However, that’s not all! Her twin sister Brie Bella is also pregnant and the difference is only weak and a half. This all leaves us with the question, did they plan this to happen? Also, are there any twin mind connections that resulted in such thing?

Simply speaking, they are both saying the same thing. They did not plan this to happen as they didn’t even talk about it in the past. Namely, they both coincidentally became pregnant almost on the same day.

Nikki Bella – Twin Magic Superstar

As we all know, both Nikki and Brie Bella are famous rock stars when it comes to WWE. They both showed such great skills and truly a masterful techniques when it comes to wrestling. And, they are now both pregnant.

Anyway, they started with the professional wrestling career together as twins with skills. But now, they are facing a totally new mountain to climb. Namely, we all know that both pregnancy and being a mother are noting to joke about.

Therefore, if Nikki Bella takes her new role the same way she did with the WWE, she’s certainly going to be a great mother.

Announcing was Easy

This stuff doesn’t happen every day, and when it does, it’s a reason to celebrate. Therefore, they both wanted to do something special with the way they announce the news.

Namely, they both took a picture with little baby clothes in their hands. And, that clearly sends a message what they are planning and what exactly happened.

Brie Bella wrote on her tweeter account:

“Never in a million years thought did I think @thenikkibella and I would be having pregnant bellies together!!!”

And, Nikki Bella immediately followed with an Instagram photo and caption that says:

“We are shocked like all of you!!!”

Luckily, we are able to see the baby ultrasound as she posted it on tweeter.

This is certainly a good day for both of them as they will try their best to become the most important thing in the world – Good Mothers.

Roger Federer is surprised by John Millman playstyle and he made a few comments on that topic. “Oh God, it was tough. Thank God it was a super-tiebreaker, otherwise I would have lost this one”. This clearly tells us that these two tennis giants are serious when it comes to the Australian Open.

He is a fighter – I’ll give him that

“John played a great match, he might as well have been out here [in the post-match interview] as well. He’s a great fighter, a good guy and it came down to the wire.”

The match was closer than anyone could expect. Namely, Roger Federer won in the tennis match against John Millman, 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(8), in order to advance to the fourth round. This tournament is of the highest importance to Millman as he is an Australian tennis player.

As for the winner, he is not in for a treat in the next round. Simply put, Roger Federer is waiting to play against possibly the best tennis player ever. Of course, that’s the defending champion, Novak Djokovic. But first, they both need to play a bit more in order to meet in the semifinals.

On the other hand, the tournament is done for Millman as he really put a lot into this match. Unfortunately, his effort was not enough as Roger Federer won. Millman came in this match with confidence and he really did his best.

Humid Conditions favors Roger Federer

It’s a known thing that the Australian Open is a tournament with not that good condition for players. Simply speaking, humid conditions are not what you want when you need to meet one of the best tennis players in the world. Luckily, for Roger, he is full of experience on these occasions and that certainly helped.

Anyhow, it’s not easy to take to sets from Roger, and that’s definitely considered as a win on its own. But, as we all like to say, better luck next time Millman.

Also, Millman will make his comeback on some other tennis tournament, we are sure of that. Surely, he is getting stronger and stronger each tournament as we can see from his playstyle.

Many of us know her as a very talented and gifted country music singer, but nothing connects her to memes. Well, not until now!

She’s one of the First

It appears that Dolly Parton is one of the first celebrities to take part in a ‘’Social Challenge’’. Therefore, she made quite an interesting photo of herself. It’s a photo made out of four different photos that represent each social network.

Simply put, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Tinder are the main four social networks that she used in her photo. Clearly, each social network is represented by one photo and all of them combined are making this new meme. It’s important to know that she made it very clear how she sees these networks.

For example, she used a quite formal and powerful photo of herself for LinkedIn. On the other hand, she used a very provocative picture to represent her Tinder part of the photo. All in all, she did it with one thing on her mind – Creating a new viral meme.

Words to get by

Dolly Parton Challenge made by this wonderful singer is also heavily commented on. Namely, she wrote ‘’Get you a woman who can do it all’’. Anyhow, this clearly sends a message that she means that having a powerful and respective woman is important.

Shortly after her meme was spreading wild all across the web, some really noticeable celebrities also contributed. And, there we have a famous actor Mark Ruffalo with his hew tweet and a picture.

Jokes aside buit, it’s also quite interesting that she is not even aware of the storm she created on social networks. However, it’s clear that this meme will spread like a virus all across the globe. Simply speaking, celebrities from other countries are using it as well.

Nothing more than a Dolly Parton Challenge Meme

Some say that this meme will fade away like the rest of them do. However, that’s not completely true. Namely, the structure of this meme will stay here for long, why? Well, it’s easy to participate in this meme. Also, everyone likes to favor the social networks pages by putting their photos online.

Customers are Buying Things Online

People are now buying online – a lot. In fact, research shows that 81 percent of consumers search for a product they’re interested in online before actually buying it. And 55 percent of purchases occur within an hour of a customer’s initial search. What does this mean? Well if you don’t have a website, you’re missing out on a lot of potential customers and a chance to increase your sales.

Purchasing is just one area of the internet that you should focus on. Keeping your customers happy with your product or service and gaining positive reviews is another important task. A survey has shown that 88 percent of consumers put their trust in the reviews of other people. So if you don’t have any reviews online about your product or service you could be losing potential buyers.

Social Media Marketing

90 percent of all marketers say that their business exposure has increased thanks to social media. At this point, it’s imperative for all businesses to have a strong social media presence. The reason – social media platforms are where customers are most active. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter are all platforms where you can find your ideal customers and reach out to them with your offers.

One of the main benefits of using social media for marketing is that it can drive targeted traffic. With Facebook Ads, you can target specific customers based on age, demographics, and interests, etc. Another great benefit of social media marketing is that it can provide social proof to your audience which may increase your conversion rates. In simple terms, social proof means that people do what others do or they believe what others like to believe. You can use different activities on social media as social proof. For example, if someone comments on your Facebook posts praising the product of your company, you can use it. If someone tweets about your company, you can post it on your other social media platforms as social proof.

Final Thoughts

We can go on and on about the potential of the internet and social media and how important it is for your business. But, we’re sure you get the idea from what we’ve discussed already. In a nutshell, if you want to excel in the business landscape, it’s imperative that you get online, find the right internet plan for your business needs.

Use Hashtags

Using hashtags enable people to find you easily. To find out what hashtag to use, do research on the hashtags that other influencers are using. Besides, check out what hashtags are trending on the social media by going to the Trending category. On the social media, do a search on conversations that are concerning the niche. You can draw attention to your product by using the hashtag to create your own contest.

Schedule Your Social Media Posts

If you have no time to post every day, you can write the posts first and then use a scheduler to schedule the posts in advanced. Posting regularly on your social media is necessary if you want to have an account with a large following. If people see you stop posting for a while, they will quickly un-follow you. Scheduling ensures that you maintain consistency in your social media marketing effort.

