Tag Archive for: Twitter

Breaking Down The Big 5 Social Media Platforms

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There’s Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Pinterest. All offer something unique and a unique demographic to those that create a presence for their business there. So which one is best suited for the needs of your company?

Jen Wilson, of Business Journal, recently published an in-depth look at who exactly is using each site and what type of company will flourish there. Here’s a quick rundown of the findings.

Facebook: Best suited for established brands with a dedicated following that will share success stories. Ages 18-55.

Twitter: Great for developing relationships with customers and for PR. Younger demographic than Facebook with an added bonus of well-known personalities among the users.

LinkedIn: B2B sales is perfect here, but it can also be used to establish yourself as an expert in a given field. Wide age range, but users are college educated and often advanced in their careers.

Google+: Tech companies, internet services and gaming works great considering there’s a high concentration of young, tech savvy males here. Also, get a boost in search as your picture appears with your articles or web site.

Pinterest: Any image driven company, specifically fashion or design but could even be adapted for certain types of sales. The best place to market to women under 50.

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Do Local Businesses Really Need Online Marketing?

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You run a small local business with brick and mortar locations. What reason do you have to invest in online marketing? Actually, there are quite a few reasons local businesses can benefit from online marketing.

You want your business to be reaching out to customers everywhere they are looking for you or services like yours, and more and more people are turning to the internet before they make a purchase. If they aren’t buying straight off the web, they are checking reviews and public perception of the products they are looking for.

A recent BIA/Kelsey report said that 97% of consumers use online media before making local purchases, and Google suggests that 9 out of 10 internet searches led to follow up actions such as calling or visiting businesses. That means the majority of consumers are turning to the internet, and if your business isn’t there, they will find others.

Online marketing isn’t as intimidating as many thing, either. Search Engine Land says that 50% of small businesses’ online listings are wrong, and the majority of small business owners claim they don’t have the time to keep online listings up to date. Keeping Google’s information on your business updated only takes a few minutes, and that is where most will find you. You can create a local business listing even if you don’t have a website or sell anything online.

The one step above this is to embrace social media. Many smaller businesses focus almost their entire web presence on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter, because these are where the brands can reach out directly to consumers.

If you do wish to fully capitalize on online marketing, but don’t think you have the time, hiring someone to manage your online brand and website eventually pays itself off in public awareness of your brand and cementing your brand identity as a trusted business in the community. However, you can’t just do a little. A shoddy or out of date website can hurt public perception of your company, so keeping your site up to date with all the current web standards is important to maintaining your brand’s integrity.

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Flaws Revealed By Social Media And How To Fix Them

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One of the advantages of your business’s social media profile that almost no one is talking about is that it can reveal the flaws in your business. Whether it’s through negative feedback or a general lack of participation, the problems that arise on social media usually point to problems that need to be fixed at your physical location.

Carrie Kerpen, of Inc., calls social media “a mirror. A reflection of your company and how you’re doing today.” Basically, this means that if you see an abundance of negative comments, it’s because you’re doing something wrong. This is a pretty simple idea. After all, if you were getting an abundance of phone calls from customers complaining about your service, wouldn’t you assume something was wrong with your service? This is simply an example of how some business owners are not translating social media activity correctly, or perhaps simply undervaluing its importance.

After you’ve come up with solutions to your business’s shortcomings, be sure to let those naysayers on social media know about it. Negative comments that are left unanswered are far more damning than those that receive an apologetic, professional response detailing how your business is adapting and dealing with the problem. Sometimes, it can even be a simple reassurance that changes in your business won’t affect the quality product your customer is used to. Or, maybe you can apologize for a perceived shortcoming that can’t be changed while pointing out some advantages your customer has yet to notice.

When used correctly, social media is a way to make your business better and enhance the relationship you have with your customers.

 

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Intro To Social Media Marketing

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If you haven’t launched a social media presence for your business or you’re getting frustrated trying to get your social media page off the ground, Miriam McNabb, a “social marketing professional” has some advice for you, as reported by Anne O’Connor at Nashoba Publishing.

First and foremost, there is very little sunk cost for social media marketing. So, you don’t need to worry that much about how to get started. It’s much more important that you simply start. Make a page on Facebook or Twitter and set aside some time to put out content. All you’ll be losing is some of your own time and effort.

Also, don’t feel guilty for bragging about your company’s achievements. Users like or follow you because they’re interested in your products or services, so tell them what you can do. If you donated something to a cause, be sure to let everyone know. If you have a special, sale or contest, get the word out and encourage your users to share with their friends.

Finally, establish yourself as an expert. I’ve talked about this particular bit of advice quite a bit and I understand it can be a little daunting. You may need to interact with users on more than just your own page, but finding questions pertaining to your business and answering them has a huge impact on how consumers view you. Twitter is an ideal forum for this, but you can accomplish it on Facebook too. So forget about your lack of expertise on social media and showcase your expertise in your field.

