This means they digest information more easily by viewing an image instead of reading text. Understanding this phenomenon can help optimize your social media marketing campaign and give you an edge over competitors who mainly publish written content.

Let’s discuss the benefits of images in further detail, how pictures can be implemented in your social media marketing campaign, and the top image-based social media sites.

Capture the Audience’s Attention

Most people have a limited attention span. In an information age where data can quickly become overwhelming, people have to pick and choose among plenty of content options, all begging for their attention. This has resulted in many people skimming through content to extract what they’re looking for.

When there’s a long winded post with nothing but text, it can turn many visitors off because they simply don’t have time to read through it. However, incorporating images is a natural way to grab attention. It’s the perfect motivating force to encourage visitors to stick around and explore content in greater detail.

Drive the Point Home 

Although quality written text can be persuasive, some well-placed images can take it one step further. Creating breaks between text gives people time to stop and think about points and concepts. This is especially important when attempting to explain how a product works, an app, step-by-step directions, etc. The end result should be helping readers achieve a thorough understanding.

Add a Splash of Color

The right pictures are also an easy way provide an element of contrast. Line after line of text quickly becomes boring. Images can solve this problem by making posts more vibrant and visually stimulating. They can take a somewhat boring post and spice it up.

Improve SEO

Since practicing effective SEO tactics and strategies is important for the health of your online marketing initiative, every trick you implement is helpful. A simple way to get an SEO boost is by adding a few pictures to each post along with relevant alt and meta tags.

This includes the image file name, as well as the Title, Alt and description tags. Properly labeling these tags will help Google index your content and figure out how relevant and useful it is. When posting images to social media sites, take advantage of whatever tagging system they offer and include hashtags when possible.

Now that we’ve discussed the advantages of images, let’s consider some of the top social media sites that are image-focused.

Pinterest

This relatively-new network basically came out of nowhere to claim a legitimate portion of the social media landscape. A large part of Pinterest’s success is due to its simplicity and aesthetic appeal. Rather than relying on an abundance of text, it focuses on a clean, light colored background with pins that feature images and videos.

Unlike other major social media sites like Facebook and Twitter with a lot of interaction, users are limited to “repins,” “likes” and brief comments. Consequently, Pinterest mainly revolves around the exchange of ideas via visual content.

If you’re not already on this network, create a profile and launch a social media campaign. It’s one of the easiest sites to learn, and the number of users is constantly increasing. You simply create boards, which are separated into categories. Then, relevant images or videos are pinned onto each board accordingly.

This is followed by a brief description to help users and search engines find content. Placing content from other pinners onto boards is easy, which makes it perfect for making connections with like-minded people. The best part is the viral quality that Pinterest offers. More followers results in a higher potential for content to be repinned. In turn, this can help increase exposure with minimal effort.

While it’s possible to reach most demographics through Pinterest, roughly 70 percent of users are female. This makes Pinterest excellent for businesses in niches like home décor, fashion, food industry and arts and crafts.

Instagram

Instagram has quickly become a popular way for individuals and businesses to share pictures with their audience. According to Free World Media, Instagram is growing faster than both Twitter and Facebook originally did. While it doesn’t have the same user volume as these behemoths at the moment, this is likely to change in the future.

That’s why it’s smart to get on board now and build a presence before competitors do. Although it was originally accessible only on iPhones and Androids, it can now be used on the web as well.

The concept is creative and fun, with a high level of interaction between companies and consumers. It’s also the perfect tool for building rapport with consumers by giving them a firsthand look into a company and its employees. For example, some businesses take pictures of employees at the office or at events. This can help a business come across as being more personable and not just some faceless corporate entity.

You can also encourage consumers to take pictures of themselves using a product or a service in action. Including consumers in a marketing campaign is a great way to establish loyalty and build brand ambassadors who will gladly spread the word. This makes it an ideal tool for branding even on a small budget. Some major companies that have successfully utilized Instagram include Starbucks, Red Bull and ABC News.