Use Image in Your Social Media Posts

Image is the best tool for capturing attention from audience. You can check your analytics to track which image gets conversion from the audience. If you found an image with especially high clicks, you should post more of that type of images to get more engagement for your products. The images you include in your social media post should be high quality. Usually, there is a limit on the image size so make sure you resize it to the correct size. If you auto share your blog posts, it will be a good idea to include at least one image. In this way, all the post shared on the social media will feature the blog post image.

Use Videos to Capture Audience Attention

Video can help you to grab the attention of the audience faster. It is easier to consume the information in the video compared to reading a paragraph on the social media. The success of social media lies in the ability to capture audience attention and get the message across in a short span of time. Video fits in perfectly for this task. At the beginning of the video, make sure you include callouts so that the viewer know the message before turning their attention away.

Videos posted on the social media need to load fast – in this case, you will have to convert it into MP4. MP4 video is small compared to the standard AVCHD format which your video is stored in camcorder. You can open the video file in an avchd converter online program and convert it to MP4. When the Online Video Converter load, you simply drag the AVCHD file into the file drop zone and it will be loaded. Next, you navigate to the Video tab and search for MP4. After you found the MP4 format, select it and click the Convert button to convert it to the destination folder.

Regularly Update Your Social Media Account

You should try to be as regular as possible when coming to updating your social media account. It is recommended that you make at least 3 posts on different times throughout the day. You can vary your posting frequency, for example, today, you post 3 times and tomorrow, you post 5 times.

Be Active on Multiple Social Media Networks

Survey shows that more than 80% of marketers actively post on at least 4 networks. You can choose to be active on at least 2 social media. There are a few major social media networks and each one is designed for different business niches. If you are an educated professional, you can use LinkedIn as a place to promote your business. In LinkedIn, you get to list your academic backgrounds. You can use an image based social media platforms like Pinterest and Instagram if you are into a business where you have a lot of nice pictures to show off.

Research shows that 96% of lawyers who participated in a study reported using social media. The most used LinkedIn and Facebook at 84% and 80%, respectively, while 59% used Twitter.

Simply put, if you’re not active on social media, you may soon fall behind your competition. Of course, it’s not enough to simply be on social media — you also need to stay up to date on it.

In light of the above, here’s a rundown on what’s new in social media for lawyers this year.

Let’s get started!

Facebook

Facebook’s algorithms are increasingly making it hard for companies, including law firms, to market themselves without paying a lot for this.

In other words, it’s difficult to generate posts in a manner that will give you the visibility necessary to draw prospects.

Still, some of the platform’s services related to paid advertising are extremely powerful and effective for attorneys in 2019.

In addition, you can still use Facebook this year to keep yourself in front of your colleagues and clients. By sharing posts about a continuing education course you’re teaching or a conference you’re attending, you paint yourself as an active and interesting person with whom people wouldn’t mind working.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is another essential social media platform for attorneys, especially for business lawyers.

Considering that LinkedIn is so powerfully optimized in 2019, you can expect your law firm to be ranked high when someone searches for you online. So, it’s important that your LinkedIn page is carefully crafted.

LinkedIn is particularly valuable for lawyers who have business-to-business practices, or even for anyone who works as an appearance attorney on call. If you’re trying to network with other lawyers, LinkedIn is the marketing platform for you this year.

Twitter

Twitter has doubled its character limit for an individual post to 280 characters. This is now allowing for more detail in your posts, which you can use to your advantage.

In addition, in 2019, Twitter is allowing you to embed more videos — which includes live streams — images and articles than before.

What does all of this mean for you now? It means that Twitter messages no longer have to feel limiting. Your posts can be extremely effective if you have a strong following coupled with great hashtags.

How We Can Help with Social Media for Lawyers

In addition to providing the latest advice regarding social media for lawyers, we offer a wide range of search engine optimization, or SEO, tips for business owners in general.

For example, we explain what SEO means for local companies and the importance in 2019. We also offer advice for hiring SEO professionals.

In addition, you can find out through our site if your clients’ online reviews impact your SEO efforts.

Take a peek here to find out more about how you can use SEO and social media to draw more clients and thus strengthen your bottom line in 2019.

Attract Talent With A Fun Office

The digital marketing community is full of people with unique personalities which can make the office quite a fun place. Things like having shoulder massage chairs for people during their breaks can contribute to the relaxed and fun atmosphere. Those that are creative that do web design or content creation should be able to put headphones in as it helps them concentrate. Top talent will want to work at a company that allows them to be as creative as possible. If a fun office won’t attract top talent, allowing employees to work from home will as this is seen as the ultimate perk at a job.

Freelance To Hire

The freelance economy is booming with quite a bit of talent that can be used. Hiring a freelancer to complete projects is the perfect opportunity for a “try out” to see if they would make a good hire. Things like clear communication and hitting deadlines should always be of high importance. This is a great tactic but be aware that some people love freelancing and are not looking for full-time employment. A strong team of freelancers can do the same job as hiring full-time employees and often it far less expensive.

Test Those Being Interviewed

If an interviewee is coming in for an interview you should have a task for them related to the job to complete. A writer should be given a brief with guidelines to see how fast and high quality their writing is. A designer should design something or show examples of previously completed work. A lot of people in digital marketing refer to themselves as “gurus” but do not live up to the name. This will also give the company the ability to see how the person works and if they can perform under pressure.

Check Social Media Accounts

If a person considers themself an expert in social media marketing and only have 100 followers on Twitter then they likely are not an expert. Social media account checking can also be a great way to see if a person will be a culture fit. This also allows a company to see if the person is someone they would like representing the brand. A lot of people looking for jobs delete social media accounts so they cannot be researched or change their name to make it difficult to find.

As you can see building a team will take time as well as a bit of change to the hiring process. Do not underestimate what internet marketing can do for a large or small business.

Technology is evolving faster and faster every year. This means that new types of jobs will become available to keep up with these ever-changing needs. Are you savvy enough to work in this high tech world?

Education can be very expensive but without it, you may not be qualified for new digital marketing jobs. However, you don’t need to take out a huge loan to go back to school. There are a bunch of digital marketing classes you can take online for free!

These courses are quick, easy to digest seminars that will empower you to enter the digital marketing sector with confidence. 

There are many websites that offer great digital marketing tips. Those are great ways to keep up with the latest trends. But what if you’re entering this world as a total novice?

Reading tips online is great. But if you want something more official, consider learning from these online digital marketing courses.

1. Alison Free Diploma in E-Business

This is one of the first massive online open courses or MOOCs. Started in 2007 by Mike Feerick, Alison now boats six million users. They host certified online courses for the amazing price of zero dollars.

Alison offers a variety of courses that specialize in things like search engine analytics, digital measurement, and much more. And if you really want to get into the nitty-gritty, they can even help you become a coder.

