Category Archives: Social Media

The plusses and minuses of Google+

September 11, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Analytics, Social Media | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

I have just started doing a lot on Google+. Yes, it has its pros and cons as well as its pluses and minuses. Should you use Google+? Here is what I think.

(+) If you use Google+ a lot, it will do miracles for your analytics and site traffic. Something magical happens when you hit the 1000 mark on Google+. Your site traffic will spike according to what word on the street is.

(+) Google+’s feature of having circles is so much better than Twitter. You can arrange your followers by category, interest or industry. You can also segment your favorite accounts by creating a favorite or VIP circle. It is amazing the quality of the material in my VIP circle while my industry specific circles are filled with cyber trash. Oh well… At least I can separate them. On Twitter, you would have to create a separate account where you could follow your favorite accounts. On Twitter you can favorite a post, but not an account. At least not as of today — things could change!

(+) Google+ has great communities where you can post content. This feature is very similar to Linked In’s feature where you can have discussion groups or communities. Linked In often has much larger and better groups for business topics, but they tend to be a little too oriented towards self-promoting content and job search while Google+ gets better quality interactions in many cases.

(+) Google+ is a fast way to get clicks to your blog if you use communities and post interesting and relevant content. Twitter and Facebook do not make it easy to get clicks until you have a huge following. You don’t need to have a single follower on Google+ to get a ton of clicks, and those clicks will boost your SEO rankings for your site a lot if they are “quality” clicks.

(-) Google+ doesn’t have that many accounts compared to Twitter or Facebook. I’m not sure what the growth rate is, but Google is going to be promoting Google+ less from now on as well. Maybe they should find a new way to promote it instead of slowing down? Additionally, communities on Google+ tend to be very small except for a few photography and travel groups. In general, Google+ seems to be very much more geared towards visuals than Twitter or Facebook. Google+ allows taller photographs, while Twitter has a one size fits all on your profile page until someone clicks on it.

(-) Google+ makes has a multi-step process to see what your followers posted. If it is that difficult to see what they are publishing, it will be difficult for others to see what you are publishing too!

All in all, Google+ seems like one of the better social media sites out there. There are a few areas that they need improvement and over the next few years, they might make a few renovations and become #1 in the social media industry. We’ll have to wait and see.

The Lamborghini effect in Social Media marketing

September 6, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Popular on Google+, Semi-Popular, Social Media | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

I have been doing marketing for my entire life it seems. I remember as a kid, I marketed my lawn mowing business. I came up with sweat intensive methods for attracting clients in a heartbeat. I used to write an estimate on a flyer and leave it under their door mat if they were not home. I got hired by 10% of the people I left a flyer with. That is phenomenal. But, it is because I used a personal touch, and gave a quick and customized bid to everyone. Being fast at doing accurate estimates has its advantages.

As an adult, I have been running websites for more than a decade. It is hard to run a website, and the marketing keeps changing. Google is basically in charge, so whatever they like, you had better do!

The Lamborghini effect
It sounds like a movie. The Italian Job, The Bridge on the River Quai, The Lamborghini Effect — playing at 5pm, tickets sold at the door. Basically what I am talking about is having a marketing methodology so potent, that if you just tap the gas pedal, you will hear a huge “Voom” sound, and magic will happen. Today, I had a Lamborghini moment, if I may coin that phrase. I published a popular blog entry. But, I had also channeled some traffic to my outsourcing blog (the one you’re reading,) from my newer travel twitter which gets a lot of retweets. The result is that my traffic was more than double for a few days on my blog. Wow! All I did was tweet a few tweets and voom!

