Is There a Cyberstalker in Your Future?

By Carl Weiss

Like it or not, the age of the cyber stalker is upon us.  Whether you are an employee, are married or have just ended a relationship, there are apps that make it all too easy for a third party to know a great deal of intimate personal knowledge about you.  Worse still is the fact that for a few bucks any cyberstalker can acquire a sophisticated array of software that makes it child’s play to track your location in real time and listen or look in on what you are doing and with whom you are doing it.    

Cyber-Bullying-Infographic (Photo credit: Social Media Max)

While this sounds like a plot for a sci-fi movie or novel it has become all too real for victims of this 

twenty-first century scourge.  During the past few months everyone from ex-boyfriends to a Seattle police officer have been prosecuted for spying on and/or posting sexually explicit photos of their former lovers online.  Even children have been portrayed recently in the media for using the Internet to cyberbully classmates with sometimes tragic results.

The bad news is that in spite of recent legislation that can impose serious jail time on cyberstalkers, this is a crime that is on the rise, currently affecting one in six women and ten percent of all men.  The good news is that there are steps that you can take to defend yourself in this all too wired world.

Is Facebook Becoming Cyberstalker Central?

The newspost that motivated me to write this blog is entitled, “7 Things You Told Facebook Without

 Realizing It.”  Posted on April 29 by vox.com, the staggeringly detailed post details a number of creepy apps that are available to the general public that are designed to trawl through Facebook to guess your income, your location and your passwords, to apps that seek out men or women who have just ended a relationship or even scout the social net for revealing photos.  Like a virus, some of these apps are designed to jump from one post to another, burrowing into your list of friends in order to do the stalkers nefarious deeds.

http://www.vox.com/2014/4/29/5662112/7-things-you-told-facebook-without-even-realizing-it

Of course Facebook isn’t the only social net in vogue with cyberstalkers.  And not all cyber stalkers are interested in seeing your swimsuit photos.  A post from technorati.com points out that Facebook, Twitter and FourSquare are now being used by burglars to zero in on vacationing families.  The article points out that not only do 75% of convicted burglars admit that criminals use social media to find homes to victimize, but they also admit to using Google Earth to case the neighborhood.  (Let’s see the neighborhood watch foil these hi-tech thieves.)

http://technorati.com/social-media/article/how-burglars-are-using-social-media/

The problem with most people is that they post way too much information on social sites.  Everything from where you live to what you own is many times revealed in stunning detail (complete with photos).  Then you casually post the fact that you are going to be leaving on that two week vacation and let everyone in cyberspace not only know how long you will be gone, but you also share photos of you at the airport waiting on your plane to pix of your vacation in real time.  If this sounds familiar, then don’t be surprised if upon your return you find that your house and/or business has been rifled by thieves. (Heck why not show the thieves where you keep the spare key?)

The Technorati piece goes onto advise readers that if they don’t want to be victimized while on vacation they need to start by taking a vacation from using social media before or during any extended trip.  They also advise you to consider sharing your vacation photos after the fact.  The article also advises the public to advise their friends to avoid posting tidbits about them while they are on vacation unless it is to post the fact that you have just acquired a vicious watchdog.

You Always Hurt the One You Love

Even software that was originally purposed to protect those we love can be coopted into working for the bad guys.  A blog on Motherboard.com points out the fact that spy software designed to help mothers keep tabs on their children has become popular fodder for those who wish to spy on others.

"We do have quite a large proportion of our customers who use mSpy specifically to catch a cheating spouse," mSpy communications director Tatiana Ameri told Komo News last year.  http://motherboard.vice.com/read/tor-is-being-used-as-a-safe-haven-for-victims-of-cyberstalking

More illuminating is the fact that the article goes onto point out that there is an entire online realm that caters to those looking to spy on others.

"Digital communities have sprung up where individuals teach each other how to compromise cell phones to track victim’s whereabouts, listen to conversations in a room, take pictures, and read texts and email so that they can learn about their victim’s behavior on a microscopic level."

