Three Effective Ways To Advertise On Facebook Through Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing (SMM) process plays a pivotal role in brand building of organizations in recent times. But things were quite different when it was introduced. People were skeptical about the success of Social Media but these things have now been put to rest. Social media has shown a new direction to organizations of growth and prosperity. It has completely changed the dimensions of internet usage. If we compare different social networking sites the results will show that: Google is the most widely used site in the world followed by Facebook and YouTube. These facts go a long way in proving the fact that people have come to terms with social media. They not only use social networking sites but also trust them. Let us now focus our attention to Facebook because it is one of the most influential social networking sites in the world. We will look at different ways through which organizations can promote their brand on Facebook:

• Facebook Pay-Per Click (PPC) method: It is one of the most widely used methods by marketers to attract their potential clients. With this feature, organizations can directly target the users depending on different criteria like:

1. Age
2. Country
3. City of residence
4. Languages proficiency
5. Profession

This method gives an opportunity to organizations to prepare advertisement content as per the target audience.

• Facebook Snow Ball method: Marketers use different terms for this method. This method is very beneficial to organizations and can quickly create ripple effect and results in positive brand promotion. This method starts when an organization creates a group which allows friends and customers to “Like” the organization. The status of the user who likes the page is displayed on their wall automatically. The friends and colleagues, who see the status go to the link, see the profile page and if they like it they click on “Like” the organization. This process is also known as Facebook Group Snow Ball Effect. This process goes on continuously.

• Facebook Business Page Method: Organizations can promote their brands not only by advertising the website on search engines but also through their website’s Facebook page. This gives an added opportunity to the organizations to promote their brand instantly. People can “subscribe” with a single click on “Become a Fan” or “Like” button. Organizations can then target the users, who have subscribed for the information and continue advertising to them, if they do not convert immediately, avoiding the waste of paid lead.

These three methods if used properly can go a long way ensuring increased brand visibility and more client conversion rates. Facebook advertising has been a back-bone of many successful organizations. It not only helps organizations in staying in touch with online users and keeping the business dynamic and fresh. To learn more about our social media marketing services contact a proficient Social Media Consultant now at: info@softwebsolutions.com.

Android for Business Applications

For mobile applications development professionals, it is tough to keep track of all their business meetings, and plans. To avoid inconvenience at the last moment, Android app development (android is a popular mobile operating system) is best for them. Android has an edge over the existing iPads. Some of the popular Android mobile applications for businessmen or professionals are

• TripIt – It is a trip planner. It helps to store all your travel plans at a single place. On Android, TripIt helps to keep all the information about your trip plans (business/vacations) in one folder. If you are enrolled for their premium services (paid services), then you will also receive travel alerts from them. For instance, if your flight got cancelled or you have to report at another gate, then you will receive an update about the same from them to avoid last moment inconvenience. In case of cancellation of the flight, they will provide you with the alternate flight options available for you. You would also receive an update about booking particulars, direction updates with Google Maps (from your hotel or airport as per your needs), check in and checkout times at hotels and other necessary details.
• Gist (acronym for Global information systems technology) – This application of Android helps in business and social networking. Gist will help in creating a detailed profile of your contacts on Facebook and Twitter. You will receive updates from them and also get reminders (if any is set) for meeting them. Hence, you would be able to follow your business associates, colleagues, friends and relatives. To know how social networking works on an android, contact Android app developer, now.
• Locale – This feature assists you in having a control over your phone. It helps you to decide when and where you want your phone ringer to ring and where not. You might be thinking how. With the help of this feature, you can create suitable with situations. For example, if you want that ringer should automatically go off in your college, then easily by typing the college name in changed settings you can do so. (Note: this is a paid service)
• Lookout – Security to all your treasured items is important. So, for your android phones, the “lookout” feature provides complete security. This feature helps you to trace your mobile phone, when it is lost / stolen. Another important thing for you to know is that it provides complete backup for your data.
• Gmote (Android Remote) – This application facilitates to turn your phone into a remote control. You can now control the various features of all the audio visual devices in your room. It also has the ability to transfer your music files from your computer to phone.
• Alarm.com – If you get Alarm.com security system set up installed in your phone, then only you can make use of this service. With the help of this application you can monitor videos, on regular basis arm or disarm code of your system and access history of events. Henceforth, you can monitor the security of your home or business. At home, it can be used to find out what activity is going on at what time and whether every activity is set in place or not. In the office, it can be used to see that no one is misusing the important files and other important documents.
• GDocs – Easily now you can view various documents (word documents, and spread sheets) and make the required necessary changes. It works well with word too.
• aTrackDog – This software provides you with the necessary application and software updates to keep you in sync with the time. Hence you can easily follow up and get the information about different versions of applications that are installed. Here you have the facility to run the tracking systems and then install version from updated market. If after downloading the application, you find it of no use then you can uninstall the track and select the option not to track by aTrackDog.

