BREAKING NEWS: Blogger Missing

Authorities are at a loss this week, as the hotly anticipated Vital Hike Blog has not surfaced. 

The only clue as to the bloggers whereabouts is the following image. 

Stay tuned for live updates. 

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Who is Dominating Facebook in the UK?

Next Blog:
Negative SEO: Your Website is Under Attack!

Who is Dominating Facebook in the UK?

Everyone has someone on Facebook they look up to.

You might particularly admire Debenhams, or think Boots really nail their posts, but who is actually hitting the big time when it comes to Facebook?

Social Bakers are a global social media platform who analyse social media use professionally. More than a fifth of Fortune 500 companies use their analytics tool to maximise on their social media performance, so let's just say... they know what they’re talking about.

Each month, they produce a social media report which outlines the big guns on Facebook by region.

We’re going to look at the UK today, but the other regions are available to view here.

Social Bakers are great because their reports are very user-friendly. Their main focus is making it all understandable, so you don’t just get bombarded with figures and statistics.

When judging the top performing Facebook brands they look at a number of factors, but we’ll focus in on 3 separate measurements;

1. Top brands by number of local fans
2. Top brands by engagement rate (number of likes, comments & shares)
3. Top brands by response times to customers

You Need a Business Blog

And now you’re thinking to yourself; what is a business blog?

Well, a business blog is a short-form of content about a particular subject related to your business, which is then posted to your business website. Typically, websites have a blogging section set aside for this content, so that your website reaps the benefits of frequent blog updates.

Four Benefits of a Business Blog

We’ll focus in on four main ways a blog can boost your online business, with results you can measure.

1. It helps drive traffic to your website

Social Media Username: How to Look Like a Pro

Choosing a username for your social media accounts may seem pretty straightforward, but there are a lot of things you need to be thinking about. All social media platforms and most websites require a username now, so you get into the bad habit of recycling that old username from 10 years ago. But do you still see yourself as “JamesBond007”?

"I guess it doesn't really suit the business..."

Well, you might, but does it suit your business?

When coming up with a social media username for your business/professional persona, there are a few things to consider. Let’s run through them.

1. Social Media Usernames are a Form of Branding

Ok, so you’re not Coca Cola, Virgin or Heinz, but creating a strong brand image for your business should be top of your list.

Branding your business involves your logo choice, colour palette, font choice & more, and your username should fit in with those branding choices, whether you decide to be young and fresh, or established and reliable. A consistent theme in all you do is what you’re aiming for.

So for example, if you’re a Christmas shop, it is unlikely that a username like @sunshine will be on-brand.

This is especially important if your business name does not fit neatly into username character limits. For example, VitalHike is nine characters long, so this was the obvious choice for all of our social media accounts. 

However, a longer business name would cause issues, because of the character limits on some social media. In this case, you might look for a way to blend the business name with an on-brand word, e.g. FunkyFoto, BoldBlinds, DesignerClothes.

Consistent use of the same name across all social media sites will boost consumer awareness of you as a business and a brand, solidifying your online persona.

2. It must be Memorable!

Making your username easy to remember is one of those things you might overlook when trying to focus on branding. It might be great for your brand to abbreviate your business name down to an acronym, but what if the acronym is an impossible list of letters?

For example, if your business was “Coffee and Sandwich Sellers in UK”, and you shortened your name to @CSSUK for Twitter, just how memorable is that? 

@Coffee would arguably be better, but it’s unlikely it would be available...

So you’ll have to make a lot of judgement calls during this process, but it’s important to weigh all the options.

"Nope, I still can't remember what that username was..." 

3. Length of your Username

So you've done your branding, and hunted for something memorable, but when you go to sign up for your shiny new social media account, your name is too long! This is one of the main obstacles in creating your new username.

So lets take a look at your limitations.

1. Facebook sets a username character limit of 50, but it would be unwise to make a username that long anyway (it wouldn’t be memorable, and is unlikely to be brand-focussed).

2. For your Facebook Business page name, you have a character limit of 70. So you get a bit more leeway with your page name over a username, which means long business names won’t need to be changed.

3. Google+ sets no limit on your business name, so you’re safe there.

4. Your YouTube channel name is currently linked to your Google+ account, so if your username is good for Google+, it’ll work on YouTube too.

5. Twitter sets a strict 15 character limit on your username, which excludes the “@” symbol. Remember that Twitter posts also have a character limit of 140, so if people retweet your posts, a 15 character name will take up a lot of real estate.

As a general rule of thumb, try to keep it short and snappy, whilst still remaining related to your business and brand.

Think Chihuahua: Short and Snappy

"Actually, I'm a delight"

Branding, how memorable it is, and length are the top three things you should keep in mind when setting up your social media accounts. It can be a bigger task than it seems at first, but taking the time to get it right leads to stronger, future-proof results. 

Plus, you'll look like a pro.

Don't forget about the Planning Stage

When Creating a Username

- vitalhike

Previous Blog:

Bad Reviews Hurting your Business? 3 Tips for Responding

Next Blog:
You Need a Business Blog

Bad Reviews Hurting your Business? 3 Tips for Responding

Negative reviews, angry comments and controversial social media posts can very quickly overtake the positive content you have created for your business online. You may spend an hour a week writing up some nice new content for your website, but if countless consumers are leaving negative comments on your Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and independent review websites, then you’re fighting a losing battle.

Those 20 pages on your website might glowingly describe your ethos and products, but negative content from consumers is like a plague; it will rapidly grow out of control if you don’t control it.

There are two options with negative content; ignore it or respond.

Firstly, lets talk about why you can’t afford to ignore it.

Some Google Results Have Pictures: But No Longer!

Have you noticed that some Google search results have a picture alongside them?

Well not for much longer! Google is currently removing this feature, as of June 25^th 2014.

So how were people getting their picture in search results? Was it some sort of hack?

No, it was all perfectly legit! It was a feature of Google Authorship, whereby you can link up any content you write on the web to your Google+ profile. Once linked, when your content popped up in Google search results, it displayed your profile picture, name and the number of Google+ Circles you were in.

After this latest change from Google, Authorship will now add your name to search results, but no picture!