Pinterest is now the 3rd most popular social network site in the world! Say what you will about social media and how it is dumbing down our society or simply wasting our time, but there is no denying its impact on the bottom line. Shopify analyzed data from +25K online stores and shows their findings (including conversion rate, average cart size..etc..) in this infographic.

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There is still an awful lot of confusion out there about Google’s latest update Penguin but if you stuff keywords, spam, have hidden content or link farms you have probably noticed a decrease in your blog traffic due to the latest Google algorithm change.

On the other hand, if you write great content you probably won’t notice any change. You might even see an increase in traffic due to this change. The purpose of these changes to Google’s algorithm isn’t to penalize or punish those who practice the above mentioned traffic increasing tactics but to ensure you get the best results when you use a search engine. Who hasn’t searched for something only to end up on a page that has nothing to do with the search words and is also nothing more than a link farm. The changes Google makes to its algorithm make the web a better place.

Of course we all want to do whatever we can to increase the traffic to our websites and sometimes we go to far. Have no fear, if you are writing interesting content that is in your native tongue, is written for a human and to a spider or robot you probably won’t notice a difference in your traffic.

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• Google Penguin Update: The Good and The Bad (dirtech.in)
• Google Penguin Update: SEO And Marketing Services Feel The Effects (webpronews.com)

When you’re looking for new employees, it’s hard to be sure you’ve found ideal applicants. Headhunters have fallen out of fashion and the Internet has filled the void left behind. Web-based human resources companies that specialize in helping businesses find the best new employees have all but replaced the head hunting industry. These companies use several different strategies to match companies with ideal employees. Recently, they have even been utilizing social media in innovative ways to distribute information about job openings, attract potential employees and evaluate applicants.

Why Social Media?

When social media first came on the scene, it was used mainly for meeting new people, finding old friends and creating a more perfect version of oneself to flaunt on the Internet. In the past few years, employers have begun to look to social mediawhen screening potential hires. By analyzing applicants’ Facebook accounts, employers were able to get an idea of each potential employee’s personality and lifestyle. Today, both employers evaluating applicants and professionals looking for job opportunities use social media. By building a social media presence and uploading job openings, companies can cast a wider net and reach more potential employees than they would have found through more traditional hiring methods.

How is Social Media Used?

These companies mainly help businesses through the use of applicant tracking software. Descriptions of job opportunities are uploaded onto the applicant tracking portal so that potential employees can browse through them and apply for positions. Recently, one such company, ExactHire, incorporated social media into its software by adding “share” buttons to the template for open positions. Using these buttons, applicants browsing through the database can share jobs they find with friends and family on social media networks including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The addition of these buttons allows qualified applicants to hear about open positions quicker, which in turn allows employers to fill openings with the best candidates as soon as possible.

ExactHire also allows companies to connect their own social media profiles to their ATS pages using html links. When potential employees visit a company’s social media page looking for a job, they can follow the link and browse the available openings. Using this strategy, companies can reach a larger number of potential employees. Companies can also use this same method to promote available internship positions.

Tips for Using Social Media

One of the most effective tools a hiring manager has is social media. By linking its ATS site to social media profiles, companies can access a much larger applicant pool. The more social media sites a company links to, the more potential employees will find their way to the company’s ATS job listings. Companies can also increase their odds of finding the right employees by encouraging visitors to their ATS page to send relevant listings to friends and family over social media. Though some visitors may take this action on their own, the extra encouragement can increase the likelihood of shares.

In the past decade, the methods companies must use to search for potential employees have changed dramatically. The Internet has a prominent position in the future of business, and social media has already become an important player. By incorporating social media into methods that have already been proven as effective, online human resource services have made it possible for employers to find the best candidates in the least amount of time. As social media’s place in the business world continues to involve, it will continue to effect the way we hire and get hired.

