Latest Pinterest Update: Profile Image Change

Pinterest recently changed the way profile images will appear on the site. Previously, profile images

appeared with rounded corners and now the profile images will be circular in shape.

Make sure that your logo isn’t being cut off by this change. Here are a few quick tips to make sure that

all of your logo appears in your profile picture:

1. Upload a square image and keep your logo centered inside the “safe area” shown above.

2. Save your logo as a 200 x 200 JPG or PNG file.

3. Avoid logos or images with artwork that stretches to the corners of the image.

You can read more about this change on the Pinterest blog here: http://goo.gl/qPXmbm. If you need any help keeping your social media platforms update we can help. Find out more about our social media services here: http://goo.gl/LQKNud or email Nick Fitzgerald, President of Online Marketing for more information at nfitzgerald@foremostmedia.com.

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How Canada's Anti-Spam Laws Impact Your Email Marketing Campaigns

This year Canada began implementing Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), which targets spammers. The U.S. first passed the CAN-SPAM law in 2003 that also targeted spammers, however, the CASL is set to impose more severe consequences. These can include multi-million dollar civil penalties and even grants permission to authorities to hold individual officers of a business responsible. How does this affect you and what can you do to protect yourself?

Marketers need to pay attention to their mailing lists and be aware if they have any subscribers in Canada. In the U.S., CAN-SPAM refers only to email lists and the regulations are still pretty lenient. Emails simply must contain the following: a mailing address, either a phone number, email, or web address, and an unsubscribe mechanism.

Canada's CASL however, refers not only to email, but SMS, text messages, and to some phone calls as well.The new legislation requires that email recipients give consent before they receive any commercial email. Even if you are sending the content from the U.S., if it is opened in Canada, you need prior consent.

Opt-in email services, which require customers to sign up and acknowledge registration, are a great way to protect yourself from this. While the CASL will not take full effect until 2017, now is a great time to review your opt-in practices, and consider re-opting in any Canadian subscribers you have.

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SEO Truths You Need To Know

The one thing you can expect from search engines is that they are always changing. What worked well last year, or even last month, may not be the case today. If your company is not taking a proactive approach with online marketing and SEO, you can bet your competition is. The following tips will help you get back in the game.

Integrate Your Online and Offline Efforts

Gone are the days of separated marketing departments. In order to be truly successful online and offline, your SEO, paid search, social media, content marketing, etc, all need to work together in order to create a total brand experience. Your online presence influences your sales, and your sales have an impact on your online reputation. 

You Do Not Own Your Rankings

Ultimately, what Google thinks, goes. Therefore, while you may achieve a high-ranking status, it is not yours to own. It is essential that you continuously work to give Google a reason to respect your business, and be careful not to fall into the rut of only focusing on new traffic. Do not assume that your current rankings will remain forever. Rankings change all the time and losing your search engine rank could put a huge dent in your traffic. Make sure that you are constantly working to maintain and improve your position.

Consult an SEO Expert before Making Site Changes

When making any type of changes to your website, be sure to include an SEO strategy. Even minor changes can quickly kill your traffic. With reduced traffic, you will see decreased sales. Your SEO expert will make sure all necessary redirects are put in place, page URLs are defined, meta descriptions and title tags are appropriate, and duplicate content is avoided. As long as these migrations are properly completed, you will avoid any penalties and decrease in traffic.  

Effective Plans Take Time

One of the biggest things to remember is that SEO is not simply a piece of the pie, rather it is the entire buffet. A good SEO strategy should not only be making one-time changes to your website. Rankings cannot be easily manipulated or “fixed” and an effective strategy requires long-term, continuous efforts.

Everything regarding your brand is connected, and when a change is made online or offline, the effects are felt everywhere. It needs constant attention and ongoing work. New forms of technology are constantly being created, therefore the way people are searching is constantly changing. Make sure that your business is staying ahead of the game.

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Are You Getting The Most Out Of Your Pinterest Account?

Pinterest is quickly becoming more and more popular for businesses. If your business is on Pinterest make sure that you are getting the most out of your efforts. When users look at Pins on Pinterest they can click on the image and be taken to a link. Too many businesses are making the mistake of sending these users to a link with nothing more than that image (ex. goo.gl/aQlPq6).

