How Your Facebook Timeline Cover Can Give You The Advantage In Your Social Networking

One of the most interesting things about the new Facebook timeline designs is the large picture area at the top of the screen. This is known as the cover, as it acts as a cover page for the story of your life.

When choosing a timeline cover, you want to pick something that reflects you, whether it's a graphic of yourself, your family, or a graphic that showcases a hobby or interest of yours.

What is the Facebook Timeline Cover?

The timeline cover is an 850px by 315px graphic at the top of your timeline (formerly known as your profile). The concept behind the timeline is it gives a more structured view of your life as presented on Facebook. Every time you've added a friend, changed your relationship status or edited your profile text will be placed on the timeline.

The cover acts as the front page to this story of your life. This is what gives you an advantage in social networking and is so important: think of it as your social media first impression. This cover is especially important so everyone can get a good idea of who you are in a glance.

The cover also addresses an issue that many people who crossed over from Myspace to Facebook criticized: lack of customization . Myspace let users to create fully personalized websites, whereas Facebook only let you upload images , not edit the appearance of the profile. The Facebook cover adds a new level of customization to your page.

What should I use for my cover?

• Use a picture of that's already in your albums. If you do this, you'll want to use a big, high quality picture -- no tiny cell phone images ! This is the first thing people will see when they visit your page, and a grainy distorted graphic won't make a great impression.

• Design your own cover. If you have some graphic design chops, you can make your own cover in whatever graphic processing program you have. Use images , drawings and text to create your own work of art at the top of your timeline.

How to change your cover

1. Look at your Facebook timeline by clicking your name at the top of the Facebook page.

2. Click the "Change Cover" link. This gives you a drop-down menu.

3. If you'd like to use your own picture that's already on Facebook, click "Choose from my images ." This will present you with all your Facebook images.

4. Click "Upload a Photo" to choose an graphic on your computer to use as a cover.

5. Once you've picked your cover image , drag the cover around to reposition it if you need to adjust the position of the graphic.

6. Click the "Done".

Uncover the Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking Sites – Surviving the Craziness of Google

SEO is truly crazy nowadays with recent updates of the Google algorithm. If you have observed the massive deindexing and the drop in the rankings of many websites, you need to pay attention. Today, social media is the flavor of Google and you need to know the advantages and disadvantages of social networking sites if you truly want to survive online.

Yes, I experienced the switch from heavy backlinking to the rise of social networking sites. Without a doubt, social media is truly important regardless of the size of your business. Particularly for the small business owners, social networking is so vital that it might be the answer to taking your online presence to the next level. Let us go through a few of the advantages and disadvantages of social networking sites.

Before anything else, what are these social networking sites? These are web technologies that are used for interactive communication, primarily employed to interact between individuals, groups, communities, and businesses. If you are familiar with Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, then you know what I am talking about.

People realize the need to connect with a celebrity, a business, or an important cause. In short, consumers wanted to have an interactive platform where they can voice out their sentiments and feelings. They might crave for this new dish from a restaurant or cheer for a celebrity. Social networking sites are the perfect venues to do anything interactive. As a business owner, there is a ton of benefits that you can take advantage with these technologies.

Building Traffic

It can be a headache to build traffic with the frequent updates in search engines right now. For online business owners, building traffic is the key to success and this is where social networking sites can be of great help. Through social networking sites, you can have your own site and let your customers see more about your products and services. You even allow them to comment or tell you their concerns. When you cater to your customers this way, the traffic will surely come through referrals and word-of-mouth marketing. In addition, as per the recent updates with Google, your site will be heavily favored by the search engines too.

Interaction with Customers

When you attempt to engage your customers online, you form this bond with them. In return, loyalty is fostered and you satisfy them at the same time. So, go on and try to post the updates with your latest promotions and videos about your business. Your customers will feel as if they are part of your business. Customer interaction, when properly handled, translates not only to more traffic but to increased sales too.

Cheap Form of Marketing

In this time of financial crisis, social networking sites offer a cheap way to advertise your business. The tools are mostly free. With a few minutes on these tools each day, you can reap the benefits with consistent effort. Moreover, you can do these online promotions yourself and you do not need to pay for professionals, unlike the other forms of traditional marketing.

The Disadvantages

Yes, there are a few disadvantages to the use of social networking sites. One of these problems is that it can be time consuming, especially for those entrepreneurs who are still learning these technologies. Nevertheless, this is compensated with its low price to execute an online marketing campaign.

Summary

These advantages and disadvantages of social networking sites are concepts you need to be familiar with. These concepts are important for your online business to survive down the road.

Get your 4 free ebooks in the side panel to learn more.

Social Media Marketing in 2012

Social media marketing is such a broad term that many people who are looking to boost the image of their company ask "What is social media marketing?
Social media marketing defined as the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites such as facebook, Twitter, youtube, etc.

Doing business today is very different & challenging from the days of old, What worked earlier that doesn't necessarily ensure success today, nor can you get by just with extensive knowledge in one particular arena. Today is about keeping your eyes and ears open and bringing value to others in new ways.

