1. Facebook

There was a big commotion that Facebook will be dead. Last year. But look the changes. This social media platform hit back at its competitors in the right way. Through its ads campaigns. So, Facebook is the best platform in present times.

Yes, you can definitely reach out to friends and blood relations to advertise your products/services via Facebook. But the advantage lies in the ability to share content via the Facebook Groups. You can reach the specific audience via these group. Once part of the relevant group, you can share photos, articles and every type of content with the members.

2. LinkedIn

If you have opened a new business, you need to download the app. LinkedIn is the best content platform sharing B2B content. If you want to reach higher management professionals in any industry, then this platform is the main option. And for sharing articles, you can use the official LinkedIn Profile. You can add more followers.

Similar to Facebook, every LinkedIn also has groups. Yes, you have to get permission to join a group. But before making the posting, ensure you read the guidelines and check if the group can help your business.

3. Twitter

Great leaders can change the world with just one sentence. You can also do so with Twitter. It is a highly sought after platform by every celebrity in any part of the globe. You can use Twitter to use both the company pages as well as personal pages. How about using Twitter Chats to chat with industry experts of your business? Also, do not forget to know the skills before you share the twitter content.

4. Instagram

There may be limitations, that you need only a mobile to post content. But you can also post videos and pictures on this app. There is one option to share the best content. Just post the link of the most viewed article on your bio. You can also add stories on Instagram.

5. Snapchat

It works in the same way as Instagram. You can add the link to content. Your followers and others will do the next step.

6. Pinterest

It is very easy to create a Pinterest account. Now, via the boards also, it is possible to share content.

7. YouTube

Remember video and you get reminded of youtube. For advertising your product or service, you can opt for the how to do, how to guide and many factors. You can also add links in the Videos so that more users can read your content.

8. Vimeo

If you can post on YouTube, the same can be done on Vimeo. Yes, the audience you reach may be less in number. But they are more mature.

9. Reddit

There is, however, one drawback in this platform. It does not encourage self-promotion of products or services. So you have to be honest and give valuable information. But if the content is written in a nice way, you can reach the maximum number of audience.

10. SlideShare

You can also use the content to share via SlideShare. But you have to change the article to a presentation. The next step is to upload on Slideshare so that it can reach the audience.

11. Google+

It is a part of the feature which Google gives to its users. But you can share content to reach a wide range of audiences. Yes, it also has groups.

12. Medium

If your product or service is regarding reading and publishing, you can go for this platform. But it takes time to submit to a reputed Medium publication. These will have a loyal audience, so if you can publish the content in one of these publications, you can reach the audience.

13. Quora

Do you desire that the content should reach more audience? Then go all out for Quora. You have to first look at the questions and the answers. Then search for the relevant keywords to write the content. With more than 590 million visitors a month, you can ask the question and give the answer.

14. Yahoo Answers

Similar to Quora, but this platform does not have so many monthly users. To advertise your product or services for free, you can answer the questions asked by others.

Conclusion

Let us imagine a situation. You have opened a home maintenance company. You provide doorstep bike repair service in Bangalore. Now how will you reach the maximum number of customers? You can get the answer in this article. Yes, you can also try posting your content on other platforms such as Triberr, Mix.com. Blog Engage, Digg and many more.

The post 14 Best Platforms To Share Your Content In 2019 first appeared on Muhammad Asif.

But apart from Facebook, there are certainly other social media applications which might help you with some other options and a good platform for marketing. 2 of the most famous applications includes Instagram and snapchat. People nowadays turn more towards these applications more to waste their time anyways and ends up buying stuff or promoting it.

Instagram and Snapchat are top priorities of bloggers and agencies these days. Features that make them more promising to do social media marketing might make opt for them. Every social media agency in Pakistan is now focused on using these two platforms for advertising.

Instagram, people use this social networking site to see new fashion trends and learn new tips and tricks. With added features of video and TV, its become the latest favorite to log in to search for ideas and creativity. On Instagram, you can upload pictures featuring trendy fashion accessories and makeup tricks. Apparently, the audience that uses social media applications is women. Since they have nothing more to do or are always in search of new makeup and outfit hacks.

Contrary to that, bloggers take advantage of this site as well. As they take pictures or make videos(if they’re good at that), write hooking content and upload it. They play on the nerves of people as they only upload those content which might influence their readers to buy that product somehow or at least become a follower.