Related articles

• Social media throws up many job opportunities (nemmanisreedhar.wordpress.com)
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• 3 Warning Signs That Your Social Media Efforts Will Fail (socialmediatoday.com)
• Lets face it, the “social media revolution” has stalled (steveheimoff.com)
• No, We’re Not In A Social Media Bubble (readwriteweb.com)

South polar region penguin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Google is always trying to stay ahead of the spammers by changing its algorithm. The latest change, called Penguin, has many bloggers upset as once again their sites have lost traffic due to ‘gaming the system’. According to online marketing expert James Schramko

“It’s about 50% backlinks,” Schramko continues, elaborating, “They still work, but you really need to mix them around. If you just use the same anchor text, you will be penalized.” The remaining 30%, he allocates to on-page SEO. “So what that means is, the content on your website has to be natural. It has to be human-readable.” He urges website owners to check that the page title of their site reads like a natural sentence, without any pipe symbols or colons.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/business/press-releases/article/Google-Penguin-Leaves-Trail-of-Slapped-3536654.php#ixzz1uHTawy8o

What this means is if you write your website/blog content for human readers you probably won’t be hurt. In the last week, even though I have written less than normal, our traffic has gone up. I don’t know if it is due to the Google update but having hundreds of original pages of content that was written by a human for humans to read certainly helps. Backlinks are still important but writing great content that is updated regularly is going to prevent your site from getting slapped by Google.

If you’d like to read more about the Penguin update click on any of these stories below:

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2172839/Google-Penguin-Update-Impact-of-Anchor-Text-Diversity-Link-Relevancy

http://www.timesunion.com/business/press-releases/article/Google-Penguin-Leaves-Trail-of-Slapped-3536654.php

http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/the-penguin-update-how-google-identifies-spam

http://www.newfoundnames.com/should-matt-cutts-be-fired-for-the-penguin-update/

http://www.change.org/petitions/google-please-kill-your-penguin-update-l

Being that social media is pretty much everywhere you go today; it only makes sense to take advantage of the array of benefits that it provides, regardless of the nature of your business. I work for a kitchen appliance ecommerce company, so social media isn’t exactly the first thing you would put it together with.

However, it’s working. Very well indeed. By giving customers a method of reaching Appliances Online on a personal level, we are no longer seen as a ‘faceless corporation’. Seeing that social media can be a very powerful launch pad for getting our message out there, we began by employing our very own social media manager, Yossi Erdman.

Yossi had some great ideas for promoting, not just products or deals, but the actual name of Appliances Online.  It’s an open arena to showcase the core values of the company, which are innovation and making us the best at whatever we do.

We use social media in several ways. This includes a weekly live broadcast direct from the office. Usually, we promote a competition for a free appliance. This is proving quite successful, with several hundred people viewing each week.

Our Facebook page has 60,000 likes, whilst our Twitter account has almost 5,000 followers.

Through Yossi, and the work of many others behind the scenes, our community has grown from strength to strength, which is amazing when you consider an appliance lifetime of years. Many of these people don’t want to buy appliances; they simply want to get involved. Their word of mouth causes a ripple effect that will ultimately help our business.

–

Halit Bozdogan is a writer for Appliances Online, the UK’s largest on-line white goods retailer. He has his own blog hereand supports Bolton Wanderers Football Club and loves movies. William Goldman’s ‘The Princess Bride’ is his favourite book and you can follow him on Twitter @TheBozDog

As a writer of what I hope is many books (the first one will be out soon) I am always interested in this kind of information. In fact I have spent more time that I care to admit trying to find out just how many copies of some titles have sold, and then I get a little snarky.

However, the titles of this infographic about the top read books of the world  are interesting and probably say a lot about our culture, if not the marketing campaigns of some of these books. I’ve at least attempted to read every book on this list except for the Quatations of Mao Tse-Tung (which reminds me of a cartoon from the 70s with someone  dressed in Asian fashion pointing to a little pile of poo and saying “Mousy Dung?”).

It makes sense that the bible would be the top selling book what with all the hotels filled with bibles but The Da Vinci Code? Don’t get me wrong, I loved it, but ..wow.

Which of these have you read?

by Jared. Browse more infographics.