Give yourself and your checkbook a break. Go back to school from home for free!

2. SEO Training Course by Moz

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is probably the most important skill a digital marketer can possess today. There are many tricks of the trade that can’t be self-taught. You need an expert to show you the ropes.

The SEO Training Course by Moz is the perfect course for all SEO rookies. Over 150,000 students have taken Rand Fishkin’s three and a half hour video seminar. After getting through the lecture you actually receive certification in SEO education. 

For less than half a day and no money, you can get on your way to mastering SEO. 

3. Inbound Digital Marketing Course Plus Official Certification

Here’s another great course offing certification without any tuition. The Inbound Digital Marketing Course Plus Official Certification is available on HubSpot Academy. There are currently over 3,000 students enrolled in the free courses at HubSpot.

This four and a half hour lecture covers all the basics of digital marketing. From conversation optimization to email marketing, no digital rock will be left unturned. 

Hopefully, you pay close attention to all the details. The end of the course you need to pass an exam to receive your certification.

The studying will be well worth it!

If you pass this exam you will receive a digital badge you can add to your résumé and LinkedIn profile. Potential employers will love to see you are coming to the table with quantifiable digital marketing skills.  

4. Twitter Flight School

Twitter is not just a place for people to argue online. It’s also one of the key tools for modern digital marketing. Like the bird logo for Twitter, this class will help you spread your wings and fly in the digital space. 

This “Flight School” is a great way to get savvy about how to make Twitter work for you. It features a bunch of short lessons that all add up to under two hours.

This is one digital marketing course you’ll want to retweet.

5. Google Online Marketing Challenge

Some people need to have a fire lit under them to do something new. That’s why the Google Online Marketing Challenge is a very effective digital marketing course. Not only does it feature comprehensive lessons, but you can also win prizes!

Google gives all its students $250 in AdWords dollars to test out their own advertising campaign. You’ll compete against other learners over a three week period of time to see whose campaign is the most successful.

If you’re the competitive type, this is the perfect course for you. Not only will you learn a lot, but you’ll get real-world experience as well. Plus, you may even win a prize! 

6.  How To Use Instagram Stories for Business

The best way to get marketing content out to young people today is through Instagram stories. Even more so than TV, young people are watching these stories all day long. As a burgeoning digital marker, it’s important to know how to harness this power.

‘Later’ is an app that can be used to schedule Instagram posts and stories throughout the day. It features courses to help you use the app to your advantage. The best one for Insta newbies is ‘How To Use Instagram Stories For Business’.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to execute a successful story campaign. Plus, there are authentic testimonials from influencers who’ve grown their brand through Instagram stories.

7. Social Marketing Education 2018

To fill in any gaps in your social media marketing education, you need to take this course at Hootsuite. With 97 videos accompanied by 27 quizzes, this is one of the most intensive free courses on the web.

This extensive syllabus walks you through all the steps it takes to form an all-out social media blitz. You’ll learn how to use Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Instagram in concert to deliver cohesive branding messaging.

After getting through this course you will be totally ready for the digital marketing world.

Check Out These Free Digital Marketing Courses 

Don’t enter the modern day job force unprepared. Take one of these free digital marketing courses today!

The best way to stay ahead of the competition is to never stop learning. For more great how-to tech articles click here. 

But with the average smartphone user using only 9 different apps a day, encouraging users to actually use your app is an entirely different challenge.

That doesn’t mean it’s impossible. If you understand your audience, you can generate growth. This is why social media is one of the most important places to market your app to your audience.

Don’t know where to start? Then let’s run through 8 actionable tips for marketing an app through social media today.

Consider a Paid Ads Campaign

One of the more typical methods of advertising your app is through a traditional paid ads campaign. The only difference is the type of ads you’re paying for.

Sponsored ads through social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram give you access to millions of potential new users. If you’re offering smartphone ads, these ads can lead them to install your app straight from app stores.

The great thing about a campaign like this is that you can target your audience specifically. You can target by various attributes, such as age group, gender, nationality or interests.

This can stop you wasting your ad budget if you avoid showing your ads to users who don’t form part of your target audience.

Run Ads with Influencers

In the age of the millennial, influencers rule the social media landscape. They have an audience themselves of many thousands, or even millions, looking to follow exactly what they say or do.

This makes influencers a natural ally to recruit for your social media campaign. A survey by Twitter found that around 40% of users made a decision on a purchase thanks to an influencer.

For real engagement, however, you’re going to find the best influencers using Instagram. With long written captions, and high-quality video and images, influencers can upsell your ad to their captive audience.

You can target influencers directly, or use marketing agencies to make contact.

Create Video, Viral Content

Viral content isn’t easy to create. If it was, every company would be doing it! 

Video content offers the best chance for your app to go viral, as it demonstrates what the app does which, if it’s a good product, will help convince users to use it.

Why do you want it to go viral? Because it’s a free, organic way to build your number of users. Your number of downloads will explode upwards if it goes viral.

And how will it go viral, we hear you ask? Thanks to the magic, once again, of social media sharing. 

The best way to build video content that your target audience will want to share is by understanding what they like.

Don’t target your audience correctly? Your video won’t be worth the money you spent having it created. That’s why it’s on our list of the 5 main digital marketing mistakes you should look to avoid.

Offer User Incentives to Share and Play Your App

There’s no reason why you can’t offer your users a little incentive to download or share your app. You can do this through social media directly.

Run ad campaigns that offer discounts to users on the product you’re offering or by giving freebies. 

Does your app offer in-app purchases, for instance? Give your users free credit if they share your app over their social media profiles or if they install it from a social media ad they’ve seen elsewhere.

Referral systems like this can bring users to your app with a good return on investment.

Engage and Interact with Your Users on Social Media

Your social media strategy for your app shouldn’t only be about offering ads telling your users to download your app. You need to engage and interact with your users if you want them to stick around.

Speak with your customers via the major social media platforms. If your users have questions or feedback, answer their concerns.

Building goodwill like this might take up a bit of time, but it can also generate results if your users then leave positive feedback. For other potential users, they can see that the app is under constant development, with a team that cares.

As a bonus, if your social media page is active, social signals like these can have an impact on your app website’s SEO. 

Generate Press Releases with Shareable Content

Your app is like any other product you might be launching in other, more traditional formats. 

If you were releasing a new washing machine, you’d want the relevant PR outlets to notice. You’d want to make it easy for that PR machine to get into action.

Your press release for your app is no different. So, build a release kit that can help you advertise your app. Include a summary of what your app actually does to start with.

Include screenshots, video content, as well as information on yourself. Don’t forget app logos and banners to help writers include them in any articles they write.

The main part of your press release will be a written statement explaining why you’re advertising your app, and what you’re trying to do. It’s designed to sell your app — so make sure you explain why every use should be installing it.

