Time To Analyze Social Media Traffic To Your Site Using Goggle Analytics

Are you planning to track traffic that the social media sends to the website? With the help of Google Analytics, you are about to receive some of the valuable insights on the visitors that might find you on multiple social media platforms. This guide is all about showing you ways to conduct social media based traffic analysis. For that, you might have to get along with the Google Analytics for a change. 

The more you research, the better you are likely to understand the value of social media and why you need to use it for the sake of growing your human traffic. Whether you are using Instagram and looking for the real Instagram likes or just tweeting some post on Twitter; there are so many interesting ways you can use social media in your favor. At the end of it all, it is all about inviting more and more potential clients and customers towards your business through the online source.

Why you bother analyze the social media traffic on the first place:

Well, you have heard a lot about analyzing the social media traffic and the first question that pops up in your mind why you need to work on that. Well, Google Analytics is known to offer you with the detailed report that you care to get on the social media based traffic now. There are some major benefits involved with the idea of conducting that much awaited social media based traffic analysis. You better get those points straight to understand the importance of social media analyzing right from the core till the last.

• You have the right to just identify and mark down those social media sites, which will be sending most visitors that you care to have to the site belonging to your name. You will further get in line with the social media channels, which might need a tad bit more of your attention. 

• Through the help of Google Analytics methods, you get the chance to just figure out how engaging the social media visitors are likely to be. It can be well analyzed by measuring the time they are willing to spend on your website. This data can also help you in just figuring out if you are actually targeting the proper audience or if you are just offering the right content as being promised on the social media channels now.

• Another interesting point associated with analyzing the social media sites is that you get the opportunity to just compare the ratio of the new visitors versus the engaging or the returning visitors. An example might be of great help in this regard. In case, the visitors are not caring much to return to your website more often, then it is a signal that you have to change the social media strategy to something else, which can boost more engagement.

• Moreover, if you are not receiving the right kind of social media traffic you want, it means someone else in the competitive market is doing it better than you. At this point, you have to work as a customer to visit the competitive site to see what they are doing right and differently from you. For that, though research is the only way out. Once you have done that, you can try infusing the same method to your section to gain more social media based traffic.

Ways you can view the social media based traffic in Google analytics:

There are some simple steps that you might have to follow for viewing the social media based report of the brand site you own in the Google Analytics. For the first timer it is tough to address this notion, but it will work out pretty well for sure.

At first, it is mandatory for you to log in to the Google Analytics and then get to select the proper website which you are likely to choose for viewing the social media based report. 

In the available left task bar, you have to navigate through the option namely “Acquisition.” After that, it is followed by All Traffic and then finally to Channels. Here, you get the opportunity to go through and check out the details Channels report. For the next step, you need to click right on the Social column for the next stop.

Upon clicking on the “Social” button, you are likely to come across a complete list of the social media based traffic report of the site you own. It is more like getting a clear result of the hard work you have put into to make the site work and last long.

Mandatory for you to interpret social media based traffic data:

Just by default, the Google Analytic reports will care to display the raw data of the current social media based traffic right in a table based view form. Just to help you interpret the data with simple steps and ease, you can always change the view of the said report in this regard. Other than the tabular view, the Google Analytics help in supporting some of the major views as well.

• It helps in displaying a pie chat for showing the contributions made to the total for selected metric now.

• Performance is another note over here. With the help of the horizontal bar chart, it helps in displaying the relative performance of the present metric as selected.

• Next stop is the comparison. With the help of a bar chart, it helps in showcasing the performance of selected metric to the average site.

• Another notion over here is the term cloud. It helps in displaying visual representations of the said keywords of the present site. This view is noted to be the perfect option for interpreting the data of the keyword of site.

All these points are mandatory for you to get through whenever you are willing to analyze the social media traffic with the help of Google Analytics. The results will gladly work in your favor.

