Category Archives: Social Media

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

  By admin | December 2, 2013 - 10:03 pm | , ,
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consistencyWondering about the single best thing you can do for your marketing plan in the upcoming year? Stay consistent. People thrive on consistency, and if they can’t get it from your company, you can bet they’re going to find it somewhere else. Planning to post your blog every Monday and Wednesday? Great. Post every Monday and Wednesday. Planning to update your social media feeds every morning? Great. Do it.

What About Trying Something New?

As you analyze what’s working and what isn’t with regard to social media marketing, content marketing, or anything else, there’s nothing wrong with trying something new. The key, though, is that you don’t simply try it and abandon it without taking a solid look at the analytics. If, for instance, not a single person is opening the newsletters you send, adjust your strategy. Maybe a newsletter isn’t right for your company. What you can’t do, however, is walk away because you haven’t put the time and effort into that part of your marketing plan.

It’s tough to market your own company when you’re so caught up in providing services and products to other people, particularly when you’re a fairly small operation. The reality, though, is that it’s a must. You need new customers to survive, and marketing is a good way to get them.

There may come a point when you just need to automate your marketing so it actually gets accomplished. When you hit that point, we’ll be there with the writing services and social media management help you need. Give us a call when that happens. We’ll be happy to help.

Amp Up Facebook Engagement Now

  By admin | November 25, 2013 - 9:43 pm |
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facebookLooking for a bit more from your Facebook page? Let’s face it – we all know you could be doing something better. Here are the tips you need now to make it work.

  • POST, POST, POST!!!!! Look, be honest with yourself. Are you actually committed to social media? If you’re not, it’s not going to work. You have to actually post to make it fit into your marketing mix. You can’t just think about posting or plan to post, you just have to do it.
  • Be Part of the Community. Would you actually talk to a friend who spent the entire conversation chatting about themselves? Your social media contacts don’t want continual self-promotions all of the time. Do something different.
  • Ask Questions. Speaking of different, asking questions can be a great way to get people to respond and get engaged. There are lots of types of questions you can ask too. From the simple to the fill in the blank, see who is paying attention.
  • Post Videos and Pictures. Don’t just stick to textual posts. Go for videos and pics every now and then too. Whether they’re related to your product or your target audience, everyone likes a pic now and then.

No matter what you decide to do, make sure you’re measuring your efforts. The more data you have, the more information you’ll have to shape your campaigns in the future.

Just too busy for Facebook? Try our social media services to help.

 

How Much is Social Media Doing For Your Company?

  By admin | November 7, 2013 - 9:42 pm | ,
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spreadsheet-1-541349-mSmall or large, every company can use social media to make more out of marketing efforts. As often as you virtually socialize, though, how much is social media actually doing for your company? Would those customers be walking through your door if you had never set up a Facebook profile? Would they be responding to your ad if you hadn’t put a note on it on your Twitter account?

Evaluating Social Media Success

Just like every other marketing method needs to be evaluated, you have to keep an eye on your social media numbers to decide how well things are working for you. You can’t simply keep putting posts out there without knowing what they’re really doing for your company. If you do, you’re just shooting in the dark.

Wondering where to start? You may want to get a baseline impression initially. Before you amp up your posting efforts, start a new campaign, or even hire a new social media marketing company, taking a closer look at your starting place is an absolute must. Think carefully about your metrics here. You can measure your starting revenue, followers, or even commenters. Exactly what you’re trying to measure is up to you. Many people want to see it financially paying off, and if that’s the case, you’ll want to look just at revenue. Others want to see a dramatic increase in those who seem to care about their posts.

Your next step is to look at how much you’re spending on your efforts. This doesn’t just have to be physical spending. It could also involve your time. For most small business owners, time is a valuable resource, and understanding exactly what your social media marketing efforts are sucking from your company can help you quantify whether it’s worth it.

Finally, start paying attention. Is your revenue increasing? Are your costs stabilizing? Choose a few times a week to look at the metrics you’ve set for yourself, and measure them consistently. It’s the only way you’ll truly know if you’re getting a good deal.

Need a bit of help with your social media marketing? We’re here. With plans starting as low as $80 for the management of three profiles, it could really save you some time and money! Contact us today to learn more.

Content Marketing – Do You Actually Need a Platform?

