August 2013

Win a Professional Blog Post for Your Business

in Internet Marketing / Social Media  by iqmadmin 0 comments

By now you know the value of having a blog for your business, but you may not have the time to write one or any idea of what to write about. That’s where we come in. iQuarius Media is offering an ongoing competition to win a custom, professionally written blog post. We’ll take into consideration your target market, the voice of your brand and the keywords specific to your niche to craft a post perfect for your business.  All that is required of you is an entry via the iQuarius Facebook page!

Here’s a rundown of what is included if you win:

  • Phone intake interview
  • Up to 500 word blog
  • Customized image
  • Google Authorship attribution where available
  • On-page SEO best practices for blog posts

On the 5th of every month, we will select a winner from the previous months entries and notify them by email. Within two weeks of our initial phone interview, the blog post will be delivered to your inbox. If you would like your business to be in the running, enter here.

Facebook Updates News Feed: No Boring Posts Allowed

in Internet Marketing  by iqmadmin 0 comments

headstoneAny update from Facebook is usually met with resistance from users, and the recent announcement that they’re changing the way they sort the News Feed is no different.

The switch from Facebook’s usual algorithm, EdgeRank, to new ranking methods, Story Bumping and Last Actor, has people asking why they can’t just choose what they see from their friends. The reality is that the average user has 1,500 possible stories a day filtered through their News Feed. More than anyone could hope — or want — to read. Facebook is constantly evolving it’s algorithms to make sure that the 20% of posts you do see are the ones you’re most interested in seeing.

Story Bumping changes the way you view the stories on your News Feed. Each story is given a score, which, Mashable reports, are determined “using a number of factors, such as the relationship you have with the user who posted it, the number of comments, the number of shares, and the number of likes that the story has accumulated”. With Story Bumping, stories with a higher score that you may not have seen yet are found near the top of your newsfeed with newer stories. This way the posts that are relevant and of interest to you are not buried underneath more recently posted but less interesting stories.

This is good news for users, as it’s far more likely that you wont miss the updates you care about. Facebook reported there has been a 57-70% increase in stories read since the updates were introduced.

The other development is Last Actor. This feature takes into account the last 50 interactions you had on Facebook and ranks your News Feed accordingly. So if you commented on your friends post in the morning, your friend may receive a higher score and you’ll see more of their posts later in the day. This works for brands, too. If someone engages frequently with a page, it’s more likely that they’ll see that page’s content. This makes your News Feed highly curated towards your own interests.

Anyone worried about not having their posts seen needs only follow one golden rule: don’t be boring. Interesting posts guarantee interaction, and interaction is what gets your posts seen by more people.

Follow iQuarius on Facebook.

Photo credit (without text): Graham Allard

5 Ways a Temporary Website Gets Your Startup Started

in Internet Marketing / Web Development  by iqmadmin 0 comments

Temporary Websites

Say you’ve come up with the perfect idea, but you want to wait until it’s absolutely perfect before you reveal it to the world – should you wait on building a website, too?

Now is actually the perfect time to create a temporary website.

In the beginning stages of your startup, you may want to limit the amount of money you pour into a not yet perfected idea. But you have to begin to think of your website as a constantly iterating piece of marketing collateral that can serve your business goals well.

A temporary website allows you to advance your startup in a number of ways, not least of which is exposing it to potential consumers, without having to commit to building a full site.

Some of the benefits include:

1. Host relevant Business information 

When you’re first trying to market your idea, the best practice is to have a one-stop place to direct people hoping to do a feature on you. A temporary website will allow you to host a press kit, founders bios, logo download, contact info and spec sheets etc.

2. Proof of Concept

If you want to test the demand for, or interest in, a particular marketing message – or even your product concept – a single web page with your offer and an email opt-in can provide you with an informal list of potential customers demonstrating demand for order fulfillment.

You can use this opt-in for people to name their price. Give them a single blank field to tell you what they’d pay for it. It then becomes something akin to a social letter of intent.

3. Build an Email List of Beta Testers & for Product Announcements

Having an email opt-in page on your temporary website allows you to collect the emails of those interested in being part of alpha and beta tests, and of early adopters who want to know when your site will go live.. This way you have a number of invested people on which to test your product, and built in fans for when you’re ready to reveal your improvements.

You want to be in control of the conversation surrounding your product or idea. Start by building anticipation so that when you’re ready to reveal, you already have an audience interested in what you have to say.

4. Gain Social Proof for your Domain

Getting social shares, likes, and +1’s for your website content helps you to gain social proof and SEO authority. The more shares your content gets, the more established value you have the web. Having a temporary website allows you to get a headstart on establishing SEO authority for your permanent website.

5. Holds your demonstratable product for investors to view after your pitch

You want to leave a lasting impression on potential investors. While you can captivate them in a demonstration, they don’t know your product as well as you do. A temporary website allows them to access all the relevant information for your product. You have the option to create a non-public URL that hosts your pitch deck or demonstratable product and share that link with only those you wish to see it.

If you want to capitalize on all these benefits, iQuarius media specializes in creating temporary sites with a quick turnaround time. Contact us today to get your startup started. 

Photo Credit: hulieoh

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