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Social Media Consulting: Building a Strategy for Success

Social Media Consulting: Building a Strategy for Success

Did your business never really take off? Are you worried that maybe you should be spending more on advertising, only you do not have the money to mount a decent advertisement campaign? Have you been finding it impossible to cross paths with the people who need your product or service? This is where social networking enter the picture. By using various social media platforms, you can get in touch directly with your customers.

Many of the biggest names in business now use social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to manage their reputations online, as well as make important announcements. For instance, Starbucks announces new offers via Twitter. The company also responds to questions asked and issues raised over Twitter. Ditto for JetBlue, which also uses Twitter to provide customer service, complete with the name of the employee on duty.

Making the decision to take full advantage of social network marketing is one of the most important decisions you can make for your company, and in fact, if done properly, you may just find that the decision was a turning point for your company, enabling it to reach even greater levels of success than before. Social media consulting is available to your company to serve as a professional guide in all aspects of social media marketing. The fact is that there are several different sites that are at your disposal. Although the most popular sites like Facebook and Twitter likely instantly come to mind, other sites like YouTube, WordPress, and LinkedIn also can and should be used in a full marketing campaign.

As you set off to build a strategy for success with online marketing efforts, social media consulting first serves to sort out the various differences between each of these platforms, and then also gives you the knowledge and strategies to use these sites to their fullest potential. Just as you wouldn’t attempt to do a mailing campaign or an email campaign, and send out just one piece of correspondence to enjoy maximum benefits, you also wouldn’t use just one platform for social media marketing. Instead, you will need to develop a full campaign for utilizing each platform to its fullest. With consulting, you will learn the power of each platform as well as learn how to use each platform fully for the greatest results.

You really cannot begin to build a strategy for success with social media sites until you know what each site is, how it works, and what it can do for you. Social medial consulting gives you this insight and power, which allows you to develop a customized strategy for success using all aspects of social media for an all-encompassing approach.…

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Organizing Your Office To Become More Efficient

One of the last things you want to do in a busy week is taking time to organize your office. However, researchers show that you need to organize the area if you’re going to make your space more efficient and productive. From moving stacks of papers out of your workspace to rearranging the boxes you have stored, every effort can help you become more dynamic in your workday.

Save Your Back

Every office has boxes of files that need to be moved out of the work space and into racks or storage units. To save your back, put the moving carts and storage units on 4 inch caster wheels. This will help you move the containers filled with heavy files to the back rooms without straining your muscles. The carts can then be used for document retrieval too.

Clean Your Desk

Organized chaos has long been touted as the result of a brilliant mind, but it doesn’t bode well for efficiency. If you have drawers, discard items you no longer use and fill the drawers with clutter from the desktop. Not only will this leave you with more room to work, but it will also keep you more organized, and having a place for everything is more efficient.

Remove Your Emails

One of the biggest time wasters in most offices is the sorting through the massive amounts of emails you get every day from clients, friends, staff and unknown individuals. Although you may feel the need to open, read, and respond to each of those messages, if they have no direct correlation to your workday projects, you may want to ignore them. Consider filtering the different email types and categorizing the senders in folders that differentiate their importance.

Taking time to organize your office can make you more efficient. From using casters to sorting emails, you can make a big impact in your day using the simple tips above.…

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How to Get Tons of Social Media Traffic

How to Get Tons of Social Media Traffic

Social Media traffic is an important aspect of how businesses today communicate and interact with the world. There are many ways to approach the process. Some ways are expensive and time consuming, while others have little to no costs involved. Millions of people are using social media online. People are as Internet savvy as they’ve ever been. Some sites receive thousands of views a day. The goal should be to place your product in front of the eyes of as many people as possible.

Marketing and advertising can be expensive for those starting a new business. Networking sites can help you generate traffic to your site at no cost. The truth is that professionals know how to exploit the most popular communities for unstoppable traffic and leads. They understand how to use keywords and marketing campaigns to drive page views and clicks.

