Even though a number of people are expressing displeasure with Facebook Ads, one can still bring more profitability to their business using this social media tool.

Just a few adjustments should help you with this too. That said, here are 3 ways by which you can use Facebook to increase leads:

#1: Avoid hard selling

When you scroll down the News Feed, you will find that among all the posts, an ad sticks out like a sore thumb. Most Facebook users are more likely to click a subtle ad that offers a link to a useful article as opposed to the landing page of your site

One way to create your ads is by adding friendly and humorous posts with a clear call-to-action at the bottom of the post.

#2: Use clear CTAs

One of the best ways by which you can grow your email list is by displaying an interesting header that offers value, a colorful image and a strong call-to-action that is clear to carry out. In a number of cases, one way to create a clear call to action is to ask them to sign up for your newsletter. One this that you must keep in mind is that subscribers aren’t enthusiastic about giving away their email address so it is a good idea to give them discounts, giveaways or even access to important information for them to succeed.

#3: Design your cover photo carefully

According to eye tracking, a study which analyzes what people look for most on a web page, it has been found that the top 1/3rd of the page is viewed by most if not all people. Not surprisingly, this finding also applies to Facebook pages too.

In other words, you have to design your cover page in such a way that it finds leads which could include a logo as well as a picture of what they’re offering.

It’s probably a good idea if you’re curious about the social media trends for 2014.

Keeping this in mind, the 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report which interviewed about 2800 marketers and more reveals some of the latests trends in the process.

#1: The Written Word is Still the Most Important

While there might be a number of changes, social media marketers have said that original written content remains most important. This is followed by visual content and even original videos too.

One indication of this is the recent move by LinkedIn to open their publishing platform for people to prove themselves as thought leaders. It’s clear that this social media network recognizes the power of the written word.

#2: Biggest Challenge is Determining Social Media Tactics

A number of social marketers (almost 91%) as the question as to which social tactics work best. While that might be a valid question, the real question is how we can be interesting enough so that people are talking about us.

In other words, if you’re boring, why would people be interested in engaging with your brand.

Think about that before you proceed…

#3: Understanding Social ROI remains a challenge

Measuring social ROI continues to be an area where only 37% of marketers can measure their social activities while another 35% aren’t sure but 28% cannot come up with any measurements at all.

However, this doesn’t mean that using this marketing channel is not a good idea but requires one to set things up in a such a way that the data can be defined, at your disposal and clearly measurable.

As a man, we normally aren’t much for the details especially when it comes to occasions like weddings. It’s quite settled that these things are better handled by our better halves, especially since it deals with things like color coordination, flower arrangements, and overall decorations in your wedding and your reception as well. As guys, we would rather stay out of it and just opt to pay for it so there would be no problems in planning the wedding. However, if you have our two cents worth that you feel would be able to help you and your bride to be in planning your wedding that would be perfect for both of you, then you should help out in planning the wedding. There’s a pretty big chance that you guys are going to get a wedding coordinator, so that takes a load off with planning already. Since they would be doing all the legwork and laying out all the options and themes for you, all you need to do is to help decide on which one is best. Things that you need to consider are the budget, and of course, whether or not it would make you and your bride to be feel like it would be the most special and important day in your life. Don’t be shy to point out suggestions as well as to ask questions if you find something better. What’s important here is that you just have to communicate with your fiancé and your wedding coordinator.

There are a number of ways by which community managers can ensure more productivity with the social media options that they have.

One such option includes browser extensions, and which for all practical purposes, will turn your browser into social media machine that is, as mentioned earlier, as productive as possible.

That said, here are 3 social media browser extensions that can improve your social media marketing:

#1: Use Instagram directly from your browser

It’s annoying to use both web-based version as well as the Instagram app since you have to not only constantly sign in but navigate with a lot of difficulty. For this reason, it is a good idea to install the third-party extension for Chrome. You can easily avoid the prior two options mentioned.

#2: Schedule Content for publishing

One of the best tools to use for publishing is Buffer where you can set pre-determined times for the same. All you have to do is sign up for a Buffer account, add the content you want to share in your Buffer queue and then pick when you want to publish it. As for picking the networks, click the Buffer logo after you’ve installed it, and then select the apps and networks to post it to.

