Market your business effectively with Twitter
If you understand how Twitter works, it might do wonders for your business. How can you drive traffic and build your brand using Twitter? With all the marketing noise being made on social media, it could be challenging for some businesses to stand out. So what steps can you take to add to your audience’s experience online instead of simply being a disruption? Create a successful strategy and leverage Twitter’s power for your business by trying out these tips. Build a profile that stands out If you’re just starting out on Twitter, you want to make your Twitter handle relevant to your company. If your brand name is already used by somebody else, you can add a CTA or an attractive description at the beginning of your company name. For example, your company name is “LuckyABC”, but another company has the same name and is already using it as their Twitter handle, all you need to do is get creative and pick a handle like “ChooseLuckyABC” or “GetLuckyABC”. Don’t forget to refine your description, website link, and location so that your followers will get an immediate idea of what your business is. Build your Twitter followers You can do this by carefully selecting keywords to target. If your Twitter followers are well-defined, increasing their numbers by engaging them will benefit your business. Additionally, if your followers increase, you’ll also get more engagement and clicks through your website. Tweet regularly Consistent tweeting indicates an active, healthy profile. If you tweet only once a week, or worse, once a month, most of your followers will forget about you. You’ve worked hard to get them to follow you, so make an effort to keep them engaged by interacting with them on a regular basis. Make sure you tweet relevant, useful, and interesting information — content your followers will read, retweet, and like. Come up with a tweet schedule and refer to it when you’re running out of ideas. Follow influencers and trends It pays to stay on top of the latest happenings in your industry. Try to put your business in the light by following relevant influencers, hashtags, and trending topics. This way you’ll always have something new to share with your followers. Following industry leaders gives your audience another perspective of your brand. It gives soul to your profile, so that you don’t appear like a cold, lifeless company to your audience. Also consider adding trending hashtags to your tweets in order to reach new users that have similar interests. Use visuals People tend to understand visual content more than text. Try to create a dynamic experience for your Twitter audience by adding different types of media to your tweets, such as images and videos, which are proven to gain more views, clicks, and shares than plain text tweets. Retweet great content Don’t be afraid to retweet when you see something worth sharing with your followers. Retweeting somebody else’s Twitter content has its own benefits — you create a good relationship with other influencers on Twitter, and it shows your followers that you’re an active member of your online community. Track mentions Know what’s being said about you by tracking brand mentions and keywords. This is a great way to provide distinctive customer service or to reach out to new customers. For instance, when someone is tweeting feedback on your products or services, take the opportunity to respond politely. When you see someone tweet about their needs for a specific service, you can jump into the conversation and introduce your company. Integrate with other marketing efforts Twitter is much more effective when integrated with your other marketing activities, such as email subscriptions. For example, if you’re running a promotion or contest via Twitter, let your email subscribers know about it. Since they signed up, they expect to receive notifications and the latest news about your business. If you want to integrate Twitter into your business’s social media marketing campaigns, get in touch with us today. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
Common Facebook marketing mistakes
Facebook has grown rapidly in the past decade and now boasts over two billion monthly active users. These users are constantly liking, sharing, commenting, and posting on the platform. Many businesses see this as an opportunity to grow their customer base so they integrate Facebook advertising into their marketing strategies. To guide you, here’s a list of the most common Facebook marketing mistakes you should avoid. Mistake #1: Treating Facebook like a one-way communication tool The content you post on Facebook should encourage followers to express their thoughts. After all, Facebook is a social media network, which means people use it to connect with friends and communicate with family members. They don’t want to be showered with advertising messages! Instead of talking at customers, talk with them and create dialogues that promote engagement and feedback. Try asking probing questions, sharing fun quizzes, or posting images and videos that get your followers talking. Remember that engaging content has a better chance of going viral and attracting more followers to your profile. Mistake #2: Ignoring follower metrics When it comes to Facebook marketing, the content that works for one page may not work for another page. To figure out what type of posts are resonating with your business’s audience, look at the metrics in your Facebook Insights located in your admin panel. You’ll be able to see the types of posts that rank high on the list (e.g., text, links, images, or videos) and analyze the statistics from there. Mistake #3: Targeting ads poorly While Facebook has more than two billion active users, most of these people don’t want to see your ads! So make sure you use Facebook’s powerful set of audience targeting tools, which allow you to choose potential ad viewers based on their location, age, education, interest, and more. You can even create multiple advertisements to display at different times to various audience groups so you can test and see which ones work best. Mistake #4: Abandoning your audience When it comes to Facebook marketing, consistency matters. People won’t be very impressed if they visit your page and see that your last post was a few months ago. On the other hand, when you post regularly, your followers will get into the habit of expecting posts from you — they might even look forward to them if the content is really good! If you find it hard to stick to a schedule, try using tools that can automate your posting for you like Hootsuite. If you’re not using Facebook to expand your online business presence, you’re missing out on one of the most powerful marketing tools out there. Want more tips on how to expand your business through Facebook? Get in touch today and our experts will be happy to help. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
