Social Media Advantage For Brands

Social media has become mainstream and as someone said: every media becoming social. I always think some brands and their attitudes to social media, content marketing, management. It is clear from every angle, except from view, that most brands are overlooking the “social” in front of the social media. This is what sets social media apart from other kinds of media. To excel in social media, you begin with cultivating a social media mindset. Most have not understood what this platform offers.

All that we are currently doing is majorly titled toward social media abuse which is based on advertising and shameless ego promotion. This affects corporate brands more though.

Most have concentrated mainly on mainstream traditional media. They have neglected or can we say they are unaware that the only way to survive in this time is a two-way communication media which embraces not only the traditional but online media platform. As we know, the current trend today is for brands to first learn about their brides-customers, get their attention through the use of social media platforms like blogging, Youtube, Xing, Facebook, Del.ici.ous, Bookmarking, RSS, Podcasting, videocasting, Wikis among many other available online media.

The evolution of these new media has opened up opportunity to seek opinion, interact, court, date and offers irresistible proposal that will hook the bride. Today customers are no longer buying one mode fits all offer by the traditional media. Some corporate brands here seem to hinge non-participation in online community building on such excuses that we are not yet online, neither are there recognized consumer fora which have major convergence of consumers online. Also no regulatory authority here pays attention to or gives any attention to whatever they have to say can. They also claim that online forums here have no impacts on corporate performance. Some also claim that social media is alien to us. My answer is that social media is not alien. The fact remains that many things had been part of us only that we do not accurately labeled them until the westerners help us out.

The idea of social media, content marketing is rooted in cultural rituals where a couple gets engaged before they could start dating. The process require that suitor’s intention has to be established through family contacts, integrity checked and a cogent promised is made that he is interested in a serous relationship and not flings. Without these background checks, no one officially allows the intending couple to start dating. If this is violated then, the bride to be would be disciplined.

Drawing a parallel in this ancient ritual, the customers want the brand today to show that what matters is her, not money making. The customers want to be sure that out of arrays of suitors-products, services- your brand can take the initiative of starting a conversation, the customer wants to be sure your brand is not just flirting, looking out for short flings but a real relationship that will enhance her lifestyle. Brand through social media, content and social marketing set up a bate by loading the right words in their contents to convince, educate, entertain the bride that they are out to make her life better even before selling anything.

Customer wants to see how much of your intellectual property will be made available without charges. The customer wants to find out you are a giver. One of their love languages is gift sharing. A giver without string attached always takes the show. Social media, content marketing requires a lot of commitment. It takes time before social media and content marketing make huge impact. Any brand that can show high level of commitment in social media will always carry the day.

Typical case studies of brands with efficient use of social media include Tony Hseih. Tony followers in Twitter today is over one forty million. Hseih is the managing Director of Zappos.com. Tony through his ‘tweet’ has course to meet with customers at a bar while many in his position will rather hide under the guise of busy schedule. Tony uses Twitter to build interaction with customers; he uses twitter to solve problems for clients. The strength of Tony Hseih and Zappos communities has been used to strengthen relationships with Zappo’s brand offline. Zappos client freely gives their ideas on what they want. This aids, leads to co- creation of brands products, services.

As busy as Richard Branson of Virgin group is, he also maintains a twitter account. He has used his twitter account to answer questions from angry customers as well as virgin potentials. The virgin group also has an integrated website that allows news update, blog among others. Southwest Airlines has used social media to build strong connection that impacts on the brand’s offline interaction

A good example of the use of social media to spread messages and connection was recently demonstrated by Michael Jackson’s personal doctor. As we are all aware, it was once insinuated that he killed Michael Jackson through drug overdose. About a week ago, he used YouTube video to spread his part of the case. This video spread across the internet as well as mainstream media. Popularity of virtual community has been soaring high with more people paying attention from academics and marketing communications practitioner discussing it in advance countries, yet Nigeria brands have assumed ‘I do not care attitude’. Nations and brands are not considered backward just because of their location but based on attitudes, disposition to the use of technology that will aid progress. Building emotional connection, loyalty with the brand is becoming an easy thing through social media.

Social media has become a great platform to identify with, interact, communicate brand element. This often starts in online forum and lead to offline beneficial relationship. Today, nearly three billion of the seven billion potentials are now connected in social media platforms. Agreed the ratio is still slow here but the number is increasing daily. Through social media brands can ignite confidence in the hearts of the bride, build thought leadership. Your brand competitors may have better product, services but will surely lose out to you if you can build strong connection with them before you ask them to buy through massive advertisement.

If your brand can give away enough information, answers to concerns and prove that you are on the verge of seriously neglecting your own best interest, of tight schedules, in order to serve these greedy, needy brides that desire your brands become more open, honest with them which is the essence of social media. Social media do not allow cover ups, unnecessary protection of corporate brand’s failures. I am of the opinion that if our banking industry’s Managing Directors have been active in social media, there is possibility of gaining public sympathy instead of this anger, tantrum they are now receiving from various angles. Their followers would have been able to defend them and take appropriate position that may have given them soft landing in this trying period.

Since our brands have concentrated on one form of media, mainstream, tell me why should their brides not block out their useless bragging through advertising? Tell me why is it difficult for brands n our environment to see handwriting on the wall that their brides now desire their authentic voices that are not coloured with jargons of self- serving moneybags? The brands’ brides are now also afraid; skeptical of marketing. Why should the brides be loyal when the element of trust is shaking?

Having established that let us now examine proper way of participating in social media which is now being exchanged for web.2.0. For brands to actively participate in social media, brands need to observe, listen, find clients’ hibernating medium. In doing this, brand should first define its social media strategy through careful evaluation of brand’s resources, analyze the target audience, and identify objectives. Having done this, brand must carefully pick or access platforms that fit their goals. This will inform the decision to run a blog or just to participate in other forums like Twitter, Facebook, discussion board, social media bookmarking, stumbleupon among others. Be sure you know that such platforms are used by your niche audience. Identify the top influencers of your industry online through recognitions given to their opinions, comments, awards etc.

To do this effectively, brand may consider creating the position of community or social media/knowledge management manager or hire consultant who has track records in skills like community management, online reputation management, monitoring, tracking, podcast, video cast, web links etc. These skills do not require a programmer’s knowledge and in actual fact, they are used by customer relations, brand, and Public relations experts. The only requirement is passion that is backed with proven results. The said manger or consultant must also understands forum rules, reputation software, know how to distribute contents without creating offense as this may be counter productive. Great ability to create qualitative content for blogs, create profiles and claim such blogs in online directories is also essential. Social media, content marketing, management is seen as collection of open-sourced, interactive and user- controlled online application used to expand the experiences, knowledge and market power of the users as participants in business and social processes, the social media landscape is basically about conversation before any marketing campaign.

Brands must therefore consider Rajesh Setty’s suggestion that it must demonstrate that your brand cares, is curious to find out what is the concern of the customers, contribute, make sure the content is worth their attention, clarify issues, build conversation that will lead to strong relationship, bring in a lot of creativity, demonstrate the brand’s character and values cherished, build community, tribe, brings change, instill courage and be highly commitment to a cause its believe in.

Let me conclude this piece by highlighting how brand can start participate in social media and content marketing. Content marketing is an art of understanding what your customers’ want, need to know and the science of delivering it to them in a useful and compelling way. The content has to be engaging in a useful and compelling way. To start, the brand has to build trust and credibility. This is huge work. This becomes easy if your brand can take time to listen to customers first. By that brand discovers their problems and the content is therefore tailored to provide solution.

Avoid talking too much about your brand or your expertise as much as I do know the fact that your brand need to establish the line that your brand is worth their attentions. This can make your brand’s efforts become suspect. Your customers want educational content without initial marketing spin. The content also has to be compelling, entertaining to earn the scarcest entity on the wed- time/patience. Great content must guides, clarifies, enlightened and connect. The language of the content has to be in tune with your industry. Contents that solve problems drive traffic and increases sale rate.

Social media and content marketing make your clients see your brand as unique resource, trusted advisor and a brand that makes them look good. This will make them to gladly exchange their money and loyalties for your commitment to the relationship. When you have so much to give, they will not wait to tell others about your brand. There are some other factors that come into play here but let us conclude today’s piece by saying that brand has several opportunities when it annexes the two way communication of mainstream and evolution of new media.

