Rising advertising and cloud overspend costs have made marketing funnels that depend on organic traffic more appealing. In a number of verticals, social media marketing can have a higher long-term ROI than PPC or media buying. 

However, social media marketers can encounter some unexpected obstacles in the early stages of their campaigns. They need to invest in the right tools and technology to execute successful strategies. Cloud hosting is particularly important for social media marketers. 

Companies are expected to spend $623 billion on public cloud services buy 2023, which underscores its benefits. However, marketers need to make sure that they buy the right cloud hosting plan, since features vary considerably between providers. Neil Patel has a great review of web hosting companies on his site. He has reviewed seven of the top hosting providers across three important factors – speed, uptime and customer service. Since Patel has an outstanding reputation for thoroughly researching the services he recommends, this article should be a good primer on choosing a hosting plan. 

Here are some reasons social media marketers should invest in it.

Content Personalization 

Content personalization is becoming increasingly important in modern marketing. Social media marketers need to prioritize the user experience. Since content personalization is proven to improve user engagement, a growing number of marketers are leveraging it. Research from Epsilon found that 80% of customers would rather purchase products from brands that offer personalized experiences. Another study found that 91% of customers prefer purchasing from brands that offer relevant product recommendations. 

Cloud hosting is important for companies that offer personalized content. ScienceDirect published a study arguing that cloud-enabled personalization is essential for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies. Although brands with smaller digital footprints than your average SaaS company require less bandwidth, they can still run into bottlenecks with more archaic hosting solutions. 

Personalized content places a larger strain on the hosting, because it requires the syncing of real-time data and more complex algorithms. Companies that rely on personalized content can avoid downtime and reduce website loading times by opting for a reliable cloud hosting provider.

Handle Larger Traffic Volume 

The numbers behind social media marketing campaigns are different than search engine marketing strategies. The obvious benefit of organic search engine traffic is the lower cost of acquisition. However, conversion rates are also considerably lower. This means that social media marketers need to attract much larger volumes of visitors in order to sustain viable funnels. 

Large traffic volume from successful social media campaigns can easily put a strain on hosting servers. If a brand does not have adequate hosting to accommodate this traffic, then they face serious challenges with maintaining a reasonable time guarantee and making sure webpages load quickly enough. 

This is one of the biggest advantages of cloud hosting for social media marketers. They can reliably serve large numbers of visitors if they have the right hosting plan. 

Protecting Lead Magnets and Other Content from Server Failures 

Social media marketers often rely on more extensive types of content than those employing other marketing funnels. Social media marketing strategies often rely on lead magnets, such as whitepapers or e-books to build mailing lists. 

Marketing strategies that rely on lead magnets are more vulnerable to server failures. If the documents are lost due to a server crash, then they can be very difficult to replace. 

This is another reason that cloud hosting can be so incredibly beneficial. With a decent cloud hosting plan, all of the files on your server are regularly backed up. There are multiple copies of them, which makes it a lot easier to restore them if the original file is deleted. This makes it a lot easier to restore your landing pages and lead magnets during a crash.

More Opportunities for A/B Testing 

Testing is one of the most important aspects of any marketing strategy. Social media marketing is no exception. 

Cloud hosting gives marketers more opportunities to conduct extensive testing. They can retain a lot more data and analyze it in real time. Instead of testing a limited range of variables, marketers using cloud hosting can look at important marketing elements in much more detail.

Cloud Hosting Provides Important Benefits to Social Media Marketers 

Many brands have discovered the numerous benefits of cloud hosting. Social media marketers should consider investing in cloud hosting plans to make sure their site can accommodate the traffic that they generate.

The post Importance of Cloud Hosting for Social Media Marketing appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

In the past, agencies often trained their employees in a traditional office setting, despite the availability of technology that enabled remote working. The COVID-19 virus has forced them to transition towards remote learning and working. There are signs that this is going to be a permanent shift for social media companies all over the world. 

Social Media Companies Will Train their Workers Remotely for the Foreseeable Future

For many people, two of the most obvious signs of COVID has been the shutting kindergartens and schools, colleges and universities and the halting of face-to-face training for businesses and companies. This closing of places of learning and training facilities has led to a paradigm mass-shift in the methodologies used for education and professional development. This hasn’t affected social media agencies as much as other companies, but they have been impacted to some degree. Some of them still relied heavily on an in-person workplace, which created a new dynamic when the illness hit.

They have adjusted well and are seeing the potential of a workplace that relies more on eLearning. This can change the future for social media training, but there are still some kinks to work out. 

After all, even though much of the world has implemented social distancing, the need for education has not stopped and staff still need to build their skills and abilities. This includes workplaces that need to train their employees to handle complex tasks such as social media marketing. 

To fill this need, e-learning has been rolling out on a scale as never before seen. 

What is e-Learning?

For the average person, e-Learning can mean ‘leaning done by studying at home by using computers and courses provided on the internet’ or for any learning where the content is delivered through electronic means. But while both these are true, they do not give the whole picture. E-Learning, as a separate definition describes it, is:

‘a learning system based on formalized teaching but with the help of electronic resources… While teaching can be based in or out of the classrooms, the use of computers and the Internet forms the major component of E-learning. E-learning can also be termed as a network enabled transfer of skills and knowledge [where] the delivery of education is made to a large number of recipients at the same or different times’. 

E-learning is a structured learning process and can be made up of many different types of content – online lectures, audio recordings, simulations, videos, quizzes, activities, even games. It can be delivered via web browser interface or through e-learning solutions, such as apps. 

The Association for Talent Development states that e-Learning falls into two categories, asynchronous and synchronous:

• Asynchronous e-learning is taken at the pace of the learner, i.e. it is self-driven, self-paced. Learners take the e-Learning element (normally a course) on their own, usually via a computer (laptop, desktop etc.). Asynchronous e-learning can incorporate content that is pre-made or pre-recorded, such as lectures, videos, text, other visuals, but can also include more interactive aspects such as quizzes, simulations and games.
• Synchronous e-learning, also known as live-online training or virtual classroom training, is instructor-led and taken at the same time as other learners – everyone just happens to be geographically dispersed. This training typically uses a web-conferencing or a virtual classroom platform (such as Adobe Connect or GoToTraining) that offers features such as slide or screen sharing, as well as interaction tools such as chats, polling, and screen annotation.