Even Spies Have Girlfriends

The piece also goes onto point out that even spies at the NSA aren’t above using top secret surveillance tools to keep tabs on loved ones.  The program was so pervasive that it even had its own codename: LOVEINT.  The revelation of this peccadillo so incensed Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa that he petitioned the NSA to release information about LOVEINT.  The information revealed that at least a dozen of the NSA’s best and brightest were implicated in the program.

Of course for every spy there is a counterspy.  And in the age of cyberstalking there are a number of resources designed to help victims fight back.  While many of these sites provide checklists designed to help you avoid becoming a victim of cyberstalkers, there are a few that take a more proactive approach.  One of these is Tor Network, the same software employed by hackers, crackers, dissidents and whistleblowers to maintain online anonymity.

For several years, Tor, spearheaded by Tor Project executive director Andrew Lewman, has been tackling cyber stalking, working with domestic violence groups to set up countersurveillance programs to help victims evade online surveillance. The onion router can hide a victim’s identity long enough for them to research where to find help, and look up what data they can find about themselves without tipping off their stalker that they’re online, he said.

Remember that everything from your computer to your tablet and smartphone can be used against you.  Malware can be surreptitiously installed on any or all of these that can allow a cyberstalker to take control of the device even to the point of activating the unit’s webcam.  So aside from making sure you have one or more layers of software designed to detect and defeat spyware and malware also make sure that you don’t make it easy for cyberstalkers to get you in their clutches.  Never click on links or email from people you do not know.  Curtail your habit of sharing everything and anything about your personal life online.  Above all, be wary of posting any photos that could be used against you at a later date.

 

Hey!  Anybody want to see a picture of my new Rottweiler?

Carl Weiss is CEO of Working the Web to Win, a digital marketing agency in Jacksonville, Florida.  You can interface with Carl every Tuesday at 4 p.m. Eastern when he airs his radio show on Blog Talk Radio.

Working the Web to Win in the 21st Century

by Carl Weiss

Before the 1990’s businesses were relegated to using print, TV and radio to advertise their wares. Then along came the Internet in the latter half of the 90’s and suddenly businesses had a whole new lease on life, along with a new set of skills to hone.  Because when it comes to promoting products and services online, there is no such thing as one size fits all.  Far from it. 

Before the turn of the century webvertising was a bit simpler, due to the fact that it all came down to two things: a website and a search engine.  Back then, there weren’t any such things as blogs and social networks.  Video was something that was worse than useless, due to bandwidth considerations.  Web designers back then had to selectively choose images due to the slow loading speeds that dial-ups provided.  Too many images could cause a site to load like molasses, or even freeze the screen solid. 

Then came the development of broadband and suddenly it was a whole new ballgame.  With that ballgame came an entirely new set of rules.  Instead of relying almost exclusively on text, many sites began experimenting with podcasts and video.  With the advent of YouTube, where anyone can post and host videos galore, multimedia went from being an anomaly to being practically a requirement. 

Search engines as well began to capitalize on the multimedia nature of the Internet, with many of them adapting their search algorithms to take into considerations all the latest online offerings.  Several, most notably Google, went one step farther by developing their own brand of blog, social network and video portal.  This meant that website owners and optimizers had their hands full feeding all these additional mouths.  As a result, many sites that previously dominated the search engines were relegated to its backwaters.  It also meant that SEO was no longer SOP (standard operating procedure.)  Whether you choose to administer your web presence yourself or outsource the task, there are a number of factors you need to take into consideration if you hope to succeed.

1.      Geo-Targeting – One of the things that has changed in a big way is the ability to geographically target online ads.   Unlike in the early days of the web where global advertising coverage was the norm, today online ads can be directed to targeted regionally, state-wide or locally for both pay-per-click and organic search. 

2.      What is SEO Today? – When I hear people conversion about search engine optimization, I ask them to define the term SEO.  Before the turn of the century everything a search engine needed to determine who ranked best resided exclusively on the website.  Today, only twenty five percent of the criteria used for ranking purposes is contained on-site.  The remainder consists of everything from blogs and social networks to videos and podcasts.

