Here are some of the advantages to making use of a sitemap on your website:

You will need a sitemap to be able to allow Google to stay updated with all your details, including your new pages, blogs and articles that are added to your website.  This could result in less frustration for the user by letting him get all the website information on one page.

A sitemap keeps you focused on the main keywords which are the mission of your company.  It is better to plan and confirm the map first so that it is easier for you to work from it and stick to the important factors which will be the keywords on your sitemap that will ultimately get you seen on google.
Source: mashable

There are many ways to get your blog out there.  The first step is to decide on a topic. Then you will research for the most powerful keywords on the topic.  Use a keyword search on Google to see what words come up first – those will be the words most searched for while users are surfing the net. 

Then, while keeping your blog up to date, make sure that you support and attend to your audience.  Make sure to keep your posts fresh and up to date and thereby get the peace of mind that you will be keeping all your users satisfied and returning to your blog.
Source: mashable.com

When working with SEO though, it doesn’t matter whether you are a novice or a professional website designer or if you are working on an existing website or starting one from the very beginning.  As mentioned above, when working in any situation, firstly focus and give attention to backlinks and keywords.

Here is a short guide to help you successfully work with these two.

Keywords:
Before you start on your SEO campaign, you have to choose a keyword that basically encompasses what your company, brand or cause is about.  It should take what you are about and explain it in a neat yet powerful word or short phrase.  Needless to say it should be relevant. The aim of the keyword is to attract people from a specific target group to your site and, with the appropriate keyword, it will do just that.

Backlinks:
An important thing that you can do to be able to successfully run the SEO is to get incoming backlinks from other websites.  If you include other successful companies’ backlinks into your material, the search engine will pick up that you too have a website of importance.  The keywords that you use will further explain to the search engine what you are about.

Your success on your SEO should be measured roughly about once a month.  You will do so by checking the number of pages as well as the number of valid backlinks, your domain and homepage as well as your authority with Open site Explorer.  Actual rankings on the search engines can also be checked.
Source: mashable.com

Here are some tips to get the most out of your social media marketing campaign. 

When you are doing your tweet, make sure that it grabs the attention of the reader.  You will have to think of a tweet heading that will make you stand out from all the others. 

Although Twitter limits your amount of letters to 140, it doesn’t mean that you have to use up two messages to get all the info through from one message, you will have to learn to say the most in the least amount of words.  Try to keep to the main key points and focus on what you are trying to get across.  The users will contact you if they want any more information.  As mentioned, keep the message headings basic but powerful.

By making use of statistics and information from the internet you will be sure to grab the interest of the user.  Make sure that you always use fresh and exciting content for each blog as it could get rather boring after a while, especially when you are talking about one specific topic.

Another great tip is to do some research on what time the most users make use of Twitter.  This also depends on the type of audience you would want to target.  If it is for mothers, it will be better to reach them early evening or early morning, as their schedules will be full for the whole day in between.

It is best that, before you start Tweeting, choose a topic and stick to it.  Keep on doing research and keep the page updated, that way your followers will know what quality of information to expect.  This will be a sure way to get them coming back over and over.

Also, keep on engaging with your followers from time to time.  Do not let your page become static as it will drive away interested users.  Your interaction will display your interest in their needs as well as the quality of your page.
Source: mashable.com

So, once you had chosen your goals for SEO, you must then choose the best ways to measure your progress towards your goals.  You should set your reports to show ratings at daily, weekly or monthly intervals.  Some of the metrics will be things like the amount of targeted visitors to your site, number of page views per visitor as well as the time that is spent on the website.

This is why it is so important that SEO should include a content growth plan.  The number of pages on your website should be tracked on all the major search engines. Links that come in from websites with high authority is very important for a successful SEO.

The rankings of your keywords and keyword phrases should also be checked.  Google is one of the major search engines that should be checked.
Source: mashable.com

To be able to create a Facebook Fan page, you have to have a Facebook profile and for that you will have to be logged in.  You will fill your fanpage with all the relevant information on your business including, content, type of product, contact information and images. 

You also have to name your page in order to catch the attention of the users.  Be sure to pick the correct name that pertains to your service, cause or business but is also interesting and easy on the tongue, as it has to be a memorable name if you want it to be remembered.

The same will go for the image of your Facebook Fan Page.  Your image should also pertain to your service, cause or business and, as they say, an image says a thousand words, so should your image be.  It should fully explain what you are about and what you are able to offer.

Then you will create your fan page by selecting “create page”, selecting a category and title it.  You can keep coming back to the page until you have created it completely and are satisfied with it as a whole.  It is important though to make sure that everything is complete and perfect before you publish your page. No one wants to go onto a page that says “under construction”.  Rather wait till complete before you market it.

