Recently, we’ve seen an epic “brawl” on Twitter centered around Nassim Nicholas Taleb and his book, Antifragile-Things That Gain From Disorder. Dr Taleb has attracted a lot of attention with his challenging, brash, and often bombastic tweets. His persona is more Ochocinco then Emily Post. Even more interesting is that his topic is Macroeconomics and Econometrics rather than cheating spouses, baller theatrics, and celebutantes. He is making economics interesting.

Taleb’s Social Media Authenticity

Taleb has written about Antifragility twice, in his popular book and in the equation-filled textbook, Fat Tails and Antifragility. The book starts simply with the statement, “Wind extinguishes a candle and energizes a fire” and is followed by a bunch of stories before delving deeper into everything from economics to health care to society and, finally, to the value of tough guys from Brooklyn.

Taleb gets upset, for lack of a better word, when financial journalists and scholars review the book (rather than the textbook) and profess that he is wrong. Until you learn aeronautics you might look at an airplane and say it can’t fly; Taleb is challenging those who want to debate him to find a flaw in his math:

If my main point is valid, attacks by all the fin journos and econoquacks are just air; if invalid one single mathematician can destroy me.

— Nassim N. Taleb (@nntaleb) April 26, 2013

His word choice and theatrics are not always polite; one rarely sees econometrics and curses in the same Tweet:

@dsquareddigest And you forget that I AM an econometrician, spent 19 years in data, which is the reason econometricians don’t fuck with me. — Nassim N. Taleb (@nntaleb) April 26, 2013

Other authentic and raw Tweets include:

@WhelanKarl So you are incapable of commenting on substance because you are a bullshitter?

@WhelanKarl Mr Whelan you made a public statement on twitter, you will have to confront the consequences and defend your competence.

Like Ochocinco, Taleb is actively entangling and engaging on Twitter — he puts out a lot of tempting messages to say the least. The brawl with Karl Whelan started when Taleb tweeted a common sense heuristic for picking vendors:

Never buy a product that the owner of the company that makes it doesn’t use (Generalized Skin in the Game) facebook.com/permalink.php?… — Nassim N. Taleb (@nntaleb) April 22, 2013

Unlike Franklin’s Poor Richard, Taleb has skin in the game; he follows his own advice. On April 25^th he Tweeted about the modern culture of abundance and the low stress/comfort lifestyle:

Overnutrition now killing far more people than hunger, and comfort is killing much more than violence. Modernity & Denial of #Antifragility

— Nassim N. Taleb (@nntaleb) April 25, 2013

Can Your Brand Make Use of This Personality?

How interesting is your brand or product? When we, our staff, or our agencies are messaging via social media, are those messages authentic? Do we err to much on the side of civility and miss out on opportunities to attract attention?

Now, I’m not suggesting you should create controversy for the sake of creating controversy. As Mark Schaefer recently wrote about, that tactic isn’t nearly as strong as many seem to think.

The point is brands need to create emotional connections with consumers. Yet, “Brand Speak” can be a bland pablum, overly structured and artificially neutral. Realism (including the odd typo) and authenticity can make your message stand out. Realism can make your message a bit more robust or even “Antifragile.”

When your messaging is inauthentic, you have to work harder and you have to create a fake “voice” — a voice which may not resonate with consumers. Consumers have a 6th sense for separating real communications from messages that are just a signifier of realism. This doesn’t mean your brand needs to channel Ochocinco and Taleb. As cliche as it sounds, honesty and authenticity come from the heart, not a style guide:

• Put more of your employees out on social media (they are real and you trusted them enough to hire them)

• Pull less punches (more honesty)

• Do not freak out over a small typo (it’s human to err)

• Try and have some fun (fun is exciting)

Don’t put on a facade.  Your brand is backed by real people and you’re trying to appeal to real people — people with emotions, aspirations, personal faults, and accomplishments.

Be genuine, be authentic…even if that requires taking a step outside of your comfort zone and doing something the masses aren’t doing.  You may find your brand becomes the center of attention in a good way and that’s what it’s all about!

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About the Author: Harry Hawk is a social media consultant for the social media teams at Commodore USA, Leske’s Bakery, and New York Hand Made Breads. He is also part of the social media team for The Food Film Festivals. Connect with Harry on Facebook and Twitter.

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Below, Stewart discusses his background, offers a handful of outstanding digital marketing tips, and provides his opinions on the overall landscape of the social media industry.

1.  Where did your interest in social media marketing originate, how has it developed and what role does it play in your professional life now?

 I don’t recall, unlike many other events in my life, a key driver or defining moment behind my interest in social media and multi-channel marketing. For me, it has been more of an evolution.

Using social media in marketing and, initially, the sales arena was really an extension of my general attitude to all new ideas, tools and methodologies; try everything that is new, test if it works, keep if it does and throw it away if it doesn’t.

2.  Who do you read, follow or pay attention to in order to stay ahead of the curve in social media?

I have around 65 feeds I monitor continuously that help me stay on top of what is happening in social media, marketing, business methods and sales practices. As a result, I read through around 200 articles a day.

To make that process easy and efficient, I use Feedly on both Chrome and Android. It helps me read everything quickly, stays in sync with my Google Reader RSS account and orders stories in terms of importance to my network, so I catch the juicy stuff first.

With that being said, I do particularly enjoy the content of a few individuals within that stream, including Danny Brown, Gini Dietrich, Sam Fiorella, Scott Brinker, Mars Dorian and Brian Solis.

3.  What do you believe to be the biggest misconception some businesses still have with social media?

 There is more than one misconception, that’s for sure. First, the myth that good social media marketing is free of charge just because some of the tools used to manage it are available gratis. Good SoMe marketing relies on ever-interesting and highly engaging content, in exactly the same way traditional marketing does. Just because the delivery channel is ‘free’ (in reality, it still costs money to manage the delivery channels properly), it doesn’t mean the inception, creation and approval process behind the message won’t require time, money and resources.

Another misconception is that SoMe is about constantly pushing links to your web content via Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn or the channel of your choice in the hope they’ll create leads and extra traffic. That is one sure way to bore your followers to death and have them running for the hills. To get the best from SoMe marketing, strive to create interesting content for each channel that speaks to that particular set of followers, and you’re on your way. Then, be there to engage and converse with people that invest their time in interacting with you. Just remember, Facebook users interact with updates in a totally different way to those on Twitter or Google+, so learn what works where, stay original and keep in touch with your followers.