The other thing that has changed in a big way is the acumen of search engine spiders.  Not only 

can the spiders read, they can understand how well your website, blogs and social posts are constructed.  They are also programmed to look at how often you post as well as how much engagement this content generates.  The only things they can’t understand are your images and videos.  This is why it is so important to make sure your alt tags are filled in and the text and tags used to wrap your videos is complete.

3.      Blogging for Business – Blogs are without a doubt one of the least understood of all web assets.  Most people treat them as a bastard stepchild of the web, not realizing that blogs can not only achieve search engine ranking on their own, but you can also sell products directly on your blog.  Add to this the fact that well-written blogs can be far more engaging than websites since they change more often than your site.  (The average website is updated quarterly, whereas the average blog is updated weekly.)  I have known clients who literally generated more traffic and sales from their blog than they did on their site, even when their site had page-1 ranking on Google, Yahoo and Bing. 

4.      How Social is your Business? – There is a big difference between having a social presence and feeding your social presence.  If you hope to turn Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and other social networks into a way to promote your business you need to understand a couple of things.  In the first place, social nets are all about telling as opposed to selling.  This means that for every attempt to display ad copy on your nets you need to deploy at least twenty pieces of information that would be of interest to your followers.  And by “information” I don’t mean ad copy.  The second factor is that social nets are all about your followers, not you.  If you provide them with useful information and prove that you are an authority in your area of expertise they will inevitably buy from you when they are ready.  However, if you rarely feed your nets or if you bombard your followers with ad copy then don’t complain that social networking doesn’t work.

5.       Do You YouTube? – YouTube is another area that most businesses do not really get.  Look at it this way; If your local TV station told you they were giving away space for free TV spots and that they were looking for programming to fill air time, you would probably bust a gut to provide them with as much video content as they would accept. Then why is it that the world’s largest superstation is not on every business owner’s radar in a big way?  Not only does YouTube stream more video than all the other TV stations on the planet combined (4 billion videos per day), but they provide free hosting and broadcast, plus they are owned by the world’s most popular search engine (Google). 

YouTube is much more than just a video portal.  It is a search engine, it is a social network and it is a free web TV station that can place your videos on page 1 of Google.  How cool is that?  Yet most businesses are not taking advantage of this free marketing powerhouse.  By taking advantage of it, I don’t mean having one or two videos on YouTube. What I am talking about is having dozens or even hundreds of videos on YouTube.  Better yet, why not start a channel that focuses on your business?  Don’t think that’s practical?  Think again.  We have shown all kinds of businesses from chiropractors to plumbers how 2-minute microcasts can be used to generate a following and turn their owners into rock stars.  Shooting 2-4 short videos each and every month isn’t all that complicated or costly.  All it takes is a little imagination to turn the world’s largest superstation into a business asset that’s hard to beat.

6.      Reputation Management – In years past it was all too easy for companies that produced slipshod       workmanship and poor customer service to remain below the radar to consumers.  As a result it was very difficult to judge a business’ reputation until after the fact, by which time it was too late.  With the advent of online reputation management all that has changed.  Today the emperor wears no clothes and it is simple for the public to find out how your customers perceive the quality of your company.  Whether they use Google Local, Yahoo, Angie’s List or any of the hundreds of sites dedicated to broadcasting reviews good and bad about a business, this is generally the first place that consumers go to check out a company with whom they have never done business.

That being said, many businesses have no system of encouraging satisfied customers to post positive reviews.  What this means is that for the vast majority of businesses, all there is to be found are negative reviews.  I don’t care how capable and courteous you are, as they say you can’t please everyone all the time.  So it’s a foregone conclusion that sooner or later you will rub someone the wrong way.  That someone (or even a wily competitor) can sully your reputation at the click of a mouse if you aren’t actively encouraging your best customers to submit positive reviews all the public will find are complaints.

One of the things we use to promote our business as well as those of our clients is to ask your best customers if they wouldn’t mind telling the public what they think of your services on video. By shooting a 2-3 minute interview and then cutting this down to 60-90 seconds not only will you have a powerful endorsement of your business, but while they are there you can then have them submit a positive review on Google+ that will go a long way toward helping you prove once and for all that you are the man or woman for the job.

