As a consequence, you have to time your content for when it is most likely to be picked up by your audience. The question for any aspiring marketer is when the best time for this is. Post at the wrong time and your audience will likely miss whatever it is you have posted. Thankfully, we’ve put together a handy guide to help with posting on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn!

Facebook

The most popular social media platform today. You already know how everybody expects you to have a Facebook – both a personal page and one for your business. It is also the more casual platform, and the browsing behavior of its users reflect this. Although Facebook users are on the platform every day, engagement is best Thursdays and Fridays, generally after lunch in the 1 pm to 3 pm timeframe. Thus, your best results will come towards the end of the week, around when people are thinking less about work and more about the upcoming weekend.

The worst days for engagement on Facebook are Monday through Wednesday. In fact, engagement for Facebook falls roughly 3.5% for posts that are hosted exclusively on these days. You’ll want to avoid posting on these days and focus your efforts for the end of the week.

Twitter

Everybody loves Twitter. It delivers your message as long as that message is 160 characters or less. Unlike the other two platforms of Facebook and LinkedIn, best days for Twitter engagement will vary according to what type of business you are.

If you are a business to business oriented company, then you are trying to catch people towards the end of the work day. Your best time to post is towards the end of the working day, just before people are going home. However, you have a wide window with which to post. Highest CTR on Twitter for B2B accounts ranges from noon all the way to 6 pm.

If you are a business to consumer oriented company, then you are looking to talk to people at home. Although Wednesdays do report high engagement rates on Twitter for B2C companies, you see higher numbers on the weekends. You can use a tool like Buffer to schedule your weekend tweets. Make sure that you have somebody monitoring the feed at all times, however! The last thing you want is to miss a potential time for engagement because you were at home.

One final note about timing: one tweet per day is not going to build your following or engage your audience regardless of the type of business you have. Multiple tweets throughout the day (in three to four-hour intervals) is ideal.

LinkedIn

Facebook’s more professional cousin is the best place for B2B entrepreneurs to network. While Facebook and Twitter are fantastic to reach out to more casual users, LinkedIn is essential for reaching out to fellow professionals. The best times for posting reflect the nature of the user base, with post times being ideal around when people are going to or leaving work.

Mondays and Fridays are poor days for posting. Schedule your posts for Tuesday through Thursday, from 7 am to 8 am or from 5 pm to 6 pm. The ideal time for posting on LinkedIn, however, is Tuesday sometime between 10 am and 11 am. This time of the day yields the highest number of clicks and shares.

Important Reminders About Social Media!

Although these times are ideal, remember that as with all marketing advice, your mileage may vary. As we see with Twitter, the type of business you run can greatly impact when the best time to post is. These times are most likely when you’ll see the highest rates of engagement, and should serve most individuals.

Finding out when the best times to post for your industry are, and scheduling accordingly, requires the use of social media tools. We went over some of our favorite social media tools in an earlier post, and this should help you to get started.

Regardless of when you post, however, remember that your goal is customer engagement. You want to talk to people, and you want them to talk to you. Customer engagement has no schedule: it will happen when it happens. I say this as a reminder that your social media manager should be monitoring social media feeds daily, and be willing to respond even if they are at home.

The post Timing is Everything: Best Times for Posting Content on Social Media appeared first on Rank Executives.

As professional social media managers, we use a number of tools to give us all of these functions and more. Below we list some of our favorite social media tools, and detail what they have to offer to your campaign.

Social Bro

Social Bro is an excellent social media tool for Twitter and Instagram users. One of our favorite features of Social Bro is the ability to identify when your audience is online. This information is essential as it allows you to optimize your tweet schedule. Social Bro will help ensure all of your carefully crafted tweets make their way in front of your customers.

This particular platform also offers tools for a direct messaging campaign. Direct messaging is fantastic for inviting people to webinars or creating targeted promotions. The features of this application are numerous, and it is for this reason that we use Social Bro in all of our social media campaigns.

CrowdFire

Another tool that works well with Twitter and Instagram is CrowdFire. Formerly known as JustUnfollow, CrowdFire is used to help manage your audience. In the social media world, there is an unspoken expectation. If you follow somebody, they ought to follow you in turn. If somebody does not follow you back, then you will need to locate this person and unfollow them. Using this tool you can quickly locate those guilty of this social media faux pas and take action. The tool also helps you find additional people to follow based on who your competitors are following.

IFTTT

Not strictly a social media tool, but a more general tool that you will find incredibly useful for all of your social media applications. When working in any campaign, one quickly discovers there are certain tasks that are time-consuming, and often annoying. IFTTT (short for: If This Then That) is an automation service that allows you to tie multiple platforms together and coordinate actions.

Some examples of how we use IFTTT in our social media campaign include taking an image we post to Instagram and tweeting it as an embedded image. You can also use this tool to publish content across multiple platforms at the same time. Say you want to publish something to both Facebook and have it post to Google+ automatically? Using IFTTT makes it possible.

