Designing a Facebook Page

Setting up a Facebook fan page can get rather complicated these days.  There are so many different add-on's and gadgets it can get a bit confusing.  In this post we will examine all the different bells and whistles you can add to make your page fun.

You know the basics of setting up your page.  You add your logo, some basic information, your website.  But now Facebook allows business pages to have apps.  There are hundreds of apps now that you can add to your page.  You can do some simple things like have a welcome page inticing people to like your page.  Or more complicated items like RSS feeds to e-commerce to exclusive promotions to coupons to contests.  Anything you could possible want to do on a Facebook and probably some things you've never even thought of.

Coupons and exclusive promotions are great ways not only to get more visitors to your page but also it is an incentive to get them to actually purchase.  Plus it will allow you to track just how effective your Facebook page really is. 

Contests are also a great way to get people involved in your page.  You can offer free merchandise or discounts as a prize.  However these can get very complicated to monitor.  The apps will help you monitor and select a winner. 

You can find these apps generally simple by Googling Facebook business page apps.  However, a word of caution.  Make sure you select apps that have good reviews and clear instructions.  Remember these apps are not made by Facebook, but by third party developers. 

SourceOne Technologies has a lot of experience and expertise with Facebook pages and applications that can make them a success.  We would be happy to assist you in creating a Facebook page that will achieve the goals you are after.. 

Facebook apps, when installed properly, can make your Facebook page an interactive hub for your clients.  It can also lead to more sales and revenue without you even leaving your desk.

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LinkedIn Tidbit – LinkedIn Signal

A LinkedIn Tidbit

 

LinkedIn is a great Social Network to include in your overall Social Media strategy, especially if you work with professionals and do business to business transactions.

Here is a quick video that LinkedIn released this year on how you can use the LinkedIn Signal feature for your networking and research on LinkedIn :

 

 

This is just one way you can use LinkedIn as part of your social networking and social media strategy.

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Google Explains How to Protect Your Computer from Malware

Malware is a problem that many computer users face over time.  There are some precautions that can be taken to help prevent Malware on your computer system and to clean it up.

We wanted to share this video from Google that does a great job of outlining a few things you can do to help protect your computer from Malware.

If your computer is not protected currently from Malware or if you may have Malware on your computer SourceOne Technologies can assist you in making sure you are protected and cleaning up any infections.

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What Is Social Media SEO?

Social Media and the impact on SEO

 

In times past, search engine optimization (aka SEO) and social media wouldn't have been used in the same sentence. After all, search engine optimization comprises techniques designed to help boost one's search engine rank placement and social media sites, like Facebook, allow you to connect with your friends or customers in a "social" way.

However, recent changes by both Google and Bing make it clear that these major search engines are looking to social media sites as a way to validate the quality of the content found on websites. Those that make the grade are being rewarded with improved search engine rankings… even in "regular" search.

While there are some differences in the way Google and Bing are using information from social media sites to adjust their indexes, there are many similarities. The search engines are looking at the "authority" of the account holder and placing more importance on any links posted on sites like Twitter and Facebook.

While the links themselves may be "no follow" links, that isn't stopping the search engines from adjusting the indexes and increasing the search engine rank placement for the web pages they point to. In fact, some have said that it appears as though "retweets" are the new form of linkbuilding.

Both Google and Bing are looking at the frequency that a particular link is posted (or re-posted) on the social media sites and are also paying attention to who is doing the posting. If your links are being posted by an individual or business that is considered to be an authority by the search engines, the associated web page may see a boost in its search engine ranking.

This development validates what many marketing experts have believed for more than a year now;  Social media's importance is growing  in the eyes of the search engines and this trend will likely continue. It's well known that Google places a premium on relevant content and quality sites and pages so it should come as no surprise that they are tracking the number of people who liked your content well enough to share it with others.

Those who would like to take advantage of these new search engine trends are encouraged to make it as easy as possible for others to share their content or the links they contain. Adding a "retweet" function to your website or blog, for example, can dramatically increase the likelihood that your content will be shared by your visitors via Twitter.

 

If you would like to lear more about Social Media SEO you can request our FREE Report by clicking on the image below:

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How to download your Facebook data

Previously grabbing a copy of your Facebook information and data required using a third party service or application.  Now it is possible to take care of this right from Facebook.  The following steps will allow you to download your Facebook data:

Go to

Account –> Account Settings –> Download –> Learn More.

 

This will take you to an information screen and provide a Download button.

