Before you start with cries of not having enough time or energy, consider the top five reasons that social media can help your business.

1. Become an expert. Through social media you can become a trusted resource about your particular niche area. With careful posts and discussions, you can easily create an energy about you and your company that helps to give you an expert voice. This gives potential customers and clients confidence in your skills, knowledge and ability.
2. Increase conversions. What do we mean by ‘conversions’? It’s great if you drive people to your site, but these days more than ever people want to make connections with others. If someone lands on your website via your social media or they direct themselves there because of some social media contact with you, they feel they already know you, know about your company and will be more likely to actually do business with you. Those website visits, then, will more than likely convert into sales.
3. Tell your story. Through your social media efforts, you can tell others the story of your company, not just how it started or what you do, but who you are. One thing we have learned about social media is that people like to do business with companies they know, that they feel comfortable with. Telling your story of who you are, what‘s important to you and why others should be invested in your success is a natural way to share that story and develop a larger customer base.
4. Get help. Don’t operate in a vacuum. Through social media outreach efforts, you can get help when you need it. Trying to create a video to place on Facebook? There’s likely someone who can help you and you can find them through social media. In turn, you might be able to help someone else.
5. Develop your brand. As we all know, branding is critical to the success of our companies. It’s important that we think about who we are and what we do. Once you understand that and the culture of your company, you can work on developing that brand. By participating regularly in social media efforts, you create that brand. Whether your company is all business or a bit quirky, mainstream or counter-culture, you can help others understand your company’s brand before they deal with you directly.

Engaging in social media efforts might seem like a time-consuming thing to do, but a few minutes a day can reap huge rewards, including more business, a clearer business focus and perhaps even a few new friends.

1. Content Management
At its core, WordPress is a versatile content management system that provides you with many different ways to manage your content. You can easily update your blog posts and pages without needing technical knowledge.

2. User Friendly
WordPress makes it simple for anyone to log in and immediately understand how to use the system. WordPress has a low learning curve that allows you to quickly deploy your website!

3. Search Engine Optimization

WordPress has many features built-in, such as permalinks, which provide an immediate SEO benefit. SEO plugins are also available to further enhance these features.

4. Frequent Updates
The WordPress creator, Automattic, releases updates, security patches and bug fixes on a regular basis. New features are constantly being added to the system.

5. Theme Selection
Even if you have never designed your own website before, WordPress has countless free and paid theme options to customize the look and feel of your site. Website developers are typically well versed in the WordPress platform, giving you many choices for custom designs.

6. Plugins
Thousands of plugins are available for the WordPress platform, making it easy to enhance the default features of your WordPress site. The most common plugins are used for twitter feeds, contact forms and newsletter subscriptions.

7. Flexibility
WordPress can be used for websites beyond a standard blog. The templating system also works well for business, magazine, portfolio, and landing sites.

8. Third-Party Application Support

Many different third-party companies create ways for their API to interface with the WordPress platform. These add-ons extend the basic WordPress features and can transform it into a full-fledged store, by adding payment processors or extending the gallery features.

Don’t have time to set up your own WordPress site? Don’t worry our experienced team is happy to help, contact Baycentric today to get started.

What is SOPA & PIPA?

Companies that also strongly oppose SOPA & PIPA

• Facebook
• Google
• Wikipedia
• Twitter
• Linkedin
• Craigslist
  View More

Let Congress know you OPPOSE H.R. 3261 “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) and S. 968 “Protect IP Act” (PIPA):

• Reverse Robocall ALL pro-SOPA MOC + Key Lobbyists (Genius! More info on Ars Technica)
• Phone your Member of Congress the old fashioned way (House) (Senate)
• Contact Senators who are refusing to meet with constituents about SOPA/PIPA.
• EFF Congressional Emailer – Oppose Internet Blacklisting (SOPA & PIPA)
• ECA Congressional Emailer - Don’t Censor Our Internet!
• OpenCongress Congressional Emailer – Oppose SOPA
• Generic Congressional Emailer (You’ll need your Zip+4)
• Outside the US? Sign Petition Opposing US Censorship of Global Sites (EFF)

Learn more about SOPA, Protect IP (PIPA), and Internet Blacklisting:

• Growing Chorus of Opposition to SOPA
• Open Letter against SOPA from 83 Prominent Internet Engineers
• Why SOPA and Protect IP (PIPA) are Bad, Bad Ideas (Techdirt)
• Piracy not a problem, SOPA/PIPA unnecessary (Tim O’Reilly on GigaOM)
• SOPA News (Google News)
• SOPA Wikipedia entry
• SOPA FAQ (CNET)

Ease of Use – You do not have to be a programming guru or hold a design degree to consistently deliver a professional and appealing appearance with MailChimp because given its numerous user friendly features and do-it-yourself tools, publishing your content has never been simpler.