7.      Who You Gonna Call? -  Obviously creating and distributing everything from daily social posts to weekly blogs and monthly videos takes time.  And time is something of which no business owner or manager has enough.  So outsourcing some or all of the above mentioned tasks is the path of least resistance for many businesses.  That being said, you need to be very careful who you allow to promote your business online.  While there are a number of legitimate digital marketing agencies, there are also thousands of shortcut artists that can do more harm than good. 

In past blogs, we have written about Black Hat tactics that can put your website 

between a rock and a hard place.  It isn’t at all unusual for a search engine to delist or even black ball anyone caught using black hat techniques.  While it would take more than a blog to cover them all, the biggest red flag to watch out for is anyone who claims they can get your site listed organically with Google or any other major search engine within 30 days or less.  Depending upon the competition involved with any keyword or phrase it can take anywhere from four to six months or more to produce enough compelling content to leverage page 1 on any of the major search engines.  However, the results can be well worth the effort.

In short, with the exception of pay-per-click advertising (which takes an entire skill set of its own to employ successfully), there is no shortcut to online success. The only way of leveraging the Internet in the 21^st century is to take the long view.  Just like your business, working the web to win takes time.  But it’s time well spent.

When he isn't surfing the web, Carl is Working the Web to Win, which is both a digital marketing agency in Jacksonville, Florida and a weekly online radio show on BlogTalkRadio.

Working the Web Gundam Style

by Hector Cisneros

Many of you may recall that earlier this year the YouTube video Gundam Style caught the imagination of millions of people worldwide by going viral. As a marketing professional I endeavor to understand why such marketing events take place. I ask myself several questions, such as, "What is the special spark that makes a video, podcast or eBook go viral?" "Where does spark that causes a post to go viral get its start?"  "Who influences the play and the spread of a viral message?" 

What Puts the V in Viral Posts?

Let's start off by defining what constitutes a viral post. A viral post is one that gets passed beyond your friends, followers and social network connections. It travels beyond your network and direct circle of influence. It's what happens when your message takes on a life of its own.

Facebook defines a viral post by comparing it to Organic Reach and Paid Reach. Here is what Facebook lists as their definitions:

§  Organic reach: The number of unique people who saw your post in Newsfeed, ticker or on your Page.

§  Paid reach: The number of unique people who saw this post through an ad

§  Viral reach: The number of unique people who saw this post from a story published by a friend. These stories can include liking, commenting or sharing your post, answering a question or responding to an event.

In order to go viral a post needs to either be entertaining, funny, compelling, or it must provide useful information that most viewers/readers need or want. 

Keeping an Eye on Trends

Viral posts are often tracked by the various social networks. These tracked posts constitute trends. You will often 

Photos on the 1-18-08.com viral marketing website (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

hear the phrase that a video is “trending.” Trends are often grouped or aggregated via special markers. The most common is the hash tag (# symbol), which was started by Twitter. Hash tags are now used by most social networks including Twitter, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pintrest and Instagram. To use a hash tag, just add the # symbol in front of the word you want to be grouped and tracked. An example is; "Check out this video on #Viral Social Media, it's great.  Please RT and share." You normally only use one hash tag per post since using too many hash tags is considered poor form.

Video is more likely to go viral than any other type of post. In fact video is five times more likely to be clicked on than any other type of post. These statistics vary from network to network but video is king in the viral realm. Video with text is followed by pictures with text, then audio with text and text only posts. Facebook statistics show that videos are ten times as likely to be shared than links alone and photos are five times as likely to be clicked on than links alone.

What Elements are Necessary?

Next let's look at the elements that all viral post have in common. When ever possible create a short video to go with your post. If you aren't willing create a video make sure you have a compelling picture or audio file to go with it. As stated earlier videos have the highest click through and share rates.

Use Hash tags on all your posts. Follow accepted norms when using hash tags and make sure they are used the same way on all your posts. Also add hash tags such as #viral and #whatshot to connect to other items that are trending. Also remember that you are not limited to publishing your post only once. I normally post a subject three to four times in a week if I'm trying to start a trend.