Tumblr

Tumblr  (to be acquired by Yahoo! for $ 1.1bn)  is a microblogging site that’s primarily used by artists and creative-minded people. Although it’s possible to create a variety of content, a large percentage is image based. Adding pictures is easy and can be done by posting images from the web or by re-blogging from Tumblr itself. It has a simple interface and a variety of free themes. It also has a hip feel and is very popular among young people who are 25 and under.

Regardless of the industry, Tumblr is an effective way to showcase a product or service. Some businesses like the NBA use it to give their audience a behind-the-scenes perspective that allows them to connect on a deeper level. For instance, they show pictures of teams in the locker room to give fans a feel for players’ personalities.

Restaurant owners can showcase dishes, appetizers and desserts they serve to entice customers. Fashion designers can feature pictures of models and customers wearing their clothing. For businesses looking to reach a young audience, this network can be a gold mine.

Due to the ease of sharing, it’s possible to connect with relevant consumers and network with other businesses. Tagging is convenient, so optimizing content for SEO is a snap. The minimalist layout also makes it easy to learn and navigation is highly intuitive.

With this being the platform of choice for many trendsetters, it’s also helpful for staying up-to-date on what’s trending. Since Tumblr isn’t completely saturated with competition and still off the radar of many marketers, it’s a great way to give your brand a boost.

Guest Post:

Jayson DeMers is the founder & CEO of AudienceBloom, a Seattle-based SEO agency. You can contact him on LinkedIn, Google+, or Twitter.

Earlier this month, Tweetdeck ended support for Facebook feeds, becoming essentially nothing more than another Twitter client in an already overcrowded field, which doesn’t make  a whole lot of sense to start with. To make matters worse and even more bizarre, they pulled their apps from Android and iOS and ended the TweetDeck AIR client. So, to put this in a nutshell, they are now essentially a Twitter client which doesn’t even operate on mobile devices. Seriously?

In this humble writer’s opinion, they should have should closed up shop altogether or gone into the sandwich making business. Unless there is some super-secret plan for Twitter to eliminate all other social networks and then use TweetDeck as their exclusive platform, the whole thing is more than a little strange. Of course, just as I grew up and moved on from simple and basic social clients, so have most other serious users and small businesses.

The social monitoring space has become a full-fledged sector in online marketing and an indispensable part of modern business practices. We were all told (correctly) 10 years ago that if you didn’t have a .com address somewhere in your advertising you were destined to be overshadowed by the competition. Today, if you don’t have a social media manager (or department) with a solid piece of social media management software, you are looking at the same shakeout that happened with companies that refused to believe that the web was the future of business.

The social space is growing fast, not only internally on the big sites, but in cross-platform aggregators like RebelMouse and in the boom of social monitoring dashboards. In my mind apps like Tweetdeck only had two ways to go: expand to meet the growing demand and business uses, or get into another business. The path that they took is definitely the path less traveled, although I can’t see anything at the end of that path but a big cliff to fall off of.

 Click for 5 Great Reasons to Start Using Sendible

Sendible is an online marketing service for businesses and marketers to promote, grow and track their brands through the use of Social Media, Email and SMS messaging. Sendible is the easiest way to grow and build your brand online and is a one-stop-shop for all your marketing needs.

Just as you would properly vet a candidate for any other position, you should do the same for your social media manager. The problem is that you probably aren’t going to find many people with a long history of managing social media on their resume, so what do you look for in this position? I’m so glad you asked.

1. Real Knowledge of the Field

Just because someone has a Facebook and Twitter account doesn’t mean they know how to manage social campaigns. They need to know the basics of the business end of social – how to set up pages, how to analyze and track engagement using good social media management software, setting up and maintaining blogs, experience in email marketing, and what kinds of posts will actually attract people.

 2. Great Communication Skills

This person is going to be the face of your business online. They need to be able to deal with the widest variety of personalities, speak and write conversationally, have thick skin, and be problem solvers. I can’t stress (again) how important it is to have someone dedicated to this position without other responsibilities in the organization. You wouldn’t want your ad agency handling your bookkeeping, and this is no different. The person you put online to represent you can almost single-handedly increase your business if they are the right person, or they can destroy your image if they aren’t. Make sure they have excellent spelling and grammar skills as well, please.