Run Contests and Competitions

Want to generate some additional interest?

Running competitions or a contest for your user base could do that, as it encourages users to do something in return for a reward. 

Think out of the box with this one by encouraging users to share content relating to your app. If you’re advertising a game, a leaderboard for users could encourage more users to play your game.

If it generates further interest, by adding more users or increasing recognition of your brand, it’s worth the investment.

Respond to Feedback Positively

We all like to think we’re important to the companies we deal with. As the developer or publisher of your app, your users will be feeling the same.

That’s why you should respond to feedback with a positive attitude, even if the feedback is negative. Responding to feedback can help your users feel appreciated, and generate goodwill along the way.

Goodwill can lead to more positive reviews. They may not like something, but it may make your app more popular in the long run.

Of course, if your users aren’t happy with your app in some way, you need to make changes. A major part of the mobile app development lifecycle is developing your app over time with user feedback.

Social media marketing tips like these may take up your time, but when new users search for your app and see ignored concerns, they’ll be less likely to download.

Marketing an App Doesn’t Have to Be a Struggle

Just because you created an app, it doesn’t mean people are going to play it. That’s why you need a strategy for marketing an app through social media.

With good content and the right level of social engagement, you can have the chance to build a loyal audience for your app.

Engage with your audience every opportunity you get. Run contests, incentivize your users to share your app, and respond to your user’s feedback. If your users feel involved, and they like your work, you’ll hopefully see your audience grow.

Want to learn more about how to optimize your social media marketing strategy? Then check out our social media articles for advice on what to try next.

When devising a social media marketing campaign, many marketers forget about social media search engine results. Here’s why social SEO is important.

You’ve been rocking your SEO campaign. Except, you’ve been neglecting your social media search engine connection in your campaign. Which means your campaign could be performing better.

Let’s put it in context: 72% of adult internet users are on Facebook. And if you’re not there too, you’re missing out on their business.

Here’s what social media SEO is, how it works, and how to incorporate it into your existing SEO strategy (plus a few potholes you should dodge along the way).

What is Social Media SEO?

First things first: what is social media SEO? It’s the thing that makes the social media search engine connection make sense.

It’s also what makes your social media sing.

You could be forgiven for being confused – Google used to give contradictory statements about how social media factored into their algorithm. These days, it’s a boon. It has something to do with how social media has evolved in the past several years.

Let’s break it down.

How It Works

Let’s be clear. Social media isn’t currently a direct ranking factor.

However, that doesn’t mean it has zero effect on your ranking. Actually, neglecting social media’s role in SEO is one of the biggest mistakes social media marketers make.

Content that performs well on social media – strong engagement, likes, and shares – correlates with content that performs well on websites and blogs. That is, content that performs well on one platform is likely to see similar engagement metrics on the other because it’s good quality content.

A good social media presence, combined with a good content marketing strategy, create strong brand awareness and engagement, which boosts your rankings.

Social Media and Search Engines

Nothing is ever simple, is it? Certainly not when we’re dealing with the social media search engine relationship.

So it pays to know what the benefits of social media are for your next SEO campaign. As we said, social media isn’t a ranking factor officially, but it can help boost your SEO rankings indirectly.

That’s because of how social media works. Many of the benefits of social media translate over into your SEO.

Links, Links, Links

Also known as the boon of any SEO campaign.

Let’s be real. You need links. Earning links is what you want – it allows you to gain multiple links from a single posting (SEO folks call that angels singing).

But unless you’re a big site with tons of traffic, it’s hard to earn links.

Unless, of course, you’ve got social media.

Think of it this way. You have x friends on Facebook, y followers on Instagram, etc. They all have their own list of people who friend and follow them.

If your content sees traffic on social media, it has a higher probability of reaching more eyes – and being cited by other websites.

Et voila. Link earning.

Front of Mind

How often do you check Pinterest? Or YouTube? Or Instagram?

Probably more than you’re willing to admit. But you’ll notice something.

The successful social accounts post often, which means you’ll usually see them when you log on. Depending on the platform, many will post several times a day.

Guess what you get as a result?

Every time you log on, you remember them.

So not only does your business get frequent user traffic from social media, it keeps you front of mind with your customers.

Brand Authority

It’s not just brand awareness.

Frequent production of high-quality social media content establishes your brand as an authority in your area while it familiarizes your followers with your brand, style, and products.

Of course, people are more wary of false information on the internet in general and social media in particular. That shouldn’t be a deterrent – if anything, it should be your cue to make sure you’re producing quality content every time you post.

And if you’re playing your cards right, there’s a fair chance that the next time your followers do a search that’s relevant to your product, they may even search you.

Things to Know About Social Media SEO

Ready to jump down the social media search engine rabbit hole?

Hold your horses. You need to know a few ground rules first. It’s not as easy jumping into a pool.

You also probably have a few assumptions about social media SEO that are frankly inaccurate. Those will hurt you in the long run if you’re not careful – or just hold you back from making your social media campaign that much better.

Here are three things you need to know about social media before you start to incorporate it into your SEO campaign.

Social Links Aren’t Guaranteed

We said earlier that link earning is one of the big pluses of taking a leap of faith into the social media search engine rabbit hole.

Thing is, those links aren’t guaranteed. Not even a little bit (if they are, or someone is

guaranteeing them, there’s a fair chance of something shady going on up in here. Don’t do it.)

There’s also a chance that the links won’t boost your rank. Wait, what?

That’s because the quality of those links matters more than the quantity of them – you’re always better off with five backlinks from reputable sites than ten backlinks from questionable sites.

Take your time, make good content, and use content marketing best practices to earn those links you have. Patience, as they say, is a virtue.

The Social Media Search Engine – Social is a Search Engine Too

Fun fact: you should actually be considering a social media search engine as, well, an actual search engine. Because there are more search engines out there than Google.

In fact, YouTube is the second most popular search engine on the web.

Profiles Rank Too

Social media might not directly impact your spot in the rankings, but it can directly change the content that shows up in that ranking.

In fact, social media profiles rank just as much as your business website or blog.

Why does this matter to you, way down there in the social media search engine hidey-hole?

Because social media channels aren’t just another office cubicle. They’re often the place where your company can show personality before a viewer takes one look at your website.

And if potential customers have fun getting to know you, there’s a much better chance they’re going to buy from you.

Making Social Media Work for You

It’s not just a matter of handing over the keys to your Adwords management. Although that does tend to make your life easier.

You need to make sure what you’re doing on this social media search engine deep dive. Here are three things to get you started.

Optimize Your Posts

It’s a strategy that relies on available pre-existing content, but it has the benefit of opening you up to another avenue of search. Fun fact: Google will sometimes feature popular social media posts in the first few SERP slots.

More avenues of search are always a good idea in the social media search engine rabbit hole.

The easiest way to do this is by using your standard SEO best practices on your posts. We’re talking strategic (not obnoxious) keywords, links to great content, and, of course, great post content.