The ATD states that there are multiple benefits that can be gained from e-Learning when compared to more traditional methods. It breaks these down as follows:

The growth in e-Learning

E-Learning is not new – it has been growing in popularity since the early 2000s, notably with the development of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). But because of the requirements for physical distancing since the start of COVID, the extent of e-Learning provision has increased substantially. Educational establishments have had to shift their entire teaching curriculums online, requiring the rapid development and deployment of e-learning solutions. This has not just taken place in Europe and North America: globally, more and more courses are now offering using e-Learning or, at the least, incorporating e-Learning elements, with universities from Namibia to Jordan all using e-learning. 

But how does the development of e-Learning take place?  

E-Learning Development Services

One of the results of the expansion of e-Learning – not just in the last few months but over the past decade – has been an increase in the professionalism of both the platforms used and the content offered. As with many aspects of online content and delivery, the creation of e-Learning solutions – whether this is related to the need to put together specific content or create an e-learning app – is often best done by firms that are specialists in e-Learning application development and the provision of e-Learning development services. These firms work closely with the subject matter specialists (normally the customer who wants a particular project created) to produce a software package that can offer the content to the desired audience in the required manner. 

There are many aspects that need to be considered when doing this, for example: what is the content that needs to be conveyed? Are there pre-existing platforms that need to be incorporated? What is the likely user hardware and software profile? What is the state of the telecoms network that the target user will have to make use of? What is the praxeology of the course? Which languages does the content need to be offered in?

A specialist e-Learning solutions firm is able to take the answers to these and other questions and create an e-Learning app that precisely meets the needs of the client and user. With the expansion and growth of e-Learning solutions around the world, ensuring the delivery of high-quality content is essential for educational and professional development providers.

Social Media Companies Will Continue to Train their Employees Remotely in 2020 

The government lockdown has led many companies to train their employees remotely. Social media companies are no exception. In fact, they are among the companies leading this trend. This trend is proving to be successful, so it will likely continue long after the COVID-19 crisis comes to an end.

The post eLearning Is the New Reality for Social Media Training in 2020 appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Most Instagram marketers focus on creating their own content. The problem with this approach is that branded content and professionally curated content can make you look less genuine, which hurts your engagement rate. 

You will need to invest more time and resources to nurture a strategy around user generated content instead. However, it is well worth the investment, because The ROI will be massive. Data from Starbucks showed that 61% of customers are more willing to make purchases from user generated content. 

How can you create a user generated content strategy with Instagram? Here are some ideas that you may want to try. They can help you build your brand or even become an influencer. 

Use hashtags to create a trend 

Aerie is a women’s fashion company that developed a very successful user generated content strategy back in 2017. They started a hashtag called #UGCgoals. The hashtag was accompanied by a post calling for followers to post unfiltered photos of themselves in swimwear. They pledged to donate $1 for every image to the National Eating Disorders Association. This post was remarkably successful. It received 14,906 likes.

Art Mash is another organization that used this strategy very effectively. They created the #Procreate to encourage artists to post higher volumes of unique products. Art Mash got 5,373 likes in just six days. 

This shows that you can create a strong user generated content marketing campaign with an enticing hashtag and a clear call-to-action. 

Connect with the right influencers 

Influencer marketing is a remarkably successful way to get traction on social media. One survey found that 25% of marketers plan to spend over $100,000 on influencer marketing this year. 

However, influencer marketing is only effective if you implement it correctly. The first thing that you need to do is come up with the right goal. You should consider creating an influencer marketing campaign dedicated to attracting user generated content for your Instagram profile. 

You also need to make sure that you choose the right influencers to support your campaign. Here are some tips to align your user generated content strategy with the best influencers: 

• Pay more attention to engagement metrics than follower count. Far too many marketers obsess about follower count, whether they are analyzing their own profile or the profile of an influencer that they want to partner with. Follower count matters more on Instagram than on Pinterest, but it is still not nearly as important as engagement. A lot of influencers pay for fake followers to make their account seem more important. If these accounts don’t have good engagement rates, then that means their content is not going to rank high in the Instagram feed. On the other hand, their content will get a lot more visibility if they have high engagement scores. 
• Make sure the account is relevant to your brand. Some influencers have massive reach, but that doesn’t mean that their content is relevant to your brand. Take a look at many celebrities such as Kim Kardashian. They charge several hundred thousand dollars for a single share on social media. However, that won’t provide much value to your brand if their followers aren’t interested in what you have to offer. You are better off finding lesser known influencers with a more targeted audience.

You also need a strong call-to-action to encourage users to submit user generated content. Make sure that it is something that a prominent influencer will be able to get on board with and that their followers will find appealing.

Solicit feedback on Content about your employees 

IBM came up with a highly engaging user generated content marketing strategy. They created content showing their workers behind the scenes of the company. Content with a clear human element tends to get a lot more visibility on social media. 

You could follow a similar approach. You might want to create an image of your employees working closely together and ask customers to share their input.

A Strong User Generated Content Strategy Can Transform Your Instagram Campaigns

Instagram marketing is remarkably effective. However, you need the right content strategy. User generated content can be very useful, so you should try to leverage it to its fullest potential. 

The post Encouraging User Generated Content Should Be a Pillar of Your Instagram Strategy appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Although Pinterest is arguably the easiest site to earn traffic from, it still entails a lot of work. You need to generate a ton of content before you start seeing results. Most marketers eventually outsource their content creation to get faster results. 

Outsourcing can be a great way to scale your content marketing efforts on Pinterest. However, you are likely to face a frustrating learning curve, which can be stressful in the early stages. Fortunately, there are some very helpful steps that you can take to ensure your outsourcing approach works more effectively. 

You will get a lot more from your Pinterest campaigns if you use a team. One poll showed that 28% of marketers are using Pinterest, but their results vary. Those that outsource strategically tend to perform better. Here are some proven outsourcing tips that will help you get the most out of your Pinterest marketing efforts. 

Use dependable training methods 

The biggest hurdle that you were going to face is training your contractors to create the content that you need. You can’t always expect them to know exactly what you need, even if they have extensive experience creating Pinterest content. 

