The internet has been taken aback by the news released by Google just recently. Google reader will cease its operations on mid-year 2013. Many bloggers and online news enthusiasts widely use the news syndication technology also called “RSS” as a way to keep up with online news and blogs on the internet. The main benefit of Google Reader is the automation of updates on blogs and responding to requests. It is beneficial especially to the readers for they can easily navigate and look through the internet for blog entries and news of their interest. However with the sudden demise of Google Reader, a threat of a dramatic audience reduction is looming near. How can bloggers steer clear of possible damage brought about by the termination of Google Reader?

Essential Tips for Bloggers

To still continue on in reaching blog success on the internet by maintaining your audience, you would need to reconnect with the basics of effective blogging. Google Reader gives ample support to bloggers when it comes to running their site. Nevertheless, you can easily keep the momentum by administering fundamental online marketing strategies such as Search Engine Optimization. If you are a little less technologically savvy, you can always count on basic responsible blogging techniques widely used by even the most successful in the business of blogging. These essential tips will certainly drive the same organic traffic to your blog website even without Google Reader.

#1- Constant Updating

A blog always should be updated constantly. Online experts say the most ideal number of new entries per week should be at least five. In recent times, bloggers have seemed to become lazier in constantly updating their blogs with fresh and quality content than ever. With regular updates and quality contents on your blog, not only will your readers be pleased, but also the updating will make you gain more followers. Bloggers must know by heart that updating is not all about posting new content, but it should be about putting up worthwhile, relevant, and fresh entries.  The key tip in constantly updating your blog is to have your entries spaced at least for about a day. Posting all at once will not help your SERPs and the organic traffic driven to your blog. The website would have much more attention and response from search engines and online users when the posted content does not flood the system which usually happens when you post too much at once.

#2- Build a Routine

A blog can be much likened to a television channel. The channel might contain a lot of good programs. However, a messy scheduling will definitely put you off. A blog must at least have a routine on its posts so readers and followers can be comfortable with your blog. Bloggers had used this strategy even before Google Reader came out. Successful blogs usually have a specific time of the day when they post news, related blog content, interact with the readers, and post promotions. The predictability of your blog will have your readers feel at ease, comfortable, and even an urgency to visit because they know what to expect and when to expect it. More often than not, an established blogging pattern will have readers tune in to the blog website daily making the website receive daily amount of traffic.

#3 Use Social Media

In a short span of time, blogs have also followed the social media trend and connected blog hosting websites to popular social networks. Social media is a powerful tool for maintaining the audience and even building it to a larger scale. Bloggers can automatically update their audience through social media just like Google Reader.

I hope this article has given you some ideas for alternatives to Google Reader.  Leave a comment and let me know

Pinterest, the world’s leading image sharing networking site has recently launched the new Pinterest Analytics service that would give users access to how their content is being shared over the website.

Services of a similar nature are also being offered by other social networking websites including Facebook. The information provided through this new feature has the potential to enable businesses to derive significant benefits to grow their business.

The business analytics can provide businesses information about how many times the images posted by them have been viewed, shared, and so on. To be useful for time-pressed business users, it is necessary for the information to be presented in a user-friendly manner. That’s why Pinterest Analytics makes the information available in the form of graphs that clearly illustrate usage patterns and identify changing trends in user behavior. The service provides reports on user activity with regard to four specific behaviors that include image pins, re-pins, as well as clicks and impressions.

When you can access this data, you can spot who are your most promising customers by identifying the users who have pinned your content. For instance, the four graphs generated by Pinterest Analytics will let you know the number of unique users pinning your content within a specified time period. You can use this information to determine whether the number of users has increased as a result of a particular promotional campaign, as well as to identify who are the new users. You can also find out how many impressions your content has received and how many people have visited your website by means of viewing your content on Pinterest.

The Pinterest Analytics service also allows you to track user activity with your content in real-time. This helps you gauge the popularity of a particular content. For instance, you can get to know when your content is being pinned by a greater number of users and when its popularity is declining. This information can be used to replace the old content with more updated and current material to maintain user interest in your content and eventually your website. At the same time, you can also learn what kind of content keeps users more engaged. You can then use this information to develop products and promotional campaigns that resonate with your targeted users. You are able to access this information by clicking on the various tabs provided for this purpose on the Pinterest Analytics dashboard.

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We are living in the age of social media.

Whether you run an offline business or online marketing business, you can never ignore the potential of social media marketing.

When you have an online business, participating at popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ can quickly put you ahead of the game.

Which social media channel should I focus on?

All of them listed above!  These are the most widely used and will be a great asset to your business exposure.

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What kind of strategies do I use when planning my social media marketing campaigns?

Here are some very basic rules of engagement for social media:

1. Be yourself!  Remember this is a social site.  Get to know one another here.  Just meet and greet like being at one huge party!
2. Have a nice picture of yourself or your brand and make sure to fully fill out the profile section for each social media channel you choose.  People want to know about you!
3. Always lead with value.  If you are not providing any value to your audience then why would they respond?  Put yourself in your audience’s shoes, would you see any value in this post, if not then start over.
4. The very best strategy of all is make sure you are sharing, liking or commenting on others content consistently and frequently.
5. I like using the 80/20 rule where you post 80% value content and 20% business promotion.

One of the best ways for you to keep track of all the social media campaigns you have is to use a service called HootSuite.  It is a great place to monitor and stay engaged with all your social media campaigns in one place.  This service also helps you track your results so you can see what content is the most engaging in your specific channel for your social media campaign.

So, are you ready to start your social media marketing campaigns? Please let me know in comments.