The Starting Point for Small Business Marketing

When you decide to start a business, one thing is immediately obvious: you are your own boss. This is usually symbolic of the unshackling from the demands of workplace discourse, but every new business owner quickly falls off of their high horse into a pit of demands to which they are solely accountable for.  All of a sudden you are in charge of the product, promotions, advertising, payroll, and most importantly, marketing. Fortunately, marketing has transformed how business is done thanks to social media. In fact, even the most successful businesses are becoming increasingly reliable on the marketing power of resources such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to name a few.  Small business owners and first-time entrepreneurs must become familiar with this newly popular outlet if they want to get in the game, stay in the game, and be competitive. So what’s the big deal with this seemingly impersonal marketing tool? Here’s our big three!

Traffic! Traffic! Traffic!

Traffic is to business what location is to real estate. It is imperative that your business drives traffic. If you are not interacting with your potential customers, clients, and consumers regularly you are doing a disservice to your business. Social media provides the perfect platform to engage. Whether you are posting once a day or multiple times a day, posting is what will spark interest. The more interesting content you post, the more likely you are to drive people to your website and find out more about your business and what services you have to offer. 

Hashtags are particularly important to expanding your reach beyond the set number of people who are following you. Don’t know what a hashtag is? Hashtags are keywords relevant to the corresponding image, text, or information that you post on a social media outlet. It is always preceded by the “pound” or “number” sign. For example, if you are starting a real estate business and you posted a home for sale on Instagram, you can hashtag words like #realestate #buying #selling to allow your image to populate on those pages. The idea is, if someone is looking for home, they can search the hashtag and browse your social media page. This method is quick, easy, free, and effective. Hashtags aren’t the only way to drive traffic to your page and subsequently your website. You can team up with other business owners and agree to promote each other. These tactics are likely to increase traffic to your business pages and website and are quite interactive.

Engagement

Equally important to any business is feedback. If you want to know if your business model is working, you ask. Social media puts you in direct contact with the people you intend to serve. Post questionnaires and ask for product feedback to find out how your product is doing or why the service your offering is helpful to some people and not others. Having an interactive platform is beneficial to molding your business for success. It is one thing to have input from shareholders and investors, but when consumers are telling you what they like or don’t like, there is a lot more weight in their words.

Engagement does not only help you to evaluate and shape your business, it also helps to gain it. This can be accomplished by interacting with your followers. People want to know they are being heard. If someone comments, make an effort to respond. If you are consistent you will gain customers and clients. The key to mastering engagement on social media is creativity and consistency, so be sure to run trials. Be observant to what posts garner the most “likes” and what posts are less popular. Use these statistics to guide your posts.

Branding

One of the primary goals of marketing is to be recognizable and  stand out among your competitors. Social media facilitates branding goals such as recognition and loyalty. Any opportunity you have to post your logo or assert your brand, you should use it. In doing so, you will increase your visibility and enforce familiarity with your audience. Using social media to promote your brand will also keep existing customers engaged. As previously mentioned, the more you engage with your audience, the more likely they are to remain customers and fans.

Social media marketing may not be the hot topic forever, but it is the hot topic now. Don’t let your business fall through the cracks. It may take some time to get acquainted with social media discourse, but once you master it your business will flourish. 

The Video Marketing Advantage

Content marketers are claiming 2016 to be the year of the video. As marketing strategies continue to embrace the hot new trends in the online community, video marketing has risen above the fray in terms of reach and impact on target markets.  Videos can be used in a multitude of ways – from comedy to educational, to reach customers at critical points along the buying life cycle and build ongoing relationships with users. In addition to this, there are many other reasons why video marketing can be beneficial to your business.

The Age of Information Overload

These days, most people who frequent the internet are bombarded with information from social media, and mixed in with it is advertisers trying to cut through the noise to get their products and

services noticed. With the rise of 140 character tweets and 10 second Snap Chats, it’s hard to get users to pay attention to anything for any length of time. Videos are way to get your information out there in short bursts so that users get relevant information without too much effort on their part. It’s easier for brains to consume and process visual content rather than taking in a wall of text, so making a video visually appealing with audio enhancements will take your message to the next level. Your videos can range from customer testimonials and product demonstrations, to funny and creative ads that showcase your business.

Social Media Reach

Most internet users have at least one social media account that they check regularly, so social media is the best place to be for advertisers online.  While YouTube is the most well-known website for video watchers, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have enhanced the way videos are watched on their apps and websites to keep up with the video trend by enabling videos to be played directly in news feeds so users can easily watch without being directed away from the platform.

Posting videos on social media pages can reach thousands, and potentially millions, of people and it costs nothing to do so. If you’re a small business with only a small social media following, paid social media campaigns can broaden your reach very inexpensively. You’ll get more people watching your videos, which can translate into more followers and, potentially, more business.

The Viral Potential

We’ve all seen the work of viral videos – they appear seemingly out of the blue on your Facebook timeline and subsequently get continuously shared across all social media platforms. There’s no magic potion in making a video go viral, most times it’s just a mix of creativity, engaging content, and luck. But the potential is there for anyone to make a video that catches on and becomes a trending topic and, even if it only lasts for a day, a viral video can do wonders for your business. Users are more likely to share a video over any other content on social media, so it’s a great tool to get your business noticed.

While you may have to invest some time and money into video production, the result are videos that highlight your business and can be shared across social media, and have a permanent place on YouTube and your website as a way for users to get quick insight into what makes your business special. 