The elements of your post should be friendly, familiar and resonate with the general public, not just a select few. Posts need to be designed so they can be safely viewed at work or in mixed company. These types of posts will go viral the quickest. 

Examples of Videos gone Viral.

One exceptional example of viral video in action is the YouTube video series commissioned by Old Spice. If you are 

Image via CrunchBase

looking to start the viral ball rolling, there are a number of tried and true techniques that you can employ. Having a sexy model tell your story has been known to produce a large audience.  Doing something hysterical with your product then illustrate it with a compelling image or story. The Hamsters used in the Soul videos were a cute and funny way of connecting with the public. Cute babies or cats performing silly or stupid tricks coupled with a catchy phrase can be very effective. It's even OK to be a little creepy.  Many of the viral videos that really take off use music and dance at the center of their themes. The Thriller prison video comes to mind and of course the Gundam Style dance craze.

Not every post has to be funny or useful in order to go viral. It's ok to pull on people’s heart strings. Telling an emotional inspiring story is a great way to get people to pay attention to your plight. Your post must either be entertaining or useful to the general public. It's OK to ride the wave of some new trend. You can jump on the band wagon and follow someone’s 

The inmates dancing to "Thriller" in their YouTube video (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

coat tail. After Gundam Style came out, dozens of imitators soon followed. Many famous video music artists are emulated in funny ways. These videos don't get as many views as the original but many do garner thousands of hits. Your job is to either add your message as a preview or post trailer to the video the public is coming to see. Video that garner lots of views can pay big dividends in the way of pay per click revenues.

Most of the videos, audios and eBooks that have gone viral were shared because their originators asked that they be shared. If you don't ask, you have a 40 percent less chance of being shared. Share your post with as many people as possible. Especially share your posts with influential followers and leaders in your industry. This includes celebrities. Also make sure you send it out to the news media. One good news story on your post and you're off to the races. Don't forget to use free PR posting sites whenever possible.

Your Road Map to going Viral.

Now let's look at a road map you can use to get you next post to go viral. First create a list of influential followers so you can personally message them to share and repost your message. Make sure you use a hash tag and leave space for others to add their comments.

Create four types of posts, one video with text, one with a picture and text, one audio and text and one text only. Make one of them the focus of the four. I would make it the video post as it is the most likely to go viral first.

Decide what your video, audio or eBook will contain. Remember it must have intrinsic value. It has to be funny, entertaining, compelling, emotionally charged or provide useful information that people need or want! Create a list of what’s needed to create your video, audio or eBook.

If this is your first try, create an eBook full of useful information. You can share important information you have gleaned from your industry. You can answer important questions that customers most often ask. This is the easiest type of eBook to create. Now create a teaser video that provides a few of the elements from your eBook as the focus of your campaign. Find a compelling photo and create an audio from the video. Also make sure you provide a URL address where viewers can go to get your eBook.

If you're good with video or audio create that type of content as the primary piece. Just remember this is not a commercial. Your video, podcast or eBook is a soft sell at best. Even if you create an eBook as your first project you should still create a short video to go with it. Videos have the highest viral rate and it will lead people to your free eBook which in turn leads them to you. Create your video, audio or eBook and run it by some friends or coworkers who will be somewhat objective. Tweak whatever problems they point out.

Make sure that you embed ample backlinks to your website/landing page or whichever web property you want visitors to find. Also make sure these landing sites are designed to either generate leads, phone calls or sales. I often see well designed viral efforts foiled because the landing site was not setup for converting visitors. Check out "The Evolution of Internet Advertising" and "Is it Still Possible to Make Money Online?" for more details.

Post it to as many social networks as possible. Start with the top five; YouTube, Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn. I would also add Pintrest, Instagram and Picasa, especially if your product is very visually oriented or requires some assembly or has special operations. If you have a blog write several blog posts about it. Spread these blog posts out over several weeks. Make sure you especially ask your friends and family to share, retweet and repost your message. Send your message to your list of influential followers. Appeal to their needs and make sure you thank them personally in advance for sharing your message. Again use uniform hash tag convention and leave room for their 2 cents. Create several PR posts for your video or eBook. The press can help your post get found. There are many free PR sites. See my article "Using Press Releases to Promote your Business" for more tips and details.

