Invite ALL Facebook Friends to a Group or Fan Page

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How many times have you sat individually clicking every one of your friends to invite them to a group or fan page you’ve created? I know I have!

This little trick will automatically select ALL of you friends & then you can simply click submit … it’ll take 5 seconds rather than minutes.

Best of all, it’s completely allowed by Facebook so you don’t have any chance of getting your account banned.

How?

Simply go to a group and click on Invite People to Join
Remove all text from the web address bar and replace it with the following (Here’s a text file with the code, Blogger doesn’t allow javascript insertions)

It may appear that the invites haven't been sent - they are queued by Facebook. They will be sent.


Tags: facebook, fan page, group page, social networking

10 Tips for Getting more Youtube Views

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Since Google began putting youtube videos directly into their search results it has become more important than ever to leverage the power and userbase of youtube to gain more traffic & views to your videos and therefore hopefully to your website.

Your videos should act as an information resource giving the users relevant, honest information & advice … this builds trust in your service / product / brand & encourages visitors to head across to your main website.

Here are my top 10 tips on how to get more Youtube video views

1. Place good keywords in your video title (eg. Iphone App Review not My thoughts on my friend’s Iphone application).
2. Place the keywords & a link to your site or original article above the “view more” arrows in the video description.
3. Use relevant tags for your videos (eg. iphone app application review reviews not my thoughts on friends iphone application).
4. Correctly categorise your videos.
5. Try posting your video as a video response to another (related) popular video.
6. Ratings – Try to get as many 5 star ratings as possible … higher rated videos will be pushed up the Youtube results & therefore receive more views.
7. Your videos are as important as any other content on your site. Blog about them, Tweet them, share them on social networks & create a buzz.
8. Build links to your videos, just like any other content on your site.
9. Link to your site from your video itself, either at the end or throughout in a corner…. make sure it’s not obscuring content or is annoying though … your video is an information resource not a sales pitch.
10. Don’t just rely on Youtube. There are hundreds of video sharing sites but concentrate on the main ones: Youtube, Vimeo, DailyMotion

Got a tip you’d like to share? Want to know something in particular? Comment below & let me know!

Tags: search engine optimisation, seo, social networking, video optimisation, youtube

It’s 2010, Everybody needs an Online Presence.

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It’s 2010, we’re done with the cheap websites and half trusted businesses & people. The majority of internet connected people will start their search for a product / company / service & advisor on the internet.

Nowadays it’s not only desirable to have an online presence, in some form, I’d even goes as far as to say it’s pretty much essential.

For a large company to have an online presence is common sense, it provides promotion & more importantly in today’s social based web connectivity to consumers & potential customers.

It’s the same story with a small business, exposure, connectivity & openess are essential tools in building trust, brand recognition & exposure.

However what about the average sole trader? An electrician, a sales rep, a project manager?

Here are two completely unrelated professions but each would certainly benefit from at least a cursory personal online presence.

Plumber

You’re a self employed plumber who specialised in fixing boilers in your local area. Due to the recession you’ve found yourself gradually receiving less & less work.

One night you’re sitting in the pub with a few friends, one of whom has a LinkedIn profile, a facebook page & perhaps even a small 2-3 page website with some recent photo’s of their work & perhaps some testimonials from clients.

You & the rest, unfortunately, do not.

Who do you think is likely to get the work offer first?

Simple, your friend. They have already made small steps to position themselves as authority figures in the local area (giving the appearance that they are better or more knowledgeable than you).

Whether they actually know more than you on any given subject is largely irrelevant. They appear to know more. Impressions are key in any business & however you are able to get those impressions across is also largely irrelevant – use whichever method works best for you (and your customers).

You could set up a simply online profile such as LinkedIn or facebook & direct visitors to it via an email footer. You could also blog regularly, either via a self-hosted blog or a free blog (Blogger, WordPress etc.) this will let potential customers know you actually know and care about the service you are providing.