4.  A lot of businesses steer clear of social media due to the potential ramifications of making a mistake in such a public environment. What would your response be to that concern?

Social media is here to stay. Your customers, prospective clients, raging fans and detractors are all using SoMe to talk about you, your competitors, your successes and your failures.

Given that in all forms of business the trick is ‘to be where your customers are’, you need to be on social platforms. Simple as that. Of course, I’m not suggesting SoMe is the only place you need to be. You still need to have a full, rounded marketing campaign that includes all inbound and outbound channels, but if your clients are on SoMe platforms, you should be too.

And making mistakes, or dealing with negative feedback, is not only a healthy part of everyone’s day-to-day business, it is your golden opportunity to show everyone how great you really are. Nobody gets to see how wonderful you and your business are when everything is going well; it is when you deal with a negative issue in an extraordinarily good way that you create real buzz.

5.  With the rapid evolution of internet marketing, are offline marketing channels now a waste of time? Or is it all still valuable?

Absolutely not. Every marketing channel is as important as the others.

Imagine, for a moment, your average day. You wake up and check if anything important has hit your email. You might then watch a little TV over breakfast, read the headlines from your Feedly aggregator and get to work. On the commute you may use a mobile device to keep in touch with the world and see what’s going on. At lunch you might read the newspaper. I could go on, but what is the key message here?

People use different systems of information at different points in the day. The above is one person’s story from waking to lunchtime; you might do things in a completely different way at alternative times. How can you get your message across to the largest number of target-relevant people unless you put that message on every channel your prospects use? If you limit your marketing to SoMe alone and ignore print, display, email, web and other channels, you’re going to miss a lot of opportunity.

6.  How have you integrated social media effectively into your (or your clients) business strategies? How are you proving a return on investment?

Proving a return on investment with social media is a topic that might need an entire article, but it is possible. For example, I use technologies such as marketing automation software suites that allow me to see if a visitor to the website has originated from Facebook, Twitter, advertising (display and web), search engines (and what terms they queried) and other key pieces of information. Those leads are tracked through the CRM to the accounts software if the customer purchases, which gives us the ROI against all our source marketing channels.

If you don’t have the budget to install similar technologies, you can still gain a lot of this insight via good use of tools such as Google Analytics, and there are plenty of great guides available for free that explain how to set GA up to track social traffic.

7.  What sort of marketing advice would you give to a person who said that their business simply does not fit with social media?

Usually the person that states their business doesn’t fit social media is the person that hasn’t tried using it. If they have, they haven’t used it properly. I go back to my standard marketing ethos; try it, measure it, keep/tweak/delete it accordingly.

Of course, the chances of success are much greater in the first place if you create great content that engages your audience and makes them think about you, above all others, when making a buying decision. But that isn’t about SoMe; that’s just good marketing.

8.  If you had to give up all but one social network, which one would you keep and why?

That’s a tough question, since they are all valuable in different ways. If I think about my charity fitness website project, UsFitties, for a moment, I’d have to say that the content there resonates most with the Twitter audience, but all the channels we publish UsFitties content to play their part. For other organisations and companies, it could be any of the others; there isn’t a blanket answer for this question at all!

9.  How do you deal with the 24/7 aspect of social media marketing? Do you ever step away from it all and recharge?

I have awesome processes and tools in place to manage my SoMe channels. I currently look after six accounts across five platforms and, thanks to those processes and tools, manage them in a combined 20-30 minutes a day. This isn’t a promise, but one day I might write a short e-book explaining everything.

10.  One of the most exciting aspects of social media is that it’s always changing, evolving and progressing. What changes do you expect to see in social media over the next 12 months?

Google+ is already proving to be an important platform, both from a SoMe perspective and looking at the SEO benefits. While I’m already an evangelist for Google’s relatively new platform, I think there will be a big surge in Google+ interest over the next year, buoyed by the newsworthy ‘wearable technology’ movement that is being headlined by the Google Glass project.

I think there are also some positive movements in bringing ‘big company’ SoMe monitoring and management technology to the masses. The ever-expanding Hootsuite and the recent beta of Danny Brown’s Jugnoo solution have shown that ‘good’ doesn’t need to equate to ‘pricey’. I expect many more cost-effective tools and better understanding of how to manage SoMe as the year goes on.

Where Can Our Readers Find You?

Stewart Rogers: @TheRealSJR on Twitter

Blog: UsFitties – Fitness News (all revenues go to charity)

Twitter: @UsFitties on Twitter

Facebook: www.facebook.com/UsFitties

What is #SMPro?

#SMPro, in affiliation with My Social Game Plan, is a group of professional social media and digital marketers who have made a simple agreement to support, assist and promote each other via social media. With member backgrounds spanning the marketing industry and beyond, #SMPro has become a vibrant, engaging environment where questions are answered, hot topics are discussed, and everyone is always learning and helping each other reach that next level.

If you’re interested in joining the #SMPro group, check out the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

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I started completely from scratch.  While I probably should, I don’t give speeches or do seminars.  I don’t pay for advertising.  I don’t have tons of connections with top bloggers or social media influencers.

So what’s the key to My Social Game Plan’s growth?

Get Used to Being a Guest

If you’ve been around the blog for a while you probably already know this, but the most important ingredient to My Social Game Plan’s growth is a lot of targeted promotion through guest blogging.

When I tell people about guest posting, they inevitably ask me, “How do you know what blogs to guest post on? How do you approach big name bloggers and get them to accept your posts? How do you get the attention of people who receive tons of guest post pitches?”

Those are the same questions I used to have.

About eight months ago, I stumbled on a guest blogging training program from Danny Iny called Write Like Freddy.  It’s one of very few digital marketing products I’ve ever bought, and the return on that investment has been huge since I started putting the training into action.

I’ll go much deeper into what Write Like Freddy is and how it can help you, but let’s get this out of the way first…

I’m About to Attempt to Sell Something

Yes, there are affiliate links in this post and yes, I’m about to attempt to sell something.

I’m not hiding affiliate links and hoping somebody clicks them without noticing.  Trying to trick people contradicts the single most important principle I believe characterizes effective marketing: long-term relationships built on mutual trust are far more beneficial to both parties than a one-time transaction.

So, while I am selling here, I hope you understand my intent is genuine and transparent.

Enough of that, on to the good stuff!

What Is Write Like Freddy?

It’s the magic bullet to growing your blog.

