Tag Archive for: Business2Community

Running A Facebook Competition? Do Your Homework

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Running a competitions through your Facebook page can be an effective way to build your audience and enhance brand recognition. But that’s only if you do it correctly. Neville Luff posted a list of concerns at Business2Community that you need to be aware of to make sure you get the most benefit out of your Facebook contest.

Have you read through Facebook’s terms and policies and page guidelines? Probably not, but not doing so could lead to Facebook shutting down your contest. For example, requiring a like or share to win is frowned upon. And you must use an app for your promotion.

Now, if you follow Facebook’s rules, your contest won’t be embarrassingly shut down, but will you get the most out of it. Be sure you promote it properly. Too many times, a business assumes simply having a contest will attract attention, but if you’re going to go to the effort of a giveaway, go the extra mile to make sure as many people know about it as possible. You need to have a plan in place to promote your contest, as well as on to actually execute it.

Finally, give away something relevant to your company. We all love Microsoft products, but are you really getting more customers because you gave away an Iphone? If your prize gives the winner access to your services, you are building your customer base and those who register will actually be users interested in what you do.

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On Becoming AdWords Certified

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Did you know you can become “AdWords Certified”? It’s news to many people, but there is actually a licensure exam of sorts to test your expertise and acumen.

Bill McCaffrey went through the process and wrote about his experience at Business2Community. While he doesn’t go into much detail about what exactly the exam covers, your interest may be piqued enough to look into it yourself. Having the title, “AdWords Certified”, after your name may not make much of a difference to you, but having the knowledge that comes with it could enable you to better understand PPC advertising. At the very least, you may be able to ask more informed questions of those who handle your online marketing campaigns.

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How to Build Your Audience Through Pinterest

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It’s been about six months since Pinterest introduced “business-specific accounts” and their “business support page”. Add that to recent projections that Pinterest, rather than Twitter, will soon be the clear number-2 social media market behind Facebook. These developments suggest that Pinterest is a viable option to gain exposure for your business and Tehmina Zaman writes about how to do so at Business2Community,

There are a number of helpful nuggets in the article. For example, did you know you can schedule pins? Also, what do you know about group boards? They’re a perfect ways to increase the size of your audience, create brand ambassadors and get your message repinned consistently.

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Plan For Potential Pitfalls of Social Media Marketing

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While reading about advances and ideas on how to grow your business through online marketing are plenty helpful, you should also keep your eyes out for advice and warnings about potential problems that may befall you. Not to sound too much like your older relatives, but the Internet can be a dark and seedy place. In the context of social media, it can be an interconnected place where bad news travels fast.

That’s why Prasanna Bidkar recently wrote an article for Business2Community highlighting 5 potential problems that could ruin your business’s reputation. In it, he points to disgruntled employees, poor products and leaked documents that could all lead to your hard earned reputation online going down the drain.

There aren’t many solutions in the article, but that may actually be good for you. This way, you can think about potential problems and how you and your company should deal with them, not prescribe someone else’s solution to your situation.

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Social Media Marketing Basics

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Building Blocks

Regardless of your expertise in social media marketing, it’s always helpful to go back and review the basics from time to time and compare your company’s campaigns and strategies to these building blocks. Have you set a secure, stable foundation? Are you working efficiently to save time and money?

Leiden Johnson, of Business2Community, has a few of these social media marketing basics for you to keep in mind. Make sure you haven’t strayed too far from the path in your own campaigns.

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Time Savers For Managing Your AdWords Account

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Wrist Watch

Your daily schedule is pretty tightly booked. Usually, trying to cram in some time to optimize your AdWords campaigns to get the most out of your online advertising budget is pretty low on the list of priorities. But, if you put in a little time upfront, you can run an efficient and effective campaign for just minutes a day.