Options – From pre-designed to customizable templates, your newsletters are sure to make an impact on your target market. When your almost endless options are applied appropriately, things may swing your way whether you are new to the worldwide zoo or an experienced worldwide web adventurer.

Social Tags – You can also use the application programming interface to sync your client databases and shopping carts courtesy of MailChimp and its current connections with websites such as facebook, PayPal, and twitter, as well as several other popular and preferred sites.

Pricing – Although a regular membership is “Forever Free” for sending up to 12,000 emails a month to a limit of 2,000 subscribers, there are some special features that you can only get by having a paid monthly account. These include Delivery Doctor, Inbox Inspector, Time Warp, Social Pro, Auto responders, and Simple Transactional Service.

Security – You don’t have to worry about any predatory problems in the potentially dangerous jungle that is the internet. The implementation of the latest online privacy policies and programs will ensure that your personal and professional information is respected as expected and also fully protected.

So please don’t monkey around with your email marketing, give MailChimp a try.

Also known as Search Engine Optimization, has become a popular tool for bloggers and website makers alike, but what exactly is SEO? Search engines work off specific keywords. When a person enters “cakes” into the search bar, Google recognizes websites that contain this keyword and compile a list of searches that are relevant to the keyword the person originally searched for. That being said, a website that doesn’t utilize keywords will not come up on the list – not a good thing for companies that need to be found online.

Traffic, Traffic, Traffic

Though traffic on the road is a bad thing, internet traffic, especially heavy traffic, is a very good thing for a website suffering from it. Specific keywords that are integrated into websites content can drive more traffic to its site than a website that does not utilize those keywords. Sites that are based on e-commerce business rely heavily on internet traffic. Without internet traffic their site and therefore their company, will not get the client exposure needed in order to make money.

Effective, Non-Intrusive Marketing

People hear the term “marketing” and are instantly turned off. In the world of SEO, marketing is an entirely different ordeal. Customers are already searching voluntarily for your website based on specific keywords; therefore they are looking for your business instead of your business marketing to uninterested customers. By having an effective SEO campaign, you can ensure that more customers who are interested in your type of business actually find your business – this means more customers actually utilizing your service than those accidentally stumbling upon your site.

Build More Followers

Since people searching for your site are doing so voluntarily, you have a higher chance of developing more followers, more loyal customers and more visitors because they are already searching for your site in the first place.

How Do I Effectively Utilize SEO?

One issue is effectively utilizing SEO. Many individuals and companies have a great SEO campaign, but a poor website. Before creating a strong SEO campaign, make sure you follow a few expert tips on how to use it effectively for the best results:

• Create a quality domain that offers real products, real advice and is a real business for customers to find.
• Utilize unique content within your website. Websites that have drab, boring or regurgitated content might have great SEO to gain the attention of visitors, but not have good enough content to keep those visitors on their site long enough to make a purchase.
• Make sure the keywords you utilize are actually relevant to your company, products and overall mission. Therefore an accounting firm should not focus heavily on banking, business, etc. unless they specifically offer those services within their accounting service.

Companies that effectively use SEO will find that their website has higher traffic, more customers and even higher revenue than sites that do not – all of which mean a more successful site and business in the end.

This recent remodel means that as of now, all of your pics and posts of the past are prepped for popping up for all your friends to see. Of course, while this montage of memories may be an acceptable switch for some, it could be undesirably dangerous for others, both socially and professionally.

The length of time that someone has been active in Facebook will surely determine the number of digital breadcrumbs they have left sprinkled on the network and also across the worldwide web, which can often be indefinite. So let’s say that your present profile appears to be proper and pretty though this was not always the case, well if you have not realized by now, cyberspace is a place where it is truly possible for your past to come back and haunt you.