Kidding, there’s no such thing.

Write Like Freddy is a four-week (four video modules) guest blogging training program from Danny Iny that teaches you every step involved with writing killer blog posts and guest posting on big name blogs.  For someone who requests and publishes lots of guest posts, I receive multiple emails a day from people pitching guest posts exactly how they shouldn’t.

Most pitches I receive are unprofessional.  They lack personalization, writing samples, or a brief outline of what the post will include, and they rarely give me the impression the person doing the pitching has legitimate expertise on the topic.

How can you expect your guest posts to be accepted if this is how you’re approaching bloggers?

If you pitch guest posts frequently, but rarely hear back from the blogger, there are two major problems you’re likely facing:

• You’re targeting the wrong blogs, which means you’re targeting the wrong readers.

• Your pitch email isn’t structured “correctly.”

These aren’t absurdly difficult problems to overcome, but they’re bottlenecks in the guest posting process that will definitely hold you back if left alone.

What Does Write Like Freddy Bring to the Table?

Fortunately, Write Like Freddy blows the above two problems out of the water.

Here’s the thing: Write Like Freddy is much more than blogging training and Danny Iny is more than a blogger; Write Like Freddy is marketing training and Danny is an outstanding marketer.

So, if you need help determining who your target reader is or you need help selling both yourself and your blog to big name bloggers, you’re going to get that training in Write Like Freddy.  If you need help figuring out how to pitch your posts so they’re accepted 99.9% of the time (even if you don’t have a prior relationship with the blogger, Write Like Freddy is for you.

You’re going to be doing quite a bit of marketing strategy and planning for your blog before you get into pitching and writing posts, but that strategy and planning is a crucial part of growing a blog.

Write Like Freddy teaches the following and much more:

• Gaining a solid understanding of your niche and using creative methods to hone in on your target reader.

• What the three criteria are for deciding whether to post on a blog, or whether you’re better off not wasting your time

• How to pitch guest post ideas in a way that is almost guaranteed to get accepted (an email template is included in the training).

• How to outline an entire post in less than 10 minutes (this is the same process Danny uses to write all of his posts).

• How to structure and write blog posts that get read once the pitch has been accepted.

• What you should do after the guest post has been published.  How should you promote the post?  Should you stick around and handle comments on the post?  How can you use this opportunity to build a long-lasting relationship with the blogger and have easy access to guest post there again in the future?

The real beauty of Write Like Freddy is, with a few minor tweaks, the strategy Danny teaches can be applied to almost every single niche.  Plainly put, if there are other bloggers with decent sized reader bases in your niche, then you can adopt the Write Like Freddy approach and get tangible results within just a few months.

That’s exactly what I did.

How I Got Involved with Write Like Freddy

I first learned about Write Like Freddy from a webinar hosted by Danny.  I’m very good about keeping my credit card in my wallet at the end of webinars, and this time was no different…initially.  As the webinar was ending, Danny was explaining Write Like Freddy and I was interested, but I kept myself from making that impulse purchase.

Like I said earlier, though, Danny is an outstanding marketer.

I spent the next two days thinking about how My Social Game Plan wasn’t growing as fast as I planned and I kept asking myself: “What if the Write Like Freddy strategy Danny introduced worked for me?  Wouldn’t it be really cool if it worked and I finally started seeing big traffic and subscriber increases?”

After two days of driving myself crazy with “what if,” I sucked it up and joined Write Like Freddy.  I don’t regret it in the slightest.

My Success with Write Like Freddy So Far

I initially started following the Write Like Freddy approach by guest posting on business and marketing blogs like Business2Community and Social Media Today.  Every single time I published a new guest post, my traffic multiplied and I had people subscribing to My Social Game Plan more than ever.

I continued guest posting on various other blogs, mostly those on the “smaller” end.  As expected, my traffic continued to increase, subscribers continued to flow in, I was getting way more shares via social media, and I started to really see some life in My Social Game Plan.

I started devoting more and more time to guest posting around November 2012 and, as you can see in the image below (click to enlarge), my traffic has increased significantly since then.

In early March, I decided to step back from the smaller blogs and went after one of the “big dogs,” because I was confident the Write Like Freddy strategy worked.  So, I pitched a guest post idea to Jeff Bullas and awesomeness ensued.

Using exactly what I was taught, I pitched a post for Jeff Bullas’ blog, got accepted, wrote the post, and had it published — all within 24 hours.  As of writing this, my post on JeffBullas.com has gotten over 1,000 retweets and hundreds of LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+ shares.

That’s the Write Like Freddy training in practice.

Will You Join Me in Write Like Freddy?

With all that said, I think it’s clear guest posting is a key ingredient to growing blogs in most niches and I genuinely believe the results provided by the Write Like Freddy method will blow you away.

If you think your blog could benefit from more guest posting (it can, trust me), then I highly encourage you to give Write Like Freddy a chance.

To give a brief summary of everything you’ll receive in the training:

• The best guest blogging training, which will walk you through every step in the process including choosing a target blog, coming up with a post idea, writing an epic post, and finally promoting the post and building relationships with others in your niche.

• An avenue to more traffic, more subscribers, more social media connections, and more authority in your niche.

• Outstanding marketing training from a proven digital marketer, Danny Iny.

• An invitation to the Write Like Freddy private Facebook group, where Write Like Freddy members provide support for each other, discuss guest blogging, and share each other’s guest posts.

• Close access to Danny to ask questions and get great advice.

What’s the Price?

The entire training course is priced at $137 and, while that may seem like a lot of money to some, there is a 100% money back guarantee within the first two weeks.  If you’re not happy, cancel — no questions asked.

It’s also worth noting that price is much lower than similar training programs, often times priced at $300 – 500 for essentially the same product and results.

If you’re on board and want to give Write Like Freddy a try, click here or click the banner just below.  If you have any questions or are hesitant for any reason, please send me an email with your concerns.

If you know any other bloggers who are struggling trying to grow their blogs, please share this post with them.  I truly believe they’ll thank you.

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While engagement isn’t exactly the purpose of social media, it’s certainly an important ingredient for achieving results and impacting the bottom line.

With so many people and businesses flooding social media with their messages, breaking through the noise and getting people to genuinely engage you in conversation can be a daunting task.

It doesn’t have to be though!

Below are five key steps to engaging people with social media and expanding the scope of your business.