Online networking has changed the way people connect and share information. It’s the technology that connects people, whether it is to share information or to chat about current events. Social networks, are the places where social interactions happen (where the sharing of information gets done). Social media networking is the way that we use this technology to build relationships, drive business and attract new customers through friends sharing with friends.

Businesses are finding it very difficult to generate appeal and interest in their products and services. The reason for this is that there is more competition than ever before. The primary objective when it comes to standing out from the competition is different from anything else. It takes time and thought to develop marketing campaigns that track results and show you which avenues are successful.

When leveraged properly, networking traffic is the biggest tool you can use to grow your business.

Facebook and Twitter may be 2 of the more popular networking sites, but they are by no means the only options out there. There are literally dozens of high ranking sites on the net that will make it easy to increase targeted traffic to your site. After becoming familiar with these sites and contributing to them daily, it will be easy to gain a following. It’s just like building any other quality relationship; consistency is the key. Once followers see you posting online every day, they’ll begin to trust that what you recommend for them is of value. You’ll then be able to acquire email subscribers that will look forward to your product updates. You’ll be able to gain interest with blog updates that go into detail about your ideas and plans for the future.

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General Articles

Hot Blog Topics for Kids and Teens

Hot Blog Topics for Kids and Teens

Many bloggers today write about grown-up and serious topics. Politics, law, the stock exchange, cars-these are popular blog topics nowadays. Instead of going with these topics, though, why don’t we tackle issues that younger generations can relate to? Let’s go down, or maybe climb up, to their level. Believe me, there is market in this kind of writing.

Reviews of popular books and movies

Remember how Twilight and Harry Potter captured the attention of teenagers all over the world? An article about the upcoming movie adaptations of these book series’ final installments would make an interesting blog post. Also, encourage young people to write their own reviews on movies and books. Allow them to express their thoughts, ideas, and emotions in writing.

Relationship and social issues

These are popular among the youth. Many adolescents who can’t share problems with their parents resort to blogging. These kids need someone (a mentor or another blog) to look up to. You can be a direct online counselor by writing helpful articles about relationships and other social issues they might encounter. Start a discussion and talk about the common causes of teen problems, such as love, family, crushes, and peer pressure. Write about the things teenagers don’t normally see on other blogs.

Gadgets and technology

Gadgets such as iPads and laptops are the current craze among kids these days. Kids love to jailbreak their PSPs and Wii consoles, so it might be useful to give them tips on how to do this in the comfort of their homes. Technology-related articles may help your site gain more readers among that demographic, and this might give you the opportunity to convert visitor traffic to sales and profit.

Travel

Young people love the idea of travel, too. Putting up a travel blog that encourages kids to explore the country, or even the world, is a good idea. This kind of writing may seem to be for the well-off, but you can still orient young folks about unknown places on this planet.

Internet and social media

I wish Facebook and Twitter existed when I was in high school. Those were the days of costly snail mail and direct calls. Tackling topics concerning social media is a surefire way to gain more readers. Social networking ethics and blogging techniques and tips are great topics to write about. These are useful topics not only for the youth but for adults as well.…

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Effective Marketing Vital to Small Business Success

Effective Marketing Vital to Small Business Success

Loss of jobs through closures and the contraction of large businesses, has forced a shift in economic development policies for towns and cities nationwide. Many communities are recognizing the fruitfulness of encouraging small business start-ups and expansions. Small businesses play a vital role in contributing to a state’s economy and remain a significant source of creating new jobs.  By adopting economic development strategies that promote entrepreneurship, communities are fostering a healthy business climate that allows free enterprise to thrive.

The U.S. Small Business Administration posted the following statistics about the importance of small businesses to the U.S. economy:

Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.

Employ about half of all private sector employees.

Pay nearly 45 percent of total U.S. private payroll.

Have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually over the last decade.

Create more than half of non-farm private gross domestic product (GDP).