Then, a very important point is to keep coming back to your Fan Page and get it updated so that people will be kept interested with fresh information, special offers and competitions.
Source: mashable.com

 A blog works in a sense the same as an advertisement in the way that you can reach potential customers with optimized and targeted blog posts.  You therewith share your opinions, advice and expertise.  For that reason it is not surprising to learn that blogs are fast becoming a very important part of the social media marketing circle.

Here are some more advantages to making use of blogging as your marketing platform.

Before you write a blog, it is important that you do thorough research.  As you are doing your research, reading others’ blogs about the topic will give you indepth information on what how the world views your particular topic.  You will then be able to produce a blog on the topic that is of a high quality and has the most possible information that will be the most beneficial to your readers.

 As you are doing your research, you yourself will become highly blessed with abundant information that will allow you to have more knowledge as well.  This will inspire your mind further by making it possible for you to come up with some creative ideas regarding the topic which can make your blog more interesting.

While in the process of blogging, you will often see that not only your typing speed will improve, but your writing skills as well.  You will learn to rather use more professional words, punctuation and tenses than what you would have if you were only texting.  As you are advertising your brand, the more professional it looks, the more advantageous to your image.

Some people have even become famous through their blogs.  This can be possible by simply writing something of great interest to a large group of people.  They will all read it and, like “word of mouth”, will send it to all their blogging friends etc.  This will be guaranteed to get your name, brand or cause out there.

Looking at the above point, which better way can you think of meeting new contacts?  By people commenting on your blog posts, this means that they are interested in hearing more, which means that this is the beginning of a very fruitful business relationship.

Source: mashable.com

One common mistake that people make when measuring the results of their Social Media Marketing platforms is that they only look for a direct result.  These direct results only shows improvements that does not necessarily translate directly into the ROI.

Here are some ways in which you can more successfully measure the success of your business from the social media marketing point of view.

• # of followers to your community online.
• # increase website visitors from social media channels.
• Brand mentions.
• % of bounce rate on your website and blog from social media channels.
• Increased position on the search engines.
• Increased number of comments.
• # of incoming links.

Although these are all good ways of measuring your company’s growth, they would never be able to show you 100% what figures are from your ROI.  As the business world goes, business metrics such as a decrease in expense and in increase in sales will be the only guaranteed way of measuring ROI.  Your best bet is to join these figures into a graph and keep it accurate for a certain period.
Source: mashable.com

This choice of the platforms that you prefer could be a mammoth task as there are so many different ones each with their own advantages to your needs.  Many of them have millions of users and are able to provide instant access to large groups even in only a single topic.  So how do you choose the correct platforms to assist with your needs?

Here is a basic guide on how to choose the best platforms for your needs.
Firstly, look at the platforms that are available freely.  Some of the largest ones are free and include names like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.  As they are already platforms that are running successfully, no extra development from your side would be necessary.

In general, while you are looking for a platform that is perfect for you, you would have to know exactly what you are looking for.  Here are a few questions that you could ask yourself.

• Will you be using a blog to get the word out about your company?
• Which social bookmarking channels are you going to use?
• If you are going to use video, which video sharing channels will you be using?
• On which channels can you find your targeted audience?
• What is the objective with this campaign? What do you want to achieve?
• Do you only want to build trust and credibility? Brand authority?
• Will you be monitoring your campaign?

Once you have these queries out of the way, you can take your selected few and further study them to make sure that you successfully find the platform that is perfect for your needs.
Source:  mashable.com

There is a method called blog analytics that will track the number of visitors to you blog but only traffic to your blog doesn’t mean much if no one is engaging in your blog platform.  This means that you are not going about the blogging in the correct way.  Here are some tips on how to bring success to your blog.

Firstly you have to be sure why you actually want a blog.  Keep in mind that your blog will have to address a certain audience where they would visit your blog and keep on returning if they find what you are writing of an interesting nature. 

Check the comments on your blog that were left by the readers.  When the blog is very interesting, you will see that the visitor traffic has shown a climb.  This will show you what they mostly are interested in and what fascinates them.

Here are some ways for you to measure your blog’s success:

• # of visitors. If no one is visiting your blog, your strategy is not effective. If you only publish one or two blog posts a week, which of your posts returns the highest number of interested visitors?
• Which of your published blog posts yielded the most comments? Was it the subject that you have used? Maybe your writing style?
• Which of your blog posts attracts visitors over time? These are the blog posts that visitors will find on the search engines long after they have been written.
• Where are your readers coming from? Use Web analytics to determine the majority location of your readers. If you are only focused on the South African market and all of your readers are coming from India, apply some local SEO to your blog.
  Source:  mashable.com