There are also certain categories for blogging on Instagram as well and fashion blogging, food blogging, and photography blogging are some of them. While these categories are common everywhere, bloggers like to think of Instagram as their favorite one, citing content on Instagram stays organized and on focus. IGTV and Live have added options which make them more engaging and easy. Even a social media agency opting to increase their business and attract audience either hire these bloggers or make pages themselves on Instagram.

Next comes snapchat. Snapchat is not that much frequent in terms of marketing. But, it surely the best next choice after Instagram and Facebook. Bloggers these days divert their audience towards snapchat and make snap videos and tutorials of their content.

For example, if it is some traveling marketing they will feature their traveling snaps in their stories in which they are found giving people a tour, if it is makeup marketing which is popular these days then makeup experts upload stories of how these products can be used, in clothing one you just have to upload pictures of your outfits, if your teaching your audience some tip or tricks on cooking, baking etc then just demonstrate the process via snaps.

Then there’s a separate section which includes all ads and people awaiting their snaps to load turn towards it and eventually helps marketing. So Instagram and snapchat are the next best tools for social media marketing. As Facebook is not trustworthy lately so you can always opt for the above-mentioned websites and others for marketing purpose. Albeit, any SEO agency in Pakistan would dig facebook over Instagram or snapchat.

The post What Social Media Marketing Platforms Other Than Facebook Rule The Marketing Arena? first appeared on Muhammad Asif.

SEO

Well, SEO is so common these days that even our parents know about it. Putting it simply, SEO is the method of getting free traffic from the search engines. How? Umm… Search Engines have these things named web-crawlers, web-crawler are little million pieces of software spread everywhere on the internet fetching data in exchange of keywords and to make the search results more relevant to the keywords and sentimentally on-point, page ranking kicks in which is basically a method of content filtration. “Doing SEO”  consists of making a strategy to optimize your website/blog according to the search engines by adding meta tags, descriptions, backlinks, image captions etc.

SEM

SEM or Search Engine Marketing covers SEO and paid marketing. SEM includes PPC (Pay per click) and CPC (cost per click) which drives a huge amount of traffic to your website. SEM works like a needed extra topping on the ice-cream that is your website. The more you pay search engines to rank your website on top gets you the more of traffic present on the web. However, this ranking implies far by the means of advertisement which accentuates that your website won’t get ranked number one. It will just put you on top with the help of keywords related to your campaign or website. SEM is the subset of the overall strategy of internet marketing. Your website will get visible on the search engines with the help of paid marketing. SEM covers the areas of marketing that SEO doesn’t.

What to do

The reason behind this blog is not to prioritize one method over the other but to accentuate that SEM and SEO work together as a well. A strong marketing strategy requires both SEO and SEM onboard. You cannot just rely on one method to advertise your website. Your internet marketing strategy should incorporate both of them so you’ll be able to cover the lion’s share of your market. SEM goes in the most specific area and it is paid while on the other hand, SEO is free and covers the general audience through tips and tricks.

The post SEM and SEO: Difference and Need of the time first appeared on Muhammad Asif.

So in order to start advertising for our business page that we setup we have to take a second step, and setup our ad account. Now there are two routes that you can take to setup your ads account, and I’ll explain to you the benefit of each and I’ll walk you through each way to setup your ad account.

Setting it up through your personal profile:

Now this is for you, because it’s the simplest. If you have just one page to manage. That means one store front, one location then this is the way for you.

Facebook’s Business Manager Page:

The other way to set it up is through Facebook’s business manager page. This enables you to add more than one account. So if you are an agency or if you have more than one location or page to manage you’re going to want to go through business manager.

Option one:

Let’s start with the first route. Setting up your account through your personal Facebook page. So you log into your Facebook on your personal profile. You click on the downward facing triangle.

Then click here, your ads account will setup and it’s preparing your new ad account.

Then you’ll see this if you’ve never been here before. Otherwise, it’ll load a previously created account.

This is the page that will show up, now, before we start creating campaigns and ads, we have to setup a couple things.

Click here and then click on Ad account settings. Then we’re going to setup billing and payment methods and then we’ll be ready to go. You’re going to add up some of your basic information like your street address, whether you’re using it for your agency or not etc. then you can add account roles. So here, you can add other people to manage your account. Whether you want them to be the second admin, you’ll always be the owner because it’s under your personal account but you can add somebody who will be able to create ads and look at the order of ads. Or one person just taking care of the analysis of ads. Then you can go through here

Check or uncheck any boxes according to your requirement. Then you’ll click save changes. If you ever do want to deactivate your account you can always come back here.