Represent your business properly on social media
Social media accounts for businesses are invaluable tools enterprises use to reach out to their client bases to fully understand their needs and wants. Make sure your social media manager understands the proper way to interact with people online, especially those with bad things to say about the company. Online reputation management mistakes As long as you have a successful business or brand, people will always have something to say about it. And when it comes to online reputation management, the goal is to create positive engagement with your customers. So if the discussion about your brand swings negative, here are a few online reputation blunders to avoid. Reacting to negative commentary – Negative commentary is generally any commentary that constitutes a verbal attack. As a rule, if it isn’t constructive criticism, it’s probably negative commentary. Feel free to ignore these comments because engaging with them will escalate the conversation further, and fueling those flames are never good for business. It is one thing to stand up for values and principles in a diplomatic manner, and it is a completely different thing to engage in a word war with online commenters who will likely not endure any adverse effects to their negative commentary. Reacting emotionally – If your reaction to negative comments is to fire back with negative comments, you’ll appear unprofessional. Customers want to do business with a brand that is professional. If you react emotionally or negatively to a customer online, who’s to say you wouldn’t do the same in real life to the person reading it? As a social media manager, you are the voice of the business. If your voice is abrasive, immature, and easy to bait into a pissing contest, best believe that your customers will see your business in the same light. How to resolve negative commentary While a negative comment about your brand may upset you, don’t let your emotions get the better of you and post something you’ll later regret. Instead, calm down, compose yourself, and follow these guidelines. Figure out what the customer really wants – Every customer wants their problem to be resolved, but how they want their issue fixed will vary. Some customers want an apology, others want a refund, and some may simply want the product they ordered but did not receive. Just because the customer’s comments are poorly phrased doesn’t mean that they don’t have a legitimate grievance. Learn to ignore the personal attack and carefully draw out the true cause for concern. Stick to the facts – When engaging with a customer online, the initial comment can quickly turn into a back-and-forth discussion. If this happens, don’t get off topic when addressing the problem. The customer may try to engage you in a he-said-she-said battle, but avoid taking the bait. Respond with facts, stick to the matter at hand, and don’t get caught up in personal accusations. Turn the negative into a positive – Negative feedback is an opportunity to improve your business. So be honest with yourself and, if there’s truth in the comment, take a good hard look at your company. Did the commenter point out a glaring problem you can improve upon? Remember, a business is nothing without its customers, so it makes sense to do your best to please them. To learn more about how to best manage your online reputation, or for assistance with any of your IT needs, get in touch with our experts today. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
How to improve your online presence
The 21st century has ushered in a lot of technological advances and has given businesses new ways to reach customers. Using numerous platforms and tools, buyers can now interact with different companies and their products. To make a positive impression online, be sure to do these. Be seen on search results In his book on online reputation management, Tyler Collins, a digital marketing expert for Fortune 500 companies, mentions the importance of a company’s search results that appear after pressing enter. These results make up a company’s reputation online. If you want people to notice you, your organization should appear on the first 10 spots of the first page of the search results. That page should also have a variety of related content about your business like positive reviews, press releases, and customer testimonials that contribute to your credibility. Paint a clear picture of your brand For entrepreneurs, it is best to establish a good online reputation before launching a business. Create a memorable brand, company name, and slogan to help your organization land on the top 10 search results. Thoroughly research potential brand names to ensure that the one you choose has no negative connotation. Get only the best Employ the best people. Hire trustworthy key executives. Customers are not only interested in your products, but they also want to know the people behind them. Make sure that those leading the organization have a clean online reputation. To do this, create short biographies for each executive to help boost your company’s search results. Aim for positive media coverage whenever possible. Everything from blog posts to press releases and memorable quotes will enhance the company’s image. Don’t be shy to ask for help When the going gets rough, turn to specialists to maintain your company’s image. Remember that first impressions last, so investing in expert advice is vital in creating and maintaining your virtual image. We hope you find these four online reputation tips useful. If you need more information on creating a credible online image or want to learn how technology can create a strong online image, give us a call. Our experts are ready to assist you. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
Are you maximizing your social media potential?