To more about these and other android mobile application services, contact us at info@softwebsolutions.com.

5 Business Benefits of Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing has brought about a paradigm shift in the way information is stored and applications are run.  Cloud Computing has become an instant attraction since its launch.  Cloud Computing can be used to create clouds for software like: customer service management, human resources, book-keeping and other tailor-made software. The users can access applications through their browsers, while the applications are installed and stored in server. Once an organization uses Cloud Computing or SaaS, the responsibility of IT maintenance, software upgradation and any system issue resolution falls onto the service provider. Thus, cloud computing is very useful for small and mid scale businesses.

There are five business benefits of Cloud Computing:

• Once data is stored in the cloud, multiple copies are distributed on multiple servers. In case of data theft or damage to the PC, users do not lose valuable information.
• Cloud Computing gives a distinct advantage to the employees. It is possible for the employees to remain mobile and use the same technology and data they use in office at home.
• Businesses can save money by moving to Cloud Computing. Cloud computing helps the organization in cutting down costs on different levels i.e. IT, Hardware and software expenditure.
• Cloud computing providers offer 24×7 services to businesses. They ensure that the data is reliable and is not redundant. They also make sure that the data always remains available to use.
• With the help of Cloud Computing, employees can work together accessing the same documents at real time. This enhances knowledge sharing and leads to better communication which encourages creativity and productivity amongst the employees.

Cloud Computing makes the tasks of the organizations simpler. It gives mutual environment for the businesses to access various resources and applications from any location. Hence, it is important to hire an expert Cloud Computing provider who can provide customized solutions to the clients.

If you are looking for more information on Cloud Computing contact us at info@softwebsolutions.com.

Tips for Mobile SEO and Site’s Structural Design

Mobile SEO is similar to regular webpage optimization, and is very simple. Before we talk about the layout and other necessary things, it becomes important for us to note that Internet bots and indexes in mobile search are different from web search. But still promoting the website is very important. The search engine marketing for both Internet and mobile is the same but things are gradually changing. For optimizing any website on mobile phone it is important for us to look at the webpage design. This is the first and foremost thing. Everything should be aligned and clearly visible. It is very-very important to choose the right color scheme and fonts. In simple words, layout of the page is quite important here. When we talk about the layout of the page, it is important to note that we need to see that the text is properly placed and user doesn’t need to scroll down completely to get the readable text. You can hide certain items in the CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to get the things at the right place. Here, it is recommended to code the mobile phones in strict XHTML.

Next thing to note in mobile SEO is optimization of all the prominent keywords and short key phrases. Like traditional search engine optimization, here your keywords should be properly scattered, and not overstuff. Your keywords should in the tagline, headings, and internal links and in the contents of page. As recommended keyword density should not be more than 5%.

If you already have a website with good ranking and are not interested in changing the content of the website, it is recommended to create a secondary style sheet for your mobile. This will help you in using the existing content on your mobile webpage as well. These days’ popular social networking sites are also using the same content for mobile search engines and traditional website searches but with a difference.  They do not place too many links in the websites, and see that they are compatible for view with different handsets. To get the better idea of these things it is advised that you visit Googlebot-Mobile. There they have various user agents who send-up different phones. For example, a Samsung mobile user will have different needs in comparison to that of Sony Ericsson, Nokia, or iPhone.