Followers are useless, you need results!
Lots of companies and individuals are in social media marketing, and claim to be good at it. You will see offers where they can get you 2000 followers overnight for a low fee, or maybe even 30,000 followers. Followers are useless. You need relevant, active, engaged followers, even if you only have a hundred. Most companies hire people who are not that experienced, and who will not get you amazing results. They will get you some new followers, maybe write a few tweets if they can even write well, and perhaps get you retweeted a few times. There is no focus on results, only on spinning the wheels. I don’t like this. I not only want results, I want to be blown out of the water. Real results are traffic to your site from clicks, and getting new customers — not new dormant followers who just sit there collecting cyber-dust.

My goal
My goal in social media is to learn how to get results so potent that I can help others to promote their social media campaigns. I want one or more twitter accounts, and blogs that get so much active traffic, that one tweet from me, and you won’t know what hit you! It amazes me that my older Twitter accounts have 4000, or 8000 followers, but only get retweeted two dozen times a month, while my newer travel twitter gets two dozen retweets per day, on a bad day. Wow! But, what if I can get my campaign to the point where I am getting hundreds of retweets per day? I think it is possible.

Blogging
As far as blogging is concerned, by blogging more and more, I learn what is popular and what is not. Writing a popular blog entry in a niche market can get you a few thousand clicks over the life of the blog entry. Some entries get a lot of clicks their first week, while others slowly get clicked on and attract search engine traffic over years. Some of my most popular blog entries were written in 2011 by the way! My goal is get better at identifying what people like, and to continue to write more popular blog entries. I want to get so good, that all of my blog entries are popular. We’ll see what happens, but it is going well so far.

Summary
Most social media companies will give you “a” Twitter account and “a” Facebook account and perhaps a blog that is “blahg.” Don’t settle for less. I like it when you get results that are so amazing that you say, “What happened?” That is the Lamborghini effect in Social Media Marketing. Once you’ve experienced it you’ll never forget it!

How to use Twitter to get more BPO & Call Center Clients!

September 1, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Twitter is a mysterious animal. People use it daily to interact with so many other people. It is really baffling. If you run a BPO, Data Entry company or Call Center, you will be equally baffled at the daunting task of finding customers on any medium. It is possible to find customers on Twitter, but it’s not how you think it is.

Don’t sell
Don’t use Twitter to sell. This might be a hard concept to grasp as someone struggling to get your fledgling business going. You use Twitter to network, not sell. So, how do you get clients if you don’t sell? You mingle with them. Get them to feel comfortable with you, and get them to know you. Ask them if you have any questions about your industry.

Give, but don’t ask for anything in return
By answering their questions rather than selling you are being a valuable resource rather than a desperate and pestilent salesperson! Get others to value you by being nice, helpful and a source of reliable knowledge. If they have lots of questions about the technical support industry and you are the smartest person they have talked to in conjunction that industry, they will be likely to buy your services in the future. Maybe not tomorrow, but they will not forget you if you are the most helpful person in the world who gives, but asks for nothing in return.

Indians often feel that you get by pulling
Many people in India feel that the way to get more is to grab, and pull, and use force. This unfortunately has an opposite effect with Americans. If an Indian cab driver says, “Come with me,” and grabs our bag without permission, this is upsetting to us. If the same guy said, “Would you like a ride anywhere or some travel tips for Pune?” I would be much more likely to hire that cab driver because he was polite and helpful unlike the other pushy nitwits. The more sophisticated crowd in India has learned that you get by giving, not by grabbing. Sophisticated Indians have helpful blogs, and will talk to you about their service without being desperate to make a sale. They give, without asking in return.

How do you know if you have a contact person?
If you network, it doesn’t do much good if you’re not networking with a decision maker. It is hard to know who the decision makers are in the sea of hundreds of millions of Twitterers. My suggestion is to find either business owners or managers in large businesses. They will either need similar services in one form or another, or have friends that need those services. They might be doing their call work in-house, but they will have call work that needs doing. If you “get in good” with these people by making friends, they will be likely to use you when they have a need, or refer their friends to you. It is hit and miss finding the right people, but at least start with the right crowd.