Author bio:

Karen Anthony is a social media marketing expert who has worked with several startups and small businesses and launch campaigns to boost their online presence and visibility.

How To Create Business Videos For Instagram?

Videos are a staple choice for marketers to promote their products and services on Instagram. Videos occupy the top spot among content shared on Instagram because of its easy way of marketing with a high appeal that gives an extensive scope of showcasing products. However, simply uploading a video will not help your cause. To take advantage of the platform, you must create captivating Instagram videos that run for 3 to 60 seconds that you can directly upload from your mobile phone. It provides complete flexibility in the manner you use video content for marketing to enhance your strategy of using Instagram for promoting your business.

It is not easy to create captivating videos, and you must learn how to do the right planning, shooting and lighting your videos for a superior end-product that generate more views and engagement. Instagram views or video views provide a count of the number of viewers who have seen the video for at least 3 seconds and the number displayed at the bottom of the post is a sign of its popularity. By tapping on the video count, you can see who have liked your videos and the number of likes it received. Start your journey in creating high quality and professional videos for posting on Instagram by setting the goals first.

Set your goals

Planning is very important because it can be a daunting task to tell a story within the short span of 60 seconds or less. Think about what you want to achieve by sharing the video. Looking for new followers and inducting them within your fold can be one of the goals while building personal relationships with existing followers could be another. Similarly, driving more traffic to the website could be the third goal. Be very specific because it influences the tone and tenor of the video that helps to realize your goal.

It is all about storytelling

People love stories, and you must present your message in the videos through stories only that generate interest and create instant engagement. Although the pattern of presentation would be similar to the way you tell a story, it is not necessary that you create a storyboard. Plan the video in such a way that you can make optimal use of every second. Having a beginning, middle and end for the narrative is the best way to manage time as you would know how long each part would run. Since Instagram videos start playing as soon as users scroll on it, the opening scene of the video must be strikingly eye-catching that creates the most favorable impression and make the audience curious to watch the entire video. As the opening scene draws the audience, they should be eager to go through the middle and see the end. Insert some call to action at the end of the video that prompt viewers to engage with the content or brand. Using on-screen captions improve communications and understanding because some viewers might like to enjoy it without sound.

Video lighting

Following some basic guidelines about lighting will make your video look good, and you can do without a professional lighting kit to make your subjects look great. The guidelines are mostly applicable for portrait style videos also known as talking head videos in which the subject speaks while sitting at one place with the camera focusing on him or her. Avoid shooting under overhead lights as it creates unimpressive visual effects and looks for some other light source by making the subject move around until you find the most appropriate one. If needed, you must create better lighting conditions by looking at more creative options. Use of paper reflectors can soften the light effect and to block out unwanted light you can use black plastic. Create optimal lighting conditions that are soothing to the eyes and make the visuals more appealing.

Video shooting

The Instagram app has a camera function, but because it has some limitations, it is advisable to avoid using it for creating videos. Instead, you can use a DSLR camera or even the camera on your mobile phone that allows complete flexibility in shooting without limits. When shooting videos for Instagram, you must adhere to some guidelines that make the shoot most compatible for use on the platform especially if you are shooting with a mobile phone camera. Subject-centric shot – Every smartphone camera has the feature of focusing by tapping on the specific part of the screen where you want to focus. If you're going to focus on the face of the subject, you must tap of the face on the screen and to keep the face out of focus you can tap on any other area beyond the face on which you want to focus. Avoid camera shake – Every shot must be steady, and there is no room for any shaky shot during video shoots. Allowing your elbows to rest on some flat surface or resting it on your knees when you are crouching should help to keep your hands steady. Using a tripod with a DSLR camera ensures steady shoot. Flexible video orientation – You can shoot the video in a landscape or portrait mode as per your needs because Instagram no more tries to fit videos in a square box by cropping it. Regardless of the orientation of the video, it will nicely accommodate on the Instagram platform. Shot selection – Since you have a maximum of 60 seconds to tell the story you must be careful in selecting the shots that nicely relate to one another in sequence and takes the story forward. To shoot fun and authentic videos, plan your shots around company events and outings that highlight the company culture. Showcasing products is often the subject of videos, and you must plan the shots in such a way that it captures the features in every detail and establishes its usefulness and superiority over other similar products. From sneak previews for a new product launch to behind the scenes content and tutorials, video shoots can capture anything that you want to include in your marketing plan. Author Bio: Karen is a Business Tech Analyst. She is very responsible towards her job. She loves to share her knowledge and experience with her friends and colleagues

