How to Handle Multiple Social Media Pages for Your Business

Info People

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are perhaps the most obvious social media channels to build your brand awareness. However, due to the ever-increasing range of platforms, and the inclusion features such as micro-blogging and media sharing, it can be difficult to keep up with the who (to follow) what (to post) and when (you should publish). All in all, multiple social media pages can be greatly beneficial to your business, provided you are implementing them properly.

There is plenty of software available to help out, but the first tool to managing your digital marketing is to distinguish the different types of social media. The model below, courtesy of Cite.co.uk, charts the different types and channels available:

It is important to note that these are not rigid categories, and many of the features of each overlap one another. Imagine some helpful Venn diagram that would take me the best part of a week to create. For example, the 'status update' feature of Facebook could be seen as a micro-blogging tool.

The following are some generic tips to help organise the running of your chosen platforms:-

• Choose wisely. It is crucial to gage which social media platforms your target audience are most likely to engage with, and these should be prioritised first. For example, Pinterest is largely used by women, whereas Facebook use is growing fastest among users aged over 65. Snapchat has a primarily teenage base. If there is one area of social media which is using up a lot of your time but is yielding minimal results, then it is probably time to refocus your strategy.

• Adapt. Each platform is capable of distinguishable features, and it is vital to work out which best work for you. For instance, Instagram is highly pictorial with a focus on images and short video, and the message that you may have sent out on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter could need to be adapted to fit the mould. Research suggests that posts with a photo on Facebook yield 120% more engagement than plain text alone. 

• Organisation is key. Perhaps create a folder or email address that is strictly designated to social media. That way your digital marketing will not get lost amongst other areas of business. Be cohesive and consistent in the tone and look of your online branding on all platforms. Designate specific time purely for social media, as this is likely to make your posting more effective than if it were sporadic. Socialmediaweek suggests that 5 hours a week is suffice, but obviously this is largely dependent on the scale of your campaign. 

• Monitor and analyse.  There are plenty of tools out there ready to help you analyse the data extracted from social media channels, but the problem is what to look for. Determining the best time to post to have the best outreach, measuring your click-through rate and how many posts you need per day are all vital to better digital marketing.

The following software is designed with your business needs in mind as they save you the near-impossible task of manually monitoring the aforementioned data. We have hand picked some of the best :-

Google Analytics

Google Analytics allows you to find out which online campaigns are bringing the most traffic and conversions, where your best visitors are located,  identifies your least performing pages and much much more. The app condenses all this information in an easy to use format that is an invaluable tool for any online business. Not to mention, it's free!

Hootsuite

Hootsuite allows your to monitor all of your channels in one, delegate tasks and eliminate the trouble of co-ordinating responses to consumers. Free when using in accordance with 5 social profiles.

Bitly

Featuring real-time analytics along with the ability to track clicks and remember your favourite posts and pages, Bitly has a neat and clean interface and allows your to shorten URLs for posting on sites like Twitter. Once again, the tool is completely free.

With the digital marketing opportunities and resources available these days, there is no reason why you shouldn't build a big online presence through the use of different social media channels. Social media is an incredible tool - used wisely and effectively, it can have a dramatic, positive impact on your business. http://www.socialsongbird.com/2015/10/how-to-handle-multiple-social-media.html

Avoid Lock Outs and Protect Yourself from WordPress Hackers

If you haven’t already experienced a lockout or hacker intrusion, you are one of the lucky ones. The effects of hacking are not minor, they can bring down your entire operation, cause you to lose all of your work. Don’t put securing up your website at the bottom of your to do list or it might be too late. Let’s look at some things you can do to make sure your site is secure. 

#1 Start by Creating Solid Passwords

One of the easiest ways to get through a site’s security is with their password.  Many people put off creating solid passwords because they claim they take too much time, but think about the time it will take to try to rebuild all your hard work.

* Every password on every site should be different

* Every password should be at least 15 characters 

* A password is strongest if it is not a real word

* Use a mix of capital letters, lowercase letters, special characters and numbers.

Your password is your first line of defense against hackers, so make sure it’s strong. Never write your passwords down, they should always be kept in your head or you can use password manager software. 

#2 Make Sure Your Site is Up to Date

WordPress has a lot of updates, too many people don’t bother getting all of these updates, and many of them fix security breaches and bugs, as well as providing the latest features. Sure, it’s hard to stay ahead of the hackers, but taking every step possible makes good sense. 

#3 Change Your WordPress User Name

When you set up your WordPress account, you will get a default login username of admin. You need a good username with a strong password. 

#4 Protect Yourself from Brute Force Attacks

You may not be aware, but almost every website receives more than a couple hundred unauthorized login attempts every single day and that includes your website. To guard against a brute force attack make sure you have put into place all of the suggestions. You can also install “limit login attempts,’ a plugin for WordPress users that will lock out the hacker after a certain number of failed logins. 

#5 Monitor for Malware

You must be constantly monitoring your site for malware. WordFence is a good solution for your WordPress site and it’s even free. Sucuri is another solution, but it’s a paid program, and it has additional features.

by David Simon

Say No to WordPress Hackers With Better Security

You may have already heard rumblings about the bots attacking WordPress. Bottom line is that every website is at risk and WordPress is no different. It’s important for you to do your part to create a higher degree of security, because you see if everyone else does and you do not, then you become the weak link where hackers can access all the WordPress blogs. The same goes true if you create a strong password and others do not – bottom line, this requires a team effort. 

Start by making sure your WordPress installation has the most current updates. Reduce the number of plugins you are using if you can and always delete those plugins you no longer use. Make sure you choose passwords that are hard to crack and always backup your data on a regular bases. Finally, protect your WordPress by making use of .htaccess. Great, that’s a good place to start by putting these things into practice. 

Now it’s time to install a WordPress Security plugin that is designed to block IP addresses that attempt to flood or spam a site. It will also restrict the number of login attempts that can occur and it will monitor your live traffic. These plugins are constantly being updated so you can be sure they are on top of security concerns.  Wordfence or Better WP Security are two that can do the job for you. 

There’s been a great deal of controversy over whether free content delivery systems are good or bad. The best thing to do is try it yourself. Yes, there are some that really only want to lure you to their paid service but two free content delivery networks that minimize your security risk and are free include CloudFlare and PageSpeed Service by Google. Don’t be afraid to explore what’s out there. 

We touched on the .htaccess file earlier. This stands for Hypertext Access and when you configure this file you gain control and reduce your risk of security breaches. Editing your .htaccess file is serious and unless you understand at least basic coding you should hire someone that does. You can quickly become overwhelmed by so many options. 

These suggestions don’t guarantee you will not be hacked, but what they do is significantly reduce your risk because there is going to be someone else out there that will be an easier target. 

by David Simon