There are different elearning applications that you can use. You might want to try Sumasoft support to develop an application to instruct your virtual assistants.

Only use quality outsourcing channels 

There are more outsourcing sites then you can shake a stick at. Some of them have a large supply of talented professionals that can help you immensely. Other sites have a tendency to attract unqualified marketers that won’t provide the quality services that you expect. 

You need to be selective with outsourcing websites. You should avoid hiring virtual assistants and content creators on Fiverr and other low-tier sites. Upwork is a reliable outsourcing platform, but you need to do your due diligence when hiring contractors. 

One of the benefits of platforms like Upwork is that you can evaluate the quality of contractors based on past performance with other employers. However, these features are only useful if you take advantage of them. 

You need to pay close attention to ratings and reviews from other employers. You should also see how many other clients they have worked with. In general, it is best to only work with contractors that have worked with at least 15 other clients, so you have a decent sample of reviews to evaluate. 

Use Pinterest ads to test performance of different creatives 

Pinterest is definitely a numbers game. You might create 1,000 pins and find that 10 of them drive almost all of your traffic. 

You can’t predict with absolute certainty which pins are going to take off. Some Pinterest images seem great and don’t take off, while others go viral that you wouldn’t expect. However, you can maximize your chances by determining which types of pins get the most traction in your niche. 

Before you spend a small fortune paying a virtual assistant to create content for your Pinterest account, you are going to want to figure out what type of content works best for your audience. One of the most cost-effective ways to do this is with Pinterest ads. 

The problem with relying on entirely organic traffic is that engagement metrics won’t be a perfect indicator of the quality of your pin. Sometimes, otherwise great pins won’t go viral because they were simply posted at the wrong time. Other pins might not get much engagement because they were shared when your account is new and didn’t have enough followers yet. 

Pinterest ads ensure your pins get more exposure. Quality pins that you have promoted should get the reception they need to go viral. 

Look at tailwind tribes for feedback and insights 

Tailwind is one of the best promotional tools for Pinterest marketers. The most popular reason that marketers use Tailwind is to take advantage of the scheduling tool. However, Tailwind tribes are also very helpful.

You can use Tailwind tribes to share your content with similar publishers. These publishers can give great feedback on the types of pins that you are sharing and those that have worked best for them. 

You should use this information and pass it along to your virtual assistance. This will ensure they are creating pins that have a proven track record on other boards in your niche.

The post 4 Outsourcing Hacks to Streamline Your Pinterest Content Outreach Strategy appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

What is an engagement model and why is it important for business?

Engagement model is the contracting basis that defines how a client cooperates with a vendor of software development services. In a nutshell, it is a set of rules that all the parties involved in the collaboration have to follow. Basically, an engagement model in IT outsourcing is just as important as a business model for the enterprise. Imagine starting a business with no plan, defined objectives, sources of revenue, intended client base, and financial details. Sounds like a secure way to burn out, doesn’t it? Successful entrepreneurs realized the value of a comprehensive business plan years ago, and folks from the IT industry have followed their example. Take a look at our overview of the three engagement models that have already became an outsourcing classic and conquered the market with their ease of use, efficiency, and coherence.

Overview of classic engagement models

1. Time & Material Model

Pros

• Flexible
• Easy to control
• Low-risky

Cons

• Client has to manage the workflow himself
• The developers team is not dedicated to a single project at once
• Suitable only for people skilled in software development

Time & Material is probably the most transparent outsourcing model for client-developers relations, as the clients can track the working progress and access the results almost immediately. Not only does this add to quicker fixing of bugs and any kinds of inaccuracies, but also eliminates the risk of dissatisfaction with the end result (product or service delivered). This engagement model is constructed around an hourly rate that is predefined before the work even starts. Then, the client provides weekly or monthly payments depending on how much of the developers’ time was spent. Traditionally, T&M is viewed as a model for projects with a dynamic scope, regardless of the duration.

Before even thinking about choosing the Time & Material model, you have to objectively evaluate the level of your technical skills. Why? Simply because you are the only person to assure the quality of the work done by the outsourcing team. If you are new to the software development or your expertise in this area is too weak to perform regular code reviews, than we wouldn’t recommend adopting this model. 

We also have to draw your attention to such aspects of the Time & Material model as project management and planning. With T&M model, the client actually takes the project manager’s role and oversees the development process himself. The only other way is to hire a person who would take the responsibility for planning activities and progress tracking. 

This person has to be hired by client himself, as the team of developers is in charge for nothing but technical issues. You have to be able to identify project goals, objectives, time frames, resources, and budget. Without strong project management skills work organized by T&M risks to turn into a troublesome mess.

Another peculiarity of T&M is the fact that a team of developers hired is not limited to your project only, meaning developers can work on multiple projects simultaneously. This brings the issue of prioritization, as you can’t expect your project always to be of the highest importance. The need to jump from one projects to another oftentimes results in unprecise deadlines and some tech inaccuracies in the finished product. 

Do not jump to the conclusion that Time & Material is good for nothing; it’s not the case. This is actually a very useful cooperation framework for people who have IT expertise, but lacking time for a certain tasks and need a “helping hand” that would complete them. Meaning, this particular model was developed for a type of collaboration, where both parties have a decent level of technological expertise. If your reasons for outsourcing software development are far from technical illiteracy, then the chances are you’ll get exactly what you’ve paid for promptly. 

Adopt Time & Material model if:

• You have a decent level of expertise in software development.
• You can act a project manager and technical leader for the outsourcing team.
• You are not committed to strict deadline.
• You want the development process to be transparent.
• The budget for the project has no strict limits.

2. Dedicated Team Model

Pros

• Perfect for non-IT people
• Full-service team at your disposal
• Ability to have third-party company gather a team that would perfectly fit your requirements
• Flexible
• Ability to fully delegate project management and planning to the outsourcing vendor
• Low-risky

Cons

• Not suitable for short-term projects
• The client has to follow up the recruiting process

Dedicated Team (DT) is a model of collaboration when a client reaches for the IT outsourcing company that would act as a middleman between the client and the workforce. The one crucial difference between the Time & Material and the Dedicated Team is the fact that with a DT model a client does not carry out duties of a project manager nor a technical leader. Meaning, the IT services vendor takes full responsibility for the organization of the working process, from the technology-related issues to the salary release and paid vacations. To put it briefly, the DT model is a solution for non-technical people who have a valuable idea but lack skills for making it come true. For adopting this model, you do not need any kind of IT expertise except for the vision of how your project should function. The outsourcing company takes full responsibility for managing the software development workflow, while the client can focus on other aspects: client relations, marketing, sales, etc. Oftentimes, the Dedicated Team provides way more than just developers, but also QA engineers, designers, content managers, and other professionals that are needed to cover the project scope. 