  By admin | October 14, 2013 - 12:14 pm | ,
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freeI recently had the opportunity to speak with a sales representative for a popular content marketing platform. I spent nearly an hour on the phone with him, looking over his products and services. They were great. They’d probably be really helpful. They were also a thousand dollars a month. Sure, that’s a fraction of most small business marketing budgets, but as old fashioned as it sounds, anything that costs a thousand dollars a month gives me a serious case of the doubts.

Platforms, Widgets, and Gadgets

Our tech-prone world philosophy suggests that anything shiny, new, and “helpful,” is a must have for businesses, right? Sure, get a smartphone; you can work from anywhere. Grab a tablet. It’s big, shiny, and better than a smartphone. Add this CMS to your site so you can easily edit it. Add this cloud service to your company so you can access your files from your hotel room. All of these are very helpful tools, but do you actually need them to make it work? Put simply, no.

If you’re looking for a solid content marketing strategy, it starts with some internal work on your part. Put together a good planning document, then start populating it with ideas. You can work the platforms on your own. You don’t actually need tools to do it. In fact, it may be cheaper to go with social media services or writing services from a small business like us than it would to go with a shiny new tool that you’re still going to have to work on your own.

Content marketing is about good content, not shiny tools. Don’t get sucked into the idea that you need to buy more just to get your name out there.

Make Your Social Media Profile More Inviting

  By admin | October 7, 2013 - 2:29 pm |
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social mediaYou know you need to work on your social media approach. It’s just the prudent thing to do in a world where Pinterest, Twitter, and G+ rule the game. How can you amp up your social media efforts and increase your business in return? These tips can help.

  • Focus your Interactions: You probably want one main thing from each profile you’ve built, right? Is it to get more followers? Encourage people to sign up for your newsletter? Disseminate information about sales and specials? Figure out what your goal is, then ensure everything you do pushes you toward that goal.
  • Don’t Stick to Self-Serving Posts: There’s no way that simply advertising your new posts, your new sale, your new employees, or just generally being you-centric is really going to help you reach your goal. Social media doesn’t work that way. Imagine, for a moment, you’re at a party. As you work your way around the room, you spend the entire time talking about you. No one is going to want to speak to you after five minutes of that behavior, and the same is true for your social media interactions.
  • Create a Schedule: If you post too often, people are going to get sick of hearing from you. Post too little, and people will get sick of looking for you. You have to find a happy medium. A general rule of thumb is not to post more than three times per day per platform. Don’t post less than once a week on each platform.
  • Generic is, well, Generic: If you go with generic LinkedIn invites, Facebook Walls, or Twitter Profiles, guess what? You’re going to look generic. Get creative!
  • Stay Connected: Treat every single friend or contact like a real one. Don’t hesitate to give a shout-out when they have a personal accomplishment they’ve Tweeted about. Try to offer as much personalization as is possible within your interaction.

Social media marketing is still uncharted waters, and it can be tough to fit it into your current marketing plan. That’s where we come in. With robust social media marketing services, let us handle the details while you focus on your business. Contact us today to learn more.

 

3 Social Media Rules You May Not Have Considered

  By admin | July 9, 2013 - 11:49 pm |
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Almost every company makes use of social media these days. From B2B marketers using sites like LinkedIn to real estate agents using their networks on Facebook to move more properties, staying connected is an absolute must in today’s world. If you’re just getting on the social media bandwagon, though, there are a few rules you may want to keep in mind before you let that first Tweet fly.

  • It’s a Conversation, not a Lectern: The single most important thing you can remember when it comes to the world of social media is the fact that there’s a conversation going on. If you’re virtually standing there, shouting at everyone in all caps with lots of exclamation marks about your latest sale, online post, or newest product line, friends, watchers, and others are going to get very tired of you in a hurry. Be part of the conversation, don’t just promote your brand.
  • It Takes Time: You’re not going to grow a bigger Twitter following overnight. The entire world isn’t going to “Like” you on Facebook within a week. Unlike other methods of advertising, this one is going to take some time to see measurable results. This is not the kind of advertising campaign you can run for a few weeks, readjust, then run again. Spend some time with the platform. Get to know it, and you’ll be rewarded with followers and brand friends.
  • Be Yourself: This rule doesn’t give you a license to become the version of yourself we might meet during happy hour on a Friday night. It should, though, remind you that authenticity is going to be key to building your brand in a more social world. Don’t use fake names or contacts, and be sure to create as personal a feel to your profiles as possible.

There are few business learning curves quite as steep as the one you may experience when you begin to dip your toes in the social media waters. Need a little help getting started? Just don’t have time to post on your own? Let us tackle it for you with our social media services.