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.

Do You Have What It Takes To Run A Website?

Blogging, Content creation, content marketing, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Web Design

Running a website is no easy feat and it’s something that a lot of people underestimate. How hard can it be to draw a few pictures and upload a few articles on a topic you find interesting right? Well quite hard as it turns out, and it actually takes a certain kind of person to handle the unique pressures and challenges of running a website. If you’re thinking of getting into the world of blogging/webmastering then, or if you’re building a website in order to promote your business then, the question is simple: do you have those skills? Are you the right kind of person?

Here’s what you need to be in order to thrive online…

Driven:

motivationOne of the most difficult things about being a webmaster is also one of the things that can make is so appealing as a full time job. You see you’re not going to have anyone breathing over your neck and telling you what needs to be done, and this can actually make life quite difficult when you need that bit of motivation or when you’re feeling tired.

It’s all too easy as a webmaster then to wake up feeling rough and to decide that today you’re only going to write five articles rather than ten. In order to succeed you need to know that very few excuses are good enough, and you need to be able to force yourself to work even when you don’t fancy it.

Business Minded:

Running a website is essentially running a small business. There are overheads to consider, there’s marketing and there’s administration. In order to make your site a hit, you need to be a jack of all trades and you need to know how to quickly and efficiently create something that’s going to make money. If you have experience as a businessman or woman, then this is actually one of the things that will help you the most in making your site into a hit.

Analytical:

You also need to be someone who’s analytical and who’s able to look at the statistics and maths behind what you’re trying to accomplish. While you need to be a ‘big picture’ person, you also need to be able to slow down and to look at the finer details in order to find bugs in your code, or to understand why your clicks have gone down in response to recent changes. Mathematicians will have a big advantage in running a website.

Creative:

That said, having an analytical brain with an understanding of business isn’t what you really need to make a compelling website – that’s just going to result in a spreadsheet. As well then you also need creative vision and an eye for attractive graphics. The main way that people are going to interact with your site is through vision, so you need to make sure that your site looks beautiful and eye catching and you need to give it a UI that you can feel proud of. No pressure then…

Optimistic:

While running a site can be highly rewarding and a lot of fun, there will be days when you want to pull all your hair out. In order to be successful then it’s crucial that you can deal with those days and that you don’t let them get to you. You also need to be hardy, resilient and ultimately quite confident in order to believe that your site can succeed. Because if you don’t believe in it, then no one else will and you’ll eventually end up just giving up. Go and watch Rocky then apply his attitude to your site…

Passionate:

 

Perhaps most important of all is that you’re passionate about what you do. You need to be bringing a website into the world that you care about deeply and that you’re incredibly proud of. If you’re not, then the end result is always going to be disappointing and you’ll have a hard time marketing it too. When you’re passionate it will come across in your marketing, in your content and in the quality of the end product. Everything else on this list can be learned and developed (or just outsourced). Passion though is something that you need from the start.

Our guest blogger, John Miller is a freelance blogger who enjoys sharing his personal and work experiences online. He writes for Webfirm, a renowned email marketing company based in Australia. His hobbies include painting and calligraphy.

Using Social Media To Grow Your Business

SEO

Using Social Media to Increase Business

The number of people who are currently using some form of social media is astronomical and is continuing to grow. In fact, statistics from expandedramblings.com show that currently there are 1.11 billion people on Facebook, 500 million Twitter users (with about 40% of those accounts being active), close to 350 million active Google+ users, 225 million LinkedIn members and about 50 million Pinterest users.

With all these people using social media, if your business isn’t active on social media, then you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with current as well as potential customers. Being present on social media can help with growing your business… below are just a few ways:

Customer Service
When it comes to customer service people customer expectations have risen dramatically, especially when it comes to the amount of time for customer support to respond to a customer question or complaint.

Just consider some of the following statistics that comes from a 2013 LivePerson Connecting with Customers report which surveyed more than 5,700 consumers from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, France, Italy and Germany:

  • Approximately 71% of online customers will be expecting to be able to receive some type of assistance within five minutes of reaching out to a company (31% expect immediate assistance and the other 41% expect it within 5 minutes).
  • 48% will abandon the site (this jumps to 58% for consumers in the UK) if they don’t receive the support within the allotted time.
  • 33% of the people surveyed would rather contact a business through one of their social media channels as opposed to telephone.

So what can you do to help with improving your ability to prove top notch customer service through your social media channels?

  • Setup notification alerts for high priority keywords. It’s important to monitor what is being said about you online. You can use tools like Social Mention, TweetDeck, or Google Alerts.
  • Respond to both complaints and compliments. You can use a tool like Hootsuite in order to respond quickly with a personal message to keep customers as happy as possible.
  • Make it easy for people to find you. If someone has a complaint, if they can’t find an easy way to contact you, then they’ll find a way to post a complaint on a forum where you don’t have control. Conversely, if someone has a compliment, they’ll most likely forgo leaving it if they can’t contact you easily. Make sure that all the social networks that you’re on are easily found on your website as well as appropriate contact information for customer service and hours of operation. You can also incorporate an online chat feature on your website to help customers get in touch with you quickly.

Lead Generation
Social media can be a fantastic tool for generating additional leads for your business. By sharing interesting and relevant content, you’ll be able to get your followers to engage with your business and become evangelists for your brand, spreading your message to their friends, and potentially bringing in new customers. Check out this infographic from Wishpond to see just how effective social media can be for lead generation.

