Facebook’s Free Wi-Fi Is About More Than Just Generosity
How to utilise Facebook’s free Wi-Fi to improve your rankings!
Offering customers free Wi-Fi isn’t necessarily a revolutionary act—after all, how many times have you scammed some free internet time from your local coffee shop or hairdresser? The interesting thing about Facebook’s free Wi-Fi however, is that it allows you to actually improve your business’ rankings at the same time!
2017 LinkedIn Updates—Creating A Feed You Want To Read
LinkedIn users rejoice! The platform has finally created a way for you to improve your LinkedIn newsfeed!
For too long the platform’s home feed has been a somewhat frustrating experience; throwing up a random jumble of updates from connections—many of which may not be of any interest to you. But finally, LinkedIn has created a way for you to actually see more from connections you want to follow.
Announced this week via their official blog, LinkedIn have stated that users will now be able to customise their feed, hide content, and unfollow people/companies.
Customise Your Feed
Sick of seeing news and content that doesn’t interest you? Just tap on the control icon in the top right corner of any update and select ‘improve my feed.’ You can then make more customisations by discovering new industry leaders, publications and companies to follow. While this option is currently only available via mobile, any changes will be reflected on your desktop feed as well.
Hide Posts
Don’t want to keep seeing the same post? Simply tap on the control icon on the top right corner of that update, and you’ll no longer see that content. Easy!
Unfollow Companies
Much like Facebook, you can now unfollow connections you’re not as interested in seeing, while still staying connected.
While the latest changes from LinkedIn are certainly not unique, I’m sure most will agree that they’re definitely needed—because at the end of the day, we may have plenty of connections, but not all of their updates are most relevant to our lives.
Get Negative: Using Advertising Power Words To Your Advantage
Find out how power words can give your advertising the winning advantage!
Have you ever created a Facebook ad which you thought was brilliant, but sadly it failed to gain much traction? If your ads aren’t getting the attention they deserve, think about changing your focus from positive to negative. It’s not the usual scenario, but in the world of advertising, customers actually respond better to words that convey an approaching threat or impending disaster.
Could Facebook Be The New Social Media/LinkedIn Hybrid?
Say hello to the new Facebook Job Tabs feature!
With LinkedIn, SEEK, CareerOne and a multitude of other job-seeker websites available at our fingertips, finding the right person for the job is a challenge that continues to persist. In fact, for 40% of small businesses across the US, filling jobs is ‘more difficult than expected’ (according to Facebook).
Like many other avenues already broached, Facebook have decided that recruitment is the newest area in which they’re ready to throw their hat in the ring. And honestly, it makes sense. Given that most people spend large amounts of time on the social platform, where better to reach potential employees?
As explained on the Facebook Business blog:
“We’re focused on building new ways to help make it easier for businesses to interact with the over 1 billion people visiting Pages every month. Businesses and people already use Facebook to fill and find jobs, so we’re rolling out new features that allow job posting and application directly on Facebook.”
Announced just a few days ago, Facebook’s job connection features will allow businesses in the US and Canada (for now) to post job openings directly on their Pages. From there, interested candidates can apply through a businesses’ Page, or view/apply for positions via the Facebook Jobs tab.
This process presents advertisers and business owners with the ease of contacting candidates directly through Messenger (if preferred) and accessing all information in one place. There’s also the option to boost job posts – as you would a normal Facebook ad – to target a more specific audience, or a greater number of people.
Facebook have advised that US and Canadian businesses can post directly to their Facebook Pages over the coming weeks, while job-applicants can apply via the jobs bookmark (available on desktop) or facebook.com/jobs.
Discover The New Google AdWords Features For 2017!
In their bid to continue making AdWords as relevant as possible to today’s users, Google have just announced a new 2017 AdWords update! Keen to find out what’s new? Just keep reading!
Overview Page
When it comes to your Overview page, you want your insights to be fast and user friendly yes? Well according to Google, this is what the most recent changes will achieve; removing clutter and making navigation easier.
From those who’ve already sampled the new features, the response seems to be mostly positive. Praise for the new layout includes its faster and more intuitive functions, which, according to one advertiser, make it ‘easier to get things done’.
As can be seen via the below images from AdWords, the new layout will allow users to more easily view key insights through heat-map style charts; displaying data on which locations and days of the week are achieving the best results.
Source: Google AdWords Blog
According to Browsermedia, these maps may also be interactive – which would allow users to alter the metrics to suit their preference.
“Above you can see clicks and impressions in the ‘Day & Hour’ and ‘Locations’ charts, respectively, but there is a drop down next to the metric so hopefully that can be changed to conversions etc, to see data for those too,” they write.