Tips On Making a Video Go Viral

In the realm of online marketing, few objectives are more desirable or downright elusive than the viral video. Like the vicissitudes of the stock market, the popularity of any online video depends on the personal tastes and sentiments of millions of unique individuals, and is thus difficult to predict. However, there are a few tactics you can employ to improve your chances of achieving virality.

Insights from past viral video trends

According to research by marketing technology company Unruly, some of the most important factors that drive video sharing are

1)  social motivations, including the desire to start a conversation, seek friends’ opinions,  offer useful information, or support a good cause;

2)  a positive emotional response to the video;

3)  the participation of “super sharers”—a minority of internet users who are responsible for around 80 percent of total shares; and

4)  timing.

On average, the greater the total volume of shares a video receives in the first two days of its existence, the higher its viral peak, which typically arrives 48 to 72 hours post-launch. Unruly’s data suggest that most sharing activity occurs in the latter half of the work week, and that Wednesday is the optimal sharing day. Marketers hoping to ride this weekly wave should post their video by Wednesday or sooner. Avoid posting on weekends or holidays.

Combine entertainment with a message.

Mekanism, an advertising agency with offices in New York and San Francisco, has produced and marketed several viral videos. Among the most famous was the 2012 offering Hovercat, designed to encourage adoption of cats on behalf of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).

Mekanism sums up its philosophy on viral videos with the phrase “candy with the medicine”—in other words, entice viewers with the promise of entertainment, and complement that with a substantive message. In the case of Hovercat, Mekanism’s creative team began by identifying a theme they figured would make people smile (a zany cat often does the trick), and then developed their own creative take on a classic viral video genre. (Your feline companion may humorously knock items off tables or fend off alligators, but can it hover in the air like Superman?)

Hovercat concludes by noting that the cat in the video was adopted from the ASPCA, and links to the organization’s website.

Market and distribute the video actively

To achieve virality, you must fulfill two conditions: 1) content that viewers find engaging and worth sharing; and 2) widespread exposure.

Before you go through the technical process of recording a video, you should develop a clear marketing strategy, and consider how the video will help you reach your goal. Immediately after you post the video, intensify your marketing efforts.

Writing in Medium about her first big hit Girl Learns to Dance in a Year (TIME LAPSE), viral video specialist Karen X. Cheng explains: “I did a ton of marketing, and it started before the video was released. Going viral was not an accident—it was work.”

Cheng started by posting the video on Facebook and Twitter, then submitted it to Reddit and Hacker News. She asked friends and acquaintances to share it, and reached out to dancers and dance bloggers. Shortly thereafter, writers at Kottke, Mashable, Jezebel, and Huffington Post penned articles about the video. By day three, Girl Learns to Dance in a Year (TIME LAPSE) appeared on the front page of Youtube, and had achieved nearly 2 million views.

Cheng emphasizes the importance of a brief, catchy title, and—modern attention spans being what they are—recommends keeping the video short and sweet, preferably under two minutes.

The Ingredients of a Compelling Newsletter

If you’re on one or more online mailing lists, you probably receive periodic e-mail newsletters. You

may also find some of them more inviting than others—because the good ones feature engaging content, are relevant to your life, offer useful advice and information, or a combination of the foregoing. The others likely make their way posthaste to your deleted box.

Read on for practical advice on getting the most out of newsletters, and avoiding the epidemics of non-reading and auto-deletion.

Stay in touch with people on your mailing list. What do current and potential customers want to read about?

If you know any of your customers or clients personally, raise the subject of your business’s newsletter and solicit their opinion. Chances are that if one of more newsletter recipients is keen to hear more about a particular subject, product, or aspect of your business, other people on the mailing list will be interested in the same thing.

Once in a while, it may also be a good idea to include a brief survey in the newsletter, seeking feedback on particular items and articles. The results won’t necessarily illustrate what all of your readers are looking for (since those readers inclined to fill out surveys aren’t necessarily representative of your entire readership), but they should give you a good idea of what’s working and what isn’t.

 

Punchy subject line and title lines.

Seek out the most compelling piece of information from the newsletter to form your e-mail’s subject line. The titles that link to articles in the newsletter also need to be eye-catching in order to entice would-be readers to click on them. Aim for brevity and impact.

Quality content from elsewhere.

No one has a monopoly on good ideas, and in the blogosphere, there is no such thing as a monopoly on quality content. Keep an eye on blogs and news related to your industry, and share posts and information you feel will resonate with your readership and enhance your business’s reputation. If your company enjoys positive press coverage, link to that too. (However, keep descriptions short and avoid penning wordy, self-congratulatory articles. Most people won’t read past the first couple of sentences.)

Mobile compatibility.

The internet is evolving rapidly from a stationary medium to a roving one, and your newsletter must be versatile enough to accommodate the shift. Concentrate on economizing words, and developing content that delivers the core message without undue delay. Break lengthy paragraphs down into brief, digestible segments. Use a large font for titles and sub-headings, and aim to make each less than ten words long, if possible.

Finally, preview your newsletter on a computer and on a mobile device before you disseminate it. Make sure it reads well, and that there is no need to scroll horizontally in order to read all or most of the content in each article. The internet is full of well designed websites and online publications, and horizontal scrolling irritates some people enough that they may be tempted to move on after just a few seconds.

Consistent scheduling.