Simple Tricks to Make Your Site More Social Media Ready

Once thought to be a passing fad, and although still relatively new, social media is now taking a firm hold and warrants attention in many retailers’ online marketing efforts.

You can’t avoid it. No matter where you turn it seems you hear terms like “fan page”, “followers”, “tweet”, “re-tweet”, “blog” and more being used. With all the social media hype, many are questioning what social media actually is and how they can use it to move their business forward.

In this article I am going to explain what social media is, provide some strategies for making your site more social media friendly, touch upon differences between options presented by major social media outlets, and answer the question of whether you should do it yourself, or hire a consultant to do it for you.

Social Media can be time consuming, but when implemented correctly can add a level to your business that helps build brand loyalty, and awareness which in turn can boost your bottom line.

What is Social Media?

Wikipedia defines social media as: media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.

In other words, it is a group of Internet-based applications that utilize new web concepts to promote user generated content.

Examples of some of the major social applications currently online are Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

Twitter can be seen as a “micro blog” type service that enables you to post short messages of up to 140 characters that are fed in real time to your followers. Facebook is more of a “publishing” platform which enables you to create a page that integrates multiple media options into one (i.e. discussion boards, blogs, photos, shopping carts, etc…) YouTube is a service that enables you to produce video content to the masses (possibly to demonstrate the use of your product.)

The power and uniqueness of each provides pros and cons. Because Facebook has a little more of a learning curve to it and because it has a number of options to choose from, I’ll briefly touch upon that below.

Simple Tricks to Make Your Site More Social Media Friendly

Whether or not you’re on social media platforms or not, odds are you’re customers are. They’re sharing your URL with their friends on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or MySpace.

If you want to engage in social media marketing, you’ll want to be sure to have that presence reflected on your e-commerce site.

Social Sharing
There are dozens of sites you can visit that will provide embeddable code which can be used to create social networking icons on your site. These icons make it easy for visitors to share what they like about your site with their social media friends and followers.

A couple of sites worth checking out are ShareThis. ShareThis is a tool you can install on your site that makes it easier for visitors to share with their network. You’ve probably seen some form of ShareThis on news sites. There are typically several icons spread out in a horizontal line or grouped together under a header of “Share.” Installing this tool lets your visitors easily spread the word via social networking sites about a page or website – yours – they like.

Add This is very similar to ShareThis. Both require site registration and a little publisher information, but both are also easy to use and do basically the same thing.

Show off your Social Media presence
If you’re on several social networking sites, it behooves you to display that affiliation somewhere on your site. For the consummate online shopper, these links show you’re not just an e-commerce beginner. The more social media sites you’re a part of, the more web-knowledgeable you look and the greater brand awareness you can build.

You can display your social media links either in self-created sidebar module or by using sites like Lijit ( http://www.lijit.com ). Lijit is similar to ShareThis; however, rather than pushing people out social networking sites, Lijit pulls them into your other sites.

Facebook Fan Page or Group?

A question that often gets asked when it comes to Facebook and brands is should you build a Facebook Group Page or a Fan Page?

It is a good question and the answer depends mostly on what your plans are for your site. I’ve broken down the pros and cons of both a fan page versus a group page below.

Facebook Fan Page
Facebook Fan Pages are a great option for brands – including e-commerce sites – that plan on posting information at least once a week.

Facebook Fan Page Pro’s:

* Looks polished; closely resembles an individual profile page

* Can include videos, photos, links, events, etc.

* Can be fed into “fans’” update stream similar to an individual profile update

* Can be given a customized url similar to an individual profile

* Hides the name and address of the page creator

* Offers options to add applications such as a Twitter feed

* Includes a “wall” similar to individual profiles that people can post comments on

* Can be paired with a Facebook Fan Page Widget on your site

Facebook Fan Page Con’s:

* More difficult to manage conversations between fans

* Conversations are on display for the public to see

* Unable to convert Facebook Groups to Fan Pages if you’ve already got a Group page set up

* Until you have an adequate number of fans, you’ll be posting a lot

* A dismal Fan Page linked to your site can hurt your inbound links in SEO

Facebook Group Page

Facebook Group pages are easy to create and slightly more personal than a Fan Page. Because it is not a constantly fed profile-like page, posts do not need to be as often.

Facebook Group Pro’s

* Can be more intimate; people see who created the group

* Still allows for pictures, photos, videos, events, etc. to be posted

* Allows for emails to be sent to all group members

* Pre-dates Fan Pages; more familiarity among early adopters of Facebook

Facebook Group Con’s

* Visitors must visit your group page for updates

* Does not allow applications to be added to the group page

* Offers visibility

* Will automatically post related groups to your group page whether you want them or not

* Cannot be linked to your site via widget(s)

The Verdict? Consider a Facebook Fan Page if you want to keep your “fans” up to date on the goings on of your site. Consider a Group if you have a niche within your site that people might want to create conversations about.

Should You Hire a Social Media Consultant for Your Site?

With the hundreds of social sites and applications available, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. When you’re already trying to keep your e-commerce business afloat, social media can seem unnecessary and time-consuming.

Research has shown, however, that e-commerce retailers are reaping the benefits of this new media channel (i.e., offering better customer service and increased sales) so it pays to use it.

Not everyone is social media savvy nor do they have the time which is why a lot of companies hire consultants to help them with their campaigns.

Do you need a consultant or should you do your own work?

When to hire a social media consultant:

* If you really do not have the time to commit to a social marketing campaign.
* If you don’t have the time to learn the ins and outs of social applications.
* If you don’t consider yourself a strong writer and/or interactive with your audience.
* If you want to launch a large social media campaign and need experts to help get things off the ground.
* If you tend to defer project work to experts rather than attempt to try it yourself.

When to do your own social media work:

* If you’re familiar with social media sites (like YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook) and use them on a personal basis.
* If you’re a quick-learner and tech-savvy.
* If you’re planning a small campaign with only one or two social sites.
* If you have content ready to post on a blog (or Twitter, Facebook, etc.)

Note: Social media consultants tend to pay per project or per hour depending on their rates and availability.

What We’ve Learned

Social media seems to be here to stay. It most certainly will evolve and change as time goes, but you can be sure that in one form or another social media will continue. It’s much like the TV or radio were when they began and the power it harnesses for those who use it will shine through.

It can bring awareness to your product or brand and help you build a stronger relationship with your customers which can lead to greater sales and future growth for your business.

Having said that, keep in mind that social media can be time consuming and integrating a social media marketing campaign into your business should not be taken lightly. Proper planning and implementation is critical to your success-you may even want to consider hiring an expert to handle it for you. This will largely depend on your needs, budget, and time you have to allocate your own resources to getting the job done in-house.

When it comes to Facebook and the choice between creating a Fan Page or a Group, you’ll want to consider your objective before you determine which is best for you. Fan Pages are best for pushing brands and for ecommerce sites that can commit to posting at least once per week. Consider a Facebook Group if you want a more personal touch and if you can’t commit to posting at least once per week.

Integrating social media into your site is easy. There are sites that provide the code and icons for you to simply paste into your web structure. Once you are utilizing social media make sure you display it on your site so customers know where to find you.

Why Your Business’s Social Media Policy May Be A Dud!

The importance of utilizing social media to help any business grow cannot be understated. But, there can be serious legal consequences for businesses when their employees or affiliates and marketers use any of the popular social media forums. This can hold true both when employees are acting on behalf of your business and when they use social media for their personal use. Smart business owners identify the problems ahead of time and then devise a strategy to prevent unnecessary liability and address risks when they become known. Of course, that strategy should start with an appropriate social media policy. But, many businesses draft social media policies which do not address all the potential concerns it should, or even draft policies in a manner which renders them illegal!

So, how can you ensure your business’s social media policy isn’t a dud? First, you must understand what could go wrong in social media.

What Could Go Wrong For My Business In Social Media?

