13 Awesome Tools To Help Get Your Business On The Grid

Tired of wasting your time on simple  social media duties? It's a tedious job to be on every platform 24/day 7 days a week.  Thankfully, there are some tools out there that can make your life a little bit easier. Welcome to the world of automation.

Here are 13 of our favorite tools that help small business focus on the work they need to be:

1. Hootsuite: This website and app will help you to manage your time with social media by scheduling your posts on Twitter, G+ and Facebook in advance.
2. IFTTT: (pronounced like "gift" but without the "g"), it's only about automation, through 100 channels ! This will let you create your own "recipes" that don't typically exist between channels, such as: Setting your photos from Instagram to automatically post to your Facebook BUSINESS page.
3. Instagress: The secret to success on Instagram is being active with other users. If you don't have the time Instagress will like and comment on photos for you.
4. Elance: If you're ready to take the plunge and hire a virtual assistant, Elance is a great place to bid out jobs to possible candidates all over the world!
5. Morguefile: Copyright free images (as long as you give credit to the owner of the images). Don't try and steal photos off Google and get slapped with a lawsuit (see our post about Photo copyright law here).
   You can also use Unsplash, free 10 new high-resolution photos every 10 days - you can use them for whatever you want, even without mentioning the author.
6. Infogr.am: Create infographics and online charts easily and for free.
7. Squarespace: Simple logo creation by yourself, the basic for your business!
8. PicMonkey: Visual content is the most important factor of blog posts and social sharing. You can edit and add text and graphics to images (think mini Photoshop) with this app for free!
9. Rapportive: Here is a magic tool - relationship management for free. This app will add all your social media links to your email signature -for free! y
10. Google trends: It's always a great way to keep up with the current trends online. It will also give you some inspiration as to what you should be talking and posting about.
11. Blog topic generator: When you can't find what to write about, the blog topic generator is here for you.
12. Pocket: You would love to read all those important stuff, but definitely not now? Put them in your pocket! It will save all contents for later.


13. Socialminded Media Group, because sometimes you still can't do it all on your own. We're here to do it all plus more for you! Contact Stephanie at stephanie[at]socialmindedmediagroup.com today!

Image: Claire Belzidsky

Protect Your Blog or Website: The Five Basics

Now that you have your own blog or website, and you consistently post updates, the last thing you want is to be hacked. You could end up losing all of your hard work or worse; your followers could be reading incorrect information about you or your company!


Hackers attack sites every day.

The software Wordfence protected Wordpress blogs, websites and registers an average of 3218 attacks per minute against Wordpress just during the time I wrote this article.

Just last week, Wordpress sites were under big attacks thanks the Heartbleed Bug, and the volume of brute force attacks jumped from 3500 to peaking at 20,000 failed logins per minute. In this case it was revealed that the hackers were actually others infected websites. Read the article about this attack here.

This means two things. First it's better to be prepared and be protected against attacks. Second, your own blog or website can be used without your consent as a weapon against others websites, which can get you in lots of trouble  - including large bill from your hosting provider!

Here Are Some Basic Tips To Avoid These Troubles:

1. Your password! It seems obvious, but you need a difficult password to crack. Avoid using your birthday or pets name. Choose one with upper and lower-case letter, numbers, and a random punctuation mark. Change it frequently.

          **We also recommend using Dashlane to host all your passwords. It is a verified encryption service that lets you host and access all your passwords via your computer and/or app on your phone. You can also send them out to others via an email that will delete in 30 minutes - very James Bond style!

2. Allow only a few login attempts. Three is the magic number. You've probably seen this with your bank - if you can't log in after three attempts you are locked out.

3. Do not login to your website via an unsecured wifi. Public wifi (aka Starbucks) can be dangrerous as anyone on the network can see what you are doing. There are software VPN systems you can install such as Hamachi and Privoxy that will protect you when you are away from the home or office. 

4. It's worth it to buy and use anti-virus software. If you are still using PCs (ahem, Mac users here!), you really should have some sort of anti-virus on your computer. McAfee and Norton as always good programs.

5. Create a backup to save all your work. BACK UP! BACK UP! BACK UP! We can't say it enough! you can find how to do it right here.

