Social media can certainly be helpful in regards to getting your business more exposure online and attracting positive attention to your site. But, social media doesn’t have to only be used for those purposes. It is so much more than a tool to browse dank memes or show off your company. Rather, it is a way to truly connect with your consumer, and at SitesWorldWide we are here to tell you how. In fact, social media acts as the first bit of contact between a company and consumer in many situations. So let me break it down for you individually.

Product development

As a business owner, your company is shaped on the sale of a product. After having sold a few products and receiving some feedback, you are able to shape that product specifically to the consumer’s needs. Any positive or negative feedback is going to prove helpful as it can mean the difference between a loyal customer that stays with your company as long as they need said product while recommending it to others and gradually losing dozens of customers at a time. It can be as simple as making the font slightly larger on your one of a kind T-shirts or changing up your products entirely to please the greater majority of your consumers. It’s hard to please people, but that job becomes so much easier when you are literally given the advice for how to do it.

Testing content

Naturally, your marketing strategy should extend past the internet. While the bulk of people will see your advertising efforts online, there is still a strong consumer base that can be gathered through means of brochures, commercials and even at conferences. Let’s say you recently posted an infographic to your Facebook page. You received a lot of positive feedback on the image as many people shared it, commented on it and liked it. This means you hit the nail on the head in terms of marketing your business to your target audience. This infographic doesn’t have to die here though. Something that created that much buzz online can certainly have a similar effect in real life as well. Why shouldn’t you take advantage of quality content to recycle through flyers, brochures and other hands-on marketing materials?

 Keep It Simple

You don’t want your brand to be muddled or bogged down by sending an unnecessarily complicated message that won’t resonate with your target market or catch on. When it comes to elements such as taglines, logos, and jingles, you’ll want to keep your message simple. A well-designed logo can provide you with a professional look as well as making your company and its reputation instantly recognizable, and you will also need to focus on creating a simple slogan that doesn’t bog your clients down with unnecessary information. It may pay to invest in the services of a professional designer to create your logo, because they are specifically trained in brand recognition.

 Keep It Consistent

When creating a brand, your primary purpose is to provide consistency so you will have enough time to build recognition and to develop your reputation. While it is true that over time you will make adjustments to your brand to help it evolve with the current trends so it remains fresh and relevant, you don’t want to stray so far from your original message that your company will no longer be recognizable or relatable to your existing customer base. Your mission should be clearly stated, and once you have developed a following built on that mission you will need to stay true to your original vision if you want to keep your clients.

 Be Honest

Many companies make big promises they will not be able to deliver on, and this is a serious mistake that can cost you your business. When your customer base’s expectations do not live up to your hype they may feel like your products and services can’t be counted on or that they were deliberately deceived. Your claims regarding quality, service, timeframes, and benefits need to be backed by data that proves you can really deliver on your promises. You don’t want to stake your company’s reputation on factors you do not have the budget, the manpower, or the ability to control, so make sure you will be able to stay true to your word.

 Be Original

We all want traffic to our websites and to build interested audiences who are responsive to our offers. So, many think being a thought leader is where it’s at.  Maybe even more sought-after than “going viral,” thought leadership is that indefinable, impressive prize. Most of us know not to self-identify as thought leaders. But it would be cool if other people called us that. The thing is, while it’s smart to publish the kind of content people pay attention to and give good advice, thought leadership suggests that you have some new insight which no one has voiced before. It can’t just be stimulating, well-reasoned, and valuable, it has to be new. But new is not always better.

Novelty is not Knowledge

Pursuing and implementing existing thoughts which make sense is extremely beneficial. People who claim totally new insights about how the world essentially works are lying to themselves. Newness is created in one of two ways: repackage old advice, which marketers do all the time, or they make up some nonsense. If you are the owner of superior, unique wisdom that no one else has heard about, you’ve either reinterpreted an old concept or it’s a bunch of BS. Sites World Wide are aware this same advice could have been given before and that’s fine. We just want to make it more accessible and easy to understand. That right there gives it value.