That’s the premise that Ben Cohen works from in his article for Business2Community. He’ll tell you where to allocate your precious time and how to set up your account so you can manage it quickly and get on to your other duties. If you have an AdWords account already, you understand how valuable this information could be. If you’ve been hesitant to start an account because it is so time consuming, this could be just what you need to get started.

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More Conversions For Less Money With AdWords

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The simple goal for your AdWords campaign should be to get the most conversions possible while spending the least money possible. If you have a good ratio here, you’re likely doing everything right. However, there are plenty of potential pitfalls to avoid in order to lose out on conversions or spend way too much in getting them.

Check out Patrick McDaniel’s tips at Business2Community and find out if you could be saving money somewhere or getting more out of your campaigns.

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How To Craft An Ideal Facebook Ad

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Your ad for Facebook should be different from ads on other platforms. Even if you’re also advertising on other social media sites, your Facebook ad has to be unique, as would an ad for Twitter or Tumblr. That’s because you need to consider not only who is going to encounter this ad, but where they will see it and what mindset they’ll be in when they do. That seems like a lot but it is the key to crafting the ideal ad.

Robin Bresnark has an article at Business2Community that delves into this idea of incredibly specific audience targeting. Although I disagree with some of his finer points, everyone should agree on the core of the article, which is simply to think of who you are selling to before creating your selling tool.

The prevailing thought is ‘Facebook isn’t for selling’ so you’ll need to take a different route. Once you figure out what exactly works for Facebook, you can start trying to work within those parameters to find what works for your key demographic.

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Money Saving Tips For Your Limited AdWords Budget

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Some companies can afford to just throw money at their online marketing campaigns and get results, but if you run a small business with an equally small advertising budget, you’ll want to look into these tips from Business2Community.

1. Google Search

Surprisingly, they suggest those with a limited budget limiting their options to search only. While it is likely the most efficient platform, I would argue that, depending on your business, you could yield great results with other options as well. But, it is a great place to start and if your budget is extremely limited, maybe also a great place to stop.

2. Keywords

You get a high conversion rate at a low cost-per-click. Keywords are a huge money saver and hone in on the users who are most likely to be looking for you. Also, be sure to learn about “long tail keywords” to get the most out of your ads.

3. Geotargeting

Chances are, if you have a small business and limited budget, you are only interested in those consumers living in your area. Use Google’s tools to only show ads to those in your vicinity. You can set parameters by city, zip code or even a mile radius around your physical address.

4. Day Parting

This one requires some legwork on your part. Check into your campaigns and find out when the peak hours are for conversions. You can then choose to either turn ads off during down times, or turn ads off during some of these peak hours when costs are at their highest. Either way, it is an opportunity to save some coin.

I do not endorse turning off ads simply because your business is closed for the day, however. Many consumers do conduct searches outside of normal business hours, which means you could be missing out on a large part of the market.

5. Device Targeting

The main reason to use this tool is to ensure ads ideal for mobile devices are shown only on mobile devices, while ads ideal for laptops, or not ideal for mobile, are only shown to laptops and tablets.

 

 

 

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Your New Social Media Strategy: Visualize and Attack

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In case you haven’t noticed, Pinterest has exploded over the past year and a half. In fact, it is now the fourth largest driver of traffic worldwide. The lesson to learn is that visual content moves the masses. Ryan Wilson at Business2Community has some clever ways to  increase social media engagement by using more images in your posts.

1. Create your own Meme

They are easy to create and give a fun, lighthearted vibe rather than a more desperate, “we want your business” type of message that drives away social media users. And they are literally everywhere.

2. Infographics

We’ve used quite a few on this very blog. They contain a ton of information that you would never read an entire article to glean.

3. Regular Photos

Old school and timeless. Whether it’s of customers, your store or your new product, take a picture and share it with the masses.

4. Take Submissions

Ask your audience to send in their own pics of them utilizing your products. They do the heavy lifting but you reap the benefits.

The point is, be creative and visual. You’ll see a remarkable difference.

 

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