Now our changes are save and all we have to do is add a Billing & Payment Method, and we’ll be good to go. So we’ll click again on those three bars then billing and payment methods then Add Payment Method

We just fill out whatever information we have and done. Now we’re ready to create an ad.

It’s that simple and we’ve set up an account through our personal page.

Option two:

Now we’ll go through the second path of setting up your ads account. As I mentioned you can set this up, and it’s ideal to set it up if you are running more than one page. Because then you can separate the permissions and you can separate the payment methods and the invoices and the receipts etc.

So login here and then you’ll log in to your personal account. Now click create account and then in just a couple quick steps, you give your business name and information ready to go. Once again you’re going to click on business settings

On this row of scrolling navigation we are going to click on Ad Accounts. Add New accounts- create a new ad account. Fill in the information. We set it up and we’re good to go.

Now here we have to add ourselves to give ourselves permission to use the Ad account. And we’ll choose from different roles. We’re going to give ourselves the admin permissions, check ourselves, save changes and we’re ready to go. We set up our ad account and now we’re just going to add a payment method. Once we set up this we’re ready to go. Create an Ad. And that’s it! We have our Ad account setup.

If you chose the personal page route then you’ll see your Ads Account here

And if you set it up using Business Manager, it will appear under that business name.

That’s really the only difference in display. However they are both available to reach in the Ads manager shortcut which can be found on your Facebook homepage on the left side bar.

The post How to create a Facebook ads account first appeared on Muhammad Asif.

After going there you’re gonna get this free add-on called iFB and fights all the events and pages v3.

Next, you’re gonna go back to your fan page; now this is where it gets really sneaky so what you’re gonna do is you’re gonna go right here where it says invite friends to like this page.

You’re gonna click it and all your friends are going to come up. Now, this is a newer Facebook profile I’m using right now so I don’t have that many friends but chances are that you least have 500 friends. Well, this is basically gong to invite all your friends so what you want to do is you want to scroll all the way down to the end of your friends list and once you’re there now the reason we’re doing this, the reason we’re using this is usually we have to go and invite each friend manually.

With this tool, all you have to do is go up there, click on iFB icon and then when a pop up comes, then all you’re gonna do is you’re gonna click events; instantly it’s gonna start through and clicking invite on everybody. It’s not gonna show you each invite that it sent but you’ll get notified which friend of yours liked your page and the more friends you have, the more likely you are to have an increased number of likes. So, this was the first method. Now I want to dive in right to the second method to get even more likes for free.

So for the second method what you’re going to do is you’re going to reach to this top search bar

Now, you’ll type in a keyword called ‘like ladder’. Now once it loads, you’ll need to hit see all results and once it loads then you’ll click on Groups so it just shows all the groups. Now when it’ll display the group names you’ll join these groups who at least have a 1000 – 2000 members. So once you join the group you wanna go in the group and scroll down – this is basically like a like ladder where someone will post their fan page and they want you to like it, this is known as reciprocation: you’re going to like someone’s page they’re going to like your page and it’s a ladder because you keep commenting and liking others pages and they’re gonna do the same! So, you’re actually gonna LIKE LIKE and keep commenting until you build a massive audience all for free.

Now, those are the two methods that I wanted to share with you, now what you have to understand is once you used these methods and you start getting likes, you’re going to start getting notifications people are gonna start liking your page and once it reaches about 4000-5000 likes- it’s gonna grow itself. Then, people are going to like it because of how many likes it has. So you can really use these methods to get a handle and really promote your fan page for free.

The post How to get Facebook page likes for free tips first appeared on Muhammad Asif.

The limitation of words makes Twitter a platform where you need to make everything count. It is therefore concise and to the point. The platform unique yet there are common grounds with other network that requires you to synchronize the overall social media strategy accordingly.

Social Media Synchronization

Do make sure that your entire platform is able to give a unified message, which in case of Twitter starts off with giving appropriate profile and cover photo that is similar to other networks. The biggest advantage of Twitter is that your every tweet is shared on feed of each follower, unlike Edge Rank on Facebook when status is posted. Conversation on pictures is comparatively easy on Twitter as compare to Pinterest.