Choose a time of the month, week, or every two weeks to distribute the newsletter, and stick to it. If the content you offer is worth reading, then the people on the mailing list will look forward to the next issue, and some may even set aside a few minutes to peruse it when it comes out. You can show respect for their time by releasing new editions right on schedule.

The Write Way: Effective Business Writing

It’s hard to overstate the importance of effective writing to the success of a business endeavour. The words you choose to describe your idea, product, or service can make or break a prospective transaction, and attract or repel clients. Furthermore, proficiency in writing can make the difference between being perceived as a consummate professional, or an overweening amateur.

The basics always matter

In the era of spell-check, it’s easier to avoid egregious spelling errors than it was in the past. But there is a pitfall: when we rely on technology to correct our mistakes for us, we risk indulging in complacency—which can yield errors of a different kind. Nowadays, “correct” misspellings crop up frequently, like the following:

Delivery service is available in over one hundred countries, on six contents.

...a conveniently located house with an ensuite bathroom and specious kitchen.

Some misspellings/grammar mistakes are distressingly common, even among highly educated people:

The French Revolution lead to the ascendancy of Napoleon Bonaparte.

It is always important to chose one’s words wisely.

For more on grammatical faux pas, see this page at Copyblogger, and this (more advanced) one at Lit Reactor. Where spelling is concerned, this comic strip at The Oatmeal is both humorous and instructive.

Proofread your work, twice

As an entrepreneur, you are certainly conversant with time pressure and tight deadlines. But there is no substitute for carefully proofreading your work. Pay particular attention to your company website and social media, the foundations of your brand. Don’t underestimate the value of a disinterested second pair of eyes; ask someone you trust, with strong spelling and grammar skills, to peruse your work before you publish it. A credible reputation for attention to detail is a priceless asset in the business world—sloppy writing, on the other hand, is a red flag.

Aim for clarity and economy of words

If there is a rule of thumb for effective writing, it is that clarity and economy of words nearly always yield a superior final product. Whenever you write something, ask yourself: “Could I convey this concept more clearly, or in fewer words?” You may be surprised at how often the answer is “Yes.”

Think of yourself as a journalist who is attempting to shoehorn information into a limited word-count, highlighting the most salient details.

Show, don’t tell

Adjectives can be useful and illustrative in proper measure, but many prospective customers are wary of being “over-sold.” Accordingly, err on the side of too few adjectives rather than too many; emphasize the tangible properties and past successes of the product or service you offer. Testimonials from satisfied customers can be useful in this regard. What particular want or need does your product fill? How, exactly?

Know, and cater to, your readership

Understand the level of familiarity of your prospective clients with your product. Avoid jargon wherever feasible, and use your discretion in clarifying ideas and defining terms.

Clients will invariably ask questions, and some queries may arise repeatedly. Keep a list of those that recur, and set up a FAQ page on your website.

Read in your spare time

One of the surest ways to enhance any skill is to learn from others who excel at it. Read widely—news, press releases, literature, magazine articles. Reading will help you expand your vocabulary, learn new figures of speech, build linguistic precision, and gain general knowledge. Staying abreast of current events and the latest advancements in your industry is useful for networking purposes, too. The more you can impress people with your expertise, and your ability to articulate it, the more your prospective client base will grow.

Google and High Quality Content

Love it or hate it, Google is the dominant force when it comes to ranking your company's website. That ranking is registered when a prospect types in a keyword to find something they're looking for like "dentist in East Lansing" or "T-shirts in Fort Lauderdale." Google wants to reward it's users by presenting the most relevant websites at the top of their ranking page.

There aren't any "Google elves" sitting there answering keyword searches. Instead, an algorithm is activated for every search. Throughout the years, Google has tweaked the algorithm to make it better at finding great websites for the respective search results. They keep the algorithm a secret as many companies try to game it in order to be ranked higher. However, there are general rules that Google has outlined what a relevant website should follow in order to be ranked high.

According to Matt Cutts, Head of Google’s WebSpam team, fresh, relevant content is the foundation for high rankings. So, how does Google tell if a web page has high quality content? Consider these factors:

Duplicate Content

Google performs an instantaneous scan and recognizes just as fast whether or not a web site has overlapping and/or redundant content on your site. They look to see if you’ve copied content from other sites by checking the age of the content and percentage of similar content when comparing sites. Here is where your inclusion of keywords could actually come back to haunt you, especially if they are being overused. Does this mean you should abandon those keywords? Absolutely not. However, you might also want to freshen up your existing content if your keyword phrases all appear to be using the same phrasing.  

Quality Content

Google is looking for quality. When it can deliver that to its users then those users will come back for more. Is your content well written? Are there grammar or spelling errors? Does it read like a robot wrote the piece? There are many quality content writers out there who can deliver engaging content. If you don't have the skills, hire someone who does. One way Google measures quality content is through tracking how long an user stays on the page. If they arrive on the page and leave immediately, Google knows that the page wasn’t relevant to the search query, or that the website content wasn’t good.

Relevant Content

Here is where you need to search out the competition. Pretend you're a customer and Google the same keywords you hope someone would use to look for your site. What businesses come up on the first ranking page? More importantly, why did those sites come up first? Take the time to study those pages to see what they are doing right in terms of content, titles and headers. This is what you should be striving for.