 

Once it is completed you will receive an email with a link to download the zip file of your data in your Facebook account. 

 

One downside is that it will not include photos that your friends uploaded and tagged you in or email addresses of your friends – but it does include a lot of other data

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How to use RSS Readers and Save Yourself Time Finding Needed Information

Information moves at a very fast pace in today's environment.  This being the case sometimes we need a little bit of help to keep tabs on the information we need.  This post will provide you with a little bit of information on how you can utilize a couple of tools to manage information better and put in place an electronic assistant.

One great tool to help you keep up and manage all of the information available from your favorite web sites is with an RSS reader.  The following video does a really good job of explaining what an RSS reader is :

 

 

One popular tool to use to read and organize your RSS feeds with is Google Reader.    You can find more information on Google Reader and set it up here:

Set up Google Reader

 

 

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Organize Email System For Better Time Management – guest post

Today we wanted to share a great article with you regarding how to organize your Email System for Better Time Management.

Organize Email System For Better Time Management

Too many business professionals waste valuable time constantly checking their emails. Sending emails may also take more of time than is necessary too. Practice email organization and time management to save time when working with email.

By: Shirley Fine Lee

Keep in mind that every email does not have to be read when it comes in. For most people checking business email can be done three times during the day – when coming in at the beginning of shift, before or after lunch, and before leaving work for the day. However, people in a customer service or support job may need to check their email hourly, such as at the beginning of each hour rather than every minute of the day. The old time management rule for answering inquiries was within 24 hours, however with the technological advances today, by end of business day or each work shift may be a better practice.

If an email is not going to be answered on the same day that it is read , because it requires more thought time than can currently be given to it, use the reminder or tickler feature in email system indicating a deadline so the reply requirement is not forgotten. If the email does not indicate a due date, ask for it or at least let the sender know when they might expect a well considered response. Also, it may take a little more time upfront when composing emails, but it can save time and confusion later if when sending business emails, professional email etiquette should be followed.

Although it is true that there is no need to check to email as often, no one should not let their inbox get too full. A full inbox takes more time to clear out in the future. If an email requires a response, don't keep people waiting too long for an answer. If it does not require a response, decide if there is a need to keep the email or trash it immediately. Always clean the inbox out at the end of each day at s set time. Also, if emptying the trash folder is not set up on an automatic timeframe, empty it out at the end of each day too.

When keeping emails for future reference, be sure to make folders for filing them. Having folders created for active projects or teams makes it easy to quickly retrieve important communications and forward them when necessary. It is also easy to quickly remove all those old emails when the project is complete or team is dissolved by deleting the folder. Some email tools allow sending emails from particular people directly to a folder to make checking project tasks during a designated time during the work day. Not only can folders be set-up and sending emails to them the sender information, filtering emails into specific folders based on a word in the subject line is also possible.

As a final time saving tip, when sending mass-emailing to a particular group or team of people on a regular basis, consider putting their email address together in a group ID to make completing the "To" field for outgoing messages quicker. So practice better email organization and improved time management working with email. Don't be one of those business professionals who waste valuable time checking emails more often than necessary.

 

Shirley Fine Lee, author of "R.A!R.A! A Meeting Wizard's Approach", has worked as a training and development specialist since 1986, and an independent consultant since 2000. She has extensive experience, helping organizations with their team building, training development, meeting facilitation, presentation delivery, and other communication needs. This work involves developing productivity tools, presenting workshops, and writing. For instance, she has authored numerous training manuals and guides, on a wide variety of topics. Her programs include time management, getting organized, problem solving, and team building. Find out more about her and options she provides on her website www.shirleyfinelee.com.

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Article Writing – Increase Traffic and Drive Sales

Article writing is a great way to increase the amount of traffic to your website, more importantly increasing your exposure to the world. Writing articles is all about getting links to your website, usually done from within a "resource box." Your resource box should contain links back to your website, after someone reads your article if they are looking for additional information on the subject they are re-directed to your website.

Resources boxes play an important role in developing back links to your website, which are very important to search engines for ranking your site against your competition. Back links are one of the key factors that search engine use to rate your website based on relevance of a specific keyword, or topic. Creating an effective resource box will drive traffic to your website each time a reader would like additional information about the topic.

