Category Archives: Pinterest

The Most Important Social Media Sites For Small Business In 2013

Pinterest, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Twitter Marketing, Video marketing

Social-Media-Marketing-Top 3 for 2013Any small business can tell you, time is money.  Anything you have to pay for might give you some more time, but it literally takes money out of the college fund in the process. Unlike major international corporations, small business is all about making choices both in terms of time and expenditures.  That situation has led me to create this short social media guide for small business, the sites you should be using starting today.

Youtube, or a video site of your choosing: I’ll preface this by simply saying that the average business doesn’t do video marketing well.  That being said, there is an abundance of opportunity at play here.  Take someone like Gary Varnerchuck who built his own wine store into a 30M+ behemoth (it was originally a small local New Jersey based store) after starting to tape wine reviews that simply weren’t boring like all the others.  He also became a social media star in the process, opening an inordinate number of doors along the way.  If you’re in an industry without a ton of competition in the video niche, why not give it a try?  Some basic video editing software and spending a little cash to have someone create an intro video for you is about all you realistically need.  The results can be immediate and long lasting.  It’s a well known fact that people tend to stay on webpages longer if they see a human face looking back at them, why not take advantage of that by including some video on your site?

Pinterest: Almost all of us have to take pictures in one way or another for our small business.  Be it pictures of wine bottles for my own wine site, or pictures of wineries and vineyards in our blog, I’m sure you have just as many opportunities even if it takes some time to figure out exactly what they are.  The good news about Pinterest is that, users seem comfortable with some level of marketing going on.  Sure, it’s nice to post a variety of pictures on your account, but more importantly no one is going to have an issue when you put up images of each and every one of your products.  If the images and products are good enough, pretty soon you’ll see people sharing them.

Twitter: I saw a car advertisement on television last night that used a hash tag, I think that shows how well Twitter is ingrained into popular culture. While Facebook easily has more users than does Twitter, Twitter makes it much easier to find new business (in my opinion at least).  The reason for that is pretty simple, Facebook is a relationship based site, people you know are the people you interact with.  Advertising can bring in more views and likes for your business, but that isn’t necessarily cost effective for most small business.  Twitter is different in that it is set up by interest.  For my small business, there is always a wine conversation and there are plenty of normal consumers on Twitter saying that they enjoyed a Mondavi Cabernet last night, which is an open invitation for me to ask if they’ve ever tried a different, cheaper and better winery.  I think if you spend some time on Twitter, you’ll see much of the same thing in your industry.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this short article about using social media for small business.  I know for small business, it’s all about ROI, so having a clear sense of focus and goals makes sense!

Our guest blogger, Mark Aselstine, is the owner of Uncorked Ventures, an online wine club based in San Francisco that aims to deliver the highest quality wine in the industry each and every month, directly to his customers front door.  Oh and yes, he wouldn’t mind being the next Gary V.

How To Focus Your Social Media Strategy

Blogging, content marketing, Facebook Marketing, Pinterest, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Twitter Marketing, Viral marketing

How To Focus Your Social Media Strategy

Things are getting all hyped up

With all of the recent buzz around the changing value of links and what this might have to do with social signals, a lot of people are getting lost in the shuffle. Which is more valuable they ask, a link or a social signal (a “like”, a mention, a retweet, a share, etc) and how should they go about obtaining whichever is most valuable?

Video: Focus Your Social Media Marketing

This video focuses on targeting your social media strategy at a local level. Definitely some food for thought!

Adding to the increased activity and discussion is the appearance of dozens of new social websites. Some focus on sharing and bookmarking, others on visual elements (similar to Pinterest and Instagram), and still others on text-based status sharing. Because of this it is difficult to choose which social channels to cast your lot with. How can you know which of them is right for your business? We’ve done a few posts on this topic before, if you have a moment take a look at them to learn more about circumspection and the selection of appropriate social channels for your brand.

Simplify your direction and focus your social strategy

social media strategy

The idea of working smarter, not harder comes into play when figuring out how to simplify and focus your social media strategy. You want to make things easier and more fun for everyone, yourself included! People don’t take to social media sites to be marketed to or preached at, but if you can make things interesting and entertaining enough, once you throw some ease of use in there you’ll be sure to see results in no time!

  • Link to your website – This is one way that you can make finding your website easier for your social audience. Imagine that someone comes to your Facebook page, likes what they see, and decides to “like” your page to receive future updates. After a few posts they decide that they want to see your website and get more information about your products and services…but they can’t find a URL anywhere. It is all too easy to place a link to your website in most social media profiles, and if you’re not sure how to do this, a simple web search will turn up all kinds of tutorials!
  • Seize promotional opportunities – Take advantage of promotional opportunities like Facebook’s option to promote a post. While some people claim that these services are not effective, you will not know how they will go over with your brand and it’s audience until you try. Make sure that you have plenty of options available for your audience to choose from when it comes to engaging with your brand socially!
  • Keep your membership count low – And by this I mean to only sign up for the social channels which will most benefit your brand. Not every brand is well-suited to every social channel; you can choose a few that are most likely to benefit your brand and post to them frequently and see better results than a brand that signs up for everything and never maintains a presence on any one channel.
  • Stick to original content – Whatever you do, don’t try plagiarizing something and then promoting it on social media. Try not to just republish / share things that other people have already shared. Instead use your head and work with a professional content creation team and social media management firm like rankpop.com to create unique, original content that is sure to delight your fans!
  • Don’t ignore visual channels – While they might not seem suited to your brand at first, check out Pinterest and Instagram and similar networks and see how other brands like yours are faring in such an environment. YouTube is also a great way to showcase your brand and generate some social buzz. All you need are a few videos and you’re ready to enter the game.

