Previously considered the ultimate in narcissism, Googling yourself and assessing your online presence is a must when you’re on a job hunt. Does that angsty teen poem you wrote a decade ago still show up on the first page of Bing results? It’s time to look at yourself from your (hopefully) future employer’s perspective. I once Googled myself and found the same bio complete with a typo plastered all over the first page of search results.

Finding the Job

If you’re still in college, on-campus recruiting provides a foot in the door. When I was an undergrad, I scored a well-paying (for a student) job via a law professor who also ran an international NGO. The grant proposals and RFPs I crafted with him paved the way for a lucrative grant-writing career. I got the job partly by being in the right place at the right time, and partly because I knew how to approach him in the seconds we had together stuck in an elevator.

College students also have the benefits of an entire career center just for them. Work-study positions, internships (paid and unpaid) and a team dedicated to finding the perfect job for college students aren’t available post-graduation. However, college students also tend to put all of their debauchery on social media then fail to keep up with privacy settings.

Creating a Flawless Online Image

Unless you’re after a career as a social media manager, there’s no reason to have an accessible social media presence. Make sure you only opt for the strictest privacy settings, and consider making a public “professional” site you’d be happy for employers to see. For the icing on the cake, have a new professional headshot taken each year. Daily deal sites like Groupon and LivingSocial let you get a professional online image for a steal.

Also keep in mind that people may look for a few different search terms. A common name like John Smith probably means that other John Smiths around the country will pop up. Include different spellings of your name, such as Jonathan Smith, as well as your city or state. You never know just how committed recruiters will be to uncovering some dirt on you.

Offer Up the Goods

In your cover letter or resume, you may want to include social media sites such as LinkedIn or even Facebook to encourage employers to look at your online presence. This might prevent them from Googling things themselves, and you’re in complete control of what they’ll find. If you’re not sure how to build a solid online reputation, SEO companies can help.

No one is born knowing how to hunt for jobs. I know first-hand taking the advice of a pro, especially when you’re a student, can set the stage for successful career advancement. Why make fresh mistakes when you can learn from others? The more information you have from skilled experts, the better off you’ll be.

The post How to get your online presence ready for its “interview” appeared first on Dzhingarov

Now, what is referral traffic?

All your website visitors, who have come to your site via another site or blog, are referral traffic. For instance, if a blog recommends your products/services and mentions your website link. The visitors that you will receive through the blog are referral traffic.

How can referral traffic benefit you?

Irrespective of the size of business that you run, referral traffic will prove beneficial for you. In fact, through this traffic, you can build long-lasting clientele for your company.

The post Referral Traffic: Sure-Shot Ways To Generate It For Your Business appeared first on Dzhingarov

1.Understand where you stand

Keep up to date with the latest industry goings-on and strive to improve your positioning with it. Get to know your competitors – direct and indirect – full-service and part-service – and look at how they have planned their marketing strategy. Is there anything you can use as inspiration? Are there any gaps that can be exploited? Draft an effective marketing strategy that is not out-with your capabilities as an agency, but is also not too weak that it won’t gain you any advantage over competitors. By showing that you know what you are talking about will really fill your client with confidence and leave them optimistic about your future success together.

2.Get a Mobile Site

You have a smartphone, what’s to say your customers don’t have one! The leaders in the smartphone industry believe smartphone browsing will overtake desktop browser pc and laptop surfing in the next 2 years. Does your mobile site – if you indeed have one – provide the relevant engaging content that your visitors want? The most important point however is how easy to use your mobile site is. Google has pointed out that its own research found that over 60% of visitors will abandon their visit if they do not find what they want straight away. This is a staggering amount of potential custom thrown away because your mobile site is poor. This should be catapulted to the top of your priority list.

3.SEO

With so many real estate agencies out there it will always be difficult to rank at the top of every search engine. The competition for keywords in this niche is fierce. If you have a large budget go for the best words. If you are working to a budget focus on narrowing down your categories with location based and localised keywords, long-tail and niche branded keywords. Make sure your website is optimized for your keywords to attract traffic. Remember to keep your keywords trimmed, there is no benefit in targeting inner-city penthouses if you operate in rural locations. Keep to these points and you will see your site viewed more and more by would be customers.