If you are posting company photos to your Pinterest page, make sure that you are linking them to your website to get the most website traffic out of your social media efforts.  Here’s how:

1.       Log in to your Pinterest account.

2.       Click on your profile name in the upper right-hand corner.

3.       Select “Your Profile & Pins” from the drop down menu.

4.       Select the board that you want to edit a pin for.

5.       Hover over the pin that you want to edit. Click on the pencil that appears in the upper right-hand corner of the pin.

6.       In the text box labeled “Source” type the URL that you would like to have your pin sent to. Make sure that the link is related to the pin and do not try to be deceiving. 

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B2B Tips for Twitter

In order to have a legitimate online presence, you need to have a social media strategy in place. One of the most popular social platforms is Twitter. They are reported to have over 115 million users every month! How can you make sure your business is getting the most out of this monster social network?

For starters, schedule out Tweets, and do not be afraid to share control of the account. Assign a few employees to regularly post on Twitter. This gives your followers various perspectives, as well as guarantees your account to remain fresh and active.

Search for business phrases industry specific to you and join in on conversations. This is a great way to grow your brand and potentially join in on industry events as well. The more recognized your name, the more you are seen as an authority in your field.

Twitter is also a great place to learn about your customers. Look for feedback on both your brand and your distributors, and learn about what motivates customers to seek you out.

While it may seem obvious, make sure to avoid talking negatively about your competitors. The more positive and knowledgeable you are,the more credible your brand becomes.

Use a URL shortener. Not only is this more aesthetically pleasing, but with Twitter's limited character requirements, you are able to add more substance to your Tweets.

Lastly, analyze your Twitter results with a site like followerwonk.com. Here you will be able to find out information such as who are your followers? Where are they located? When are they most likely to read your Tweets?

Using these Twitter Tips will help get your business on the right track for social media success!

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Get Noticed With The New Twitter Layout!

Earlier this week Twitter announced that they are in the process of updating the layout of user profiles. The new profile layout will differ quite drastically from the current design. Soon, profiles will feature a large image across the top of the profile and will have several new functions. One of the most important features being added is the ability to "pin" important tweets to the top of profiles in order to gain more exposure for important topics.

Currently the new profile upgrades are only available to a small group of users, as well as anyone who creates a new profile. Over the next few weeks Twitter will be releasing this update to all users. 

Take a look a few profiles that have already been updated:

Weezer @Weezer https://twitter.com/weezer

First Lady Michelle Obama @flotus https://twitter.com/flotus

Now, more than ever Twitter is providing a greater opportunity for you to brand your business. Large banner images at the top of the new profiles will be a great opportunity to promote your products, relay a message, and show what your company represents. If you need help designing artwork for your new profile that will do exactly that, contact Foremost Media. We will also be available to assist with the upgrade and transition if needed. Contact our social media expert, Tiffany Schultz at tschultz@foremostmedia.com for more information.

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The Heartbleed OpenSSL Exploit- Foremost Servers Not Vulnerable

Today, the world is abuzz with talk about the Heartbleed Bug, "A serious vulnerability in the popular OpenSSL cryptographic software library".  This bug allows malicious users to pull sensitive information from web servers.  

The good news for Foremost Media hosted customers is that we host your sites on Microsoft IIS which is NOT vulnerable to this exploit.  

Microsoft’s IIS web server does not use the OpenSSL library for encrypting traffic so you can rest easy.  If you would like additional verification that your site is not vulnerable to this exploit you can run a test using this tool:  http://filippo.io/Heartbleed/

Please note that the above statement applies to Foremost Media shared hosting clients as well as managed clients with cloud servers or dedicated servers hosting with us.  If we built your site but you host it elsewhere please contact your web host.   For a more in depth technical analysis of this exploit including the specific versions of OpenSSL affected please refer to this URL for additional information:  www.heartbleed.com

But what about sites you have visited that may be vulnerable?

Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about this. The only way to fix this problem is for the vulnerable sites to update OpenSSL and reissue their security certificates.

If possible, try to avoid connecting to vulnerable sites and services until they notify you of a fix. Changing your password won't help until the site has fixed the bug, so wait for confirmation from your favorite sites before you go changing passwords. If and when you do get confirmation, audit and update your passwords as usual. If a site is not vulnerable but doesn't issue a statement, change your passwords just in case they were vulnerable in the past. After all, it can't hurt. 