Viral Content

The best type of content is something that will be shared. Whether that is an infographic, top ten list or really cool photo, if you can get viewers to bookmark or share that piece then you're spreading your message further across the web. Information and humor are two solid items that can make a piece of content go viral. If you can add a short, funny video all the better!

When you get right down to it, it's not rocket science. It's all about quality. 

Tips on Creating a Good Infographic

Infographics are a fun and quick way to learn about any topic without any heavy reading. There are many reasons why infographics are often better than just writing a blog post. They range from:

- Providing a data-rich visualization of a story or   thesis

- A great visual tool to educate and inform that is easily shared

- And a great way to build brand awareness that can be at a lower cost due to the viral sharing opportunities.

When done right, the infographic is a bold and fun way to present information about a subject. It's something you can quickly scan, presenting data-rich information visually.

The best type of infographic is one that can be shared across many websites. If you're the company that has created that popular infographic then you should be able to benefit from increased traffic, as users will want to learn more.

Adding an infographic to your website isn't as complicated as you think. Start with Googling "infographic templates." From there you'll want to follow the following tips on creating a good infographic:

Tip #1: Get the Right Data Source

The most important component in an infographic is the actual "info." This means you need to find a legitimate source for all your data points. Thanks to all the published studies, surveys and research it shouldn't be hard to collect the data points you need to support the purpose of your infographic. You could even borrow data from another infographic. Just make sure that you source your data within the content of your infographic.

Tip #2: Get the Right Designer

Although you might find a free template for your infographic that doesn't mean you'll have the skills to get the job done. Instead of driving yourself crazy, look for a terrific graphic artist who has experience creating these kinds of pieces. Yes, this is an investment but it's no different than paying for original content. As you shop around for a graphic artist you might find some who will do the job for a flat fee while others work on an hourly rate. Don't hesitate to check out their portfolios before committing to hiring them.

Tip #3: Get the Right Wireframe

Your infographic wireframe is essentially the outline of the story your want to tell. You have your data points. Now you want to lay them out in an order that provides the information in a compelling way for the viewer. Remember an infographic is vertical so build your story with a engaging beginning, middle and conclusion. In terms of the number of data points, six seems to be what generates the most follow-up Tweets. Make sure your logo and website information is included at the bottom of the graphic.

Tip #4: Get the Right Headline

All your hard work won't amount to anything unless it gets read. That's where a strong headline comes into play. This is your hook. Research has shown that most viewers are attracted to number headlines like "Top Ten" or "Five Best" etc. If you can work in numbers to your headline you'll be ahead of the game.

Tip #5: Get the Right Promotion Tools

Before you're ready to send your infographic out into cyberspace make sure you've got embed code that will make sharing this piece as simple as a click. You should then search for the blogs that would appreciate the information that you're sharing. Set up a targeted email campaign for the high PR blogs. Those blogs will be happy to use your content to fill up their pages.

Don't believe that? Google "Marvel vs. DC" infographic to see how many sites are sharing this single piece about which comic book company has better box office results. Hopefully, your infographic will have the same potential to go viral. 

DreamWorks Buys YouTube Channel for $33 Million

The popular kid's YouTube channel  AwesomenessTV was recently bought by DreamWorks for a hefty $33 million.

Never heard of AwesomenessTV?

Chances are if you have a youngster in the house with access to YouTube they know all about Awesomeness.

This is a distinct YouTube channel with 500,000 subscribers. It's kind of like an online version of Nickelodeon that with great video content. Now all the DreamWorks characters from such features as Shrek, Kung Fu Panda and How To Train Your Dragon will have a steady outlet. It's the perfect cross promotion for future releases and merchandise. This is the first purchase of a single YouTube channel to a major media company.

"AwesomenessTV is one of the fastest growing content channels on the internet today and our acquisition of this groundbreaking venture will bring incredible momentum to our digital strategy," said DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.

This deal is all the more awesome considering that this channel has only been up and running for two years. All of this points out the growing important of online video content. Consider these factoids:

• A Cisco Systems survey finds that 40% of all consumer internet traffic is for online videos. They predict that number will reach 62% by 2015.

• YouTube receives close to 3 billion views per day. That equals to about half the world's entire population watching a video at least once a day.

• Comscore.com has found that within the past year there was a 66% increase of video viewing on mobile platforms such as Smartphones and pads.

How can you put this power to work for your company? Obviously you have to consider adding video content to your company website. Those videos can simultaneously be uploaded to your own YouTube channel for cross promotion. Here are some thoughts about making a valuable video.

Give it a purpose. Before you think of putting anything on tape, think about why you're doing this. Do you need to introduce a new product? Are you providing helpful "how to?" Are you hoping to drive traffic to your company's online store? All of the above? Work out your strategy because that will inform every decision you make.

Tell a story. Your online video might not become a blockbuster like "Iron Man 3" but you still want to have a strong beginning, middle and end even if you're merely demonstrating how to plant a tomato garden. Try not to present information in a static way. Think of all that you're competing against that is already online. Make your video entertaining.

Get the right pace. Most experts will tell you that a three-minute video is the optimum time. There are some circumstances where you need more time to tell your "story" but be aware of the limited attention span of all your potential viewers. There is just too much else to do on line.

Strive for quality. You know when something looks cheap. That's what you want to avoid. Thankfully, technology has allowed us to shoot and edit high-end videos right on our phone. The key is not to rush. If something looks or sounds cheesy, how do you think that will reflect on your company?