4.Blogging

Blogging has become increasingly important for owning and running a website. It offers a great opportunity for your visitors to engage with the site and voice their opinions and offer insights. The real estate market and property marketing industry offers plenty of opportunities for user-generated content too. Anything from how best to present your house to buyers, to DIY quick-tips, to the best time of year to sell your home, are equally great topics to write and share about. Your social media interaction will receive from maintaining a blog too through social shares, likes, tweets and recommendations.

5.Email and Social Media Campaigns

By bringing together a concise and targeted email campaign you are increasing your chances of repeat business and people talking about your business or service. If you are sending e-shots to your customers or clients’ inbox you will be front of mind when it comes to that person wanting to use our services. A targeted and intuitive social media strategy will engage thousands of people, contacts and customers through an intricate network of followers. Branch out with facebook, twitter, pinterest, youtube, and linkedin and watch your brands image receive a welcome shot in the arm.

This is not an exhaustive list. Use all intermittently and in line with how your customers expect you to behave – diligently and professionally. There is nothing worse than a disgruntled customer.

Also, remember not to sacrifice your offline marketing practices to take on these new processes. As we move closer and closer to a digital workplace it is important to mix off and online property marketing in order to establish your company or team as a dominant force. Just because the property market stagnates, does not mean your marketing practices have to as well!

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Save Money

The most obvious reason for doing your own repair work is to save cash. It stands to reason that paying for the materials is a lot less expensive than paying for the materials plus the time of the person doing it. You might be surprised to find just how big a saving you can make on some jobs.  If you need some more convincing then try working out the cost of the materials for the next job you need done and then compare this to a quote from a tradesman.

Get It Right, Guaranteed

When you hire someone to do some work you need to trust them to get it right. Most times they will but you could be left wondering whether they put their best efforts into it and whether it will stand the test of time. On the other hand, if you carry out the DIY work on your own then you will know exactly what you have done and the quality of materials you used. Of course, if you don’t get it right first time you should feel comfortable with the idea of learning from your mistakes and doing it over again until you get it exactly the want it to be.

Get Job Satisfaction

It is hugely satisfying to be able to look around your home and see all the great work you have done. This is certainly a lot better than simply coming home one day and seeing the finished job which someone else has done for you.

Plan Other Jobs

Once you complete your first piece of DIY work at home you will start to get excited about the thought of doing more jobs about the place. Even if you have never been particularly bothered about the physical aspect of the property you should soon begin to pay attention to it and enjoy coming up with ideas to improve it. This means that over time you should own a more attractive and more valuable home without having spent a huge amount of money on it.

Learn a Skill for Life

The skills you learn on your home will stay with you for the rest of your life. This means that in the future you could buy a dilapidated home to restore, help a friend with their property or even make a living from your DIY skills. You will always know what this sort of ability could come in handy at some point. A smart move is to learn well at the outset by going on the like of a local plastering course. By doing this you will learn how to do the jobs professionally enough to handle anything in the future.

By Petar Dzhingarov

The post The 5 Main Benefits to Doing Your Own Repair Work at Home appeared first on Dzhingarov

We’re banking on the fact that you have already made a mobile device a key component of your business operations, and now we present the most useful applications that could help you reach the next level. Once you have integrated these into your business, you will wonder how you ever managed without them!

Square

Square is one of the most popular and easy to use point of sale applications in what is a crowded market. Although rivals are emerging and developing a variety of similar apps, this one remains the leader and is definitely worth sticking with for the long haul.

Using Square you can process credit card payments quickly and easily while on the move (they send you a credit card reader), and even upload photos of products so customers can look at your tablet and see what things look like without you having to have examples opened and strewn everywhere.

The novelty of signing for a payment on your screen with their finger is sure to be a hit with customers, too.

Podio

If you have a team of people working remotely, and want communications shared in one place without being overrun by emails, then Podio is the app for you. Working alongside the existing website, you can use the application to schedule tasks, send messages and documents, and much more.

Forget the days of being unable to contact employees when they’re on the road, and keep everyone in the loop with this brilliant workspace application.

Hootsuite

Chances are that you are already using Hootsuite to manage your business’ social media accounts, and this exceptional application now allows you to do it on the move. This is by far the leading social media account manager and assistant, allowing you to see an overview of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn from one easy to decipher, user-friendly interface.

Hootsuite allows you to share posts and photographs across all networks, as well as taking advantage of a number of leading analytics features to see how you are performing and understand what you could do better. Does anyone actually click through those links you post?