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Google Isn’t Calling You

Recently I was speaking with a client that was telling me Google had called him.  At first, I wasn’t alarmed because they have been calling a lot of people trying to get them to advertise on their Adwords platform.   Next, he told me they wanted to optimize his website for the search engines with a six-month program.   Then they guaranteed he would be number one in the search engines for his words.  This set off all sorts of red flags to me, because Google does not perform search engine optimization for anyone, and there is not a legitimate SEO in the world that would promise you rankings.

Unethical search engine optimization companies are cold calling people more than ever.  Why?  They can now claim themselves as a “Google Certified Partner”.  Here is how it works.  Google has an automated program that allows you to become a “partner” after very little work.  Once completed you are entitled to certain benefits. One of those benefits is the title of “Google Certified Partner”.  

“Hi, this is Abha and I work with Google as a partner. How are you today?” is what you hear when they call you.  It almost sounds like they actually work for Google, doesn’t it?  Well, they don’t, and the fact that they unethically represent themselves during the initial call often indicates that their SEO practices are equally as misleading.  This is not a good sign, because if your SEO is using “shady” techniques, then you will be penalized and lose your website’s traffic. 

Many search engine optimizers, especially those out of foreign countries, actually still use old pieces of software to do SEO work for them.  The problem is that Google has wizened up to this software and now penalizes people that they think are using it.  One of the most common techniques is “blog spam”.  A while ago, it was possible for people to use a fifty-dollar program to spam blogs in order to get more backlinks to their clients’ websites.  Those backlinks would then give their clients higher rankings and everyone was happy.  Google caught onto this several years ago with an update in their algorithm called “penguin”.  Now, if Google sees that your website has many backlinks from “blog spam”, they will penalize your website or even ban you from Google.  It is likely that if an SEO company is going to be unethical on the phone, they are probably the type of company that still uses the SEO practices that can get you banned.

So, in short, do not even bother continuing the conversation with someone pretending to be from Google.  Google only calls to try to sell Adwords, but most often only to upsell if you already have an account.  If the person is not calling for this reason, you know right away that they are a fraud.   I spend a great deal of time helping clients recover from unethical SEO practices these days because of Fraudsters.  While I would love to work with you, I would prefer to help your business’s web traffic grow instead of trying to recover it after someone else completely killed it.

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Content Staging: Ins, Outs, and Why

Version History Capabilities In DNN

Content Staging is now available for the DotNetNuke CMS. Staging allows Content Editors to modify a site without their changes becoming permanent. In setting a site up this way, Admins of the site will be able to verify and approve any content changes prior to them being published live, allowing time for any necessary corrections.

Getting it Enabled
Contact Foremost Media to see how this recent upgrade can benefit your company, as well as how the implementation process works. We will partner with you to determine the best time to make the transition, as well as make sure all content editors for your site understand the changes.

Using Content Staging
Once Content Staging is enabled across your site, using it is very straightforward. You modify the content of an HTML module just like you used to. The only difference is the addition of a checkbox for Publish near the Update button. The checkbox gives you a little flexibility. In general, you will not want to check this, as it defeats the purpose of Content Staging. However, if you do check the box, you are able to revert back to content changes being published live.

Once you hit Update, the page reloads. It will appear as though your changes are now live. This is only because you are still logged into the site. When you look at the page in another browser where your login is not valid, you will notice your changes are not published.

Approval of changes is simple. An Admin of the site will login and go to the page where the changes are pending. Depending on the version of the CMS you are running, there are different instructions:

- DNN 5: Below the content, there is a green checkmark to Publish Content

- DNN 6: In the "Manage" menu, Publish Content

- DNN 7: Edit the page, hover Edit menu, Publish Content

Contact us at ForemostMedia.com for further information.

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Top 4 Ways Marketing Automation Can Benefit Your Business

Sales and marketing teams run on limited budgets and time. Knowing exactly who to call and what to look for can help save time and money in the long run and help you close more deals.

Marketing automation tools can help generate more qualified leads and cut down on wasted time targeting bad prospects. These tools can track leads' activity, automatically email them in order to help push them through the sales funnel, identify when a lead is ready for a sales call, and send automatic alerts for lead updates. All of these features help nurture your leads automatically so you can save time and money by focusing on more important things.