The hope is to go viral with your company video. That way you get tons of marketing for free. Start paying attention to other company videos and what is deemed viral.

How can you utilize those ideas for your video? Who knows? You might just be creating the next YouTube sensation! 

Create Your Own Videos to Help Your Customers

Can creating an online video help your business? Consider the facts: ComScore released a study that found a whopping 82.5% of American Internet users viewed a video online. Another report found that in 2010, 30% of Internet traffic was video content.

By this year, that number can go up to 90%. Next to Google, YouTube is the biggest search engine on the net. There are over 60 hours of video uploaded every single minute for a total of around 4 billion videos being posted every day.

About 800 million users stop by YouTube every month. That's an amazing range of audience to try and tap into and that is just YouTube.

In the business arena, consumers spend more time at a website watching a video as opposed to a site without that type of content. More folks would rather watch a video than read text so how can you tap into potential customer base?

That's easy: You have to create your own videos. If you're not convinced yet, consider these other factors:

Videos can be the best way to convey a lot of information.

A video can deliver a lot of messages in a short amount of time. This is especially important when it comes to company branding. Writing blog posts will only take you so far. With a video, you can reinforce the positive attributes of your company's product in a memorable way.

Make videos with humor and you'll go even further in terms of brand retention. You'll also be able to form your company's personality through your video presentations. That's going to be extremely valuable.

Videos can have multiple uses.

A video docked on your website can be a terrific asset, but a good video has a broad range of uses. It can be purposed on YouTube and other sites to bring traffic back to your site. The video can also be embedded in an email newsletter or used in a sales presentation.  

Videos are what your customers want.

Consider the tale of two websites. One has fun videos and the other just copy. Which one will get more engagement? The one with videos. If you want to keep your customers engaged give them what they want and that would be video content. In other words, if you're not making videos your competitor will.

Videos will continually be useful.

There are some studies that declare by 2014, the vast majority of mobile data traffic will be video. Every Smartphone and pad device has the capability to watch videos. By creating this type of content you'll be positioning your company to be "on the go" wherever your customers are headed. 

How to Build Your Social Media Strategy

What is your social media strategy? If the answer is, "I don't have a social media strategy" then you better get on board. Even casual users of sites like Facebook or Twitter can see how successful companies are utilizing these platforms to expand their customer base. Are you ready to get in on all that action? Building a PR outreach program is important in getting media attention for your company. Here is how to do it:

Set goals.

Before you can launch your social media strategy you need to be clear about your goals. Yes, increasing sales should be at the top of the list but get specific. What type of return are you looking for? Do you need to increase sales by 10%? 20%? You can also put social media to work to support brand identity and build a customer base. Nothing wrong with an "All of the above" approach but get some target numbers together.

Keep the conversation going.

As you enter the wide world of social media networking, you need to embrace the concept that this is an ongoing marketing plan. This doesn't mean you have to monitor your company's Facebook page 24/7. However you do need to keep your followers engaged. You don't always have to hit them with the hard sale but ask questions to get a conversation going. Asking to share holiday memories is always a good conversation starter. You can relate your queries to your product without it coming across like a pressure to buy.

Build a content schedule.

Now that you know your goals (see above) you should begin to plot out your content schedule. How many messages will you send out in a day or week? What time will these messages go out? Keep in mind that if you post something on Facebook at 9 a.m. your west coast followers won't be up looking at their Facebook. By the time they do check in, your post could get lost in their newsfeed. Additionally, you'll want to put serious thought into your posts. Don't scramble and post something random just for the sake of meeting your schedule. Work it out in advance.

Give away stuff.

We all like free stuff. Whether it's an informative eBook, a coupon or 2-for-1 sale, offering your followers the occasional freebie will keep them checking in for more. This is a terrific way to build up your "likes."

Follow the numbers.

Once you put all your social media plans to work, you'll want to find out if they are being effective. Every social media platform has some type of analytics program to help you gauge your traffic. You'll be able to see where spikes in visitors occur and adjust your content schedule. Stay on top of these numbers and build from there. 

3 Best Social Media Books to Read

Understanding how to get the most out of social media takes an expert. Here are three books by the leading experts in the field.

Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (And Other Social Networks)

This is New York Times best-seller is all about achieving success through online word-of-mouth marketing around the simple premise of being likeable. The best recommendation for any product or service often comes from a friend. If you can get a network of friends to recommend a site or page than that's half the battle. This informative book provides helpful insight in how to tap into the power of this specialized form of marketing. The methods presented in this tome have been utilized with great success by such a diverse range of companies as 1-800-FLOWERS.COM and the Ford Motor Company.


Author Dave Kerpen is an expert in this field. As the cofounder the social media-marketing firm Likeable, Dave is among the brightest and most successful leaders in this industry. His tried and true methods have a proven track record of success and he is definitely someone you'll want to listen to for your own social media campaign.


The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success

Presenting helpful information about social media campaigns means you need to stay ahead of the curve. The Social Media Bible is now in its updated third edition. Presented in this 700-page tome are all the important resources for big and small business to utilize the far reach of social media. With this updated edition you'll be able to find out how to bring in iPad users and apps, Foursquare and other location-targeted networks. Find out the latest about Google's every changing search engine algorithms. That information alone is worth buying this book!

500 Social Media Marketing Tips: Essential Advice, Hints and Strategy for Business: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and More!

