Friday, June 18th, 2010
Have you Googled yourself lately? Getting to the top of Google has and continues to be a main goal for most websites. It should also be a concern for you personally to see what comes up when you Google yourself. Many job recruiters Google all of their applicants to check them out. If you want to know what they're finding, it's an easy test to try yourself. Google offers more than just search though, for personal use you can do so much more. Use Google maps, get a Gmail email for professional use, create a personal profile, utilize Google Calendar for organization, etc. This list of products continues to grow, especially in the States.
If you're a business owner and you haven't submitted a Google profile, here are some reasons to go do it right now:
If you don't have the time or energy to invest in creating consistent profiles to represent your personal or corporate identity, we can help. Contact us today to relieve some social media start-up stress or to do some social media management and maintenance.
Tags: business, calendar, Google, maps, personal, professional, profile, SMO, social media optimization
Posted in My Media Magnet, Social Media News, Social Media Tools | No Comments »
Friday, June 18th, 2010
Have you heard? Nobody uses The Yellow Pages anymore, they just Google it. And now, if they can't find what they want on Google they localize their search on Yelp. Yelp doesn't just stop at finding what you want either. It's a review site so you leave knowing where you're going, why you're going there and what you can expect to experience while you're there. It's free to submit your company so that people can find you so get on there!
Here are a few reasons you may want to use Yelp over your what you currently visit for reviews:
Yelp is the only review site that lets reviewees talk back
Yelp combines local reviews and social networking functionality to create a local online community
The site allows consumers to share the experiences they have had with local businesses and lets business owners share information about their business with their customers both publicly and privately
Over 25 million people visited Yelp in August 2009 to make spending decisions
Yelp applies a "First to Review" reward system to create a competition among contributing members, further motivating the creation of reviews and adding to the site’s business coverage
Site visitors can see which contributing users are the most popular, respected, and prolific, how long each has been a member, and which have interests similar to their own
You can Yelp on your phone allowing for accessibility and ease of use
If you are concerned about transparency or receiving a bad review, it's time to get over it. People are going to find a place online to voice their opinions whether you provide and monitor the platform or not. Get your name on Yelp, let your network know you're there, attain valuable reviews and testimonials from your network and ask them to post them on Yelp and suddenly you've nullified any negatives by saturating your review pool with positives!
If you are just looking for cool social media tools, Yelp fulfills that specification too. I found an amazing restaurant to take my hubby to for his birthday and the reviews made me feel confident and know how much to budget. I always check Yelp now before trying a new place because I hate being disappointed. Join the fun and learn from others on Yelp, start contributing your own reviews to help out and build a personal network.
For more information on Yelp or other social media services please contact My Media Magnet.
Tags: functionality, Google, localize, negative, positive, review, search, SMO, social media optimization, social networking, Yellow Pages, Yelp
Posted in Social Media News, Social Media Tools | No Comments »
Friday, June 18th, 2010
LinkedIn is one of what we refer to as 'The Big 3' of social media. It is an amazing tool for professional networking and enables you to go beyond traditional networking. It's another one of those sites that if you aren't on it you should be. I often Google people and the first search results for their name is their LinkedIn profile. You want to ensure that when someone does a Google search on your name it's your LinkedIn profile that pops up and gives them information.
Some of the major reasons we love LinkedIn are:
LinkedIn is a network of experienced professionals from around the world representing 170 industries and 200 countries
A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second
They have over 50 million users as of October 14th, 2009; a jump from 45 million users since August 12th, 2009.
Linkedin saw a 5.68% growth in traffic for the month of September alone
Executives from all Fortune500 companies are LinkedIn members
LinkedIn truly is international with 50% of their users being from outside the U.S.
They won two Webby awards in 2007 for services and social networking
All of these statistics can work for you if you use LinkedIn as a tool in the most effective way for you and/or your business. When you first get on LinkedIn, work on getting your profile to completion. The system will more or less guide you through this process of uploading an image (important for establishing your online identity!), uploading your resume, filling out profile information, adding relevant applications, etc. When you get to adding applications, choose carefully. Showcase only your strengths on your profile as recruiters are now using LinkedIn more than ever to find potential job candidates.
Your next step and level of involvement goes beyond status updates on LinkedIn. I've found the true value of LinkedIn and the place to get networking done is in Groups. Groups on LinkedIn are AMAZING resources! Try searching your interests and find out who is saying what and where they are saying it about the interest of your choice. This is a great way to get involved in conversations with like-minded individuals and start networking! You can also start your own Group on an interest and establish yourself as an expert through vigilant maintenance and innovative discussion topics.
As with all social media, the possibilities with LinkedIn are literally endless. The bottom line is to get online and get active! Each time you make a post to LinkedIn or participate in a group, not only are you growing your network but growing your Social Media Optimization (SMO). The more active you are, the more ways you direct people to your name and your site, the more successful your overall social media campaign will be. If you need help getting started or just want some more information on social media in general please visit our Contact Us page.
Tags: business, Fortune500, Google, LinkedIn, members, networking, personal, professional, profile, search, services, SMO, social media, social media optimization, The Big 3, tools
Posted in My Media Magnet, Social Media News, Social Media Tools | No Comments »