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Don’t Be A Stalker On Social Media

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There’s a legitimate concern when marketing your business through social media that you will overstep your bounds and actually turn off users while you’re trying to attract them. Remember, in today’s climate, people don’t trust and simply don’t like salesmen.

Rachel King reports this was a hot topic at SugarCon 2013 over at ZDnet. Mathew Sweezey, a so-called “marketing evangelist”, had some suggestions to keep you from becoming creepy in your sales pitch to consumers. They could be of value when diagnosing your current social media philosophy. Of note, Sweezey doesn’t believe in connecting with consumers through Facebook because he feels it is more of a private, personal community than Twitter or LinkedIn. There could be some debate on that point, but at the very least you should approach users differently on different social media platforms.

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Social Media: When To Post? [INFOGRAPHIC]

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Facebook Post Time Infographic

So you’ve got your page’s social media profile built. You have an audience in place and a message you want to get out. The question is: when is the best time to unleash that message?

There are a number of factors to consider in order to maximize not only the number of eyes on your message, but also the number of users who will interact with the message. Assuming that the message itself is worthy of ‘RT’ and ‘Likes’, you have to think about who it is you are trying to reach and what they will likely be doing when you are trying to reach them.

For most industries, your consumers will likely be at home when they are cruising through social media with time to click and interact with anything they find interesting. This means that sending out your message on weekends or evenings could get you the best results. However, the exception here would be if your key demographic is suburban housewives. If you’re trying to reach individuals who spend their day at home, then you’ll probably want to reach them before their families return to make their lives hectic.

You will probably notice that posting more gets your more interaction and probably builds your audience too. There is a limit though. Having a steady, consistent stream can paint you as a reliable, familiar source, but it’s easy to cross over into an annoying nuisance who users dread seeing in their news feed.

Be sure to take a moment to peruse the included infographic, courtesy of JCK, and think about when the best time to reach your audience would be.

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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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Take Zappos For a Social Media Marketing Example

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You may have heard of Zappos, a web site known primarily for selling shoes. They recently revealed some of their online marketing strategy, including some successes and failures, that could be helpful to many businesses, both big and small, as Laura Stampler reports for Business Insider.

For instance, Zappos’ Digital Marketing Director calls sponsored posts on Facebook “a necessary evil” and “the difference between 1000 likes versus 10.”

He also discusses a shift in their message on Facebook. Rather than talking about what was happening locally around and in their home offices, they emphasize their products and have seen an increased response. This particularly seems like a simple and obvious change, but one that might be helpful to apply to your own Facebook page.

One other important message from Zappos was the far reaching effect of the right wording. Posting an identical message, but with slightly improved wording can be the difference between seeing 10 people share your story and 100. Zappos saw a 7-percent increase in users who created a story on social media about their purchases after such a slight change in verbiage. That adds up to a much larger audience over time.

 

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Twitter Ads Not A Viable Platform Yet

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It was only a matter of time before Twitter unveiled an advertising platform to its users. So far, however, the results have been extremely underwhelming.

At the present, your Twitter ad campaign will be run like a poorly run AdWords campaign. This is due to the fact that there just aren’t enough tools and metrics made available to run it properly. Twitter can’t tell you who exactly saw your ad or who exactly converted because of it. Instead, you get the total number of impressions and how many new followers you have because of the ad. And, perhaps they didn’t think this all the way through, but you also get to see exactly how much money the ad cost you right next to the embarrassing lack of metrics.

The rumor is that Twitter ads has already advanced past this early stage and some of the big money marketers are getting to experience that next level first and there’s no doubt that Twitter will improve its advertising platform until it is on par with Facebook. For now, however, there’s no reason to spend any of your budget on Twitter ads.

Jason Yormak did start a campaign with Twitter ads. You can see his results at Business2Community.

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Turn Your Fans Into Loyal Customers Through Social Media

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At the core of most articles on social media is the question of how to turn Facebook fans or Twitter followers into an increase in revenue. There are many theories and plenty of suggestions out there from a variety of experts, but possibly the most effective is also the most obvious. Simply interact with your fans.

What a consumer is essentially saying when they become a fan of your company’s Facebook page or follow your Twitter feed is that they want to have a relationship with your business. They want to be a part of your conversation and they want to hear what you have to say. All you have to do is to give them what they want.

There are plenty of strategies aimed at increasing your social media audience. Promotions will draw in consumers, but they won’t stick around if they don’t continue to gain from the relationship. You should use social media to give fans something they wouldn’t get by simply visiting your physical business. Deals, inside information, pictures or videos or even just interesting or entertaining anecdotes. Let them into your business enough to make them feel comfortable enough to continue visiting it. More than comfortable, they’ll develop a sense of loyalty.

This type of social media relationship cultivation will not only supply you with an army of loyal customers, but it will also help you add to your audience as word spreads about your social media prowess.

Ernan Roman has an excellent example of how to use social media at Business2Community. He highlights Starbucks’ efforts to build great relationships with their customers.

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