Make Brand Presence

The first thing considered is your profile and cover pictures, the second thing is your introduction. In order to make strong foundation make sure that you add a personalized touch by telling your brand story in the best possible way. Your Twitter username is your mark of identification in the pool of other brands. So it should be simple, highly obvious and punctuation-free. You can customize the background to make it gel up with the overall profile. The location, website and bio should be clearly mentioned keeping ease of customer in mind.

Organize Your Connections

The golden rule for Twitter is that you are not defined by those who follow you; rather it is about whom you follow. Be picky in following the first few specially and remember aggressive following can lead to suspension of your account. Then make separate categories for customers, suppliers/partners, competitors, organization and professional networks.

Communicate To Perfection

The right use of photos, videos and hashtags in manner that your posts get favored and retweeted often is the key for communication. Be bold to tweet from heart and be responsive to reply on related tweets and direct messages. Add a human touch by answering the questions directed towards you directly and even to questions that are related to your industry. Do synchronize your website and specially blogs. You can add timeline of twitter to your website by usage of widget. As there is limitation of characters, so using URL shortener is a great idea. Get your mobile connected, and do cross check that your Twitter app and mobile website is functioning well.

For better analysis of your progress use Twitter Analytics for checking performance, building community, finding effective tweets and generating better results.

The post How to use Twitter for Business Marketing first appeared on Muhammad Asif.

Before starting off with the social media marketing tool, we will share an experience with you. There was a business that was best when it converted from typivcal brick and motor system to click and mortar one. The SEO campaigns were sky rocking and everything was just as expected. Yet over the years they analyzed that the growth of company was slow pace. They checked for the Pay Per Click that was fine, even their social media campaigns were going OK. After analysis they realized that the only thing lacking was social media marketing tool being used. As their target market was mostly available on Twitter, and their focus was on Facebook only. Social media marketing tools help in collaboratively executing campaigns across multiple social media networks saving time and resources.

It is crucial to be everywhere your customer is; following full funnel approach of creating brand awareness, lead generation and conversion.

Research And Problem Solving

Before starting off with the hunt for best social media marketing tool, one should do proper research for the reason of up gradation or initiation of new tool. Do make sure that you are well versed with the problem in hand for better management of strategy in long run. It includes knowing the goal to achieve by this social media marketing effort, the basic motivation point to work on new tool and the result expected from  the team in return of working through it.

Identification for Tools That Work For You

There are multiple mediums through which you can identify a number of tools. For that you can use the famous ones like Google and Youtube or go for indirect channels like search engine journal and social media examiner. There are a number of tools that aid you in scheduling, analyzing and publishing content with ease, make a list of those that are aligned with your purpose.

Test Drive for Identifying the Most Appropriate Tool

As most of the tools are available for free trial, check them all out with the help of your evaluation team. Take time to explore every side of the tool and brain storm on the experience you get. For evaluation the user experience is the first thing to consider. As this tool will be used on regular basis sp make sure they are crisp and clear to understand and work on, without the need of putting a lot of time in training for it. Prepare a detailed report on everything and take time to get feedback from team. Check for the level of security and integration. Great tools never come for free, so do make sure that you calculate the Return On Investment (ROI) in comparison to the price of product.

Congratulations, you have identified best social media marketing tool for your business that will give you long term growth for an extended period of time.

The post How to choose the best social media marketing tool for your business first appeared on Muhammad Asif.

The Facebook marketing tips and tricks vary as according to industry though the basics remain same throughout.Here you will read some useful tips to do marketing through Facebook.

Know Your Objective

It is something of foremost importance. One needs to find out the basic objective that is expected to be achieved. It can be to increase visit on your website, generate likes on your page or gaining greater engagements of customers. The use of facebook has gone beyond laptop and desktop PC to mobile phones. 60- 70% of customers use mobile phone, so make sure that you have an app support on your page.

Bid the Best

You can also go for paid medium of marketing and bid for advertisement. The payment can be based on click, impression, likes. You can have a daily or life time budget to support your campaign. The advertisement size purely depends on the type you are going for, though the standard 1200px X 627px is used by default by many. The 600 pixel wide advertisement looks best on newsfeed.

Know Your Target Audience

You can find out your target audience by checking through Facebook Insight. You can segment the market as according to location, age, gender, relationship status, language, education, and workplace. It can be further narrow down for better results. But remember you need to explore by experiencing the strategy that best works for you.