Hire 40 percent of high tech workers (such as scientists, engineers & computer workers).

Are 52 percent home-based and 2 percent franchises.

In 2007, there were an estimated 27.2 million businesses* in the United States. Census data shows that there were 6.0 million firms with employees and 20.4 million without employees in 2005. Of the 6.0 million firms with employees, it is estimated that 90% of these employ 20 people or less. The resounding number without employees represents the ever growing demographic of the sole proprietor.

There are many things to consider when wanting to start your own business, such as financing, a focused business plan, and developing a customer base. There are many talented individuals who focus solely on offering the best product or service and ignore one very crucial component – developing and following an effective marketing strategy.

The emergence of Web 2.0 – business blogs, search engine optimization, social media sites, social bookmarking and microblogging – has created a powerful, cost-effective way for entrepreneurs to reach a vast audience. If you are unsure how to properly utilize these tools, we would love to work with you to create a customized social media campaign that advances your brand and meets your objectives.

*Source: Office of Advocacy estimates based on data from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, and U.S. Dept. of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.…

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Grim Reaper – It’s Not Easy Being Me

Grim Reaper – It’s Not Easy Being Me

Let’s make sure of one thing before you read on, I don’t need or want your sympathy because I have your soul coming to me eventually! But it really is not easy being me, the Grim Reaper. The Grim Reaper is the most hated person in the Universe. Yes it is true, humans as well as the other life forms in the universe hate me and are deathly afraid of me (a little grim humor there). But why? Why do I get the bad rap? Why am I the most feared angel? This whole Angel of Death thing has gotten way out of control. But don’t cry for me Argentina, Brazil you can cry for me but not Argentina.

Alright, let me give you some reasons why it is hard to be me. First I have no night life. I am so busy 24 hours a day I don’t have the time to party. I have to work unlike most of you. If you people quit killing each other I might have some time for me and the family. But NO, let’s have a war, let’s piss some religious freak off, let’s make fun of the gay guy, let’s kill someone because he is not like me! My god people (sorry God) let’s cut the crap and enjoy your life because you ain’t going to live forever! Second, I can’t go anywhere without being recognized. Just once, would it be too difficult for any of you to come up to me to say “hi”, “what’s up”, how ya doing”, give me a smile or even ask for my autograph? Huh, would it? All I get from you people is this look of fear, screaming and kicking, trying to run away from me like I have some sort of plague or something. Hey, I work on my looks, the wife likes them. So why can’t you make me feel a little more welcome when you see me? Third, you humans refer to me as the Angel of Death, like I have the right to take your soul. Get real humans! Let me explain something. The Angel of Death administers the particular punishment that “God” (yea God, not me) has ordained for your sins. The Angel of Death receives his order from “God”. As soon as I have received permission to destroy, I make no distinction between good and bad, I just do my job. Pure and simple, I do my job. So stop looking at me as the Angel of Death, start trying to look at me like God’s FedEx Pick-up Angel or God’s Lackey Angel or God’s Minion but not the Angel of Death. To make my case more concrete, Moses did not die through the Angel of Death, but through God’s kiss. It’s in the Hebrew bible so quit blaming Moses death on me, please.

I made my case. I am not the bad guy here. I am a hard working …

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How Even Small Businesses Benefit From Social Media Optimization

How Even Small Businesses Benefit From Social Media Optimization

According to recent surveys, nearly eight in ten small businesses have problems executing their marketing strategies. Simply having a strategy in place is not enough- for it to be effective, it must be implemented properly. More small businesses are coming to view the Internet as a suitable marketing medium. In particular, social media offers businesses huge marketing opportunities. Many companies have found social media optimization, or SMO, quite effective.

SMO makes use of social networking Web sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Digg to drive traffic to a business Web site. There are many benefits to doing this and improving Web site traffic, increasing brand visibility, making the business more accessible, and achieving higher page ranks are the main ones. The best part is that all of this comes at a cost much less than traditional marketing techniques.

