5 Top Google+ Tools and Apps for Marketing Pros
Are you looking for Google+ apps and resources to enhance your marketing?
This article reveals five categories of tools and apps you can employ to greatly enhance your Google+ experience.
Check this out: Thirty-six percent of brands on Google+ have seen a 100% increase in circle size in less than 3 months, according to a recent study by Simply Measured.
This is a stunning metric when one considers that there’s no Google+ advertising platform to fuel campaigns. Brands are forced to use great content to engage and can’t “pay to play” by using sponsored stories or other advertising gimmicks.
A Bad Workman Blames His Tools
With this spike in activity, developers are scrambling to create tools to help businesses of all sizes manage, integrate and promote their Google+ communities. Below I’ve outlined some great tools to help businesses manage Google+. I’m sure this list is just the start of many innovative tools that will be created to help communities thrive on Google’s social network. 
5 Tips to Becoming a Top Blog in Your Industry
Have you ever dreamed of becoming one of the top blogs in your space?
Are you wondering how some bloggers find success and why others struggle to survive?
If so, keep reading as I reveal five tips and techniques that have helped large blogs (such as Social Media Examiner) grow into influential and widely read publications.
First, Rethink What it Means to Blog
When I started Social Media Examiner back in October 2009, I made the decision not to call our site a blog.
Instead, I opted for the phrase online magazine.
5 Ways to Enhance Your Facebook Timeline Page With Images
Are you wondering how to visually enhance your Timeline Facebook page?
This article provides five actionable tips you can employ now.
The Visual Opportunity
When Facebook moved the navigation into the left column and added the Photostrip, I wrote how you could optimize your Facebook page for visual branding.
And when Timeline was rolled out for personal profiles, I also wrote how you can customize your cover photo and profile picture.
With each new overhaul of Facebook pages, there have been increased opportunities for brands to use imagery to better promote their offerings and create visual interest, and Timeline for pages is no different.
LinkedIn Group Search: This Week in Social Media
Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up-to-date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.
What’s New This Week?
LinkedIn Rolls Out New Group Search: LinkedIn’s Group Search helps you search across all of the groups on LinkedIn to find the right one for you. You’ll find this search now gives you better results.
New Group Search results show your connections who may be in a particular group.
How Ford Engages Customers With Social Media
In this video I interview Scott Monty, head of social media at Ford Motor Company.
Scott shares how to connect and engage your customers with social media. He also explains how Ford uses Google+ and blogging to engage customers and what this means for their business.
Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.
26 Elements of a Gamification Marketing Strategy
Games are everywhere.
More and more businesses are using gamification to create brand awareness and drive user engagement.
Gartner, Inc. predicts that more than 70% of Global 2000 organizations will have at least one gamified application by 2014.
In the last few years, we’ve also seen an increase in the number of companies that deliver gamification services and solutions including Bunchball, BigDoor Media, Badgeville and Gigya.
“Gamification typically involves applying game design thinking to non-game applications to make them more fun and engaging.” (From Gamification Wiki)
What follows is an A-Z guide of 26 elements you should be aware of when you consider a gamification marketing strategy for your business.
5 Creative Tips to Increase Blog Traffic and Boost Your Business
Does your business have a blog?
Is it working for you?
If you said “no,” I wouldn’t be surprised.
But it doesn’t need to be that way.
Keep reading to discover why many blogs fail and what you can do to boost your traffic and brand.
What’s Wrong With Blogs?
This platform, if done properly, can generate tremendous traffic, leads and sales for your business that you otherwise would not have had.
Unfortunately though, most businesses do not blog well. Why? Because they refuse to think like a consumer.
They refuse to tell consumers the answers to the questions they most want answered. And it is because of this approach we so often hear the phrase, “Yeah, our company tried blogging, but it didn’t work for us.”
I own a swimming pool company, and when the economy crashed in 2008, it was our blog that really saved our business.
2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report
Are you wondering how your peers are using social media?
Wondering if you should focus on Google+ or Pinterest?
In our fourth annual social media study, more than 3800 marketers reveal where they focus their social media activities, how much time they invest and what the rewards are.
Here’s a Preview
Watch this quick video overview:
How to Track Social Media Traffic With Google Analytics
You have a website and you are building traffic to it, but what do you know about your visitors?
Do you know where they come from, how engaged they are with your website or if they have converted as a reader, subscriber or customer?
You can see all of these insights for free using Google Analytics.
Why Google Analytics?
Google Analytics allows you to see where your visitors come from and if they engage with your content or leave immediately. Additionally, you can set up goals that match your business goals and measure if visitors are meeting those goals.
With Google Analytics, you can get valuable insights about your visitors and in this article I am going to show you how to track social media traffic.
LinkedIn Networking Gets Easier: This Week in Social Media
Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up-to-date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.
What’s New This Week?
LinkedIn Makes it Easier to Grow Your Professional Network: LinkedIn rolls out an update for the People You May Know feature with a streamlined user experience and improved accuracy and relevance of your recommendations.