According to AdWords these changes will be rolled out over the coming months, and may be seen by some users automatically upon signing into AdWords.
Increase Conversions With One Simple Google Shopping Feature!
If your business relies heavily on the sale of products, it’s most likely you’re already utilising Google Shopping, but even so, what should you be aware of to make your conversions even stronger in 2017? Prepare to be enlightened by this simple Google Shopping feature!
Cross-Border Shopping
If you’re looking to get more conversions in 2017, then you absolutely need to cater to overseas shoppers. Enabling Google’s currency conversion tool is one way of doing so; allowing shoppers in other countries (as selected by you) to see the price of your item in their own currency. For example, if a customer in the US is viewing a new lipstick from your cosmetic range they can immediately see how much the item will cost them locally, therefore avoiding the need for manual conversions – or worse, a nasty surprise on their credit card.
Additionally, this tool is also perfect for websites not listing multiple product pages for various currencies. Instead, simply input all your products into Google Shopping and let it do the work for you!
Source: Google AdWords Blog
By simplifying the process, Google’s currency conversion tool is an easy and effective way to increase your conversions.
Take Note Of These Mobile Marketing Stats Today & Create Better 2017 Campaigns!
Unless you’ve been living in an outback tin shack for the past decade, chances are you’re well aware of the significant increase in mobile growth trends. However, what should you be aware of for the coming year ahead?
Below, we share five of the top mobile marketing stats every business should know, in order to capitalise on advertising in 2017!
Mobile Everything!
According to Laura Beaudin from Bain and Company, the average smartphone user interacts with their mobile 13 times per hour. Interestingly, consumers identified that 60% of the ads which they deemed influential in helping make a purchase, were viewed on a mobile device (Think With Google, 2017).
The Future of Mobile Advertising
By 2019, it has been predicted that 72% of all digital ad spending in the US will be represented by mobile advertising (eMarketer, 2015). Meanwhile, according to Salesforce, 57% of marketers believe mobile apps are vital to a cohesive customer journey.
Capitalise On The Growth Of Mobile Users
Everyone knows that mobile use has grown exponentially in recent years, and yet surprisingly, only 13% of marketing budgets are spent on mobile advertising (Bain and Co, 2016). In 2017, make it your goal to prioritise a mobile advertising budget.
Image Source: Marketingland
Keep Mobile Content Short
Customers have short attention spans (approximately three seconds), so think about which platform your content is best suited to. If you’re advertising with video, make sure it grabs the attention of your target audience straight away and delivers the right message in a short period of time.
User-Friendly Content Is Essential
Above all else, it’s also important to ensure your mobile marketing is user-friendly! According to Google, 61% of users will likely give your company the flick if your mobile site is too difficult to use, and 40% will actually go to your competitor (McKinsey and Company, 2014)!
As you can gather, mobile marketing is essential to the success of your business. By keeping an eye on mobile marketing stats and trends, you can ensure you stay ahead of the competition and create strong campaigns for 2017!
You Can Now Advertise Through Instagram Stories!
It seems that barely a month goes by without an update to Instagram’s advertising options, and now the social media platform have announced another interesting development! Brands can now advertise through Instagram Stories!
Yep, that’s right! Just like ‘Stories’ – which allow users to share pictures or videos from their day for a 24 hour period – companies will soon be able to grab the attention of their audience via full-screen promotional ads. The newest development has already been tested by 30 of the world’s biggest brands – including Maybelline New York, Asos, Nike and Netflix – and has been used by Airbnb to roll out awareness of its newest and largest product launch: Trips on Airbnb.
Given that more than 150 million Instagrammers now use the feature daily, and that brands make up one third of the most viewed Stories on the platform, this latest announcement makes a lot of sense!
So How Will These Ads Appear To Viewers?
According to Instagram’s James Quarles, their system will use relevancy to display ads to users.
“It will look at interactions, liking, time spent, exits,” Quarles explained. “Did someone move onto the next story, or did they leave the Stories tray entirely? All of those are great signals and give us a great sense of people’s behavior and the relative performance of the ad.”
As noted, advertisers will be able to advertise through Instagram Stories in the coming weeks, and will also be able to access valuable insights (such as reach, impressions, replies and exits) via the Business Tools section.
2017 Email Marketing Tips – Don’t End Up in The Spam Folder!
Anyone can shoot off an email newsletter to a client, but not everyone can achieve a good response rate. So what can you do to make sure your emails don’t get banished to the land of no return (in other words, the dreaded trash or spam folder)? Glad you asked! Check out these 2017 email marketing tips to find out more!