Here is a broad list of legal concerns your business may face relating to social media:

-Employees who reveal confidential or proprietary information in a blog entry that can be viewed by millions of readers;
-Employees who post discriminatory or negative comments on social media regarding your business or other employees;
-Employees who post objectionable content on their Facebook pages that raises into question their character, which in turn reflects on your business; or
-Employees, affiliates and other sponsored endorsers can even subject their employers to liability by promoting the company’s services or products without disclosing the employment relationship. This is otherwise known as a sponsored endorsement in legal parlance. The FTC has made it clear that any “material connections” between the endorser and the sponsor must be disclosed in connection with a product or service endorsement, which is defined as any type of positive review. Sponsored endorsers can also potentially create liability for your business through any deceptive claims made about any products or services offered by your business.
Why A Social Media Policy Can Protect Your Business

If you have employees or use any type of third-party marketers or affiliates, you should adopt a written social media policy. Though not an absolute shield from liability, businesses must adopt social media use policies protecting the employer consistent with the company’s organizational culture. Not only can these policies serve as a strong deterrent to employees, they can be uses as the basis of terminating employees and affiliates or other third-parties.

But, What Should Your Company Social Media Policy Really Say (Or Not Say)?

Of course, your company’s social media policy should make clear to employees what the employer expects with regard to social media use, both on and off the job. These expectations may vary between companies, but employers should generally be concerned with rules against conduct that may result in unlawful sexual harassment or other liability, rules prohibiting disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, and company policies governing the use of corporate logos and other branding concerns when engaged in social media use. I’ll go into more specific details about what your policy should say below.

But, the problem every employer must understand with employee social media use is that the individual’s actions may be legally protected. Some states, for example, have laws protecting employees’ off-duty activities and political activities or affiliations. At the Federal level, the National Labor Relations Act protects employees who engage in “concerted activity,” which often includes the right to discuss the terms and conditions of their employment with co-workers and outsiders. If your social media policy has not been updated over the past two years, the policy is likely to be out of compliance with the guidance provided by the National Labor Relations Board recently. In addition, federal and state whistle-blower laws protect employees who complain about (among other things) potential securities fraud violations, in certain situations.

Practical Guidelines

Some practical and basic guidelines you should include in any social media policy are listed below. I use the term “employees” to refer to employees, affiliates and all other sponsored endorsers.

-Employment Rules and Company Code of Conduct

Require that employees always follow the terms of their employment agreement, employee handbook or other company code of conduct at all times when using social media (obviously this just applies to employees). The social media policy should restrict employees from violating the terms of any company policy via social media use for work or personal purposes.

-Broad Use Statement

You should state that the policy applies to all forms of social media, including multi-media (videos, posts or audio recordings), social networking sites, blogs, podcasts, sharing sites and wikis and covers both professional and personal use.

-Confidentiality

Employees should not disclose any information that is confidential or proprietary to the company or to any third-party. What if you have a new product or software application in development that you want to keep confidential? What about financial and other non-public information? There are a million reasons to post rules prohibiting disclosure of confidential or proprietary information on social media sites. The best practice is to define what comprises “confidential” and proprietary information and other trade secrets similar to a non-disclosure agreement and restrict disclosure. This restriction should include personal use and use on company owned sites. But be specific. Rather thanbanning any and all disclosure of confidential information, be specific about exactly what cannot be disclosed (such as trade secrets, customer information, business strategies, etc.).

-Endorsements & Affiliation

If an employee comments on any aspect of the company’s business they must clearly identify themselves as an employee and include a disclaimer. Employees should neither claim nor imply that they are speaking on the company’s behalf unless they are expressly authorized to do so. For example, you should require each employee to use the language “any views expressed are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of ABC Corp.”

-Advertising Liability

All sponsored endorsers must not make any misleading or deceptive ads or claims about your products. All content must be accurate and truthful. Since you are just as responsible as any sponsored endorser would be, you need to have a clear policy on what deceptive advertising is and restrict such claims. In fact, any employee, affiliate, etc. you allow to post or promote on behalf of your business really should truly understand what is deceptive under FTC and state consumer protection laws. Your social media policy should restrict your company’s bloggers or product reviewers, affiliates and marketers against making such claim and the policy should be incorporated in the separate agreements used with any affiliates and independent marketers.

-Intellectual Property & Brand Dilution

Restrict your employees from including any company logos or trademarks on their own personal blogs or Facebook pages unless permission is granted. Similarly, they should not be allowed to upload or paste these marks onto any other interactive forum. Clearly communicate the company’s expectations and offer examples of scenarios that are acceptable and include an approved description of the company’s brand. Make it clear that individuals who link online identities with the company and disclose their employment also incorporate the approved language into their online profiles. A policy that includes the positive can help to build advocates for the brand. Trust your employees to drive responsibly if you give them the rules of the road. You should restrict employees from posting unauthorized ‘promos’ that purport to represent the company without pre-approval.

-Liability

All posts and content uploaded onto any corporate blog, fan page or integrated into promotional multi-media application (i.e. a company podcast) must not violate copyright, privacy laws or be defamatory.

-Require Approval

You should require that each of your employees seek and obtain approval before posting or adding content to any corporate blogs, Facebook fan pages, Twitter accounts, etc., and have a system in place to monitor and remove this content at all times.

-Adopt Restrictions on Posts, but understand the requirements of the NLRA first!

Under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”), an employee cannot be fired based upon “protected, concerted activity” that relates to the terms and conditions of his or her employment or that involves coming together with other employees in issues relating to employment. Under the NLRB, employees have a legal right to discuss the ‘terms and conditions’ of their employment, which protects a broad spectrum of conversations, potentially including complaints about wages, working hours, supervisors, and other aspects of an employee’s working conditions. This includes such discussion through social media site. While state employment laws vary and may protect your employees right to free speech, you can still reserve the right to request that the employee avoid discussing certain subjects, withdraw certain posts, remove inappropriate comments and generally restrict the employee from posting any type of comments or videos that would tarnish the reputation of your business. However, generally speaking, complaints related to working conditions are protected. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) applies to union and non-union employees alike.

A social media policy violates federal law if a reasonable employee could interpret the policy to prohibit conversations about the terms and conditions of their employment. If a social media policy has not been updated over the past two years, the policy is likely to be out of compliance with the guidance that has been issued by the National Labor Relations Board over that period and recent NLRB decisions relating to social media policies.

But, inappropriate remarks about the public do not relate to working conditions and are therefore not protected. In the context of social media, the National Labor Relations Board has issued an Advice Memorandum each company should review before drafting its social media policy. For example, firing an employee for making inappropriate and insensitive remarks about certain crime victims via Twitter was not considered to violate the law.

Some Examples

On November 5th, 2013, an NLRB administrative law judge determined that terminating 2 employees for the following Facebook posts did not violate the employee’s rights under the NLRA:

“I don’t feel like being their b*tch and making it all happy-friendly middle school campy. Let’s do some cool sh*t, and let them figure out the money. No more Sean. Let’s f*ck it up.”

“You right. They don’t appreciate sh*t.”

“[H]ahaha! F*ck em. Field trips all the time to wherever the f*ck we want!”

“[W]on’t be there Wednesday. I’m outta town. But I’ll be back to raise hell wit ya. Don’t worry. Whatever happens I got your back too.”

But, a New York City tour guide’s Facebook postings constituted protected union organizing activities (New York Party Shuttle, LLC and Fred Pflantzer, CN: 02-CA-073340). The NLRB determined that the employer unlawfully discharged its bus driver employee when it refused to give him new assignments after he posted Facebook messages criticizing the company’s employment practices. The employee’s posts referred to one of the employee’s former employer as a “worker’s paradise” compared to his new employer, noted that “there is no union to protect you,” and complained that paychecks from his current employer sometimes bounced. His postings also stated that when he began to agitate for a union, he stopped getting scheduled for work. These posts were protected, according to the NLRB.

Concerted activity is not always protected by the Act, whether made in person or electronically via social media. The bottom line is that when conduct has a demonstrable effect on an employer’s business or is of such character as to render the employee unfit for further service, the NLRA will not protect the employee.

The Lesson: the following types of Facebook posts by employees regarding their employer have recently been determined as not constituting protected conduct under the law: 1. posts containing profanity: 2. posts hurling insults at the employer; and 3. posts showing disdain for the employer. Your business’s social media policy can restrict this type of conduct. But, employees who complain about workplace treatment based on their social media activity may be protected under the NLRA, even if their posts contain disrespectful or coarse language!