Yes, you read that right: This amazing text presents 500 social media marketing tips. Included in those tips are links to over 130 video tutorials which can greatly enhance your learning curve. Among the top social networks covered are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and YouTube. The expert tips will show you how to build your brand and engage with customers. When you consider that 22% of all North American online activity is spent at sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest than its clear this is a realm your business needs to tap into. 500 Social Media Marketing Tips will show you the way.

Top 5 SEO Myths That Need to Be Broken

As you enter into the e-commerce space, you're going to be learning all about driving traffic to your website. One of the first (and most important) concepts you should learn is about Search Engine Optimization or SEO. Simply put, the goal of SEO is to increase the rankings of your website when a specific search term or phrase is entered. Depending on the topic this can be a crowded field.

For instance, Google "locksmith" and your hometown. What you're sure to come up with are dozens of pages of locksmiths businesses. If your business is among those ranking on the first page you stand a much better chance of garnering that new customer. Along with understanding SEO you'll also run across some SEO myths.

You would follow these myths at your own peril because they might end up preventing traffic to your site as opposed to increasing traffic.

Here are the top 5 SEO myths that need to be broken.

You only have to optimize your site once.

Wrong. You might get lucky with your first wave of comprehensive SEO content and achieve that number one ranking but you won't be there for long. All of your competitors will be working on their own SEO strategies which can knock you off the top ranking at any time. This means you've got to consistently improve your SEO on a regular basis. Look at it this way: Would you only have one "special sale" for your business to attract customers? Of course not! The same can be said for SEO.

Links to social bookmarks aren't considered SEO.

Actually they are. Adding social networking bookmarks to your content are becoming an important and viable component to a comprehensive SEO strategy. Based on the findings of recent surveys, close to 14% of a website's ranking power can originate from sites like Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus. In other words, fire up those accounts and make sure they're part of your website.

You should always be posting content.

Yes and no. The myth is that without new content your site won't be picked up by search engines. The key issue is one of relevancy. Your content needs to be relevant for the search. If it is content for the sake of content then you're defeating the purpose. Making content relevant is at the heart of successful SEO and that will be determined by many factors both on your web pages and off those pages.

Forget title tags and meta tags; they don't work.

That would be a big mistake. This is where those on/off page factors come into play. A common mistake by webmasters is to title home pages as "home" as opposed to the keyword in title tags. Going back to the locksmith example, you shouldn't tag your landing page as "home" but "locksmith in Austin" (or wherever). Focus on a 160-character meta description of your content that will include a relevant keyword phrase and you'll come out a winner.

You can't have enough backlinks.

Yes you can. Backlinks link other websites to your site. It's a way of expanding the potential for traffic. However, once again it comes down to a matter of relevancy. You want to establish your website as a place of authority that means you want quality backlinks and not general spam. Linking to news stories and videos work but you'll have to occasionally go back and make sure those links aren't broken. 

How to Build Trust in Online Marketing

Although the online community can truly have a global reach, businesses depend on more direct contact with their potential customers. To achieve that connection online companies strive to build trust but that often proves difficult without any direct face-to-face communication.

Can you really trust someone that you can't look in the eye? As it turns out you can and hundreds of e-commerce sites have achieved a strong bond of trust from their customers. How can you build up your company's credibility and make your customers feel safe when they shop?

Consider these important tips:

Post a Privacy Policy

You won't be able to conduct any business online without gathering personal information from your customers. That doesn't mean their information can't be kept secure. Making your customers aware of your security enhancements can give them an added peace of mind about doing business on your website. Additionally, you should assure your customers that their information won't be sold to a third party or used for other promotions without their permission. This keeps them in control of their personal data and builds up the trust.

Pick a Reliable Payment Processor

Chances are that by the time a customer reaches your online store they will have already been accustomed to shopping online. That's a good thing because you want smart shoppers. To help support this you should be dealing with a reliable payment processor such as PayPal, Moneris or others. Not only are these processors extremely user friendly but they also provide various consumer protections like tracking payments and chargebacks. This is something customers truly appreciate.

Put Testimonials to Work for You

If there is one thing the Internet has taught us is that everyone likes to share their opinions. You can put positive reviews to work for your company by making them available on your website. Invite customers who have had a positive experience to post a review in exchange for a future benefit or coupon. When a new customer reads these types of reviews they'll have a sense that your business is indeed reputable and trustworthy.

Be Visible on Social Media

Every business is based in a community. Being highly visible on Facebook, blogging and forums helps build credibility with your prospective customers. They appreciate that you’re trying to reach out to them and that they can communicate with your business representatives.  Develop a relationship with your customers and create a community that revolves around your company’s brand, products or values.

 Be Real

You have a lot of faith in your product or services as you should. However, that doesn't mean those things you're offering "will forever change a person's life" or "revolutionize their very existence." Customers are leery of the hard sell. On the other hand,finding a way to use humor in your marketing campaigns can generate good feelings. When in doubt always go for the smile. 

Using Content Marketing to Build your Brand

Google can be a business' best friend or worst enemy.

As the number one search engine used by the vast majority of internet users, you would like nothing better than to be at the top of any search tied to your business. Knowing that their users depend on accurate information, Google is constantly updating and modifying its search algorithms to insure the sites they recommend are viable.

Google does this is by searching for fresh, original content and not just "spammy" stuffed copy. This has forced some brands to behave like media companies, producing content across various mediums, including video, photography, infographics and articles.

