Gloria Grace Rand

Known as The Insightful Copywriter, Gloria Grace Rand is also an inspirational speaker, author and host of the Live. Love. Engage. podcast. Prior to launching her SEO Copywriting business in 2009, Gloria spent nearly two decades in television, most notably as writer and producer for the award-winning PBS financial news program, “Nightly Business Report.”Gloria turned to writing as a way to communicate, since growing up with an alcoholic father and abusive mother taught her that it was safer to be seen and not heard. But not speaking her truth caused Gloria problems such as overeating, control issues, and an inability to fully trust people. After investing in coaching & personal development programs, and studying spiritual books like “A Course in Miracles,” Gloria healed her emotional wounds. Today, she helps entrepreneurs develop clarity, confidence and connection to the truth of who you are, so you can create a business that has more impact, influence and income!

Top 7 Online Marketing Tools for Small Business

Top Online Marketing ToolsI have been using a few new online marketing tools lately that have really made a big difference in my business, so I thought this would be a good time to share them with you, along with a few other oldies but goodies!

Here are my current favorite online marketing tools, in no particular order:

1. Quozio – OMG! Where has this app been all my business life? Have you ever pinned an image containing a motivational quote to a Pinterest board, or shared one on Facebook? If you’d like to create images like this yourself, Quozio is the tool for you. They provide a bookmarklet, so anytime you see a great quote online, you click the Quozio link on your toolbar, type in the quote and who said it, and then you have your choice of about two dozen backgrounds with different font styles. You can then pin the image to Pinterest, tweet it out on Twitter, or post it on Facebook. You can also email it or save it to your desktop. Easy-peasie!

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Facebook Rolls Out New Features for Insights, Page Management

UntitledFacebook is rolling out some new features for its business pages. I’m not sure when they will be available to everyone, so be on the watch for them.

Monitor Admin Posts & Comments

The first change is geared for pages with multiple administrators. Starting Feb. 20, Facebook will let you keep track of who posted something. The name of the admin who posted to the page will be listed below the name of your page next to “Posted by.” On a Page comment, the name of the person who commented will be listed below the comment next to “Commented by.” These notifications are for internal use only. Your fans won’t see them. Only Page managers will see them.

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19 Ways to Boost Your Facebook News Feed Reach

I recently wrote how Facebook has tweaked its news feed algorithm. As a result, plain status updates don’t get the news feed reach that they once did. I’ve found that reach has been down across the board, no matter what type of post I share – link, photo or status update.

But there is hope. I tried a couple of strategies recently that did increase the reach. One involved sharing the following post on my personal Facebook page:

Post by Gloria Rand – SEO Copywriter.

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Facebook Tweaks News Feed Algorithm… Again!

Facebook news feed algorithmFacebook has tweaked its news feed algorithm… again. This time, the change should benefit Page Admins by increasing engagement with their fans.

The social networking giant has been studying how people interact with status updates. They found that when people see more text status updates on Facebook from their friends, they write more status updates themselves. But that wasn’t the case with text status updates from pages.

As a result, the latest update to News Feed ranking treats text status updates from Pages as a different category to text status updates from friends.

Facebook has realized that posts from Pages behave differently than posts from friends in the news feed. So, the company is working to improve its ranking algorithms to do a better job of differentiating between the two types.

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How Internet Marketing is Like a Marathon

marathon mktg picIf you’re going to engage in internet marketing to promote your company’s products and services, you need commitment, flexibility and patience. Characteristics that also come in handy if you’re training for a marathon. I speak from experience. Last Sunday, I completed the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon.

I didn’t finish in the top ten. Heck, I didn’t even finish in the top 1,000. I was out on that course for over 8 hours (counting the 45 minutes waiting in the corral to start the race!) but I finished. And more importantly, I raised more than $1700 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, got my Mickey Mouse medal, and basked in the pain and glory of joining an elite group of people who have completed multiple marathons. (Yep, I’m a glutton for punishment. This was my 2nd marathon.)

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5 Must-Have WordPress Plugins You Need to Know About

5 must-have wordpress pluginsI recently learned a lesson about spamming that prompted me to share with you my list of must-have WordPress plugins.

When I switched to a WordPress-based website, I installed the Contact Form plugin to make it easy for people to request information about my SEO copywriting and social media marketing/consulting services. Everything was going great, until I started getting spam emails through my Contact Form. After searching the Internet for help, I found that I needed a different plugin. That’s when I installed:

Contact Form 7 – This plugin works like a charm for filtering spam. When a word like “viagra” is included in the subject line, the message won’t go through, as you can see below:

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Marketing with Snapchat in Wake of Security Breach

Marketing with SnapchatBy Gloria Rand

Are you marketing with Snapchat yet? You may think twice about it in light of this week’s security breach. An anonymous hacker on Tuesday published a database on SnapchatDB.info containing millions of usernames and their corresponding phone numbers, and the leaked information quickly ricocheted across the Web. Privacy experts say the breach could have been worse, but it still may give marketers pause.

If you’re not familiar with Snapchat, it’s a service that allows you to send photos and videos to your friends that disappear within one to 10 seconds after they receive it. It’s popular among college students (unlike Facebook, which we “old” folks have taken over). And it has been gaining popularity among some businesses as the latest, greatest social media marketing tool. Since Snapchat images or videos last only a few seconds, it can be a clever marketing tool for companies that want to offer sneak glimpses of new videos or products.

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Are You Making These Mistakes with Your YouTube Videos?

YouTube videos can be a powerful marketing tool for small business owners, as long as you do things correctly. A new client has been uploading videos to his YouTube channel, but he’s not getting the benefits he should be because I noticed that he’s been making several crucial mistakes. Here are just a few missteps you need to avoid if you want to be successful at video marketing:

Video Marketing Missteps

1. Videos aren’t optimized – YouTube is the second largest search engine, after Google. But your videos are going to be tough to find through a search, if they’re not properly optimized. Make sure you include keywords in the video’s title, description and tags, as well as in the video content itself.

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How to Go Big in Your Biz in 2014 – FREE Telesummit

How many times have you said to yourself, “THIS is the year my business will finally take off?”

But time flies, and life gets in the way. Unproductive days can turn into weeks and months of a business that flounders or flatlines.

But THIS YEAR WILL BE DIFFERENT FOR YOU AND YOUR BIZ when you start it off right–by listening to 21 experts share their very best secrets to building a profitable business without sacrificing your sanity and your personal life.

No travel required. Listen and learn from wherever you are by phone or computer.

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Gloria Rand’s 25 Best Marketing Tips

25 Days 400_edited-1During the month of December, I’ve been sharing marketing tips each day on my Facebook page. If you’ve missed them, here’s your chance to read them all in one place:

Tip #1: Facebook & email — plan ahead. Create a content calendar and provide content your customers really care about. Try focusing on some popular U.S. shopping days, such as Cyber Monday (Dec. 2nd), Green Monday (Dec. 9th) and Free Shipping Day (Dec. 18th). For further info, go to http://gloriarand.com/facebook-email-holiday-sales/

Tip #2: Video marketing — make your first impression count. The new YouTube channel layout allows you to feature a trailer that plays only when non-subscribed viewers land on your channel, encouraging them to subscribe. Take advantage of this prime real estate! For further info, go to http://gloriarand.com/youtube-one-channel/

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