Here are four of the top benefits to marketing automation:

1. Reduce the need for large teams of people. Manually sending out thousands of emails daily and interacting with all of your leads requires a large marketing team. On the other hand, setting up and monitoring automated emails can be handled by a few employees.
2. Easily segment your prospects. Quickly group your site visitors and leads by location, demographic, industry, job title, and more to help determine who your prime targets are.
3. Ensure your emails are successful. Marketing automation tools provide the ability to easily test which versions of email are most effective. You can quickly test different subject lines, content, or links to see what your leads respond best to. Using what works best can help prevent wasting time on sending emails that don't convert.
4. Track your leads' activities. Track your leads' activity on your site, email open rates, and much more. You can then set up scoring systems to determine when your leads are ready for your sales team.

There are several benefits to setting up marketing automation and these types of tools are excellent for helping small marketing teams succeed. Take a look at all the the benefits our marketing automation program has to offer here and sign up for a risk-free trial.

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Benefits Of Getting Business Reviews On Google +

Online reviews can have a huge impact on whether or not a potential customer calls your business or not. Although good online reviews are good for potential customers to see, they're also important for SEO purposes. Search engines, like Google, crawl the web and look for reviews of your business to try to get an idea of whether or not they should recommend you.

Every business should take advantage of this opportunity and as current or past clients to review their business online. One of the best platforms to get reviews on is Google +. Reviews posted on here have the potential to automatically show up in search results. 

Here are some quick and easy steps to pass along to your customers when asking them to review your business on Google +.

If you already have a Google account (Gmail):

1. Go to https://plus.google.com. Sign in with your current Google email and password.
2. Fill out your name, gender, and birthday and click "Upgrade".
3. Skip the next few steps until you reach a prompt that says "Finish". Click "Finish".
4. Once you are finished go to this link: https://plus.google.com/+ForemostMediaJanesville [insert your business's Google + page here]
5. Click "Write A Review".
6. A window will pop up in which you can type your review. Select "Poor," "Good," "Very Good," or "Excellent" along the top by clicking on the words.
7. Enter your review in the box provided.
8. Click publish.

If you go do not currently have a Google account:

1. Go to https://plus.google.com. 
2. Click on the red box in the upper right corner that says "Create An Account".
3. Fill out the information in the box with your name, gender, etc. Click "Next Step".
4. Follow the steps provided to verify your account.
5. Add a photo and personal information if you wish. Click "Next Step".
6. Click "Continue to Googe+".
7. Go to https://plus.google.com/+ForemostMediaJanesville [insert your business's Google + page here]
8. Click "Write A Review".
9. A window will pop up in which you can type your review. Select "Poor," "Good," "Very Good," or "Excellent" along the top by clicking on the words.
10. Enter your review in the box provided.
11. Click publish.

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The Benefits Of Setting Up A Lead Scoring System

Inbound marketing focuses on drawing leads to you and saving valuable time and resources. Once those leads start coming in, it is important to have a plan of action for categorizing and reaching out to your most qualified leads.

Lead scoring is a method of assigning a potential customer points based on their demographics, actions, or online activities. These points will then help you determine which leads will be best to focus on.

The most efficient method for reaching out to qualified leads is through lead scoring. In short, this is a method of assigning scores to potential customers based on what you think is best.

For example, a client that not only clicks on the "About Us" page to research your company, but goes to and lingers on a specific product page may receive a score of 10. Visiting product pages indicates that that online visitor is considering a purchase. An email sign up may add another 10 points to their score. Based on the total points a visitor receives, you can decide when to pass their information on to your sales team. Here's an example of what a typical lead scoring system might look like:

Action:                                                               Point Adjustment:
Whitepaper Download                                       + 10
Brochure Download                                           + 10
Visit Product Page                                            + 5
Opens email                                                     + 8
Watches Video                                                 + 7
Signs Up For Email                                           + 15
Works in Manufacturing Industry                        + 20
Visits Career Page                                            - 20
Visits Investor Page                                           - 20

Foremost Media offers software tools that will help you gather this information and set up a lead scoring system to help ensure you are only focusing on qualified leads. For more information email info@foremostmedia.com or call 608-758-4841. Visit us online to set up your free 30 day trial today!

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