However, this shift in marketing has made it difficult for many brands, since effective content marketing demands turning away from self-promotion. Companies that put the needs of their customer first in their marketing, by providing interesting and engaging content, without any overt promotion will attract an audience that wants to consume the content, share it, comment on it, and even create it.

Here are some rules to follow to when using content marketing to build up your brand:

Don't promote - educate.

Teach your customers by being educational, not promotional. Work with experts by using thought leaders in your industry to create videos, blog entries, and other content for your target audience.

Help to solve a problem.

Your customers are usually looking for answers to a problem, so include information that solves a problem or answering a tough question. Show your prospects how your information helped solve a problem because they will explore your solution further if they have that same problem to solve.

Measure the success of your content strategy.

Analyze how users discover, consume, and share your content.  It’s vital that you measure the success or failure of your content marketing strategy. Start by taking a look at page views, time on page, your bounce rate and make sure that every single link that goes into your content marketing piece is trackable.  

Make it easy to share.

Your content must be easy to access - share it across many platforms. To get a large amount of traffic, you would need to understand where your customers hang out online. You'll have to do some research by knowing where your customers hang out online. As each community consumers content differently, build content that is specific to the audience, build that community and you'll be building traffic back to your site. 

Converting Facebook Fans into Sales

Social media networking has changed the way we interact. We can now keep track of our family, friends and colleagues no matter what the distance. We can share news and funny videos and keep in touch in real-time. 

Every day new users sign onto Facebook and are becoming very savvy about using the apps and keeping the conversation going. At the moment, Facebook has close to a billion users who interact with each other daily.

How can your business tap into that potential customer base?

First, you need to set up your Facebook business page. Unlike your personal page, which has a limit to the amount of “friends” you can register, a business page is for “likes.” Think of it as a fan page for your product or service. The basics of this type of Facebook page are the same as a personal home page but you can have unlimited “likes” which means the potential to reach millions. The goal is to turn all those “likes” into paying customers.

Here are the steps you should follow to make those sales conversions:

Step 1: Share Information

The way to build credibility is through providing frequent and relevant content that proves your expertise. This doesn’t mean that you post sales information. The content that you provide should be targeted towards solving the pain points that your prospects have.  

However, this doesn’t mean it has to be a static press release you post on Facebook timeline. Think more visual.

Make a fun video demonstrating your product. At the very least you should have engaging photos which will draw attention to the post. Think of your own Facebook experiences - what attracts you to click on a friend’s post? Videos and pictures. Keep in mind that this has to be an ongoing process. You can’t just post one video and expect traffic to your website. You need to constantly update your content.

Step 2: Special Offers

Once you have informed your Facebook friends about what you’re selling, offer them a promo code for a special discount. Hopefully, this will get them to click over to your site and start shopping. Everybody likes a discount!

Following up on the special promo codes, you could occasionally put out a “limited time offer.” This heightens the sense of urgency for your customers to respond. If you’re going to do down this road you need to make the limited time offer truly unique. Go big and see the kind of response rate you’ll get. Remember your goal is attract shoppers. Once they have benefited from a special offer they might just keep coming back.

 Step 3: Keep the Conversation Alive

Remember to engage your customers on a regular basis! Post news updates regularly, ask questions and encourage comments. Provide incentives for fans to be engaged with you – reward those who post relevant content. Remember, they are there for a reason – to connect with your business.

Make sure you do that.

Step 4: Build your Database

As with any type of online business, you’ll want to gather the email addresses of potential customers for your own database. You can do this on your Facebook page by setting up an opt-in form to collect addresses. Contests and give-aways are the best ways to encourage visitors and fans to provide your company with their emails.

Be transparent though. You should tell your customers that you’ll use the email to alert them to special offers and exclusive deals.

Make them feel like they’re part of the “inner circle.”

Your Personal Brand - Managing Your Online Reputation

A strong and well defined online presence can certainly move the “needle” when it comes to determining the success of a company. In many ways, your company brand is an extension of your own personal reputation – especially if you own a consultancy. For all the good resources and opportunities that the internet provides it can also be a place where negative reviews can have a lasting impact. Can you control what is said about your brand online? Here are some helpful hints about managing your online reputation.

Google Yourself

The only way to know what is being said about your company is to dive into a Google search. However, the occasional search won’t be enough to fortify your interests. Set up a Google Alert which can send you daily updates about any topic you create. This is a perfect way of staying on topic of mentions in blogs, articles or websites. Take advantage of Google Alerts, a free notification service by Google that tracks any keyword online and notifies you anytime there is an article related to that keyword.

Optimize Your Brand

Just because someone types your brand name into a search engine doesn’t automatically guarantee a positive result. What might appear at the top of a search engine ranking could be a negative reviewed from a disgruntled customer. When you consider that a recent study found that 89% of click throughs occur from the first page of a Google search, then you can see the importance of optimizing those results towards more positive trending. Search Engine Optimization or SEO is an area you should focus on for your online marketing campaign. The key is tracing back the links to your business from negative sources and improving the positive responses. There are many resources that can help you improve your rankings. It’s another proactive approach that should be at the top of your to-do list.

Make Social Media Your Friend

Anyone with a passing glance at the internet will no doubt come across some of the dozens of prominent social media networks. These areas are quickly becoming the “hot spots” where internet users spend most of their time online. You need to develop a strong presence for your brand on these sites as well. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest are all viable places where you can develop positive brand reputation.

