Marketing Tips

Archive for July, 2011

Social Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking

There are many marketing strategies out there and if you are a small business owner on the Web you may feel depressed if you are not finding moneymakingstrategies to use. Before you give up you should learnabout social bookmarking.

Social bookmarking submission of your website is one sure goodway of driving traffic to your website. When you go public with your URL your site link is placed for a while in other relevant catergorywith high ranks. However since social bookmarking sites is so popular it takes no time for your listing to scroll out. Knowing how best to use the time ‘when your site is in the zone’ to capture visitors requires some tricks that is used by experts.

Social Bookmarking sites are fast becoming the weapon of choice for many who want to increase traffic through to their websites. Theirraising popularity and how they seem to appear on a range of websites from blogs to ecommerce sites is confirmation to the fact that social bookmarking is putting organizations of results i.e. SERPs in the hands of the web surfer.

Even though there is tons of social bookmarking sites outh there only few sicial bookmarking sites attracts millions of visiotrs everyday who look for valuable information and these sites are also highly ranked in serach engines . Those sites include Delicious Reddit Propeller StumbleUpon and Digg.

Important point while bookamrking your sites in Social bookmarking sites.

1. Do you like the page the one you bookmarked?

2. Did is useful for visitor to check the page

3. IS the bookmark contain content need my by the visitor?

4. Am i doing spamming of bookmarking site or contributing to it?

5. Is my social bookmarking page/profile beneficial to others as it is to me?

About the writer:  herme carros usados expert

Social Bookmarketing – Spreading The Word To Millions Of People

Social Bookmarking: Get ready for some heavy traffic!
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The social bookmarking site that we at iyazam.comnbsp;like tonbsp;recommend for starters is StumbleUpon.
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http://www.stumbleupon.com/nbsp;
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StumbleUpon allows you to tag sites within your areas of interest that you think your peers should check out. It also recommends sites to you based on what others have tagged within your areas of interest.
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There is debate whether energy should be focused on social bookmarking since traffic coming from such sites tends not to be quality traffic. Visitors tend to stay on the site for only a very short time and they rarely convert into buyers. Despite these drawbacks StumbleUpon is an excellent tool that can boost your rankings in the search engines. We will explain how it works very soon but first wed like to show you how to use the site.

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1. First go to stumbleupon.com and download the toolbar.

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2. Before creating your profile StumbleUpon will ask you for your areas of interest. Browse the topics that are in your areas of interest ndash; make sure to check boxes related to your business.

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3. Follow the steps to create your profile.

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4. Add friends; you are limited to 200. When selecting friends it is best to search for people with whom you share common interests.

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On the stumbleupon tool bar you will note the thumbs up and thumbs down buttons in the toolbar.
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The stumble button is like the channel changer on a television remote control ndash; it allows you to flip through a wide variety of sites all within your selected areas of interest.

If you come across a website that you like you can give it thumbs up. A small box will pop up for you to give a description of what you like about that site. When prompted make sure to tag and categorize the site.

The thumbs down button is for a page you dont like.

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SHOW ME THE TRAFFIC!

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Get started by promoting your own site on StumbleUpon:

1. Go to the homepage of your site.

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2. Give it thumbs up you can only do this once.

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3. Write a good description about your site.

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4. Tag it and categorize it.

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5. Do this with every page of your site.

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How does this process generate massive traffic? Whenever your site is given thumbs up it will appear more frequently in the StumbleUpon search. The more thumbs up your site earns the broader your traffic.

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If writing is in Ricks area of interest whenever Rick flips through websites by using the stumble button sites related to writing will show up. Suppose Jack has a website that discusses writing and his website has received thumbs up. Jacks website will appear in Ricks Stumble search.

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Note the word social; in the term social bookmarking. If you want others to stumble upon your site if you want your site to appear in the stumble search then you must Stumble other sites and give them thumbs up. This is an incredible tool for driving traffic which will in turn elevate your position in the search engines.

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TO TAKE STUMBLEUPON ONE STEP FURTHERhellip;

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bull; Every time you submit an article post on a forum add content to your website publish a press release or even a classified ad stumble that page and give it thumbs up writing a description and tagging and categorizing.

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bull; Stumble and give thumbs up to every website where a link to your site appears. This puts those sites into the stumble search and therefore your site as well

About the writer:  Hillel Porath is the founder and developer of http://www.iyazam.com . Hillel has been working in marketing for several years learning many valuable lessons along the way the fruits of which appear on his website. Hillel lives with his wife and toddler in Israel.

Social Advertising

Emotions evoke change

Social advertising public service advertising is the form of advertising that is designed to educate or motivate people to undertake socially desirable actions. Emotions are a basic component of advertising and especially of social advertising. Emotions have a huge influence on perception remembering recall as well as change in attitudes and behavior. Emotions help people to remember the situations and messages in which they appeared they evoke physiological changes as well as changes of perception halo effect reduce criticism and rational thinking abilities. Those changes have a strong impact on people and can motivate them to act follow the suggestions expressed in advertising and deliver the promise of satisfaction.