Beside these here are some quick tips and tricks to improve your mobile search engine optimization:

• On a mobile phone reading the text or browsing the images can be tough if they are in pixels. Therefore, it is recommended to use percentages instead.
• It is important to submit your website on different mobile sites available at mobile search engines.
• Like traditionally, we use to include a site map, here also we need to include a mobile site map. Care should be taken to insert the no tag form properly. This will help the mobile search engine to easily crawl through your website and give it a rank.
• Keep complex codes like AJAX, Flash and Java script to minimum.
• Once you are through with the websites architecture it is recommended to do a test run and see that no bad Java Script or sloppy HTML is used here.

These are just few tips for mobile SEO and site’s structural design. In our coming post we will give you more information about the advanced searches as well. To know more about our services, you can visit us at SEO Company Chicago or contact us info@softwebsolutions.com.

How to use Animation in a Website?

When we see a good and captivating advertisement with 3D effect, we usually say “oh! It’s wonderful.” A good animator knows his job very well. He knows how the slides will follow (as in a cartoon strip) and how things will be presented in an advertisement or on your website. These days many websites have interestingly used animation for selling their products and services.  On few of the websites you would see companies profile or how their team works in power point presentation (PPT) format. For your information, PPT is also a type of animation used for formal presentation of the work done by them. This format is suggested for business type websites, where at times catchy and informal animated pictures can cause a damaging effect to the business. Therefore, it becomes imperative for us to know exactly, whether we require animation or not?

If you are planning to include animation as part of your website, then it is very important for you to know what exactly you want. At times it is been seen that good animation detracts the visitors attention and as a result things go haywire. Here are some useful tips that will help you in selecting the best animated website. So here we go…

• When you are selecting an image, it is important to check the format of images. It is considered best to use images with jpeg format (jpeg stands for joint photographic experts group). This format helps to retain the original sharpness and quality of the picture. So great art works, and natural images can be saved with their content intact.
• Meanwhile it will also be important to look for the aesthetic appeal in the image. You should be very clear about its placement and see that it does not leave  any negative impact on static images (or rather product on your web pages). At times it is seen that on seeing a good flashy animation, people tend to forget what they actually wanted to buy. So beneficial and right placement of the animation is very important.
• Always develop an animation with limited number of loops. This will help to stop the animation timely, without irritating the visitor.
• Animation has both pros and cons. Therefore, it will be advisable to use it wherever it is actually required. Try to use the images, which are more engaging and conveys your message rightly to the visitors.
• Never choose any animation that takes long duration to download. This will make the visitor feel bored and finally make him leave that particular webpage.

For more updates on animation, and other application development services, keep reading our Blog. You can also contact us at info@softwebsolutions.com .

Adobe Launches AIR for Android

Adobe launched AIR for Android thereby opening up new segment of applications for Android users.  Adobe AIR is a key component of Adobe Flash Platform.  It enables developers to use a single development platform and reuse existing code to build applications quickly that run outside the browser, across multiple screens, devices and platforms.

This is great news for developers since; they can now build mobile applications for Android users without learning new languages. Instead, they can use familiar programs like Flash Builder, Flash Professional CS5 or an ActionScript development tool.  One of the downside of Adobe AIR is the requirement of Android 2.2 operating system hence, only latest versions of Android-powered devices would be able to get this feature. This will be advantageous to Google as well, as the software enables developers to port apps written for iOS and other smartphones.

Some of the Android Device Requirements for Adobe AIR include:

• Google Android 2.2 Operating System
• ARMv7 – A Processor
• OpenGL ES2.0
• H.264 & AAC H/W Decoders
• 256 MB of RAM

Adobe AIR can be downloaded once from the Android market and it will work with any AIR based application on the device.  In future, AIR will be pre-installed on many new smart phones and tablets thereby eliminating the need of initial download.

The launch of ADOBE AIR for Android will give a push to Google Android and open new horizons for it. Softweb Solutions is one of the most reputed mobile application development services providers with competency to work for all the major platforms. If you are looking for an expert for more information contact us at info@softwebsolutions.com.

What’s the timeline to rank your website in Google Top 10?