Sources: Wordfence and Hayley Kaplan

Images: morguefile.com

Why Your Next Event Should Have A Tweet Wall

Social media is so intertwined into life and business, that I don't need to tell you it should be there for important events. In fact, blog posts are resorting to explaining how to DISCONNECT anymore. But, we'll save that for another time.

Today I am here to tell you why you're next event needs a tweet wall.

What is a Tweet Wall? 

Ever been to an event and seen a projector shining everyone's tweets in real time up on the wall while you listened to a boring finance speech? Weren't you more interested in watching the tweet wall? It's actually really easy, and really cheap to set up!

How To Set Up A Tweet Wall

1. Pick a #hashtag. You can't have a tweet wall without a hashtag, and hashtags help bring the conversation into one place. This past week I helped my sorority, Zeta Tau Alpha, set one up for their annual Zeta Day convention. We used the hashtag #nynjzetaday2014 if you want to follow it to see how it worked for us.

2. Pick a platform to host your tweet wall. There are lots of programs out there, and some of them are even free that will do a great job if you're hosting a simple, small event.

My recommendation? LiveTweetApp.com  They offer a free option, and it's only $40 to upgrade to their pro package for a 24 hour window. Having a weekend-long conference? They have options for longer days as well. They offer different layouts, and the option to "approve" all tweets before they go live on the wall. Trust us, you'll appreciate that when you ban porn from showing up in your ministries' weekend conference.

3. Post Photos. People LOVE to see themselves, so they're likely to use your tweet wall just because they want to see themselves up on the wall. Show them that their photos can some up on the wall too, and you're sure to get the ball rolling.

4. Incorporate a Contest. We set up 5 different categories to tweet about throughout the conference that got the attendees even more engaged - especially after they saw the first winner announced, plus come up to grab a prize! We made note cards that hosted the questions on the tables, and then posted on the wall when it was time to tweet about that specific question. We then had one moderator choose the "best tweet," snap a pic, and send it to the person running the podium, who would then announce it 10-15 later.

Technology is beautiful!

Why Use A Tweet Wall? Success Story: Zeta Day 2014

Want to go viral? Want to be trending? Get a room of people all together and tell them to tweet.

For Zeta Day, we had a room of over 700 collegiate and alumni from the New York and New Jersey area. We had over 800 tweets in only a few hours, and were trending in the US! Needless to say, Nationals were ecstatic that ZTA was getting some much attention - and from us!

We even had Zetas in Spain, Mexico, Seattle and Tennessee jump into the conversation.

Meet the behind-the-scenes crew! Jill, Anne, myself and Karlie. They always said, "it takes a village."

Looking to set up a successful tweet wall campaign? You can always ask us for our advice! Email stephanie@socialmindedmediagroup.com today!

Meet The Dentist event at Polished Dental, Pittsburgh.

We had an AMAZING event last week at our office, if you didn't get to stop by - here's a little sneak peek:

We invited local Pittsburgh moms to stop down with their kids to learn about starting dental health. How? When? What do we use? These were some common questions. Here's a little bit of what we learned:

When Do You Start To Brush Your Baby's Teeth?

As soon as you see a tooth pop up, you should be brushing your baby's teeth! Once a tooth shows up, milk and food start to stick to it, especially when you give a bottle right before bed. They make little baby toothbrushes you can put on your finger and gently stick in their mouths to brush.

DID YOU KNOW - YES! It is possible to get a cavity on a baby tooth. And guess what, that means we have to drill it - trust us, you DON'T want to have to do that.

When Should You Bring In Your Child For Their First Dental Appointment?

Once they have teeth! The younger they are, the easier they will adjust to coming to the dentist. If you wait until they are 4 or 5, they may be more afraid and it can be a scary experience. Dr. Joey usually has the parent sit in the chair and hold the child/toddler for the first few times to get them comfortable and adjust to being in the bright lights.

Are Pacifiers Really Bad For Your Teeth?

They can be. Dr. Joey recommends kicking the habit (that includes children who suck their thumbs) before the baby teeth fall out. Once their real teeth start coming in, pacifiers and thumbs can push teeth to grow in crooked! Yikes! (Permanent teeth usually come in around ages 5-6).

What Toothpaste Should You Use?