1.  Know Your Audience

Imagine you were offered a speaking opportunity at a national convention, but the person who extended this offer didn’t give you any information about the people attending.  How could you deliver an effective presentation to a crowd you know absolutely nothing about?  You’d be on stage yapping about topics that apply to the restaurant industry and it turns out your audience is composed of people in the medical and healthcare industry.  That’s a big waste of everyone’s time.

Pinpointing your audience well is perhaps the most important step to any marketing effort, yet so many people seem to skip this part of the process.  To engage your audience you must first know who they are for the simple reason that your approach should evolve based on who your message is intended to reach.

Obviously, demographics are important, but taking this a step further: what are the psychographics of your target audience?

• What beliefs and values are held by your audience?

• Do they fall into a specific social class?

• How would you characterize their buying habits?

• What are their perceptions of your brand relative to your competitors’ brands?

• Who do they go to for recommendations or approval in the process of making a purchase?

That’s just a start!  If you haven’t created a customer profile — a clear picture of your customer based on demographics and psychographics — for your business, it’s better that you do so before jumping into social media.

2.  Maintain Brand Consistency

At the end of the day, branding comes down to each and every minor experience a customer has with your business — every advertisement, every customer service interaction, every visit to your store, and so on.  You obviously want those experiences to be positive, because that leads to brand loyalty, which greatly contributes to brand equity (the key to customer retention and word-of-mouth referrals).

Consistency is just as imperative on social media as it is offline.  Obviously, you’ll want to make sure your social media accounts are branded with recognizable logos and information so people can easily verify they’re official.  Beyond that, your offline and online messages should be aligned, because there are few things worse than being unable to honor something a customer claims they saw online.

3.  Narrow Your Focus

There are tons of social media channels available and trying to choose which networks your company should tackle can be overwhelming. The most important consideration you can make takes us back to #1 above — know your audience.  If your audience isn’t on Pinterest or Instagram, then there’s no reason for you to be there.

I would recommend you stick with two to three to avoid spreading yourself too thin. You’re much better off having a very active, strong presence on few social channels rather than a mediocre presence on five or six.

4.  Encourage and Participate in Conversations

You can broadcast on social media until you’re blue in the face, but it’s extremely unlikely to bring the results you want.  Effective social media marketing requires conversing and conversing requires a balance between talking and listening.

Engaging your audience is all about creating conversations, as well as getting involved in the conversations already taking place.  Create conversations by positioning yourself as an authority within your niche or industry, then start producing unique, helpful content for others.

If you don’t have the time or resources to create conversations using content marketing, getting involved in conversations that are already happening is a worthy effort.  Seek out popular Twitter chats in your niche, get involved with group Pinterest boards, find active LinkedIn and Facebook groups, regularly leave great comments on popular blogs, and reach out to social media influencers in your industry via Twitter or Google+.

5.  Reciprocate

Reciprocation is vital in social media, but that doesn’t necessarily mean reciprocating is always appropriate. You don’t have to follow every single person who interacts with you on Twitter or Pinterest (I would recommend you don’t), but you should make an effort to follow other users who complement your business or would help grow your network.  Social media is about give and take, but other users will figure out quickly if you’re participating only as a taker.

Patience, Consistency, and Focus

If you’re business has only recently incorporated social media into the overall marketing plan, things can seem a little clunky at first.  Give yourself time to get into the swing of things.  Learn the etiquette of each venue to ensure you don’t turn off potential customers. As you go along, make time to learn from other small businesses that have found success with social media marketing by following a few in your field.

Your social media marketing efforts will produce steady results when performed with consistency and with an eye on your audience.  Social media comes with a huge learning curve, but approach that as an opportunity rather than a detriment, and take advantage of every learning opportunity to enjoy the best possible results for your marketing efforts.

About The Author:  Lucy Harper works for TouchpointDigital.co.uk, an Internet marketing company & digital advertising agency focusing on digital communication requirements for businesses. Visit us to find out more about our social media management services or take a read of our blog for more about increasing your online sales.

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Nonetheless, it’s important to stay current with what’s going on in the digital marketing world and there’s no better way than to spend some time reading what others are writing.

My Google Reader is overflowing with amazing content and I could probably mention dozens of great blogs with ease, but here are seven from proven digital marketers that I would recommend you add to your RSS feed immediately.

1)  {grow} from Mark Schaefer

When it comes to credentials in the social media world, it’s hard to find anyone who outdoes Mark Schaefer — Forbes “Power 50″ social media influencers of the world, AdAge magazine “Power 150″ marketing blogger, author of two best-selling marketing books (The Tao of Twitter and Return on Influencer)…the list goes on and on.

Needless to say, he understands the landscape and always provides unique marketing insights that most others don’t catch.  {grow} is always worth a read!

2)  Convince and Convert from Jay Baer

Having read Baer’s book, The NOW Revolution, I’m of the opinion there’s no one who better understands how digital marketing is forcing and allowing businesses to become more efficient, effective, and versatile.

Convince and Convert is constantly bringing the top-notch kind of content that very, very few other blogs publish with as much consistency.  Not only does Jay walk the walk, he talks the talk as the lead social media and content strategy consultant at Convince and Convert.  Definitely someone worth following!

3)  Virante Orange Juice from Mark Traphagen

I like to call Mark Traphagen the King of Google+.  I’ve yet to meet someone who grasps all the details and inner workings of Google+ as well as Mark does.  Virante Orange Juice is always bubbling with fantastic posts showing readers how they can get the most out of Google+.

For those who still have doubts about the importance of Google+ from a business standpoint, as well as a content marketing standpoint, this blog is for you.

4)  Windmill Networking from Neal Schaffer

Neal Schaffer might be the closest person to Mark Schaefer (and I can’t be the only person who thinks there’s some kind of conspiracy going on with the similarity between last names — joking!).  As a Forbes Top 30 Social Media Power Influencer, you can be sure Neal is bringing value to the table.

The Windmill Networking blog is never short on quality content from Neal and a myriad of guest bloggers — Joe Ruiz, Rebekah Radice, and Bob Geller to name a few.  If you want to truly understand what being a social business means, as well as pick up some solid social media marketing strategy, Windmill Networking is your blog.

5)  Inbound Marketing Agents from Jasmine Henry

I’ve got to give a shout out to Inbound Marketing Agents, because they’ve been very good to me lately!  We recently had Jasmine Henry on our blog writing about Vine and that led to me checking out Inbound Marketing Agents.