Influencing Social Sharing

Need brand authority? Enter stage right: social sharing.

It’s just another way to give Google a clue that your site is an authority on your subject area, whatever that may be.

The best way to go about this is to target it directly. Give your followers an incentive to like, share, retweet and comment on your posts – like, say, a promotion.

It rapidly becomes a self-perpetuating cycle – the more people share your posts, the more people can see, like, and reshare your posts. You get new followers, more traffic and, if you’ve done it right, more business.

It all comes back to quality content.

Encourage External Inbound Links

And, finally, our old friend in this social media search engine journey: links.

If you’re doing your social media right (with great content, frequent posts, and good SEO practices) it encourages more external sites to share and link to your content.

Know what happens when they link to your content? Authority in the eyes of the almighty Google.

Like we said earlier, there are no link guarantees. You’re going to have to do your time and pay your dues – in the form of consistently creating useful, engaging content that’s worth sharing and linking.

Rock Your SEO (and Your Social Media)

Think you’ve made sense of this whole social media search engine thing?

Great. Let’s make it even better.

Check out our blog for all kinds of useful information to bring your social media SEO to the next level, like this post on the four errors that can damage your company Facebook page or this post on planning for your first Facebook ad.

If you have a question we haven’t answered, head on over to our contact page to let us know. Or, if you’re a writer, come write that answer for us.

With the tight overhead that your franchise probably has, it might be hard to spend 35% of your marketing budget on digital like other small businesses. Franchise companies sometimes also have to abide by guidelines that restrict the kinds of marketing campaigns that other companies are able to implement. That’s one of the reasons that SEO is so vital for franchises.

Franchise companies need to take a different approach to SEO than other local businesses. It’s not enough to turn customers onto your brand. You need to make sure you get people working on your specific franchise.

Tackling SEO for your company requires flexibility different than local or national SEO. Here are 10 tips for implementing strong SEO for franchise companies.

1. Know The Right Local Keywords

Have you ever noticed that if you type “pizza” into Google, you’ll get results that are relevant to your area? It’s not magic. Search engines use your user account, past searches, and stored browser data to match where you’re searching from with local results.

Depending on the kind of franchise you have, you could be competing with other franchises in your city. In order to make sure you have a strong foundation for your business, use local keywords that mention neighborhoods and geographic markers.

You might also have different terminology for your area. If you’re running an ice cream shop, you need to know if people in your area will be searching online for “jimmies” or “sprinkles”. Make sure you’re thinking like a customer of franchise companies like yours and you’ll build a strong local following for your brand.

2. Have Two Keyword Lists

Franchise companies need to have multiple keyword lists.

You have a strong brand with products and services that customers will be searching for. You need to ensure that when customers are searching for services like yours, they find your brand easily.

You’ll also need a keyword list to catch all of the people searching from your region. While your brand might come up high on the list, you need to make sure your franchise is the number one hit in your location.

If your brand comes up first for “carpet cleaning services”, you need to make sure your franchise comes up first for “carpet cleaning services in beverly hills”.

3. Unique Listings

Owners of multiple locations in franchise companies need to have unique, verified listings. When it comes to using Google My Business, Yahoo! Local, or Yelp, just typing in your brand name could result in unhelpful information.

You need to make sure every location and every branch of your franchise has its own page. This way, clients and customers have options to and can build a relationship with the location that’s closest to them.

4. Manage Your Reviews

Find a clever way to capture email addresses from your clients. Reach out to your most dedicated customers and ask them for reviews on your site of choice.

Offer an incentive for visiting your location and showing off their review on Yelp, Angie’s List, or Google. You should be building up your reviews even if you’ve just opened your location.

The more positive reviews you can gather at the opening of your franchise, the easier it will be to balance out negative reviews later. A one-star review against a single five-star review will put you below 3 and could ruin your reputation.

Check out HealthyYou vending reviews for more tips on how to manage your reviews.

5. Separate Franchise Pages, One URL

When franchise companies create separate websites for every single franchise location, it can be confusing to a customer. Products or services offered at BrandXMiami.com could be different than what’s offered at BrandXNorthMiami.com.

This will lead to customer confusion and a loss of trust from your customers. If you can’t hold a consistent site with a clear definition of what each branch offers, how can I trust your products or services.

Create one central site with separate pages for each franchise location.

6. Unique Social Media Accounts

Your franchises should have unique social media accounts for every location. If one of your locations isn’t doing as well as the others, you can offer a special promotion to drive traffic to that location.

If one of your locations has an electrical problem and needs to close, you can direct customers to the other locations. And if a staff member at one location upsets a customer, driving them to post on Facebook, you won’t see an impact at every location.

Show off the personality of each one of your franchises with separate social media accounts.

7. Run Different Cross Promotions

Having separate accounts and identities for different locations allows you to cross promote with nearby businesses. Every social media account should be following the businesses closest in proximity to your location. You can comment on one another’s posts and find ways to complement each other’s services.

Get your heads together and see if you can run some promotions to create a rising tide to lift all boats.

8. Create A Blog for Each Location

Put the power back into the hands of the people working at each franchise location. Find out who some of the more talented writers are working at each franchise and allow them to shine.

Give them some direction and let them produce great content that will also help to drive traffic. Ensure that they use your most important keywords, promote their posts on social media, and attack SEO from every angle.

9. Be Mobile First

As mobile usage surpasses desktop browsing, you need to find ways to integrate into the apps and tools that your customers use the most. Your site needs to be optimized for mobile viewing or your services will look outdated.

If you have an app, find ways to connect to your customers’ social media apps for an integrated experience.

10. Consolidate Efforts

Make sure every one of your franchises is in contact with the others. Avoid running duplicate campaigns or promotions. And if one branch is focusing on a particular service or product, have the other branches focus on another.

Franchise Companies Can See Big Returns on SEO

If you manage your online presence carefully, you can get more returns from SEO than you would from a TV or radio campaign. Find ways to do things differently than your competition and you’ll be able to stand out in ways that customers will appreciate.

If you’re ready to make your next move in digital marketing, contact us for how to start implementing this strategy.

1. Web Design And Development.

One of the best marketing techniques to implement when you get serious about growing your company is web design and development. This technique is empowering because it enables you to maintain an excellent online store through which prospects can learn more about your product or service line before making purchases. There are hundreds of distinct, customized services that a digital marketing firm might deploy to optimize your website. An example would be the use of graphic design techniques to give your site pages an aesthetically appealing edge.

Another strategy that a team of web design experts might deploy to grow a business’s brand in the online realm is responsive web design. This service empowers business owners by ensuring that all of their product pages are cross compatible. This means that any individual who chooses to access the site via mobile device should not experience technical difficulties like slow page loading times. You can visit the website of a company such as <a href=”https://bluehatmarketing.com/”>BlueHatMarketing</a> to learn more about the web design and development services that are available to business owners.
2. Printing Services.

