Pin to Top – When you hover over the upper right corner of a post on your Facebook page and click the edit icon, there is a “Pin to Top” option. When you select this, it moves that post to the top of your page and keeps it there until you unpin it. Any subsequent posts that you add to your page will appear below your pinned post.

This can be really handy if you want to promote something that is time-sensitive such as a current promotion that you’re holding or an upcoming event.

Highlight – When you hover over the upper right corner of a post on your Facebook page, you’ll see a star icon called “Highlight.” Selecting this option will expand your post from a small box to a feature that spans across both columns. This is a nice way to draw attention to a specific post on your page. You can also highlight multiple posts and they will remain that way until you click the icon again to remove highlight. The highlight feature is also available for use on your personal Facebook profile.

Here’s how:

1. From your personal profile, click on the box below your photo that lists where you work.

2. In the Work and Education section, click on Edit.

3. Start typing in the name of your business page. Facebook should reveal a drop down menu where you can click to select your page.

4. You can also fill in your title, location, and description. Be sure to click Save Changes.

That’s it—you’re done! If only all social media updates were this easy!

Need some help with social media management? Check out our new social media marketing services at Authority Publishing!

Professional speaker San Francisco

Professional speaker California

Professional speaker leadership

Leadership consulting

Business consulting leadership

Business consultant leadership

Leadership consultant San Francisco

Leadership consulting California

If you are targeting a local audience, including the city name in your keyword strategy is vitally important. If you serve surrounding cities, it’s a good idea to include those as well. Even if you want to reach a global audience, including a key phrase for your location can be beneficial if clients may look for that information. For example, I recently landed a paid speaking engagement because the client was looking for a speaker in California and found my site. If I had omitted that information, I would have missed that opportunity.

For ideas on which keywords to use for your business, try Google’s free keyword tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. When you type in a keyword or phrase here, Google shows you related phrases and their popularity in searches. This can be valuable information for helping you understand what your customers are looking for. Also, key phrases that are wildly popular are going to be harder to compete with. You may want to focus on incorporating key phrases with slightly less popularity and more of a niche focus.

For example, the key phrase “life coach” receives over 368,000 searches per month while “career life coach” receives 6,600. If you’re a coach specializing in careers, there’s still plenty of search traffic for your specialty, and it will likely be easier to show up in the search engines if you focus on that less popular search phrase.

Keywords work best when they match the content on your web page. So when writing your web copy, it’s best to repeat the most important keyword phrase throughout the page two or three times. If you want your page to come up when someone searches for “Dallas massage therapist,” then there should be several mentions of Dallas massage therapist throughout the text on the page. Also, when possible, use the keyword phrase in the heading and/or first paragraph of text. Google may not crawl all the way down each page, so the first two paragraphs are prime real estate.

Of course, there is a caveat to all of this. The search engines will penalize you if you try to beat the system. So don’t bother repeating keywords dozens of times—they will view this as keyword stuffing and it could actually hurt your ranking or get your site removed from the search engine altogether. Google does care about keyword density. Good keyword density should add up to 4% to 7% of the content on the page, with 93% of the page for other content.

Ultimately, what you want to do is develop a keyword map for your entire site. Each page should have its own unique set of keywords, which allows you to maximize the potential search traffic. This strategy also means that a standard five-page website is rarely enough. Your business probably offers a good number of services. If you want to increase the chances of being found in the search engines for numerous sets of keywords, the best way to do that is with numerous pages—one describing each service.

This is an excerpt from the book: Own Your Niche: Hype-Free Internet Marketing Tactics to Establish Authority in Your Field and Promote Your Service-Based Business by Stephanie Chandler. Struggling to build your audience online? You need this book!

Before I launch into a discussion on search engine optimization (SEO), I want to mention some important points. First of all, I believe that blogging on a regular basis is the best SEO you can get. The more content you add to your site, the more relevant it becomes with Google and the more reasons you give Google to find you. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If you implement just one strategy from this post, it should be a blog.

