Posts Tagged ‘facebook’

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The Five Faces Of Social Media That Really Gel Together

Sunday, March 11th, 2012

Social media marketing started as a real hit and miss affair. Over time it has slowly come together and social media experts can now really work the boards to drum up a lot of visitors. For small business owners, there are five faces of social media that can be made to work together to promote your business  – and they really are starting to gel into one complete marketing tool. What are those faces? Consider this approach to social media marketing:

  • YouTube – YouTube has grown from being a simple video hosting service to a social media site in its own right. People can follow those who publish videos that interest them. You can also brand and keyword target your videos making it easier for others to find you.
  • Twitter – while Twitter continues to have its knockers, it is a great tool for blasting out short messages. Product releases, specials, coupon codes or announcements – quick short messages that tell a story.
  • Pinterest – will Pinterest stay the distance is the biggest concern. However, if you target a female audience, and you can tell a story in pictures, then Pinterest is certainly worth looking at.
  • Facebook - where Twitter is for short messages, Facebook is for real discussions. If you look closely at some business pages, you will see discussions that involve hundreds of interactions, and they are real discussions.
  • Blog – the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle. You can pull videos from YouTube, pull content from Twitter (or publish links to your posts), link images from your blog to Pinterest, and publish links to your posts on Facebook (with a short summary to attract interest).

Those five social media components now fit very well together. If you accept that each has specific role to play in your social media marketing efforts, they do start to gel together in a complete tool. Rather than using one or two and trying to squeeze everything possible from them, play it smart and use the best from each. You’ll find that social media marketing becomes a breeze, and for small business owners who find that time is limited, it really is the easiest approach.

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Posted in Social Media | 5 Comments »

Pinterest – A Social Media Site Worth Consideration

Saturday, January 21st, 2012

Bookmarking sites come and go fairly quickly. There are some that hang around for years, often going through popularity phases – StumbleUpon is a good example, people join up,then drift away, then return spasmodically to see if things have changed. Pinterest is the latest and while it is an ‘invite only’ site at present, is well worth checking out. You can request an invite, although the home page is rather off-putting, it looks more like a parked domain than a real website. However, once you open those doors, everything changes.

Pinterest is a virtual pin board complete with a browser ‘Pin it’ button for Firefox, ‘Pin it’ (and ‘follow me’) buttons  for websites, and an iPhone application. Find pictures, videos or web pages of interest and you can ‘pin’ them to your pin board – and you can have more than one pin board.  The pin board concept has a wide range of uses, to quote their help page:

People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and share their favorite recipes.

Can businesses use Pinterest? This is one site that has definitely not been set up for commercial use. Self-promotion is frowned upon and users found guilty of promoting their businesses won’t last long. However, that doesn’t mean the service is totally out for businesses. Adding the ‘pin it’ buttons to your web site will invite visitors to add your pages to their pin boards. You can also have your own pin board where you can pin related content to your business. If you have the occasional page from your website pinned, for example an advice or recipe or how to page, then you shouldn’t have too many problems.

The feature that most businesses will find helpful is that pins can be shared between users and through Facebook and Twitter. Pins are also searchable through the search bar on Pinterest. It appears to bring the best of Stumbleupon and Facebook and is certainly well worth looking at, particularly those in service industries. It may not be for everyone, however, for a social media site that is invite only, it already has 4 million registered users – nowhere near Facebook or Twitter, but it could explode once the doors are opened. You can request an invite through Mashable’s pin page.

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Posted in Social Media | 3 Comments »

Inundate The Web With Your Business Ads

Sunday, January 8th, 2012

Think about commercials on television. Which ones can you just not forget? You know, the ones you catch yourself singing their theme song or repeating verbatim parts of the commercial? Those are the ones that are constantly on the TV. Every time you turn around, they are showing the same commercial again. This is a good market strategy.

Yes, they are annoying to us. However, they are bringing in money for the company by inundating the viewing public. That is what small businesses need to do with their online marketing campaigns.

It’s sort of like brainwashing. For instance, if you are constantly hearing in the background about a certain cold medicine. You are not really listening because you don’t need it. But, when you get sick, your subconscious is going to quickly remember all the commercials you have heard about this certain cold medicine. And, you are sick enough you want to try it.

Online marketing needs to be out there on a regular basis. Not just one ad all the time. Mix it up and have different ads going all the time so that your brand, products and website are getting ingrained in people’s minds. This is one of the oldest forms of advertising and still one of the most effective.