Another marketing technique you can implement to push your company forward is the use of printing services. These services ensure that you can have a wide range of dynamic, customized printing material available for advertising purposes. Some of the printing products you might want to invest in include:

• Banners
• Appointment Cards
• Booklets
• Catalogs
• Brochures
• Coupons
• Door Hangers
• Business Cards
• Flyers
• Envelopes
• Graphic Design
• Forms
• Labels
• Invitations
• Mailing Services
• Letterhead
• Newsletters
• Manuals
• Postcards
• Rack Cards
• Posters
• Table Tents
• Prescription Pads
• Tickets
• Presentation Folders

3. Social Media Optimization (SMO).

Another marketing technique that can help push your company forward is social media optimization (SMO). This technique involves optimizing your presence on key social channels like:

• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Google+

Marketing professionals can deploy a wide range of proven SMO techniques to ensure that you can share the value of your brand with members of the target audience in these spaces. One SMO strategy that might prove effective for your organization is Twitter polls. As noted in <a href=”http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/7-ways-to-add-variety-to-your-twitter-marketing/”>Social Media Examiner</a>, Twitter polls are a research tool you can use to gain more information about your target audience so you can make prudent business decisions that empower you to market your product or service line more effectively. A sample question you might ask for your poll would be “Which of our wines are you most likely to use during the holiday festivities this year?”

4. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

If you’re serious about building a substantive presence in the online world, it’s time to start utilizing search engine optimization seo services. These services work by making your product or service line increasingly visible within the online domains used most frequently by members of your target audience. Some of the SEO strategies deployed by digital marketing teams include inbound/outbound linking, target market research, keyword analysis, and local SEO.

Don’t Delay: Start Optimizing Your Marketing Efforts Today!

Business owners who want their companies to thrive should note that there are multiple marketing techniques they can deploy to make it happen. Three of them include web design and development, printing services, and social media optimization (SMO). To integrate these strategies into your current marketing plan, be sure to consult with a team of advertising professionals who have extensive education and experience. Doing so will increase the likelihood that you will attain the excellent return on investment (ROI) that you deserve!

so on a hunch I tried to force a bug check and well, yeah…

It’s kind of comical. Do you think they changed it because of all the past negativity or did they change it because they just wanted a design change? Either way, we hope it won’t nag us as much as it has in the past.  Overall my experience has been pretty positive with Windows 10 compared to previous operating systems.

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The Trump Tower lobby was evacuated on Tuesday afternoon after reports of an unknown package came streaming in.  New York Police Department spokesman J. Peter Donald tweeted that the department’s bomb squad was responding to the report “out of an abundance of caution.” The spokesman soon tweeted an “all clear.”

Further reports indicate the bag was just filled with children’s toys.

With the President Elect Donald Trump’s security on the line, it’s great they acted so quickly.

The new change will take effect from July. Twitter has no plans to change the character limit for its Tweets, and I think it’s better this way. A direct message is something where you need to explain, elaborate things in detail to your friends, family, followers, businesses. This was a much-needed change. Let’s see how Twitter takes on with the future road map after getting its new CEO.

Dick Costolo will remain on the Twitter’s board of directors. The new interim CEO will be Jack Dorsey.

This is a huge news for the social media world. Analysts were already expecting this news as Twitter is not getting out of its ever-increasing problems. Twitter is facing immense completion from Facebook, Instagram and other emerging social giants. The company has been under fire from major investors who are not happy with Twitter’s product curve.

Lindsay Lohan

In 2011, Lindsay Lohan became one of the first of many Twitter users to leverage the platform to promote a product. The online website CampusLIVE, which allows college students to enter random contests in order to win prizes, paid Lohan $3,500 to plug them in a tweet. The tweet reached over two million viewers and was highly successful in click-through rates, making it one of the first large-scale campaigns. Many users were unaware that it was an advertisement, however, so its success hinged on the organic nature of its appearance. In 2013, new laws pertaining to endorsed tweets came out, requiring companies to make it clear whether a tweet serves as an ad.

Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian’s Twitter shadow grows larger every day. The iconic celebrity has over 20 million followers on Twitter. With such popularity, she’s the perfect candidate for advertising. Recently, she plugged the cosmetics company Eos to promote a lip balm product. The company paid her handsomely — $13,000 per tweet, making it one of the highest price tags ever for Twitter.

Justin Bieber

The famous singer is one of the most recognized figures worldwide. To cash in on this success, Bieber took to Twitter advertisements. In 2013, he informed his loyal followers via Twitter of the shop at whih he bought his Mother’s Day flowers, encouraging others to do the same. With over 50 million followers, the campaign was a success, even if only a small percentage followed his lead.

Sofia Vergara

The “Modern Family” star is a huge star thanks to a successful television run and her natural beauty. Recently, she conducted a Twitter ad campaign for Diet Pepsi. She posed during a photo shoot with the famous cola, causing Twitter to erupt in a frenzy. While it’s not yet proven, many Twitter followers seem to think that Diet Pepsi is the key to beauty, and Vergara was there to cash in on her followers.

David Beckham

While soccer still lags behind in terms of popularity in the United States, David Beckham remains a highly recognizable figure, thanks in part to his marriage to former Spice Girl Victoria. This past year, the star took to Twitter to promote Haig Club, a grain whiskey that looks like a perfume bottle. While it might not work for many whiskey drinkers, others want to obtain the same level of cool as Beckham, so the endorsement may just work after all.

As social media continues to grow, more companies gravitate toward it as an advertising outlet. Whether it’s here to stay or just a fad is unknown, but for now, it looks as though companies are more than willing to shell out the money.

Most of the users are sick and tired of hundreds and thousands of tweets, promotions, ads and retweets on Twitter. The curating on Twitter is sloppy and most of the time, the main, information-worthy content gets lost under the huge piles of the useless content.

Twitter has already a feature called ‘while you were away’, which shows you the important tweets. But the new feature will help the users to get updated in an easy way.

Twitter announced this feature in a blog post.You can enable the Highlights feature right now.

Go to Settings and tap on your own account name (this can be done by tapping the 3 dot icon).

Tap on the mobile notifications section and you will see a new ‘Highlights’ feature. Check its box and the new feature will be enabled for your Twitter account.

Twitter is drastically introducing new features to cheer up the angry investors, who are not happy with Twitter’s user growth. Twitter recently launched retweet with comments feature. It launched a ‘while you were away’ feature that updates you with all the important happenings around the world when you sign-in your Twitter account after a number of days.

Twitter has around 288 million monthly active users. These minute changes may improve the user experience for the current Twitter users, but it would not increase the user base of the blue bird. The company must devise a new strategy around its mobile apps for Android and iOS to see some big changes that could affect the revenues and market growth. Twitter is not the top choice of the advertisers because of its small user growth. Facebook, on the other hand has a massive user base, the majority of which comprises of teens.