Terminating employees based on social media policies that violate the NLRA will subject employers to liability under the law. This may include reinstating the employee with full back pay and benefits. So, don’t include provisions in your company’s social media policies that the NLRB has determined to be unlawful.Your business should stick with the general guidelines established by the recent NLRB decisions and should even include specific examples of posts not permitted.

-Geolocation Issues

Your business should also pay attention to Geo-Location Issues. For example, there are instances where the location of an employee itself may actually be confidential, such as at the offices of a company that may potentially be acquired by your business. Along those lines, the social media policy should address using geo-location features of social media platforms and potentially restrict enabling such features during such times.

-Be Specific!

Where most social media policies fail according to many attorneys is that they are often missing illustrative examples. In order to comply with the NLRA, your company’s social media policy should define or give illustrative examples of terms that the NLRB has identified as problematic.

Rule: Your policy should contain carefully drafted examples that illustrate the prohibited behavior, but your policy should not include sweeping, overly broad prohibitions.

Avoid vague and general outright bans! For example, rather than banning any disclosure of a company’s confidential information, the policy should specify exactly what cannot be disclosed (such as trade secrets, customer information, business strategies and product development). Also including language that broadly restricts “any disparaging remarks” is also not a good idea. The bottom line is that employees have the right to complain about their employer and outright restrictions against posting such complaints isn’t legal.

Conclusion

Remember, your business should always monitor the content on your company-owned social media pages to ensure legal compliance. Ultimately, complying with the law and avoiding liability is up to every business owner! There is no social media ‘cookie-cutter’ policy. Each company social media policy should be specific to the company culture and its expectations.

This article was written by Philip A. Nicolosi, J.D. Mr. Nicolosi provides legal services through his law firm, Phil Nicolosi Law, P.C., focusing on startup and small business law, Internet & technology law and commercial transactions.

Mr. Nicolosi serves as a trusted advisor to numerous startups and small to medium sized businesses. This includes representation for a wide range of business law matters including business organization, corporate/LLC governance, regulatory law, contracts and transactions and most other matters outside of litigation. Mr. Nicolosi provides guidance with e-commerce, Internet and mobile marketing and technology-related legal matters to many of his business clients. He also assists startups with seed funding and venture capital law.

Facebook Presentation Secrets for Social Media

Facebook Presentation Secrets for Social Networking.

Presentation is all about what your visitor sees first (usually an image and/or video) on Facebook and social networking. Scrolling through the feed content, your social media post must attract attention. Therefore, a featured image or video thumbnail of the required dimensions and file size is of paramount importance.

Learn how to create curiosity with presentation in social networking and on Facebook. Know what your audience on social media is looking for. There are 3 basic requirements to meet the criteria. Address an identified need within your niche on Facebook and social media. Offer a solution and create curiosity.

Your content must do the talking and consistent posting on Facebook. But we will get around to consistent posting with Facebook and social media later in this article. Done with an exceptionally well designed auto posting tool.

Timing Strategy for Social Media and Facebook.

Consistent posting needs timing and strategic writing with attention grabbing presentation. Therefore, it will require a few days and even weeks of sharing posts to establish optimized engagement time. That is why I mentioned the auto posting tool for social networking and Facebook. Which you will have access to shortly.

To target the right audience on Facebook and social media you post at times when audiences are most active. If you want to target a United States audience for instance, then search Google for the time zone. Then calculate the time you must post to social media and Facebook from your location.

Posting to Facebook and social networking at the wrong time can be devastating from a marketing point of view. Because your audience you wish to target may be sleeping. Therefore, all that presentation work just goes down the social media and Facebook feed in hope of some hits.

Creating presentations (posts) that will keep your visitors occupied is the whole point to posting on social networking and Facebook. Therefore, posting at the wrong time completely defeats the purpose. You have 2 powerful free tools, Google, and YouTube. Learn the secrets of how and what to do research on.

Creating Content for Facebook and Social Media.

Text position for social networking and Facebook post featured images are important for presentation. The key is consistent content and presenting your message in a timely and curios fashion. With social networks and Facebook, timing and presentation is crucial.

The image displayed with your post being it social networks, Facebook, or blog post. Will be cropped from the sides for mobile content display. Avoid creating “broken message” presentations this way with your writing and designing. Text focused to the sides of images will be cut off.

Although for social networking and Facebook posts our goal with text position is focused more on creating curiosity. Again, leveraging presentation and what your visitor sees first is the secret. URLs shared must be from your own blog, YouTube videos and/or bridge and landing pages. But never an affiliate link.

Social media and Facebook does have quite a few “hoops” to jump through. Like adding hashtags for instance. Because you are preparing your presentation (post) to share to selected Facebook Groups. The list of Facebook Groups I personally use will be available at the end of this article.

For knowing which hashtags are currently trending on social networking and Facebook, you can use a tool called (hashtags dot org). First you need to get to know your way around creating content consistently for social media and successful presentation.

Secrets for Social Networking and Facebook Posting.

The secrets of using emojis for social media and Facebook post presentations come highly recommended. Draw your visitor’s attention to the presentation by making it colourful. Create interesting 1 – 3 sentence posts. Make those first few sentences powerful and “need” specific.

But also use your free Facebook posting tools to add H1 and H2 headers to your presentations (posts). To focus your presentation on the H1 and H2 headers, add hashtags at the end of your presentation. Because then your H1 Header is the first text in your social media and/or Facebook post.

Adding headers however is only available when you do manual posts in Facebook groups. But it is a great way to make your presentation easier understandable by both your social media audiences and search engines. Remember to include your target keywords in the presentation (post) headers.

Use emojis to replace words in the text for Facebook posts, triggering curiosity. Use Bold and Italic text to highlight focus points as demonstrated above. And remember that all these social media presentation techniques can be accessed and leveraged 100% for free! All you need is to be a little creative really.

You can also ask your friends on Facebook if your post draws attention. Listen to people’s opinion and adjust accordingly. Remember, with social networks and Facebook our primary objective is to create curiosity through presentation. Because as mentioned earlier, the only secrets are presentation and timing!

Bridge Pages for Social Media and Facebook.

The fact that Facebook will not ban or block Google links, give us the upper hand from an affiliate marketing point of view. Google sites is an outstanding method to create consistent social media and Facebook posts. A Google site is a custom URL, and the slug can contain your target keywords.

But we will get to writing SEO friendly content and backlinks for the bloggers here a little later in the article. Keep reading, these social network and Facebook presentation secrets are rather simple to follow. You have 3 options for Bridge Pages with affiliate marketing on Facebook.

1. CB Pro Ads

2. One Page Profits

3. Clone Me

With Google sites all the work is on you, from writing to creating images. It is your job to create striking presentations for social media and Facebook. With the remaining 3 tools, all the bridge pages are done-for-you. You do not need to create any content or write anything except linking your affiliate networks.

We are creating Goole Sites and using Bridge Pages because sharing raw affiliate links will get you suspended on social networks and Facebook. Social media marketing is all about bridge pages, landing pages and funnels.

But for the purpose of this article. We are only going to focus on bridge pages for social networks and Facebook. And generating sales with affiliate marketing through this technique. Leveraging social networking, social media along with writing and media design secrets.

Secrets to using Google Sites for Facebook.

The secrets to using Google sites for social media and Facebook presentations is almost an unfair advantage. On second thought, no, not almost. It is an unfair secret advantage, especially once you get the hang of SEO. Because SEO is just the ability to best tell search engines what your content is about.

Share with Groups on Facebook but with different text on each share. But before you do there is one paramount requirement with regards to your presentation. Your Google Site URL will select a particular image on your Google site as social media post presentation image.

The question is, which “secret” image is automatically selected for social media and Facebook? And the answer is, the Google site logo. And a good, suggested dimension is 940 x 788 / 950 x 650. These presentation images can be created with Microsoft Paint or Canva for social media and Facebook.

But there are also a few great SEO techniques we will discuss under the last subheading. Keep reading and learn a lot about content creation, social media, Facebook, writing and presentation. You will be blown away by the traffic potential with social media and Facebook.