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Student (Looking for work)

A recent graduate from University is currently out of work but looking for graduate placement schemes or professional work options. They are genuinely interested in their chosen subject and wish to make a long & successful career in their area.

That’s great, but how many other recent graduates around the country (and indeed the world) are also in the same position. You need a way to set yourself apart from your competition. To distinguish you from the average and make sure any potential employers give you the call first.

Start a blog, write about your experiences … perform analysis of your own Uni assignments / case studies … pick holes in your own research … it sounds counter intuitive but shows you’ve learnt from your mistakes (and perhaps more importantly that you’re still willing to learn & aren’t too stubborn to think you know it all).

Attend conferences, take photos & notes. Write them up on your blog. Post this pictures, create mp3 podcasts of your thoughts from the speakers….

Network with others in the industry, even if you consider them a competitor .. you never know when they may be too busy & pass business your way… just be sure to try & return the favour.

All of this shows you’re willing to go the extra step further than your competitors who are sitting waiting for someone to contact them.

To conclude, if you’re not taking advantage of the opportunities available by promoting online then you’re missing out on vital business … even if you don’t consider your business as traditionally web-based.

Tags: online presence, online promotion, search engine optimisation, self promotion, seo, social networking

Nowadays social media marketing is touted as the holy grail of internet marketing & exposure. “Crack the social networks” they say, “and you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank”.

Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but it’s not that simple.

True, if you design & implement a well thought out social media strategy it can pay dividends. You’ll have a steady stream of targeted traffic just itching to buy your product or try out your service.

Get it wrong though and you’ll not only be back to square one, you could find yourself even worse off with a damaged reputation & trust in your brand at an all time low.

Here are some of the most common things I hear when dealing with enquiries relating to social media marketing:

It’s Free

While it is true that most social networks will allow you to create an account or page and access all / the majority of their features for free, people commonly forget what is arguably their most important asset in business: time. A well thought-out & delivered social media marketing strategy takes time to plan, time to create content & time to deliver that content. Then it all takes more time to correctly analyse the results & evaluate if / where you went wrong & how to fix it.

If you do have the time, by all means go for it but I bet you’d rather (and you’d be well advised to) stick with what you know and let the experts handle it.

It’s Quick

The simple answer is that it can be as quick or take as long as you wish. My honest advise would be to spend as much time as possible to make sure you’ve got it right. You wouldn’t want someone to build your house quickly would you, because it’d probably fall down sooner or later.

The same is true with social media marketing. Don’t forget that you’re pitching and marketing you product or service to a human being. They’ll see through a cheap attempt to get them onto your site or youtube video for no reason, in an instant. Once that happens you rarely get a chance to redeem yourself.

It’s Easy

Again, it’s as easy or difficult as you choose to make it. Often the best plans start simple and build over time as they evolve and the owners learn what works & what doesn’t.

Once again though, if you throw a few links up without any real effort or thought as to who your targeting and why then you’re not likely to gain anything from it anyway.

This article is meant to serve as a reference so that you can check to see if you’re falling into any of these common traps. This list is by no mean exhaustive & my best advice is to always remember that with social media you’re marketing directly to a human. In the same way that you don’t want male enhancement pill emails ever 5 minutes or somebody telling you to obey something to get thin … users don’t appreciate being blindly battered with links.

One last thought for social media marketing – don’t bite off more than you can chew, simply because you can … there’s nothing worse than seeing an empty facebook group or blog which hasn’t been updated in months ….. sometimes less is more.

Tags: promotion, seo thunder, social media, social networking

This tutorial explains how to easily (and automatically) remove those users you are following that you do not return the gesture and follow you back.
First, you’ll need greasemonkey for firefox

Once you’ve restarted Firefox, visit this userscript page and click install.

Now find your ‘Following‘ list & greasemonkey will highlight the users who aren’t following you in return.

Scroll to the bottom and click ‘Remove Marked’. The script will then cycle throuh automatically removing your unfollowing followed tweeters.

Tags: remove followers, social media, social networking, twitter