Tech Tips For Entrepreneurs

As a business owner, it can sometimes be hard to know the best way to utilize technology in your operation. Technology is always changing which means that it can be hard to keep up to date with the latest trends and often means that the tech that you are relying on could be improved. It will depend on your particular industry, but there are a few tech tips which should help your company to find success and improve your ways of working. Implement these into your operation, and you should soon start to notice the positive effects that technology can have on business.

Use Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has completely changed the way in which businesses operate. When you use cloud computing, it allows your team to share, edit and collaborate on documents no matter where they are, which means that staff are able to work remotely. In addition to this, it also provides you with a secure space for backing up your data.

Invest In Cybersecurity

Leading on from this, every modern day business needs to carefully consider cybersecurity as this is a huge threat to businesses in all industries. It is vital that you have high-quality antivirus software in place and that you have worked closely with an IT specialist to develop a cybersecurity policy for your company.

Embrace Automation

There are many simple business tasks which can now easily be automated with software and technology. Many businesses are hesitant to embrace automation, but it can be incredibly useful and free up time for your staff to focus on other more important areas of the business while reducing errors.

Study Online

As a business owner, you should always be looking for ways to develop your skills. This could include earning a qualification online, such as an MBA in business intelligence - click here to find out more. This will give you the skills and knowledge that are required to excel in the business world. Additionally, due to the fact that you can study online, it means that you have greater flexibility and will be able to balance earning a qualification with running a business.

Immerse Yourself In Tech

As mentioned, technology is constantly changing which means that it can be hard to keep up with the latest news and trends. It is important to stay up to date as this will help you to embrace the right technology for your business and stay ahead of the curve. There are a few ways that you can immerse yourself in this world, including reading blogs, joining online communities, subscribing to magazines/newsletters and following relevant people and organizations on social media.

These tech tips should help any entrepreneur to embrace technology and improve their business operation. Technology has evolved at a rapid rate in recent times and can now be used in many different ways and in all industries. It can also be confusing and hard to stay current, but the above advice can make an immediate positive impact on the business and help you to stay current.

Can an MBA Degree Help Your IT Career?

People generally do not associate an MBA degree with information technology, but within the sector, it is actually quite common to see IT leaders also possessing a business management degree. This leads us to the question: can an MBA degree really help the career of an IT professional in any way? Or is it fruitless labor that has no relevance to the software professional?

The Answer is Yes, Under Most Circumstances

The answer actually depends on your level of experience and the nature of your job more than anything else. The Master’s in Business Administration degree can have many specializations and some of them do introduce business professionals to IT technology as well. However, from the perspective of an IT specialist, such introductory knowledge is irrelevant, and they will not help them to clear technical roadblocks on their career paths.

If you are stuck in your career because of your limitations in knowledge regarding the actual, core-level work, you need to think of a more technical degree, rather than an MBA. Everything we are about to discuss next only applies when you have sufficient knowledge, education, and experience in the field of IT that you are currently working in.

That being said, IT professionals can and often do benefit from completing their MBA degrees, otherwise, the aforementioned IT leaders wouldn’t really be wasting their time on an unnecessary program. Read on as we discuss why and how a business management course can help advance the career of a senior IT professional.