Social media as a component of marketing is continuously growing its own significant heartbeat in the industry — so much so that many businesses nowadays make exclusive use of it for their advertising and promotional needs. Having great content on your site is the magnet that attracts visitors. However, when there is too much competition on the most popular platforms, it can be difficult to drive results based on social media reputation alone. To reap rewards from social media marketing, you need to devise new methods and augment your strategy with social media tools to stand out from the crowd. Meetup Meetup is a great site to plan face-to-face meetings with people with similar interests. Does your company sell hiking, camping, and backpacking products? Organize a meetup for the people in your community to go on a hike. You really can’t get a better customer interaction than engaging with them through the activities they love. Eventbrite Eventbrite is a formal events planning platform that helps you organize, plan, and market your event, along with an added bonus: recruitment potential. You can easily market yourself as an expert in an industry to either attract freelancers or educate potential customers about the problems you aim to solve for them. Answer Forums Popular answer forums such as Yahoo! Answers, Quora, and even certain Reddit sub-channels such as /r/askmeanything or /r/whatisthisthing let netizens crowdsource information about certain industries or products. Many companies use these to promote their brand by answering questions, most especially those that are within their expertise. This helps establish credibility and organic connection with prospective clients. Disqus Disqus is a great way to facilitate dialogue while protecting privacy and upholding etiquette and other standards. You can embed Disqus onto your online content such as videos or blog articles so that people can voice out their concerns or opinions but in a way that helps prevent flaming (the act of deliberately insulting or provoking other people online). Disqus lets moderators monitor and regulate responses closely so that the conversation remains civil and productive. Slack Most people who use the messaging app Slack see it as a way to communicate with friends and coworkers. However, with a little creativity, you can join conversations from all over the world to boost your online presence. There are countless channels devoted to industries, categories, hobbies and more. All you have to do is insert yourself and your company into the conversation to get people talking about your business! It’s hard to deny that technology has made our lives more complicated. It can feel a little overwhelming at times. Thankfully, the answer is simple: partner with a managed technology provider. For a never-ending source of information on reputation and social media management, get in touch with us today. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
How to make buyers out of Instagram followers
Instagram has become one of the most popular social networks to date. One billion active users consume its image-heavy content every day. Aside from it being a photo-sharing app with fun filters, Instagram has demonstrated its capability to turn your followers into customers. Make the most out of your Instagram account with these practical tips. Ensure your posts are shoppable This simply means providing a convenient path where your followers can buy the products posted on your page. With the right Instagram tool, you can direct users to your online shop where they can make an actual purchase. Instagram is, arguably, not the best eCommerce platform to use if you depend on clickable media, but if you know how to tweak the app to your advantage — and provide an attractive presentation of your products — you can turn likes into sales. Give away discount codes or coupons Encourage followers to engage with you and share content with incentives such as discount codes or coupons. You can do this by running contests with an interesting concept, cool prizes, and a sharing or voting element that encourages participants to share your content with their friends. Better yet, engage followers with user-generated content via photo contests, resulting in free promotion for your brand. Come up with a strong call to action (CTA) Instagram doesn’t exactly have the most mobile-friendly CTAs, but don’t let this prevent you from sending followers to your sales page. Whether it’s telling them to go to the link on your bio or simply incorporating a shoppable Instagram feature on your page, specific instructions on how to buy or learn more about your product can spell the difference between making a sale and being ignored. Post frequently and make the most of all available tools Post photos using stylish filters, create snappy and quirky videos, or let your followers take a friendly behind-the-scenes peek at your organization using the Stories feature. Come up with a catchy and relatable caption that encourages participation and engages your core audience. Also important: always use hashtags on your posts. Any business Instagrammer worth his or her salt knows that a simple hashtag can pave the way for other users to reach your content and, ultimately, buy your product. Repost content from brands in your niche There may be instances when you won’t need to create your own Instagram content (especially if you lack the time to produce your own). Other accounts may already be successful in their efforts to engage your target audience, and there’s nothing wrong with reposting content from similar brands as part of your strategy to earn exposure for your account, as long as you ask permission and give credit where it’s due. Search for brands in Instagram that inspire you and your target audience but are not direct competitors. You can use hashtags to help narrow the search and display the most relevant accounts. Follow these brands, and save any share-worthy posts in a collection with the bookmark icon. When you find an Instagram post that is worth sharing, either comment on the post or send a private message to the account, and mention that you like the content and you think your followers will enjoy it too. Ask for permission to share the post on your feed, and assure the owner you’ll give them proper credit. With some creativity, visual flair, and a well-defined strategy, these tips can help transform your Instagram feed into an attractive online sales generator. If you need further advice on how you can make the most of your social media presence, contact us and we’ll be happy to help. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