When it comes to client involvement in the working process, the DT allows to arrange the collaboration in a way that would suit both parties. Although the outsourcing company basically can deliver the turnkey project according to your requirements, this does not mean that the client should not or cannot be involved in the development. Clients carrying out personal interviews is the common practice at the vast majority of outsourcing companies, so that they could be sure about the skills of every person working on their projects in future. 

The client can also easily track how the work is progressing, however this duty also could be delegated to the project manager hired by vendor, or limited to monthly (or even less frequent) reports.

To get the work started, the client has to negotiate budgetary issues with the outsourcing company of his choice. Usually, the project owner comes up with an approximate monthly rate he is ready to pay to each member of the team. Later this rate and its correlation with the requirements will define the allocation process. After the team is gathered, they start to work on the project scope and organize their work depending on the software development methodology chosen. When it comes to working overtime, the coverage of extra hours spent at workplace (if any) might be included in the budget as well, although it also depends on company’s corporate policy and should be discussed in advance. 

Adopting the Dedicated Team model assures comprehensive working process that involves a lot of people whose competence was proven during the multi-level recruiting process. This contracting basis has such unbeatable advantages as autonomous team of professionals dedicated solely to your project and no need to take care of the hardware, working conditions, career development of the staff, tech leading, etc. As for disadvantages, this model is not suitable for short-term projects (less than one year) due to the fact that the outsourcing company hires new staff basing on the customer requirements, and these people expect the long-term employment with the company. 

Adopt Dedicated Team model if:

• You have a great project idea but lack the skills for its development.
• The approximate duration of your project is a year or more.
• You do not want to follow up every step during the development process.
• You have the vision of your completed project, but can’t define the requirements once for all.
• You want to know exactly who you work with and decide whether the person is worth hiring.
• You want to save on some costs without compromising quality.

3. Fixed Price Model

Pros

• Single-payment contract
• Perfect for short deadlines
• Simple and straightforward

Cons

• Suits only the simplest projects
• High-risk
• Inflexible

The Fixed Price is the model of collaboration that seems to be very attractive for newcomers to IT outsourcing. It looks as simple as one-two-three: you think through project requirements, pass them to developer(s), and wait for the work done. Add to this a strictly estimated budget and you’ll get why most clients initially seek this model to be the basis of their collaboration with developers — it looks like a perfect price-quality ratio. Well, it does so only until you start digging deeper. 

Although this model has such a great advantages as ease of use, clear budget estimation, and fast delivery, its cons might outweigh all the pros. The thing is, Fixed Price suits only the most simple projects with no room for making a mistake or forgetting about a tiny detail you’d like to include in the feature set. The core of this model lies in predefined instructions — if you are dead certain that you have steady and not at all dynamic requirements for your project, that you might be happy with the outcome after adopting the Fixed Price model. 

Note, that the predefined instructions can be considered as actually predefined only after you’ve discussed them with contractors, as in practice, it turns out that even a simple discussion can reveal tons of potential pitfalls. The client also has to realize that initial requirements delimit the architecture of the future project; it might be technically impossible to add something after work is done, regardless of your desire. The IT sector has a tiny share of projects that do not depend on constantly evolving market needs, and if you are sure your project is one of them — the Fixed Price might be the right choice for you. Otherwise, if you want to leave the room for possible amendments and do not want to risk your budget, opt for Dedicated Team or Time & Material contracting basis.

Adopt Fixed Price model if:

• You have a very small project with the most straightforward instructions.
• You are 100% sure about the project scope.
• Your budget is firmly fixed and you don’t want to pay any extra charges.

Summary

There are no good or bad outsourcing engagement models, these are only suitable or unsuitable ones. To thoughtfully evaluate the project and then choose the right model for its completion are two actions a business owner should take on his way to positive IT outsourcing experience. A well tailored engagement model can turn a simple delegation of a technical task to a third-party into a fruitful strategic partnership.

The post IT Outsourcing Guide: How to Choose an Social Engagement Model appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

If your Facebook account is hacked, your life might turn into a nightmare. Strangers will get hold of your private content. They will be able to post offensive or misleading information on your behalf. While the people from your closest circle will guest that something went wrong, you might lose some business contacts who won’t tolerate such type of behavior. Unpleasant consequences might be diverse and numerous — but fortunately, it’s not that easy to hack your Facebook account. In this article, you’ll find a few useful tips on how to enhance your protection against violators.

Invent a long and complicated password

It should contain a minimum of 12 characters, including numbers, small and capital letters. The password should not be linked to your personal data such as your pet’s birthday, the name of your favorite song, etc. Ideally, it should be a random combination that has no meaning. You shouldn’t use the same password for any other app or system.

Consider installing an app that will generate long complicated passwords for you and store them safely. You can use it not only for your socknet passwords but also for other platforms and services. 1Password can serve as a good example of such software. Thousands of users from all over the world entrust their passwords to it and enjoy top-notch security.

Install dual-factor authentication

In Facebook settings, this option is called Login Approvals. When you try to introduce your password to Facebook, the system will send you an OTP (one-time password). You’ll receive it on your email or smartphone. Unless you introduce it immediately after your regular password, the system won’t let you in. It’s impossible to guess or to brute-force the OTP because it is generated each time from scratch, and the number of attempts to introduce it will be limited.

Enable login alerts

This feature won’t stop hackers from using your account, but at least you’ll receive a timely notification and will be able to take measures. After you enable this option in your Facebook settings, you will receive notifications each time someone enters your account from a new device or browser. You may choose whether you want to get these notifications on your smartphone or email.