Numbers

This application is spreadsheet based, and developed specifically for iPad. There are over 250 functions available meaning that you can place all of your data into a spreadsheet and create tables, graphs, infographics, and whatever else you need in order to populate that all important presentation or business plan to show to potential investors.

Similar applications, including Microsoft Office suites, are available across various platforms as well as on iOS.

Zig Zag Board

Forget the days of videoconferencing when you had to awkwardly explain data to someone on the other side of the world, or hold a graph to the camera to show everyone what you are talking about.

This application is the ultimate in interactive whiteboards, allowing you to view maps, data, and create diagrams of your own free will. Best of all, you can host meetings directly through the app at a small cost, meaning everyone on your call can see the data, or make adjustments as they see fit.

Mind Mapping Apps

Mind mapping has been a popular practice in business for many years now, and having an app on your mobile device means you can store ideas as soon as they hit you, rather than having to endure the frustration of ‘I’ll write that down when I get home,’ only to forget and be kicking yourself.

Similar to Zig Zag Board, the best mind mapping applications allow users to share their ideas via e-mail, or open them out for others to look at and, if necessary, amend. Such apps can be brilliant for brainstorming sessions with contacts in various locations around the world.

Translating Apps

Has your lack of a foreign language put you off doing business with people in a particular country?

Allow it to do so no longer, and ensure you have a leading translation application, such as Word Lens, on your mobile device. Many of these apps have a simple operation of simply photographing or submitting a text in your non-native tongue, and returning it in your familiar language.

The best examples of these apps will have all of the information downloaded onto them, so you can translate on the move even without an internet connection.

PDF Scanners/Readers

Whether you need to scan documents such as invoices on the move and e-mail them to the office, or read an urgent report that has been sent to your device, a PDF-focused app can be your one stop solution for all of your needs.

Look out for apps with additional features, such as the ability to annotate PDF documents and print later with notes attached and convert PDF’s and other documents, to have the best and most efficient experience on your device.

Ensure all of these apps are on your shopping list at the earliest opportunity, as they will put you on the path to an easier to manage, more efficient business.

The post Which Mobile Apps Are Essential To Modern Businesses? appeared first on Dzhingarov

a)      Create short, crisp ‘tweets’ – Researches have shown that, ‘tweets’ that are less than 100 characters in length enjoy greater engagement from readers/followers. Yes, you have a maximum of 140 characters for every tweet, but you need not use them all!

b)     Place the twitter widget on your website – Your ‘tweets’ might be the most informative ever, but what if the website visitors have no chance of navigating to your Twitter profile? Make sure that inclusion of the Twitter widget (along with the other social media widgets) forms a part of your web design & development plans. By the same token, people should also be able to browse back from your Twitter profile to the main website. Click here for tips on inserting social media widgets on your website.

c)      Tweet at regular intervals right through the day – Posting a tweet is almost like sharing a piece of breaking news. Hire the services of a professional, who would be in charge of tweeting about various news and updates related to your business, at regular intervals. The tweets, however, should not be posted too often (unless, of course, you have a news agency of your own). You can use ‘tweet-scheduler’ applications (e.g., HootSuite) to schedule tweets during the non-office hours too. Find out more about tweet-schedulers here.

d)     Use the ‘#’ and the ‘@’ tags – Twitter allows you to highlight words and phrases with the ‘#’ tag, and you need to make good use of it. Place this highlighting symbol before the names of your company, brands and products/services, whenever you use them in your tweets. Similarly, you can interact with your business partners and clients directly, by using the ‘reply’ (‘@’) tag. You also need to be conversant with the different URL-shortening applications. Social media integaration is, after all, meant for more interpersonal communication.

e)      Compose tweets which would go viral – Unless your Twitter posts stoke the interest of viewers, the channel will hardly be able to complement even your best website design plans. Think up relevant tweets that would have high chances of being re-tweeted by your ‘followers’. Just like getting ‘likes’ on Facebook posts, having ‘retweets’ on Twitter is equivalent to positive word-of-mouth publicity.

f)       Think beyond text tweets – How many times have you seen your rival businesses, as well as individual users, post images in their tweets? Take a leaf out of their books, and use pictures and videos judiciously in the posts that you publish right through the day. Visually acquainting the visitors to your products/services would always work to your advantage!