Second, SEO is a hotly contested topic. You could speak to ten different SEO consultants and get ten different recommended strategies. I’ve decided to stick with the tried-and-true basics here—strategies that I have personally used so I know they work, and strategies that you can easily implement yourself.

SEO Basics

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is what you do to improve your website’s organic ranking with the search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.). Since around 70% of all internet searches are conducted with Google, it’s a good idea to focus on how Google ranks your site.

Google uses complex algorithms to determine a website’s relevance and its ranking when a search is conducted. This section covers basic SEO strategies that have proven to be effective for Google and the other major search engines. By implementing the strategies in this chapter, you should see a noticeable impact on the placement of your website pages in the search engines.

Why Text Matters

Google uses technology called spiders to “crawl” across web pages looking for patterns in the text. This is one of the ways it determines what a website offers and how it should be categorized. This is the most basic and perhaps the most important element in gaining better placement in the search engines. So when someone searches for “massage therapist in Seattle,” it is imperative that your site include this key phrase.

Every web page has a place to indicate the keywords, page title, and description. This information gets encoded in the page and is the first data that Google sees. When this data is absent or unfocused, it can hurt your site’s relevance with Google.

This is also one of the biggest errors I see on most websites. Without a keyword strategy to let the search engines know what services you offer and where your business is located, you can’t expect to achieve top placement in search results. There is simply too much competition out there vying for the top ten.

**Watch for a follow-up post on developing a keyword strategy.
This is an excerpt from the book: Own Your Niche: Hype-Free Internet Marketing Tactics to Establish Authority in Your Field and Promote Your Service-Based Business. Need more help marketing your business online? You’ll love this book!

Once you have your website up and running and a shopping cart system in place, the next step is to make sure your website does its job. Here are some tips to get your sales cranking:

• Make it easy for visitors to find your products and services. Easy site navigation is important, so make sure your primary product page is listed on the main navigation menu for your site.
• Cross-promote products throughout your site. For example, on your services web page, you might add an anchored link that says, “Purchase a Gift Certificate for Consulting Services.”
• List all of your products on a single shopping cart page along with separate anchored links to complete product descriptions on individual pages.
• Include real user testimonials (not the manufactured kind from friends and peers) throughout your site and on sales pages for maximum impact. Never underestimate the power of testimonials!
• Depending on your target audience, you may want to include a printable order form for people who don’t want to place orders online. Give them a way to mail and fax the order to you.
• Make sure your purchase process is simple and easy to use. Test it out by making a purchase yourself. Are there any steps missing? Is the information confusing?
• Set up a thank you page. When a customer completes an order with you, make sure they are returned to a thank you page. Industry reports indicate that the thank you page is a highly effective place to up-sell additional products. For example, the thank you page could say: “People who bought product ABC also rave about product XYZ. Click here to order XYZ at 25% off!”
• If you are promoting multiple services or products, put a “Featured Service” section on your home page or in the sidebar of all of your web pages. Change the offer each week or month to keep it fresh and interesting.

This is an excerpt from the new book: Own Your Niche: Hype-Free Internet Marketing Tactics to Establish Authority in Your Field and Promote Your Service-Based Business. Want to learn more about marketing online? Get the book!

For more business-focused groups, look to LinkedIn. Here you will find groups for human resources professionals (led by an HR trade association), chief information officers (led by CIO magazine), and nonfiction authors (led by yours truly). There are also alumni groups, groups based in specific locations, and all kinds of specialty niches.

Joining a group is just the first step. If you really want to build business connections, you must engage in the group. Participate in the community forum by answering questions asked by members. Also ask questions, share news and articles, and get involved. Each group on LinkedIn features a sidebar with “Top Influencers This Week,” showing the photo and name for each person who contributed the most content. Showing up here gives you visibility with active members and demonstrates your authority in the subject matter.

I recently responded to a question in the nonfiction authors network that I lead on LinkedIn. I simply gave some advice, which I do frequently. Another member followed my post with this:

Stephanie didn’t mention this herself, but you should know that her book Booked Up: How to Write, Publish, and Promote a Book to Grow Your Business is wonderful and has a lot of additional promotion ideas.