 3. Loyal and Trustworthy

I shouldn’t have to keep saying this, but it’s that important. This will be one of the most important roles in your company going forward, so don’t downplay it. You need someone who you can trust with high-level information about the business, who can make important decisions regarding their area, and who has the best interests of the company at heart. Hiring Johnny from the neighborhood because he has a lot of Facebook friends is a bad idea. Very bad.

 4. Organized

This person is not going to just be posting funny cat pictures when they find them. They will need to maintain a scheduled blog, post to the different social sites daily and at certain times, run daily, weekly, or monthly email campaigns and newsletters, and do regular research to stay on top of the latest changes, trends, and sites in social. It’s a full-time proposition. In addition to all of this, they will need to respond to any and all comments, questions, and mentions toward or about your company. Which leads to the next attribute…

 5. Flexible

Managing social media isn’t a 9-5 position. It’s more like a doctor’s or real estate agent’s schedule, which is to say that they need to be available almost anytime they are needed. You don’t have to go to extremes – they shouldn’t have to reply to a 3am tweet right away – but there should be a reasonable time frame within which all interactions are replied to. For instance, during the workday replies are made within two hours, outside of workday hours they are made within 12 hours. This would cover nighttime activity being responded to the next morning and would require checking weekend activity at least four times. For someone to be committed to this kind of schedule, they need #6.

 6. Passion

The best salespeople are those who love to sell. The best HR people love to handle people issues. The best managers constantly look to get the best out of their people. The ideal social media manager will have a passion for several important things: online technology, customer relations and service, sales, and increasing the customer base. Sounds like a tall order, right? This is exactly why they need to be a key player in your organization. They will need to interact regularly with those who are the experts in these areas: HR, the sales team, management, etc. In a way, they will be a complete mirror of your entire business online. Depending on the size of your organization, you may need to consider a team.

Google has made improvements to its algorithms over the last year or so which are making the current SEO practices (read: low quality, stuffed with keywords) more and more obsolete. This is a good thing, because it is causing the content quality to go up, but what are the next steps to improve your results with potential eyeballs?

SMO, or Social Media Optimization, is a lesser-used term, but it is altogether more important and potent than SEO. The reason for this is that social media has moved beyond the point of being a destination site here and there and become the threads that tie the content on the web together. It’s a ubiquitous part of online interaction now, so how do you manage it?

A Proper Mix

The key to great results is a mix of great content and proper exposure. Please understand this: the great content is a prerequisite. You can get short-term exposure with certain tactics, but if you want a long-term ROI then you have to have something worth reading.

Now that you understand that you need sharable content, you can move on to a strategy for getting it shared. Like I said, sites like Facebook are no longer purely destination sites. What I mean is that the Facebook experience stretches well beyond the site itself. What was the last page you surfed that didn’t have a “Like” button on it? Facebook is not alone here either – you see “tweet this” buttons, “Pin It!” buttons, and “+1″ buttons on almost every page as well.

You should have a presence on the big four at the very least: FB, Twitter, G+, and LinkedIn – and I wouldn’t leave Pinterest out either if possible. Managing all of this can be a nightmare if you don’t keep things simple.

Keep It Simple

There are two things you can do that will make your social media life a lot easier. First, concentrate on sharing things that people want to see. This will grow your base quicker than any SEO strategy ever could. Second, learn how to manage your presence. Doing this by visiting every site every day is not optimal. It’s the most time-consuming way to do it. What you need is a central location for sharing and monitoring, and a good social media dashboard is the best solution.

The right software will let you share to all of your sites from one place, not just two or a few of them. It will also tell you which of your posts are actually getting through to people. If you keep posting about the same thing but no one is reading or sharing it, you are wasting time – and time is money.

If you centralize your command post and put out quality content, they will come and you will know it. This may be a quaint paraphrase, but believe it or not it’s the truth. Any “guru” who tells you otherwise is selling snake oil. Or SEO services. What’s the difference?

