In one week @skincarechannel garnered more than 1200 followers following Eco Press’ Advice.

Small to medium-sized business make self-defeating mistakes when it comes to their social media marketing campaigns (or lack of)! In this post, I’d like to cover the 4 most common mistakes business owners commit; and, in my humble opinion, if they continue on this path, they’ll find themselves out of business sooner-than-later!

1. Quantity Over Quality (though a more proper term is measurable metrics):

90% of business owners that my agency runs social media audits for are under the FALSE belief that the number of fans they have is more important than the quality of fans/followers. The big mistake here is that business owners still view social media networks as mass tools to shove content down consumers throats. This is so frustrating to me. Gone is the ear of telemarketing and pushy sales. Social media is about tangible connections which offer solution driven content. You want to know the secret to client conversion, STOP PUSHING YOUR SERVICES/PRODUCTS on them. They’ll resent you for it! The reality is that it really doesn’t matter if you have 12,000 followers, if they’re not sharing your content, videos, tweets and the like, it’s equal to having ZERO fans! Social media is based on engagement. In fact, SEO will change and depend largely on how much interaction you’re having with your clients/fans/followers.

2.  Too Many Social Media Handles:

From Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn to Pinterest to Google Plus to Tumblr to Instagram to SnapChat, what’s a business owner to do? First, pick two or three you’re comfortable with. Plus, sit back, take a deep breath and analyze what these social media sites offer and the type of business you have. If your business caters to women, Pinterest is quite appropriate. It’s not if your business mainly caters to men. If you’re a dentist, Twitter and Facebook are quite appropriate. If you’re a realtor, Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter are more than enough, if you’d like to add LinkedIn for extra measure, go for it. You don’t need the other forums. However, if your business caters to teens, you’d want to focus on Tumblr, Instagram and SnapChat. More and more teens are growing bored with Facebook, so it would be a waste of your time. Pick up to three and you won’t waste your time or get overwhelmed.

3. Making Your Tweets and Posts All About You!!!

Notice the extra exclamation marks? I can’t begin to explain to you how frustrating it is for me to explain to my clients that social media networks are not about them or their business, but rather about the fans/followers/consumers. If you keep pushing your services down their throats, you’ll lose out to your competitors. If fact, I’ll go out on a limb, and make this bold statement by saying that within five years, you’ll be out business if you continue to ignore or use social media as it is meant to be. The last thing you want to do is bore your fans/followers by always talking about your brand. Of course, you want to sell more products and/or services, but unless you focus on how these services/products will improve their quality-of-life (so to speak), you’ll lose out. I guarantee you that if you start pushing out interesting and useful content, you’ll gain more fans/followers through engagement of comments and shares!

4. If You Fail To Plan, You Plan To Fail:

First, let me tell you this– if you’re not taking risks in social media, you’ll fail. I urge you to try different forums. Play around with your content and see what type of response you’re getting. If you’re not interacting and your content is not shared, change it up. Don’t be afraid of failure! I recommend that you make a weekly schedule. Pick a day or two for writing helpful content. Then pick a day or several days to share the content via the social media forums that best suit your business.

 Please let me know if you have any questions or need a specific idea for your business. I’ll be happy to answer short questions and give you some quick social media marketing tips and advice. Just leave a comment below.

Wishing you much success,

Anabelle Taub

http://www.ecopressinc.com/?p=746

A new iOS app for high rollers is now available for $999. The VIP Black known as “The Millionaire’s App,” offers the wealthy access to VIP luxury venues around the globe. Not to mention complimentary upgrades to hotels  or priority access to exclusive clubs.

Here is more from the app’s iTunes listing: “Partners include Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, Virgin Limited Edition (Necker Island, The Lodge Verbier, and more.), Firmdale Hotels, and many other premium brands, venues and services around the world. Membership covers all aspects of the luxury lifestyle including butlers, theaters, personal trainers, private jets, a concierge, casinos, personal styling as well as a personal assistant.

http://www.ecopressinc.com/?p=739

I am still baffled that Google has not gotten its act together and fixed this ongoing issue with Google alerts not working! I wrote a post about it on 2/22/2013. Over a month later, and the issue has not been resolved. I just learned about this alternative, and I’ve read that it is a formidable option to Google’s ever failing alerts system. Try Talkwalker alerts system. Please share by commenting below if you like this option. Thus far, I feel it’s a mirror system to Google’s now defunct system. As a social media marketing agency based out of Miami, Florida, following trends on a daily basis is an integral part of our work. I am quite excited about Talkwalker.