Add only trusted friends

When you add random people, some of them might have nefarious intentions. If you don’t want to become a victim of a blackmailer or an extortionist, you should go to your Facebook settings and allow the system to recommend only those people to you with whom you have at least 3 friends in common.

Check the settings of your apps

You might be surprised to get to know how many apps on your computer or smartphone have access to your Facebook account. They don’t post anything there, and you shouldn’t be frantically afraid of them spying on you — but once they are hacked, hackers might reach your Facebook as well. Not so popular apps by lesser-known developers pose greater risks than technologically advanced and widespread ones.

Go to the inventory of your apps and check them manually one by one. When you see that an app is linked to your Facebook but you don’t quite understand why, disable this link. The process of checking might take some time, but your security is worth it.

Never download suspicious apps or click suspicious links

If you download a random app from an unknown source, it might automatically link itself to your Facebook account, which will lead to unpredictable consequences.

When you receive a link in an email or messenger, don’t hurry to click on it unless it was sent by a close friend or a colleague. This might be a phishing attack arranged with the aim of stealing your private data, including your logins and passwords.

Keep vigilant when signing up for new platforms

Many projects allow newcomers to skip the traditional process of filling in the registration form. You can link your Facebook account to these platforms and use it instead of a typical “login + password” combination.

However, you need to make sure that you don’t give this platform too many rights in relation to your Facebook account. Normally, a platform will show you a notification promising not to post anything on your account. If it doesn’t, please disable this feature manually in your Facebook settings.

Install security software

Earlier, we mentioned the software that was specifically designed for generating and storing passwords — but it’s not the only possible option. Some programs offer passwords storage as their additional feature and other numerous valuable functions as well.

One of such programs is MacKeeper: it contains an antivirus, empties space on the hard disk, includes an ad blocker and a VPN, etc. It’s a versatile program that will considerably enhance the security of your device and will help to protect your privacy online.

The best thing about such programs is that they detect threats and hackers long before they attack you and prevent them from doing so. Once a threat is detected, you’ll immediately receive a notification. Please keep your antivirus always enabled and scan your device regularly.

Protect your gadgets with a password

And never leave them unattended. This might sound like obvious and excessive advice, but in fact, many users neglect the basic principles of security. If your laptop, tablet, or smartphone is stolen, you should be able to deactivate it from a distance so that it turns into a useless piece of hardware. And of course, it should be protected by a complicated password so that the thief won’t access your apps and files before you disable the gadget.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this article came in handy and now you know what to do to prevent your Facebook account from being hacked. You don’t need to be a geek to follow these pieces of advice, and it won’t take you too much effort. Your reputation will remain impeccable, and you’ll feel more confident when browsing the web.

The post How to Secure Your Facebook Account appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

With stay-at-home orders and social distancing rules in place, it has been hard on many businesses to stay afloat, especially if they relied on face-to-face interactions.

This unprecedented and unusual circumstance is begging the question: “What’s next?” 

Our answer: Use a marketing agency to help create an online presence!

With non-essential workers working from home, they are spending more time now online than before – anything to make time pass!

These families no longer have to spend hours of their day commuting to work or taking their kids to school. This is good news for you! Fewer hours commuting translates to more free time, which many people seem to be spending online. And with your customers online, your business should be online too!

What Is Online Presence?

In technical terms, if you have a website, you have an online presence. However, while a website is essential, an effective online presence is about more than just having a website.

In order to have an effective online presence, businesses need to make sure that all aspects of their company are properly represented. This means having a good image, logo, and content that represents the business and its goals. It also means engaging with your target audience through social media, blogging, search engine optimization, and online marketing.

While you might feel that focusing on building an online presence is not worth the trouble, continue reading this article as we delve deeper into the importance of having an online presence and how we can help make your transition easier!

1. Larger Audience

The main reason an online presence is important is that it opens your business’s doors to a much larger audience. Having an online presence opens your business to more than just your local town that you traditionally targeted; it can allow people from anywhere to come across your business, potentially allowing you to expand across county lines and country lines.

With the rise of the digital era combined with customer’s free time due to the effects of coronavirus, the chances your customer learns about your business through an online channel will be the norm.

So, you are going to want to increase your presence through the online channels available to you so you can reach a much wider audience!

2. Easier to Showcase Product and Services

The internet has made it easier than ever before to let the world know what you have to offer! With a few photos of your product and descriptions, your customer can see everything you have to offer!

Furthermore, your customers can view your product or services outside of business hours. The internet never sleeps, it can showcase your businesses all day long.

Customers no longer have to wait for 8-5 office or store hours to reach out to you. With your online presence, they can find out what they need at a time that is convenient for them. If they have questions, you can consider adding chat boxes to help them with specific questions.

3. More Effective Marketing

With an online presence, it will be much easier for you to effectively and creatively market your business. This can be done through a well-designed, informative website, social media posts, videos, etc. 

Marketing online has been shown to be the most cost-effective strategy when it comes to the return you will get. In fact, building a social media presence is cheaper than any form of advertising available today! The ‘shareability’ of social media makes it even easier for you, as customers can easily spread the word about your business to their own friends and followers. 

4. Positive Reviews

How often do you look at reviews before making a purchase on Amazon?

Well, customers of your business are looking for the same thing – reviews and/or testimonials! A credible business will have positive reviews.

It should go without saying that bad reviews can hurt a business. Since customers use reviews to make purchase decisions, it is crucial for you to prioritize your customer service and receiving positive reviews.

Future customers will be able to see your positive attitude even towards a negative review and will be more likely to consider you trustworthy.

5. Accessibility

This is especially crucial for businesses. A business that is not accessible online will not survive in this digital era!

In our current digital era, it is important for businesses to take search algorithms and social networks into account. This will allow potential customers to easily access your business online. 

The post Coronavirus Impact: Importance of Online Presence for Businesses appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

This is why optimization, especially search engine optimization (SEO) can serve useful to achieving your entrepreneur goals. Chances are, you have a business website. And regardless of the industry and/or niche you chose, SEO is a must for growth and success.

Not only does optimization drive more traffic to your website, brand, products, and/or services, it also reduces the need to spend that valuable marketing budget on online advertisements. This can impact your business bottom line big time.

Still on the fence about optimization for your entrepreneurial endeavor? The following reasons it can help you achieve your business goals may be worth considering. Let’s dive in!