Where do you find such people?
There are large Twitter accounts for business oriented people such as Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur, and others. These accounts have over a million followers each. if you look through their followers, you can find lots of great entrepreneurs and decision makers. After mingling with many of them, and you will have to mingle a lot, you will eventually meet some of the right people.

Twitter takes time, and grammar
If you want Twitter to be quick, it is not for you. I think that Twitter is exciting and fun. It’s fun to meet new people and fun to watch your number of followers go up. It is like an addiction in many ways. You also need to make your interactions in clear, and grammatically correct English which will be hard if English is not your native language. If your English is less than perfect, it is always a good idea to take writing lessons. Good communication skills translate into higher incomes statistically, so instead of wishing you made more money — learn to communicate like a polished professional and the money will come more easily.

What is step 1?
Create a Twitter account. Get an attractive picture for your icon, and another attractive picture for you top of page image. If your tweets have beautiful photos attached to them, that helps too. Photos are time consuming and can be expensive, so choose your battles wisely.

Step 2… Be a follower
The next step on Twitter is to start following people. Don’t follow more than a few dozen people per day. If they don’t follow you back after a few days, you should unfollow them. Twitter doesn’t like it if you follow substantially more people than follow you, so be mindful about your number of followers.

Step 3… Be an unfollower — and a leader!
Tweet about interesting things. Don’t just tweet about your services. 95% of your tweets should be valuable information about your industry, and other interesting stuff. Only 5% of your tweets should be about special offers that your company has.

Keep tweeting good stuff and people will follow you. You can retweet valuable information that others post as well.

Happy tweeting and good luck.

Twitter & Google+, how many of the same techniques work?

August 16, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

I have been using Twitter for several years now. I started having my accounts professionally managed by someone else. But, about a year ago, I started my own account. I liked it so much, I got two more accounts for the different facets of my business ventures. In any case, I found Twitter hard to master. The art of the tweet is not for a novice. Tweet writing seems to be the hardest form of writing. There are such rigid space considerations that it is hard to write something popular in such little space and still have room for a link and tags. In any case, after four years, I feel I have finally become adequate at Twitter. Perhaps I’m far from mastery, but I know how to identify and write tweets that get retweeted, and I know how to get lots of followers quickly.

I just started using Google+. The first few days were hard, but now I feel I’m starting to get the hang of it. My question is, how many of my Twitter techniques work for Google+. Let’s take a look.

(1) Posting hot photos on Twitter
This helps you get more followers more quickly. I tried sharing other people’s amazing travel photos of breathtaking shots of amazing tourist destination. This technique works on both mediums. Not all photos are alike in their effectiveness. But, I found that the same stuff that got retweeted on Twitter got shared on Google+. CNN”s “The perfect wave” photo is an example of a winner. I’m not the only one who likes that pic by the way.

(2) Following lots of people.
I learned that on Twitter, you can follow up to 1000 people per day. I found that following around 100-200 people per day was optimal. I could find relevant followers in that quantity easily by querying who was following particular other larger relevant accounts. On Twitter, I get a 25% follow back rate on people I follow (on average.) From some smaller more serious sources, I can get more like 40%, but they don’t have the volume. On Google+, I only get a 10% follow back rate, and they only let me follow about 40 people per day. On Twitter, I can get up to 50 followers a day by following people and unfollowing them after three days if they didn’t follow me back. On Google+ I can only get 4 followers using the same technique. But, four is better than zero.

(3) Posting a lot on Twitter
Posting unique content on Twitter will get you new followers, especially if others favorite or retweet your content. Twitter will introduce you to more people, the more content you share. Google+ doesn’t seem to reward you so much for posting. However, if you post in relevant communities, you can get up to a dozen new followers a day which is not that bad. The posting is the same, but on Google+, you would just not be posting on your own account.