Wishing you a great day,

Aanbelle Taub

http://www.ecopressinc.com/?p=732

Design your own eBook cover.

SelfPubBookCovers.com (launched by indie authors) designed an app to help you create a cover for your newly written and edited eBook. The site boasts thousands of eBook cover templates. They give you the opportunity to design and customize any of these premade covers. Once you choose and purchase your design, the company will remove it from their system, so that this cover will be unique to one author. If you so choose, you also have the option to sell your design/s as book covers on this site.

 

http://www.ecopressinc.com/?p=727

Google Keep App for Android

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google has just introduced a new Android app for taking notes (very similar to Evernote) called Keep. True to form, being it’s a Google app, it will feature a search function. The app lets you take jot down thoughts, create lists and even add photos to help you organize your notes.

If you snap a photo in the app, you can then edit it using all of Android’s built-in camera features (cropping, color balancing, photo filters and borders). Using Android’s sharing features, you share a photo by e-mail, text messaging, Picasa, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Path, Dropbox and even Amazon’s Send to Kindle feature.

Google has also built a Keep widget, which can be placed on your Android home screen, or on your phone or tablet’s lock screen, which would enable users to add a reminder without even having to unlock their device.

We’d love to hear from you if you like Keep; and, whether or not you prefer it over Evernote. Please comment below and let us know.

Wishing you a great day,

Anabelle Taub
Eco Press

http://www.ecopressinc.com/?p=722

I am actually really excited about this app. VisualCV affords you the forum to create your own digital CV/resume. It’s interactive. VisualCV lets you create an Internet-based, media-rich resume and share it with potential employers. Using the tool, you can build a resume that uses visuals to make it more appealing to look at. For the last few years there’s been a trend to stand out from the crowd, so many people seeking jobs opted to have a website designed on their behalf and sent out the link to their site when applying for jobs. Although I am a web designer (our agency is based out of Miami, Florida), I am happy that there is a free or less expensive alternative for  people who are unemployed. Have a look at some wonderful examples.

 

Please do share this post with anyone you know that is looking for a job. It’s a good deed, and you may just help them change their current difficult situation.

I’d love to hear from you if this app/site helped you find and land a job.

Wishing you much luck in all of your future endeavors,

Anabelle Taub

http://www.ecopressinc.com/?p=719

Gallaudet University’s Science of Learning Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning has created a series of iPad storybook apps for deaf children.

The first book in the series of three is called The Baobab. The series is designed to help children with difficulty hearing learn how to read American Sign Language and English.

Melissa Malzkuhn, VL2′s digital innovation and media strategies manager, explains, ” The apps are aimed at kids, four and up, or you can say four-to-seven years old, as in early and emerging readers. In our focus groups, we had children as young as two years old enjoy the storybook app, and in some instances, there were eight or nine month old babies trying to follow and mimic signs.”

http://www.ecopressinc.com/?p=713

Consistent social media trends continue to show that teens are bored with Facebook. Engagement numbers among teens using Facebook continues to decline. Personally I think it’s because of the lack of privacy; a downfall I wrote about over a year ago. Instead, teens are obsessed with apps such as Instagram (now available on desktop as well) and SnapChat. SnapChat is an app that allows for more privacy. Cyber bullying took an ominous turn utilizing Facebook. I am for one glad that there’s a forum for teens to be able to express themselves without having to worry about their images being plastered on dozens and dozens of virtual walls.

Here’s a bit more about the SnapChat app (directly copies from the developer’s website):

Snapchat is a new way to share moments with friends. Snap an ugly selfie or a video, add a caption, and send it to a friend (or maybe a few). They’ll receive it, laugh, and then the snap disappears.The image might be a little grainy, and you may not look your best, but that’s the point. It’s about the moment, a connection between friends, and not just a pretty picture.

I closely monitor teen social media trends, because I know that they are always up-to-date with the latest and most innovative social media networks and apps. I plan on updating my blog with more on the latest apps; especially those that can be utilized by small business owners, so please be sure to subscribe and visit often.

Have a splendid day,

Anabelle Taub