Social Media Tips

7 social media tips from top CEOs

Many of today's top CEOs maintain active accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even Instagram.

Because of the strong influence they have within their given industry, their presence is highly curated. Here are tips organizations and business professionals can take from these leaders to develop their own social media presence.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple

The only verified presence of Tim Cook on any form of social media is on Twitter. He uses this account to make statements about current events and clarify what Apple is doing to help.

A recent example is his response to the earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia and an announcement that the company would be making a donation to aid in the recovery process. Cook’s other tweets announce and promote new products, expansions and partnerships. He also interacts with Apple’s audience via retweets with hashtags such as #ShotOniPhone.

As a well-known CEO, his lack of presence on other platforms makes followers focus their attention on this one outlet, which makes it seem exclusive.

The lesson: You don’t need to be on every social media platform to have success.

Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors

GM CEO Mary Barra is on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The overarching theme from a quick analysis of her social media channels is consistency. All of her profiles post the same articles with a similar message tailored to that specific platform; in addition, she uses the same profile picture on both her Twitter and Facebook accounts.

One notable variation is that Barra posts messages of condolence for prominent figures and icons who have passed away on her Twitter. This uniformity makes her profiles more recognizable as well as on-brand and true to the message both she and her company want to portray to the world.

The lesson: Be consistent across all social media channels.

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SEO | Marketing Tips

15 Common SEO Mistakes To Avoid

Understanding SEO is the ultimate marketing discipline, especially in today's highly digital world. If you want to drive traffic to your site and increase sales, you have to keep up with the ever-changing search engine algorithms.

Here are 15 common mistakes to avoid.

1. Ignoring Your 'Google My Business' Listing

One critical SEO error is not claiming or properly managing Google My Business listings. With Google continuing to place importance on “near me” searches, the single biggest opportunity for small businesses is to claim their location, provide all info and answer questions that come in.  - Brian Sullivan, Sullivan Branding

2. Only Focusing On On-Site SEO

Most businesses still believe that SEO is just done on-site. Optimizing your website is a major component to ranking but you cannot overlook off-site strategies. It is essential that all businesses create engaging content for other websites. You need to allocate some time every month to having content placed on other websites that is keyword rich and has links pointing to your website. - Scott Darrohn, fishbat Media, LLC.

3. Overlooking Page Titles And Meta Descriptions

Too many times, I see websites with "Home" as the page title. Fixing your page titles and adding meta descriptions are such an easy thing to correct and so important to SEO. Most website CMS systems have the ability to change this by default but are normally overlooked when a small business owner is building their own website.  - Thomas Brodbeck, Site Strategics

4. Not Running Regular Website Audits

An audit reviews your website's performance from the client's point of view and from the view of a search engine. Is site navigation user-friendly? Is relevant information easy to find? How quickly does the mobile version launch? Careful examination reveals ways to improve the site. An audit looks at search engine optimization, loading speed, the checkout process, content quality and so much more. - Jason Hall, FiveChannels Marketing

5. Leaving Old URL Structures In Place When Redesigning A Site

A common mistake that has a huge impact on SEO comes from revamping a website without redirecting traffic from old URLs to new ones. We use a 301 map that maps old URLs to new URLs. Then, we set up redirects in a staging environment, pre-launch. If you change the URL of a highly trafficked page, Google won't know where to send that web searcher and you will lose that SEO traffic. - Ben LeDonni, CreativeMMS

6. Placing Important Text In Images Rather Than On The Page

It is easy to make something look nice in an image instead of actually coding the effects around the text. The problem here is that search algorithms look for text and can't read the text inside images. Content is king, and you need to have words on your page to get indexed. - Omar Jenblat, BusySeed

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SEO | Website Marketing | Strategy

5 ways ignoring SEO could affect your bottom line

Anyone who has tried to make the case for investing in Search Engine Optimization to a client, boss, or colleague, will be all too familiar with the common objections: it’s too unpredictable, PPC is better, it takes too long, etc.

There’s a common misconception that the financial benefits of SEO are not as clear as say, social media or PPC. But anyone familiar with SEO knows that it is highly measurable and in most cases even better value for money than both social media and PPC.

And, many businesses seem to have realized this: In 2016, Borrell and Associates predicted that the SEO industry would reach $80 billion a year in revenue by 2020.

A well thought-out SEO strategy will bring more qualified traffic to your website. Quality content tailored to the needs of your customers will bring a higher conversion rate. These things are well known. But ignoring SEO altogether doesn’t just mean losing a few sales here and there: it can be risky or potentially disastrous financially.

Here are five ways that it could affect your bottom line…

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Modern Imprint | SEO, Social Media Marketing