(4) Posting really hot content
On Twitter, if you post a lot of hot content you will get retweeted a lot, and Twitter will introduce you to more followers. But, it takes hours of work to create the content enough to get any significant following based on content unless you have a huge account already with more than 20,000 followers. Posting amazing content on Google+ helps, but only if you post it on communities, and not on your personal page. Why is life so confusing.

(5) Posting tweets with great photos
Photos help on any medium, but Google+ will accept taller diagrams and photos giving the photos more weight. If you have particular posts that are popular, it might make sense to invest in some good artwork!

That is it for now. Twitter and Google+ are very different, but they do have some overlapping characteristics as well. If you are smart at social media, you can probably figure out any medium. Good luck!

Choose a social network and focus on it

August 13, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Many experts have been saying that you should not just jump on the bandwagon for every new social network that comes along. There is some truth to this reasoning, but you need to understand a few things about which network you jump onto.

(1) You won’t know until you try
If you just stick to Facebook because you are doing okay with Facebook, you might be missing the boat. First of all, every time you try a new social network, you evolve along your leaning curve, and expand your thinking. If you were doing well on Facebook before, you might start doing amazingly after you try one or two other networks just because your thought process could have improved. You won’t know if your business does well on Stumbleupon if you never try it. Also, if you try it early in your social media evolution, try it again when you have a little more experience. You might do better the second time around.

(2) Some social networks are better for your general industry
After looking around on many social media sites, I have come to the conclusion that there are many social networks that are good for talking about social media marketing, travel, news, and other topics of more general interest. The problem is that when you have a more specific specialty, many networks don’t have many individuals on the network. On a brighter note, sometimes small communities tend to be warmer. I am now using Google+ where there are very few Realtors. I post articles on Real Estate groups, and my articles get a lot of traffic despite how small the groups are. So, don’t judge a network by its size. Try it out and see what the results are like! I will say that in general, Facebook has the largest collection of active users worldwide, so if you have a specialty niche, Facebook might be a way to drive a lot of traffic to your site and blog, especially if you are smart how you use the PPC program!

(3) Some networks get you traffic right away while others don’t
Through years of trying different things and trying to figure out the mystery of social media, I have learned several things. There are certain networks where you can get tons of quality clicks really easily and other networks where you can’t get clicks unless you build up your following. I recommend starting on Google+ first, and post on lots of communities. This is a fast way to get thousands of quality clicks per month coming to your blog! Twitter is the easiest social media network to manage, but I would try it last as getting big results on Twitter only happens after a year or more of paying your dues building your network.

Twitter: Organic
To use Twitter effectively as a way to boost your blog traffic, you really need 20,000 followers minimum to make a significant dent in your traffic. Twitter is a great way to get long term traffic if you are willing to invest in building your network which requires daily work.

Twitter: PPC
Twitter’s PPC can get you lots of clicks. But, the quality of the blog clicks I got was really bad, averaging several seconds, while organic clicks averaged around two minutes. Google rewards me generously for “quality clicks,” but, doesn’t care one way or the other about quickie clicks. Twitter PPC was not a way for my business to expand quickly, although the bill was high. Organic Twitter has done nice things for my optimization, but takes time.

Facebook: Organic
Facebook also takes time to build your network. Your posts may not even be seen by your followers with the current algorithm. However, if you have a loyal following (I am lucky to have this,) you can get a healthy amount of clicks to your blog. We have about 5000 followers and get about 300 clicks a month to our blog which are quality clicks (duration averaging over two minutes.)

Facebook: PPC
Facebook PPC is also a great tool, but only works well with your most popular posts. Facebook PPC makes you pay based on your exposure, not your results. So, figure out what the top most popular 2% of your blog articles are and promote them regularly on Facebook PPC. You will get lots of clicks and get new followers!

