Now they have corrected for the underpricing the long-term care insurance quotes initially.  Premiums will be must more stable going forward in my opinion.

One last macro-economic item that caused the increases with the long-term care insurance quotes is back in the 1980’s when they were pricing this stuff they had no idea fast forward 20 years we’d have a Fed manipulation interest rates for so long. They thought they could take premiums received and buy US treasuries and get the 5% that had been the average for 100 years, not the 10 year T-bill is paying just 2%. From an insurance companies view that’s a huge miss on anticipated revenue. Now, they are pricing the current long term care insurance quotes based on an ultra-low interest rates environment for the foreseeable future and thus premiums will be much more stable in my opinion.

To be fair, rate increases on long term care insurance quotes can happen but they are highly regulated.

Blogging At Its Finest

Considering starting a blog and looking for some motivation? Here are 10 good reasons:

It enables individuals to enjoy freedom

Having a blog as primary income provider and nothing else, would mean not going to office for work and not having to deal with a demanding boss. Sustaining a blog spells that an individual or blogger owns his time that is, a blogger may take care of it only when he feels like doing it. With this, a blogger can focus on other personal affairs such as visiting malls, going to various places to unwind, playing sports and many more. Maintaining a blog is nevertheless, not that very complicate at all. As long as a blogger is able to administer his time accordingly, then he can have a pretty chance of enjoying success in blogging.

A blog can be a mechanism towards extending a hand and helping other people

Considering that a blog is an ideal site for social interface, it could be a perfect way to get in touch to others by helping them in their difficulties. Moreover, it is the perfect venue to communicate to others, by drafting and posting an editorial piece in it, explaining how blogging could possibly transform their lives. There are lots of individuals who regularly complain how displeased they are of their particular jobs and the income they respectively realize. Well, a blog could be a way to grab their attention and encourage them to do blogging to complement their needs and wants. Obviously, blogging could be a successful instrument to helping various readers resolve their problems.

It can help individuals bloom in social networks

It is true that social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook assist a particular blog to lift up its profile but nonetheless, a blog can pretty much do the same to a specific blogger for his social networking as well, in return. For instance, the articles that are posted on the blog get exposed all over the Twitter and that spells to a growing social networking profile.

It is the ideal avenue in supplementing value to a specific company

 Most of the time, if not always, clients and/or customers see almost all organizations, companies, institutions and the like as purely businesses only that operate just to gain and realize income, and that is it. However, not all businesses are like this, more so those that operate for a certain cause or purpose for the benefit of the community. With this, blogging is the perfect tool for a business to disclose and/or showcase the other side of it, to thwart the idea of being a profiteering organization only. It is vital for every business to deserve the trust and confidence of its customers.

Blogging can be an opportunity for one to wind down to relieve from stress

 It is basically true that writing, especially to those that are fond or into writing, is a perfect means to loosen up and unwind from the hassles and tensions of work. Writing allows so many individuals and/or writers to let out their sentiments or thoughts of something that is quite bothering. It goes without saying that the goal could be attained through blogging, in one way or another.

Starting a blog is technically and relatively effortless

Creating a blog demands no experience and requires less time to install. Normally, there are no complications involved.

Blogging allows people to develop their writing and communication skills

 These are without a doubt, apparent benefits of indulging into blogging. Conversely, not all people are able to realize these unless they get to experience the same. Certainly, an individual gets to interrelate with so many audiences when blogging and that translates to improving communication and writing skills, inescapably.

A blog enables an individual to keep on the go and well-informed

 Maintaining a blog necessitates a blogger to keep rationalized and well-resourced with the latest happenings in a specific field of interest and the like. It is critical therefore that a blogger post fresh and new information to stay abreast with other bloggers. With this, a blogger may be compelled to carry out research which then leads to obtaining more and more information and knowledge.

It is a site for an individual or blogger to articulate or voice out his thoughts or opinions

An individual who wishes to demonstrate a point and that, would like to draw supporters in the process may get the most out of a particular blog to meet that objective.

It can lead an individual to introducing himself as an expert

A blog may cause someone to be perceived as an expert and the like, eventually. A blog that particularly focuses to a specific field could be a mainstay of significant information that would definitely captivate audience or readers. Fundamentally, this leads a blogger to being recognized as an expert. Later on, this may lead to other opportunities such as crafting and publishing a book and the like.

Taking into account all the benefits and advantages of having a blog, anyone would certainly be forced and encouraged to start and create one. Moving on, without a doubt, the above reasons are far way more than enough to entice anyone to embrace the world of blogging.

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