They have an explosion of flavorful content that spans the entirety of social media marketing and, from what I can tell, they do some quality marketing work out of Nashville.

6)  SteamFeed from Daniel Hebert and DJ Thistle

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a blog or community take off as fast as SteamFeed has done.  I met Daniel Hebert through My Social Game Plan’s Facebook Group shortly before he and DJ were set to launch SteamFeed.  Out of nowhere, the site flew up and I started constantly seeing “via @SteamFeedcom” in my Twitter timeline.

They have an outstanding lineup of bloggers who push out a ton of great content on a daily basis.  If you’re looking for a blog with a thriving, growing community, I would definitely recommend taking a step into SteamFeed.

7)  Jon Loomer from Jon Loomer (duh!)

If Mark Traphagen is the King of Google+, Jon Loomer may be the King of Facebook.  I honestly never thought a blog could be solely devoted to Facebook marketing strategy, but Jon Loomer has taken that niche and made himself an authority.

If you’re struggling to understand Facebook as a marketing channel, Jon’s blog is a must-read.  Even as someone who considers himself to have a solid grasp of Facebook marketing, I constantly find myself learning something new from Jon’s blog.

What Blogs Would You Add to the List?

Seven isn’t nearly enough.  I know you all follow a lot of incredible blogs I didn’t include on this list, and I want to know what those blogs are!  Please share your favorite, must-follow social media and digital marketing blogs in the comments.

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Let’s put it this way: poor web design and functionality?  Then the back button is getting clicked immediately and your product is out of that potential customer’s consideration set.  Yep, it happens that fast.

Great web design assures every online visitor they’re about to have an enjoyable experience the moment he or she lands on the site. When done correctly, it leads the visitor out of the unknown and into the known, providing knowledge about and access to a solution that meets their needs.

A quality web design should lead visitors exactly where they need to go.  It’s imperative the design offers every visitor specific actions to take before leaving the website, whether that’s making a purchase, filling out a lead generation form, subscribing, or making a phone call.

While designing a business website or blog can be a very complex process, here are five key considerations to always keep in mind.

1.  Web Design Shouldn’t Be an Urgent Process

When developing a company website, the quality and creativity of the design needs to be the highest priority.  Don’t rush the process.  Deeply contemplate how and why your target market will be visiting your website.  Are they primarily visiting from a desktop or mobile device?  Is your product’s purchasing process characterized by high-involvement or low-involvement decisions? Are customers seeking information or seeking to make a quick purchase?

Your website is, at the core, a marketing tool that represents your brand.  If quality is lacking or it doesn’t hit your target audience, it could very easily reflect negatively on your brand as a whole.  Taking the time to develop a quality, creative, and targeted website will do wonders for your business.

2.  Too Busy with Too Much Content

A lot of businesses, especially small businesses, believe their website needs as much content as can possibly fit.  This isn’t the case at all.  When someone lands on the home page, they should view only a specific, direct amount of pertinent information.  More choice isn’t necessarily better and receiving too much data at once can instantly diminish the quality of the design.

The design should focus on a minimal amount of information located on the home page, delivering only the most primary content about how your business will solve that potential customer’s needs.

Every page on your website should have a clear purpose and a call-to-action.  Are you trying to convert visitors to subscribers or driving them to call to your office?  Make that obvious and give people an incentive, such as a free informational eBook or a free one-on-one phone session with a consultant.  Are you trying to get more people to read through your website or visit your blog?  Include relevant, internal links to other content on your site.

In general, less is more.  Remember who you’re targeting and what course of action you want them to take, then provide a path and incentive to pull them in that direction.

3.  A Few Seconds Makes All the Difference

How long do you have to capture a visitor’s attention when they land on your website?  Consider yourself very lucky if someone sticks around for 10 seconds without finding what they’re looking for.

This short attention span is exactly why too much content on any single page can be a detriment.  The design must immediately grab the visitor’s attention and convey that you have the solution to their needs.  Grabbing the attention of your visitor comes down to the details: headings, subheadings, color, a good balance of static information and interactive multimedia, and so on.

Check out the video blow for a breakdown on how to grab attention and quickly convey your site’s purpose to visitors.

4.  From Blueprint to Computer Screen: Designing the Website

The most significant problem every company faces when designing their website is figuring out where to start.  Before the website design can begin, it’s important to understand exactly what platform the site will be built on.  Most professional web developers use extensive coding, HTML and PHP, along with CSS programming, to create the exact style and design the company requires.  However, this isn’t necessarily the only option.

In 2003, WordPress brought an incredible blogging platform to the Internet. Since then, it has been used by many companies as a way to generate beautiful web pages, as well as blogging sites.  WordPress offers extensive add-ons and plug-ins that, to a degree, circumvent the extensive coding process, allowing companies to more quickly build a site that functions exactly the way they need.

Additionally, third-party vendors have created thousands of professional style, pre-designed WordPress themes that can be downloaded and immediately put to good use.  Most of these themes (templates) offer a variety of layouts and designs, as well as simple customization options even the layperson can handle.

A small word of caution here: WordPress is an amazing platform and, on many levels, very simplistic even for non-web designers.  However, it’s in your best interests to avoid the DIY mentality when it comes to web design and always have your website professionally designed if possible.

5.  Attracting a Larger Audience

The adage, “if you build it they will come,” is absolutely not true on the Internet.  Actually, I’m not sure it’s true anywhere in the universe!  With billions of web pages and every competitor having a website, it takes a proven online marketing strategy to maximize the number of visitors to your website.

There are three major ingredients in an online marketing strategy, all of which are interrelated:

• Search engine optimization.

• Unique, quality content generated via a blog.

• A social media presence on networks where your target market is active.

It’s likely you’ll need to hire an experienced professional to manage your search engine optimization initiatives.  However, both your blog and social media channels should be managed in-house as much as possible.  If you don’t have anyone on staff who is experienced with digital marketing, temporarily outsourcing to a digital marketing agency may be your best option.  Be sure to consider the pros and cons of outsourcing social media management if you take this path.

The Internet as a Battle Ground

In this business world, the Internet is a battle ground where quality, consistency, clarity, and strategy are everything.  From layout and content, to blogging, social media, and search engine optimization, a properly designed website is your ticket to a more successful, profitable, and accessible business.

If you know someone who’s designing a website or blog, forward this post over to them and ask how they feel about this list!

About the Author:  Anny Solway is a dedicated writer at ThemeFuse – a web studio that creates original WordPress templates, which can be used straight out of the box.  She loves to share blogging and technology tips.