Content for Engagement

You can get creative in this part and go for your own unique touch keeping your business in mind. There are people who have gained greater success by posting blog, testimonial, news, interesting facts and much more. But while doing that make sure that the post content is comprehensive with not too many words. Videos get most engagements, pictures stand on second and pure content comes last; so go for a perfect mix of everything.

The Latest Trend

It is your call to be attention grabbing on Facebook. Though meme are getting greater popularity where the right combination of picture and witty text make wonder. Sharing of posts by page fans can be a greater way to engage more people. You can tag them, so even your post is visible to their friends and friends of friends. You can hold a contest, Like vs Share is one of such way. You give two choices and ask customer to Like it if they think first one is right and share it if they think second option is right. Now we have smiley addition with Like button so you can use them too.

The post Facebook Marketing Tips and tricks first appeared on Muhammad Asif.

Whether you are a senior professional or someone starting your career LinkedIn can help you in a number of ways. It is the digital resume that gives firsthand knowledge about your expertise, skills and job experience. In this era where the “fun to learn” is given high consideration, people expect the job search be a “fun to earn” process. As according to online survey the new generation consider LinkedIn a grandfather thing, yet its importance can be evident with the number of sign ups on an average.

The USP of LinkedIn

LinkedIn stands as a professional platform to network for employees and employers alike. The strong job board and search engine compatibility makes it an ideal option for jobs. The updated profile of employee and employer can aid to a greater extent in utilizing this network for job seeking purpose.

Way to Connect With Employer

Through LinkedIn one can research for openings in favorite company and even helps in connecting to potential employers. As according to a research, employers in all domains except scientific and engineering, search the employee profile on this network. So is it not better that the moment employer look for you, they get complete details on you beforehand.

Platform for Sharing Experience

Here one can share experiences like conducting/ attending workshops, a certification and everything that can give your professional profile a boost. The best part is that one can update it regularly to make “noise” in professional network about achievements.

Place To Find Future Job

Even if you have a stable career, you never know, your potential employer or your dream job is on the path to reach you. So keep your profile up to date and connect with those who share similar job interest as you for future benefits.

LinkedIn Verdict

The LinkedIn is as good as the user, because the better updated profile you have, the more are the chances that this platform will support you. It is not the platform that will give you magical results, rather your efforts in the domain that will bring long term benefits.

We discussed the importance of LinkedIn in finding best job for you. So if you are still not on LinkedIn it is a great idea to be there and explore a platform that might help in boosting your career. For those on passive on LinkedIn be active by endorsing skills, writing recommendations and updating your skill sets.

The post Is LinkedIn good for finding jobs? first appeared on Muhammad Asif.

Social Media is the best platform that shows even short term results clearly. The businesses should invest on it with clear consideration to strategy formulation with content creation and execution to the best. Many believe that new things should be tried to stand out from the crowd. It might be true but the basics should not be ignored at any cost. The 5 best practices to promote your business on social media is as follows:

Know the Purpose

Knowing what you are doing takes you a long way. If you are starting a business and are looking for ways to reach your prospective customers, you need posts that generate awareness about “Me also Here”. If you are an already established business that already have social presence and want to promote something new, you need to embed your latest update with regular ones. So first of all the purpose should be identified, so you have clear picture of results to achieve.

Combine Marketing Channels

When you are promoting your business your target market should be well-defined. After that you identify networks that they are most likely to be available. First you need to focus on the single medium where there are high chances of engagements. But long term success lies in mastering diverse networks and synchronizing them all well. The popular networks to master include Linkedin, Pinterest, Facebook and Google+.

Carve Differentiation

You should have posts tailored in manner that your unique selling proposition is highlighted. Get creative with contents with more of indirect promotion. It is said that in order to generate interest the ratio of promotional content should be as low as 1:7.

Give a Personal Touch

People get attached to brands that are not just products rather more like a person. Do make sure that you share your expertise, build relation and respond to complains. This way will help you in becoming top of the mind brand for customer. Here one should understand need of customers and respond as a one stop solution.

Connect With Competitors

The two most important people in the business are customer and competitor. Making allies in competition is a great idea for better penetration in market. This should start off by competitor analysis of social media campaigns and posts. It can be a win-win situation if implemented strategically.

There is much more to the business promotion in social media that depends on the nature of product/ service one sell. So make your own list of best practices and implement it to learn better.

The post 5 Best Practices to Promote Your Business on Social Media first appeared on Muhammad Asif.