Google Alerts

One of the hardest parts of managing a useful social media campaign is in keeping up to date with industry news. Setting up Google Alerts gives you a daily feed of headlines based on your most relevant key terms. This gives you plenty of content to talk about that is relevant to your target audience. Google Alerts is a useful tool not only for your social media campaign but also for your general use.

Buffer

A very well regarded social media tool, Buffer lets you schedule tweets and posts in advance. This tool can work with Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and even LinkedIn. Combined with a tool like Social Bro is when Buffer shines. By using the analytics data generated by Social Bro, you can schedule posts through Buffer to take place on the weekend or after work. This ensures that you do not have to change your work schedule to get content in front of your followers. Buffer also provides analytics for your tweets so you know what works and what does not.

These are five of our favorite social media tools, but many more exist. Using the above, however, will get you started on your social media campaign. This will ensure your success online and get your brand in front of a wider audience than would otherwise be possible. If this all seems a little overwhelming, just remember we are always here to help with any of your social media needs.

The post Social Media Tools We Love appeared first on Rank Executives.

Many business people believe in the theory of ‘if you build it, they will come.’  While it may have worked in Field of Dreams, it very rarely works when you create a web page.   There are very few brands who can set up shop somewhere on the internet and attract people without a social media marketing campaign.

Go to Where Your Prospects Are

The savvy marketer goes to where their target audience is.  Roughly 63% of Millennials get updates on their favorite brands through social media.  51% of Millennials say that the opinions of their friends and even brands themselves influence their purchase decisions.  46% count on social media when they are preparing to buy something online. (Leaderswest.com)

Who Listens on Social Media? (Nearly)Everyone

Even when you are not talking about Millennials, 85% of B2B buyers believe that companies should present their information via social networks. Over 8 in 10 of those marketers are listening, using at least one social media channel to distribute content. (Newscred)

Chances are you’ve read about the insane numbers of people that use Facebook. At last count, there were 1.393 billion active monthly users (Expandedramblings). Parlaying even a tiny fraction of those users into customers would be a boon for your business. It is your job to capture those users and turn them into cheering fans.

A few more statistics:

• 72% of all internet users are now active on social media. (Jeff Bullas)

• 70% of US online adults use some form of social media networking. (Heidi Cohen)

• LinkedIn is the top social network for B2B marketing. 83% of marketers say they prefer to use LI for distributing B2B content, and more than half of vendors say they have generated sales through LI. (Realbusinessrescue)

How to capitalize on social media marketing:

It is one thing to know that social media marketing is the secret ingredient, but it is another to be able to use that secret ingredient to its greatest potential. Here are a few guidelines for helping your social media campaign become a success.

• Think Long Term

There are many social media marketers out there who think in terms of this campaign or that campaign.  They will run a full blitz on one channel, run out of steam, and then go silent.  It is better to be consistent over time than have that one flash in the pan and then be overwhelmed.

• Think Simple

There’s always something more that you can do.  You can always add another platform. You can always post one more thing.  You can always add more blog posts to your repertoire.  Start with the simplest thing that you can do – let’s say, one Facebook post every week.  Then, when you are sure that you can handle it, broaden those horizons.

• Think Research

Social media marketing is a research project.  Run A/B tests and test platform against platform.  Look to see what your competitors are doing when it comes to social media marketing and how successful they are.  Promise yourself that you will try the approach for a month then evaluate.

• Think Consistency

When you do decide on a platform, it is important that you stay consistent.  If you are putting up a note every Tuesday, keep putting that note up.  Building your audience takes time, and they want something they can count on.

• Think Social

Yes, this is what it is all about, but there are many companies which only think about what they can bring to the conversation.  Social media marketing involves talking with other brands, other people, and otherwise connecting with them to overall improve your brand.  Social Media Marketing is collaborative and social, not simply your brand with a megaphone.

Social media marketing is the secret ingredient to gaining online business success.  Talking with people, talking with other brands, and communicating your message while still engaging your readers, and that is where the secret sauce is.

About the Author:

Emily Hunter is a SEM Strategist and Outreach Supervisor at the Marketing Zen Group. She loves designing strategies with her team and is excited about spreading the Zen gospel. In her spare time, she cheers for Carolina Crown and Phantom Regiment, crafts her own sodas, and crushes tower defense games. Follow her on Twitter at @Emily2Zen

The post Why Social Media is the Secret Ingredient appeared first on Rank Executives.

Facebook marketing has been a somewhat controversial aspect for marketers. Last year, AdAge reported that blank ads get a higher CTR than actual ads, leading many advertisers to believe that Facebook is an ineffective spend of their budget. To combat this sentiment, Facebook introduced promoted posts, launched timelines for brands, and adjusted the layout of their ads to increase user interaction… Still, only 37% of marketers felt that their Facebook marketing efforts were effective.

Unprecedentedly low click through rates and low ROI’s are common complaints from Facebook advertisers. Many speculate that the cause of these low metrics is not due to an ineffective platform, but due to ineffective targeting. AdRoll combined their Facebook Exchange partnership with their retargeting platform to help offset this targeting issue, allowing advertisers to target users that previously visited their site. While this sharply improved results, these retargeted ads are still located in the sidebar, surrounded by half a dozen non-relevant ads.