How to boost your SMB’s social media presence
Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) nowadays are more competitive than ever. As an SMB owner, you’re probably constantly looking for ways to boost your social media presence, outdo your competitors, and increase profits. Here are some ways to do that. Create buyer personas Social media data is a great tool to gather information about your potential customers, and in doing so, create buyer personas. Buyer personas are comprised of generalized characters that help build an ideal picture of your business in the market. Key demographic information includes age, location, and even reasons for buying and product-related concerns. Come up with and implement a media crisis management plan It’s normal for businesses to go through a crisis or two. Avoid embarrassing public relations nightmares by having a social media crisis management plan in place and ready for implementation. Track the impact of your content marketing When it comes to content marketing efforts like blogging and social media, it’s essential to have a system to measure results. You can measure how these efforts impact your brand awareness by using metrics such as social media reach, brand mentions, media mentions, and branded searches. Integrate user-generated content on social media Businesses can use social media to interact with consumers. This includes sharing some of consumers’ content on your own channels. Not only is user-generated content more cost-efficient, but it also shortens the customer’s path to purchase. Use Hootsuite to manage Twitter chats A Twitter chat happens when you use Twitter to talk about a common interest with others during a preset time. It’s like an online chatroom where you add to the discussion by tweeting. Efficiently managing tweets and responses is integral. Fortunately, applications like Hootsuite simplify the whole process. Hootsuite easily monitors, searches, and saves Twitter chats onto the Hootsuite dashboard for future reference. Create better live broadcasts Livestreaming on social media platforms such as Facebook, Periscope, and Instagram is quickly gaining popularity. Before starting a livestream for your business, take time out to practice and prepare an outline before you roll the cameras. Don’t forget to promote it prior to the broadcast, and make sure you come up with a short and catchy video description. All SMBs are fighting for the same thing: the consumer’s attention. Business owners can’t afford to just blend into the background; if you don’t make a good, lasting impression, you might lose out on an opportunity to make money. And if you’re relying on social media and content marketing strategies to help you, make sure you are doing it right. If you have further questions, feel free to contact us! Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
How do I create an effective Facebook ad?
Facebook has uses that go way beyond posting cat photos, complaining about restaurants, or stalking your ex — it’s also an incredibly effective advertising platform. From small businesses to big corporations, anyone can benefit from Facebook’s marketing tools. Read on to leverage Facebook to your advantage. Why advertise on Facebook? Above all else, the cost-effectiveness of Facebook advertising sets it apart from other marketing channels. The starting cost is as low as $1 per day, which is ideal for SMBs that want to test small campaigns before investing more. Beyond its affordability, Facebook advertising is also extremely effective. With 6 billion monthly active advertisers and the ability to nail down your audience to the most specific details — including their interests and online behavior — it’s no surprise that Facebook advertising has the best return on investment (ROI) compared with other social media platforms. Before you get started As with other traditional marketing campaigns, you need to determine your marketing objectives, audience, budget, and how you want your ads to look like. Once you have the answers to all those questions, you’re ready to create your first ad. Follow this step-by-step guide: 1. Choose your marketing objective From your business profile page, click Ad Center from the top menu. Then, click Create Ad on the page that appears. Choose your “marketing objective.” This is what you want people to do when they see your ads. You can pick only one from three options: brand awareness, lead generation, or store visits. Then, set up your advert account by selecting your account country, currency, and time zone. 2. Nail down your audience You can tailor your audience based on location, age, gender, language, interest and behavior, and the kind of relationship they already have with your page, app, or website. It’s best to be as specific as possible when selecting your audience. 3. Set up your budget and posting schedule Facebook allows you to set up a daily or lifetime budget. The latter is the maximum amount you plan to spend for an entire ad campaign. Then choose the frequency or the start and end dates in which your ads will appear. 4. Design how your ads will look Choose how your ad posts will look like to your audience, such as whether they will appear as an image carousel, a single image, a video, a slideshow, or a “canvas” (a new format for mobile users that combines video, carousels, images, and text into one interactive ad). Note that your ad will consist of five parts: an image, a headline, a block of text, a link description, and a call to action button such as “Buy now,” “Sign up today,” and the like. Tips on designing Facebook ads that grab people’s attention Your ads will appear in people’s newsfeeds, so make sure your content is interesting and succinct enough to grab their attention as they scroll past it. Each component of your ad — the image, headline, link description, and call to action — must stand out when surrounded by vacation photos that rarely receive more than a few seconds of attention. Creating a Facebook ad is simple, yet the beauty of it is that Facebook also allows for more advanced targeted advertising if you know how to take advantage of what the platform has to offer. Talk to our specialists today; they’ll be happy to share a few pointers on how to achieve the best results from your campaigns. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
Which social media platform is best for you?
