Breaking the Blogging Block

You’re stuck for new blogging ideas. Don’t fret; writer’s block happens to the best of us. If you’ve spent the better part of a year or more blogging on your topic of expertise, you’ve probably wondered how soon the wall would come into view. As a professional SEO writer, I accept every day as a challenge, and ask myself if I have exhausted every single angle of my clients’ businesses before I realize there is nothing left to write. Usually then, I manage to think of one more thing that hasn’t been covered, or else write a new twist on something that has.

Facebook Places: Should Everybody Know Your Business?

Yes, it appears Facebook has once again set off the privacy alarms. It only seems like yesterday when shared post after post liked from my news feed took me to instructions on how to change my privacy settings to remove my voice mail number from public view…with Facebook Places barely out off the launch pad, the backlash hit me like the heat from a blast furnace.

Changing Social Media Clients Mid-Stream: When Free is Suddenly No Longer Free

Think about why you use Twitter and Facebook. The casual user with only one profile on each needn’t worry in this situation – this change won’t affect you. However, for the entrepreneur monitoring several Twitters, Facebook pages, and even LinkedIn and Foursquare, not only do you stand to let a lot of hard work go stagnant, but now you have to shop around for an alternative solution, and basically start anew.

Why Nobody is Following You on Twitter (and What to Do About It)

A Twitter account with a trickle of followers pretty much equates to shouting fire in an empty theater, so if your intent is to use this powerful social network to attract new clients or customers, it’s important to first determine why it is nobody is following your feeds, then figure out how to correct that.

Five Things You Didn’t Realize You Could Do on Facebook

As with other social networks that appear to maintain rigid design structures, Facebook does allow you to get away with the occasional trick to help make your profile or fan page stand out among the rest. If you plan to rely on Facebook for the bulk of your social marketing, you especially want to pay attention to different ways to optimize that space. You may already know about custom tabs (and if you don’t, we’ll cover that soon enough) and manipulating the Boxes tabs to arrange information the way you want, but there is so much more you can do to turn a simple wall thread into a genuine hub for your customers and soon-to-be customers that will keep them coming back to interact.

Revisiting the Mass Social Media Invites: Should You See What Sticks?

Need help getting more friends on Facebook? Contact us today at 757-499-1990 for more information.

Just like the song says, you gotta have friends. Friends are there to help seed your Farmville gardens and help destroy the forces of evil… Read the rest

Domain Dilemmas: When Your URL No Longer Describes You

It’s true, Spider Writers has enjoyed opportunities to mingle with the rich and famous. We’ve always been proud to count a bona fide Guinness record holder among our clientele. For years, Hampton Roads resident George Bell was known as America’s Tallest Man, yet today we have learned his title is now claimed by a man in Minneapolis. Igor Vovkovinskiy appeared on the Dr. Oz show to be measured for the official title.

The Facebook Backlash and Your Social Campaigns: Should You Be Worried?

As a business, you want exposure for your Facebook page. Despite the grumbling, Facebook is still one of the most used websites on the Internet – it’s a powerful search engine and marketing tool, and as you amass fans (or people who “like” your page and company, per the new policies) the opportunity to expand your reach grows. If you are concerned about losing fans due to a protest against privacy settings, know that you do have a few options for keeping your page visible and the information available, even to people who don’t use Facebook.

Do We Really Need These Stinkin’ Badges?

This morning I received in my e-mail a notice from The Huffington Post that they are now awarding nifty new badges to frequent commentators and networking registrants. The rules are simple: if you blog and tweet HuffPo links enough, you get a nice little sticker next to your profile. The idea behind badges for social portal members isn’t new, either. Glue and Foursquare, two rapidly growing networks for product and information sharing, have similar award systems in place. It’s not uncommon for me these days to check Twitter and see somebody I’m following post that they’ve earned the “Underwater Basket Weaving” or “Goo-Goo for Lady Gaga” badge on whatever network.

The Social Media “Buddy System” for Improving Site Visibility

Social sites like Digg and StumbleUpon make it somewhat easy for you to find connections. If you use a free e-mail services like Hotmail or GMail, for example, it searches your contacts for people who have registered, and gives you the option to fan or subscribe to them. From there it’s only a matter of recruiting friends to assist you in a mutual backscratching endeavor to help boost your sites’ visibility in these networks.