Take a look at our tips below, and hopefully you will be in a better position to exploit the social media market for your business.

Blog
Your company blog is the primary starting point of all social media success. As the driving mechanism for attracting website traffic, your site SEO can immensely improve with regular content. User-generated content is highly engaging, and produced regularly and becoming in-demand, you will soon obtain regular subscribers to your RSS feeds.

Social Networks
There are millions of them out there, not all containing the right audience and appeal for every business. The main attractions are Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, but not all of them offer the marketing platform your business needs.

Facebook demands highly interactive and regular content flowing through a fan page. In comparison, Twitter is an easy tool for establishing followers, for whom to advertise your content to in the hope of being distributed further. Linkedin remains the more corporate of the three, creating an ideal location for marketing the profile and individuals of your company.

Multimedia
User-generated content such as videos and graphics are the most popular type on the web. Content needs to be engaging to ensure users return, but also redistribute. Virals have become a driving point for many marketing agencies looking to ‘spread the word’ of a brand. Adding essential characteristics such as humour and controversy will ensure the message reaches a larger audience.

This can be achieved using a brand channel within YouTube and feeding content through the company blog so that the content can be easily distributed via your RSS feed.

As the first instalment of a two-part post for social media, we will reveal essential tools for monitoring social media to ensure desirable brand reputation is maintained next week.

The user’s journey begins on the home page after arriving via the search engine. A common user will have an idea of what they want or need, therefore won’t be looking to spend too much time flowing through your website.

People don’t visit every page and the majority also skim text to obtain the key information they require.

The navigation needs to be plain and simple. Use simple words that explain precisely what lies behind each link. Users will lose patience with a website that sends them to pages that consist of nothing related to what was being advertised.

Make it easy for users to see what their next step should be. Include clear calls to action on every ‘business’ page that jump out at the user. You can omit them on secondary pages that just provide information.

Try to ensure your HTML page titles are valid and relevant. This is not only useful for SEO, but for users who bookmark your website. Choose a favicon that stands out next to those of competitor sites that users are likely to visit and bookmark alongside yours.

Our last tip would be to create regularly updated features such as a blog, ensuring an RSS feed is available for subscribers. Try not to bombard users with sales messages, content such as this provides greater value in the long term.

Hopefully these initial factors can help you identify essential elements of your website navigation. Want to talk more? Keep in touch via our Twitter account @themediacube.

Skype is a superb, cheap communication tool that allows people to arrange video and voice calls, conference calls and instant messaging. Not only would a business benefit from the convenience, but ultimately more can be achieved quick and at a low cost.

More businesses have partnerships or contracts overseas. This emphasizes further need for a platform that helps maintain regular contact. Skype can be used in the comfort of your own home and at work. Therefore business calls can be arranged at a convenient to suit both you and your business associate.

Skype’s demand is so much so, that an iphone app is available to ensure you calls are kept live on the go. Cheap headsets and microphones are all you need. Privacy remains, as does the desirable crisp communication.

The social heights of today’s digital world means that businesses refuse to play ignorant to web technology. Tools such as Skype as extremely efficient to financial budget and allow investment to be laid elsewhere.

What’s more, Skype even opens up the prospect of pursuing contacts developed through social media, who perhaps you may not be comfortable releasing personal information to.

Oh and remember to turn of the emails. Clients will appreciate minimal distractions in a formal conversation.

Hopefully now you can start saving money on those long distance phone calls and still stay in touch with your all important contacts.

If you want to talk more about Skype, or any other social app, come and find us on Twitter, @themediacube or post your comment below.

Thanks for dropping by….

The Media Cube would hate to see vulnerable people fall victim to such crimes and have therefore compiled some information to take onboard when socialising in such sites as Facebook and Twitter.

Limit details

Your personal information is just that, personal. Any true information, such as full name and address can seriously risk your identity safety. Do not advertise your details and then fraudsters can not advertise themselves as you.

Privacy settings

An obvious thought would be to keep your profile only accessible to your friends. Some people are oblivious to this and do not realise that their profile is public, when in fact they thought it was private. Check now and be confident that you are not giving strangers a financial excuse to get to know you better.

Be cautious

Don’t believe everything you read and see online. People can pretend to be someone they are not, producing misleading information about various topics, in order to gain your trust.

Verify emails

Not all emails are what they initially seem. People obtain personal information via social sites and pursue contacts in order to further progress fraud tactics. Offers of “Please sign into your account to verify your account” or “What is your account password”, will most definitely be fake, with the intention of making you believe it to be genuine.

Hopefully these four tips can help keep users safer online. Unfortunately we have to live in a world where not all is what it seems. We love to socialise with others online, and hope to see you join us too!

Keep safe online and feel free to say hello @themediacube!

But how will you know whether people are saying positive or negative points about your business? Well you can start by exploring a variety of tools available online to conquer your needs.

Scoutlabs and Ubervu are two tools that obtain various results and statistics about what is being said across the social platform.

Analyising a range of data throughout the social networks, the tools collaborate data about particular topics, phrases and names. The results also reveal the extent of how they were mentioned and in what context.

The brand ‘Audi’ was used in conversation 8542 times in the last month across sites such as Twitter, YouTube and Wordpress, according to Ubervu.

Like website analytics, this data can be very time consuming and complicated to assess for the unknown. The Media Cube specialise in compiling the important data and providing relevant feedback regarding your social interaction and reputation.

With referrals and word of mouth a leading selling factor of any brand, be confident that your brand is not being undermined with negative thoughts.

Find out what people are saying about you, and act on it!

If you feel that you may need extra support and analysis for your brand online, drop us an email or find us on Twitter @themediacube and discover how socially active you need to be.

As with most new and slightly unknown tools, many companies remain obvious to how social media works or can be beneficial to their business success. The Media Cube are experienced, Kent based social media experts, capable of teaching businesses the trade of social networking and integrating compelling social campaigns into business needs.

Recent reports from econsultancy suggested that more companies will explore the social arena as a business tool this year and that 90% of companies already using social media will increase their investment.

Therefore, to ensure your company is implementing a successful social media campaign or if you just want to learn more about how to grow online in the social world, we are offering a range of social media services in Kent.

Important aspects such as brand awareness and reputation can be controlled using social media. Some businesses can be impossible to reach, however presence on sites such as Twitter and Linkedin, offer an alternative route for interaction.

The south east is a prime location for business networking. With thousands of businesses placed across Kent and with many of them online, social media presences the perfect platform to liaise with current and prospective clients and partners.

Need more information or advice? Why not get in touch with us via email or come and find us on Twitter, @themediacube. We look forward to meeting you!