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Founded in 2012, Will Russell Marketing assists brands in the safety and security industry by elevating their online presence and integrating online initiatives into their business strategy to drive increased business success.

Below, Will discusses his background, offers a handful of golden marketing tips, and provides his opinions on the overall landscape of the social media industry.

1.  Where did your interest in social media marketing originate, how has it developed and what role does it play in your professional life now?

My first foray into social media marketing was back in 2009, when I was provided a lot of freedom to explore new initiatives and growth opportunities for the company I was working for.

What I loved most about social media was that everyone, whatever their age and business experience, was basically on a level playing field. It was so new that there were no paths forged and very few universal best practices – I could be creative, test my own theories and create my own path.

Now, social media marketing is just one of the ways I assist clients through my consultancy. I primarily try to teach clients how to integrate social media into their business plans, as well as assisting with campaign implementation when necessary.

2.  Who do you read, follow or pay attention to in order to stay ahead of the curve in social media?

Jay Baer, Darren Rowse, and Jeremiah Owyang are three individuals in the industry who I really admire and follow closely.  They offer fresh ideas, truly valuable information, and fantastic insight.

3.  What do you believe to be the biggest misconception some businesses still have with social media?

That it’s a “plug and play” situation. Even now, I see a lot of business owners watching other, big brands attain success and think all they need to do is set up a Facebook Fan page and they will see the same results.

The reality is that it takes time, it takes an approach unique to your business, and it takes a lot of hard work.

4.  A lot of businesses steer clear of social media due to the potential ramifications of making a mistake in such a public environment. What would your response be to that concern?

Everyone makes mistakes. I do, you do, we all do. And social media channels can be unforgiving places. But remember: today’s front page news is tomorrow’s garbage, and mistakes will be forgotten.

Don’t be afraid of making a mistake, just make sure you’re prepared for it and ensure that, when you eventually do make that mistake (and I promise you, you will), you learn from it.

5.  With the rapid evolution of Internet marketing, are offline marketing channels now a waste of time? Or is it all still valuable?

It is absolutely all still valuable, if the channel suits your specific needs.  The Internet may mean that offline marketing is no longer a necessity for all businesses, but it can be a fantastic tool in your tool kit.  Many would suggest nothing can replace the face-to-face networking achievable at trade shows, conferences, or offline events.

6.  How have you integrated social media effectively into your (or your clients’) business strategies? How are you proving a return on investment?

This answer could be an essay in itself, so let’s just get very basic: I try not to think as social media as any different to the other marketing opportunities available to me.

I have a list of goals to achieve and I set out a plan to reach those goals. If I think that social media can be used to help get there, then it is included in the strategy. Over time, if you have the right strategy in place you should be in a position where it’s relatively easy to show ROI. The tricky part is persuading business owners that it’s not an overnight process.

7.  What sort of marketing advice would you give to a person who said that their business simply does not fit with social media?

I would ask them to break social media down into its individual components, and evaluate each one individually. While I agree that not every business needs to be on Facebook, Twitter etc.,  I think that at a base level, some form of social media can help everyone. Businesses just need to work out which piece of the puzzle fits for them.

8.  If you had to give up all but one social network, which one would you keep and why?

From a personal standpoint, I think I would probably keep Twitter, purely because what I get from it is irreplaceable.  I find it such a valuable platform for discussion, learning from others, and keeping on top of trends.

From a business perspective, I’ve seen the most success from Facebook, so it would be really tough to lose that. A lot of people are very critical of Facebook and its use as a business tool, but I’m a faithful supporter.

9.  How do you deal with the 24/7 aspect of social media marketing? Do you ever step away from it all and recharge?

I try! I’m a firm believer in maintaining a balance in life, and there is certainly more to life than social media, the internet and work. If I decide I want to switch off for a weekend, then I have no qualms in doing just that. It may mean I have a longer to-do list when I return, but that’s something I’m fine with.

Having said that, I will rarely go more than 48 hours without logging in on social platforms to at least check on and talk with close friends and family. I’m trying to recall the last time I went for longer than that…and I can’t.

10.  One of the most exciting aspects of social media is that it’s always changing, evolving and progressing. What changes do you expect to see in social media over the next 12 months?

I think the biggest developments we’ll see go well beyond its use by businesses, and instead relate to how we as a society adapt to these new communication tools. You only need to look at SOPA, the Aaron Swartz tragedy or the number of young people suffering at the hands of cyber-bullies to see that we don’t yet understand how to manage the opportunity and implications that exist through the rapid development of these new mediums.

Governments need to understand and societal frameworks need to adapt.  That is what I think will be the next big evolution in this space.

About Will Russell

Check out Will’s social media blog and connect with Will Russell Marketing on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

What is #SMPro?

#SMPro, in affiliation with My Social Game Plan, is a group of professional social media and digital marketers who have made a simple agreement to support, assist and promote each other via social media.  With member backgrounds spanning the marketing industry and beyond, #SMPro has become a vibrant, engaging environment where questions are answered, hot topics are discussed, and everyone is always learning and helping each other reach that next level.

If you’re interested in joining the #SMPro group, check out the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

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Anyone who’s managed multiple Twitter accounts for clients knows the job is incredibly labor-intensive.  Between finding or creating great content to share, optimizing tweets to maximize clickthroughs, and setting up sharing schedules, time goes right out the window.  It’s no wonder businesses look to outsource this work so frequently.  Neglecting automation plainly limits your ability to engage followers as often as you should.  Essentially, it limits your ability to do what is best for your clients and that’s an avoidable lose-lose scenario.

To emphasize, automation isn’t an excuse to ignore your Twitter account.  The purpose of automating tweets is to free up time for engaging your followers — responding to their tweets, driving conversations, and thanking those who retweet you.

So, let’s make at least one aspect of social media management — Twitter — a bit less time-consuming by using three free, simple tools: Google Reader, Buffer, and IFTTT.  Deal?

Setting Up Your Content Curating Machine

If you’re not a big user of RSS (video explanation), it’s something you need to jump on right now.  For this guide, I’ll be using Google Reader, because it directly integrates with IFTTT.

After you set up your Google Reader account , visit a few blogs where you frequently get content to share on Twitter.  Most blogs will have an RSS subscription icon or you can simply copy and paste the blog’s URL into Google Reader as the image below shows.

Copy and paste the blog’s address into Google Reader to subscribe.