You Will Become Capable of Taking Up Leadership Positions

Let’s first get into the point we have already briefly mentioned, and you can probably guess on your own. The CEOs, CIOs and Head Managers in any company usually complete their MBA before taking up a high-level leadership position. They do so because it imparts onto them what they need to know about managing the business aspect of the organization.

Without a background in management and leadership, even the most experienced IT professional will find it exceptionally hard to deal with the responsibilities that naturally comes with a management position. Just because they are established in their fields, it doesn’t automatically mean they know how to lead a business organization!

If you have a few years of experience as an IT professional already and you are looking forward to taking up an important leadership position sometime in the near future, going through an online accredited MBA program is highly advised. Kettering University offers a wholerange of online accredited MBA programs and IT-focused business degrees that will enable you to open new doors leading to promotions and higher positions up the corporate ladder.

Taking an MBA at Face Value

If we were to take an MBA at face value alone, without even delving into what is actually taught during the course, it has great significance to any professional, including IT experts. The very presence of that accredited MBA degree on your resume means that you will have a higher perceived value as an employee.

After completing the management course, you will most likely be paid better as well, but even if you don’t get a raise in your current company, rest assured that when you make a switch, your new package will be higher than it would have been had you not completed your MBA. It might seem superficial, but it’s not, as we will discuss in the next point.

Business and IT Alignment

The Android and iOS platforms are extremelyprofitable fields for software developers today since smartphones have both increased the demand for software developers in general, as well as raised their professional value in the market. However, in order for a mobile software development company to be successful, they need to have a keen understanding of the business model around which the entire App Store and Play Store ecosystem has developed.

Everything from the concept behind the application to the development of the core mechanics and the monetization elements must be aligned with the business model behind the product or the service. As should be easy to imagine, it would help immensely if such projects were headed by senior IT professionals who knew as much about coding as they did about business, enabling them to align technology and business seamlessly.

When the ability to understand both the complexities of software development and business is present in that one individual, that individual becomes an asset, and later on a leader in the industry. This is just one example, of course, but the general ability to understand both business and IT makes aligning the two so much easier, which in turn, increases an IT professional’s value and salary by manifolds. If you thought that the MBA degree was just for show, now you know why companies actually pay more when you have it.

It Will Teach You How to Start Your Own Business

After everything we just explained regarding the value of an employee who has both business and IT knowledge, the next question to ask is, why not use all that expertise to start your own business? After all, if you already have the technical knowledge and the business experience, what is stopping you from doing so?

It’s perhaps better to gather more business experience first, rather than jumping straight into launching your own startup right after completing the business management course. Experience is extremely important, and while you may know a lot about the work, getting a few years of management experience under your belt is probably an excellent idea before going out on your own. It will also allow you to mature the concept or idea for your future business.

If you think you are ready though, you most certainly can venture into entrepreneurship with a tech startup of your own. As a matter of fact, you would not be the first one to do so either because SiliconValley has quite a history of success when it comes to tech startups.

Clean malware from wordpress website in 2019

These days a lot of WordPress websites are getting infected by malware, adware. What they basically do is that open they redirect the WordPress site to some random third party website which is full of ads or sometimes they spread a virus or other such malicious files to the visitors. This mostly happens because most of the times the creator of WordPress based websites are very beginner and they don't know much about security.

Last month a person reached out to me saying that his WordPress website is infected and asked me to help him out. When I checked the website I got to know that an attacker added few lines of codes on his website which redirects the visitors to some other website. You might be thinking what will the attacker gain by doing this.

Well, the attacker redirects the visitor to his malicious website which is full of ads and think if he redirects about 10,000 visitors per day, he will earn a good amount of money. So when this person gave me access to his website I first searched how the site got infected.

Here is how his website got infected :

He used a very week and known username and password so there is an attacker who runs scripts which automatically scans for WordPress based websites and try random password and if they get the access they automatically insert the code. Same this was happening in this case too. So I quickly removed the malicious codes and changed the password and things got alright.