Hector Cisneros is a partner, COO and social media director for WSquared Media Group based in Jacksonville, FL. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube. He is also the co-host of Blog Talk Radio’s “Working the Web to Win,” where he and Carl Weiss make Working the Web to Win simple for every business. Hector is a syndicated writer for EzineOnline and is an active Blogger, (including ghost writing) and he is a published author of two books, 60 Seconds to success (on sale at Amazon and B&N) and Internet Marketing for the 21st Century which you can get free by clicking on the link at WSquaredMediaGroup.com. He is an active Boy Scout Leader, enjoys family time, loves the outdoors, reading and the creative process of designing effective internet marketing solutions for his clients. 

Thinkin LinkedIn 2

by Hector Cisneros

It has been some time since we discussed how to leverage the online marketing potential of LinkedIn.

This powerful business-to-business social network has a number of new features that are designed to connect you to other business owners if you know how to access them. In this article I will discuss the four must do daily tasks that every LinkedIn pro takes advantage of.  I will also cover three new features that can make LinkedIn life easier and keep your momentum going and lastly I will provide links to other articles that give even more comprehensive information to help you master LinkedIn.

In my last article about LinkedIn, entitled "How to Leverage LinkedIn for Business & Career Enhancement", I gave a broad overview of the top features available on LinkedIn. LinkedIn like all social networks follows unwritten rules of social etiquette and protocol. In this article I want to start off by discussing the absolute minimum of tasks you need to do on a daily basis. These four tasks are the 80/20 rule you have heard about, where 80% of your productivity comes from 20% of the functions you use.

Let's begin by keeping your profile up to date. 

The first thing a person sees when they look you up on LinkedIn is your profile. This is the first place you need to put your best foot forward. Never accept mediocrity by leaving your profile incomplete. More importantly make sure you let your audience keep up with the changes that are happening in your business. You can always add new successes, projects that you've started, product launches, add company pictures etc… The benefits of keeping your profile up to date are: 1. You put your best foot forward.  2. You get free promo's from LinkedIn. That's right, LinkedIn sends out a daily list of people who have updated their profiles. This helps keep you in front of your peers and potential clients and it's promoted by LinkedIn, so it isn't considered as spam!

Next lets discuss posting articles relevant to your industry and position. 

Try doing this daily if at all possible. If you have lots of followers you can up this to say 3 times a day. If you're scientific about it you will measure what day of the week and hours of the day get the most reads. You can do this by tracking your posts with Hootsuite or some other software program. I can't overemphasize the importance of providing useful content to your peers and prospects. Posting lots of information about yourself or your products/service will hamper your progress. If you want to provide information that builds your credibility, write quality articles and blog posts about your industry and mix them with posts from industry leaders. Make sure the content is useful and written grammatically and technically correct. If you lack this skill find someone who can ghostwrite for you. Your cost can be as low as $50 for a short blog post to $300 for an article length document. The best way to look like an expert in your field is to show off your expertise in writing. Blogging or self -publishing is a great start. Getting published in industry related magazines provide its own advantages and raises your credibility to a new level. A third way of building your credibility is actively participating in Groups. Again be ready to help others out. Don't act like a rookie salesperson ready to pounce? Act like a host, ready to help. Here is where providing useful content can also pay off. People will follow you if you are in their group and you are posting quality information that they find useful.

Third, endorse others and post testimonials to people who have helped you. 

Providing other businesses with testimonials allows you to leverage the law of reciprocity. This law is alive and well and still works in the 21^st century. The likelihood of someone reciprocating and endorsing you back is very high. LinkedIn offers three ways to endorse others. First, you can create a testimonial and post it in their recommendation section.  Second you can endorse them for a specific skill set by clicking on that specific skill or expertise in that section. And lastly you can post something positive about a person or company in the "Share an Update…" field on your home page or activity field in LinkedIn.  Endorsing others is a great way to beginning a relationship with a referral partner, customer or prospect. I would add that genuinely endorsing others fulfills a need that can't easily be fulfilled in any other way. On top of that LinkedIn automatically asks for reciprocation when it announces to the recipient that they have been endorsed by you.

