Social media websites are the new darlings of the marketing industry and tapping into their business potential is the key to unlocking the doors to increased clientele and, ultimately, greater revenue.  Yet, many conventional and online companies have neglected to explore the possibilities sites like Facebook offer for growing one’s business.  In fact, Facebook provides the very tools needed for a business to analyze their marketing efforts on a daily basis; Facebook’s Insights is simple to use and filled with the data a company needs to chart its marketing course.

Introduction to Insights

This aptly named Facebook tool provides businesses insight into their marketing practices.  Insights shows reliable marketing data that reflects how people react to a business’s posts, information, website, applications, etc…For example, if your restaurant reveals its new menu via Facebook, Insights allows the page administrator (anyone authorized by your business to run the Facebook page), to see how many people see, comment, and like this shared information.  Whatever stories your business posts, Insights will graph the impact it has with its readership.  This allows a business direct feedback with the very people they do or want to do business with.

If you are a small business owner wondering whether you should get onto the Pinterest bandwagon, then the first question you should ask yourself is whether your business lends itself to visual representation. Pinterest is a hugely visual medium – you have photos and videos that can be used to create boards which can then be commented on, liked or repined by other users. You can also follow users or boards and in turn be followed as well. However, unlike a Facebook page which lends itself to be used as a powerful marketing tool by most small businesses, Pinterest is best used by small businesses focused on design, fashion, food or travel which are all great businesses which can be promoted visually. On the other hand, if you are a content writer, then Pinterest may not be the right platform for you. Of course, you can pin your blog images but that’s pretty boring, but you are better off spending your time and effort elsewhere.

Now, assuming that you run a small business that lends itself to visual promotion, here is a list of things to keep in mind to generate the maximum benefit from your Pinterest account.

Google authorship is a great way to add a layer of personal branding to your posts and hopefully increase the click-through rate of those posts when they appear within Google’s SERPs. In this post I’m going to talk about the importance of Google authorship(verifying yourself as the official author of content with Google), and how to do it.

Importance of Google Authorship:

Say you do a Google search for “Search Engine Optimization Tips” and you see the following two results at the top of the page.

Result 1:

Result 2:

One of the first things that a person that you have a meeting with is going to do after talking with you is search your name online. You may not think that you have very much control over the search results, but you actually can control a lot of what people see when searching for your name. Below are some quick tips and tools to take control of your name online.

Take Control of Facebook

If you are in the midst of a job search or are out in the field trying to make a sale, you definitely want to make sure that your Facebook is under control. You want to ensure that you completely understand your current privacy settings and know exactly who has access to your photos, news feed, and other personal info.