I’ve got a user whose login failed so I sent him the URL to reset and he then paid for a business plan. Logged out and it’s failed again- any ideas what it could be?

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• - Share our page with your friends and family by clicking the “Share” button below.
• - With 5 varieties of product X to choose from, are you loyal to one, or do you like to mix it up?
• - What’s your favorite time of day to enjoy X?
• - What’s your favorite things about the opposite sex?
• - How would you describe X to someone who’s never tried it?
• - X was written more than 100 years ago – true or false?
• - Did you know X is in our online shop? Browse Y to pick up a bargain!
• - Where are you taking me this weekend?
• - Life’s too short to not be delicious.
• - A fruit fly only has a lifespan of 30 days. And never gets to try product X. Sad.
• - How many words (with 3+ letters) can you make out of product X name?
• - Home is where the X are.
• - Fun Fact: The Beatles used the word “love” 613 times in their songs
• - Fun Fact: There are more than 6,700 languages
• - Fun Fact: The can opener was invented 48 years after the can.
• - Fun Fact: If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
• - Fun Fact: Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
• - Pro Tip: You can sharpen a knife with the base of a coffee cup!
• - Pro Tip: Use half a pistachio shell to open the ones that didn’t open properly. Works with mussels too!
• - Poll: What would be your favourite X from our Y product line?
• - Long weekend ahead! What are your plans?

Promotional Offers

• - Complete the sentence to win some free Z: The best thing about product/brand X is Y.
• - Today Only: enjoy FREE SHIPPING with any purchase at X. Who doesn’t like FREE?
• - Hi fans! LAST DAY to receive an Additional 20% Off and a Free Gift with any purchase!
• - If we get to 5000 likes we’ll pick 10 fans at random and send them a free X.
• - Take $25, $15 or $5 OFF your purchase – online only at X. Hurry, offer ends tonight!
• - Share pics of you enjoying our products to win X
• - What’s your favorite (clean) joke? Best one wins a free X.
• - Congratulations to X who won a Y by changing his profile photo. Change your profile to one of the photos in this album and comment below so you can be entered to win today’s prize: Z.
• - It’s your lucky weekend! Use this link for 25% off orders over $25!

Seasonal

• - Today is officially the first day of Autumn. What are some of your favorite things about fall?
• - Today is “National Gratitude Day” and we’re grateful for such amazing Facebook friends! What are you grateful for?
• - Today marks the Xth anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. What’s your dream for the world?
• - One this day in 1956 X happened. How does that affect Y today?
• - We’re brewing a heated debate! Now that autumn has arrived, do you crave hot or iced coffee?
• - Crisp, early-morning runs… roast dinners… sports… What do autumn Sundays make you think of?
• - Happy St. Patrick’s Day! – March 17th
• - Happy Labor Day! Don’t forget your product x! – September 3rd
• - Happy Christmas! – December 25th
• - Happy Bastille Day! Viva la France! July 14th
• - Happy Halloween! Are you celebrating with product X? – October 31st
• - Happy International Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day – January 25th
• - Happy International Go Commando Day – March 9th
• - Happy International Talk Like A Pirate Day – September 19th
• - Happy April Fools Day! What’s has been your favorite prank? – April 1st
• - BBQ, beach, bonfire… Where was your best night out this summer?

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Viveka is known internationally as the “LinkedIn Expert” and regularly speaks to corporations, associations and business owners on the benefits of marketing with LinkedIn.  In particular, position yourself as a thought leader and how to generate leads using LinkedIn.

She is no stranger to subject matter expertise; Host of the biggest LinkedIn chat on Twitter: #LinkedInChat (Recently quoted by Mashable as one of the top 10 business chats) co-moderator of LinkedStrategies, (the largest LinkedIn strategy group on LinkedIn,) and author of LinkedIntoBusiness.com (recently quoted as one of the top 25 Business Blogs written by a woman) she is constantly learning, sharing and transferring social media skills and strategies to her audience.

Viveka has 29,000+ first level connections and a network of over 29 million people on LinkedIn, and 49,000+ followers on Twitter and over 100K views a month on her website. Her seminars, webinars and workshops have taught and trained well over 29,000 people.

