Must Know Social Media Stats for 2014

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The simple fact of the matter is – the things we used to invest time in and that worked on social media no longer do, so it’s crucial to invest in the social media the provides the best ROI. This means you need the most up to date data on offer to make those rewarding decisions.

Recently, social media guru Jeff Bullas provided the world with a whole host of statistics on social media and the trends that we’re seeing at the moment. We’re going to take a closer look.

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The Main Takeaways

Social media is widely utilised across the planet and more influential than it’s ever been. Social influences how people think about us, how often they see us and also influence search results more-so than ever before. So, it’s an imperative to enhance your presence. Here are some stats:
• 72% of web browsers are on social media
• 89% of 18-29 year olds are users
• 72% of 30-49 year olds use social media
• 60% of 50-60 year olds use social media
• 43% of over-65s use social
• 71% do so via mobile

Facebook

The biggest of all social media sites, Facebook is a must for businesses to be on if they’re to be taken seriously. It’s not as much of a monopoly as it once was but it’s still extremely important to business. Here are some Facebook stats to get you thinking:
• Facebook users – 1.15Bn
• 47% of Americans say it’s a buying influencer
• The average American is online for 16% of an hour each day
• 70% of the new customers marketers get are via the platform

Twitter

Big changes to Twitter in the last 12 months mean it can now showcase video and rich media content. This has made it increasingly influential for sellers and means it can easily increase leads, engagement and brand exposure for business. Of course, the addition of social media PPC services and advertising also has an impact on Twitter, as it’s had on Facebook and Google before it.
• Twitter has 550m subscribers
• Twitter has 215m active users
• Twitter grew 44% in the last two years to Jan 2014
• Twitter is used by 34% of markers to generate leads

Google+

Google+, owned by Google, has the most impact on search engines according to statistics and Google+1s are seen as an influential ranking factor, as does AuthorRank. The site has achieved a lot in an understated manner in less than three years and impacts the way we produce content not just for social, but also blogs and on-site too.
• There are over 1Bn active accounts
• Google+ has over 360m active users each month
• Google+ grew at a 33% rate last year
• The 45-56 year old bracket has increased usage by 56% since 2012.

Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram

The visual social media sites are incredibly influential and social media networks such as Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram are only going to increase in popularity.
• Pinterest has 20m active users a month
• Instagram has 150m active users a month
• YouTube has 1bn active users a month

Social media in its more traditional form and also the more visual forms is worth investment more-so now than ever. Creating a complete strategy that incorporates your content and these social channels, as well as email and web design will provide you with the leverage to address your needs realise your social media potential and make 2014 a very successful year.

Google Places: The Benefits and Advantages for Business

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Google Places - Local Businesses

Google Places – Local Businesses

At the end of 2010, Google did something quite radical: they combined their organic ranking results with their existing Google Maps data to create a new service called Google Places. Google Places helps people find what they are looking for when searching locally.

Each time a search is conducted on Google, organically displayed listings are displayed and each listing incorporates a title in addition to a short description. This is all that is seen until the visitor clicks through to a particular website. However, each time a potential customer uses Google to search for a certain area of interest in a given location, it is extremely likely they end up seeing a results page which contains a Google Places listing. This kind of listing includes a map with several businesses pinpointed in addition to their basic information such as a local phone number and an address.

It seems sensible that if someone is trying to find a local business, they should find the same rather than a well-optimized website. Google has therefore taken the position that local businesses should have an edge with regards to local search. In simple terms, Google have optimised their search engine results pages for local businesses. This is why all business owners should promote their business using Google Places.

When someone searching Google encounters a Google Places Listing, it basically results in more sales conversions for the business in that listing as people tend to make a phone call to the business directly as opposed to click through to a business website or a more in depth Google Places listing.

Google Places delivers a trusted communication channel so that consumers are able to connect, interact with and develop a genuine, more personal relationship with their local businesses.

Google Places has numerous benefits over traditional organic results and here are some of them:

Benefits of Google Places

  • Google Places can boost the quantity of targeted visitors from geographical search keywords.
  • Google Places has more trust than pay-per-click advertising: Organic search results are lists that naturally display in the results pages of the search engines. Most search engine results pages have a combination of paid and organic advertisements. The organic ones are frequently the most trusted by the general public as these are results which have been gained over a period of time. Compare that to paid listings where the site controller can just bid on any keywords that they like, and their website could, if they wish, have nothing at all to do with the searched keywords.
  • Google Places is free.
  • Google Places is succinct. It allows your prospective clients the opportunity to begin to know you and what you have to offer in a lot less time than it would most likely take to look through your internet site.
  • Google Places results have the potential to show up on both Google Map searches as well as for local searches.
  • With Google Places results it is possible to outrank other more established businesses. Search engines are notoriously challenging to rank for but with Google Places, you can rapidly jump to the top of the listings even with a brand new website.
  • By using citations and reviews, your Google Places listing will progress in ranking. With higher ranking, your cost-free advertising with Google Places will give you more targeted customers quicker than traditional organic methods.
  • When your Google Places listing is optimized properly, your business has the potential to appear on the first page of Google.
  • Mobile phone users can discover your Google Places listing easily, and they do not require a computer to do so. If they are on foot and close to your business, then they may even start walking towards you.
  • Google places pages tend to be more important for businesses that serve a particular geographic area, for instance a gas heating engineer or electrician, and not as important for say a web design company.
  • Google Places is extremely simple to use and easy to manage.
  • Your website, postal address, and your phone number are displayed within your Google Places listing, enabling customers to locate you faster and to obtain the information they require.
  • Photo Shoots for Free – If you are operating a business located in a major city, Google Places may be prepared to visit your business premises to take some professional high quality photographs free of charge. Google do this as it enhances the quality of their search results. Also, it makes it possible for Google to confirm that you are an authentic business.
  • The Google Places interface enables the business to entirely manage what is seen in the Search Engine Results Pages. They can update online videos and images, give information such as their opening hours, and more importantly, the listing may also show reviews written by previously satisfied customers.
  • Your Google Places page can offer discounts and coupons and this will further entice customers to buy from you.
  • Online advertising like Google Places is the future, and it will replace paper phone directories. If someone is looking for businesses within your town, they are more likely to use the Internet as opposed to the Yellow Pages.

Summary

It’s not enough to have a Google Places listing. You will want to make sure that you are showing up on the first page of the Google Search Engine Results Pages, in exactly the same way that it is important to be on the first page of organic rankings. If you would like help setting up your own Google Places listing and achieving a high ranking, it makes sense to bring a Google Places expert or local SEO expert on board. The return on investment will likely be high in comparison to your tiny outlay.

SocialAdr – Social Bookmarking Tool

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SocialAdr Free Bookmarking Tool

Socialadr Introduction

I always find that it is a good thing to have a diverse number of link sources when trying to promote your website as it seems that too many incoming links from the one range of IP addresses does not have as much impact. In addition, Google and other major search engines are starting to put more weight on social networking when it comes to passing link equity to your website or blog, and this is where SocialAdr comes into play.

SocialAdr is a 100% free to use Social Bookmarking Service. Socialadr works by sharing your bookmarks (urls) across approximately 20 different social accounts (Twitter, Delicious etc) that belong to thousands of other users. Socialadr has a small disadvantage in that it requires an hours work to get all the social accounts set up initially, however it is worth doing this as once the initial setup is complete, it takes very little time each day to keep SocialAdr working away for you.

Here are the steps you need to take to get Socialadr up and running:

1. Sign up for a free SocialAdr account.
2. Use the SocialAdr Setup wizard to create each of your social accounts.
3. Click the “Quick Share” button in the Socialadr interface to post other peoples links to your social accounts.
4. Create some bookmarks on Socialadr that you would like other users to share.

Lets go through the steps in a little bit more detail.

1. Sign up to Socialadr is easy. Click Register, scroll to the bottom of the very long page and click on “Get started with SocialAdr Now!”. You will then be taken to a screen when you can enter your Name and Email address. Again, scroll down to the bottom of the next screen and click “No thanks, Free for Now”. There is a final bribe page to get you to sign up. Once again, scroll down to the bottom and click “No Thanks, take me to registration”.

2. Once you have registered with Socialadr you are ready to set up your social accounts. You can use existing social accounts such as your existing Twitter account if you like. However, as I really didn’t want to be sending out strange and wonderful bookmarks to my friends I created approximately 20 new brand-new accounts especially for SocialAdr and I suggest you do the same. Using the wizard, create each account and populate the log-on details so that SocialAdr can sign-in and post on your behalf.

3. Once you have all your social accounts added to Socialadr, you simply have to click the “Quick Share” button and share the 5 bookmarks that come up. This will earn you some credits. You will get a notification to your email as each bookmark is shared. This can get annoying after a while so click on settings and then Notifications to turn some of the notifications off. Note that you will only be able to do a “Quick Share” in Socialadr one time per day.

4. Finally, create the bookmarks you want to share using Socialadr. You can do this by clicking on Bookmarks, Add Bookmark. You need to enter the URL of the page you want to promote as well as a title, a description and tags. The title and the description should be spun. If you do not already have a spinning tool I would highly recommend The Best Spinner. As the name suggests, it IS the best spinner and it will save you lots of time compared to the free alternatives due to its huge community-driven database of synonyms (you can get by with either Content Professor or Jetsubmitter 2). Create as many bookmarks as you would like to share on Socialadr but a couple will get you started and you can always come back and add more when you have time.

The Best Spinner Sign-up

Content Professor

Socialadr Maintenance

And that is it done! You should log in to your SocialAdr account every day, click the “Quick Share” button and share your 5 links to keep the Socialadr credits rolling in.

SocialAdr

In addition to social bookmarking using Socialadr, you may want to build some links to your website using Linxboss and at the same time get 125-150 FREE LINKS to your website. See our Linxboss Review for further information.

If you know of any other great free social bookmarking tools please let me know in the comments below as this is the only one I have found to be any good.