Apart from link building, strategic keyword placement in titles are important. But so is the first 2 – 4 lines of your Google site content. Much the same as the requirements for a great post on social media and Facebook. All part of the secrets to presentation and creating curiosity.

Get More out of Social Networking and Facebook.

Multiple social network profiles (pages, groups, spaces, communities) play a major role with presentation secrets for social media and Facebook. Especially Facebook pages because you get to leverage the call-to-action button. Which then redirects to a bridge page, Google site or landing page.

Audience engagement with Facebook is great for building reputation. Adding presentation secrets to the mix and creating curiosity makes success imminent. The more active and consistent you are the more visible you will become.

So, the secrets to getting the most out of social networks and Facebook. Focus on quality content and presentation, along with consistency and engagement. It is a lot of work to stand out on the internet, especially on social media. Because it had become rather crowded with marketers chasing the quick buck.

Always be real and do not make everything you offer on social networks a sales pitch. In fact, if your presentation creates enough curiosity, you will never have to sales pitch again. Ever. Commenting and offering solutions without any sales pitch and/or URL is another secret to build recognition on Facebook.

Be sure to get known as “the guy who helped” instead of the guy trying to sell something on social media. When people on social networks and Facebook recognise your knowledge, you will be unstoppable. Growing your audiences through presentation secrets and knowledge.

Secret List of Groups for Facebook Presentations.

Giving you 11 of my favourite secret Facebook Groups with social media that will drive a lot of traffic to your posts (presentations). Because we are looking at a total group member count of 1 824 800. Almost 2 Million Members! But that is just the tip of the traffic iceberg with social media and Facebook!

Make Money Online (151.6K Members)

Make Money Online Club Australia (193.3K Members)

Earn Money Online USA – Canada – Australia (85.3K Members)

Affiliate Marketing – Worldwide (335.3K Members)

Make Money Online Club (218.5K Members)

Affiliate Marketing Work – Worldwide (222.3K Members)

No1 Online Earning Community (245.6K Members)

Advertise Business and Make Money (69K Members)

Affiliate Marketing for Everyone (163.4K Members)

Unlimited Advertising + (80.2K Members)

Network Marketing Pro (60.3K Members)

Remember to follow the presentation and design secrets in this article. You will soon master the art of leveraging social media and Facebook for traffic. Getting unlimited free traffic can be done, but it is hard work. And unfortunately, there are no shortcuts. Competitive presentation requires maximum effort!

Establish the right time to post your presentations (Google Sites) on social networks and Facebook. And post only one post per day to each Facebook group. But read the group rules and understand what is allowed. Spamming and over posting is not a good idea. The secret is to build an audience over time.

Bonus Traffic Technique with Facebook Pages.

Leveraging Google sites and the call-to-action button with Facebook pages for social network traffic. One important thing to remember is that for everything we discuss in this post. There is probably a Google article and/or YouTube video that will show you exactly how it is done.

Therefore, just search your browser or YouTube for a video on how to use the call-to-action button with Facebook pages. Then follow the steps and redirect the call-to-action button to your landing page. Like a Google site or bridge page that must then redirect to your affiliate offer.

Using the post scheduling tool mentioned earlier is a fantastic way to build Facebook audiences. And eventually they start clicking on the call-to-action button. That is why interesting content with curios presentation is the secret to social media. Give people reason to want to like and follow your content.

The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Great Social Media Manager

A great social media manager is, as Ron Burgundy would say: “The balls”.

It’s an undisputed fact that every business needs to be active in social media. The ever-changing demands of the modern day consumer requires brands to think fast and adapt quickly in order to stay one step ahead.

The role of a social media manager has appealed to the mass generation of socially-active internet users. It’s hard not to. Especially when some might think that you can earn big bucks from posting Facebook updates. Hardly.

Being a social media manager is kind of like being a stand-up comedian. You have to quickly understand your audience and your engagement with them is vital. In order to accomplish this, you need to know if the audience is laughing at your jokes and you need to know this in real-time. If you can do this, then you have already won the crowd.

So, how do you become a social manager? More to the point, how do you become a great social manager?

The answer will be surprising to some. Firstly, you have to want it. Second, you have to love it. Third, you have to learn it. And even if you tick all these boxes, you should ask yourself: “Am I a social person?” If the answer is no, then becoming a social media manager is probably not for you…

So let’s take a look at the stats.

LinkedIn shows 57,910 results for “social media manager”
Social media has now overtaken porn as the number 1 activity on the web
97% of all consumers search for local businesses online
71% of consumers receiving a quick brand response on social media say they would likely recommend that brand to others
93% of marketers use social media for business
In terms of difficulty of execution, nearly half (49%) of B2B marketers put social media marketing at the top, followed by content marketing (39%), SEO (26%) and mobile (25%)
77% of B2B marketers use a blog as part of their content marketing mix
On average, 25% of marketing budgets are now spent on content development, delivery and promotion
78% of small businesses attract new customers through social sites
When asked to rank their company’s social business maturity on a scale of 1 to 10, more than half of global business executives gave their company a score of 3 or below
But the statistic that is most relevant to this article is:

Just 12% of those using social marketing feel they actually use it effectively.
Being a social media manager brings with it some key benefits within a freelance setting. The most recognisable being the fact that you are your own boss. You make the decisions and answer to no one. You send the invoices and you set the policies. Heck, you could sit in your underpants all day on the computer if you wanted to.

The other is money. It is an in-demand role, but one that companies are still struggling to come to terms with. Some companies realise and understand the value social media could bring to their enterprise and are willing to invest heavily in robust social media campaigns. Being your own boss, you can decide how to set your costs and price accordingly.

Another attractive reason is the low barriers to entry. With low start-up costs and plenty of online resources (like this one!) to rapidly decrease the learning cure, anyone can launch a freelance social management business within a short space of time.

I’ll tell you my story shortly but first, let’s explore the essential skills you’ll need to become a great social media manager..

Fundamental Skills:

Marketing Knowledge

You should have a good grasp of the basic marketing principles. Some education in marketing would be beneficial, but otherwise you can find many quality resources online.

Experience

Your experience doesn’t necessarily have to be limited to life experiences. Have you managed your own social media profiles for a while? Do you know how to effectively maintain your own social accounts and understand what clients expect?

Sociable

I touched on this at the beginning of the article. If you are not a sociable person – someone who doesn’t like communicating much and isn’t very outgoing, then becoming a social media manager just isn’t for you. Sure, you can hide behind a keyword and monitor for a while, but clients will usually want to meet, speak on the phone, or have Skype sessions at some point.

Project Management

You don’t have to have a Prince2 certificate, but you do need to be able to manage projects and your time well. It’s typical for social media manager’s to work with multiple clients at any one time. Keeping tabs on everything is important so that it doesn’t get overwhelming.

Technological

Social media exists online. Therefore, you need to have a certain degree of computer literacy. Having good knowledge of social technology will enhance your services and ensure you are keeping up to date with the latest social trends and developments.

Interpersonal Skills:

Communication

It kind of goes without saying that if you’re going to be representing a company and engaging with their customers, then you will need to have strong communication skills.

Personality

Companies tend not to want to hire people with no personality to act on behalf of their brand. It doesn’t resonate well with them, or their audiences.

Responsiveness

I’ve touched on this a few times – social media is very fast-paced. Imagine if one of your social assignments was largely focused on customer service and you didn’t respond to customer complaints or queries for weeks. People online want rapid responses. Being able to fulfil these needs can stand your client (and you!) in good stead.

Entrepreneurial

To become a social media manager in a freelance capacity, you have to be a self-starter. You should be willing to go the extra mile and take a few financial risks along the way. If you don’t land a job that pays enough in one month, how will this affect you?

Multitasking

A great social media manager must be able to effectively carry out a wide range of tasks.

Organisation

You should always be very well organised when delivering social media management services. I use all kinds of traditional tools like calendars, white boards and task lists to keep myself organised. I also use many online organisational tools, such as: Thunderbird for accessing all my email accounts in one place, Dropbox to easily share documents with clients and bookmarks to keep track of all the websites I frequently visit.

Strategic Thinking

Being able to think campaigns through before they happen and sometimes thinking outside the box when needed, are great asset to have as a social media manager. Clients tend to want to know how you will do something before letting you do it, so being able to present a clear and concise strategy is essential.