Today is about re-inventing and expanding and building relationships across a wide open sea of Social Media. It requires a passion for learning new technologies, a willingness to immerse yourself in uncharted waters and a genuine capacity for generosity.

People are engaging in conversations. Conversation is the new marketing. Tapping into these conversations shows where your audience is spending time online, and what subjects and issues are of interest to them. To reach your consumers successfully, you need to move your marketing activity from the traditional "push" method, where you broadcast your messages to thousands via the media, to a "pull" strategy, where you make it easy for people to find your information, whenever and wherever they want it.

"If searching for the news was the most important development of the last decade, sharing the news may be among the most important developments of the next."

Therefore it is very important to have a presence on social networking sites. Social networks not only give the marketer a place to express themselves but it also provides with a unique platform to interact with their customers and help them serve better. And ultimately fulfilling the sole cause of the business i.e. Customer Satisfaction.
This can also be a great starting point for the marketing to go viral and pick up a grassroots effort.
Marketing of social media through various social media platform

Twitter
Twitter allows companies to promote products on an individual level. The use of a product can be explained in short messages that followers are more likely to read. These messages appear on followers home page. Messages can link to the product's website, Facebook profile, photos, videos, etc. This link provides followers the opportunity to spend more time interacting with the product online. This interaction can create a loyal connection between product and individual and can also lead to larger advertising opportunities. Twitter promotes a product in real-time and brings customers in.

Facebook
Facebook profiles are more detailed than Twitter. They allow a product to provide videos, photos, and longer descriptions. Videos can show when a product can be used as well as how to use it. These also can include testimonials as other followers can comment on the product pages for others to see. Facebook can link back to the product's Twitter page as well as send out event reminders. Facebook promotes a product in real-time and brings customers in.

As marketers see more value in social media marketing, advertisers continue to increase sequential ad spend in social by 25%. Strategies to extend the reach with Sponsored Stories and acquire new fans with Facebook ads continue to an uptick in spend across the site. The study attributes 84% of "engagement" or clicks to Likes that link back to Facebook advertising. Today, brands increase fan counts on average of 9% monthly, increasing their fan base by two-times the amount annually.

These platforms are not only used for marketing social media but also help in social media monitoring.

for more information visit our website-: http://www.socialmedia18.com

About the Author

Social Media 18 is a Social Media & Search Marketing agency, we are group of young, talented & passionate people and we love "Socializing", we help brands in developing better strategy for Social Media & Search Marketing.

We strongly believe that from earlier days of one way communication, now it's time to understand that relationships are more powerful than marketing. If marketers look at Social Media as another channel for advertisement, it won't help. Social Media is not about one more bill board it's about conversation & engagement with your consumers.

-: http://www.socialmedia18.com

How To Stay Ahead With Internet Marketing

The world of internet marketing moves at the speed of light. Things going on could impact your success in a major way. Not staying abreast of  you could find:

-Plummeting traffic levels

-Growing  bounce rates

-Decreasing market share

-Loss of revenue

And, all the above things could lead to loss of passion for your entrepreneurial pursuits!  Staying in the “know” helps you maximise the potential for traffic, lead generation, and conversion.

Because the world of internet marketing is ever changing, it’s vital for an entrepreneur to stay on top of things.  Here are some ways that you can do that:

-Join an internet mentoring group. Learn the latest techniques and network with others who share knowledge.

-Subscribe to newsletters. (Get tips from my sidebar) You’ll find many successful internet marketing coaches that are more than willing to share information and resources that can help you stay abreast of the latest Google algorithm changes and how they could impact you. They’ll also share internet marketing techniques that are helping them increase their online success. You’ll also find newsletters from search engine optimisation experts. Browse through Google News and /or Google Blog Search and you’ll find plenty of information.

-Join discussion forums and subscribe to industry blogs. You’ll find many online marketing forums and blogs that share information with one another as well as get great strategy discussions going.

Not everything you find online will be true fact so it’s important to look for reliable sources, which can help fuel your success. Sure there's a lot of free info out there but not all of it is current so it could be a good idea to invest in your online success.  Continually upgrading your knowledge will help you grow a successful business. 

Got any resources that help you stay on top of changes in SEO and in marketing techniques? Feel free to share in the comments.

How You Can Make Money With Affiliate Marketing

If you want to make money on the internet, affiliate marketing is one of the most popular avenues to take. Let’s look at three reasons why this is such a popular and profitable online business venture.

First, in case you aren’t yet familiar with what affiliate marketing is, it’s a business model whereby you receive a commission for sales that you facilitate. As a facilitator of a sale, you don’t have to buy things and resell them. You don’t have to take orders and process them. And, you don’t have to handle product and ship it. You simply get between a product and a consumer and make the sale happen. For your efforts, you can earn a small to large fraction of the profit on that sale.