Cost alone should not be the reason a business uses SMO. One of the most visible investments is the return on this cost, also referred to as return on investment (ROI). There is no reason to spend a penny on a method that does not generate a decent return. Small businesses have small budgets, making ROI even more important. A properly planned and well-executed SMO plan provides better conversion rates than many other Web techniques, due to its targeted approach.

The word “social” in social media is there for a reason- this platform is about people. The Internet should not be viewed as a large pool of people, but as a continuous stream of visitors to the business Web site. With social media, businesses channel the stream and convert the visitors into customers. By interacting with an increasing number of people on a daily basis, the business has a greater chance of getting new customers.

New customers are great, but what about the existing ones? SMO has been shown to be the best way for most companies to stay in touch with current customers. A customer means everything to a business and retaining an existing one by building loyalty through special deals and offers is important. Businesses can use SMO to interact with existing customers and keep them engaged. Not only should these techniques help retain those customers, they can lead to new referrals from these individuals.

With social networks, businesses can receive direct feedback from their target audience. Too often, businesses only hear from disgruntled customers. Though this can help owners learn from mistakes and prevent the problem from occurring again, it can also be very disheartening. Receiving some kudos from members of social media networks is a nice alternative. If the customer agrees, a compliment may be converted to a testimonial.

The basic features of social networks do not cost anything, making social media optimization a feasible way for the smallest business to increase its presence. If the company designates an individual to manage the relevant networks, the endeavor should begin paying off quickly. Any small business mulling over social …

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Gaming Laptops Goes Mini-Me (Dell Intros Alienware M11x – The World’s First Gaming Netbook)

Gaming Laptops Goes Mini-Me (Dell Intros Alienware M11x – The World’s First Gaming Netbook)

While Dell’s introduction of the first gaming netbook at the recent CES or Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas wasn’t necessarily the ultimate show stopper, the Alienware M11x did turn a lot of heads, especially among the gaming crowd. Having a small compact four pound gaming netbook with an 11 inch display goes against everything associated with gaming laptops, since most gaming notebooks are heavy, large and try to pack everything under the hood that a decent Gaming Desktop PC would possess. Big emphasis on try.

But a gaming netbook goes completely in the other direction, what’s up with that?

Well, actually there’s a lot to notice about this sleek powerful little device mainly because it comes from Alienware, the premier maker of gaming machines on the planet. While many serious gamers swear anything but a PC for gaming is a foolish idea; most would agree if you have to lower yourself to using a gaming laptop – it might as well be one made by Alienware. In other words, Alienware and computer gaming have become synonymous in the hearts and minds of most gamers.

In our ever increasing demand for everything mobile, perhaps a gaming netbook is only the next illogical step! Make it small, make it powerful and they will come. Right?

Not so fast.

The jury is still out on this gaming netbook which will hit the marketplace in February and sell for under $1000. Which is still expensive, considering many quality netbooks are in the $200 to $400 range. Will gamers snap up this portable gamer in order to have their games with them, no matter where they go? Judging by the popularity of such devices as the Nintendo DS, the answer could be a solid yes.

Improving those odds are the rather impressive specs featured on the Alienware M11x which sports a High Definition 11 inch display and a GT335M GPU from NVIDIA. It is capable of playing such popular games as Call of Duty (Modern Warfare 2) at 30 frames-per-second with a 1336 x 768 max resolution. Alienware is claiming even higher frames rates with benchmarks of well over 60 fps, even capable of reaching 90 fps. Battery life (as claimed by Alienware) stands at 3 or 4 hours for gaming, and up to 6 or 7 hours for general use.

The M11x also sports some other impressive specs for such a small machine: built-in Wi-Fi and webcam, multiple USB ports, HDMI-output, SD card reader and a built-in SIM card reader which will allow users to utilize their cellphone SIM card and have access to Internet services. Also, the M11x has both the NVIDIA GPU and an integrated chipset – you can switch to the less demanding graphics when not gaming to save battery life.