But the game is changing.

Aside from the occasional promoted post, users do not expect to see ads in their Facebook news feed. When ads do appear, they pay attention. Previously, you could only advertise promoted posts to people that like your page and their friends. But since many of these users already like your page, paying Facebook to “promote” your post is almost like giving Facebook your money for free. In May 2013, AdRoll launched a DIY platform that allows you to retarget your visitors through the Facebook news feed, even if those users are not following your company on Facebook.

News Feed Ad vs Standard Sidebar Ad (Courtesy of Adroll.com)

Five Game-Changing Uses for Internet Marketers:

Promote Facebook only discounts. It’s no secret that Facebook promotions perform exceptionally well for brands that already have a large following on Facebook. However, if you don’t have any fans following your page, it can be very difficult to launch a Facebook campaign. News feed retargeting changes this.

Split test promotions before launching them on your brand page.  Detailed analytics allow you to get explicit analytical data on click through rate, share rate, and conversion rate. Try out multiple images, different text options, and promotion variations to see which combination performs best. Then, use this framework for future promotions.

Seed your viral content (infographics, videos, case studies, etc). Viral content is a great way to boost your social presence, but you need a starting set of people. People need to see your content before they can spread it. News feed retargeting is a great way to do this. People seeing your content are familiar with your brand and more likely to share it. Once it’s shared, those clicks are free.

Increase your social branding. A user landed on your page once, imagine what they will think if they continue to see your ads throughout Facebook. Your brand presence will skyrocket, thereby increasing the likelihood that they share your content on the social-sphere.

Interact with clients to gain feedback and perform market research. The opinion of your potential customers matters. Ask a question, find out what your users want. If you are launching a new product, ask your Facebook audience what product they would like to see. News feed retargeting makes market research incredibly affordable and rapid.

Integrating Retargeting with Your Current Marketing Efforts

News feed retargeting is powerful, but it is only truly effective if your website already has a pool of visitors to retarget. This is where traditional online marketing comes in. It is important that you target qualified visitors. Buying 1000 visitors from a low cost traffic source is not ideal for retargeting, since these users had no reason to see your site in the first place.

Step 1: Driving initial set of traffic.

Pay Per Click – Depending on your niche, this is the quickest way to drive traffic to your site. It is costly, however, and not typically regarded as a long term solution. The visitors you buy from PPC tend to be fairly qualified and work well for retargeting.

Search Engine Optimization – If your site ranks well, you can see a huge supply of targeted traffic through SEO. This is the ideal source of traffic for retargeting. That being said, it is a significant time investment and involves quite a bit of effort to produce content and build links.

Facebook Ads – Buying traffic from Facebook Ad’s isn’t a bad strategy since these visitors actively use Facebook. Even so, traditional sidebar Facebook ads are not generally regarded as a great traffic source.

Press Releases – For a relatively low up-front cost, you can get a fairly large amount of visitors to your site. Keep in mind that visitors reading your press release may not necessarily be as targeted as users that found you on the search engines.

Display Advertisements – These involve negotiating banner ads on other websites. If your niche is large enough, we suggest messaging bloggers or webmasters in extremely similar audience’s. This way, you know that your traffic source is targeted.

Step 2: Increase Your Branding (This is where retargeting helps)

Social Media Marketing – It is crucial that you grow your social media presence. Facebook retargeting is excellent for doing so. You can convert your current visitors into followers on Facebook, allowing you to directly market new products and services to them without having to pay for new visitors.

Standard Retargeting – “I see your ads EVERYWHERE” is quite common to hear if you use retargeting. Integrating FBX News Feed retargeting with your existing AdRoll ad’s creates an unprecedented level of branding.

Create Viral Content – Infographics, viral blog posts, videos, and giveaways are a great way to improve branding. While you can seed these in any way you are able to, it makes sense to promote them on Facebook. If your budget allows, news feed retargeting can help boost the presence of your viral content.

Build An E-mail List – Most companies understand the value of having an opt-in E-mail list. If you’re not already pushing users to join your E-mail newsletter… now is a good time to start. More often than not, users do not sign up for newsletters on their first visit, which is why retargeting visitors helps.

Step 3: Conversion Rate Optimization & Market Research (Retargeting also helps here)

Split Testing Ads – High click through rates and an optimized advertisement can work wonders for your brand. Since AdRoll’s platform provides detailed analytics, you can split test advertisements. If you find one that works, you can extend the ad to other platforms.

Determining New Products – Interact with your followers, ask them questions. People are responsive to news feed posts. Ask your visitors what they want, offer a chance to win a prize for responding. You will be surprised at the response rate.

Improving your Brand – Boosting social media followers, increasing the visibility of your logo, interacting with your brand. Retargeting is not a one-size-fits-all solution, but it can definitely help get you closer to becoming a fully branded company.