One of the most asked SEO query is – “How much time will it take for my website to appear in Google results?” The question seems simple and straightforward for the clients, but for the SEO team, the issue is not as simple. Search engine rankings depend on a large number of factors, which require significant amount of time and efforts. In this blog, we’ve pulled together the factors that influence the timeline for your website to appear in search engine results.

Before beginning SEO, what is the position of your website?
If your website does not have any optimization done at all, redoing the process may take a greater chunk of time

Does your site have inbound links?
If your site does not have any inbound links, you will have to wait.  However, if you already have inbound links, updation will speed up the crawling of your website

How recently was your website built?
A brand new site without any links will have to wait for sometime before it is found by Google search engine.

How flexible is your website?
If your website incorporates a content management system, which is open to SEO based changes; your website is likely to have a better ranking.

How competitive is your target phrase?
If you are betting on a highly competitive target phrase, it will take time to appear in search results. You will have to add links, pages, and fresh content regularly to find your place. It is recommended that you go after easier target phrase first, and then transition to a higher stage.

How competitive is your website?
Examine 10 competitor websites closely for target phrase. If your competitor websites rank heavily with thousands of links, it is better to reevaluate your goals or have a very long term plan with consistent efforts to compete.

Moreover, once Google spider crawls your website, you will have to wait for the updated cache to appear in Google’s index. You may also have to wait for some more time for the results to actually appear in search engine rankings.

At Softweb Solutions, we have well established SEO processes that improve your results in minimum time. We guide you throughout the process keeping you informed with the improvements. For more information, email us at info@softwebsolutions.com or contact us.

Interesting Statistics on Social Media Marketing

The world of Social Media is evolving everyday and the need to catch up has become all the more important. Erik Qualman has collected interesting statics that will help you be more informed about Social Media. You can find the link to his blog at the end of this post. Here’s a list of 42 interesting statistics on Social Media Marketing:

1. Over 50% of the world’s population is under 30-years-old
2. 96% of them have joined a social network
3. Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the U.S.
4. Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web
5. 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media
6. Years to Reach 50 millions Users:  Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years)…
7. Facebook added over 200 million users in less than a year
8. iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.
9. We don’t have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it.”
10. If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 3rd largest ahead of the United States and only behind China and India
11. Yet, QQ and Renren dominate China
12. 2009 US Department of Education study revealed that on average, online students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction
13. 80% of companies use social media for recruitment; % of these using LinkedIn 95%
14. The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year-old females
15. Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres (combined) have more Twitter followers than the  populations of Ireland, Norway, or Panama.  Note I have adjusted the language here after someone pointed out the way it is phrased in the video was difficult to determine if it was combined.
16. 50% of the mobile Internet traffic in the UK is for Facebook…people update anywhere, anytime…imagine what that means for bad customer experiences?
17. Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé – some universities have stopped distributing e-mail accounts
18. Instead they are distributing: eReaders + iPads + Tablets
19. What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook…
20. The #2 largest search engine in the world is YouTube
21. While you watch this 100+ hours of video will be uploaded to YouTube
22. Wikipedia has over 15 million articles…studies show it’s more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica…78% of these articles are non-English
23. There are over 200,000,000 Blogs
24. Because of the speed in which social media enables communication, word of mouth now becomes world of mouth
25. If you were paid a $1 for every time an article was posted on Wikipedia you would earn $1,712.32 per hour
26. 25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content
27. 34% of bloggers post opinions about products & brands
28. Do you like what they are saying about your brand? You better.
29. People care more about how their social graph ranks products and services  than how Google ranks them
30. 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations
31. Only 14% trust advertisements
32. Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI
33. 90% of people that can TiVo ads do
34. Kindle eBooks Outsold Paper Books on Christmas
35. 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation
36. 60 millions status updates happen on Facebook daily
37. We no longer search for the news, the news finds us.
38. We will non longer search for products and services, they will find us via social media
39. Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate
40. Successful companies in social media act more like Dale Carnegie and less like Mad Men Listening first, selling second
41. The ROI of social media is that your business will still exist in 5 years
42. Bonus: comScore indicates that Russia has the most engage social media audience with visitors spending 6.6 hours and viewing 1,307 pages per visitor per month – Vkontakte.ru is the #1 social network

Find Erik Qualman’s blog here

Softweb Solutions provides Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and Social Media Marketing (SMM) services in addition to web development, application development and other services. If you have requirement, you can reach us @ Softweb Solutions.