Using social media to generate additional leads for your business

A few ways to use the various social networks to find new leads:

  • Facebook – If you have an advertising budget, the use of Promoted Posts can be an effective way to ramp up fan engagement. Make sure that the post you want to promote has a strong call to action that will either be educational, informative or entertaining to your audience. You can use Facebook Insights to see how many people a post has reached, which can allow you to further refine your message and improve engagement and CTR.
  • Google+ – Use Hangouts on Air as a way to communicate directly to your audience online, in real time.
    Some of the following types of hangouts can be beneficial for lead generation:

    • Customer service sessions
    • Interviews with experts and leaders
    • Giveaways and contests
    • Free product demos

     

  • LinkedIn – Look to use LinkedIn Groups which are made up of various subject topics that bring together professionals of similar interests to discuss subjects that relate to business. Either join an existing LinkedIn Group that is related to your area of expertise or create your own. Make sure to join discussions in the LinkedIn Groups that you’re a part of (when appropriate) and answer questions, provide resources and post relevant content. This will help you with becoming an authority and have people who ask questions about your line of business look to you for help.
  • Twitter – Get involved in Twitter Chats and offer valuable insight so that you can become an authority in these chats and get your name out. You should notice that your CTR increases during these chats.
  • Pinterest – If you’re a business that benefits from visuals (fashion, food, etc.), then this can be a great way to generate traffic to your site quickly as pins can spread quickly. In fact, the Harvard Business Review found 1 in 5 Pinterest users have bought something in a store after pinning or liking it on Pinterest, and 1 in 3 Pinterest users under 35 have done so. You can check out this article to learn more about using Pinterest to drive traffic to your website and generate leads.

Brand Awareness
Getting your business brand in front of the largest proportion of the most applicable target audience can be done through the use of social media, however to boosting brand awareness you’ll need to connect with bloggers and people within your industry, creating interesting content and interact with your followers.

  • Create interesting content. It’s important to create content that your followers will find to be useful, interesting or humorous if you want to get them to share the content with their network. Every time one of your followers share your content, it goes out to their network of friends who might in turn decide to share it with their network, increasing your brands visibility.
  • Interact with your followers. Interacting with your followers isn’t just about getting your content shared (see the above point). It’s also a good way of letting your customers know that you’re available in case they have any questions or concerns. Additionally, if your customers want to compliment or praise your business, they’re much more likely to share the compliments with their followers if you’ve been actively engaging with them.
  • Connect with other bloggers. By finding other bloggers who are within your niche and connecting with them, you might give yourself a chance to market to their fan base. To connect with bloggers, try commenting on their posts, sharing their content on to your followers and joining in on conversations that they may be having on various social networks. Once you’ve established rapport, see if they’ll allow you to guest post on their blog which is yet another way to get your name out there to a new audience.

Bonus
One thing that you’ll definitely want consider doing is creating a Google+ page and publish content on a regular basis as your page and posts can show up in Google searches. To give yourself an additional SEO boost, make sure to use Google Authorship (not only can this possible help with your SEO efforts, but it can also lead to an increase in CTR).

We’d love to hear how you currently use social media for growing your business in the comments below.

Our guest blogger Josh Brown is part of the marketing team at Iconic Mind, an IT consulting firm in Maryland. Offering internet, network, software and troubleshooting services, Iconic Mind can help with increasing business productivity through the use of the latest technologies. For additional information, follow Iconic Mind on Twitter or Pinterest or visit their blog.

The Importance Of Content Creators

Blogging, Content creation, content marketing, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Web Design, ,

digital content creatorsLesser Known Positions in Web Design

When you think about a web design company, there are positions or people that come to mind right away. The designer is usually the first person you think about but this is not the only person that helps in making extraordinary websites. A good web design firm will have multiple people who each have their own job to do. By specializing in just one area, the entire group can work much more efficiently. They can each focus on their task and make sure it’s done to the maximum effort. Apart from the designer, there are other people who will work on your site to ensure it is of the highest quality and usability. These lesser known positions are just as important to the overall web design project.

SEO Writers

The job of an SEO writer is to research different keywords and content that should be included in your site. This person will make suggestions to get your site the most traffic possible. A good SEO writer will help your site be more accessible and found on the search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo! etc.   Most potential customers will use these search engines to look for whatever they need. It is a good idea to hire an experienced SEO writer because they can make a world of difference in terms of the amount of traffic your site will receive from potential customers. This is not an area where you can settle on working with just a mediocre person.

Internet Copywriter

This person’s job is to create written content on the page to attract targeted viewers. They will work closely with the SEO writer and together form a team whose only job is to attract targeted traffic to your site. For example, let’s say your business is carpet cleaning in the Houston, TX area. Some keywords you may want to use would be “carpet cleaning in Houston”. The reason for this is that anybody who searches for this keyword already wants the type of business you offer and is ready to hire somebody. The internet copywriter will work hand in hand with you and the SEO writer to come up with a list of keywords that will get your site the targeted traffic it needs to convert it into actual jobs.

All in all, these lesser known jobs are just as important in a web design firm. Keep in mind that smaller firms will have one person who handles multiple facets of the job. That is completely ok as long as they can provide the quality work and attention that your site deserves. All large firms started small at one point so I will definitely vouch for a good professional firm even if it is made up of only a few people. Getting back to these positions, they all fill important tasks that have to be completed to make your site the best it can possibly be. Do not overlook any of these services and make sure you get the best people working on your side.

Our Guest Blogger, Riley Hill loves self-improvement books and plans to one day write his own book. He also loves learning everything that is new about Internet marketing thus it’s common to find him reading articles at PrimeOnlineSolutions.com a Miami based web design company. Moreover, he has a passion for learning in just about any field.