Implement your Findings on Social Media – When you figure out exactly what slogans and promotions increase click through rate, and you’ve figured out the next product or service that you are going to offer, you should implement your findings on social media. That is, post on your Facebook and Twitter accounts in a much more optimized manner.

Repeat.

Final Thoughts.

Retargeting is powerful and changing the game. In my opinion, it is just as important as social media marketing or search engine optimization. AdRoll’s news feed retargeting is adding an additional dynamic to Internet marketing, and perhaps saving Facebook from becoming an advertising black hole. Since you are reading this article and on our website, you will likely be seeing our ads in your news feed, we are firm believers.

The post Facebook News Feed Retargeting: A Game Changer appeared first on Rank Executives.

The Math Behind Facebook’s Search Engine

EdgeRank

It’s commonly known that Facebook uses a mathematical algorithm called EdgeRank to determine the content in any given users news feeds. Each “Edge” in EdgeRank is made up of three factors: Affinity, Weight, and Time Decay. As posts get older, they tend to fall down faster. Comments, shares, and likes can boost the relevance and length of time that a post stays at the top. There is also speculation that when a close friend interacts with a post, that post gets a higher boost in your newsfeed than when an average acquaintance interacts with the post.

Affinity Coefficient

Facebook scores every binary combination of users with an Affinity Coefficient, ranging from 0-1. The more often you interact with someone, the higher Affinity score you two have. You can see results of the Affinity Coefficient in action by clicking your chat icon — The users that you’re closest with appear at the top. This score is also used when looking for friends. Say you have 6 friends named Jim, the friend with the highest Affinity score will appear at the top of the results.

Factors that play into Affinity Coefficient: Time viewing their profile, frequency of chats & messages, public interaction (like, comment, share), number of mutual friends, poking, tagged pictures together, attending the same events, tagging in status updates, duration of friendship, network, overlapping likes and interests.

Standardized Interaction

Some people spend hours on Facebook, liking virtually every picture they see. Others sparingly interact with new content. Facebook standardizes interaction to each user. If you rarely comment on photos, commenting on a photo will increase the relevance of that content much more than someone who comments on dozens of photos per day.

Indexing & Retrieval System

Google indexes page’s using links, it breaks down web content using Latent Semantic Indexing. Facebook is indexing their own database, the map of their graph. As of 2013, there are 240 billion photos, 1 billion people, 1 trillion connections, and tens of billions of status updates. This content cannot be retrieved using standard indexing measures — Facebook developed an indexing methodology that is crafted to pull from your own archives. You only have the ability to search content that has already been shared with you. Even limiting Graph Search in this way, users will still be searching tens of millions of graph nodes.

Facebook’s system first breaks apart the user’s query into one of the many understood functions.

Mark Zuckerberg Revealing Graph Search

Read More About Graph Search

The post Facebook’s Search Engine & The Future of SEO appeared first on Rank Executives.

Social Media Marketing Services

• Infographic Creation & Seeding
• Strategic Consulting
• Competitor Research
• Timing, Planning & Carefully Posting
• Viral Video Campaigns
• Social Network Page Development
• Online Reputation Management
• Social Presence Development
• Creation, Seeding & Promotion of Memes
• Blogger Outreach
• Link Bait

Social Marketing Companies – How We Do It

Social marketing companies have an array of techniques that they use to ensure viral success of your content. Read the article below to learn some of the insider secrets we have. We take social marketing to the next level.

Infographic Creation & Seeding

We like to say that infographics are “inherently viral” on the basis that a good infographic will have no problem going viral. When an infographic is designed with the target audience in mind, the impact can drastically improve your business and brand presence. Even if you have a “boring” niche, infographics can still provide immense value. The one thing to remember is that it is important to design the graphic for the audience, not the website. If your company sells textbooks, don’t make your infographic about textbooks, make your infographic about “top party schools” or “5 Clever Study Tips”, things that are much more likely to go viral.

How we use Social Media: Since Pinterest is focused around the visual aspect of things (whereas reddit is largely text based), it is the perfect place to seed your graphic. Pinterest also provides a link at the top of every pin. When done correctly, people will have to click to your website in order to see the full graphic. Once they are on your site, it is best to design the landing page around conversions and sharing. For example, if you owned an E-commerce site, we will place a link to your store page at the bottom of the graphic.

Strategic Consulting

Every niche is different. Things that go viral in one niche are not necessarily viral in another. For this reason, one on one strategic consulting is necessary to ensure success. Social marketing companies usually employ an array of experts, each trained in the social media aspect of a few different industries. We have social media experts that specialize in the viral promotion of lead generation websites, blogs, e-commerce sites, local businesses, etc. Every business is different and when it comes to social media marketing, there is no cookie cutter method that works every time.

Competitor Research

Social media is quite prevalent. Chances are, your competitors are already doing it. We can leverage the precedents set by other companies in your niche to better prepare your own social media campaign. Competitor research starts by following them on Facebook, Twitter and the other major social network outlets. We will track their successful efforts and present these to you. We combine data from their campaigns with the advice and experience from our social media experts to craft you a flawlessly planned and executed campaign.