1. Optimize to Increase Brand Awareness

This is one of the most important reasons why optimization can help you achieve your entrepreneur goals. As an entrepreneur, it is difficult to get your name and brand out there. The process of this is called building brand awareness, and optimizing your business online can make this happen fast.

Why do you buy from certain brands? Most likely because you are familiar with them. Does Nike make a better shoe than Reebok? Not really. But you probably have a preference due to a heightened sense of brand awareness.

To grow as an entrepreneur, whether you make shoes or have a personal online brand, you need to optimize to increase brand awareness. This can be done by focusing on popular keywords for your industry.

2. Drive More Traffic To Your Website Via Optimized Keywords

You can build brand awareness and even increase awareness via optimization. This can be done using keywords that are popular in your industry. But this serves another purpose when it comes to achieving your goals. You can drive massive traffic to your website with the same keywords.

Let’s say you have a professional coaching brand and your goal for 2020 is to double website traffic. With industry keywords that are easy to rank for on Google SERPs with decent monthly searches, you can easily reach this goal.

Using a robust list of 20 keywords you can create website pages, services landing pages like “professional online coaching,” and create weekly blogs. This will drive more visitors to your site, and visitors more likely to convert.

3. Optimization Makes Google Happy Too

Yes, you are certainly creating content and working with people. However, you need to make Google happy too if you want people to discover your entrepreneur business online.

By employing key technical SEO tactics, you can make Google happy and get your website, brand, products, and/or services in front of more eyeballs online. For instance, website speed is a ranking factor for Google. If your site doesn’t load in three seconds or less, a user will abandon it, and Google takes notice.

You can check site speed using Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. Other technical SEO tactics to employ are:

• Have a mobile-friendly website
• Create and optimize your sitemap
• Fix 404 errors
• Optimize internal links
• Place image alt text in images
• Optimize images for load speed

4. Optimize Entrepreneur Success On Social Media

Many believe that optimization is simply for websites, landing pages, product and/or service pages, and blogs. This was the old way of thinking, but optimization has expanded to social media. 

Social media is part of daily life, and not optimizing to win on social media can greatly decrease your ability to achieve your entrepreneur goals. First you need to know where your target audience hangs out on social media. What social networks are more popular among your audience?

Once you know the social media channels to focus on, get creative and serve up great content that attracts followers. Video content is a must when it comes to growing your social media following. Just be sure to offer actionable, informative video content.

You also need to employ the power of hashtags. For instance, if Instagram is a top choice for your target audience, you can use industry-minded hashtags to attract more attention on the popular social media channel.

Ready To Optimize For Success?

The above 4 reasons optimization can help you achieve your entrepreneur goals are just the beginning. You can research more great ways to grow your business online, but the above will definitely get you moving in the right direction.

The post 4 Reasons Search Engine Optimization Can Help You Achieve Your Entrepreneur Goals appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

The modern market is evolving. It requires businesses to have high levels of specialization, customer relations and efficiency. The digital space and technological advancements have brought forth products, services and industries which just a few years ago were unheard of. More companies are utilizing social media to reach customers. 

Even traditional aspects of business such as sales, accounting and HR departments are changing in how they function and are used. Many business experts are of the view that businesses today should focus on delivering specialized services while delegating all other aspects of business operations to third-party specialists. 

Thankfully, there are numerous outsourcing and freelancing portals available today. These marketplaces for professional services are an example of the ‘gig-economy,’ where business operations can be delegated into micro-tasks. We have previously talked about the benefits of hiring skilled social media professionals through these platforms, but you might also need to hire auxiliary professionals to supplement some aspects of your social media strategy. 

Hiring IT Specialists to Supplement Your Social Media Strategy

These tasks are outsourced to professionals who can do the task better than an app, and without costing an arm and a leg. Every aspect of a business can be outsourced efficiently if one smartly goes about the process of outsourcing. 

However, as technology and digital mediums are becoming an ever-increasing part of businesses and organisations, the associated services involved are a necessity for firms in every industry. Whether it’s related to hardware, software or intra-business technology, there’s high demand for an expert IT outsourcing service that can keep digital infrastructure running at peak performance. 

However, IT support itself is a vast discipline and it can often be costly to maintain an in-house support team to manage IT systems. Rather than managing it themselves, firms can benefit from having a third party take care of this matter. 

Low Costs

A full-time in-house IT support crew will add a few names to the firms’ payroll. Regardless of whether their services are used or not, it will be a fixed expense every month for the organisation. For small businesses and startups, this can prove to create more expense than value, as IT support staff aren’t required every day. 

A well-installed IT setup only needs technical assistance if something goes wrong or there’s a need for change. At times, there may only be a need for a specific service where one particular job needs to be done, rather than having a full-time crew; in these cases, an IT specialist expert can be hired for that one task. 

More Options

Having a full-time in-house IT crew won’t guarantee all your IT solutions can be taken care of, either. IT experts are proficient in their own fields, and if there’s a job that falls outside of their area of expertise, it’ll require either a new employee or the task will have to be outsourced. 

Unless the in-house IT team has one expert for every area of the IT infrastructure, the onboard support staff can become a limiting factor for the business. With an outsourced solution, businesses can choose who they want to work with whenever they feel there’s a need for that service. There’s also no restriction in repeatedly employing the same person. If one outsourcing company or freelancer seems like a better option, then they can be hired as many times as you’d like. 

Timesaving 

Rather than spending hours trying to manage the task themselves, businesses can receive the help of a freelance expert or find an outsourcing solution who can do the job more effectively and leave staff with more time to work on other vital aspects of the business. 

As IT support requires significant technical expertise to manage, trying to do so with little experience yields a below-average result and also costs in terms of other work that remains undone. 

Better Specialisation

Even full-time in-house support teams need to outsource their work to a specialist. Through outsourcing, businesses can directly seek expert services and receive even better results. 

Faster Delivery

No business aims to be late in the delivery of products or services to their clients. Outsourcing gets the job done quickly and keeps business on track. Rather than spending time and effort trying to solve an issue using an in-house team or staff who aren’t fully qualified, outsourcing the task takes care of time constraints and the quality of results. 