Of the three methods a written testimonial is the best and most powerful way to endorse others. The second most powerful is a posted endorsement in the timeline of the newsfeed. A message of congratulations or positive statement of endorsement goes a long way here. Clicking on a skill or expertise is the least powerful but does have some advantages that make it different from the other kinds of written endorsements. For one it's quick and easy. A click or two and you're done. It also prompts LinkedIn to contact the person being endorsed with the statement "You have been endorsed"! You’ll get noticed in a flattering way to say the least.

Fourth, engage members in gracious and useful correspondence. 

The reason I say gracious and useful correspondence is that most of the correspondence people receive in LinkedIn are solicitations of some sort.  These solicitations cover the gamut from tacitly asking to connect to our right cold sales calls. A way to be gracious is to say thank you whenever possible to anyone who connects with you, likes your post or mentions you in anyway. A way to be useful a correspondent is to provide useful information like needed links, free white papers on your industry and be willing to help other with questions they post asking for assistance.  If you do this in a way that beneficial it will get noticed. Not everyone is going to jump up and say thank you back but a good portion of the recipients of your help will remember you. The law of reciprocity will kick in and what goes around will definitely come around, and you will eventually be the recipient of someone asking for your help as a customer.

New features worth Noting:

LinkedIn now has sponsored ads in their newsfeeds and they have also added video ads in the Pay Per Click model. Anyone can sponsor ads in the newsfeed time line just like you can for the 

header ads. It's easy to setup and can be initiated from your own sponsored updates (your posts) or via Ad manager. Once you have chosen a post you want to sponsor you then select the demographics you're looking for. You can choose from location, companies, job title, schools, skills, groups, gender and age. You can also add filters for title, name and category (industry, function, seniority etc…). This is very powerful targeting. Next, choose whether you want to pay on a cost per click or cost per impression basis. Set your budget and the length of the campaign and start. It's that simple. The system will suggest minimal bid prices and daily budgets. I have been able to gets clicks for as little as 90 cents. However most will come in close to the suggested bid rate.!

LinkedIn introduces new company page analytics.  In July LinkedIn introduced their new Company page Analytics which allow the subscriber to better understand what is driving the traffic on your pages. This new service allows you to identify which updates are driving the most engagement. It will allow you to filter engagement trends by type and time period.  It will provide more detailed demographic data on your followers and it will allow you to visualize your follower growth and benchmark your growth against similar brands. This enhancement is also easy to understand because it also utilizes the new built-in help feature which can be accessed by highlighting the question mark symbol. Check out their help video for their analytics.

LinkedIn goes mobile.  LinkedIn’s new mobile app allows for greater customization plus it comes preloaded with the handiest features already setup in the customizable navigation page. This new app also helps emphasize localization. Since 64% of LinkedIn's growth is overseas they have also added additional native language support for 15 languages in total. Click here for LinkedIn own story.

In this article I have shown you four things you need to do on a regular basis in order to be successful with LinkedIn. I have also introduced you to three of LinkedIn’s latest features. You can never go wrong by following these suggestions. Yes there are other things you can add but leaving out these four activities will hurt your chances of success. The new features are worth your investigation, especially if you like using pay per click ads.  If you feel this article was helpful, pass it on to your friends. If you have a something to add to this discussion enter it in the comment section. It been my pleasure share my thoughts on what important and new in LinkedIn. I look forward to reading yours.

Hector Cisneros is a partner, COO and social media director for WSquared Media Group based in Jacksonville, Florida. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+,  LinkedIn, and YouTube. He is also the co-host of Blog Talk radio’s “Working the Web to Win,” where he and Carl Weiss make Working the Web to Win simple for every business. Hector is a syndicated writer for EzineOnline and is an active Blogger, (including ghost writing). He is a published author of two books,  60 Seconds to success (on sale at Amazon and B&N) and Internet Marketing for the 21st Century which you can get free by clicking on the link at WSquaredMediaGroup.com.

