Category Archives: Social Media Marketing

Biggest Facebook Blunders by Businesses

content marketing, Facebook Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing

Facebook BlundersOne of the best forms of social media marketing is Facebook marketing. Why? It’s simple there are a huge number of users. This large captured audience is difficult to obtain anywhere else (LinkedIn is next but trails by 900 million!). In addition, Facebook has the most interaction of it’s users and stands head and shoulders above any other social network. Smart marketers have quickly taken advantage of Facebook for marketing their business. But not all the marketers are using Facebook in the correct manner. In this post we discuss the Facebook blunders which most of the marketers are still performing.

Buying Fans of Facebook: one of the biggest Facebook marketing blunders is that most of the marketers buy fans from third parties and applications. Loyal fans are earned not bought and they are earned via advertising, offers and other creative tactics. If you really want to market your business on Facebook successfully and effectively, then try to build loyal fans slowly and gradually.

  • Ignoring User comments: Most of the time marketers get engaged or distrcted in other tasks and they ignore the comments of the customers on Facebook business pages. If you really don’t have the time to see their comments, then you must appoint a Facebook manager to do so. If your fans on Facebook notice that you are ignoring their comments, then they would probably won’t visit your site again and may leave your brand altogether. If you want to keep your business thriving then it is better to engage with your fans and address or solve their issues as soon as possible.
  • Not using images: you must publish the information according to the Facebook culture. Images have been shown to be more effective at grabbing the attention of users on Facebook than words alone. So, upload an appropriate and attention getting image that corresponds with your business or post. Using this approach will help maintain followers by keeping their attention and perhaps encourage sharing of your Facebook page which will reward your business in the future.
  • Posting only promotional content: posting the content which is only promoting your business is not interesting to followers, and quite frankly annoying! Readers are not interested in your ‘salesy’ content and won’t read it and they’ll most likely unlike your page as well . Therefore, post content which is useful to the audience to build trust and credibility in your business.
  • Over posting: It’s recommended that you should not posts more than two posts per day. You should only post mentions about your offers or sales once or twice a week. If you want to keep your users engaged then pitch less often but post more quality stuff.
  • Posting the content not related to your brand: Another blunder about Facebook marketing is posting the content which is not at all related to your brand. It is not likely that your fans like everything about your brand so they will not like each and everything that you post. Therefore, to engage them effectively your posts must be professional and be within your niche.
    Not investment in time: Not investing quality time in Facebook marketing is another blunder. Setting up a Facebook page and leaving it is useless. Setting up a Facebook page is just the first step in many which includes things like advertisement, content strategy, timing, analytics, etc.

Summary:
Avoid these blunders for effective Facebook marketing, if you don’t want to lose your audience or your time.

Kristine  Lise an author who is interested in written on SEO/ Internet marketing related topics. She is currently working with SEO Rank Smart, who offers best SEO Packages to its clients you can see her work on her company site.

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.

Using Webinars To Drum Up Business

Business Tech, Events, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Technology, Webinars, , , ,

Using Webinars To Drum Up BusinessHosting a webinar is a great way for Managed Service Providers (MSP) to generate interest in their business. Webinars are an effective marketing tool for bringing in new clients or selling and promoting additional products and services to clients. Webinars as a sales technique is simple and efficient. It offers free, helpful information to companies and provides business owners with the opportunity to ask valuable questions. How does a MSP successfully create a revenue-generating webinar?

Topics

Webinar topics a MSP can choose from are endless. Successful webinars focus on topics that are of interest to attendees. What do attendees what to hear? Focus on current technology and business issues. What is currently trending in the industry? Is there new technology or applications clients want to learn more about integrating into their business? Are business operations flowing smoothly? Discuss topics that provide valuable information for attendees.

Information

Information can include products and services offered by the MSP. Include a link to the website in the webinar. This gives attendees an opportunity visit the website to learn more about the company, products, or services highlighted in the webinar. Not only does this increase website traffic for the MSP, but it also increases potential for future sales.

Technology

A variety of webinar-hosting technology is available to meet the most diverse presentation needs. Features a MSP might consider are screen sharing, voice or IM chat capabilities, etc. The MSP hosting the webinar might need to change between speakers or record the webinar for posting online. Thorough research of software features under consideration is the best way for a MSP to determine if it will meet their presentation needs.

Practice

Practice is an important part of hosting a webinar. It will help a MSP detect any production issues such as sound or bad connections that might occur during the presentation. Clients are investing their time in attending the webinar, and so should the MSP in regards to producing quality content. A great webinar will be highly visual and engaging. Be sure to include visuals such as pictures and videos and always avoid heavy text.

Marketing

A webinar without an audience is a bit obsolete, so MSPs need to devise a solid plan to market their webinar. Send out e-mail invitations and make phone calls to potential attendees. When scheduling a webinar, choose a date far in advance. This gives attendees enough time to clear their schedule. Also take into consideration time zone differences and the time of day to avoid catching attendees at a bad time.

Follow Up

The follow-up after the webinar is a critical time for MSPs. The MSP should have a good follow-up strategy in place to reach out to attendees. Following the completion of the webinar is when attendees will request additional info or have more questions. MPS should use this time to forge closer relationships. Take the time after the presentation to send out you e-mails summarizing key points and links to products or services promoted in the webinar. Have attendees that couldn’t make it last minute? Don’t let them slip through the cracks! Send a link to the archived webinar. Also consider distributing surveys, which is extremely helpful in helping a MSP plan for their next webinar.

A successful webinar is informative, promotes products, generates leads, and strengthens existing relationships with clients. Webinars should be part of a MSPs marketing strategy. Take the time to experiment with different webinar software and invest time in the presentation. Make the effort to connect with attendees after the webinar to form stronger relationships with clients in order to build business and revenue.

Our guest blogger: Jessica May, is a resident of Vancouver who loves mountian biking in the summer and snowboarding in the winter. She frequently guest blogs about SEO, social media, outsourcing and help desks.

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.