She was also recently listed:

• - Forbes 20 Most Influential Women in Social Media (2012, 2013)
• - Forbes 50 Most Influential People in Social Media (2012)
• - Social Media Today Top 10 Women Who Rock Social Media
• - TopRank’s 25 Women Who Rock Social Media (2011, 2012)
• - Big Money Web’s 200 Most Fearless Women Online

Viveka’s one piece of advice is “Don’t get lazy”.  It all well and good to develop a following, a huge email list, and lots of fans.  But if you stop actually engaging with your audience, you will soon lose them.  Too many people think social media success is about big numbers.  Visibility is great, but not if no one is really listening.

Make an effort, be it through Google+ Circles, Twitter or Facebook Lists, LinkedIn Tags or emails groups to really engage, listen and respond to your target markets.  Share content of value.  Be a “Go-Giver.”  Give people want they want or need.

Try and get face to face.  Do Google Hangouts.  Skype.  Meet clients and prospects on your business trips.  Try and get to local networking events.  Engage with the participants on your webinars.   Schedule real engagement time in.  Answer the phone!

Followers, fans and connections are not just numbers.  They are real people (in most cases.)  Don’t forget that.  Any one of them might be the inspiration for your next success!

Nominate your Expert of the Month using the form below:

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There has been a ton of criticism from users as well as much praise from business sites for the move, and I can understand both the good and the bad points of view. Here, let me crack my skull open a bit so you can peer in on my musings.

The Good

There are upsides to charging, even for the users. First, the ability to message someone that you wouldn’t be able to get a message to otherwise can be a very useful tool. Think job seekers contacting high-level execs at a company, musicians contacting agents or record execs, or getting a message through to some celebrity that you want to support your cause in some way.

These are worth a premium, no doubt, even if it is $100.  After all, you can’t DM someone on Twitter that you aren’t connected to, and LinkedIn has a tiered service charge for similar options of being able to connect to others for business purposes.

The Bad

Even at $1, how many people are going to pay to send a message to someone they share a group with but aren’t already friends with? The quick answer: probably none. I happen to have a real world example of this that demonstrates the downside quite well.

First, let me explain that I didn’t even know that there was an “other” inbox in the FB messaging system before this happened. (did you?) I am in several private groups on FB, mostly related to social media professionals. I am not personal “friends” with each person in each group – why would I need to be? We share a group, after all.

So, an individual in one of my groups was trying to contact me privately about a job they needed done. They were greeted with a friendly message (dripping sarcasm there) that it would cost them $1 to deliver the message to my inbox. Deciding against this (as I would have), it went to my “other” box (remember, I didn’t even know this was there – and you don’t get notifications for it).

The result was that they contacted me through Google+ instead. Way to go, Facebook, forcing your users to go to a competing site to communicate. Great model.

The Possibilities

I’m not opposed to the idea of charging to message strangers. It’s a great way to reduce spammy messages and, like I mentioned earlier, to contact someone you may not have been able to contact otherwise. However, if you are going to do something like this that will cause an uproar, at least do it right.

Several articles have offered great ideas for adjusting this model, notably Rocky Agrawal’s January guest post on Venture Beat. As he argues, there should be a tiered system of some sort. Why not allow a celebrity or exec to not only set prices, but get a cut as well? For example, $20 to have it delivered, $50 for a guaranteed read, and $100 for a guaranteed response, with the receiver getting a percentage of the fees, would be much more effective and generate more revenue, in my opinion.

On the other side of the coin, FB should be smart enough to filter through groups and friends of friends to allow for free messaging to those who are likely to be genuine messages and not spam. Privacy filters are required to be set by users for everything else, why not this?

For a business, this could be one more piece to help with their already existent social media marketing tools, not only for engagement purposes, but for possible business opportunities. An email or contact form might or might not be taken seriously or even read, but if someone is paying you and the platform to read a message, that would bring enough seriousness to the message that almost anyone would pay attention to it, especially if they were paid more for a guaranteed response.