One Simple Tool to Maximize Your Social Media Reach

Klout score

I’m going to talk about a way you can super charge your social media marketing efforts. It involves finding influential people online.

I’ll explain an a bit how to do that and give you an example of who social media influencer is.

I’m sure you desire getting your website or business talked about online. Positive word of mouth is the pot of gold at the end or your marketing efforts.

This can be achieved with concentrated effort on finding influencers in your city. You simply need to focus on quality and not the quantity of followers.

Luckily there is another free internet marketing tool which tells you who the online influencers are.

It’s called Klout.

Klout is a website and mobile app that uses social media analytics to rank its users according to online social influence via the “Klout Score”, which is a numerical value between 1 and 100

Find Influential Klout Users

Last post I talked about a great free tool to help you get more Twitter followers for free. This will post will talk about finding quality people to follow. And how to build a relationship with them.

The key is to build.

You can’t expect them to start sharing your business or website right off the bat. There is too much at risk for them. They have a loyal group of followers. Their word is bond.

They have to get to know you. Trust you. Then they will share your business.

So here is how to find online influencers:

  1. Download the Klout for Google Chrome extension
  2. In your Twitter account create a list for your influencers
  3. Head to a Twitter directory like Twello
  4. Search for people in your city or geographical area
  5. Click on their Twitter profile link
  6. Follow and add them to your Twitter list

Because you have added the Klout Chrome extension, you’ll be able to see people’s Klout scores.

Klout Scores on Twitter

If they aren’t signed up for Klout, you won’t see the Klout logo and score beside their handle.

You’re looking for people with scores over 45.

The Klout logo also acts as a link to their Klout profile. When you click through to someone’s profile you’ll be able to see what other social networks they are on.

Ideally, you want to find people who are on Google +, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Foursquare as well.

Here’s what to look for:

  • Are they active on Google +? If so they probably write reviews.
  • Are they Tweeting a lot on Twitter?
  • Do they interact with people on Twitter?
  • Do they check in on Foursquare? If so are they Tweeting it out and sharing it on Facebook?
  • Are they written tips/reviews on Foursquare? Chances are good they’re writing reviews on Yelp and Google + as well.
  • Are they taking a lot of pictures on Instagram?

This person is a prime example of being an online influencer.
People like them are avid social media users. Those are the people who can supercharge your social media marketing.

Once, of course, you build a relationship with them first.

Here’s how to do that:

  1. Follow them on as many social networks as you can
  2. Interact with them (without selling yourself)
  3. Share and retweet any content they put out

After you have built up some online communication, keep doing it.

Then subscribe to my email newsletter because I’m going to be blogging about how you can strategically get these people to talk about your business online. You can subscribe up in the top right hand corner or in the popup box that will appear at the bottom of this post.

Trust me, that post will really super charge your social media marketing like never before.

How To Get More Twitter Followers

How To Get More Twitter Followers

How To Get More Twitter Followers

 

I could write a real long post on this subject. There are hundreds of ways you can do it. But you’re busy.

So I thought why not share with you the fastest way!

I’m going to let you know that resource in a bit. But I want to explain the psychology behind having lots of followers. and why it will help you get more.

Social Proof

You probably think that more Twitter followers means more retweets and shares right? Well, not so fast. Chances are good many of the followers you get will not be in your geographical area. Therefore how can they buy from you? Unless of course you run an e-commerce website.

I’ll assume you run a brick and mortar store though. Now even though many of your new followers may not be in your area, they alone will help you get others to follow you.

Just how to get more Twitter followers though?

Social proof.

Having lots of Facebook likes can lead to getting people to like your page simply because lots of other people liked it. Read more about social proof in my Facebook marketing post.

So the definition of social proof is:

Informational social influence is a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others reflect correct behaviour for a given situation.

But social proof is online and offline.

Here’s a quick offline example.

Last month I went to a baseball game. When my friend and I arrived at the gates to buy tickets we noticed two line-ups. There was no signage saying “buy tickets” on either line.

So everyone who got to the line-ups was relying on what the other people were doing.

Of the two line-ups, one had 15 people in it. The other only had three people.

Naturally we were excited to watch the game so we went to the smaller line. Surely enough we got out tickets in under a minute. The other line had hardly moved though.

Remember that there were no signs for both these lines. Without any direction people had to rely on what others were doing. So they blindly followed the actions of others by lining up in the larger line. That line was bigger and they assumed that was the correct and only line to purchase tickets. They figured the smaller line was for role call.

Social proof works online too.

If you’re on Twitter and you see someone with over 2000 followers, you’ll probably follow them. You’re essentially following the actions of others by following that person. After all since lots of people are following them, you should to right?

Having a large number of followers can lead you to getting more people to follow you much easier. They won’t second guess following you because you only have 300 followers. Nope. They’ll see you have 3000+ followers and think you must be important.

How To Get Them Fast

Alright. I’m still going strong with my content strategy of writing about the 10 best free Internet marketing tools.