Twitter announced the new feature to send DMs to anyone back in 2013, rolled it out for a selected number of users then rolled back. But today, the company published blog post announcing the DM for all feature. You will start seeing this feature in the upcoming app updates very soon.

Imoji’s also lets you create funny stickers from real life images. So you can create hilarious stickers, emojis out of the friends’ images or your own images from the camera roll of your phone.

More than 3 million stickers and emojis at your disposal will make your messaging way more interesting. Imoji is also a partner of Facebook’s Messenger platform, a program which now lets third parties to make apps for Facebook Messenger. Flesky, the famous emoji keyboard is also partnering with Imojis to make a complete emojis keyboard out of this great app.

]]> https://socialmediaseo.net/2015/04/14/imoji-app-gives-you-3-million-hilarious-emojis-and-stickers-from-real-photos-in-all-apps/feed/ 0 https://socialmediaseo.net/2015/04/11/facebook-to-launch-a-new-trends-section/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=facebook-to-launch-a-new-trends-section https://socialmediaseo.net/2015/04/11/facebook-to-launch-a-new-trends-section/#respond Sat, 11 Apr 2015 20:59:02 +0000 http://preview.socialmediaseo.net/?p=32086 Facebook is spotted testing a ‘trending’ section which would allow you to quickly sift through the important happenings going around the world. AdWeek first spotted the social media giant testing a trending section. Later, Facebook confirmed that it is testing a new feature will allow its users to have a quick look on everything trending around the web. Facebook currently shows the trending tab with posts which have hash tags related to the topics which are hot on the social media platform. Twitter currently has a ‘while you were away’ section and trends are also its trademark feature. Facebook is apparently copying the same feature in its own platform.

Facebook is increasingly trying to become the content juggernaut. It is threatening Google and Twitter with its plans to host content directly on its platform, which would mean that you will be seeing content in your Facebook news feeds rather that clicking the links to read.

Facebook denied to comment on the questions about the exact launch date of its Trending feature.

]]> https://socialmediaseo.net/2015/04/11/facebook-to-launch-a-new-trends-section/feed/ 0 https://socialmediaseo.net/2015/03/31/you-can-now-play-pac-man-game-in-google-maps/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=you-can-now-play-pac-man-game-in-google-maps https://socialmediaseo.net/2015/03/31/you-can-now-play-pac-man-game-in-google-maps/#respond Tue, 31 Mar 2015 19:02:38 +0000 http://preview.socialmediaseo.net/?p=32057 April Fool’s day has started to hit some parts of the world and Google thought it’s about time to have some fun. A few hours ago, Google Maps Twitter account was updated with an enigmatic update which looked like this:

People rushed over to Google Maps Web page and saw that the search engine giant has updated the interface and you could now play the famous and all-time addictive Pac-Man game in the streets, roads and paths of Google Maps.

Open the web version of Google Maps and you will see a little Pac-Man icon on the left bottom of the screen. Click it and then select ‘Start’ option. If everything goes right, Google Maps will render a map of your surroundings and you could start playing. Otherwise, the pop-up menu will say that there aren’t any suitable roads around with an option saying ‘I’m feeling lucky’. The game will start and you could enjoy as long as you want. You can always switch back to the normal Google Maps version whenever you want by clicking the related option from the screen.

Google keeps rolling out Doodles and small games in its search engine, Maps and other services on different event days. It also rolled out a Pokémon game on April Fool last year and a fun doodle game as an Easter Egg a few years ago.

According to AccuPOS, a creator of point-of-sale software, customer testimonials are one of the biggest sources for new business in today’s world.

There are several reasons why you should make full use of customer testimonials. First, having reviews up from real customers will help your brand to build trust. When potential customers see that other customers have gotten great service from you, they are more likely to business with you. In today’s day and age people are a little wary of marketing techniques, and feel that many of them are disingenuous.

But when you get a review from someone who has actually used your business – and not just one review, but many – it shows that you are a reputable company.

The second reason you should start using customer testimonials is that they will help your SEO efforts. By having other websites list reviews of your own, and giving a link back to it, you will increase your visibility in search engines. The higher your website goes in search engines, the more traffic you will see.

Finally, customer testimonials simply improve your business. Not only will you be bringing in more clients, and developing a level of trust with them, but knowing that people are leaving reviews about your company will force you to raise your standards. Having customer testimonials viewable on the web is like having someone constantly watch over you as you work. It will make you run your business as perfectly as you can, which in turn will give you better reviews.

So how do you start getting customer testimonials? It’s pretty simple. One option is to simply ask your customers for them. If you are putting them on your website directly, ask customers who you think you provided excellent service for to write a brief review. Then you can take it and put it on a “Customer Testimonial” section of your website. If you want your customers to leave reviews for your business on a third-party website (such as Google Places or Yelp), then you can direct them to the site with a link. Make sure you have your business registered with these websites so that your customers can easily find them.

Lastly, if you have social media pages, you can ask people to leave you feedback on there, this in turn, helps SEO as well. Many people use sites like Facebook and Twitter to get reviews of companies, so you should have a few on there.

Finally, don’t worry about getting negative feedback. In fact, some negative reviews may even help you. If every one of your reviews is perfect, it may look a little suspicious to potential customers. The best thing you can strive for is to simply have mostly positive reviews, and if anyone does leave negative feedback, note their concerns and try to address them publicly. This will show that you are a company that cares about improving and about your customer’s experience.

Hopefully we were able to convince you that customer testimonials really still do work. They are easy to set up and easy to get, but they can provide a long lasting benefit to any company. Starting setting up customer testimonials for your company today and see how much they can help you.

Facebook has launched this service in an effort to tackle payments behemoth PayPal. Twitter also launched a payment service in partnership with Barclay’s Bank. Facebook wants to make sure that it leaves no domain untapped in the contemporary tech world.

Facebook already processes over 1 million payments daily for its ads and games business. These payments are done via PayPal. SnapChat also signed a deal with Square Cash payment service for its SnapCash payment service. Google Wallet, Venmo are some other competitors Facebook want to compete.

Giving a payments feature in Facebook Messenger app is a smart move by Facebook. People mostly don’t want to open new apps and service for a single task. Just pressing the $ sign and sending money to a friend will be preferred by Facebook users. Security and authentication will be a key factor in the success of Facebook payments service.

Facebook’s plans for its payment service were leaked in some hacked images a few months back. The service is now officially announced.

Facebook payment feature will be rolled out in the US in the coming months. PayPal also issued a statement and said that it has strong working relationships with Facebook and both companies will keep working on joint endeavors in the future as well.