Strategic Investment

Outsourcing isn’t always about saving money. In many niche service areas, outsourcing can be quite pricey, but if it benefits the organisation and yields profit, it’s a valuable investment, not an expense. 

IT expertise isn’t the core competency of many firms, which makes it difficult for them to manage very specific IT-related problems. The purposes of the niche expert is to increase value for the firm and help develop the infrastructure to a level that’s more profitable. Outsourcing is the best way to get the right person for specialised tasks and benefits the firm in multiple ways.

The post 6 Benefits of Outsourced IT Support for Managing Your Social Media Strategy appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

The cost of downtime can be worse for small businesses, even if it is lower in absolute terms. The average business loses $10.6 million a year due to website downtime. Of course, this figure is skewed by massive losses from major companies, such as Amazon and Walmart. However, small businesses that experience excessive website downtime can face long-term costs that they will struggle to recover from. Their brand will be more severely hurt and fewer customers will return to their sites, since they are less inclined to give second chances to them than well recognized brands.

This is why it is vital to build a strong IT infrastructure to support your web presence. You will be able to manage your content marketing strategies more effectively.

Building a Team to Create a Strong IT Presence is Necessary to Maintain a Reliable Website

The recent Covid-19 outbreak has shut down physical markets and turbo-charged the already fast pace that businesses were adopting new technology and spurred them to invest more in content marketing. Business owners are often keenly aware of what their organisations’ requirements are and what they need to achieve in terms of performance and how they can implement technology to improve. However, IT management is generally outside their field of expertise. 

Furthermore, training their teams to effectively operate these new technologies — and undertake the long-term maintenance involved in each — are other problems entirely. Many companies simply aren’t equipped to handle these responsibilities in-house, so their content marketing strategies may suffer as a result. 

One of the biggest changes is that more customers are making purchases online. Ecommerce sales increased 40% from pre-pandemic levels. Many companies reported a 50% increase in website traffic.

Unfortunately, this website traffic growth comes at a cost. Many companies don’t have the infrastructure to handle it, so they have experienced more website downtime as a result. 

This problem can be managed by hiring a skilled team of IT professionals. 

Having up to date knowledge about the developments in IT and available solutions from the digital space that best suit any business is the job of a reliable technology solutions expert, not a business owner. Most small to medium scale businesses (SMBs) don’t have the budget – nor the need – for an in-house IT department when third-party IT support services are available. Modern technology and its associated services are available at more economical prices than ever, but if companies invest in the wrong technology or hire firms that can’t provide appropriate support, this will ultimately cost them in downtime, workflow bottlenecks and profit. Their entire digital marketing strategy can grind to a halt if downtime is excessive. 

Technology management can be a difficult transition even for very large firms, let alone SMBs. Employing the right IT support can significantly impact the ability of an organisation to make technology an asset rather than a burden and ensure their websites are available to customers. 

Here’s what you should look for in a firm before choosing the right IT support for your business.

Location: Does Proximity Matter?

This applies to both your vendor of IT support services and the recipient. Physical locations still matter when it comes to on-site support, hardware-related problems and hands-on training. For instance, if your business needs to relocate, your IT support provider will be needed during the transition. Being in physical proximity to each other means tasks can be done much faster. 

If there’s any type of technological breakdown and a virtual connection isn’t possible, then on-site assistance will be required. Having a support provider located in a different time zone creates a time gap that can only be overcome if there’s 24-hour support. A local support company will employ local solutions and make use of what’s locally available. This saves your business money in procurement and keeps solutions local, which are more cost-effective and convenient to maintain. 

Price: Discuss Your Potential Needs

Everyone wants to get the best service at the lowest price, though IT support charges don’t come with a fixed price tag. This is a service that can be highly customized and pricing changes with the nature of the work. Generally, IT support services can have a monthly subscription, per hour charges, ad-hoc charges or can be a completely managed support service solution. All these pricing methods will largely depend on your business requirements and the nature of the IT system in place. 

It’s important to discuss what the support service includes and what’s charged separately. Pricing should be discussed with a focus on what your business could potentially need. Still, not all potential problems can be identified in one meeting, and new requirements will surface over time. Businesses should keep some extra headroom when budgeting for IT support services. 

Nature of Support: Determine Proactivity and Communication Channels 

Most IT support services will intervene when problems arise. Many service providers continuously monitor their clients’ IT setup and are proactive in their approach. Addressing system problems before they develop into a breakdown can save your business from interruptions; while these services can be more expensive, the benefits are significant. 

Similarly, it’s important to discuss what kind of support will be offered, such as what kind of communication channels are available and how available their support staff is. 

Industry Experience: Specialisation and Consultancy

Some IT support service providers specialise in particular services, while others are specialists for particular industries. By having a specialist service provider, businesses can not only receive tailored service, but they can also get good advice in streamlining their system to provide higher utility and efficiency. A specialist service provider with industry experience will know what works and what doesn’t, as well as how common problems can be overcome quickly. Such a service provider also acts as a great consultant. 

Brand Partnerships and Successful Trouble Shooting

Some IT support companies have partnerships with well-known brand names and are specialised solution providers for those companies. If a business is using technology made by a particular brand, it can be a great asset to work with a service provider who’s associated with that brand and has certifications for managing their products. In contrast, these specialist service providers may not be a good choice for firms running custom-made software. 

For this reason, it’s good to have a support company that can deal with a variety of systems and has a proven track record of managing similar platforms. Looking at the kind of clients the IT support company serves provides insight into the size of organisations they can handle and the kind of work they can do. 

Consider Past and Current Client Reviews

This is often a good way to get a holistic view of an IT firm’s abilities. While the technical aspects of support can be difficult to understand, finding out what their clients think of the services they’ve received is relatively simple. It also adds to an IT support providers’ credibility, includes information related to what they’ve done in the past for clients, and what can be expected from their services overall. 

Build a Strong IT Team to Maximize Website Uptime

You need to maximize website uptime to get the most of your digital marketing strategy. Fortunately, hiring the right IT team can help you reach this goal. Follow the guidelines listed above and you can avoid costly downtime from damaging your brand.