Since you are already thinking of new advertising campaigns for this year, think about how often you can afford to place ads all over the internet and especially social network sites. You just never know where your next customer will come from.

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Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 1 Comment »

Placing Ads On Facebook And Twitter

Thursday, January 5th, 2012

Have you ever wondered where all those ads on Facebook and Twitter come from? And, how do you get your business ad there? Although some people may think that the advertising are interrupting the games they play on Facebook, or are just annoying. However, it is a really good place to put your business. More people will see you just on social networks alone.

If you would like an ad on Facebook, you can log in to your account and go to the advertising link at the bottom of the page. From there you can insert your website into the ad. You will be directed to a series of questions to target your audience. You will be given options for paying for the ad. For instance, there are pay per clicks and pay per views. Pay per clicks are only paid if someone actually clicks on your ad or pay per view is paid every time your ad is placed on someone’s page.

Advertising can also be done on Twitter with Twittad. Follow the instructions for Twittad and you will be advertising on Twitter in no time.

Social advertising for small businesses is an effective way to generate more customers to your website and help you make more money. Think about ways to create catchy advertising so your ad will stand out on the page and get someone’s attention.

On line marketing techniques will help you in the long run with your small business. Adding business marketing to your current advertising campaigns can only boost your customers which in turn will boost sales.

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Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 27 Comments »

New Year, New Look For Your Small Business

Monday, December 26th, 2011

The year 2012  is going to be a good year! A positive outlook goes a long way in making your small business grow. The coming year will be new; it’s time for a new look and a new way of doing things.

The first thing to consider is employees. If you have employees and you are growing, think about if and how many new employees you need. Figure out a new budget which includes employees and any upgrades or repairs that need to be done.

It’s also an excellent time to make a new marketing plan, some fine tuning to your website and possibly new business cards. Consider how you want to advertise your business such as online, radio, television, newspapers and the simple newsletters or e-letters.

New technological advances need to be considered as well. Implement a plan for texting, email campaigns, phone apps or video chat. There are now so many ways to stay in contact with clients, suppliers or employees. These new ideas are just the ticket to jump start your small business right into 2012.

Since you are now thinking of all kinds of things you can do or start in the coming year, be sure to organize your files and get tax information ready. That dreaded time of the year is not far off. At the same time, clean up all the old email addresses you keep telling yourself you need to update. Even if it is winter, get the mind set for spring cleaning.

And don’t forget to add social media to your new marketing plan. It’s such a simple and free way to get your business noticed and out to the public, using social media. Word of mouth goes a long, long way in bringing in business.

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Posted in Tools for Small Business | 1 Comment »

Strategies For Small Businesses Who Use Facebook

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

One of the best ways to market your business at a low cost is to use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. However, because of the sheer number of users who practically live on Facebook all day, it can be hard to market the one business you have and get a lot of hits to your status posts and website in general. So how do you go about it? The following tips will help you build your business on the social media sites.

  1. Have a website or a blog. There are a number of free sites where you can start a website and/or a blog. The sites are customizable and easy to use. Not only will you be able to put your products on the site, you will need to keep information up to day in the form of a blog post or article. Once that is done, link your site to all the social media sites, including Facebook, Google + and Twitter. Link to as many as you feel comfortable doing on a daily basis. Alternatively, you can also hire a business consultant who will help you get a website set up and give you pointers.
  2. Emails and Comments. Stay in contact with the people who visit your site. If they make a comment, be sure to respond back. The same goes for emails. Emails are a great way to build a client base and to market sale items. At the same time, put a status on the social media sites about the sale or a comment about the new post for everyone to read.
  3. Third Party Endorsements. Search for online magazines or journalists who typically write about the brand and/or products you have. Ask to be interviewed, don’t wait to be. There are thousands of small businesses out there and you may never get noticed. If you have a third party endorsement, it will go a long way in building integrity for your business.

All it takes is thinking about a different way to brand and market your business. It’s a new world with new ideas, so jump on the bandwagon and try your hand at standing out from other businesses in order that your on line presence will grow.

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Posted in Social Media | 3 Comments »

Blitz Your Social Media Sites To End The Holiday Season

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

Although the holidays are fast approaching, now is the best time to pull last minute customers in the door. Even if it’s after Christmas sales, small business owners will want to pull out all the stops for the end of the year. That means now is a perfect time to blitz all the social media sites you use and to use email campaigns.

End the year on a positive note by using social media sites to list all the last minute sales you may have. Even the clearance items you may have for the after Christmas sales. Most shoppers will still spend quite a bit just to get the big clearance sales after Christmas.

