Digital Marketing

How to Begin to Develop Your Business’s Social Presence

by Rebecca Bleznak June 5th, 2014

We’ve established that there are at least three ways in which social media can boost your website’s traffic. But what if you’re a new business, or new to utilizing social media as a marketing tool? A tree has fallen in the forest – and no one is around to hear it – we wonder if it made a sound. Similarly, if you send your content out to the internet, and no one sees it, did it really help your business at all?

In a recent article from Marketing Land, Eric Enge addressed three different ways in which you can go about creating and sharing content for your business, based on what your situation is. The third scenario, titled Social Media Concentration, is aimed at small businesses that can’t afford to spend a lot of time or resources on a social media strategist and extensive content creation. We’re going to continue the discussion, and help you figure out how to make this scenario work for you.

 

1.    Choose the right platforms for your business.

Enge writes that you may want to focus your energy on one social media platform. This is certainly a strategy you might take, but consider trying to extend that a bit to putting yourself out there on at least 2 or 3 different social media sites, in order to get the best reach possible. To do this, you’ll want to determine which sites will work best in order to convey the message of your business. We’ve discussed two of the most popular here:

  • Almost everyone is on Facebook today, and your business’s Facebook page can serve almost as a second website, allowing you to post pictures, announcements, and even videos that serve as promotion. You can communicate well with your customers here, either through private messages or comments on your wall. You can share posts from other businesses, who may in turn acknowledge you, or tag another page in order to make them aware of certain information. Additionally, you have paid options to create ads based on the specific type of results you’d like to see them have (clicks to your website, more page likes, etc.), as well as “boost” your posts so that they are made visible to more users.
  • Twitter is also becoming increasingly influential. Customer conversation is a bit simpler, and you can utilize hashtags and the explore tab in order to determine who is talking about you, in order to address customer questions or complaints. You can also engage in Twitter chats that are related to your field – if you chime in with interesting information, or find a way to direct someone to a post that you’ve written, you’ll be helping someone out, and giving yourself a new potential customer. As with Facebook, there’s a similar promoted post option, where you can pay to target particular demographics with one of your tweets.

 

2.    Branding

Now that you’ve chosen your platforms, you need to set them up. First of all, you need to make sure that you maintain consistent branding across all platforms. These are things that will identify your brand, so they need to be easily recognizable and related to one another as closely as possible. Examples include:

  • Profile pictures
  • Cover photos
  • Logos
  • About section

 

3.    Production and Engagement

Everything is finally set-up, so you’re ready to really dig in. Begin by following others in your industry. When you read something you like, don’t just retweet it without a second thought: Add your own opinions, and reply when they ask questions. The benefit of this is twofold: It gets your name out there to others, and allows you to learn from those who are playing the social media game right.

You’ll also have to dive into content creation. You probably want to start small, and remember that staying consistent with your posting schedule is more important that churning out as much content as possible. Write about what you know, write about what interests you, and build upon what others have written. Everyone in your industry is talking about the same things, so by drawing upon your own experiences or attempting to tackle a different angle, you can produce content that is worthwhile and unique.

As Enge describes in his scenario, if you’re interacting with others on a daily basis, sharing their content as well as some of your own, and offering a valuable perspective, this can help build up recognition of your brand. Establish yourself on social media, create awareness by engaging and sharing your own experiences, and you’ll be on your way to bringing in more business.

4 Ways to Improve Content Marketing

by SEO Savvy April 3rd, 2014

Search engines can detect when a business creates content of value versus content that is designed solely to capture web traffic. Scalable link building methods and over-optimizing your website by unnaturally stuffing content with keywords is counterproductive, and likely to land you with penalties from Google. Today, effective content marketing is key for successfully building brands, interacting with customers, and selling products.

Two out of every three businesses currently spend more than 25% of their marketing budget on digital marketing, including content marketing, according Accenture’s CMO Insights Study. However, the same study found that while many marketing executives understand the importance of content marketing, they are “unprepared” and “unsure” how to best leverage this marketing technique for maximum success. Without a clear strategy in place, businesses are ineffectively throwing money at content marketing – and hoping something works.

Follow these four tips to get the most out of your content marketing budget:

#1: Be interactive.
Google’s algorithm updates are capable of detecting “interactivity” of content. How does Google determine if your content is meeting this metric? Content that is shared, reblogged, reposted, emailed, retweeted, and commented upon is considered interactive. In other words, you need to figure out how to use social media to your advantage. To increase your content’s reach, be sure that it is relevant to your clients, original, and creative. Don’t rehash old news; make each story your own.

#2: Solve a problem.
In order to improve your content’s interactivity, it is important to understand what drives your target audience to share information. Solving a problem is one of the most basic and important reasons why individuals share information. Rather than making a sales pitch on your blog, provide how-to instructions or tips that address a common problem faced by your clients or customers. Giving away valuable content for free will not only increase the likelihood that your content is shared, but also build your business’s reputation as an industry thought leader. When clients face another problem, they’ll likely turn to your business for a trusted solution.

#3: Be visual.
Content that includes a picture or infographic is more likely to be shared than a text-only blog post. From Pinterest to Instagram, today’s most popular social networks are increasingly based on visuals. Photos increase user interaction on Facebook. Images shared on the popular social network receive 120 percent more engagement than plain text updates, and the latest format changes reflect images as priority. Don’t hide your best information in a sea of words and numbers. Turn old PowerPoint slides and charts into a compelling infographic. Accompany each blog post with a unique or thought-provoking image. When adding images to a blog post, be sure to add keyword metadata to the image for enhanced SEO.

#4: KISS.
This acronym, which dates back to the 1960s, stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid. The KISS principle can be applied in many circumstances; for example, when you’re creating a piece of content, you want to keep the format as uncomplicated as possible. This is why lists have become so popular; you’ll grab the attention of your readers with a straightforward title, then keep them hooked with easy-to-read bullet points or numbers, subheadings, and brief paragraphs. Everyone is moving so fast on the Internet, jumping from website to social network to blog, that a simple, formulaic post delivers information most effectively.

Like any good marketing strategy, content marketing requires clear goals and benchmarks for success. Content marketing is also a long-term investment. While your business may not see immediate measurable returns, in the long run, effective content marketing will build your brand and improve customer relationships, two critical goals for your business’s marketing success.

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