You can’t pay for that kind of marketing, and when you get involved in a community where the members are familiar with you and your work, this kind of thing happens all the time.

Also, if there’s more than one group focused on your topic, find out where you can make the most impact. It may be harder to make an impact on a group with 10,000+ members. A smaller group may actually have more advantages since it will be easier to stand out.

This post is an excerpt from Own Your Niche: Hype-Free Internet Marketing Tactics to Establish Authority in Your Field and Promote Your Service-Based Business by Stephanie Chandler.

Here’s how it works:

1. Dig in to your blog archives and re-post them. That’s right; I’m suggesting that you re-post old blog content. People don’t care how old it is as long as it is still relevant. And when you share a compelling blog title and link back to your site, you generate traffic to your site, comments on your blog, new Twitter followers, and you begin to spin social media gold.

2. Repeat your tweets. Keep in mind that not everyone looks at Twitter at the same time so a large percentage of your audience never sees your latest tweet. To remedy this, schedule each new tweet to re-post several times. I use http://hootsuite.com to schedule posts and keep track of them with this free Twitter schedule. For new content, I schedule a tweet to go out immediately, schedule it again the next day, the next week, the week after that, and then every other week for up to three months. Yes, really!

3. Increase tweet frequency. When I began using Twitter I tweeted a few times each day and got mediocre results. But eventually I started retweeting posts, sharing old content, and increasing my frequency. Today I schedule posts to go out once an hour during peak business hours and on weekends. I also have tweets going out around the clock. This change in strategy has made a huge difference in the amount of retweets I get and traffic to my site.

4. WordPress users can automate some tweets. One of my favorite WordPress plug-ins is Tweet Old Post. This fantastic freebie allows you to set parameters and automatically tweet your old content, dating back several years if you like. You can also exclude specific categories or posts and can decide at what interval you want to tweet out your old content. If you’re using WordPress and have a lot of blog content, this plug-in is a must-have.

Give this strategy a try and start increasing the amount of content you share on Twitter. You can and should still engage with your audience directly, but by sharing more information on a consistent basis, you can actually build audience loyalty and become a resource for your followers.

Last year I launched a Nonfiction Authors Network on LinkedIn. While there were some writing and publishing groups already operating, nobody was focused on nonfiction authors. I saw an opportunity and took it! The group grew quickly and today we have over 1,300 members and an active discussion board. Not bad for something that requires less than an hour per week of my time.

Here’s how you can start your own LinkedIn group:

1. Choose a Niche Topic – Before you start a group, search through existing groups to make sure you have a unique idea. If similar groups already exist, see what they are lacking. If the groups are small, then your opportunity is probably greater than if they are large. You’ll have an easier chance of success if your focus is on a largely untapped niche and meet a need for your target audience.

2. Create Your Group – Login to LinkedIn and under Groups, select Create Group. Give your group a clear and compelling title. Have a logo created. Write policies for how you want members to engage in your group. Take it seriously and set it up for success.

3. Send Invitations – LinkedIn makes it easy to invite your contacts to participate in the group and you should do so immediately. Give your friends a nudge and ask them to help you get the activity moving.

4. Ask Members to Introduce Themselves – Your first post should be an invitation for introductions. This is an ideal ice breaker to get the conversations started.

5. Ask Additional Questions – You might ask members to share their social media links, comment on an industry trend or news, or share their experiences. Log in daily to post questions until you start getting activity from members. It shouldn’t take long to increase activity if your membership is growing.

6. Share Relevant Information – If you come across an interesting news story or article, share it with the group.

7. Lead By Example – Ask compelling questions, answer member questions, and engage with humor and style. When you show others how it’s done, it will be easier for them to participate.

8. Cross Promote – Make sure to let all of your networks know about your group. Share a link to the group via your other social media outlets, on your website, in your newsletter, email signature, etc. Promotion should be an ongoing effort.