Carefully Consider Your Email List
Have you got a strong hub of email contacts? That’s great! But just because you’ve got the option to send your marketing emails out to a huge network of followers, doesn’t necessarily mean they are the best contacts to choose from. Think carefully about who your strongest followers are, and what sort of audience your content will make the biggest impact with.
As well as this, it’s also vital to plan the best time to send out your newsletters or marketing. For example, did you know that Tuesdays to Thursdays are considered the most popular days for sending emails? According to various studies, Tuesday is the number one choice, followed closely by Thursday and then Wednesday. That said, your contacts are also going to be slammed with competing newsletters on these days so you might want to experiment with emailing on a Monday or Friday.
Avoid Ending Up In The Spam Folder
While it’s natural that some customers may opt out of your content, having clients mark your emails as spam is a bigger problem; one that can have truly negative consequences for your business. To try and avoid this happening, consider the following:
Are you sending emails too frequently? According to Smart Insights, almost 50% of customers mark emails as spam due to high frequency. In fact, a 2015 study from DMA revealed that the majority of people believe it is best to email a contact only several times per month (36% believe 2-3 times per month is sufficient).
Have you enabled email authentication? If not, turn it on immediately! This can help protect you from hackers who may be sending out spam from your account without you even knowing.
All in all, spam email is a huge issue and not a position you want to find yourself in. Whether intentional or not, if your customers are hitting ‘spam’ instead of unsubscribing, you’ll want to spend some time investigating why this is happening. By sending your content to the best possible audience, on the right days, and not overwhelming them with too much at once, you should be on your way to a better response rate!
8 Black Hat SEO Techniques You Should Run Away From Now!
Know what to look out for, and avoid.
If you’re looking for ways to increase the search engine result rankings of your website, there is one tactic you should avoid at all costs – Black Hat SEO. Yes, I know it may be tempting when you’re desperate to increase your search engine result visibility, but believe me, it’s not worth it. Google will penalise you, and it could lead to your site being de-ranked, failing to show up in results for days or weeks, and thousands of lost traffic.
So what are some of the most common Black Hat SEO techniques you should be wary of? See below!
- Keyword stuffing
Putting keywords into your copy that appear more times than what would seem natural, or adding irrelevant keywords to your alt image tags. - Paid links
This one is quite self-explanatory – people have offered to pay you to put one of their links in a piece of content. Whether you see this as advertising, Google still considers it a link scheme – which is not good. Paid link penalties also apply to paid gifts – for example, if someone gives you a gift for purchasing their links. - Invisible/Hidden Text
Essentially this is the same as keyword stuffing, only the user makes these keywords ‘invisible’ – for example, adding white text on a white background. - Doorway Pages
As their name suggests, these pages are created solely for the purpose of ranking for a keyword and then pushing visitors through to the alternative webpage. You’ll notice that the original ‘doorway’ page serves no real purpose, and has little relevant content. - Scraping
Again, this one is pretty self-explanatory and refers to stealing content or data from a competitor’s website for your own page/profit. In some cases, scraping is also used to extract email addresses and then spam those users. - Link Farms
Operating either as a single website, or a group, Link Farms exist for the sole purpose of increasing the popularity of another website. Although these pages may look pretty regular at first glance, you’ll soon notice that there is little content, and instead, a large amount of links hyperlinking to random websites. - Negative SEO
Also known as ‘reporting a competitor,’ this form of Black Hat SEO is somewhat different in that it is usually used maliciously against a competitor, to try and hurt their rankings. A user may do this by falsely reporting you for copyright, hacking into your website and changing things around, or using link farms to point links at your site in an attempt to have you penalised. Nasty isn’t it?
The good news however, is that Google works quite efficiently to detect negative SEO attempts. You can read more here, from seopressor. - Cloaking
A method that presents two different versions of the same website, in an attempt to boost keyword search engine ranking. For example, while a website may display Flash content to viewers, it may, on the other hand, be displaying HTML content to search engines.
Instead of the above techniques, try using White Hat Seo tactics. Unlike their darker counterpart, White Hat includes optimisation strategies and techniques that follow Google’s guidelines and focus on humans as opposed to search engines. If you believe your account has been attacked by malicious Black Hat strategies, or you see other websites following this route, file a webspam report through Google Webmaster Tools.
If you’re looking to implement these strategies, give our Get More Traffic experts a call today on 1300 332 256. We can help increase your conversions and search engine result visibility without the need for any dodgy techniques!