Google+
I am frustrated at how time consuming it is to get followers on Google+. It takes me at least six times as long to get a follower on Google+ than it does on Twitter. I’m not even sure what the value of a Google+ follower is in terms of click traffic. However, I will say that as someone just starting out, I am getting about 50 clicks per day posting on Communities which is amazing. My total clicks from Twitter to my blog was 50 per month a few months ago, so 50 clicks a day is highly welcomed. I might be able to find a way to make that 200 clicks a day if I can grow a few more neurons in my head! I don’t know what the benefit of having a huge Google+ following is, but you can get tons of fast clicks posting on communities, so don’t overlook this network as it offers immediate results at no cost.

Linked In
Linked In’s performance is similar to Google+. You can get immediate clicks posting on their groups. Their groups in business oriented specialties tend to be larger than Google+, so post away, and watch your clicks come in. The quality of a Linked In click is excellent in my experience since the users are often serious business types.

(4) Some networks are growing in momentum while others are shrinking.
Social media networks are moving targets. You can’t assign a permanent judgement to any social media network. First of all their algorithms change over time. Next, their usership can grow or shrink as other social media networks become popular or get phased out. Additionally, your skill at using a particular network tends to grow over time if you are always trying to improve. So, when you take notes assigning scores to the various different networks, have an expiration date of a year after you assign the score. In a year, the playing field could be very different!

(5) Once you have mastered all of the bigger networks…
I am not sure if focusing and sticking to a single social media network is the right approach. But, here is my train of thought. If you have tried all of the networks, built a following in each, and have taken metrics as to how much effort is involved in getting quality clicks (clicks with a duration of more than a minute could be a definition of a quality click,) then it is time to make a decision.

You might find that on Facebook you can get a high volume of cost effective clicks using the PPC program. That has been my experience, but only on my most popular blog entries.

You might find that Twitter offers you the most time-efficient quality clicks, but only after your network has exceeded 30,000 which is not so easy to build.

You might find that Google+ offers you thousands of clicks your first week publishing on communities, but doesn’t match up to the time-efficiency that a mature Twitter community does.

Summary
Basically, you can’t make an informed decision of which social network is best until you have mastered them all, or at least tried them all. If you find that one network offers you overwhelmingly more clicks per hour or dollar spent than the others: then, and only then it might be time to disregard the other networks and focus on that one! If you find a way to get cheap, quality clicks, milk it for what its worth, and let me in on your secret!

Instead of asking people to like you on facebook and getting ignored…

August 12, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged | Leave a comment

30 people invite me to their FB daily & I ignore all 30.
Every day I follow over one hundred people on each of my three Twitter accounts. I get endless DM’s or what I call private messages from people saying, “Thanks for following, care to follow me on Facebook?” I ignore all of these requests for several reasons. First of all, I’m busy, and don’t have two minutes to even visit their Facebook page. If I did have two minutes, I would kind of want a reason why I should invest that two minutes in them looking at their Facebook. If their Facebook page was really interesting, it might be worth investing a lot more than two minutes. The basic problem is that they are inviting me to see an account that they failed to differentiate from the other 1000 bozos’ accounts who also invited me.

What is special about your FB account?
To me, their Facebook will be just as boring and meaningless as everyone else’s. Except that I haven’t spent time looking at anyone else’s, because I’m busy. They didn’t bother telling me what is special about their account, and that is their primary mistake.

Differentiate please…
But, what if they told me something about their Facebook that would make me actually want to click on the link? What if they told me they were having a discussion about bunjee jumping on the Sarangpodang river in Thailand. At least I would have some idea of what I was getting myself into by investing my two minutes in their direction.

How I promote my Facebook
I don’t just ask two thousand people to like me on Facebook. First of all, it doesn’t do any good, unless they will be active followers. I tell people a little about what is going on on my Facebook page. I let them know about the discussions, the links to blog article stories, industry news, etc. I give specific examples of what our last few posts were about and why they are exciting. There are many choices on the internet these days. My offerings are often interesting or exciting — or, at least I claim that they are! I also have a newsletter where I can mention what our best Facebook posts were along with our best blog articles, Linked In discussions, and more. Once in a while I will tweet about what is going on on Facebook or Linked in as well. I always offer specifics, and generally do so on a medium that reaches thousands rather than asking people one by one and getting blown off.