Cost

If you were to try to start a business where you buy and then sell goods, think of the costs and the logistics involved. Launching a business, especially a resale or manufacturing business takes time, money, and extensive resources. With affiliate marketing, you can start for little to no costs and hit the ground running without a lot of prep work involved. A bit of prep work is necessary to help you strategise and approach affiliate marketing in a way that will work for you but affiliate sales, compared to a regular business model is something that can get going for a fraction of the time, effort, and cost. And, you can do it on a small or large scale so it’s a flexible business that can suit your own lifestyle.

Profit

Because your overhead is going to be so low with an affiliate business, your profits are high. This business model can allow for a great deal of profit versus cost because your overhead is very low. You don’t have to pay employees, stock products, warehouse anything, etc. And with doing this sort of business online, you can make good use of many tools to help you analyse and strategise, tightening your approach and maximising your return on investment. Some affiliate marketing programs pay a few percentage points and some pay over 75% in commission so you’ve got loads of room for profit.

Ease

Facilitating a sale is a lot easier when you work with a program that has an affiliate setup. They tend to provide a lot of creative material, literature, guidelines, and even landing pages that are ready for your affiliate code. This is one of those businesses that just about anyone can get into. You do need drive and ambition and a bit of internet marketing knowledge but if you don’t have the knowledge, you can get it by following my blog.

If you’re thinking about embarking on an online business venture, then take a close look at affiliate marketing. When combined with social media marketing It truly is one of the most flexible and potentially profitable opportunities to make money from home that you’ll find.

Simple Tips To Build Your Social Media Following

Internet Marketers need to have a solid presence online in order to reach their full potential. Having a professional looking and informative website is a great foundation. In order to reach even more people, including potential clients, you need to utilise the power of social media outlets effectively.

Why use Social Media?

Social media is how people with similar interests converse and stay in touch. It is a landing site for breaking news and the latest happenings. Using social media sites can be one of the quickest ways to get your presence known online due to the way the sites are interconnected. There are a number of outlets that you can use to raise awareness for your brand.

Twitter

People use Twitter by posting, or “tweeting,” short and concise bits of information about items that could be of interest to their followers. Having an active Twitter following and tweeting relevant information on a regular basis will get your name and brand well known in a short amount of time.

YouTube

Devoted solely to videos, YouTube is a great place to market yourself and your brand. Posting a short and polished video introducing yourself and your services, as well as highlighting your website, can be a great way to kick off your online presence.

Facebook

Facebook is a full faceted social media site. It allows you to post relevant information, add pictures, links, and videos. This enables you to use a wide variety of methods to deliver the information you want people to have about you and your marketing strategies.

Sphinn

Sphinn is a social media site that focuses on Internet marketing. Here you will find the latest news and information on the industry as well as tips to give yourself a greater following. You can do this by building networks and participating in discussions.

Now What?

After networking, making contacts and building up followers, you need to keep these important people interested. You can do this by being an active poster and tweeter on your chosen social media sites. By keeping your posts short and relevant, and posting often, you will stay current in the minds of your followers.

When you need to promote your newest ebook, an affiliate marketing product, or other item be sure to keep those posts short and interspersed with posts that are not promotional in nature. This will help to ensure that your followers do not feel bombarded with spammy posts instead of information that is applicable to their situation.

Learn more about how to use social marketing tools by coming back here again , any comments welcome to.

How To Create An Online Passive Income

The best aspect of the work at home life has got to be passive income. Passive income means that you can make money without having to constantly work at it.

How does passive income work?

Work you do today could still pay you years from now. Once a website is live and monetised and getting a good flow of organic search engine traffic, you can simply perform some occasional maintenance on it and watch money roll in. This isn’t hype! It doesn’t happen to everyone who tries to make a go of creating an online income and it can take time to build but it can definitely pay off! It happens most often to people who take the time to learn how to maximise the potential of an online business and especially those who take the time to find a great mentor who knows just how to do it!

Ingredients for online success:

A lot of people that work from home at their own online business find that their time and effort investment can quickly pay off. It requires several ingredients:

-Good advice

-Patience

-Perseverance

How can you create passive income streams?

There are a lot of different ways to earn money on the internet.You can sell something on a website, you can monetise a blog, you can do affiliate marketing, you can open an online e-book shop, sell on auction sites, and more. The number of online earning opportunities continues to grow because the increasing number of online shoppers makes this possible, especially for early adopters!

Many who decide they want to dedicate five hours a week to bringing in a second income stream soon replace their old full-time income and then find that they might only need to spend an hour a week maintaining everything. The great thing about e-commerce is the flexibility and room for growth potential that happens at a pace of your own choosing.

If you want a part-time online business and want to make a part-time income, this is very doable. If you want to invest a lot of time and effort, your business can grow bigger. If you build a great business and then want to move onto something else, you can even flip that online business and sell it at a profit. That’s the great thing about being an online entrepreneur; it’s totally up to you!

Not everyone succeeds at this though. Some people don’t find the right mentors or look at opportunities that have already been exhausted by early adopters.

Despite the fact that the Internet has been around for more than a decade, you can still be an early adopter because online business and e-commerce as well as the social marketing movement are still in their infancy. The key to passive income is to get good advice from someone who’s successful and honest and to then take the time and the effort to test the waters with various online options available to you.