There are lots of different toddler/baby friendly brands out there - but we recommend a natural toothpaste, like Jack 'N Jill. Toddlers have a tendency to swallow more than spit out the toothpaste, so you want to make sure what they are ingesting is safe and natural. Be sure to look and see if it contains fluoride, you don't want your child to consume too much!

Give me that toothpaste!

How Can You Get Kids Excited About Brushing Their Teeth?

There are lots of fun games and activities for teaching kids to brush their teeth! One of our favorites is to take Play-doh, Mega blocks and some yarn. You push some of the Play-doh around the blocks (teeth) like plaque! Then you have them "floss" it out with yarn, showing them how they need to clean out food bits leftover in your teeth when you eat!

You can also have fun with food! We had the kids construct apples with peanut butter and marshmallows to make edible smiles!

Overall, we had a great time, and thank Dr. Joey for sharing his knowledge with us!

Do you have a question about kids for Dr. Joey? Want to make an appointment to bring in your baby or toddler? Call the office today at  412-281- 3546 or email us at polisheddental@gmail.com !

10 Tips To Be Successful On Facebook:

written by Socialminded Media Group intern, Claire Belizidsky

Everybody thinks that being successful with Facebook is easy, but this social media platform takes more than just posts to conquer. Below are 10 rules to be a true Facebook Guru: 

1.     Define your goal with Facebook. Even if you can’t measure your ROI in dollars, you will build relationships and remain top-of-mind with your existing followers.

2.     Plan a commitment, like 3 posts/week.... and stick to it! Having an editorial calendar can help keep you organized and on track. Also, tools like Hootsuite let you schedule your posts in advance and more than one at once!

3.     Decide what image of your brand you want to portray, and be sure that your posts are always connected with this image.  

4.     Share pictures and videos as much as possible, they have a better engagement with users than just text. And make them REAL photos of you when possible - not stock images (like below!). People can connect with you more when they see into your world. 

5.     Like and comment on the posts of your community. But when you comment on a post, be sure to add value, so people reading it will want to follow your page. 

6. Be Familiar With The Facebook Terms of Service (TOS)

If you are going to giveaways or contests on your page - be sure to review the Facebook TOS first. You can find your page shut down without notice if you violate a rule. Yikes! Also, terms are always changing, such as cover photos dos and don'ts. Visit Facebook to learn more https://www.facebook.com/policies.

7.    42% of Facebook users, the first reason why they decide to unlike a page is irrelevant content, so be relevant ! And for that, understand your audience well: Think about what your followers will want to share, and analyze what they like the most in your posts. Using the Facebook Insights for this can be a valuable tool. 

8.     Respond quickly to the comments on your posts, questions, or private messages.

9.     It’s normal to share with your community blog posts, news articles, pictures.. but always give credit where credit is due! If you use someone's photo, be sure to credit them, and as always NEVER use photos just googled from the internet. (read up on copyright infringement rules here). 

10. Tell people where you are! It sounds basic, but are your social media links in your email signature? Newsletters? Website? Business card? Make sure to be available for your audience.

4 Important Pieces Every Website Needs and Doesn't Have

When you're designing your new website - it's easy to get caught up in how it looks. Everyone focuses on layout, colors, consistency - and don't get me wrong they're important too! But, how pretty is your website if NO ONE can find it??

There are 4 Important Pieces Every Website Needs and Don't Have.

Don't be a statistic - check to see if you have:

1. SEO (search engine optimization)

 Is more important today than ever. If you aren't promoting your own website and blog posts to be seen - who is really seeing them?

You spend all this time writing and perfecting the perfect content, and damn it, you have something VALUABLE to say or sell!

But are you preaching to an empty auditorium?

You say that it's too technical for you to know how to do - and yes, SEO can be complex but that's why we're here to help you, and why most bloggers and websites go unseen.

- Wordpress sites. Basically if you want SEO, Wordpress.ORG (not .COM)  is your go-to blogging platform. They have plugins like "SEO by YOAST" that you can install to help optimize not only your pages, but every single individual blog post! And it's set up by red, yellow, or green to show you how well search engines will find your content. However, note that YOAST is just a check-list tool to make sure your keyword is properly installed throughout your website.

The main component of SEO is making sure you have the CORRECT key word optimized. And for that my friends, the world is not free.