The good news is that you can be in control of the content! From your cover, which is the first thing that visitors will see when they view your timeline, to your stories, by being able to share and highlight your preferential picks. Also, when you get timeline, you will have a whole week to tweak it prior to anyone else being able to see it. Although everybody is affected by the change, users can either wait for a notification from the system or activate it ahead of time by going to facebook.com/about/timeline and getting a head start, as eventually everybody’s profile will be converted to the latest look.

The creator of this concept is none other than the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and he initially introduced the idea in September of 2011 at the company’s annual developer conference. Unlike the old Facebook profile page which displays only the most up to date info on a member, Timeline offers a more comprehensive portrait of a user by exposing additional information that has been entered ever since their Facebook life began.

Overall, the forecast is fun, but depending upon how long you have been a “fan” or how infatuated you are with the “book”, considering the “facelift”, you may want to review the globally visible things that you use to say and do!

With HootSuite your social media is all conveniently placed into one dashboard with one log-in, one website and one place to manage all of your updates, friends, events and of course, pictures. Naturally the first question is how much does it cost? When you sign up for HootSuite you have the option of the Basic plan or the Pro plan. Basic gives you quick reports to keep up on your friends and family, five profiles you can manage and it’s free. The only drawback to the Basic plan is that it is ad supported, which means your updating will still have some banner ads floating about. The Pro plan offers you enhanced reporting, Google analytics integration, Facebook insights integration and the ability to opt out of those annoying ads for only $5.99 per month. Before you enter your credit card, you will have the option of a 30 day free trial to check out the service.

These days’ social media is done outside of the office and away from the computer. HootSuite takes full advantage of this by offering their social media dashboard service on the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and even the iPad. Customize the downloadable apps to fit your needs, track visitations and stats, update all of your accounts from your phone using one app and even share photographs.

Unlike the traditional social media platforms that Facebook and MySpace offer, HootSuite has a few features you wont find anywhere else like the custom analytics, pre-scheduling messages and updates, the ability to send out assignments and themes. Most of HootSuite’s advanced features that come with the Pro plan are more suited for businesses that need to keep up with comments and queries from customers and contacts. Business owners can use the analytics feature to track their brand sentiment, the overall growth of site followers, and integrate Google analytics directly into their Facebook platform without having to leave the Hootsuite system.

Now, is the HootSuite dashboard worth it? Well, that answer is entirely up to you. If you are constantly tweeting, updating and sharing every photograph you get, then you can save time by using the HootSuite app or dashboard rather than logging into each service on it’s own. Business owners can benefit from the use of a HootSuite dashboard, especially for updates to multiple clients on multiple social media platforms. The good news is it’s free to try and for those looking for a simple update and share system, the Hoot Suite Basic is free and gets the job done.

Of course, the phenomenal user friendly features that you have become familiar with are still there and then some. For instance, you will find it faster to upload information by simply clicking on one icon rather than having to select from several icons. Also, with the Drag-and-Drop media uploader, you will be able to add photos and files to posts and pages in a flash, either individually or grouped. In addition, there are now more file formats accepted than ever before, including rar and 7z.

The revved up dashboard design is guaranteed to speed up the overall WordPress experience while ensuring that things run more smoothly. From compact Flyout Menus to Help Tabs that are linked to support forums, learning and navigating is a convenient click away. Also, the screen appearance has improved for viewing on certain devices such as iPads and other tablets. Another huge help is the new feature pointers which are provided to explain any changes that have been made and an overview is always available by clicking the W logo in the corner of the toolbar on the main page.

In addition, expedient editing options have been incorporated, as you are now only alerted when another person is presently editing a post which you wish to work on. Tumblr members will also be pleased to know that content importing has been implemented as well, and the new Tumbler importer actually configures your Tumblog posts while automatically matching them to the appropriate WordPress post formats. Also, the Widgets have become much wiser which means that you will spend less time reconfiguring and adjusting themes.

Yes, it is absolutely all good under the hood due to the accessories such as flexible permalinks, assuring that performance penalties are not as prevalent when choosing a post permalink structure. Also included are data descrambling post slugs along with the latest version of jQuery and a revived API which even permits multiple editors on the same page.

Looks like that copy of WordPress for Dummies may not be needed after all!

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