#3: Analyze Twitter profiles

If you want to know more about Twitter account as well as its performance, Riffle is probably one of the most effective tools to use and which turns your browser into a Twitter Analytics platform. A number of stats can be obtained when using this tool such as real-time engagement, activity stats, top URLs, mentions, interests as well as hashtags shared as well. In fact, Riffle has about 15 integrations in all – dedicated to the Twitter platform.

It goes without saying that getting more readers to your blog has important benefits. If you really want to generate more leads, and in turn, more profits, ensuring that your blog is seen by as many people as possible is imperative.

Doing this isn’t difficult, and so, here are 3 ways by which you can attract more people to your blog:

#1: Optimize your content using SEO

A large part of getting new visitors to your website involves making sure they can find you easily. This happens when you optimize for SEO as they look for pertinent information on a search engine of their choice.

For example, if we take the site, Social Media Examiner, if the site comes up (and it does!) when one searches using the keyword ‘social media blogs’.

#2: Post content to social media

Another way that works just as well when it comes to getting more people to read your blog is to post it on all available social networks. You can expect a few shares of your content with a number of people that belong to their own personal networks. Without a doubt, blogs can go viral if the content is good, and which is why it is a good way to get more readers.

#3: Make it easy to share your content

If you make your content easy to share, the odds are that people will definitely do it for you. A couple of ways to do this is by sending pre-written emails to readers or even by means of social sharing buttons.

It isn’t easy for brands to navigate Reddit as they do Pinterest, Facebook or even Twitter. If there’s one thing you cannot do, it is add content blindly on the site and not expect to be banned.

For this to work, one must understand Subreddits, which are niche communities that people are passionate about.

That said, here are 3 steps to generate leads on Reddit:

#1: Find Pertinent Subreddits to join

The first thing that you will have to do is to open a pertinent Reddit account where it will be important to use your brand name as your username too. Now look for Subreddits which pertain to your brand, product or even service.

Click on each Subreddit to understand which one will suit your product’s content best. Once you find a Subreddit, sort its posts by Top and All Time so you can read through its most active posts.

#2: Create a Multireddit

Now there will be a number of Sebreddits that you might have to monitor and for this, make sure you create a multireddit. A multireddit is a custom list of subreddits or subjects that you want access to. For this, click on the sidebar and hit ‘click’. After this, enter a name for your multireddit and hit the ‘Create’ button again. Set the privacy level of your multireddit and add the subreddits in question.

#3: Identify engagement opportunities

Now all you have to do is use your multireddit to join a number of conversation and that pertain to a particular keyword that can be used to carry out a search. If you do this for even 5-10 minutes everyday, you’ll find a number of opportunities for marketing and discussion. However, make sure you use Reddit as a Redditer and not as marketers.

One of the best ways to offer value to your clients, followers and readers is to curate content by sharing relevant articles from a number of sources.

This is for the reason that modern marketing involves helping your client make informed decisions instead of blindly promoting what you offer.

So, finding content that your clients will benefit from, is the best way to not only be recognized as an expert in your field but also offer answers and solutions that will get them to buy your product or service.

That said, here are 3 ways to speed up your content curation process:

#1: Using the Feedly to search articles

Feedly is one of the best tools to find articles that belong to your niche. The best part about Feedly is the fact that it can be used for the aforementioned task but also organize them into categories. All you need to do is set up an account using your Gmail address. Based on your search, the site will return a number of blogs or websites that will give you the articles you’re looking for.

#2: Use the IFTTT method to collect articles

If you want to save a number of hours, then the If This Then That (IFTTT) tool will help you do so. Since this process helps you automate a number of tasks, all you have to do is create a recipe after opening an IFTTT account. All the articles that you want will be populated in a Google spreadsheet.

#3: Choose and curate content

Once you find the articles from the spreadsheet, you can go through them after which you can decide which ones are suitable for sharing. What you can do is write a status update as to when you will post these articles on Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. As for Facebook, you can use the Scheduling tool so as to post them regularly.