Timing, Planning & Carefully Posting

Believe it or not, Facebook posts at 8PM EST on Monday tend to have the highest probability of going viral. Similarly, submitting to Reddit is most effective at 6am in the morning. We’ve conducted careful analysis on the most effective times for each of the top 15 social websites. It is also the case that certain graphics and post lengths are more likely to get shared than others. To give another example, a graphic sized 500px by 500px has the highest probability of getting shared on Facebook, since it maximizes the preview size.

There is little room for guessing in social media. The main reason why many most social marketing companies are unable to produce results through social media is from their lack of planning and data. Being analytically focused and highly data driven is crucial for a good performing social media campaign.

Viral Video Campaigns

Think of all the YouTube videos that get tens of millions of views. Wouldn’t you like to be the owner of a video with 10 million views? Imagine how successful your brand will be when literally millions of people each week are exposed to it. It is amazing to think that In 2011, YouTube combined for over 1 trillion views. When averaged out, this equates to around 140 views for every person on Earth. It’s also crazy to think that over 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube servers every single minute. It seems overwhelming. However, dozens of videos every day manage to pull in millions of views.

In order to make a viral video, you need a good understanding of what makes a video “Viral”. Often times, they are short, less than 2-3 minutes. They have a quick attention grabber in the beginning. Typically they are endorsed or shared by a “power user” (Someone with a huge social media presence). We consistently produce viral videos that provide overwhelming success for clients.

Social Network Page Development

Making a page on Facebook is not enough. Your Facebook page can be the gift that keeps on giving, if planned and developed properly. It is important to post status updates that people like to share, updates that engage your audience. If you constantly promote your brand, new products or sales, you will quickly lose your audience.

To get started with your page, consider finding memes or pictures that you think your audience would like. Remember about the timing of your post. Often times people want to post to their company Facebook when they are at work, but what they forget is that their audience is also at work. Post on Facebook after work ends, and a larger fraction of your fans will see it.

Online Reputation Management

People trust brands that have a good online reputation. Often times, potential customers will visit a brands Facebook page to read what customers are saying. Online reputation management focuses on a 24/7 analysis of your comments, tweets and messages.

• Making sure all negative and false reviews about your company are suppressed with positive content
• Ensuring that all your website appears first for your branded keywords
• Preventing competitors from writing false information and pursuing the takedown of any fake material in a timely manner
• Writing press releases to help fill the search results with controllable content

Social Presence Development

Although Twitter and Facebook seem to carry the vast majority of the social network power, there are dozens of other websites that have millions of daily viewers too! Social marketing companies focus on your development across the full selection of social media websites.

List of Social Networks We Use:

• StumbleUpon – Install their toolbar to submit your site. (There is no way to submit directly from the website)
• Twitter – Google uses data from Tweet Shares. Make sure to establish your twitter following.
• Youtube – Not only does Google own Youtube (which means they use it in rankings) but it is also a great way to get traffic and visits.
• Pinterest – Pinterest links directly to your website in every pin, and it is ideal for infographic submission and sharing.
• Delicious – It has a large user base and gives a great backlink that can help boost crawl rate.
• Tumblr – Providing that you dont mind writing unique content first, Tumblr can be quite powerful as links are contextual.
• Instagram – Instagram is no longer optional, it is owned by Facebook and its social media value is immense.
• Visual.ly – This is one of the first places we go to share infographics, its a solid backlink and can help virally seed visual graphics.
• Chime.in – Although it is still not very well known. This is a PR 8 Backlink that is great to have linking to your website.
• Digg – Kind of like a precursor to Reddit, the links are very powerful and reach a wide audience.
• Reddit – They are picky about spam, make sure to pick a good subreddit and have a powerful user promote your content.
• Facebook – Facebook shares directly correlate to increased conversions. Its the biggest and the best in terms of social value.
• Google+ – This is google’s own social network. They directly use the “plus” data in rankings.

Creation, Seeding & Promotion of Memes

Memes can go insanely viral. Once you establish a powerful social presence, it is very plausible to virally promote a meme. When we make memes for clients, we will contact other bloggers, Facebook page owners and strong twitter users to help us promote the meme. Including a link back to your website at the top of the posting ensures that you website gets the credit and traffic from the meme. Very few social marketing companies will attempt to use memes, since they rarely catch on, but we have seen great success. They are at least worth a try.

Blogger Outreach

Most bloggers do not sell products. However, most bloggers have an array of readers interested in their niche. As a result, teaming up with bloggers can be one of the most effective social media strategies. Although it sounds like manual labor, conduct outreach. Make a spreadsheet of the popular bloggers in your niche. Call them up, ask them what you can do to make them link to you. Give them a free sample of your product, help promote their blog do your subscribers. You would be surprised how open bloggers are.

Although it is time consuming, blogger outreach is one of the most powerful ways to get a consistent source of links to your website.

Link Bait

As with any online marketing campaign, getting links to your site is very powerful. Links help drive search engine rankings, send targeted traffic, and boost your brands online exposure. “Link Bait” refers to any content that entices people to link to. These tend to be things that are shared easily on social networks, or things that grab the attention of a large number of users.