The post Your IT Infrastructure is Crucial for Maximizing Uptime of Your Content appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

LinkedIn is committed to offering new features and solutions for its customers. The social networking site recently announced that it is introducing some promising new retargeting tools. Video advertisers will be able to leverage retargeting capabilities to boost the ROI of their campaigns. This new feature should prove invaluable to countless video marketers trying to reach a B2B audience. 

Marketers might find a number of new opportunities to use this new tool. It may be especially useful during the pandemic, since they can use it to promote important products like social distancing stickers. 

LinkedIn‘s new retargeting capabilities should be encouraging for video marketers 

LinkedIn has historically been one of the best social media sites for B2B marketers. According to HootSuite, a LinkedIn ad can reach 12% of the entire global population. Surveys of B2B marketers have found that 94% of them use the site for content marketing and 89% use it for lead generation. 

The value of reaching other businesses on LinkedIn is quite clear. However, a lot of these benefits have traditionally boiled down mostly to the specialized demographic of the website. Since LinkedIn is a community of white-collar professionals, marketers didn’t need to experiment as much with their targeting to find the right sweet spots. They also weren’t competing with 7 million advertisers like Facebook marketers, which means that advertising costs tend to be lower as well. 

LinkedIn did not have such a strong advantage when it came to technical capabilities. The professional networking site usually lags Facebook with rolling out similar features. Facebook has allowed advertisers to use video retargeting since around 2015. LinkedIn did not announce a similar feature until this week.

This is going to be a big deal for the savviest video marketers that use LinkedIn. If you’re still skeptical of the benefits, then you should keep reading below. 

Retargeting offers incredible opportunities to boost ROI 

Retargeting has been a valuable advertising feature for several years. However, some advertisers are still skeptical of its benefits. 

You will be more likely to appreciate the benefits of retargeting if you read the following statistics: 

One of the biggest reasons that marketers are reluctant to use retargeting is that they fear it will alienate customers. One survey by CMO found this is not the case. The survey found that 25% of Internet users actually enjoy seeing retargeting ads, because they remind them about the benefits of the company. Another 60% of Internet users are indifferent about them. This means that the number of online consumers that enjoy seeing retargeting ads outnumber those that dislike them by a factor of 5 to 3. 

Conversion rates are much higher with retargeting ads. One study found that website visitors that see a retargeted ad are 43% more likely to convert. They are also 70% more likely to choose that product over a competitor. 

Retargeted ads tend to have higher engagement rates. This can help boost quality scores on advertising platforms where they are relevant, which provides greater visibility of the ad overall.

Retargeting ads are even more powerful when used with video marketing. Video marketing is especially powerful with B2B marketing. This is why 71% of B2B marketers use videos like this to reach their audiences. 

LinkedIn has provided more content marketing opportunities for its advertisers. Video has proven to be an excellent type of content for marketers using the platform. Although most video marketers focus primarily on YouTube, LinkedIn is becoming another popular channel to syndicate video content. Around 51% of video marketers use LinkedIn video advertising. 

LinkedIn‘s new video retargeting option will open many new doors for these marketers. They should notice a substantial increase in their ROI after utilizing this new feature.

The post LinkedIn’s New Retargeting Options Offer New Opportunities for Savvy Marketers appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Social media has many positive effects and can be a good influence if used properly, but with so many users comes plenty of risks. The internet is a vast space and potential scammers, hackers, and thieves are eager to seize the opportunity to take advantage of vulnerable users who lack the proper software to protect themselves or are simply not familiar enough with the dangers of the internet. 

Internet scams trick social media users into providing vulnerable information including their login information, passwords, credit card information, address, and more. 

In this blog, we’re breaking down the top 5 social media scams you should be aware of so that you do not fall victim to a scammer. 

Phishing Requests

Phishing is one of the most common tactics used by hackers to steal information from internet users and infect their hardware with malicious programming that could render it useless. 

Phishing is the act of sending fake emails to a large number of recipients at random with the expectation that only a small percentage will respond. These emails consist of scams that attempt to trick the recipient into providing confidential information, like account credentials, to the attacker. 

The email message usually goes like this: “Somebody just put up these pictures of you drunk at this wild party! Check ’em out here!” 

This entices the user to engage with the email and click the link. They become alarmed and they immediately click on the enclosed link, which takes them to their Twitter or Facebook login page. There, they enter their account info — and a cybercriminal now has their password, along with total control of their account.

The user had no idea both the email and landing page were fake. That link they clicked took them to a page that only looked like their intended social site (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). 

To prevent this, make sure your Internet security includes antiphishing defenses. Many freeware programs don’t include this essential protection.

False or Hidden URLs

There are several social media platforms that automatically shorten URLs, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google. In addition, there are several link-shortening websites such as Bitly that allow the user to input a link and the platform will shorten it. Link shortening is especially useful when attempting to meet a character limit on a social media caption or when including a link to a lengthy URL. These URLs can be jumbled with characters. Link shortening cleans it up while maintaining the source. 

One of the most common social media scams is false of hidden URLs. Beware of blindly clicking on shortened URLs, which can appear on all social channels such as Twitter. Since they are shortened, the user may not know where the link is going to direct them to since the URL (“Uniform Resource Locator,” the web address) hides the full location. Clicking on such a link could direct you to your intended site, or one that installs all sorts of malware on your computer.

URL shorteners can be quite useful. Just be aware of their potential pitfalls and make sure you have real-time protection against spyware and viruses.

Catfishing 

A catfish is someone who creates a false online identity and tricks someone into believing they are real. Catfishing is common on social networking and online dating sites. Sometimes a catfish’s sole purpose is to engage in a fantasy. Sometimes, however, the catfish’s intent is to defraud a victim, seek revenge, or commit identity theft. Perhaps they even intend to trick the person into giving them money.

Catfishing is very common in social media because it is easy to create a fake profile. People take images they find online and create a fake email to set up their account. They can make their account look very convincing and form a connection to the victim, who tends to be vulnerable in the online space. Once they are hooked, the catfish can conjure any story in order to get what they want, such as money, credit card information, etc. 

How to spot catfishing:

• The person is too good to be true or in a glamorous profession.
• There are inconsistencies in the person’s profile.
• The person is in a rush to move the relationship along.
• They won’t meet you in person.

The post Top 3 Social Media Scams You Should Know appeared first on Social Media Explorer.