Flexible (with travel)

Contrary to popular belief, a freelance social media manager has to leave his office sometimes! If this is a problem for you, then you should think about starting another profession. Nearly every sizeable project I undertake involves multiple meetings with the client. You should have reasonable pitching skills, as you may be required to sell your services face to face too, before being hired. You may even opt to take on in-house work.

Wider Skills:

Copywriting

Every good social media manager is a great writer. Writing forms the foundations of many aspects of online marketing, be it creating ads, writing blogs, engaging with customers, scripting sales copy or writing press releases.

Graphic Design

Pretty much all social media platforms provide the functionality to customise the interface and incorporate your own branding. If you are sharp with Photoshop (or similar design software), then you are in a good position to offer these services as part of your social media package. Similarly, creating content such as infographics, banners or images is standard practise for a social media manager.

Advertising

Every social media manager should have sound knowledge of advertising. Be it Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising or banner advertising, you should know the ins and outs of each discipline and understand how to optimise each format.

PR

Public relations is closely tied to social media marketing, in the sense that both involve managing the spread of information between a business and the public. You may start out not needing to have a deep knowledge of PR, as it is typically managed by larger brands who have an interest in persuading stakeholders, investors or the public to maintain a certain point of view.

Statistical

Everything in marketing should be measured. You should periodically measure and analyse your social marketing performance and produce reports to your clients to demonstrate your value.

SEO

Understanding how social media affects search engine optimisation will ultimately improve campaign performance. In 2012, there was an average of 5,134,000,000 searches on Google every day. If you think SEO doesn’t matter to your social activities, think again.

Traditional Marketing

Even though you generally won’t be involved in traditional marketing practises while undertaking a social media management role, you should understand how both forms of marketing affect each other and how each can be best leveraged to complement the other.

Video Editing

This will probably be the least used of your wider skills, but nevertheless it can assist you in your social marketing positions. I’ve had a few clients that required presentations or demonstration videos to be edited before being used within their social media campaigns. I’m for sure no expert, but having a reasonable level of knowledge in using Windows Movie Maker (or similar video editing software) can turn that video file straight from the camera into a beautiful, YouTube-ready video.

Even if you possess all the necessary skills to become a social media manager, there is still scope to improve your services by using different social tools and software. I’ll quickly recap on two different pieces of software I use that may help you in becoming a great social media manager:

Hootsuite: I wrote an in-depth review of Hootsuite on my blog that also includes a video tutorial which should provide all the information you will need to know about Hootsuite.
BuzzBundle: This is my favourite and most valued piece of software I’ve ever used. I use it mainly to find keywords around my content subject from across a huge range of blogs, forums and social sites and stream all this information back to me in one interface. I can then see who is discussing my topic and jump straight into the conversations to add my two cents.
What You’ll Be Expected To Do…

So, what does a social media manager actually do? As you can probably tell by now, the role of a social media manager is diverse. It’s not a case of “Well, I post updates to Facebook.” Here are a few general activities that social media managers will be expected to execute:

Strategy

You will be required to formulate campaign and platform specific strategies that meet the business objectives. You will create actions plans, content calendars, set metrics and KPIs, undertake various research activities and perform different types of analysis.

Content Creation

Content creates the foundations of any marketing campaign. How you decide to execute your campaigns will depend on the different forms of content you produce. As you would have no doubt already heard from someone, content is king. Believe them.

Community Management

Managing accounts also means managing communities. You should be the go-to person when representing brands in social domains and continually reach out and engage with your audiences. You will need to constantly strengthen social relationships in order to develop long-lasting followers.

Audience Building

Marketing to the same people over and over will not widen your scope and social reach. You should be increasing readership and your level of influence within your target audiences.

Customer Service

Many companies use social media as an instant channel for customer service. You will have to be responsive and helpful in your social activities, regularly being the first point of contact. You will be representing the brand and managing their customer perceptions.

Measurement

Every effort that consumes investment will need to be measured and analysed. I’vve previously written tutorials that demonstrate how you can set up your Google Analytics account on my blog.

Reporting

Once your efforts have been measured and analysed, your clients will want to understand how their investment has performed. This can take the form of visual aids for meetings or digital reports. Reporting is a key ingredient of any social media manager in order to prove your worth and demonstrate the value you have added to the business.

How I Became A Social Media Manager

I’ve been active in social media since July 2007. This was before the time of all the latest social marketing tools and software that nowadays are ingrained into all social marketers everyday life. Resources or tutorials weren’t as widely available that could help speed up the learning curve.

I did find an online course that looked pretty good in teaching me how to turn my social skills that I had been practising on my own accounts into a fully fledged business. I invested £600 on this online course to learn the basics and now that some years have passed, I can look back and say the value wasn’t all that great, but the ideas were there. It pushed me to think outside the box and motivated me to start my trajectory towards becoming a social media manager.

So before I had decided to turn my love for social media and networking into a freelance opportunity, I attended Brunel University where I completed my BSc and MSc in Business Management. It was at this time when I jumped on board with the poker boom and started playing online cash games and tournaments. Poker really helped me to develop my own time management, money management and analysis skills. I always knew I wanted to start my own business so this was a good platform to get my feet wet. Throughout my time playing poker, I was always engaged in online social discussions and even wrote a few guest posts for poker sites.

Before I knew it, I was a fully-fledged freelance social media manager…

So to kick-start my freelance social media work, I joined a bunch of freelance sites like Elance, oDesk and Freelancer. I still use some of them today.

After a few years of freelancing on small one-off projects and developing my social marketing acumen, I was hired by an online business services company to run their social media campaigns, as well as handle all their own clients social marketing campaigns. I still work with them today, which just shows the power of forging good working relationships.

I managed to attract clients in most months for the next few years and each project ended up being pretty diverse from the next. This allowed me to develop wider skills that I have since found almost a necessity in order to provide a well-rounded social media marketing service. I mentioned some of these wider skills required to become a great social media manager towards the middle of this article.

I also kept maintaining and building my own social media profiles. It’s important to practise what you preach and showcase your expertise on your own domains. My social profiles have regularly attracted clients, which keeps work coming in and builds up my networking potential.

I have been writing on my blog for a few years, but only recently updated my site. My own social activities also serve to build traffic to my sites, where I generate passive income. I like to “listen” to the social environment and engage with people who are already looking for my content. This serves well in building and strengthening connections, as well as attracting targeted traffic.

I have also been a keen guest blogger. I believe that writing articles for other relevant blogs only serves to increase your scope and exposure. Once or twice, I have had my articles featured by online magazines and publications, which was always nice.

Keeping my ears to the ground and getting myself ‘out there’ was one of the things I promised myself I would do, even though I knew the vast majority of my time would be spent in my home office. I tried to regularly meet up with business connections and clients to make sure they could match an online persona to a real life face. The vast majority of the time, I even managed to remember my business cards!

A strategy I’ve always tried to employ while freelancing is to try and turn one client into three. What I mean by that is word of mouth is the most powerful advertising there is. People do act on solid recommendations that their friends make. I found that taking as basic an approach as asking clients at the end of projects if they knew anyone who could benefit from social media marketing, worked out surprisingly well.

As social media is such a dynamic environment with start-ups booming and busting every few months, I knew that it was essential to keep up to date with social developments. Every so often, a client would ask me to set up profiles or campaigns on sites that some social media managers would have never heard of. Keeping tuned in enabled me to have at least some knowledge and experience in using these platforms, which dramatically lowered my learning curve and ultimately lead to better performing campaigns.

Around a year and a half ago, I decided to broaden by service offerings and set up a web design company with my business partner. “Thinking Forwards” was born in the summer of 2012. Websites and social media go hand-in-hand, so this enabled me to up-sell my services both ways.

So that brings me loosely to where I am now. Just to be clear; I have never used paid advertising or SEO for my own benefit while being a social media manager. My progression came solely through content marketing and guerrilla marketing tactics.