10 Types of Great Link Bait:

1. Instructional and How To Guides
2. Infographics
3. Top 10 Lists
4. Surveys & Polls
5. Contests / Giveaways
6. Viral Videos
7. Breaking news
8. Articles with well written titles
9. Games and interactive content
10. Interviews
11. Free Software
12. Widgets

Sometimes SEO companies think it is enough to simply create the link bait. Unless their is a social marketing aspect behind the outreach efforts, your great piece of content will fail to serve its purpose. It is the job of the social marketing companies to ensure that the link bait gets the recognition it deserves.

The post Social Marketing Companies – What We Do appeared first on Rank Executives.

What Is A Meme?

The answer is simple once explained, a meme is a just like a common cold, flu or epidemic. Its an idea, joke, or simply a graphical representation of satire that spreads from person to person transmitted by means of the internet. Due to the uncanny ability of the internet to be a vector for instant communication, memes spread ubiquitously once its nature is deemed share-worthy.  A meme typically carries a meaning of social of cultural ideas. Memes are ideal instant time waster for entertainment on the web because they’re quick and easy to enjoy, a critical point given how short the average persons attention span is.

What Is An SEO Meme?

SEO can be frustrating, and in our industry that is the only thing that is constant. Algorithms update, rankings shift, things tend to disappear and reappear but it’s the frustration that always seems to be the only mainstay. That being said, most SEOs undoubtedly share the same frustration. An SEO Meme is a way to say – yes, this too has happened to me. Or yes, I totally know what you are referring to. The trick to making a good one is thoroughly knowing and understanding the subject. Having that stranglehold on your niche, and understanding its nuances provides the greatest opportunity to poke fun. So without further adeiu, may I present:

Top 10 New SEO Memes

Albeit a bit eclectic… enjoy!

1. Bad Luck SEO

Inspired by Bad Luck Brian. This SEO Meme details what happens when an SEO Newbie decides to linkshare as a means of self promotion.

2. Sudden Clarity SEO Guy

Inspired by Sudden Clarity Clarence, this SEO Meme represents that moment every SEOr had when we realized all the major algorithm have been named after black and white animals. If you haven’t realized this yet… this is your opportunity to make this face.

3. Scumbag SEO

Inspired by Scumbag Steve. This meme represents how idiotic turning your SEO efforts over to someone who sounds like they know what they are talking about. Here at Rank Executives, many of our clients have had experience with “other” SEO companies that treated their SEO efforts with about as much reckless abandon as this dude. With the way some people build links, ahem automation, it has the same effect on your SERPS as just User Agent *NOFOLLOW/ (which will instantly take that page out of the search engine results, if you didn’t know.)

4. Insanity SEO Wolf

Inspired by Insanity Wolf, this SEO Meme is perfect for the subject of link building automation. Any short tempered, short attention spanned webmaster has felt the urge to expedite their link building process by using automation software to rapidly build links. Umm all I can say is: Don’t do that!

5. SEO Good Guy

Inspired from Good Guy Greg, there is no way we couldn’t do an SEO Good Guy Meme after parodying Scumbag Steve. SEO Good Guy is a friendly SEO who uses his wonderfully SEO’d PR7 to pass some value to your site after you had been hit with a ranking penalty. I wish we all had an SEO Good Guy looking out for us!

6. Dwight Schrute

Inspired by Dwight from The Office, this SEO Meme represents all SEO non-believers we encounter on a day to day basis. This guy insists SEO does not work, and traditional forms of advertising that worked in 1992 will still work today. Why bother telling him that there are over 2 billion searches a day in Google, or that there could be over 10,000 people a day targeting the product or service in his niche? Forget the effort with folks like this. Oh you’re in the Yellow Pages?  Nevermind…

7. Professional African-American SEO

Inspired by the Successful Black Man meme which focuses on the ironic juxtaposition of a successful black man in full business dress with any kind of stereotypical black humor. This SEO Meme is a play on a black mans cry that he was banned simply due to his skin color, but upon closer look the true reason is revealed.

8.  SEO Conspiracy Keanu

Inspired by Conspiracy Keanu, which images are display paranoid statements and absurdly philosophical questions this traditional meme was applied to SEO. And the question I am begging here is real! Has anyone else noticed Rand Fishkin’s (the Elvis of SEO) uncanny knack of backing up everything Matt Cutt’s (Google in human form) says? Keanu Reeves sure has!

9. SEO Success Kid

Inspired by Success Kid, the SEO Success Kid meme is just an epitome of myself. Just kidding. No but really…

10. SEO Chemistry Cat

Inspired by Chemistry Cat, my favorite meme of all time. Before I founded an SEO Company, I studied Molecular Chemistry in college. Although there is no such existing compound of Selenium and Oxygen on this planet, it makes for a great meme!

