Thanksgiving is behind us as well as Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, three of the major shopping days of the year. I hope these events were successful for your business. Now is no time to rest and coast through the last month of the year when it comes to finishing out your holiday season marketing. By making email and online marketing as part of your marketing campaign, you can easily create new and easy ways to market your business.
Here are 12 ideas to make these last weeks a success.
Twitter is such an under used and unappreciated “social network” for business use. In fact, in a survey conducted by Pew Research, only 19 percent of online adults use Twitter verses 71 percent using Facebook. With that said, those businesses not incorporating Twitter with running a major event are missing the mark on attendee involvement before, during and long after the event.
I am going to go a bit off course this month and not focus on just social networks. Why you ask? Well, I'm preparing for my classes at RACC and always read new ebooks and books on marketing to share the latest and greatest. I find myself totally engulfed in a book written by David Meerman Scott called The New Rules of Marketing & PR.
When I ask the question in my classes, “How many businesses in attendance have a Google+ page,” very few hands go up. The answer is that only two out of 10 businesses who have a presence on the internet have claimed their Google+ business page. Yet, Google has created a business page for you to easily claim. Assuming you haven't claimed your page, the question is, “should you?” The answer is, “absolutely!”
When I meet with business owners to discuss their involvement in social networks, I seldom find them using Twitter. Twitter, with its hashtags, retweets, and mentions, doesn’t make sense to them. Well, first of all, Twitter is not really a social network but instead a feed of microblogs. Microblogs are short messages and, in this case, 140 character messages.
There's more than one way for your business to be found through search engines. Businesses who are active on social networks are finding that Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn are showing up as part of their search and sometimes before their website. When social networks are optimized, it is called Social Media Optimization (SMO).
When teaching a class about Social Media Mastery, I find it interesting to see the level of knowledge and involvement when it comes to using social networks as a marketing and sales tool for business. It goes the gammit, from total lack of involvement, to over the top, in your face. To find a balance for social network involvement, is to understand the rules of Social Media Mastery.
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.