To Summarise On How I Became A Social Media Manager:

Joined freelance sites
Practised what I preached and actively maintained my own social media profiles and blogs
Kept consistently networking and building my contact lists
Continually created my own content on my own sites
Took my content straight to prospects
Proactively kept asking if people needed my assistance
Guest blogging and featured articles
Attended networking events and met up with clients and business contacts
Tried to turn one client into three
Kept up to date with new social networks and developments
Started other initiatives where social media services were complementary
Never turned down any work or networking opportunities
Worked long hours, sometimes for small rewards, to build reputation, authority and presence
I thought I would leave you with some final advice from things I have learnt from my own experiences being a social media manager.

Remember that…

Sometimes you won’t be right for a project, even if you think you are
It’s OK to work for less than your desired amount, if the benefits warrant it
You won’t win every contract, so don’t beat yourself up if you get turned down
Things change really quickly in social media, so you will have to continually adapt
You never know as much as you think you do!
Starting a career in anything takes time and effort. If you think it’s easy to become a great social media manager, then think again…

Choosing a Hotel in Rotorua New Zealand – Tips For Vacation Makers

Rotorua, New Zealand, is one of the most amazing places you will ever visit, given its unique landscape and the excellently preserved Maori culture and traditions. Before you go on and join the fun, you have to arrange your hotel accommodation first.

Rotorua is a popular tourist spot and boasts with over 12,500 beds. However, you have to keep in mind that the hotels and motels are almost completely full during the peak summer season, from December to the end of February. You will find it difficult to secure a room during the school holidays in the spring, winter and autumn. Hence, you should plan your trip in advance and try to book hotel accommodation earlier on.

You should definitely look for discounts and special packages, when searching for hotel accommodation in Rotorua. Still, the best deals are the last minute ones. You can find them on dedicated internet websites easily and quickly. Most hotels rely on early booking, so they readily offer the rooms they have left at much lower prices. You can get a great last minute deal, if you book a room anywhere between 4 weeks to 2 days prior to your arrival. You might pay up to 60% less than the actual room rate. The key to success is to have patience and to have a clear idea about the risk you are taking when waiting for a last minute deal.

It is important for you to choose carefully the type of Rotorua hotel you want to stay at. The main choice is between a hotel with dining facilities and one with self-catered serviced rooms, suites and apartments. You should not expect a great difference in the prices of catered and self-catered accommodation. The rates depend on the quality and number of amenities offered. Hence, you should check what you will be paying for carefully. It is a good idea to check out the hotel’s rating – it will give you a hint about the cleanliness, room settings and services the place offers.

One of the most important choices you need to make when selecting a Rotorua hotel is its location. The city is quite compact, so you will easily find a place that is a walking distance away from the central shopping and commercial area and from the main attractions. Still, if you want perfect relaxation, you can opt for one of the hotels, motels or resorts in the bush. Just make sure to arrange your transportation.

What to Look For When Trying to Find a Home Based Business For Sale – 3 Keys to Consider

It is a time in our country’s economy that resembles the depression of the late 20′s and 30′s, when one of four Americans who wanted to work were unable to find a job. Today, with the unemployment rate at 10% and approximately 15 million Americans unemployed, jobs are scarce. More and more people are looking for alternatives to a saturated job market. Many have been challenged to consider being self-employed and working out of the home. Home based businesses have been a popular trend over past decade. More than half of all U.S. businesses today are home based. Every 8 seconds someone starts a home business. If you are considering stepping into the responsibility of a home based business, there are 3 keys you want to consider before you invest in one.

1. Consider Whether Or Not You Have The Temperament and Skills to Do A Home Based Business

Before you launch out to purchase a home based business you need to first assess whether or not you are made for that type of responsibility. Not everyone has what it takes to run a business out of their home. It often takes a person who is well disciplined, organized, and proactive. Too many people plan to plan and they never actually get to the place where they set out to go. If your self-assessment concludes that you are not a good fit for running a home business, but you like the vision of home based work, consider teaming with someone that has the needed skills and temperament that you lack to be an affective home based entrepreneur.

2. Consider The Cost Of A Home Business Franchise

Owning your own franchise can be very costly both financially and time wise. A Deli Shop franchise can cost nearly $400K + inventory, a Coffee Shop franchise is nearly $300K, a Hair Salon $79K, or a even Hot Dog Stand can cost nearly $8K. Many home based businesses can be bought for a very affordable price. Taking a risk on a home based business that fails will not hurt the pocket book nearly as much as most brick and mortar businesses can. Make sure you read carefully what you are buying into. There are many home based business scams. Check reviews online for any company you are considering purchasing. The time commitment also needs to be considered because with the start-up of anything new, it takes time, discipline and perseverance.

3. Consider Internet Marketing As An Affordable Home Based Business Opportunity

The internet is the last bastion of entrepreneurial opportunity on the planet. This is a high income industry. You can do it all out of your home, online. The internet because it is on 24/7, that means it never shuts off, it puts you within 3 feet of every online person in the world. It is a multi-billion person marketplace. This industry is made up of a lot of ordinary people- moms, dads, men and women, young and old, every kind of background and ethnicity. And it can be learned by complete novices to computer and internet technology.

Days, weeks, months pass by and still no job. The many online and walk-in job applications that you have completed have not come to fruition. Instead of employers determining your employment future, take charge of your life and look outside the box, consider if you have what it takes to run your own home based business. Consider whether or not you can afford the financial and time investment of such a job. And consider whether or not the last bastion of entrepreneurial opportunity- in the home is for you.

Proven Home Based Business Gives You What You Truly Desire

When you join a proven home based business, you are lifted by hope that you too can live the life you always dreamed about. In fact, you should even feel yourself have 100% conviction that your life as you know it will change forever. That change will look exactly like the life you have always dreamed about. With a proven home based business, you can achieve success like you have never experienced it before. You can spend time doing the things that you honestly desire.

You will be shown how to run a business like any other CEO with the benefits of mentors showing you exactly how to do it. You will have business partners that align with your vision, and support your success. This proven home based business will finally take away the financial burdens, time restrictions and let you live life from anywhere YOU want to be.

Imagine having mentors every step of the way showing you how to generate a income within 90 days. You will no longer be relying on deadbeat bosses to increase your income. You will be living the life of your dreams – on your terms. You will join forces with the most powerful business partners who will teach you what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur. You will learn how to invest in your proven home bases business without fear that your investment will be lost, or costing you an arm or a leg.

You will learn how to leverage residual income like the wealthy, and have your money work for you while you are doing other things. A proven home based business is tested and result driven. It is not a fly by the night operation, or a small scale affiliate system that has you peddling goods for peanuts. It is a lucrative income opportunity that real business owners are flocking to as they close the doors on their traditional brick and mortar businesses.

There is so much verbal garbage, you have to do your research to qualify a business for your time. A proven home based business will reveal itself when you look at who the people are, and if they can show you how to succeed. You will be able to plug into a system that teaches you from the minute you begin. You will surround yourself with people who are driven like you to live their dream lifestyle.

A proven home based business is not a typical mlm. Most serious brick and mortar business owners will not close their doors to join a group of non-professional MLMers peddling to everyone in their three foot radius. It takes a proven business model with a real formula for six and seven figure income results to catch their attention.

A CEO of this level will look at the profit margins to ensure there is up to 80% profits for a personal gain. They will also look at proven marketing strategies, and demand in the market. They implement cutting edge strategies that ensure their audience is being reached. There is no magic tricks or illusions, just straight facts on how you can achieve great financial success with this proven home based business model.

If you are not a former business owner or a CEO, you might be asking if it is possible for you to have success with a proven business model. The one thing that will ensure you too can have the same success is for you to follow through and take the opportunity. The only difference between you and an existing successful business owner is that they already took the risk, and found it can work.

You might be asking, can I afford it, and will it really work? You have to decide how serious you are about owning a business and what you will do to get it. Some people would rather buy a flat screen TV than invest into their future success. You can afford it – if you make the decision. The money always comes after the decision is made. It will work when you decide it will work.

A proven home based business is not in testing. It is proven because it has been tested on others and if you follow the path of success, it will work for you too. No one can do it for you – it is up to you to overcome your fear and align your actions with what you want in the future.

The home based business industry is riddled with unproven, and highly unsuccessful opportunities. Many former brick and mortar business owners don’t take MLM, or many home based businesses serious. That is because many are not proven, many will not allow you to make a significant income quickly. If you are serious about joining a proven home based business, it is critical that you align with people who have success and take their business seriously.