Social Media SEO

As we have stated before, Social Media promotion is the next generation of Search Engine Optimization. Memes in general are a great way of spreading awareness of your brand or company across the internet. Reddit is a fantastic place to spot trending memes, and it’s a great place to submit them as well. Simply connecting with others is a great way to spread brand awareness. Here are some tips to spread your memes all over the internet:

• Submit your memes to ALL of the social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Pinterest, Reddit, and Tumblr. By spreading your memes, you give yourself a better chance of  getting that meme to go viral.
• Explore other social networks beyond the ones I mentioned in this article to further your social reach! Maybe even Myspace. Maybe not.
• Make sure to ask for feedback. Memes, generally speaking only perform well if they are generally funny.

In general just having the ability to reach out to your customers/client base on a more personal level fosters that personal interaction. When building a brand, that is key!

Be sure to check out our blog post on Social Media SEO which discusses this subject more in depth.

The post SEO Memes appeared first on Rank Executives.

Obama and Romney feverishly tried to align themselves with middle-class Americans throughout the debate, each claiming that his primary focus was job creation. In a debate that was originally planned to focus on domestic policy, it seemed as though the vast majority of domestic issues went unmentioned. Immigration, women’s rights, abortion, unions, gay rights and climate change failed to earn even a single two-minute section during the 90-minute debate.

Seemingly poised and well-prepared, Romney zeroed in on the weak economic growth and eight percent unemployment that has left Obama vulnerable in his effort to win a second four-year term. Yet, quick to adjust the flow of attacks, Obama was fast to put Romney on the defense about his current proposals for overhauling the U.S. tax system.

Social Media & Social Psychology

Here at Rank Executives, our social media consultants constantly consider the effects of social media, including its impact on voters and on the election. This year, YouTube tried an interesting spin on the live broadcast of the debate. A constant flood of tweets filled the screen of viewers around the nation.

In our own analysis, it seemed that the vast majority of viewers quickly switched focus away from the candidates. As more and more viewers read the influx of tweets from users were saying about the presidential debate on Twitter, less focuses was given to the actual issues. One has to wonder who makes the choice regarding which tweets are presented infront of the millions of viewers.

The moment 7:30 struck, YouTube was fast to instantly pull the stream and sieze the broadcast. YouTube has not yet released any additional information regarding this glitch.

But, Who Won

From a purely neutral perspective. It is still too early to judge. Initial analysis of the reactions from the social spheres are leaning toward Mitt Romney.

The post Social Media & Politics: 2012 Presidential Debate appeared first on Rank Executives.

How Do I Start a Blog?

Before jumping right into creating a blog, you must first think about the reasons and logic for making your own blog. Make sure you have something that you are passionate about, a business to talk about, or something that you know people will find interesting.

If you are deeply interested in something or enjoy documenting your life experiences, starting a blog is a great idea. Blogging allows you to write articles focused on your own interests while attracting a mass group of followers at the same time. People with similar interests will love to read your blog posts, so it is a great way to gain popularity.

Step By Step Guide: 5 Easy Steps

• Step 1: Pick an Interesting Topic
• Step 2: Choose a Compelling Name
• Step 3: Build The Website
• Step 4: Add Content, Update Frequently
• Step 5: Market Your Blog with SEO & Outreach

Blog Topics: Pick a Good One!

The key to picking an interesting topic is to find one that you could write forever about. Once you start blogging, you will be writing for days, months, or even years about your topic! Blogs require fresh new content in order to keep the followers interested. If you are a sports fan, then write about sports. Even better, write about your local or favorite sports team to get a specific group of followers. If you enjoy collecting things or have a bizarre hobby, then write about it; people will enjoy reading about your bizarre habits. Another great option for a blog topic is cooking. You can post videos of you cooking, pictures of your finished products, and recipes of your favorite foods to make. Cooking is a great topic with many possibilities.

In general, choose something you like that you can update regularly. Understand that specific niche blogs have a harder time becoming big. The most successful blogs have a wide appeal to attract a larger audience.

Naming A Blog: Be Passionate!

Your domain name must be relevant to your blog topic. It would make no sense for you to acquire a domain that has nothing to do with your idea. You can register your domain through many different sites. Make sure the domain name is easy to spell and remember for your future followers. Avoid using domains that have multiple digits, underscores or dashes. Your domain name will be what people refer to your site has, so making sure it has appeal is key.

Build Your Blog’s Website for Free

If you are new to website building, then WordPress is a great choice. WordPress is very user friendly and easy to use for new users. It is one of the most popular website builders. Make sure your page is easy to navigate through and has articles and posts appropriately labeled and organized. You can acquire themes for your WordPress site online to make it visually appealing.

If you don’t want to use WordPress, sites like Joomla, Blogger, and Blogspot are other great options. These sites were built specifically for bloggers, so they are also very user friendly.

Content is King

Constantly adding content to your website is extremely important to keeping a following and building your website as a legitimate domain. When it comes to search engine optimization, 400 words is usually the minimum goal for content.

The more content your website has, the more appealing it is and the higher Google will rank it.Update your content at a steady rate to build it up in the Google rankings. Google constantly releases updates that weeds out the fake websites that shouldn’t be ranking high in order to boost up the legitimate blogs like your own.