Give Your Little Tweets Big Drawing Power

If you are looking for a way to take your tweets beyond your own following, hashtags are a great solution. Adding a hashtag to your tweets, broadcasts your tweet to anyone that is following that particular hashtag.

For the uninitiated, hashtags were developed as a means to cluster tweets that are similar on Twitter.  To initiate a hashtag, all you have to do is add a pound sign (#) to any word or phrase.  The trick is not to abuse the privilege.  This means that you don’t want to include more than one hashtag per tweet.

It is also a good idea to check to see if the hashtag you are considering carries any weight.  If no one else is searching for the subject there is no reason to employ the hashtag.  How do you find out if a hashtag has any merit?  The answer to this question couldn’t be easier.  Simply go to Hashtags.org.  On the site you will find lists of the most popular tags.  The site also provides a handy search box where you can enter your proposed hashtag and not only find out how many people are using the tag, but you can also see who and when last tweeted the hashtag.

Used with care, hashtags can provide a helpful for other Twitter users who are interested in the subject of your tweet. Overuse can annoy, confuse or even frustrate followers to the point that they may choose to stop following you. The best policy is to use hashtags only to add value to the tweet, rather than barraging the reader with tags.

Straight From Twitter

Hashtags are simply keywords preceded by a hash symbol (“#”) that makes them both searchable and linkable on Twitter. For example, let’s say you wanted to find out what Twitter users are talking about right now on the topic of Social Media. You can type the phrase “Social Media” (minus the quotes) in Twitter’s search field and you’ll get related results.

You’ll notice from the above-linked results that the phrase “social media” is bolded but not linkable.
Now try searching for the hashtag “#socialmedia” instead. (Note: hashtags have to be one continuous keyword, with no spaces in between words — and they are not case sensitive).

This time you’ll find that the hashtag “#socialmedia” is actually a clickable link. If you click the hashtag in any tweet, you’ll display a live feed of every tweet that has that hashtag in it. You can find the most up to date tweets by clicking the bar that says “x new tweets.”

Twitter describes hashtags as “themes” for your tweets.

In other words, when Twitter users include hashtags in their tweets, they are deliberately assigning a unique theme to that tweet by virtue of its linkability to all other tweets containing the same hashtag.
Furthermore, users who include a hashtag in their tweets are assuming that it will be searched by other users who are interested in the same topic.

This allows your tweets to potentially be seen by millions of users throughout the world who are searching for a certain hashtag. This is a powerful tool because it allows your tweets to be seen by people who don’t even follow you.

Start a Trend

There are even different classifications of hashtags, depending upon their popularity.  For instance, if a hashtag is used by thousands of users simultaneously, it becomes what Twitter refers to as a “Trend”.
Trending hashtags have the added benefit of appearing right in the Twitter Home page and are thus exposed to hundreds of millions of Twitter users!

Hashtags Can Also Helping You Find Interesting Tweets

• People use the hashtag symbol # before relevant keywords in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets to show more easily in Twitter Search.
• Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets in that category.
• Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet.

Using hashtags

• If Tweet with a hashtag on a public account, anyone who does a search for that hashtag may find your Tweet.
• Don't #spam #with #hashtags. Don't over-tag a single Tweet. (Best practices recommend using no more than 1 or 2 hashtags per Tweet.)
• Use hashtags only on Tweets relevant to the topic.

What you don’t want your tweet to look like is this::

My name is Carl and I’m an #internet #marketing #consultant that specializes in #Internet results.

·         Make hastags relevant - Don’t talk about cooking food and add #socialmedia to the Tweet. If it’s about food, make it #food. About blogging? Use #blogging. Don’t use frivolous hashtags that come from out of left field.

The Last Word on Hashtags

Properly researched and employed, hashtags can help you build followers, broadcast your message to potentially millions of fellow tweeters and put your tweets on steroids.  Abuse them, and you’ll be considered as nothing more than just another spammer.  And that's nothing you want tweeted.



Carl Weiss has been helping clients generate results online since 1995.  If you want to see how you stack up online go to http://access-jax.com or http://jacksonville-video-production.com and click on the link that reads FREE Web Presence Analysis.