Offer Quality Content

No matter what type of product or service you are selling online there is an opportunity to build out your brand by providing quality content for online users. An informative article or blog posts that relates to your brand which has been properly optimized can be picked up by search engines and draw traffic back to your site. That can only happen if you make an effort to create engaging content. If you feel that your writing skills are lacking, there are plenty of talented writers who can help deliver the kind of fresh content your website needs for strong SEO.

Finally, try to maintain a positive impact offline as well. A negative news story about your company can push all the hard work right off the first page rankings. By staying active in your local community, you can create positive buzz in on the local news front.

Using Content Marketing To Drive Credibility

Raspberries.

 

What does creating original content have to do with raspberries?

 

Nothing. But the mere fact that the word “raspberries” has been randomly dropped into this article is proof positive that this is a piece of original online content. There are plenty of computer programs available to cut corners by churning out robotic content for websites. While those articles are loaded up with facts and figures they won’t have “raspberries:” that original creative flair. That’s what you should be striving to put into your content: originality.

Search engines are getting smarter. Google has launched several algorithm upgrades – the Penguin and Panda updates - which specifically targets websites that produce “spam” content. The Google spiders can tell the difference between an original piece of online content and something that has been “spun” or pasted together with a computer program. The new algorithm updates not only the take a look at the structure of a sentence, they also analyze the relevancy of content , the number of backlinks to the website, the number of times that an article or content gets shared using social media and so many other factors.

Guess which content goes to the top of their rankings? That’s right; it’s the original content. Google wants its users to receive maximum benefit from its searches and you should want the exact same thing for your online visitors. The best way to build up your company brand is through great content that your readers want to share. Here’s what you need to consider with every piece that you write or create:

Teach and Entertain

Readers go online to do two things. Be entertained or find a solution to a problem. Once you have an understanding as to what your target audience wants to do online, you can create the right piece of content that will attract your markets’ attention.  In other words, choose whether each piece that you write or create is going to be informative or fun to consume. You can’t solve all the world’s problems but when it comes to your little corner of cyber space you should be providing solutions that meet their immediate concerns. You should also provide a reason for those users to return to your site. That will only happen if you can put a smile on their face with your content. Get cheeky with the headlines. Don’t shy away from quirky graphics. You can still maintain a professional presence but keep it human and not robotic.

Build Trust and Credibility

Thanks to those Google algorithms, internet surfers are becoming a savvy bunch of readers. They can also quickly spot a “spam” article. Loading up your site with content for the sake of content is going to turn off that visitor. You might not make a sale on that first visit but if you plan your content marketing campaign (or a drip marketing campaign), you can slowly build up trust by creating original content that your target audience will want to read.  Your audience wants to find a reason to not do business with you. So, make sure that any content that you produce specifically targets your intended audience and their needs. When you’ve built that trust they’ll be coming back again and again.

Start a Conversation

With the advent of social media, email and blogs, we get the chance to join and be part of any community. This means we all have a chance to share our experiences and opinions. Give your users that opportunity by inviting them into the discussion. Your content should end with a call to action, whether that’s a link to more articles on your site or a question inviting the reader to leave a comment. Or even sign up for a newsletter. When you engage readers to share their thoughts they’ll come back to see who is commenting on their comments. That’s how you build an online community.

Questions? Feel free to ask and we’ll do our best to answer. (See how that works?!)

 

Protecting Your Original Content Online

It’s inevitable that as a publisher of original content, someone will steal it.  What’s important is how you deal with it. With the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), there are ways you can protect your content from people who steal from your site. And you don’t need to be a lawyer to understand how it works. 

There are six ways that you can protect your content online.  By taking these actions, you reduce the chances for your online content to be stolen.  

·         Learn the basics of copyright law. According to the DMCA, your post is protected as soon as you publish it. As a creator – the content becomes your intellectual property and no one can reproduce it without your permission. 

·         Post a copyright notice on your website.  Although having a copyright notice on the bottom of your website does not protect you, it does tell everyone that the content is your intellectual property.  It is used as a warning for others that copying your content is not legal.   

·         Post a permissions policy. Create a permissions policy page which clarifies what people can do with your content.  It allows other webmasters a guide to follow on what they can or cannot do with your content. 

·         Request that they remove your post. Ask the offender to remove your post by email or in the comments – politely.  In many cases, people may not know that they have done an offence and just need to be educated. Most likely they will comply once you’ve notified them.

·         Notify the ISP (Internet Service Provider).  The DMCA allows copyright owners to have ISPs comply with “take down” requests. In this case, ISPs can be any website that hosts the offending website or content. You may have to do a bit of research in order to find the right hosting service or even contact name. However, once you’ve sent them an email, the ISPs will do their research into your request.  If the ISP finds that there is a copyright infringement, they will make their own request to the website owner or take down the site.   

·         Hire a copyright lawyer. If nothing else works, you may have to resort to hiring a lawyer who can go after the offender.  Keep in mind that lawyers can be expensive and there can be no guarantee that you will be successful.  

If you use a Wordpress blog, download and install one of their plugins – the WP Copyprotect. This locks your content so that no one can highlight and copy your content. However, for the real pirates, this won’t deter them as they can merely shut down their website and appear elsewhere with another site.

The best strategy is to create great original content that your readers will love and share. This not only helps build credibility but also brand loyalty that keeps your readers coming back.