Search Engine Optimization

The Internet has become the most important way to create business in the last five years. Having a strong online presence increases customers/consumers and makes it easier for people to find your organization. This means that search engine optimization is a crucial part of your organization’s online presence. But what does that actually mean? Business Insider defined search engine optimization as “finding ways to increase your site’s appearance in web visitors’ search results”. Let me explain a little bit, when consumers want to find an organization or business that meets their needs, they turn to search engines such as Google or Bing to find what they are looking for. As the owner of an organization you want to ensure that your web page is one of the top five that shows up in a search result relating to the type of organization you own. The first five search results that show up are the ones that a consumer is most likely to look into further, which creates incentive to make your page one of those five. 

Some of the ways to search engine optimize are really pretty simple; monitor your pages rankings through tools like Google Tool Bar to keep track of how well you are doing, use keywords throughout your site (within reason) that would make your site easy to find. It is also important to have quality content that is regularly updated, that way people want to visit your site because it is obvious that the information is current and up to date. Another tip is to have a place within your website that show cases your most recent news. Think of this as a news center or a press room on your website that will make the most current and up to date news readily available to people. 

As you search engine optimize the amount of traffic to up your webpage will undoubtedly increase, thus leading to more involvement in your organization or customers for your business. 

Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dansimon/2013/05/09/10-seo-tips-for-2013/

http://www.businessinsider.com/10-basic-seo-tips-everyone-should-know-2010-1?op=1

Hootsuite

It is obvious that technology and social media are a huge part of our world, and are one of the top sources of communication in our generation. Social media is especially important to businesses and organizations that are trying to get their start in the world, but some times it is hard to know exactly how to handle all aspects of social media. There are so many available and relevant platforms, how do you effectively address all of them? If I were attempting to promote an organization via social media, it would seem to be a very daunting task, which is where tools like social media aggregators come into play. 

Social media aggregators are tools that allow all of your feeds from your various social media platforms to be brought into one, easy to read, place. An example of one of these tools is Hootsuite. Hootsuite allows you to manage all of your social media accounts in one place, making it easier for you to improve the quantity and quality of your posts. Improving the quantity of your posts, and thus increasing your amount/level of exposure, can be done through scheduled posts. In Hootsuite you are able to create a post, then schedule a time for it to be posted to a specific social media platform. This would allow a person to spend one block of time in their week creating posts, scheduling when they will be posted, and then allowing them to focus on supplementing those posts, replying to comments and other social media interactions, and other aspects of the organization throughout the week. The quality of these posts can also be improved by utilizing Hootsuite’s function that allows multiple people to contribute to a social media account. Having multiple contributors increases the flow of ideas, and brings a different level of creativity to the board. One person might have a particularly amazing idea involving one part of the organization, but be at a loss as how to best promote another part of it. By having multiple people working on these social media accounts the work and stress load is lightened and many people’s ideas are bounced around, to then find the best one. Hootsuite is easy to use and will update you via email an analytical report each week. This allows you to see how many page views you are getting a week, your top referrers, and your top links. By being allowed to view these statistics you are able to more easily understand what aspects of your social media accounts are most effective and what you can improve on. 

Hootsuite is just one of many different social media aggregators, that is definetly effective and helpful in social media management. 

Sources:

http://iag.me/socialmedia/reviews/7-reasons-why-you-should-use-hootsuite/

http://www.inboun.com/social-media/98-top-5-benefits-of-hootsuite-for-small-business-social-media

Business and Social Media

We live in America; a country where innovation and success are encouraged and pursued constantly. People are continuously coming up with new ideas to introduce to the world, thus leading them to often times create their own businesses. While we do live in a country that encourages entrepreneurship, it is still a scary thing to start your own business; there are many unknowns and uncontrollable factors. Though it might not seem like a big deal, I really feel that Social Media is a huge part in getting small businesses up and running. 