g)      Find out whom to follow – Growing the total number of followers is definitely one of the prime objectives of having a Twitter profile for business, but it should never be your only target. You also need to determine the people/business profiles that you would follow. Apart from your regular business partners and stakeholders, you can also find out people/companies who have excelled in your line of business, and follow them. The total numbrer of people you are ‘following’ should never be higher than your number of ‘followers’.

h)      Keep track of the ‘trending’ topics – Your website development plans have to be in keeping with the tastes and interests of the intended visitors, and the Twitter account should be managed in a same way as well. Find out which topics/products related to your industry are ‘trending’ high on Twitter, and compose your tweets accordingly.

Practically all types of business-related information can be conveyed via Twitter. Chalk out your website design in a way that the live tweets are visible to the website visitors too. Twitter can serve as a powerful new-age business marketing tool – you only need to know how to use it best!

Author: Kenneth Parkar – Follow him on Google+.

The post Tips To Use Twitter For Ensuring Greater Business Recognition appeared first on Dzhingarov

Life is an exciting adventure that takes you through the humdrum of everyday life and also brings in excitement. Living life to the fullest is all about making most of it and attaining happiness out of living it. Excitement is available in an individual’s life in abundance, and sometimes it is generated by our own selves. Parties and events are some such exciting occurrences that add excitement to your life.

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With the excitement of the Mayan apocalypse and dangers of the asteroid fading away, it is now time to have a peek into the latest event trends for the year ahead. Read along to know about some of the best party trends to look out for in 2013:

• Online reviews: With more users taking the online routes, marketing for most event planners shall become more popular in 2013. You can look out for best event planners and even get a close peep into their conversations and professional working styles. You will see better transparency, with most planning professionals serving you in the best possible manner. Most high-profile parties shall not be dominating this year and you will have a direct contact with the users.

Most of these party trends shall be focused around resource sharing and team building. It is best to take the technological route to add some of the much-needed entertainment in your life. You can also evade the additional costs and avoid falling for affectations in this event industry. Look out for all these trends this year and script some happening events by trying out the technological path

Author: Dylan Chumleigh – Follow him on Google+.

The post A Peep Into Trends In Vogue For 2013 appeared first on Dzhingarov

While most people associate LinkedIn with businesses, there is no reason why a small business owner can’t take advantage of alternate social networks like Pinterest to gain followers and promote the brand.

Read on for three ways businesses can capitalize on Pinterest as part of a comprehensive marketing campaign and learn tips for attracting followers – regardless of the type of industry you’re in.

Think outside the box

Many business owners shy away from Pinterest because they think they have to be artistic, or they’re worried that their company isn’t relevant to the Pinterest concept. But any type of business can promote a brand via Pinterest, it just takes some creative brainstorming.

For example, let’s say you’re in an industry that is typically less conducive to the Pinterest model, like finance. You can upload pictures and creative boards that merely touch on the theme. The merchant account provider, High Risk Pay, has Pinterest boards that include inspirational quotes about achieving success, images of luxurious goods, and the logos of successful brands.

Embrace your inner photographer

If the images you believe are relevant to your business are absent from Pinterest, it’s time to take the lead. Invest in a nice camera, or use your smart phone to take pictures that embody the culture of the company. Use a reliable photo editing software to make even the most basic pictures look artistic and visually appealing. Picmonkey and Skitch are two free programs that allow the user total control over uploaded images. Another option is to create a board on Pinterest specific to images from the company blog. It’s a great way to drive traffic from Pinterest to pages or websites more specific to the business and it will increase blog exposure.

Use Infographics

Infographics and instructographics are a great way to sum up an aspect of your industry in a visually appealing way. Most Pinterest users have become accustomed to the role of infographics on Pinterest and they are just as willing to “like” and re-pin these images as any others. Instructographics allow you to gather company data and industry stats and share it with others in a compelling format. Without making a hard sales pitch, an infographic can be the call to action that spurs others towards using your products or services.

Ultimately, like any social media platform, Pinterest is what you make of it. Companies of all shapes and sizes are jumping aboard the Pinterest bandwagon because the data shows consistent growth across the network. Don’t commit to Pinterest (or any social media network) if you can’t regularly log on and engage with followers, but if you have the time and resources to craft an online presence, the payoff is certainly worth it.