Finding the right channel to promote one’s business is a growing challenge in the digital age, with social media acting as an indispensable business tool. The question is, what else can you do aside from updating your status? Here are five ways to help you enhance your social media marketing. Social media has helped businesses not only to cut down on customer service costs, but also to cut corners in their marketing efforts. For you to get the most out of social media, you need to evaluate which tools work best in our industry, how much of your time a social media project is worth, and how to apply common best practices. 1. Choose the right platform Since the internet offers a buffet of free, easy-to-use platforms, it’s tempting to sign up for all of them. Without due prudence, however, you might find yourself managing more accounts than you have time for. Ask yourself these questions before choosing which platform to use: Who is my target customer and what channels do they use? What do I hope to gain by opening a social media account? What kind of content do I want to share and create? How much time can I devote to social media management? Investing more time in fewer platforms helps you monitor the more important areas of your business. 2. Know when to update Are most of your customers online at 8:00 am or 8:00 pm? With a better understanding of your target users’ habits, you can schedule your posts so they create more traffic, increase brand engagement and, eventually, generate new leads and customers. Although the best time to post content changes based on your industry, location, and other factors, these are the most successful times on average: Facebook: 1:00 pm-3:00 pm on Thursday and Friday Twitter: 3:00 pm-8:00 pm, Monday to Friday for B2B and Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday for B2C organizations YouTube: 12:00 pm-3:00 pm, Thursday to Sunday LinkedIn: 8:00 am-5:00 pm, Monday to Friday 3. Use attractive, professional-looking visuals One of the simplest ways to get followers to share your posts is by uploading high-quality photos, videos, and infographics along with your messages. Studies have shown that Facebook posts with images result in 39% more engagement, while tweets with images or videos create 200% more engagement. 4. Engage with your followers It’s important for businesses to maintain a healthy back-and-forth on social media. This means beyond sharing useful content, you should also respond to their comments and private messages as quickly as possible. You can build stronger relationships with customers by writing thank you comments to anyone who shared positive experiences with your business and by addressing negative comments with personalized and helpful responses. 5. Pump the brakes on promotional materials Although social media is a valuable tool, it’s important not to muddy the water with too many promotional posts. A rule of thumb for social media promotions is that 80% of your posts should be shareable and interactive content, while the remaining 20% should be about your business. This will result in more engagement, a more consistent brand image, and a healthier bottom line. Social media can help your business succeed, but only if it’s used correctly and effectively. If you’re interested in adopting the right social media platform to increase engagement and create a stronger brand reputation, contact us today and we’ll help you get started. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
How to manage Google reviews
Google is shaking things up yet again. Reviews from sites like Facebook and Yelp will now be displayed in search results with well-placed keywords and link-worthy content. Here’s how you can efficiently manage your business’s reviews How Google changed search results Google now automatically aggregates and includes online reviews to display in the Knowledge Panel found on the right side of the search results. This useful panel displays information like address, hours, web address, and more. Which review sites does Google include? Relevant sites vary between industries, so if, for instance, you manage a restaurant, reviews from Yelp or Zagat will likely be displayed next to your online listings. If your business is a bit more niche, however, there are a few steps you can take to determine which review sites affect you. To determine these sites, go to Google and type the following: “[your company name] reviews” – to locate sites that already have reviews on your business “[industry] reviews” – to determine industry reviews sites you should be listed on “[industry + location] reviews” – to find review boards where you can boost your local presence Then, list the review sites you found on the first page of each search query and categorize them based on their search ranking and your company’s current rating on them. After creating the list, write down an objective for each review site. This can range from getting listed on the site to improving your rating. To narrow down your choices, focus your review-generating efforts on the five most popular websites on your list, especially those that include negative reviews of your business. Getting reviews Regardless of your objectives for managing reviews, the most important thing is for people to write reviews about your products and services. With that in mind, here are a few strategies to encourage people to rave about your business. Send follow-up emails You could send a short message thanking them for purchasing your product or service, with a request for a review. Simplify the review process Many customers skip writing reviews due to the complex steps and instructions involved. You need to simplify this process by having a review site widget that customers can easily access, asking them to comment on your service before they leave your website. Offer rewards for reviews Another way to encourage people to rate your business is by presenting them with a chance to win free goods or services if they submit a review. There are a lot of steps involved in managing your online reputation, but starting early is the key to enhancing your SEO, attracting new customers, and improving your bottom line. Contact us today if you need more advice on climbing up Google’s search rankings or tips on social media management. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.