Our Guest blogger is Kris Dietz: I love creating something amazing then spreading the word about it!  My mission is to develop and mold SEO into an amazing outlet of sharing valuable resources.   I enjoy networking and meeting like minded individuals.

Why You Should Be A Social CEO

Blogging, content marketing, Copywriting, Facebook Marketing, Pinterest, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Twitter Marketing, ,

Three-quarters of executives wants their chief executive officer to become the social face of their brand, a new study from KRC Research and Weber Shandwick has revealed.

That’s because eight in 10 executives believe CEO sociability improves company reputation. 630 executives were interviewed and the vast majority wants their CEOs to use social media channels and engage with customers more frequently.

The benefits of a social CEO

The report actually predicts that the number of CEOs participating in social media will increase by 50 per cent in the next five years as people’s need to put a face to a brand and see who’s behind a company grows.

Some companies may be tempted to offload this responsibility on someone other than the CEO, but it should remembered that with a unique position comes a unique ability to influence how people feel about a company.

A social CEO can:

• Humanise the company

• Boost the company’s reputation

• Improve business results

• Show the company is innovative

• Set a social example for employees

Clearly all these duties can be carried out by someone other than a CEO, but it’s very rare for a company to have an employee who is better placed to lead from the front on these matters.

So, it’s time for CEOs to start taking social media seriously and learn how to use it to their businesses’ benefit.

They need to understand that social media takes time and it’s not just about updating the company’s blog or a social account like Facebook or LinkedIn with annoying promotional messages that customers will probably ignore.

CEOs should use social platforms to engage with conversation with existing and potential customers. They also need to understand that their social media activity should revolve around their audience. It’s all about the needs, wants and desires of the people a firm is trying to reach. It shouldn’t be all about the company.

The CEO Blogger

A blog is a great way to introduce a CEO to customers as it provides a solid platform to which other social activities can be anchor.

However, content needs to be well-written and helpful. Try and stay away from dull posts about what you had for breakfast and instead focus on tips and advice that will help people out.

Engaging in conversation and replying to comments will help gain customers’ trust, especially if they come right from the top.

In fact, the report showed that 32 percent of the executives with a socially active CEO believed comments posted by CEOs on social media channels are more credible, compared to 24 percent of executives who deemed CEO comments quoted by news media to be more credible.

The habits of highly social CEOs

Aside from blogging, Weber Shandwick’s report outlines several habits of highly social CEOs. These are:

1. Using a bigger set of social tools

2. Maintaining a presence on the company website

3. Writing their own content

4. Acting spontaneously but not becoming too informal

5. Engaging a wider variety of external stakeholders

Having a social CEO can bring so many benefits to a business so long as the CEO understands what social media is and doesn’t see it as a tool to push the company’s products and services on their customer’s feeds.

Guest post Alex Gavril – part of the 123-reg blog team. The company is the UK’s largest provider of domain names and offers a range of services including web hosting.

How to Measure Social Media Success

Facebook Marketing, Instagram marketing, Pinterest, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Twitter Marketing

Social Media Measurement

Social media is a rapidly growing platform for marketers. Those who don’t embrace it are facing an increasing need to do so or fear being left behind. It has the opportunities for new, start-up brands or services to get the exposure their business needs, and it can equally serve older established brands by allowing more personal interaction with customers and clients.

However, with so much *noise* on many social media platforms, how do you know if your voice is going unheard? How do you know if you efforts are actually paying off? In essence, how do you measure social media success? It is essential to be able to directly trace any business garnered from social media, otherwise all your efforts might be in vain and essentially become one big time sink.

Below are five effective ways at measuring social media success (or failure).

1. Use Analytics

Analytics is essential for all websites and businesses regardless of social media. By being able to see a breakdown of your website’s traffic and interactions, and determining what percentage of that comes from social media, you will start to get a decent insight into the value of your social media efforts.

2. Tracking IDs

Like Analytics, using tracking IDs for any links you include on your social media marketing will give a very clear sign of success. Sites like bit.ly or goo.gl are the easiest way to shorten links and receive stats on how many clicks each link received.

3. Special Offers

If you use a special offer for your business, such as a coupon, a prize give-away or similar, and only promote that via social media, you will be able to directly trace any sign-ups or visits to those offers.

4. Finding Out Your Bottom Line

At the end of the day, social media efforts are usually for one purpose, increasing sales. If your bottom line sales do not alter much despite starting a new social media campaign (or pausing one temporarily), then chances are, your efforts are not necessary.

5. Significance

How significant a part in your business plan is social media? Some businesses rely almost solely on social media to get traffic, sales, and business, while for others, social media represents only a small aspect of business versus a large amount of time needed. If you can work out how well your business functions with or without social media, you will be able to analyse whether or not it is successful.

I find that newer businesses tend to rely more heavily on social media to get themselves heard, whereas the larger, established businesses have social accounts just as token gestures, almost like they are there to keep up appearances.

Conclusion

Depending on the needs of your business, there are different effective ways at measuring social media success.

If you are purely interested in traffic and generating interest, then tracking IDs and Analytics are going to be a simple, clear way of determining success, while large, already established businesses might have to do more testing and tweaking in order to find out the concluding results. In the end, it comes down to testing and tracking.

Our guest blogger: Naomi Vega is a freelance writer with interest in mobile marketing. She has more than five years experience in mobile and text marketing industry. She is currently working as a freelance writer for Trumpia.

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