This month’s column is very different from most of my topical social media columns and I will apologies in advance for being a bit on the technical side at times.
The reason for discussion your website’s speed has a direct link to your social media marketing. It’s like this, all the effort you do online with your social media marketing is meaningless if your website visitors come to a site that loads slowly. It’s a known fact that visitors will wait for at the most 5 seconds when visiting a site before moving on to another when doing a random search.
The other day I was with a client who is very social savvy. He's one of my students from a social media course from RACC and credits his continued knowledge from our frequent conversations. These are his nuggets of knowledge. That's what he calls them. I found it interesting that he was so observant to see that Google had changed their platform from Google+ to Get Your Business Online. Yes, they made a very good change.
One of the biggest issues I hear from business owners about being involved with social media and marketing as a whole is, “I don’t have time.” My answer is to take time to plan — which is three quarters of the work.
It’s all about planning.
This year, in an effort to help our clients focus on planning, we created a Marketing Calendar. It includes marketing ideas for a variety of focus areas: marketing with your clients or employees; marketing through social media, your website, through print and outdoor signage; and finally through networking.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO for short is one of those mystifying marketing pieces for business owners. In fact, one of the interesting emails I receive from clients is when they forward me an email that says, “We have noticed that your website needs help in being found when searched on Google.” They wonder if they need to do anything. I always ask them this question, “With the millions of websites online, how did they find your website?” There is usually dead silence on the other end while that question computes.
What is all this hype about Big Data and how can our businesses capitalize on Big Data?
As I was doing some research for a presentation about the trends for 2017, this was mentioned more than once. I was curious as to what it was all about.
Over the past few weeks I've been hosting workshops on Planning Your Marketing and have found the workshops very informative not only for those attending as well as myself. In an effort to extend the reach of our Aha Moments at the workshops, I've included three of the ideas discussed in hopes that you can take advantage of these in building your client base to market your business.
One of the biggest issues I hear from business owners about being involved with social media and marketing as a whole is, “I don’t have time.” My answer is to take time to plan — which is three quarters of the work.
It’s all about planning.
This year, in an effort to help our clients focus on planning, we created a Marketing Calendar. It includes marketing ideas for a variety of focus areas: marketing with your clients or employees; marketing through social media, your website, through print and outdoor signage; and finally through networking.
It’s that time again. Time to take a look at your marketing program for 2016 and create a plan for 2017. One of the things we do with our Pick Your Own Marketing Plan clients is meet with them in November or December to look at any change they may want to do for 2017. We discussed their goals and plans for growth? We review what is currently working and tweak what may not be working or needs improvement.
It is important that your Instagram account is set up as a business profile. With that, you will have access to Insights, a tool to help you understand your audience and the effectiveness of your posts, Stories, and Reels. That information will help you grow.
Check out your Insights to see how your account is preforming. Here are some things you can see there:
Before you put together your strategy for the New Year, here are some quick audit tips. Then, you will have a better understanding of where you need to focus your efforts in 2022.
List your social media platforms:
Do you check each platform regularly for comments?
Is your information up to date?
Are there other places that your ideal client might get information regularly?
Do you know the admins, editors, etc.? It’s time to clean the account up.
Social Media bios help potential customers find you. They can also be the first impression a customer will have about your brand. Make it a good one!
Two factors to keep in mind are the platform and your audience. If you are writing your bio for LinkedIn, it will be more formal and professional than if you are writing it for Facebook or Instagram. For all platforms think about keywords that your ideal customer will be searching for when you write the bio. Someone should read your bio and have a clear understanding of what you will do for them.
Setting SMART goals is an excellent way to focus your social media efforts. Creating goals for the month or quarter helps to dial down your message and measure if it is making an impact. Set aside some time to brainstorm your social media goals. Next look at the goals to see if they meet the criterial below.
• Specific — I want more Facebook followers is not a specific goal. However, I want to increase my Facebook followers by 500 or I want to increase the signups for my newsletter coming from Facebook by 50 percent are specific goals.
I know that most of you aren’t ready to think about the holidays. Guess what? Now is the perfect time to start making a plan. We have no idea what this holiday season will look like, but it is a safe bet that people will be making many online purchases.
Here are the things you should be doing now to set up for your success later.
1. Confirm that all your information is up to date and consistent across social media.
2. Try to build brand awareness through your social media. Use different social media sites like Instagram, Reels Stories, and ads.
The last year has taught business owners the importance of connecting with their customer base. They can do this through social media. Most social media algorithms reward regular postings and engagements. That is important if you want people to find and get updates about your business.
Facebook is a great way to keep your customers informed about new information like changes to your hours. Customers will be more inclined to visit a business that has up to date information. You really do not want people showing up at your business when it is closed because the hours were wrong.
Now more than ever it’s important to have a presence on social media. You can DIY your social media with free tools. There is so much information out there, so here is a quick guide to get you started.
There is no right way to post social media content. Truthfully, you must figure out a system that works for you and be consistent. The best way to stop being overwhelmed is to have a plan. Here are a few tips that might help.
People buy from businesses that they know, like, and trust. One way to increase your trust factor is through Facebook Reviews. Customers can recommend your business to others and leave comments about it.
If you don’t have a review tab on your page, go to Settings then Templates and Tabs. You want to turn on reviews so that they will show up. Now that you have confirmed that your review tab is visible, it’s time to ask for some reviews.