You’ll want to place all the RSS feeds you subscribe to in a single Google Reader folder.  I’ll explain why shortly.  Once you’ve subscribed to some of your favorite blogs, you should have something that looks similar to the following.

Setting Up a Tweet Schedule with Buffer

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of Buffer (referral link).  With Buffer, you can schedule specific days of the week and times you want to tweet, then sit back and let Buffer do the work.  For example, here’s a portion of my tweet schedule in Buffer.

After you’ve set up your tweet schedule in Buffer, jump to the next step.

Tying Up Loose Ends with IFTTT

Here’s the moment of truth!  Now that you have the content ready and the tweet schedule set, the only thing left is to automate the process.

Let me first explain what IFTTT is.  IFTTT stands for “IF THIS, THEN THAT” and it works much like a standard IF statement if you’ve ever used functions in Excel.  Essentially, we’re setting up a formula that says: if X is true, then do Y.

For our situation, we need IFTTT to pull content from the blogs you subscribed to in Google Reader, then send that content to Buffer where you’ve already set up a tweet schedule.  Buffer will then send out tweets at the designated times.

Let’s do it!

Sign up or log in to IFTTT first.  When you get to the Dashboard, click “Create” at the top of the screen, then click the blue “this” on the following page.  You should see a group of icons like so.

Look through that list and click the Google Reader icon to get to step 2.

Click the box on the right for “New item tagged” and move to step 3.

This is why we placed all the RSS subscriptions into a single folder earlier in the post.  Type the name of the folder from Google Reader into the box and click “Create Trigger,” then click “that” on the next step.

You’ll see another group of icons much like you did earlier.  This time, select the icon for Buffer.

Click the box on the left for “Add to Buffer.”

In this step, you can tweak how your tweets will be constructed.  The default option shown pulls the post title from the blogs you subscribed to, then pulls the related link to that post.  You can add a hashtag here as well, but keep in mind this hashtag will be applied to every tweet scheduled with this automation.

Once you’ve settled the details of how you want your tweets constructed, click “Create Action” and you’ll be taken to the final step of the process where you can add a description to your IFTTT recipe.  Finally, click “Create Recipe” and you’re done!

Is This a Set It and Forget It Thing?

Absolutely not!

Automation is extremely useful and convenient, but it doesn’t mean you get to neglect the content your tweeting.  You should frequently glance at your Buffer account to make sure the scheduled content is worth tweeting.  And, as was emphasized at the beginning of the post, automation is a reason to get even more engaged with your followers, because now you have a lot more time to do so.

Your Thoughts on Automation

What do you think about automating social media?  Do you use any specific methods or tools to automate your social media updates?  If you know someone who has time management problems with social media, be a good friend and share this post with them.

Leave me a message in the comments if you run into any problems setting up this process.  I’m happy to help!

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While Twitter was built on a platform of simplicity, it’s by no means an easy marketing tool to grasp.  A few misconceptions about how to use Twitter can land your business in a minefield of negativity and bad PR.

For that reason alone, it’s important to be aware of the fundamental “rules” of Twitter etiquette before you dive in.  If your brand is already on Twitter, these do’s and don’ts will serve as a handy checklist to ensure your behavior isn’t putting off customers.

1)  Do: Listen, Listen, Listen

You have two ears and one mouth for a reason.

Have you ever been to a party with “that guy” who just won’t stop talking?  Even when you try to give your input, he cuts you off or talks over you.  Think about how annoying, rude, and off-putting that behavior is. You don’t want to be “that guy” on Twitter or any social network for that matter.

Twitter is a medium where you can push your brand into the open, but that pushing absolutely has limitations and they’re quite low.  Beyond avoiding being annoying,   Dave Kerpen of Likeable Media told a great story that perfectly highlighted why social listening is superior to constantly pushing your message.

2)  Do: Engage Followers (Strategically)

Twitter is a fantastic way to interact with customers, whether past, current, or future. From a business perspective, while engagement may not necessarily be the best end goal, it is an important piece of the “social media ROI pie” that shouldn’t be ignored

So, engagement is key, but is there right and wrong way to go about this on Twitter?  Perhaps.

Your primary focus should be engaging people who are members of your target market.  For the same reasons you wouldn’t waste time in your office talking to random people on the phone, you shouldn’t waste time talking to random people on Twitter either.  That’s not to say you should be rude and ignore people, but it is to say you should mostly seek interaction from people who have an unfulfilled need your business is capable of fulfilling.

3)  Don’t: Relentlessly Promote Yourself

Consumers don’t want to be talked at.  They want to be treated like people, not numbers.  They want to be viewed as humans with needs and emotions.  They want to be listened to.  And then they want to be presented with a solution that fills a need gap in their life.

If your Twitter timeline consists almost entirely of you yelling about how incredible your business is, you’re doing it wrong.  Give first, then you can expect to receive.

4)  Do: Frequently Tweet Different Types of Content

There’s nothing more damaging to a Twitter presence than monotony.  Sharing links to blog posts is worthwhile, but frequently changing the types of content you tweet will keep your followers much more engaged.  With visual content playing a huge role in social media today, it’s imperative that you integrate videos, Instagram, Vine, and other rich content into your tweets.

5)  Don’t: Make Long Tweets or Overuse Hashtags

If your message is too long to fit into 140 characters, it’s probably too long for Twitter.  Ideally, you should never use all 140 characters, as you decrease the likelihood of people clicking through your tweets.

Hashtags can be a useful tool, but use them sparingly.  Regularly including three or more hashtags in your tweets means people will probably start overlooking them, because they tend to look like spam and are harder to read quickly.

6)  Do: Provide Feedback and Redirect for Customer Service

Obviously, you’re on Twitter to better connect with your customers, so always take advantage of the opportunity to monitor feedback about your business.  Twitter is interactive and people expect a certain level of communication between themselves and the organizations they follow.  Like #1 earlier in the post emphasized, seek to first listen, then respond.

When it comes to customer service on social media, there are a few reasons you typically want to encourage the customer to move the issue offline when possible (especially if the situation is negative):

• One, your brand’s reputation is at risk if you keep the issue in the open for everyone to see.  One slight misstep can lead to an unnecessary PR disaster.

• Two, competitors can easily swoop in and attempt to offer your displeased customer a better solution.

• Three, the limit of 140 characters on Twitter often makes clearly conveying your position and solution to the problem more difficult than by email or phone.