Take Control over Your Website with Google Webmaster Tools

If you own a website, taking the help of Google Webmaster Tools should be a no brainer. It is a free tool that provides detailed reports on your pages’ visibility in Google. Similar tools for other search engines including Yahoo Site Explorer and Bing Webmaster Center can be implemented to extend website monitoring abilities.

To get started, you need to add your website and verify that you have an authorized access to it. Once this is done, you can review your website considering three aspects – site configuration, your site on the web, and diagnostics. Site configuration provides a better way of managing the site, your site on the web shows how Google finds you and diagnosis helps you identify errors. We’ve listed a few ways you can use Google Webmaster Tools to increase traffic generated through search engines:

Geographic Targeting:
You can target where your content appears by making modifications in the settings option in site configuration. However, you must only do this if you want the content to appear in a specified country. This option is generally used when an individual or a company owns multiple websites that are targeting customers in different countries.

Add a sitemap:
This sitemap is different from the public sitemap you use to facilitate content navigation on your website. It is dynamically built sitemap that updates regularly with current pages as and when they are created. To add a sitemap, you can either take the help of your webmaster or simply prepare it yourself by using a free .xml sitemap generator tool. You can check whether you already have an existing sitemap at Domain.com. Submitting a site through web master tool pokes Google to crawl your recent content.

Diagnose underlying issues:
Crawl errors and stats help you diagnose potential issues and provide information to troubleshoot them. This enables improved site performance. If errors are detected, crawl errors and stats will provide suggestions on taking the next move. In addition, it will show the time it takes for loading the page. Large sites that use rich content such as slide shows, videos and images extensively can benefit greatly through this feature by knowing if their site loads slowly. Crawlers will go through more content if your site loads quickly.

Taking the help of Google Webmaster Tools makes sense as it provides a broader picture through better website monitoring. At Softweb Solutions, we deliver SEO services to help you get found easily through search engines. If you need help or would like to share your opinions, please post them in the comments section below.

Promoted Tweets Unveiled

Tweets are buried within seconds after their promotion as they are easy to write and publish quickly. The promotional part of the tweet becomes less effective as the time to see the tweet reduces substantially. So, Twitter recently introduced promotional tweets, which fills this void. Promoted Tweets also provide Twitter the opportunity to monetize on their vast reach. The new concept combines organic search with paid promotions.

Promoted Tweets are unlike normal ads thrust upon the users whether they like them or not. The control switches over to the hands of users as only those promoted tweets float that engage users the most. It pushes marketers to be creative and engaging to lure users to retweet, reply or add the tweets to their favorites. Twitter names this phenomenon of keeping the tweets afloat as ‘resonance’.

The main features of Promoted Tweets are:
• A single Promoted Tweet appears on the top of search results for a particular keyword. Currently, the payment goes for 1,000 views but it is susceptible to changes as resonance algorithm evolves.

• Twitter allows the online advertiser to reserve a keyword, set a budget and select a tweet to promote. Promoted Tweets have sub-text written as ’Promoted by Company Name’ and the number of retweets are mentioned at the bottom right.

• Only the promoted tweets that have a high ‘resonance’ factor stay up in the twitter stream and are seen in the search results. If people ignore it, the advertiser loses the privilege of posting promoted tweets and the rest of the budget is returned to them.

• For now, Twitter has only given right to select companies including Sony Pictures, Virgin America, Starbucks and Best Buy for posting promoted Tweets. Twitter plans to gauge the success of promoted tweets to extend the concept to other advertisers keen on twitter promotions.

• Online advertisers are using their creativity to find out new ways of engaging the audience by posting exciting offers, short narratives, appeal for causes, etc.

Do you have any new ideas on interacting with your audience via Promoted Tweets? Please post your opinions in the comments section below.