3 Reasons Why Your Company Should Blog

Blogging has definitely grown during that past few years. The practice has expanded beyond the typical blogger realm and into companies both small and large. And can we blame them? With professional blogging platforms like Blogger or WordPress, it’s easier than ever to post articles and content related to your industry. These platforms can also be customized to fit the look and feel of your company and branding. Blogging gives you a voice within the internet and if you’re good, you’ll develop a pretty loyal following in no time.

Show Off A BitBlogging lets you demonstrate your knowledge about your industry. It gives clients or customers even more of a reason to trust you and that you know what you’re doing. Displaying this knowledge will help your company by attracting outsiders to check out not just your blog, but your website as well.

Ultimately you’ll be seen as someone who is reliable within their field and can be a trusted source of knowledge. As a company, you want to give your clients or customers that reassurance, that way they’ll not only use your services, but will spread the word about your company as well.

Builds LinksWithin your blog posts you can reference outside links, whether it is your own website or a previous blog post. It’s also good to link back to other bloggers as that will build an online relationship. Of course, by adding outside bloggers, you’re hoping that they’ll return the favor – either in their own blog or even on social media sites.

Also, blogs are preferred by search engines like Google and are often utilized for SEO purposes. As most of us already know, SEO is the top way to get your company noticed in today’s world that thrives off of the internet.

Gives You a VoiceHaving that extra presence never hurts, especially on an unlimited source like the internet.

Think about it, someone may come across your blog without having to see your website first, which is usually how it happens if one is searching primarily for blogs. The blog can help with announcing the latest news within your company, or can just be a space to put your own two cents about certain topics or trends related to your field. And since it’s your blog, you can pretty much say what you want, of course keeping it within reason.

The key with blogging is to develop quality, relevant content so readers will continue to return to read your next post. That is ultimately what will draw in an audience, and then you can focus on utilizing keywords for SEO and share your content on various social media platforms.

Does your company blog?

Source: MSM DesignZ, Inc. is a Westchester based NY web design firm specializing in SEO, social media, web and graphic design and much more.

10 things To Do To Your Facebook Page Immediately

By Jonathan Pollinger at Intranet Future:

Here are 10 actions for you to take right now on your Facebook Page. 

1) Create a Milestone for a new product, office opening, new member of staff etc by selecting Offer, Event + then Milestone.

2) Check that you’re receiving the notifications when Fans interact with your Page. Go to Update Public Info/Your Settings.

3) Make sure your About section is fully complete and describes how your products or services can benefit your customers or clients.

4) It may state Website (singular) in the About section, but you can add as many websites as you like – just add a space between them.

5) Add a link to your website in the Short Description so that it’s displayed on the front of your Page beneath the Cover Photo.

6) Feature the Pages of your clients and suppliers by using Featured Likes under Edit Page/Update Public Info/Featured. 

7) Ensure that you have at least 2 Page Admins for cover in the event of sickness and holidays and to avoid difficulties when the sole Admin leaves the business.

8) Add your website link or your call to action using text to your Facebook cover photo. eg ‘Sign up to our newsletter’.

9) Set you category and sub-category to accurately reflect your sector. Go to Edit Info/Update Public Info/Basic Info.

10) Ensure any Place or Community Pages representing your business are merged with your main Facebook (Business) Page.

Bonus tip: Create a unique URL for your Facebook Page. Go to Edit Info/Update Public Info/User Name.

5 Reasons to Choose Vimeo Instead of YouTube

By Eric Larson at Mashable:

Two platforms clearly stand out when it comes to hosting online videos:YouTube and Vimeo.

YouTube's clearly the big dog. At 800 million unique visitors per month, with roughly 72 hours of content being uploaded each minute, it's by far the most used video-sharing platform on the web. (It doesn't hurt that it's owned by Google, either.)

But upload statistics alone don't necessarily make it the best platform out there. Vimeo, while on a smaller audience scale, has plenty of advantages over the streaming giant — especially for someone who's looking to receive helpful feedback or showcase their work to a community of fellow filmmakers.

Not to knock on YouTube. It's a great platform as well, and it overall depends on what type of video you're uploading and what sort of audience you're trying to reach. But, if you're struggling to decide between the two, check out our list below of reasons why Vimeo — not YouTube — might be your best fit.

1. The Community of Professionals

Unlike YouTube's massive audience, Vimeo's is a more small, niche community of film enthusiasts. It's not nearly as large — it gets roughly 70 million unique visitors each month — but its modest size creates an intimate and fully engaged community. It's a network of people who are genuinely interested in film quality, too, so you know your work is being seen by people who will appreciate it.