If sometimes your WordPress website too gets infected by malware, here is how you can clean your website :

Scan your Website

This is a very important step. here you need to first scan your website to see if there is any backdoor, vulnerability that exists in your website. Scan your website to see if it redirects to some other website. Also, check if you are using the latest version of WordPress.

Backup your sites, files, and database

Always try to make a full site backup for at least once a month so that even if it becomes impossible to fix your website you can restore it back using the backup. You can backup your website files with FTP, cloud, etc. There are a lot of free plugins to do so.

Check the backup files

Things might get really tricky if your backup file itself contains the malware so always check if your backup is free from malware

Format WordPress files and folders

Login to your cPanel and go to the location where you have WordPress installed and delete all the WordPress files in your installation location. Mostly the WordPress files will be in the public_html folder.

Reinstall Wordpress

Get one-click Wordpress install option from your provider. Get an overview of installing WordPress in server. Fill the necessary information like admin name, password and click the " Install Wordpress" button

Change your WordPress login password

While installing you will be given an option to give a password. For better security, it is advisable to give a new password that you have not used so far on your website.

Reinstall themes and plugins

Download a fresh copy of the theme from the backup or you can use the default theme of WordPress. Once the theme is installed, you can install all the needed plugin once again.

Restore your WordPress files and database

Backups created by popular backup plugins like BackupBuddy and UpdraftPlus can be restored by using the same plugin. USe the plugin to restore the files and database

Scan Again

After all the above steps are done you will have the site up and running once again. Just to check if everything is alright, do a full site checkup to make sure that the site is completely free from malware The best tools to check for malware in WordPress are: Unmask Parasites, Sucuri Site Check, Norton Safe Web, etc.

Clear Google Warnings

After the above steps are done, your website will completely be free from malware. Now submit the blacklist removal request to Google to review your site. Navigate to the crawl tab in search console, Click the fetch as Google section and submit the website to index button below.

After following these steps your website should be completely free from malware in most of the cases. If it's not then contact your  service provider or get help from some professionals.

4 Software Developments that can Simplify Design

For all types of designer, life has been made much easier by the introduction of technology and useful applications and software that can help to simplify tasks. From PCB to graphic design, all design industries are complemented by the increases in technology, helping designers to digitize their designs and bring them to life quickly. For the most important software developments in terms of design, this article will track some of the most recent and useful that are currently in use.

PCB Design Software

It is not only artists that benefit from online software, and, for engineers and designers of PCB and circuit boards, there is ample software to help them to design simple layouts whenever they need them. PCB design software such as CircuitStudio powered by Altium allows potential designers to base their designs off simple layouts that allow them to create circuit boards without an intricate knowledge of PCB design. This allows designers to create the exact design that they are looking for much quicker than attempting this manually.

Website Design Software

Website design software is all the rage at the moment, and it has become so easy that anyone can now create their own websites. This is excellent news for individuals looking to start up their own blog or retail shop as websites can be easily created in a matter of second through website designers such as WordPress. On designers such as Wordpress, you can choose from a simple selection of layouts. Then you will have the option to quickly personalize these at will to ensure that your website stands out, with the designers giving you all the tools that you need to do so.

Coding Software

If you want to create more complex websites without an understanding or basic knowledge of coding, coding software allows you to create complex HTML coding from the ease of your laptop and the use of online software. These can allow you to create websites and applications quickly without too much knowledge of the coding process, allowing you to simply fill in pre-determined formats based on a set of syntax rules. Then, you can create complex technological applications and websites and edit your website’s coding without extensive knowledge, and yet ensure that this stays looking as professional as possible.

Graphic Design Software

Graphic design software is also of utmost importance to designers as it allows them to create products and images from scratch, turning their designs into digital formats that they can then edit and work on in an online format. Applications such as Photoshop and Indesign allow you to create everything from leaflets to newspapers in a professional design and format, regardless of your prior expertise.