Now is also a great time to do an email campaign. Send everyone on your customer list along with new ones an end of the year sale. Email campaigns and social media sites are two of the easiest ways a small business owner can get customers in the door. Word of mouth on the social media sites along with the emails can drive traffic to your business so that your end of the year stats will be much better than expected.

Just because the holidays are so close does not mean that shoppers are not watching for every sale and bargain they can find. And, that includes watching emails and reading the ads on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Even the small statuses that you can post will help as one friend will tell another friend about the great deals at your store.

Give it a try this season. You will be surprised at how easy it is and you will start using this type of marketing more often.

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Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 2 Comments »

Is SEO Better For Marketing Or Social Media?

Thursday, December 15th, 2011

We hear a lot of information about how social media is a great marketing tool. It is a great marketing tool, but is it better than other marketing tools? It depends on the market and how well you get your information out.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is actually the better way to go for small businesses. A recent Merchant Confidence Survey shows that 35% of small businesses use and are optimized by SEO over the social media marketing. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and others is standing at 16%.

Surprisingly, traditional media such as newspapers, yellow pages and radio advertising are behind the SEO ratings at 19%. The proof is there. More small businesses are utilizing the SEO marketing tool over any other type of marketing.

At the same time, the survey also suggests that 70% of all small businesses do use Facebook over any other social media like Google, LinkedIn, Yahoo and Myspace just to name a few.

It is easy to see why marketing tools, no matter what they are, are very important to a small business website. The more information you get out about your business, the better off you will be. If you can consistently write a blog, interact with people on social media and do traditional advertising, chances are your business will grow even bigger.

If you are just learning the ropes on SEO and how to market your business, think about speaking with a consultant who can give you tips and ideas on the direction you need to go as far as your business is concerned. A new year is just around the corner, and now is the perfect time to start getting something in place for the coming year.

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Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 11 Comments »

Google + Closing The Ranks On Facebook

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

There is a new contender on the block as far as Facebook is concerned. Google has just announced it’s newest product, Google + brand pages. Google+ brand pages look a lot like Facebook’s fan pages for businesses or brands. The platform is still in beta stage but is open to the public.

Since Google+ is still less than a year old, they don’t have the following yet that Facebook has but it’s only be a matter of time. Why, you ask? Simply because of the name, or brand, if you will. The Google name will go a very long way in bringing in numbers.

The new Google + has some of the same styling as Facebook as far as profile, pictures, friends and news pages. Friends are put in circles, such as friends, family, etc. There is also an option to choose the latest news headlines or people you find interesting and add them to your pages as well.

Additionally, Google already has a good grasp on search and other means of keeping track of what people are searching for online. Think about your ad placed on Google +. This alone could be a potentially big boost for your business. Google + is already ahead of the game in this area. More so than Facebook.

On Google + you can start a “hangout.” There is a webcam attached so all of your friends or business acquaintances can get together and visit or talk about business. It seems there will be a little bit of Skype, Facebook and YouTube all rolled into one platform. That will be much simpler than having to tab back and forth between them.

It’s going to be interesting how well Google + is received. For all intents and purposes, it looks like it’s going to be a huge success simply because of the name.

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Posted in Social Media | 2 Comments »

How A Search Online Is Connected To Facebook

Monday, December 12th, 2011

We have been hearing a lot lately about Facebook. What it means to individuals as well as businesses. Most of us understand basically what Facebook is. It is a way to stay connected with family and friends and to keep current on events in their lives. That is correct. What a lot of us don’t understand is how it will actually help businesses just by staying connected with friends.

In nearly every aspect in our lives we depend on the references or opinions of others that we do trust in order to make informed and responsible decisions. This can be something as simple as where to eat to what companies we will trust our personal information on the internet.

That information is what drives the search engines to small businesses. It’s like the old saying “what goes around, comes around.”

For instance, you are chatting with a family member on Facebook. You may be telling them that you need a new roof replaced. They may have used a company from your area that they were very impressed with themselves. They give you the name, but they don’t have any other information. After you get off Facebook, because you trust that family member, you are going to do a search for that particular company, right? Right. That is just one way Facebooking and Search Engines can work together.

Social Media marketing is only going to grow. Make sure your business stays on track by using social media sites to build your business. Start a fan page. It’s just like word of mouth, but it will be word of friends and family. The family and friends of fans of your page will look at your page. Because they trust their family and friends, they will like your page as well. Your audience will only grow. And getting bigger means more sales for your business.

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Posted in Social Media | 3 Comments »

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