Plus, you're more likely to get constructive criticism in the comments section. (On YouTube, even a video of a baby owl stretching its wings for the first time is guaranteed to launch a string of off-topic, mean and flat-out racist comments.)

2. There's Less ... Fluff

GIF courtesy of WeHeartIt.com

Don't get us wrong — there are plenty of gems on YouTube. But the problem with a site where more than 70 hours of video are uploaded every minute is that not every hour is going to be something you'd like to watch. Haters may hate, but you'll be hard-pressed to find a 30-second clip of a man dancing in a penguin costume on Vimeo.

3. The Cleaner Layout

Aside from the difference in video genres, Vimeo offers a cleaner aesthetic than YouTube. Videos are larger and there's limited clutter around the frame, so it really feels like the primary focus of the website is on the video, and nothing else.

4. No Advertisements

No distracting banners or 30-second commercials before your video starts — a huge perk for the viewer.

5. Password Protection

Lastly, Vimeo allows you to password-protect your videos, so you can share them with friends before setting them as public. It differs from creating a "private" video on YouTube in that you don't need to be logged into the video's account to view it — you just forward the video to your recipient and make sure they know which password to type in.

Give Vimeo a look for yourself if you haven't done so already. It's free to sign up for a basic membership; Vimeo Plus is $9.95 per month; and Vimeo PRO is $199 per year.

Do you have a preference between the two video streaming services? Or, better yet, do you prefer a different uploading site? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Who Should You Connect To on LinkedIn?

Via SocialTechWeb: 

Your LinkedIn success depends a lot on who you are connected to.  Many professionals on LinkedIn misunderstand this and believe that you should be connected to as many people as you can convince to accept your connections. This could not be further from the truth.

This is what LinkedIn says about it:

Connecting to someone on LinkedIn implies that you know them well:

• They’ll have access to people you know
• Others may ask you about them and vice versa
• You’ll get updates on their activity

LinkedIn lets you invite colleagues, classmates, friends and business partners without entering their email addresses.

However, recipients can indicate that they don’t know you. If they do, you’ll be asked to enter an email address with each future invitation.

Here are a few reasons why you should only connect to those you KNOW, TRUST and CAN RECOMMEND:

1. When you request a connection with someone you found through a name search on LinkedIn, you are asked how you know this person – colleague, classmate, business partner, friend, group/association or other.  Choosing friend or other will require the person’s email address before requesting the connection – again, to ensure you know the person. Most people lie through their teeth here just to make a connection with someone they usually don’t know from a bar of soap.  The reason LinkedIn asks is because it matters that you actually know the people you are connected to.
2. I’m often surprised at how I am connected to nearly every professional person in my city or industry because we know someone in common.  If I see one of my connections is connected to someone I want to do business with, I can ask my connection to introduce us.  This is a very powerful feature as it gives credibility to both parties – like a real introduction by someone you know and trust to someone they know and trust.
3. You can only get/give recommendations from/to your connections.  The same counts for endorsements.  Those you connect to who don’t actually know you will happily give you endorsements for anything – even though they have no idea if you actually have these skills.  This causes the whole endorsement feature to be worth less than the space it takes up on a profile.
4. You see the activity of your connections in your Timeline (LinkedIn Home) and on the Signal page – if you know and trust all your connections, these updates are really interesting, keeping those who know and trust each other in business updated with each other’s professional lives.  If not, well, it’ll just be noise.
5.  You don’t have to be connected to someone to network with them.  Networking is done via Groups and introductions.  Find a Group you are interested in, take part in discussions and you will get to know many professionals you are not connected to.  This could even lead to new connections!

I hope this helps clear up some of the confusion around the connection issue on LinkedIn.  Please help me spread the word – if your real connections are connected to people they don’t know, it will water down your networking experience on LinkedIn too!

#INFOGRAPHIC: The E-Commerce Revolution in the Middle East

The Surveys which are made shows that the population in the Middle East is 350 million, where 110 million are internet users. 9B$ are spent in 2012 in E-commerce shopping and by 2015 it will increase to 15B$ which sounds in an alarm to pay attention to the huge importance of E-commerce revolution happening in the Middle East. Here are an infographic done by Smarttouch‘s professional web designers to describe the E-commerce revolution in the Middle East.


This Infographic is Published by SmartTouch.

The E-Commerce Revolution in the Middle East � Inforgraphic infographic