Every entrepreneur workshop lately wants to show you how to make your own website for free. As web-building professionals, usually “them’s fightin’ words.” But truthfully, a free website-builder may be appropriate as long as the entrepreneur knows what to expect.

Say it isn’t so! You’re talking to a dedicated “googler” over here. I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz lately about Pinterest being the new Google and at first I rolled my eyes and said a sarcastic OKAY, but now that I’ve sat back and thought about it a bit … I’m guilty of searching on Pinterest too. This can be a pretty positive shift for those who are marketing (or should be marketing) on Pinterest. With its power in search growing, this can translate into serious dollars for Pinterest marketers.

Have you been reading an article on a website and after a rather clever, profound, or newsworthy sentence, you see a link to "Tweet this?" If so, you may have run into a clicktotweet link. Would you like to do this yourself? We walk through the steps for you.

We've all seen them -cringeworthy posts on social media that we wish we could take back for the other person.  I've had severe secondhand embarrassment for someone who posted a questionable status or photo on social media.  Selfie on a toilet anyone?  A completely insensitive joke with a hashtag #toosoon?  Now let's translate that to brands on social media.  Brands are not immune to social media faux pas.  There are a few safe bets when it comes to social media don'ts.

Do you have a social media presence? Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.? Do you also have a blog, newsletter, or email campaign of some sort? These should all tie in to each other! When you are promoting you, you need to be thorough. Make yourself overly available to your customers and clients. Do you want to lose business because someone couldn’t figure out how to connect with you on Facebook or how to get discounts that you might only give out with a newsletter subscription? I don’t think so. It’s incredibly important that you are accessible to your clients and customers and that you make being able to connect with you a no brainer to accomplish.

Most business owners and organization managers just want a nice-looking, hard-working website and they don’t really care how that happens. We use DNN to build our sites and here’s why it’s the perfect choice for our clients:

The first step in having a successful social media marketing campaign is having great content to share with the masses. But, what comes next? Distributing your content! I’ve been using and doing research on some sponsored options and most recently have been looking into LinkedIn’s Sponsored Updates. LinkedIn Sponsored Updates are a paid media option for sharing your messages with the right people. Is it something worth looking into? In my opinion, if you’re considering a business to business paid campaign option, I think it is. 

Let me start by saying –not every business needs to be on Instagram. I think we have a tendency nowadays, with all of these different social networks, to try to be everywhere, everyone, and everything. Instagram is slightly different than your average social media platform and, when used for marketing, it’s really used to show your business’ creativeness, humor, passion, etc. If you’re considering an Instagram account as a marketing tool for your business, ask yourself if your target audience is active on Instagram and, if so, have any of your competitors been successful with it? If so, then you should definitely jump in. There are a few basics that you should be sure to check on your list. Like any social platform used for marketing –you’ll have to take a step back and work out a plan, understand there is going to be some sort of testing and tracking phase, and expect a few kinks as you’re learning your way.