Everyone is Wrong About Something

Another problem with the idea of thought leaders is that their audiences begin to see them sort of like cult leaders. We assume an authority to be educated about their subject. Financial authorities should be educated about the economy. Diet authorities should be educated about nutrition. We expect thought leaders to be revolutionary figures, blessing us with their deep thoughts and philosophical insights, and presenting us with their unique, sacred path in life and in the world at large. Understood in this idea of a thought leader is the idea that you require someone to tell you how and what to think. That really isn’t a promising idea. Everyone has information gaps and some “leaders” may not be as well versed as you think.

The Thought Leadership Bubble

“Link building” can be very helpful because it can increase traffic to your site. However, generic emails which just follow a template and tell a person they’ll be compensated for their link don’t work. So, if you’re looking to get links to your site for all the advantages that come with it, including enhanced placement on sites like Google and Yahoo, try a different approach. Below we at Sites Worldwide have complied three techniques that can help you to get links without using the email approach, which frankly annoys most of the people you send the messages to. Let’s check them out.

Guest Posts

Not new, but guest writing for relevant, respected publications is a fantastic way to gain exposure. You’ll want, at minimum, a bio link back to your site in exchange. You may remember Google speaking against this for placement purposes. Spammy sites delivering spam to spammy sites isn’t smart however that’s not what we mean. You’re searching for a place where you can contribute regularly. The audience will start to get familiar with you and the publisher will value and trust you. If a publisher doesn’t allow back links move on. If a reader is interested in more of your work, they should be able to click a link. If you only get a bio link, see if you can point to something more beneficial than the home page.

Podcast Interviews

The explosion of podcasting is a potential boon for exposure and links. Podcasters need guests, and you should position yourself as a feasible option. The links appear in the show notes and can be a terrific way to get links to your home page, your valuable content, and your most impactful articles. Podcasters are often looking for new guests, outside of their own echo box. The key, of course, is to do remarkable work. Then do some research:

·         Find pertinent podcasts.

·         Research the show, its audience, and its host.

·         Send a friendly note about why you would be a good interview.

Tribal content

Even if a business isn’t make the most of the web, the web still reaches out to find it and catalogue it. These businesses can appear in business directories, with name, address, and phone number taken from the phonebook. A customer sharing their thoughts about the company on a review site also gets them out there. For those of us occupied on the Web every day, it can seem strange to not be actively pursuing online avenues. Yet there are numerous business owners who haven’t seen a need to have a homepage, or considered the idea of looking up their business name on Google or Yahoo. When working to build web literacy, we at Sites World Wide have complied ways to increase your web skills.

First Things First

You would choose a physical site without checking it out, so before you begin building a Web site, look at the places who can help you build a website and investigate what they offer. Also, when you want to find a business, look at Google Maps, Yahoo Local, Live Search, or Ask Local. This is how many people will find your business. Try this out on a cell phone as well. This way you can see what the benefits of a mobile-friendly platform are. If you don’t have an email, set one up. Your internet provider often gives you one but you can also set one up on Google, Yahoo, etc. which may offer a few more perks than the one your internet provider gave you.

Diving in Head First

Participate in a form related to your business or interests. You may want to observe for a while before you actually post and that’s totally fine. Look at more than one forum too, each has their own characteristics and rules. Educating yourself about online etiquette will help you when you join a forum related to your business. Visit business review sites such as Yelp. Write some reviews of your own and consider what people might write about your business. Search for reviews of products online, Amazon is great for this. Write some reviews yourself. This all helps to get you familiar with the web and create your own presence so you can be found later.

Final Touches

Here at SitesWorldWide, we’d like to tell you why It is important to understand the concept of serif vs. sans serif when it comes to your business website and subsequent design efforts. When you come to better understand these concepts, you are going to be considerably less stressed and overwhelmed when it comes to making typeface decisions regarding your website. Serifs are more easily identified in certain fonts, and it is widely believed that they make texts more readable and easy on the eyes when utilized in specific fonts. Utilizing these factors can give results of which the opinions could vary from person to person, when they are visiting and checking out your website.