Emotions can be divided into 2 continuums: Positive vs. Negative Rational vs. Emotional.

Social ads use the wide range of emotions to influence our behavior. They scare us affect us sadden us make us laugh or anger us. Rational arguments arent enough to change behavior or attitudes.

There are two types of social advertising:

1. Ads that warn us against dangerous behavior or prod us to change behavior for our own good.
2. Ads that invite us to help others.

Both forms of advertising are based on emotion. Warning ads create the threat car accident death present the cause of the threat driving under the influence of alcohol and show the solution of how to avoid the consequences dont drink and drive. They both refer to negative consequences and evoke fear. Click here for an ad from The Danish Road Safety Organization.

However too heavy a load of negativity can have the reverse effect on the viewer creating psychological discomfort and leading them to reject the message.

Ads that make people want to help each other are based on the effectiveness of compassion message comprehension and the availability of the viewers means to help. More people will donate money in the form of a text message SMS message while sitting on their sofa in front of the TV than will make a bank transfer. Click here for an example.See translation at the end of the article.

Papa dont preach the spiral of change

Social advertising cant be sententious because we cant limit all social problems to simple and predictable explanations and solutions. Social advertising should give a voice to those who never had it and those who never have a chance to stand up and tell about the problem while using an honest and authentic voice. In social advertising there is no place for taking problems with a grain of salt. Social advertising covers serious and fundamental human problems like human suffering and moral choices. It requires both serious and real solutions.

However the cause and the emotions arent enough to create societal change. They teach warn shock etc. but a month long campaign against drinking and driving will not change behavior. Emotions need to work out the mind they need time to build ways to our conscience and subconscious like ants build corridors in an anthill.

Social advertising needs to have a long term strategy and deep understanding of human motivations in order to achieve its goal change in behavior or/and attitudes spiral of change.

There is no recipe written on how to create an effective social campaign. Measuring a social campaigns effectiveness is difficult and rare. Social advertising is too important to be left out to chance. Measuring recall isnt enough. Effectiveness of social advertising should be measured on three levels; motivation engagement and recall: the higher the motivation and engagement; the better the effectiveness of advertising in terms of generating a change.

Attention is scarce Sex is wanted

Today social advertising shares the same problems as commercial advertising: dull sensitivity immunity to advertising messages scarce attention increasing clutter and choices. Advertisers are forced to use nontraditional and sometimes controversial means in order to get their messages through to their viewers.

There is more social advertising that uses humor and sex in the fight for viewers attention. Speed Bandits is the campaign from The Danish Road Safety Organization 2006 made as an American news report where the focus is set on the liberal Denmark for taking the creative initiative in combating speed violations in Copenhagen. Topless models are seen waiving around speed limit signs hoping to attract the attention of the passingbydrivers to the speed limitations. Speed Bandits movie became one of the most viral films on the Internet. The viral character of the campaign attracted millions of viewers to the campaign site and created a lot of attention from both target groups and traditional media. The latter one increased the effectiveness of the campaign and reached the general public by giving it lots of media space. In the first week alone the campaign was seen 1 million times. Watch it here.

With a contagious movie lots of attention and buzz there is still the key question left did the campaign reduced speed violations? Researchconducted for the Danish Road Safety Council had shown that out of the targeted drivers 30 thought more of their speed as a result of the film. Statistics for persons killed in traffic accidents shows increase from 306 in 2006 to 400 in 2007. Another example of a very viral movie using not only sex but also humor is the campaign from The Danish Cancer Organization against tanning beds. They use Mascha Vang reality TV star. This is really great idea; it generated lots of views comments and laughs about the model and the ending. Though the question about the effectiveness of the campaign is still open.

Conclusions

Changing behavior isnt an easy task. As I mentioned earlier it requires strong strategic work engagement and understanding of human motivations. People dont exist in a vacuum. Advertising alone no matter how viral it is will never change or shape human behavior and attitudes. All gimmicks are allowed to catch peoples attention but they arent enough. Getting people to laugh or cry doesnt guarantee they will take action. Social advertising only makes sense when it gets people thinking and talking about the social problems. Effective social advertising needs to be able to ignite a social debate.

*Translation of the ad for Folkenskirke Nodhjelp agitating for donation for kids in Africa: Yes yes I know you want money but money dont hang on trees. And I also have things I need to take care for. Besides cash there are no people who have cash on them. So just let it be. Picture of African children yeah thats the way it is. Use your herd power. Come on!

Text Welcome kindly those who collect money on Sunday. If you want to help have money ready.

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;I’m a 33yearold Sociologist was born in Poland and moved to Denmark six years ago because of love. I’ve worked for different media agencies throughout the last 8 years focusing on strategic planning social media and social networking dynamics in advertising and media planning. I am currently with Vizeum in Denmark and in my free time I am a passionate photographer and blogger.
You may also find articles by Daria at TalentZoo.com.