Redirecting customer service issues from Twitter to a dedicated email address or phone number is your best bet.  Of course, this may not always be possible, so you’ll have to adapt to the limitations of solving customer issues on Twitter in some cases.

7)  Don’t: Send Automated Direct Messages (DMs) to Everyone

In 2013, you’d think the issue of automated direct messages wouldn’t be common practice.  After all the emphasis that has been placed on engagement and humanizing social media, use of auto DMs still seems to be an epidemic.

Sending an identical message to every single person who follows you is the opposite of engagement.  It’s annoying.  It’s spam.  It immediately leaves a bad taste in peoples’ mouths.  It ruins the usefulness of DMs that Twitter likely initially envisioned.

Don’t do it.

8)  Don’t: Be Private

Twitter is all about sharing information and transparency.  Showing off your business practices or behind-the-scenes activities can create a captivating experience for your audience.  If you’re launching a new campaign or product soon, drop hints every once in a while to build awareness and excitement.  Let people know what’s going on in the office from time to time.  Bring other employees into the mix and humanize your business.

Give people a chance to see the “why” behind your business, because that’s ultimately the reason they’ll choose you over a competitor.

9)  Do: Have Fun

Twitter doesn’t have to be all business, all the time.  This ties in closely with the previous point: consumers enjoy businesses that have a sense of humor and can poke fun at themselves.  A great example is the brief funny battle between Old Spice and Taco Bell, which brought both brands lots of attention on Twitter.

@oldspice Is your deodorant made with really old spices?

— TACO BELL (@TacoBell) July 9, 2012

10)  Don’t: Neglect Those Who Help You

If someone retweets you, shares your content, or says something great about your business, never hesitate to thank them and return the favor.  These people are your biggest champions and the key to your social media success.  Always make an effort to put them on a pedestal.  Make them feel special and you’re sure to build loyalty.

What Rules of Twitter Etiquette Would You Include?

This definitely isn’t a comprehensive list, so let me know what Twitter etiquette rules would you include in the comments.  If you know someone who recently started a Twitter account, whether for personal or business use, share this post with them and save them from making mistakes!

About The Author:  Sharon Greenwood works in the marketing and advertising arena. She reviews and writes about marketing companies like ParagonPromotions.com. In her free time she enjoys swimming and spending time with her 2 dogs, Betsy and Ralph.

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It was only matter of time before Twitter met users’ hunger for visual social media content. Following a year when Instagram grew dramatically (subsequently being acquired by Facebook for $1 billion) and Pinterest grew to attract 1,090 visitors a minute, Twitter’s January 24th launch of the Vine app hasn’t been a disappointment.

In fact, Vine has quickly become one of the hottest topics in social media marketing, leaving brands and consumers buzzing about ways to maximize the social experience using Vine’s six-second video clips.

Visual Content is White Hot

There’s an awful lot of evidence that you should include visual content in your social media strategy.  “Sometimes a picture says a thousand words and video says 50,000 words,” says Drew Smith, Director of Online Marketing at Attivio.  Research indicates that visuals are processed 60,000 times faster by the human brain than text.  85% of US online consumers view video content regularly. ”

There’s even a lot of evidence in support of the super brief, six-second format of Vine: Marketing blogger Jeff Bullas is a firm believer that the average attention span is much shorter than it was even a few years ago. When YouTube first became popular, the most viewed videos were an average of 2–3 minutes long.  Now?  Popular content is significantly shorter, sometimes no more than 15 seconds long.  Video abandonment tends to soar to 20% after 10 seconds.  By all expert accounts, Vine is perfectly engineered for the bite-sized appetite of the modern consumer.

With all that said, here are seven easy, fun ways you can make those six seconds count!

1. Showcase Your People and Processes

A 15-minute video of your CEO talking? That might get a little boring. A much shorter clip that showcases the people, animals, and events that make your team tick? That’s actually pretty fun and awesome. While we don’t recommend that you do it daily or even often, Vine is the perfect format to turn the spotlight on the people behind your product. It’s an outstanding way to give a brief glimpse into your brand’s personality.

2. How-To Tutorials

Can you showcase how to use your products in six seconds? We bet you can. In fact, Jeremy Cabalona of Mashable used the format to demonstrate how to make a microwaved brownie in a mug:

How to make a brownie in a mug #recipe #dessert #howto vine.co/v/b5l6hvWEm9d

— Jeremy Cabalona(@jeremycabo) January 26, 2013

3. Mystery Marketing

Brands who give their fans an opportunity to become detectives can win promoters for life. Mystery marketing is an effective way to build hype. You can’t reveal too much in six seconds, but sometimes giving just a hint can drive up your engagement. Even former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney has gotten involved, inviting his Twitter followers to guess a song based on six-second clips in his feed.

4. Spotlight User-Generated Content

Invite your followers to share their Vine clips of your product or venue.  The Four Seasons Hotel chain was one of the first to receive customer-generated content via Vine, which it shared.  Free visual content for the win!

5. Strut Your Stuff

It’s definitely possible to be too pushy on social media, but it’s a lot harder be terribly obnoxious with the Vine format (at least for now).  Use the mini-clips to showcase your brand’s latest development, whether it’s a new product, a happy customer, or an all-new website design!  Blogger Chris Brogan highlights the fact that Vine is the perfect format for giving your prospects a 3-D view of your product before they make the purchase.

6. Amplify One-on-One Engagement

Your fans love it when you engage with them.  Is there any way to make your fans feel extra warm and fuzzy than with a customized, six-second video?  Check out this fantastic response to a Twitter follower by Red Vines, an early adopter of Vine:

Yo @skatershayna. We’ll do you one better. #vine vine.co/v/b1Z9YDTa2WZ

— Red Vines (@RedVines) January 31, 2013

7. Embed Vine in Your Blog Content

See what I’ve been doing throughout this content?  Vine doesn’t need to be limited to your Twitter feed. In fact, you can and should embed the videos in your blog content. Marketing Sherpa research has found that blog content with video averages 100% longer views than simple text.  Plus, video content is three times more likely to attract inbound links than other types of blog content.

Share Your Ideas and Experiences

How have you been using Vine so far?  Have you seen any really unique uses from other brands?  Leave your thoughts in the comments!

About the Author: Jasmine Henry is a writer at Inbound Marketing Agents, where she blogs about social media, content marketing, and SEO. Connect with Jasmine on Twitter and check out her free eBook, The Twitter for Business Handbook.

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