Daniel Casciato—Freelance Writer

6 Productivity Tools for Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

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As a busy executive, you are always seeking the best productivity tools to help you—and your team—improve your strategy and efficiency. Similarly, you should also consider using social media productivity tools to work smarter and become more efficient. Whether you are managing just one social media account or trying to juggle several, it’s becoming difficult to keep up.

Fortunately, there are many social media tools that can help you maintain and manage your social media activity. Below is a round-up of six social media tools you can use to optimize your time and achieve better results.

PromoRepublic

PromoRepublic is a social media marketing platform for everyday use that can help you gain more customers from social media networks. Its platform allows you to find and post great content to your social media accounts.

Its library is jam-packed with customizable templates of ready-made posts. Best of all, their templates are handcrafted by agency-level professionals.

Combining ease of use, co-marketing channels, technology-based content suggestions and templates, PromoRepublic provides an affordable service for first-time marketers and pros alike.

Not only does it contain hundreds of templates and an easy-to-use graphics editor, but it also has a Calendar of Content Ideas. You’ll never run oout of ideas of what to post.

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Using Pinterest to Generate Publicity for your Business

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With an average of over 12 million unique monthly visitors users and counting, Pinterest (www.Pinterest.com) has become the latest social media darling. In fact, according to Lemon.ly, a visual marketing firm, Pinterest was the fastest independent website to reach 10 million unique monthly visitors—faster than Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

So what’s all the fuss about the site? And more importantly, how can medical practices take advantage of it?

Basics of Pinterest

First, let’s discuss what Pinterest is. Simply put, the social networking site is a virtual pinboard. Members register for free and upload their own photos or post links to photos of products or images they want to share with their followers. This is called “pinning.”

When you pin an image on Pinterest, you can embed a link to the site where you found that particular image. As a result of allowing users to embed website links, a Shareholic study found that Pinterest is now generating more referral traffic to websites than YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn combined.

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7 Successful Strategies for Creating a Facebook Business Page that Will Attract More Fans

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One common question clients ask me is whether they should create a personal account (Profile) or a Page on Facebook.

I often suggest both.

Friends and family members can connect with you through your Profile. You can share photos and videos with them as well as update everyone on what’s going on in your life.

But if you have your own business and want an additional way to leverage social media, a Page is the way to go. A Facebook Page allows you to showcase your organization and interact with individuals who become your followers. What’s great about a Page is that these followers are inviting you to market to them and share information. It’s what noted business author Seth Godin calls “Permission-Based Marketing.”

To start a Page, log into Facebook and visit www.facebook.com/pages/create.php.  Once you set up your Page, here are seven ways to ensure its success.

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Should You Even Bother With Google+?

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About two years ago, Google entered the social media fray and unveiled Google+, its answer to Twitter and Facebook. Essentially, all of Google and its social products are now part one large social network. In fact, when you log into your Google Docs or check your Gmail account, you should see a navigation bar that integrates sharing capabilities with all of its products.

In future blog posts, we’ll talk more about Google+, but below are my impressions.

Design—Lots of white space which makes it easy on the eyes. But it’s pretty simplistic, much like other Google-related products. Grade: B-

Usability—Very simple to navigate and only a few features to learn. You’ll quickly grasp it. But it’s also a blast to use. Grade: A-

Google+ Stream—This is similar to your other social media streams, and combines the best of Facebook and Twitter.  In fact, if Facebook and Twitter had a child, this would be it. You can decide which stream of content to see—your network of friends, colleagues, people you’re following, or all streams. Grade: B+

Google+ Circles—Love this functionality the best. Simply drag and drop your contacts into a circle—choose from Friends, Acquaintances, People to Follow, or just create your own circle. When you see someone you’d like to add, just click and drop. It’s that easy. Grade: A

Google+ Profiles—If you have a Gmail or any type of Google account now, this just automatically ports that data into the Profile section. Simply put, it’s just your personal data. Nothing groundbreaking here. Grade: B

Google+ Hangouts—This is the feature that has everyone abuzz. With Hangouts, you can do video chats with a group of people. Very easy to hold a teleconference using this concept or just chatting with your patients.  Another cool aspect about Hangouts is that the camera angle will switch to the person who is talking at the time. That means, you don’t have to worry about having multiple video feeds opened. Grade: A-

Overall, we give Google+ a B so far. Knowing how Google operates, they’ll continue to evolve its new social networking tool, adding features and improving the current ones. Keep in mind that Google+ should not replace your medical practice’s Facebook or Twitter channels. Rather, it should just be another part of your social media strategy. Like a wheel, your website or your blog should remain the hub, or central piece, of your communications with your patients. All of your social media channels should merely be spokes of your wheel, driving your readers back to your hub.

Are you using Google+ yet? Let me know what you think and we’ll share your comments in a future post. Just email me at writer@danielcasciato.com. Want to add me to your Circle? My Gmail account is danielcasciato@gmail.com.

5 Easy Tips for a More Effective Blog

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While you ponder whether having a social media presence is right for your business, remember that some of your target audience are already online using social media. And if you’re not leveraging these platforms, your competitors certainly are.

Blogs, in particular, should be an important component to your outreach initiatives. It’s a highly effective, economical way to communicate with your audience. It’s also a good way to start building a body of published work on the web that is keyword rich so that you can start attracting organic search results (search engine results that appear because of the keywords typed in as opposed to an advertisement).