9. Ask Members to Invite Friends – Sometimes all you have to do is ask!

10. Keep the Momentum Going – If things slow down or are slow to start, ask friends and peers to help by sharing their questions and resources. Sometimes just two or three people can make a big difference.

11. Check in Daily – Managing your group doesn’t need to be a major time-consuming undertaking, though you should have a daily presence there as much as possible. Deal with spammer issues immediately (some members will share nothing but promotional posts—warn them and delete them). Some members will require moderation and others will need to be reminded of the rules. Occasionally post a reminder about guidelines. Members will appreciate that you care enough to moderate the group and ensure it’s a productive place for all.

12. Appoint Co-Moderators – If managing the group is too much for you or you simply don’t want to go it alone, ask members or peers if they would like to be co-moderators. This can lighten your workload and breed goodwill.

Don’t forget to have fun! Your attitude about your group will come across so make sure it’s something you enjoy doing. Your members will notice and membership will grow as a result.

The fact is that it does take time to write blog posts and share on social media and implement the many other internet marketing tactics that can help you build a bigger audience for your business. It takes time, persistence, and dedication. But these efforts can pay big dividends.

There are tasks that we all tackle daily in our businesses. We check email, return phone calls, meet acquaintances for coffee or lunch, talk to prospects, attend business events, file paperwork, develop marketing materials, create new products and services, and the list goes on. It only makes sense that we couldn’t possibly fathom adding another responsibility to the list.

But what if I told you that these tasks you don’t have time for—blogging, social media, etc.—are actually more important than many of the things you’re currently doing on a daily basis?

I believe it’s a matter of priorities and if you could see the rewards that these efforts can bring, you would reconsider what tasks are really important. Over the past few years, I’ve taken charge of my schedule. I cut out many of the networking events I used to attend. I rarely accept invitations for coffee or lunch. I check email just a few times each day. These tasks that I once thought were so important to my business actually turned out to be major time suckers. And when I looked at the return I was getting for the time spent, it didn’t add up.

For me, blogging and social media are two huge priorities in my business and this commitment has paid off big time. My website traffic has more than doubled in the last year alone. About 75% of my business revenues come to me as a direct result of marketing online—the things that I once thought I didn’t have time for.

I’m betting that if you really wanted to, you could carve out an extra 45 minutes per day to start ramping up your online marketing efforts. And if you did that for 60 days, you’d begin to see results and your perspective would change.

Then you’d realize that these are tasks that are worth making time for and that perhaps your priorities need to be reevaluated. Business is changing. Blogging and social media are no longer optional—they are essential. Give it a try consistently for the next 60 days. I think you’ll be glad you did.

By the way, if you’re frustrated, overwhelmed, or confused by online marketing strategies, I bet you’d love my new book! Grab a copy of Own Your Niche: Hype-Free Internet Marketing Tactics to Establish Authority in Your Field and Promote Your Service-Based Business.

2. Attract your target audience. Find them, exchange tweets with them, share information with them. Twitter is an active community covering a wide range of demographics, making it a powerful place to share content and build your audience.

3. Monitor breaking news. I personally learned about the deaths of Ted Kennedy and Michael Jackson via the almost instantaneous tweets on Twitter, not to mention other important news alerts that come through in a blink.

4. It’s fun! Really! Twitter gives you a great platform for connecting with potential customers, peers, and alliance partners, not to mention an active community of content where you can learn at every turn. Each day is a new adventure full of opportunities.

5. Find discounts and special offers. Retailers share coupons, sale announcements, and other offers for their Twitter followers.

6. Conduct industry research. You can use Twitter as a platform for asking questions and getting important answers from your audience.

7. Drive traffic to your website or blog. Share new blog posts and articles on Twitter along with a link back to your site and you will discover how powerful this platform can be.

8. To use it well, you’ve got to love it. I don’t know anyone who has built a large audience yet finds Twitter frustrating, annoying, or time consuming. The real secret to success on Twitter is to enjoy using it because that will come through and will make everything you do there stand out even more.