Of course, the M11x has all the styling and features you would expect from an Alienware gaming laptop, like those seen on the powerful M17x …

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Online Marketing Campaign – Plan of Action for Your First Three Months

Online Marketing Campaign – Plan of Action for Your First Three Months

Creating an online marketing campaign is easy. The hard part is having faith in it. It will take a lot of your time and some of it will be boring. But if you stick with what you do, 6 months down the line you could be laughing all the way to the bank.

Before I go into any internet marketing detail I want to make it clear that the first 3 months is all about taking massive action. It will take time but everything I talk about can be done by anyone, regardless of their web business background.

1) Set up your social sites – Social media marketing has boomed in the last 5 years. Because of sites like Facebook and Twitter you can now connect with thousands of people at the click of a button. You will want to have profiles on all the major social media sites. Once you’ve done this you want to start adding friends. I mean thousands of friends, a minimum of 5,000 for each profile. Remember, to put pictures up and link to your blog (see below).

2) Set up your blog – Creating a blog using a site like WordPress or blogger is easy. Online marketing blogs are very powerful, and are also very good at branding you. Add regular content in the form of videos and articles (see below).

3) Article marketing and video marketing – Find keyword phrases in your niche with low competition and start creating articles and videos on them. Include the keyword phrase in the title and a few times in the body content (you obviously can’t do that in the video). You want to create a minimum of 80 articles 80 videos. Finding content is not hard, just do some research online and take some notes, then regurgitate.

The above is a very basic outline of my online marketing campaign for my first 3 months. There are more aspects to it than just the above. But once you get into it these will come to you.

Don’t give up if you think nothing’s happening. It will come eventually.…

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Points To Consider Before Buying A Gaming Computer

Points To Consider Before Buying A Gaming Computer

A gaming PC is a computer that can run games at the best settings. There are numerous models of gaming laptops and desktop computers available in the market that provide an excellent gaming experience to the user. There is a wide range of gaming PCs available in the market and this makes it somewhat difficult to choose the one which can provide impressive performance.

To select the best device that suits your budget and requirements, you need to do a little bit of research. The prerequisites for these devices are a webcam, microphone, multi-card reader, USB ports, and a good pair of speakers. You need to look for some other important points also before buying a gaming laptop or computer which are:

Processor

This is the backbone of these devices and the basic and standard demand for gaming laptops are the Dual-core processors with a minimum of 2GHz processing speed.

Screen Size and Display

A bigger and brighter screen or monitor provides more enjoyable gaming experience. There are many screen sizes available and such as 15, 17, 18 and even 20+ inch display monitors. Larger screens make everything look better but if you are buying a laptop, you should also consider the portability factor.

Video Card or GPU

The video card or GPU is a necessary component to render the fantastic gaming environment for you to explore. It provides the muscle for the dynamic lighting, landscapes, explosions and action sequences making modern gaming real fun. Now a days, 512MB, 1GB and even 2GB video card are used in these computers but if you want to opt for cheap laptops or desktops with an optimum performance, a GPU with 896 MB of video RAM should be sufficient to provide the desired performance.

RAM

Today computers with higher quantities of system RAM are available. RAM or Random access memory is a small chip inside the system that stores data in a digital format. Today, one can find a system with system RAM as high as 24 GB but your new gaming PC doesn’t need the full 24 GB of system RAM. In fact, this only offers a very slight improvement in the performance, but the cost accompanied by the same does not make it worthwhile. You can easily opt for systems with 4 GB of RAM which are much lower in cost and still provide superb gaming experience.

Hard Drive

Storage is another very important point to look for in a gaming PC. Just ensure that you have a big hard drive to back up all your data and media files.

There are dozens of options available, and some of them can cost you a fortune. But this does not mean that you have to spend a huge amount on your new device. Cheap laptops and gaming computers can be bought from various electronic stores, games stores, and the Internet. There are many online shopping portals also where one can compare the latest deals …