A blog should be the hub of communication where all the other social media traffic is being driven to. So if you’re tweeting, your Profile page should send visitors back to your blog. If they’re interested in your short bursts on Twitter, they may be interested in what you have to say in a blog. The same principle applies to Facebook or LinkedIn. You should drive those people you’ve connected with on these social media sites back to your hub.

You can get started immediately. When choosing a blog platform, you have several options, most of which offer free templates and are easy to use:

www.wordpress.org 

www.blogger.com

www.typepad.com

www.livejournal.com

However, before you set up your blog, here are five tips to keep in mind.

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Getting Started with Twitter

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Over the next several months, we’re going to offer you some simple tips on how to make the most out of your social media experience. But this week, we’ll focus on how to get started on Twitter.

If you’re new to the social media realm, we recommend starting with Twitter. Not only is it the most effective and efficient social media tool, it’s the easiest to set up and use. You can also build up a worldwide following faster than any other social media site.

Registering an Account

If you do not have a Twitter account, go to www.Twitter.com and click the “Sign up now” button. When you click on that, you will be asked for some very basic information: full name, username, password, and your email address. Your full name will appear on your profile page. Your username can be either your name or the name of your practice. Ask yourself what’s going to be more recognizable. After you’ve entered your password and email address, you’ll come to the profile page where you can add your bio (160 characters or less) and your website.

Your Followers

Twitter lets people post “tweets,” (text-based messages up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website. When you’re on your Twitter page, you’ll see an ongoing stream of information, almost like you would in a chat session. On this page, you’ll see the tweets of the people you’ve chosen to follow.

Underneath each of your followers’ tweets, it tells you when they posted their current status update. You can also click on one of your followers and look at their feed to see their most recent tweets. You can also check out who they are following—these may be thought leaders in the healthcare industry or just interesting people who you may want to follow as well. If so, click on the icon with the “+” sign to follow them as well. In turn, that person may choose to follow you. 

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Making an Impact Using Social Media

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Social media continues to change the way organizations can shape their identities, communicate, and share information. Does your business have a social media presence? If not, consider one of the hundreds of social media platforms now proliferating the web today such as blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and podcasts. All of these channels connect and touch groups of people who share similar tastes, interests, and agendas.

Why do you need a presence? Your stakeholders—particularly current clients, prospects, vendors, referring businesses, and even your employees—are already active on these online channels. If you don’t have a presence, you can run the risk of being overlooked. Being visible on social media equals opportunity—opportunities to reach out and connect with these stakeholders. Using social media also presents an opportunity for your practice to become more relatable and personable.

Social media can also benefit you in a number of inexpensive ways. It can help you to:

  • Differentiate your business in your community
  • Promote new services at your facility
  • Establish your business as a thought leader 
  • Offer a forum for customers to find common ground and share knowledge with others

Social media is different from traditional marketing in that instead of “pushing” out our message (i.e. print ads and static websites), we’re engaging in a two-way conversation with our customers. At a recent social media online conference, the keynote speaker said to think of social media as attending a party and actually talking to people rather than trying to close the deal. [Read more…]

How to Tweak Your SEO So You’re Not a Needle in Google’s Haystack

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More people and companies than ever are using the web to find information as well as research solutions to their problems. Many are using search engines, particularly Google, to not only scope you out, but your competitors as well.

How well does your website rank in search engines? Are potential clients able to find you easily? Research indicates that visitors rarely go past the 2nd page after Googling a search term. With proper SEO (Search Engine Optimization) copywriting techniques, you can greatly improve your business’ ranking on search engines and get a step up over the competition.

Need some help? Here are some ideas to get you started.

Keyword Search Tool

First, you need to know what keywords to use. There are many keyword search tools out there to help you select the keywords you should be sprinkling throughout your content. Google’s tool is one of my favorites and it’s free: https://adwords.google.com

Work on Your Headlines

Once you decide on the keywords, add some of these to the Headlines of your content. Search engines love this. Also, since search engines read content on a website page the same we do—left to right and top to bottom, position your headline on the top left side of each page.  Be sure to add a headline to each page of your website.

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Is Hiring a Social Media Ghostwriter Ethical?

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Several years ago, I posted on my Facebook status that I was ghost blogging for a client. A few snarky comments aside, one of my friends, Ann Begler, principal of the Begler Group, which offers mediation services, asked if it was an ethical practice. She says she’d be reluctant to hire a social media ghostwriter. Ann’s not alone. It’s a common concern.

“In all of my work, as a mediator, conflict coach, organizational consultant, I’m working with my clients to help and guide them to engage in more open and direct communication, even when that’s difficult,” she says. “Using a ghostwriter seems to be the antithesis of that.”

She could see using a researcher to help assemble factual data that might be part of her blog or tweet. “That’s different, though, from ghostwriting,” she adds.

Many business executives are hiring writers to craft their social media content because of their busy schedules. In fact, social media guru, Guy Kawasaki, stirred up some debate in the Twittersphere when he revealed he uses ghostwriters. And it was only about two years into this presidency that President Barack Obama posted his first tweet even though his account was active since his campaign. Turns out his staff were the ones tweeting all this time. Even the ageless George Takei admitted to using a ghostwriter to write some of his Facebook posts from time to time.

If you’re going to hire a social media ghostwriter, here are some guidelines to follow to work effectively with your cyber alter ego and avoid crossing that ethical line.

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