Learning the in’s and out’s of social media has never been so simple; just eat a donut! At this point, you may be extremely confused and unsure of where this post is going. Let me assure you, the complex and ever-changing world of social media can be explained by the simplest action of eating a donut. Thanks to Douglas Wray’s Instagrammed photo of social media explained by eating a donut.

Let’s start with the first social media platform, Twitter. When you tweet, you’re writing a quick blurb about something you’re doing, posting a link to a website, or re-tweeting a cool post you want to share (all under 140 characters, of course!) In the scenario of eating a donut, you use a #hashtag to link key words to Twitter. This way, if any other fellow donut lovers are out there, they can simply search for “donuts” and find you’re newest tweet: “I’m eating a #donut.”

Next we have Facebook. Facebook allows its users to “like” business pages, statuses…even products and food items! When personalizing your Facebook page, it’s important to “like” these pages or groups to show others who you really are and what interests you. Status updates inform your Facebook friends what you are doing, and don’t have a character limitation like Twitter. So next time you’re on Facebook and eating a delicious donut, go ahead and “like” the donuts Facebook page. Whether it’s Dunkin’ or Honeydew, there’s sure to be a donuts fan page for your favorite brand or flavor.

Hungry and forgot to eat breakfast this morning? You can use social media to “check-in” to your favorite local donut shop that posts directly to Foursquare! Foursquare is a unique social media outlet in that it uses location-based services to find where exactly you are in the world simply by “checking in”. Let you friends know where you are through Foursquare. After all, once they see where you are, they may want you to pick them up a dozen chocolate glazed or two…

Instagram is one of the newer social media outlets for the photo-junkies. Why not show the cyber world how delicious your donut looks by uploading a photo to Instagram? After uploading a photo to the site, you can add cool features like frames, vintage colors, pr black and white or sepia tones to personalize your photo. Want to show your friends a vintage photo of your donut? Start Instagramming away!

Finally, YouTube is a favorite among the social media community. Upload a video clip of your donut eating habits for all to see! YouTube is the way to go if you have video content that you want to share. Be warned, YouTube is a serious procrastination mechanism but makes for great laughs from the vast range of silly and ridiculous videos to those “OMG” moments caught on film. Create an account and start uploading right away!

This concludes Social Media 101: What We Can Learn By Eating a Donut. I hope you have enjoyed your donut thoroughly and the next time you forget your breakfast and run to your nearest donut shop or bakery, I expect to see that social media usage come into play! #Toomanydonuts @TRA360 

When it comes to social media, there are many levels of difficulty for various goals within an organization. Having a substancial  budget adds arrows to a marketer’s quiver to achieve success; whether it’s defined as hits, inbound links, better SEO, sales or brand equity, success is the product of a well-defined strategy revolving around content creation, advertising, promotions, PR and happy customers sharing. All of the efforts can be amplified through certain tactics where the effectiveness correlates to well spent dollars. Money itself won’t grow a following, as there are never any guarantees and correlation is far from causation. That being said, for those of us who don’t have an expense account with lots of bucks, the skills are what separate the cream of the crop. 

1) Plant them and they will grow. In this analogy, the seeds are the content in your industry which can be planted on blogs and social media, watered through sharing, and grown into a following that precipitates customers and sales. Simple enough? Yes. Easier said then done? You bet. The key is to write with passion about topics that you are knowledgable about, and hopefully find common ground with your audience. Otherwise it’s just a tree falling with no one to hear it.

2) Be friendly! For a moment, imagine being back in kindergarden. Would you share your favorite toy with the class bully? Of course not. In the world of online sharing, the toys are retweets, mentions, follows and the likes. Ask yourself: are you a giver or a taker? By offering help to others through engaging in conversations and sharing their content, you become a giver and open the door to relationships. These relationship help to bolster your network which can work to your advantage as you try to spread your ideas and content. Nothing can help a social media effort like a network of dependable friends you can rely on.

3) Fish where the fish are. If you’re writing a blog about social media, would you be more likely to find interested readers in a group about Cats, or a group about social media marketing? If you guessed cats, please stop reading. For the rest of you, the idea may be simple but it’s very effective. Put your content into the channels where it can be heard. Segment as much as possible until you find the groups most aligned with your efforts. By doing all three of the tactics together, you will be well on your way to success without a budget. 

Everyone is tightening their belts in business. CEOs and shareholders want more done with less, and when it comes to eCommerce and Web marketing, there are few exceptions. Business is all about catering to the customers, so isn’t it important to know exactly who they are, what they are doing on your site, and how your competition is trying to woo them? If you answered with a resounding yes, then prepared to be amazed. There are a few tips and tricks you can start using today to get more people into your site and buying. 

 Google Analytics is a great free tool and if you aren’t already tracking web-traffic on your site, start here. Using Analytics, you can see the demographic breakdown of your visitors, where they go on your site, how long they stay, and these trends over time. Knowing all of these can help you to better know your customer and fix issues on your site. Know what parts of the website interest them and make sure they have many opportunities to connect with the company via a call to action and social media.The goal is to keep the conversation going and offer them something to keep you in mind.

If you’re trying to design your site, it’s important to make it easy for the customers to navigate around and start a conversation. So many companies lack a call to action. You’ll find that by prompting users to call, email, tweet or write to you, that you will covert more of them into sales. If you’re not sure how to organize you site, why not see what your competition is up to and go from there?

The best way to gauge you competition is with the great tool Spyfu. This amazing website will tell you who your competitors are, what keywords drive people to their site, how that compares with you and track your results over time. This marketing suite is the holy grail of web marketing and will help you to improve your SEO and raise sales all for a marginal cost. I’ve had many different marketers recommend the product and they all swear by it. The information already exists so it behooves you to use it. By combining these research tools, your website will be optimized to make that sales funnel bigger and raise revenue.