An article titled “5 Benefits of Social Media Business Owners Need to Understand”, it is pointed out that social media allows you to increase the awareness of your business and brand. As you make a presence on social media people will start to recognize your brand, thus increasing their likelihood of doing business with you. The article also discusses how social media is a fantastic revenue for increasing your quality of customer service. By following frequent customers on various social media platforms you form a personal connection with them, which then increases their loyalty to your company. Having a presence on social media also allows customers to voice their complaints in a way that is easy to respond to; instead of being on the phone for half an hour before they can talk to a member of your company, they can post their complaint on social media and you can respond in a timely manner. 

A second article that I found discusses, titled “7 Steps to Productive Business Use of Social Media”  the proper steps to using social media in a beneficial manner. These steps coincide perfectly with achieving the benefits mentioned above and include things focusing on your desired outcomes first and incorporating brand personality and voice. By focusing on your desired outcomes first you are able to set a strong foundation on social media, thus making your efforts more effective by showing customers exactly what your company /business is about. This is also part of incorporating your brand’s personality and voice. By establishing what kind of customers and people you are aiming to bring to your company you are able to determine what kind of personality you need to have on social media. This voice can influence those that are interested in your company and more clearly illustrate the kind of business you are running. 

Sources:

http://www.inc.com/peter-roesler/5-benefits-of-social-media-business-owners-need-to-understand.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/martinzwilling/2013/08/17/7-steps-to-productive-business-use-of-social-media/

Class Cloud

When I was first introduced to the idea of the hashtag, it seemed kind of silly and pointless to me. From my (limited) experience there was really no rhyme or reason to using a hashtag, it was just a fun thing that people did. Then I had a few experiences where I realized that hashtags could be useful; about a year ago I attended General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon/LDS) in Salt Lake City, I posted a picture of my friends and I on instagram and used #ldsconf, a hashtag widely associated with this conference, which then led to another account finding my picture and using it in a huge collage/post they made about General Conference.  Slowly I was beginning to understand the power of the hashtag. Then I went to class on Tuesday and learned so much more. 

Before class we were asked to make two posts on twitter: The first would be asking a question about social media, the second would involve tagging someone, and we were instructed to use #socmeddiscuss in both tweets. Then, we were instructed to make a post during class, also using #socmeddiscuss. The goal of this was to start a discussion and see what kind of involvement we could get. Before class I made the two posts (see here and here), but I was very skeptical at how well this experiment was going to go; I didn't think my posts would make a difference. While sitting in class I watched as my classmates favorited and responded to each others tweets. Some people tagged others from outside of the class, including celebrities, in an attempt to get others to engage in the conversation. I favorited a few tweets, but I was really at a loss as to what I should post. I was trying to think of celebrities or friends I could tag, when I thought of tagging Fight the New Drug (FTND), an anti-pornography movement that I support (learn more about them here). I posted the following tweet:

Shortly after posting that, FTND responded to my tweet. I then took their response, quoted it, and added #socmeddiscuss. The really cool thing is that after that they followed the hashtag to my professors post:

After finding that post they responded explaining how social media has helped their movement grow and spread. Then shortly after that they tweeted, something completely unrelated to the post I had tagged them in and the response they made to my professor, using #socmeddiscuss. 

Side note: The couple in the picture is my best friend and her boyfriend and that’s pretty cool. 

This experiment was so much more than I thought it was going to be and it taught me so much about social media! First, hashtags are powerful and useful. With the use of #socmeddiscuss our class was able to get people involved in a discussion about social media and it’s usefulness; some of these people weren't even in Logan, let alone the state of Utah. I found it so amazing that we were able to involve people from such a far distance in our discussion. Second, social media is really powerful and, if used in the correct way, can be very beneficial. Many of my classmates asked questions involving how they can use social media to help them professionally, and got some really good responses. Fight the New Drug pointed out that social media is how they were able to grow and spread as a movement. Another thing that this experiment taught me, was the keys to reaching out to people and/or organizations you want to get involved with. I was able to interact with Fight the New Drug because I used #socmeddiscuss, even after my initial post. Using relevant and meaningful hashtags makes you stand out and helps people to notice who you are.  

Social media is a powerful tool, and the hashtag is a powerful element within that. I got really excited about my interaction with Fight the New Drug through this experience, but beyond that I realized the true power that social media holds.