Don’t be afraid when you see testimonials of people in a proven home based business that are making multiple six figures a year, and may make more in a month than you make in a year. You should feel confident that you have found the right vehicle. 95% of home business owners fail, you have to set yourself apart and put yourself around the top 3% if you want to see success for yourself.

There is no guarantee in life that you will be successful. All successful business owners know that they are responsible for the success of their business. You will have to do the same things that the accomplished people do. A proven home based business will guarantee their product, or service. You should be able to make any investment with them, and always know that if you are not happy with the product you purchased as part of your business, you can always refund your money. There should be absolutely no risk in what you are doing if you follow through with a proven solution.

In today’s economy it is more important than ever to get your assets, and income in line with your dreams. The dollar is weak, and it will not get any easier any time soon to make an easy buck from a less than lucrative opportunity, or get raises from your boss that secure your future. You want to invest into a business that will actually build your financial goals with you immediately. You can work on tomorrow by taking action today.

There is no way to get what you truly desire other than taking action. It is up to you to decide how bad you want to start living life on your terms. If you want to set yourself apart from the pack, and become the top 3% to acquire wealth in a downward economy, get an application today with a proven home based business.

Deal With Your Anger Issues

Have you ever seen a child eagerly awaiting their absentee parent who’s coming to take them for a play date? When faced with the dawning realisation that the parent is not coming the child may become defensive or hurt, angrily crying that they hate that parent and wouldn’t have gone with them anyway! Is that the truth?

Of course not, they’re merely trying to cover up their disappointment and feelings of rejection in order to recover quickly and conceal their distress. Anger is often an alternative to crying or grief and can help us move forward from feeling vulnerable.

As an adult we hope to deal with our anger issues and move onto more effective ways of communicating our feelings. We start to see anger as an unhelpful, inelegant way of conveying our hurt or displeasure and quickly learn that it doesn’t resolve matters. It often simply prevents us from moving on. Far better to learn to deal with emotive situations calmly and rationally, rather than let our feelings dictate and get the better of us.

When we find ourselves constantly resorting to anger, unable to deal well with conflict or disappointment we need to concern ourselves with finding other ways to resolve and sort out our anger issues.

Anger can manifest itself in several ways.

- We can be angry with ourselves, feel unworthy, unattractive, unintelligent and follow through with damaging, destructive behaviour like self-harm, bad habits, negative self-talk, so ruining any chance of success with our manner, attitude and approach. People with serious self-anger issues may set themselves gruelling challenges, never feel they’ve achieved enough or in the right way. Then they punish themselves further with a binge, purge or self-discipline regime.

- Other people can provoke our anger if we feel ‘it’s all right for them’! In those instances other people may be seen as especially gifted, advantaged or lucky, thus meaning that they have better or unfair chances of good fortune.

- We can be angry at situations and blame our circumstances for our lack of success; they’re the reason things don’t work out well. You’ll hear, ‘it’s not fair’, ‘if only’, ‘I can’t start until that’s sorted’.

- Inanimate objects can bear the brunt of our anger too. People may kick, throw, stamp on and destroy objects due to their anger. Those items may even get the blame for things not working out!

Some tips to help you deal with your anger issues.

- Start to recognise the triggers, those situations where you find yourself losing control and becoming angry. Is it a look that you’ve received, a raised eyebrow, a shrug or smirk when you’ve spoken. Is it being ignored or not allowed to speak? Notice what sparks you off.

- Appreciate that others’ reactions are not necessarily about you. There may be times when your behaviour, comment or body language affects the recipient in a provocative way. But we can never really know what’s going on in someone else’s mind or life. It’s important to be respectful and allow all points of view to be heard.

- Ascertain the facts first. Stay calm and ask questions. Find out what’s going on, what prompted their words or behaviour. Listen properly and with genuine interest. Avoid second-guessing, finishing their sentences or getting your reply ready before they’ve finished speaking.

- Respond rather than react. Consider each situation and what you want to achieve, what your desired outcome is. For example, if your car broke down on your way to an important meeting you could kick it, damage it in frustration but it wouldn’t solve anything and seeing the damage afterwards would probably make you feel worse. Far better to stay calm and identify what needs to happen to remedy the situation as positively as possible.

- If a relationship is causing you anger issues you could suggest meeting to discuss them. Set a mutually convenient time. A public place can be good as it ensures communication remains civil in tone. Try to identify key areas of upset and own your feelings. Rather than accuse with, ‘you make me feel’, it’s far better to prompt a discussion with, ‘when this happens I feel’.

- Avoid lots of examples. They can hi-jack a conversation and rarely achieve anything useful, as you can get side-tracked. Examples seldom help to move the situation along.

- Alternatively writing a letter can be a good way to communicate your feelings. Take as long as necessary to process your thoughts so you’re clear about what you want and need to say. It may take days or even weeks so that you’re finally happy with the content and tone. This can be an effective way of dealing with someone who’s disappeared from your life. Then when it’s finished you can either mail it or have a ritual to signify that this phase of your life is finally over.

- A journal can equally be used to write down and work through angry and painful emotions, sometimes being kept in conjunction with counselling and hypnotherapy. Use effective methods to help you understand what the anger’s about, what’s been causing it. Those insights can improve your ability to communicate your feelings.

- Learning to communicate well can be a difficult process if good communications were not a part of your early years. Some families learned to keep quiet for fear of upsetting a volatile or easily upset family member. Or if a partner is perceived as being intelligent or eloquent, who twists whatever’s said so that problems are your fault it can become easier to stay mute. But anger can then erupt as frustration, often over small and trivial things.

- Set your own boundaries in place so you protect yourself and are aware of what you will and won’t tolerate. This allows you to gradually communicate how you feel effectively. You’ve learned not to inflame the situation, yet are able to be firm, fair and clear, keen to empathise and resolve any issues.

- Recognise the part that stress may play in your anger, your warning signs of being tired, irritable, not sleeping well. Let your partner know what you’re going through. Good communications can play a major role in helping to deal with your anger issues. Let those closest support you at difficult times.

And remember, once said, things cannot be unsaid. They may be understood and even forgiven, but hurtful, angry words are often difficult to forget.

Susan Leigh, counsellor, hypnotherapist, relationship counsellor, writer & media contributor offers help with relationship issues, stress management, assertiveness and confidence. She works with individual clients, couples and provides corporate workshops and support.

How Do You Start an Online Coaching Business?

There are many types of online coaching courses you can venture into. The choice depends on you. Here are the different services you can offer

One-on-One Coaching

One-on-one coaching is becoming an acknowledged way to improve performance, develop new skills, overcome failure, and prepare for advancement in businesses. You can offer one-on-one coaching at the management level and focus on organizational goals. This will cause improved business performance.

One-on-one coaching allows the coach and the individual to build a personal relationship. Do you love helping people overcome their fears? Do you want to help companies improve their performance and achieve their goals? Then you have what it takes to become a one-on-one coach. As a one-on-one coach, you can help a client who wants to change their career or who wants to maximize their creative process.

Small Group Online Coaching

Do you love working with a group of people? Then you have what it takes to do group coaching. Many of the fears and difficulties your clients have are similar. Also, being in a group will help them learn from each other, and it will force them to think of answers to questions they would have never thought of if they were not in a group.

Great progress occurs in a small group online coaching because of daily online discussions between the small group and the coach. Conducting coaching online helps you to serve more people, and it allows people to effect change quickly. Also, you can offer a low-fee, high-value service to many people. By working with many people, you’ll earn more money.

Team Coaching

Team coaching involves working with the leader and members of a group to create team mission, strategy, and vision and rules of engagement with each other. Coaching is done separately for the team leader and members to improve team meetings and other interactions.

Working with the team will help them achieve their goals and enhance the effectiveness of the team in ensuring high-performance. Coaching a team before presentation will improve its performance and self-confidence significantly. You can help the team leader to know how to lead the team and device simple team-building exercises.

Confidence Coaching

Are you the kind of person who can talk to anyone? Are you the type who has no fear and can address many people? Did you have any insecurities, but you overcame them and became confident, and you can teach others the same? If you have this type of confidence, then you have found your calling in life. You can become a confidence coach and help others to overcome their fears in life.