]]> https://socialmediaseo.net/2015/03/17/you-can-now-send-money-to-friends-using-facebook-messenger-app/feed/ 0 https://socialmediaseo.net/2015/03/16/yahoo-launches-password-free-email-login-and-encrypted-email-features/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=yahoo-launches-password-free-email-login-and-encrypted-email-features https://socialmediaseo.net/2015/03/16/yahoo-launches-password-free-email-login-and-encrypted-email-features/#respond Mon, 16 Mar 2015 18:42:15 +0000 http://preview.socialmediaseo.net/?p=32009 Yahoo has announced a new security feature which could be easily labelled as a revolutionary step towards password free yet highly secure technological era. The tech giant said that it is going to let its users login Yahoo’s email service without any password. Instead, users could use an on-demand service which will be using a smartphone as the primary device. So whenever a user wants to login his/her Yahoo account, the password will be sent to the user-owned smartphone. This will not be a onetime password rather it will be randomly and securely generated for every user separately on every request.

This is a daring step by Yahoo. Facebook, Twitter and Google have been trying since long to devise a mechanism to get rid of passwords. Passwords are fairly hackable because of their weak nature. A majority of users don’t spend time making their password. A user prefers a same password for all servers or user a chunk of a word in different password. This compromises the security and we have seen hundreds of hacking attempts in the recent past that went successful.

But Yahoo’s latest on-demand password free service has one potential flaw which could collapse your digital identity. All your security depends upon your smartphone. If an intruder succeeds in getting hands on your smartphone, your Yahoo account could be easily breached.

In a statement, Yahoo said that its on-demand password service is the first step towards enhancing mobile security.

Yahoo’s new service will show you the password in the SMS form even if the phone is locked. This could create massive problems if the phone is placed on a public location. Yahoo could devise a two factor authentication, temporary password or secret questions mechanism to beef up its new system’s strength.

Yahoo said that it is also working on end-to-end encryption algorithm for its email service which will be launched soon.

]]> https://socialmediaseo.net/2015/03/16/yahoo-launches-password-free-email-login-and-encrypted-email-features/feed/ 0 https://socialmediaseo.net/2015/02/28/snapchat-the-biggest-threat-to-facebook-and-twitter/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=snapchat-the-biggest-threat-to-facebook-and-twitter https://socialmediaseo.net/2015/02/28/snapchat-the-biggest-threat-to-facebook-and-twitter/#respond Sat, 28 Feb 2015 15:21:21 +0000 http://preview.socialmediaseo.net/?p=31986 Snapchat is a famous ephemeral messaging app which has millions of users across the globe. It is mostly used by teens and millennials. A majority of experts though that Snapchat is just another messaging app and it will not be able to come even close to tech giants like Facebook, Twitter and Google. But things are quickly turning around. An article on Business Insider said that Snapchat is not just an app to share naughty photos which could get disappeared within seconds; it is more than that. Recently, a video labelled as “Snowpoclypse” got around 26 million views in a single day. This shows the potential of Snapchat. It can easily become a social media goliath in the coming months.

Snapchat’s timing feature is not the only one which has imbibed millions of users. There is a feature called ‘Snapchat Stories’ in which a user can stick short videos and photos in a single story and it can be embedded in different posts.

The source added that the major difference between Snapchat and Facebook is that people don’t have to see the stories in the timeline of the users. Snapchat users can see the stories by opening the profiles manually.

Snapchat has not started ads services yet but it can generate billions of dollars from the ads platform. Users press and hold to watch the Snapchat content; this would mean that advertisers will have the idea about when there content is being watched.

Snapchat ads, unlike Facebook and Twitter, will be opt-in, meaning that users will only see them when they like. This would mean a clean ads platform but with more results.

Snapchat can also host ads on its videos and challenge Google which is already struggling in its Youtube business.

Twitter’s revenue surged by 97% and brushed $479.1 million whereas the Street was eying for something around $453 million. The losses also plummeted for Twitter. The social media giant depleted its losses to $125 million whereas the loss was above $500 million as compared to the last year.

Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo has finally got some space for a breather. He was lashed out by investors for bad results since consecutive quarters. However, the user growth for Twitter still remains a problematic area. Twitter has reported that its users went up by 20% to 288 million by the end of 2014. The estimates were around of 22%. Overall, the user growth came down by 2% as compared to the last year, a red flag for Twitter, which is being crushed by Facebook and Instagram.

Soon after the report, Twitter’s stock went up by 9%. Twitter’s CEO spoke to the media and claimed that Twitter ended the year 2014 with a positive sign. He said that Twitter is working on a number of projects which are being designed for all the users, whether they have an account on Twitter or not.

Twitter also recently signed a deal with Google regarding real-time Tweets. The company is revamping its management and policies to get back in action in 2015.

Twitter has currently 284 million users. Recently, a senior Twitter executive freaked out in an interview when he was told that Instagram users have crossed Twitter users. Also, there are many reports that surfaced claiming that a huge chunk of Twitter users are not active; meaning that either they didn’t come after the first tweet or they just made their account on Twitter. Twitter is also used by thousands of small businesses, which are using bots to increase their traffic from social media.

A similar deal was stuck between Google and Twitter back in 2009 but couldn’t last longer due to multiple issues. The problem was a disagreement on how Google will access and show Twitter data. Meanwhile, Google launched its own social media platform and tried to push back Twitter and other rivals in traffic. It is also important to note that after 2009, Twitter didn’t report any increase in traffic; an indicator that real time tweets might not work perfectly for the social media giant.

Twitter has also signed a deal with Yahoo and Flipboard regarding social media ads. Twitter is being lashed out by investors on its slow user growth and mismanagement of affairs at the highest levels in the company. A few renowned investors also demanded resignation from Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo.

Twitter is set to report its fourth quarter earnings very soon.

According to reports, China has ordered its citizens that users of local and international social media services will have to give their real names and identification data in order to be eligible to use the service. The regulatory authorities have said that in the past, many security breaches were surfaced because of fake social media accounts, in which the culprits were impersonating governmental, law enforcing figures to deceive the public.

A statement issued online by the Chinese authorities said that users will have to make their accounts with real name. However, they can use screen names of their choice, provided that they don’t contain any illicit and unreasonable names. Similarly, profile pictures will also be under check from the Chinese regulatory authorities for the social media.

China has always been a staunch and vehement opponent of social media freedom, blogging and US based social media services. A few months ago, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg went to China and conducted a public meeting where he delivered a talk in Chinese language, an apparent effort to soften up the Chinese authorities for smooth operations of Facebook inside the country. But that effort seems to not have worked.

Sources think that latest move from the Chinese government is a threat to freedom of speech for local platforms. QQ, Weibo’ Tieba are some of the pronounced social media outlets in China. The internet users in China grew by 649 million in 2014, and the government is worried about increasing freedom of speech enjoyed by users on blogs, comments and social media platforms.

The registration process for social media users for giving their real names will start from 1^st March 2015. All those users who don’t comply to this rule will be banned from using social media in China.

Use Social Media To Improve Your Job Search is an infographic that was produced by Gumtree