 What is more commonly used in the various forms of media? Serifs tend to be the more common option when it comes to printed media. There are a number of reasons behind this, including their use in books, newspapers, and the majority of magazines out there today. Things that are shorter elements of what you are dealing with, like graphs, credits, captions and the like can make use of a sans serif style typeface; this is ideal in a number of situations. You must also take your audience under consideration when it comes down to this all; many factors go into choosing what you should decide to use!

 What Works Best Where?

 If you are creating something that is primarily going to be read by young children who may be just barely learning to read, it is best to go sans serifs. This is because the forms of the letters will be simplified and more easily recognizable. It is important to do research before you make any big decisions here. In this circumstance, a typeface that is free of serifs is definitely going to be the way to go, thus making the material more accessible to the target audience.

 You also need to take under consideration how well your text is going to be reproduced on the actual web page. Viewing examples of this early on is all the more vital. The more delicate of serif designs are actually very difficult to reproduce accurately and faithfully via the Internet on web pages; patterns tend to break up, and printing in CMYK will give the impression of weak and fuzzy edges. It is all the more important that you get an idea of what you are working with and how it will come out looking in the end.

Instagram has over 600 million users, and they share an incredible 100 million photos and videos each day. This social media site is constantly improving their platform so that they can stay ahead of the latest content creation trends, and that makes them a valuable resource for any small- or medium-sized business. When it comes to visual content marketing, you won’t get better results anywhere else on the web. If you are looking for inspiration so you can get started or so you can take your campaign to the next level, check out SitesWorldWide’s list of the best corporate campaigns from the past year.

 Amazon

When it comes to customer appreciation, Amazon went above and beyond the call of duty when they ran an Instagram campaign to thank their users for rating them #1. One thing that really drew people to this campaign was the fact that they offered a discount, which made users want to engage so they could save money. This is the kind of customer service that can keep people visiting your site again and again because they feel appreciated. Consider using Instagram to offer your clients a discount, and you may be surprised by how many of them decide to take you up on your offer.

 Starbucks

The genius of Starbucks’ #WhiteCupContest campaign is that the brand did not have to create much of the content themselves. Their white cups offered their customers a blank canvas on which they could essentially create content for the coffee giants, and seeing the results of their efforts posted on Instagram was incentive for them to go all-out. Starbucks made it easy for their customers to promote them by tapping into their own desire for exposure, and if you want to do the same, think of an interactive campaign idea that will allow your clients to become a part of it.

 Adidas

The simple explanation of a backlink is one website mentioning another and linking to it. It isn’t merely referencing the site or its address; it has to be a clickable link using a tool called an href attribute within the code or computer language. They are usually visually seen with a blue or different color text to differentiation, and an underline. Thre was a time when you could launch a website and create a whole lot of links from all corners of the web and have incredible exposure, but today things have become more complex, and SitesWorldWide would like to help you keep up to date.

What are the downsides of backlinks?

They eventually developed a bad reputation in the industry and it was believed that Google gave less credibility to the use of links. Buying backlinks is frowned upon in general, and as a result your website could take a hit without any warning. This can put your website out of business permanently, and that could be the worst thing possible. They also give less value than natural backlinks especially if it is not relevant to the topic. They are also time-sensitive, breaking or disappearing after a short while.

How do I get quality backlinks?

One of the best ways to get quality backlinks for your blog is to write awesome articles. If you do, people will naturally link to them. Tutorials and top-ten list articles are a couple of great examples of the types of posts that have great potential. They are based on proper research and practical examples. One of the other ways is to comment, which is an excellent, easy and free way to get backlinks. It helps you get solid one-way backlinks as well as more traffic and better search engine visibility.

What are some of the benefits?

You can build your brand authority, with high quality links on popular websites. It helps attract consumers to your brand simply by association. This also helps to present your company as an information source within your industry, and can even result in websites linking to your content, giving you natural backlinks. From there it can also help create new relationships, from joining your newsletter or performing some other measurable action on your website. They might connect and follow your social media profiles or they might read your blog and then bookmark it or subscribe to your RSS feed.

I’ve tried everything, but nothing’s working, help!