It is like India
In India, each morning, two hundred people will offer me chai or soda. If they happen to catch me in a chai state of mind, I’ll buy from them. Their products are generic, and I know what to expect. Your Facebook accounts are pushed on me just like the wallah’s of India push their products on me. Ten of them surround me offering identical products and they harrass me until I yell at them. Americans use the same equally ineffective strategy with Facebook. The bottom line is differentiate your Facebook account. Communicate what the salient features are. Entice people to visit on their own initiative, and make it interesting enough so that they will become repeat visitors!

A social media manager was taking a walk late at night.
A spaceship landed right in front of him and some little green men got out.
Manager: “Are you going to abduct me?”
Aliens: “No, but can you like us on Facebook?”

Sound familiar?

Want to be popular at blogging? Write “how to” blogs!

June 30, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

I just went through my stats for my outsource blog. I write all types of content that even my professional writer friends consider to be interesting (although they criticize my punctuation mistakes.) However, the content that does well always seems to have a “how to” in the title. Hmmm. How to start an outsourcing business, how to get call center clients, how to this, and how to that.

People out there want to know how to succeed in life. You need to give them the keys to do that, and then they will give you ample traffic to your blog. It seems fair. You get paid for teaching, but the payment is in traffic which helps your overall ranking.

The economy of the new world will be more spiritual, and already is. Many people will do tasks without getting direct payment. But, they will be repaid in other ways such as appreciation, recognition, and traffic to their website. It all seems very fair, although convoluted. If you think about the karma of tything it is similar. You give to charity, and then God rewards you, but in other ways. Hmmm. Intriguing! You might get more clients, or better people to help you, or better conditions in your afterlife.

But, what about your blog’s afterlife?
Just kidding.

How to write a blog about how to blogs! Now there is a title!

Choosing the right people to help you blog

June 20, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

You can’t just go to eLance and pick people to help you blog. There is a lot in the equation. Blogging is actually very complicated if you want to be successful at it. There are many metrics and analytics to consider. The value of a good blog post is based on how many readers it gets, and how many more regular readers you develop. To turn a one time or two time visitor into a regular reader of your blog might be based on more than one really good article. It might be based on consistently good articles which appeal to the reader. However, if you have a few really good articles or a few really unattractive ones, that might make the difference between having a regular reader — or not! Another factor is SEO benefit of the blog post. Some blog posts attract a lot of traffic from Google, while other ones might be popular with your regular readers, but wouldn’t show up well on search results.

Freelance bloggers do not generally care about the long term success of your blog, nor do they care about the “analytics.” That is your problem. They just want to collect their fee and pay their bills. As a manager of hired hands, you need to know who is worth it and who is not. Freelance bloggers typically want to charge an enormous amount for each piece they write. Unfortunately, the monetary benefit they create for you might be far less than their fee. To get a blog popular, you need more than 1000 pieces. If you pay $100 per piece, you will have paid $100,000 just to get your blog regular traffic which might help your site be a little more popular. Hardly worth even $5000. It is easy to lose all your money hiring the wrong people at the wrong price. You need to understand what makes your blog tick, and find people who can do it for a price that is sustainable.

Have someone write a few pieces. See how much traffic each piece gets after ten days. Measure again after sixty days. See if it gets many clicks from Facebook or Twitter. You can use that figure to compare to articles written by you or others on staff. Also, have your new writer submit several pieces over a two-week period. See if your general blog traffic goes up in a noticeable way in that period or right after that period. That will indicate if your exciting newbie got you some new “regulars” to come to your blog. If your experiment delivers positive results, you could test them over a month or two and keep your eyes on the growth. Remember, that some weeks your blog might have a good week. But, if your new writer is any good, then every week will be a good week.