The tool I am about to share with you lists 2000 Twitter users who are very likely to follow you back.

That tools is http://www.letsallfollowback.com/.

Pretty cool right? I’d give yourself a good hour to go through and see how many people you can follow.

Let me know how many followers you get from using this tool.

PS. In my next post I’m going to talk about another free tool that indicates how influential people are on social networks. Be sure to signup for my email newsletter so you don’t miss that post.

What James Bond can teach you about your competitors’ websites

spy on your competitors' websites

Want to learn why other websites are ranking higher than yours?

Of course you do!

Doing so requires you to channel your inner James Bond.

Ok well, maybe not as you’re not going to be pulling off ridiculous stunts.

But you can use a couple of Internet marketing tools to spy on your competitors’ sites.

If you are already subscribed to my updates or have been following this blog for the last couple of months, you’ll recall I’m going through a list of the 10 best free internet marketing tools.

Although I will be posting two tools today, I’ll consider them one.

How On Site SEO Works

 
Before I get into these two tools lets simplify the SEO process. I like to consider search engine optimization a lot easier then what many believe it is. Which is why this is will be brief! There is on-site and off site SEO.

These websites that are ranking higher than yours started by doing keyword (keyphrase) research. And they probably looked into longer search terms as well.

From there they implemented those keywords into their text. But they made sure they didn’t stuff too many keywords onto one page.

Those are the first two steps. But you might want to find out what terms these higher ranking websites are targeting.

This is where the spying begins! Don’t worry as this requires no training at all. Just the ability to download and install an extension for Google chrome.

Spy On Their Keywords

 

It may be obvious, but if you want to see what keyword phrases these higher ranking websites are targeting, you can use the Meta SEO Inspector extension for Google chrome.

Once you install this extension, you’ll see it on the top right hand side of your Chrome browser. Once you are on your competitors’ website, click on the light bulb to turn it on. From there click on the “toggle info-box”.

Meta SEO Inspector extension

A popup will appear in the bottom right of your screen.

Meta SEO inspector for Google Chrome

This is where you can see what keywords they are targeting.

How Off Site SEO Works

 
After the keywords were added to their site, they then generated backlinks. This is known as off-site SEO.

Backlinks or linkbuilding is the way Google knows that your website is important and valuable to their searchers. So if you have a large amount of high quality backlinks, the better your site will rank.

To spy on where your competitors’ backlinks are coming from, you can use any of these five websites.

Backlink Watch

Analyze Backlinks

Open Site Explorer

Link Diagnosis

Ahrefs

Once you know where their links are coming from, you can work with your SEO company to develop and backlinking strategy.

Once you follow the steps I’ve laid out for you, you’ll be able to understand why your competitors’ websites are ranking higher than yours.

If you have any questions, please post a comment below and I’ll be happy to help you out.

Save Time Posting On Your Social Networks

Hootsuite saves you time

Time is valuable. Social media is important.

And if you run your own business, you might be struggling to find time to monitor and post on your social networks. Thankfully there is Hootsuite to solve both problems. It’s another one of my ten best free internet marketing tools that you should totally be using.

Hootsuite can manage all your social networks in one place. It’s great if you have content you want to share on multiple accounts at once. There’s nothing worse than having to login to each social network to post and update or see who’s talking to you.

But Hootsuite does that and allows you to schedule posts into the future. Overall it’s great for when you and your staff are busy. They also have a mobile app which is great if you’re on the road and don’t have a laptop with you.

Hootsuite’s Dashboard

 
What I love most about Hootsuite is the ability to monitor streams. From specific Twitter lists or Google + cirlces, you can see specific streams from all your networks. This is a huge timesaver. No longer do you have to login to each of your accounts to see what people are saying. You can do this all from the dashboard.

Here is what the dashboard looks like. You’ll notice that I have all four of my social networks and specific lists and streams running.
 
The Hootsuite dashboard

Anita Campbell from Smallbiztrends wrote and in depth review on Hootsuite which I encourage you to check out. If your going to take my advice and start using this great free internet marketing tool, then watch the video below for a tutorial on how it all works.
 

 
Do you use Hootsuite or any other social media management tool?

A Tool to Critique Your Internet Marketing Efforts

Hubspot's Marketing Grader

Today’s post is going to be short and sweet. It’s my fifth post in a series of the ten best free Internet marketing tools you should be using.

This post will cover Hubspot’s Marketing Grader. It’s like Webmaster tools but it analyzes much more. It grades your social media, SEO, blogging, mobile and lead generation.

To have all those areas graded, simply head over to Hubspot Marketing Grader then enter your website and email. Give it a couple of seconds and you’ll see where you’re strong and weak. Then what to do about the weaknesses’.

Pretty simple and like I said, it’s a short post. But a useful one.

As a side note I want you to learn about how Hubspot markets.

They provide valuable content and resources. This tool is no different. It’s a great way to provide value in exchange for someone’s email address. Then they send you more great learning tools through their email marketing.

Think about what valuable content you can give away in exchange for someone’s email address.