Article writing by far is the fastest way to build your back links, drive traffic to your website. Traffic is ultimately, what you want right. You did not build your website just to sit there and wait for people to stumble upon it occasionally. In addition, article writing is a fast and effective way to get your website indexed with the major search engines. When articles are published to directories that already have a lot of traffic your site is "picked" up by the search engines crawlers the next time they visit their web site, this means faster indexing and inclusion in search engines

Once you write an article you have to get it published, this is very easy to do, find article directories that are high traffic and user friendly. High traffic sites are your best option, your article spread around the internet much faster, and therefore getting you traffic faster.

The more articles that you write the more traffic you drive to your website. A good number to start with is five articles, write and publish a minimum of 5 per day, or at least 150 per month. In the right directories and distribution, you can build thousands of back links a month.

SourceOne Technologies offers article writing and marketing packages for our clients.  If you are interested in a consultation please complete the form below to get more information.

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Your Guide For Blog Marketing

Blogs also known as web logs are the latest thing on the internet. With there being so many blogs out there on the internet, how do you make yours known and get people to read it. How do you have the most often read blog on the market that you are promoting? Because there are so many people that are trying to all accomplish the same thing, how are you going to stand out?

There are several things that you can do to make your blog marketing a success, and we are going to cover some of them right here. The first thing that you should know is that you should have  a domain name for your blog that identifies it with your target market or keywords.  For example, if you are trying to promote and sell sunglasses from your blog, you want your URL to say www.sunglasses.blogurl.com. Doing so will give you an extra advantage.

The next step would be to customize your blog. Rather than having the same old blog interface like everyone else has, make your unique and interesting to look at. This will also help anyone from getting your blog confused with others that look just like it.     There are so many types of blog software on the market that having your own look should not be that difficult to accomplish.

Keyword research is another very important part of blog marketing. If you are not using the keywords that people search on, then chances are no one is going to find your blog. Have a variety of keywords in your blog as well. Not just the same one over and over. Not everyone just uses the term ‘sunglasses’ when they are searching for shades to keep the sun out of their eyes. Keyword research is an important factor to remember.

Using SEO on your blog, which stands for search engine optimization is a great idea as well. SEO will help get your blog out there and read, and will also help you get a better ranking with Google. Being as high as you can be in the Google search engine results is something that you want.

Find other sites and blogs that are in the same market as yours, but not in direct competition with you to exchange links with. This will help you out a lot as well, especially if you can get some good exchanges with high authority sites. The higher the page rank of your link exchange, the better for your blog.

Many people do not realize this, but having a different title tag in the HTML code on each page makes a big difference. If you have given the first page on your blog the title of ‘sunglasses’, you need to be sure that none of your other pages are named this. Doing so will make Google think that you are spamming that keyword, and that will result in them punishing your blog URL.

Once you have done your keyword research, you will want to write content based on the research you have done. Using one or two keywords, make entries into your blog using the keywords will make it easy for your blog to be indexed under those terms. That will also result in people searching on those particular terms able to find your blog.

Pinging your blog frequently is another good way to get your blog seen. Every time that you update it, use the ping tools to ping it. This will let all of the blog directories know that you have added something new to your blog. This also brings you in some more traffic.

Blog marketing is pretty much the same as website marketing. However, if you have never had a website, and are not familiar with marketing these great tips will help you get started. Be sure that you put new entries into your blog on a regular basis as well. This will help keep you up to date and current and also will keep your readers coming back for more.       

If you would like to discuss a blog strategy for your business please complete the form below and a member of our staff will get back to you for a consultation.

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How To Write Quality Articles

How to Write Quality Articles

Writing articles is one way to effectively promote your web site and help establish yourself or your business as an expert in your field.  When you publish an article you are able to provide an author resource box where you can include a link back to your website.  The link published in your article creates what is called a backlink back to your website and helps you with your SEO efforts and general exposure to your site.

This post will cover how to write articles that make the biggest impression and maximum impact.

Here at SourceOne Technologies we write articles for all of our websites as well as for several of our clients.

The following are some key items that we focus on for all of our article writing and suggest that you do the same:

Article length

Your article should not be too long, the reader should be able to read your article in between three and five minutes.

Keep it simple

Not everyone who reads articles on the internet are brain surgeons. Keep it simple by using easy to understand text.

Short paragraphs

Keep each paragraph fairly short, on average about three to six lines.

Make it interesting to read

When writing, try to write from the heart with a passion. Keep the reader interested and make it fun.

Give the reader a reason to read the article

Try to provide a lot of free advice and information that your reader can use.

Just to recap, Article writing is a great way to generate exposure for your web site and create backlinks for SEO purposes.

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