 

Author: TJ Philpott

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Writing (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Author: Ian Lauder

There’s been a lot of talk about moms who work, moms who raise kids, moms who do both and moms who have never worked a day in their lives. The truth is all moms work and in fact many moms are bloggers on top of all their other duties. Some of these moms have become so successful blogging they have been able to quit their day job (or were fired from it which kickstarted their blog) and find great financial success with their blogs.

Below are just a few of the most successful mommy bloggers. These could be considered the best of the best or the squeaky wheels depending on your point of view. Talent can be argued but their marketing skills are all beyond reproach. These ladies know how to get noticed by brands, publishers and television networks. Popular mommy bloggers like Dooce (Heather Armstrong), The Blogess (Jenny Lawson), ScaryMommy (Jill Smokler) and the rest are just some of the bloggers who have taken their passion and turned it into a full time job. None of them will say it happened overnight but all of them might agree blogging can be a lot fun.

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Large and small companies are hiring mom bloggers all over the world to represent their companies as brand ambassadors. Take a look at the infographic below to find out why your brand should hire Mom bloggers! Why? You Might ask, the numbers speak for themselves. There are 83 Million mothers in the U.S. alone, 72 Million of them use the internet all the time. 4.2 Million of these moms are bloggers. 60% of these mom bloggers say they blog about brands they love or hate. Mom readers place their trust in other mommy bloggers, 63% said that blog reviews influence their decision to buy a product. Moms in the U.S. spend $2.1 trillion a year, and they control 85% of household income. Conclusion: Moms rule the web!

Thinking about starting a blog? Regardless of whether you’re a business professional, a stay-at-home mom, or even a child, nearly anyone can start a blog and get it running in a short amount of time. However, even the best blogger can slip up, falling prey to common blogging errors. For both new and veteran bloggers, keeping an eye out for these mistakes can help them keep their blog in tip-top shape:

Poor Writing

Many people would assume that bloggers have excellent writing skills, with the ability to clearly convey their points and sway their audience. However, there are a surprising number of blogs that feature poor diction and dialogue, with language that barely passes for that of a young child. When starting a blog, it is vital that you possess a certain degree of writing skill, given that you are potentially speaking to an audience. Misspellings and grammatical errors will only serve to confuse and annoy your readers, compelling them to move on elsewhere.

Assuming that Readers will Find You

As a blogger, you may be convinced that once you start writing, your audience will soon be able to find you. But think of it in this perspective –there are millions of blogs out there, writing on an endless variety of topics and niches. How do you make your blog stand out among others? There are a number of tips and techniques that can help new bloggers get noticed, whether through writing unique, compelling content or spreading the word through social media.

Inconsistent Articles

When starting a blog, many writers address the challenge of keeping a weekly or daily schedule. However, regardless of whichever type of schedule you choose, the main point is to stay consistent. A blog with infrequent posts gives an air of inactivity, turning readers away. If you struggle with the challenge of populating a blog with consistent content, then try looking for another writer to supplement your schedule. Another valuable tip is to allow guest posting on your blog: not only will this bring a fresh point of view into your blog, it can also promote traffic and new readers.

Too Much Promotion

If you are blogging for a brand or service, you may want to spread the word about the aforementioned brand. You know how great it is; why shouldn’t others? However, put yourself in the reader’s shoes – would you want to read about self-serving content, filled with shameless promotion? If not, then adapt your content so that it provides value and information to your readers.

Optimizing your Blog

In order to build an audience and steady stream of traffic, you’ll want to optimize your content and blog as much as possible. However, many bloggers make the mistake of not including SEO tactics into their efforts. Search engine optimization is not only a great way to make your blog more visible, it gives bloggers the means to make their blog more user-friendly. For example, linking your new posts back to old content boosts your SEO and also refreshes your past blog posts. Through targeted keywords, consistent content and a variety of other SEO tactics, bloggers can ensure that their blog attracts as much visitors as possible.

Sara Fletcher is interested in emotional intelligence, and how to better understand her DISC profile. She loves to explore psychology, business, and sports in relation to emotional intelligence training.