Twitter | Scalable Social Media - Internet Marketing ServicesScalable Social Media

On June 6, 2013
By Tina Gammon
In Social Media Tips
With 5 Comments

Social Media Content – Why Quality Matters

Some say “content is king” when marketing your business. We say QUALITY content is king. Whether you’re blogging, updating a status, or tweeting for your business – what you share matters. So often when people don’t get the engagement they want from social media marketing, the problem lies with their quality of their content.

Just like most things in life, much of your social media marketing ROI is dependent on what you put into it. In this case, we mean the quality and consistency of the content used in particular. Here are a few areas every business owner should evaluate from time to time to keep quality in their content.

Tips to Evaluate Your Social Content

Is Your Content Consistent? This is a big one. Higher engagement results when fans can depend on your content. You should post to social media platforms at least once a day. In fact, many companies find improved benefit in posting multiple times a day. This will help establish your company’s presence and credibility. Insider Time-Saver Tip: Use Buffer or

On April 30, 2013
By Alisa Meredith
In Social Media Tips
With No Comments

Reach More People When you Use Social Share Buttons for Email Messages and Websites

“Websites that display Twitter sharing buttons are linked to on Twitter nearly seven times more often than sites that do not display tweet buttons.” (Entrepreneur.com) Clearly, adding “Share This” buttons to your websites and emails is a great way to increase the distribution of your content. Make it easy for people to share, and they’re likely to do so!

Want to add “Share This” buttons to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Google+ to your website or Email messages? Many platforms have plugins or built-in methods to do so (we like Slick Social Share Buttons for WordPress), but some landing page providers don’t, so we gathered the code for each. No javascript required, so they all work in email as well.

Just change the parts of the code in ALL_CAPS to your own values. To try them out, click on my text or button links.

Share to Facebook

<a href=”http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=YOUR_URL/”>Share to Facebook</a>

Tweet This button

<a href=”http://twitter.com/share?url=YOUR_URL/&text=TEXT_FOR_TWEET&via=YOUR_TWITTER_USERNAME&related=yarrcat” target=”_blank”>Tweet …

Should I outsource my social media, or do it myself?

On April 18, 2013
By Alisa Meredith
In Social Media Tips
With 8 Comments

Social Media – Outsource or In-house?

Yesterday, I tuned in to the Social Media today webinar: Social Marketing & The Resourcing Challenge. I was interested in hearing from business owners who are trying to make the decision of whether to outsource their company’s social media or do it themselves. Alas, though it was very interesting, it seemed most of the discussion was between social media professionals.

If you are a business owner trying to make the choice of whether to handle your own social media marketing our outsource, it’s still definitely worth a listen. I think you will find it very balanced.

For what it’s worth, I truly wish that every business could have their own in-house social media coordinator who knew the business inside and out and, interacted with the staff from owner to maintenance workers on a daily basis. This person would be a fantastic writer, creative, eager to please customers and to keep up with all the ins and outs of social media. With a knowledge of everything from features to rules, tips and tricks, they would make your …

On April 16, 2013
By Tina Gammon
In Twitter
With 1 Comment

To Hash or Not to Hash – The #Hashtag Predicament

Update – Hashtag functionality is rolling out to Facebook users as of June 11th. But we’re keeping the meme – because we like it.

Hashtags have become increasingly popular on social media sites. Maybe too popular. “Stop The OverUse of Hashtags” and ”I Hate Hashtags” are two of the many Facebook pages created by annoyed fans. It feels as though Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest users alike need a reminder on the purpose of hashtags.

This raises the questions: To hash or not to hash? Should businesses stop using hashtags altogether? What’s an appropriate use of hashtags? What makes a good hashtag?

What is a Hashtag?

Hashtags are words or phrases that begin with the # sign (example: #flowers). They can be a useful tool for marking keywords and topics. How do they work?

Using hashtags correctly will boost your Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which impacts your brand’s visibility in search engines. SEO is crucial for businesses to grow their audience, sell their products and increase their brand influence. Hashtags used appropriately will isolate keywords or topics …

On April 4, 2013
By Tina Gammon
In Twitter
With No Comments

How do You Measure Up? Peer Pressure & Social Media

You put great effort in to marketing your business. You design logos, websites and establish social media platforms. You spend time blogging and tweeting, in the hope of developing a loyal fan following. Blood, sweat and sometimes even tears, are shed getting your business off the ground.

And then it happens. Browsing through your feed a business page catches your eye. You click on it, maybe to check out the competition or gain some inspiration. Immediately your good mood disappears. Their logo is designed at epic levels, their products are trendy and fun, they have a million followers (or at least it feels that way compared to your 200) and fans are raving about how wonderful they are.

Don’t pretend it hasn’t happened to you. In an instant, you’ve lost your social media identity.

Peer Pressure and Social Media

What you felt may not have been envy, but inadequacy. Left unchecked it’s just not healthy. Experts call it “yardsticking ,” the impulse to privately …

On March 21, 2013
By Tina Gammon
In Twitter
With No Comments

Dazzle Diva Reaches Celebrity Status Thanks to Social Media

“Dazzle Diva” has quickly escalated to a household name in the state of Maine. That’s easy to do when Snooki’s baby Lorenzo sports your product on the cover of People magazine. So how did this single mom, working from home, find herself in demand with hot celebrities? Social media.

How Social Media Propelled The Dazzle Diva

When Laurie Hale started out back in 2002 she was a woman with a passion – a passion for bling. Laurie uses genuine Swarovski crystals to add sparkle to anything you can imagine.

“I started making items 16 years ago when I had my daughter. There were so many beautiful items out there and I just could not afford the high cost. I used to see these accessories and say to myself “I can make this.” When I would take my daughter out, people wold stop me and ask where I got the items.” This was only the beginning of great things for The Dazzle Diva.

Laurie started using MySpace and Ebay to market her brand, but it was Twitter that gave …

On March 14, 2013
By Tina Gammon
In Social Media Tips
With 2 Comments

How to Run an Effective Facebook Contest

Last week we talked about the dangers of running a Facebook contest. Sifting through rules is not exactly fun. Losing your Facebook page when you’re shut down for breaking the rules? Even less fun. Now that you are an expert on the dos and donts, let’s look at four tips to help you create and run an effective Facebook contest.

1. Set Goals For Your Contest and Choose a Contest Type

What do you want to accomplish by running this contest? Usually it’s one or more of the following:

Get more “likes”, Increase engagement, Increase reach, Collect information about your fans, or Build your contact list.

There are a variety of contest styles to choose from. Contests usually fall in to four categories:

Sweepstakes Essay Photo Video

Sweepstakes is by far the easiest contest to enter and maintain, especially when using an app like ShortStack, NorthSocial or Votigo. If this is the first you’ve heard of these third party apps start

On March 5, 2013
By Alisa Meredith
In Social Media Tips
With 12 Comments

How Social Media ROI is Making the World a Better Place

Full disclosure here. I wanted to write something about Social Media ROI, but didn’t know what, exactly. So, I plugged “social media ROI” in to this content idea generator and that is the title that came out. So, I challenged myself to make it work. Here goes!

Isn’t that a tall order, asking social media to make the world a better place? I don’t think so. Social Media ROI keeps businesses committed to social media. Because they are committed to social media, we all benefit.

Allowing Charities and Non-Profits to Spread the Word

The fact that there IS an ROI on social media means that organizations and private citizens whose mission it is to help others, can spend less money on traditional advertising and fundraising and reach a huge audience anyway. One of my favorite examples is Single Dad, Laughing, a blogger who quickly raised $10,000 to help the family whose dog bit him (yes, you read that right – and the story is worth reading).