Marketing Your Blog

In order to get your blog to the top of Google searches for relevant keywords, you need to use search engine optimization. Search engine optimization increases your website’s support system and builds up its Google ranking. It is recommended to hire a professional SEO Agency to do this work for you.

SEO agencies have many white hat methods to boost up your website. Guest posting is a common tactic. They post articles on to blogs that provide your website with a backlink. Building backlinks are key to increasing your website’s rankings. The more backlinks your website has and the strength of the websites the links are on determines how high your website will rank.

If you have any questions or ever ask yourself “How Do I Start a Blog”, feel free to call us. Our advice and consultations are always free!

The post How Do I Start a Blog? Step by Step Guide appeared first on Rank Executives.

All relationships, whether between couples, friends, acquaintances, associates, co-workers, family members, etc., utilize a social media component. Although it may sound ridiculous, social networking has emerged as a vital player in the communication between people. For businesses, Social Media optimization is a necessary marketing strategy because the internet reaches more people aggregately than most other tactics.

Social Media’s “Big 5”

Although there are tons of social media sites, there are five main power-players that run the table in terms of social networking. These moguls include Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pintrest, and Instagram.

Social Networking:

With a user base slowly approaching one-seventh of the entire world’s population, Facebook is easily the largest social networking site in use today. This global outreach makes Facebook a marketers dream, and has completely changed the way companies interact with customers. By creating pages on the site, companies can reach up to millions of potential customers, if done correctly. Facebook pages are a great place to start with internet marketing, and can be shared across other mediums of social networking.

Twitter’s popularity has exploded in the past three years, and has become a great user interface between people and companies. Websites and TV stations use the “hashtag” feature for polls and ways to quickly relay information between people. Twitter’s applications for the marketing of a brand or company are endless, and are quite simple to breach. All it takes is a little bit of work, some clever tweets, and the right approach from the start. The viral potential for twitter posts makes it perfect for spreading a brand across the web.

The lesser used but still massive social networking site, Google+, offers a relatively new approach for the management of your online social interaction. The “circles” of Google+ change up how people receive the updates from companies not directly involved in their social lives. This still does not deter the usefulness for marketing, though. By creating a page on Google+, people can follow a companies page separate from their actual social circle, and still receive all of the information.

Social Sharing:

Even though Pintrest and Instagram are rather new in the social media sphere, their style and usability make them perfect marketing tools. Both are classified as social sharing sites rather than social networking—a minor difference in style, but carrying the same major implications.

Pinterest allows companies to virally seed content to a large following, as well as bring traffic to their site. Although Pinterest is used nearly exclusively by females, the setup of the site is phenomenally innovative. The “pinboard” style allows for popular posts to gain momentum and exposure to more and more people. A marketer’s dream—creating a popular image, infographic, meme, etc., and posting to Pintrest will create exposure back to the original site.

Instagram is the most recent social sharing medium to truly take off in popularity and be used by companies for marketing. It is not a text based social medium, but focuses primarily on the uploading and sharing of images. It started as an iPhone application with a primary focus on picture taking, but rapidly developed into an image sharing social medium. The marketing potential of Instagram transcends the holds of other social sharing sites by combining the viral sharing ability of twitter with the popular trends of image posting, such as memes. Companies using Instagram can create a loyal following of people to their page and subtly drip feed their brand in to their posts, while posting other likeable content first.

Social Media and SEO

Social media composes around 22% of all internet use, topping any other type of site on the web. This startling statistic should be reason enough for all companies to invest in social media optimization for their site. Plenty of businesses have hopped on board; however, most of them do it wrong. They hear from scumbag internet marketers and uncredited SEO agencies that buying Facebook fans, Twitter followers, and Pintrest re-pins will increase their social standing and eventually their site’s ranking in Google. There is not doubt that social media optimization is a huge factor in SEO, but Google looks at viral reach and social shares to make sure you are not manipulating the algorithm with falsified tactics. A lot of times, these methods can backfire and end up hurting the site before they see any positive results.

A Few Social Media Tips:

1. Do not pay for followers or fans, it will only hurt you in the long run. Try as best as you can to create a real fan base to your page, as they will not only enjoy your posts but naturally help spread your brand name.
2. Be likeable and unbiased. Although “funny” has many different aspects, you want to keep your posts balanced in their humor and vulgarity. Funny posts always do the best when it comes to virality and sharing, but over-the-line humor will not necessarily do well on a large scale.
3. Do not over-promote your brand. Speaking from a regular social media user’s perspective, the last thing I want to see on my newsfeed is spammy promotion of some random product. Obviously, the point of social media optimization is to ultimately promote your brand, but only when the time is right. Constantly forcing your companies name in to people’s feeds will lose you followers/fans, so choose the right time for a brand-related post and make sure it is not too straight forward.
4. Build good relationships with your followers. Try as best as you can to please the people following your page, because ultimately they can control the reputation of it. Stay on top of the page and make sure you maintain a clean and humorous environment for your followers.

The post Social Media Optimization appeared first on Rank Executives.