Author: Brian Patterson – Follow him on Google+

The post How to Optimize Pinterest for Small Business appeared first on Dzhingarov

Post Photos

According to a 2012 survey by ROI Research, 44% of respondents reported that they were more likely to engage with brands if messages contained pictures. More so than video or plain text, photos draw users in quickly and make them curious about the content. A financial education company, Online Trading Academy, found that posting photos of traders at their workstations dramatically increased engagement with the Facebook page. Those traders who were featured were eager to share the pictures with friends and the campaign drew numerous comments, “likes”, and shares from followers.

Ask Questions

Questions are a great way to increase the number of comments on your home page and also generate a higher edge rank score for certain posts. If you ask a question that receives several replies, that activity will appear in more newsfeeds. The more visibility a post has, the more comments and likes it can earn. It’s a cycle of engagement where the more interaction there is on the page, the more interaction there will be. Asking questions is also a great way to informally survey customers and adjust your business model to better satisfy them.

Update Cover Picture

This is a great trick for increasing brand exposure and boosting edgerank. When a major update occurs on a profile page – things like updating the cover picture or changing a relationship status – the Facebook algorithm ranks it more highly than other activity and bumps it up higher in more friends’ newsfeeds. This exposure will generate higher engagement with the page and will often lead to new likes and followers. It’s a good idea to update the cover photo to something relevant and eye catching. Some companies opt to change theirs with the seasons; others update it to reflect industry news or events.

Promote Posts

You can direct traffic to specific links or pages with Facebook’s promoted posts. This increases post exposure and lasts longer in newsfeeds than an ordinary status update. For example, if your business receives press or other positive reviews, you can point your customers towards the article by posting a link on the Facebook page. Then, for a small fee (usually between $5 and $15) you can pay to promote the post for the next several days and target either friends of the business or an extended network. Promoting posts means that people who might never have heard of your company are exposed to it and become familiar with the brand. Eventually, these folks who engage with your Facebook page are likely to become real-life, paying customers.

Ultimately, using social media for small business is what you make of it. If you don’t put in much effort, you won’t get a lot out. But by regularly interacting with your followers, asking questions, posting pictures, and staying engaged, you can boost community involvement with the page and see your efforts rewarded.

By Brian Patterson. Follow him on Google +.

The post 4 Tips to Help Small Business Owners Conquer Facebook appeared first on Dzhingarov

Those last two issues are beyond anyone’s control, but here are some marketing tips that will help you drum up some buzz for your next event.

Don’t Underestimate Bloggers 

Bloggers have a lot of influence these days.  If you want to reach a wide audience, encourage bloggers to talk about your conference.  Be sure to read what they have to say, too. Pay attention to the feedback that bloggers offer, and talk to them in the run up to the conference.  If bloggers feel that you’re listening to their ideas, they will be happy and you will benefit from their feedback and good PR.

Use Social Media, Actively 

It may sound like a cliche  but with social media you really do get out what you put in.  Adding a +1 and a Tweet this button to your website does not count as “using” social media.  If you want to market your event via social media you will need a strong presence on the main sites.  Set up profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Pinterest and any niche sites which relate to your industry. Check the accounts every day and engage in conversations with the members of each community.  Post different updates to each sites – remember that many people have accounts on multiple communities and they’ll get frustrated if they see you cross-posting every update.

Find Good Sponsors

Good sponsors are hard to come by, and if you find one you should treasure them.  The event – sponsor relationship should be far more than an arrangement where the sponsor gives you money and you print their logo on your promotional materials. Take every opportunity that you can find to promote your sponsors (without alienating your attendees), and ask your sponsors to do the same for you. Many companies have large mailing lists and a lot of contacts and they would be happy to work with you to promote your event because they’ll benefit too.

Talk about the Cool Things You’re Doing

Major events have the luxury of saying “We have something awesome lined up for Friday night!”, but smaller event organizers shouldn’t do that. Instead of planning “an awesome surprise” for the people that turn up, talk about the big things that you’re planning. A huge guest speaker, an after-conference dinner cruise, or a big product reveal is the sort of thing that you should be talking about to bring in the crowds.

Organizing a big event means making a lot of noise.  If people don’t know about the awesome things you have planned, why should they take time out of their busy schedules to attend your event?

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By Boris Dzhingarov – Follow him on Google+.

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