If you're using Google Adwords to search for Key words - that's a rookie mistake. Read this article by Dan the Man to see why you're doing it wrong. Then realize you have to spend money to make money - and you'll have to invest in a SEO tool link like BrainstormTools.com (what I use and recommend!) Market Samuari or WordTracker.


There are no more excuses! Companies and software have made SEO user-friendly, and without it - you don't exist. 

You need at least 50-60 % of your own traffic coming from organic search engine traffic - meaning it's an investment. It will continue to keep sending people to your site day after day long after your website or blog post has gone up!

2. Copyright Stamp

Did you read the previous blog post on stealing copyright images off the Internet? Tisk! Tisk! Well, DON'T let people steal yours either! A simple copyright stamp on your website lets users know that you OWN your stuff - including images. So, if anyone DOES use them, they need to:

1. Ask your permission

2. take them down if you didn't give permission

3. Even pay a royalty if they are using it for profitable use - such as on their OWN website.

Now it may be a lot of work to keep checking to see if ALL your images are being used anywhere else on the web, but if you have a main image or logo or profile photo of yourself, it's not a bad idea to make sure you're not being catfished out there!

How to check for your images being used elsewhere on the web:

1. Save your image on your computer desktop.

2. go to google.com/images and drag the image into the search bar.

3. google will run an image search to see if that exact photo is popping up anywhere else on the web.

Amazing.

3. Privacy Policy

I hardly see people with privacy policies on their websites anymore and this can be dangerous territory if you're not careful. It's just a simple way to protect yourself and let your users know you are not maliciously collecting their information and selling it to marketers for money.

The other really cool thing? There are companies that will make these for you - for FREE! You can join a trial membership with Rocket Lawyer, and have them generate your own privacy policy (along with lots of other really cool business documents you might need).


4. Terms of Use.

Another key component to your website that a lot of other people overlook Terms of Use. The terms of use just defines in detail the purpose of your site, and how you and your visitors interact, and what you may or may not do with that information. Such as - you can dictate how a community board is used and monitored on your site, as well as comments. Or you can discuss third party vendors, and how you may not be responsible for visitors once they leave your site via a link.

You may think it is redundant and boring, however, it is always better to take a few minutes and set it up so you can protect yourself and your content! You'll thank me in the future.

STOP! Know Your Online Photo Copyright Laws Before you Push Publish!

Recently a client of ours got slapped with a very hefty fine for using a copyright image on their website.

We preach until our face is blue NOT to use just any image you come across on the Internet – but sometimes it’s just easy, tempting, and fast.

But, when you get that fine for over $1,000 in the mail – you might change your mind.

So here are a few dos and don’ts we’ve learned (the hard way) along the road of social media.

DON’T:

-          - Use Google Images. Just don’t do it. All images that pop up in the search are from OTHER websites – meaning there is a 99% chance they are copyrighted.

-       - Don’t use a photo unless is ABSOLUTELY says it is NOT copyrighted. If you don’t know, don’t      risk it.

-      - Don’t rely on other shared images on social media. Just because one company shared an image doesn’t mean THEY acquired it legally. Make sure to follow to the original source before published and shoot them an email to ask permission. 90% of the time, people wont mind – and you’ll be glad you asked instead of got caught with the other 10%.

-       

DO:

-      -  Use free sites like stock.xchng – that has lots of images that mostly let you use the images if you attribute (link from your site, and/or say their name) them. The only bad thing about free sites is that there is more quantity vs. quality. But, again, it’s free and safe.

     Another is freedigitalphotos.net - you can see how they ask you to add attributions here:

     example: 

     "Image courtesy of [contributor name] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net".

-      - Do browse cheap sites like istockphoto – you can get images for as low as $1. So even if you’re only publishing 1 blog a week, that’s only $48 a year! TRUST ME – that’s a lot less than getting that hefty fine in the mail.

-      - Do use your OWN images – nothing is better for content that your OWN ORIGINAL POSTS – they are unique, and guess what – NO COPYRIGHT ISSUES! YAY!

-       - Add your own images to free sites – like stock.xchang and freedigitalphotos.net – it’s a great way to get links to your site and free exposure/traffic by allowing others to use your work and attribute you on their own sites as well. 

-   - Do keep a link sheet of all used images. Make a document hosting date, image used, link to where you found it, and where you posted it etc. It may seem like a lot of work, but it’s worth it in the end to have the paper trail.