Generate Buzz About Your Local Business Using Social Media
December 6, 2012 by Lisa Santos · Leave a Comment
social media buzz
It’s no doubt that starting a business requires a lot of time, effort and a boat load of money. But it’s what you do with that time and money that makes or breaks your success.
Businesses today have to actively get the word out to people about their businesses in order to stay afloat and social media is one important aspect in that process.
Conventional marketing methods are slowly falling out of financial reach for most businesses and are also becoming less effective. Social media, on the other hand, is coming up as a preferred marketing method to create buzz around businesses.
Prior to spending boatloads of money on advertisement strategies that do not work, you should consider leveraging the extreme popularity of social media. One bright side to social media is the fact that the cost is extremely minimal, but it can generate results along the lines of a multi-million advertisement campaign when done the right way.
As a business owner, a lot of your time should be spent on creating buzz around your products, services, and business. Social media allows you to target an audience that will be interested in what you have to offer. Some social media sites will allow a business owner to post videos of products and images of the business; therefore creating awareness and letting people know that the business exists.
Most people have turned to the internet for almost everything and will gather information on products and services online. For this reason, business owners should set up social media pages that will provide the much needed information on their services and products.
Millions of people are using social media networks to keep in touch with other people as well as companies. With this in mind, it is only important that business owners utilize the business tools that social media networks provide.
Social media is all about socialization so be sure to “socialize” and “engage” with your audience. You should provide them with information that is helpful and valuable to them; making them want to stick around to see what your business can do for them.
To ensure that the buzz around your company is unmatched, you should keep in touch with your customers through various social media platforms. This involves posting new and fresh content consistently to all of them, as well as answering questions asked by users, who are potential customers.
Let’s face it, Social Media is not going away anytime soon, so it only makes sense for your business to get involved and realize the power of this amazing marketing tool.
How To Build Your Pinterest Boards Fast
April 26, 2012 by Lisa Santos · Leave a Comment
Staying on top of Social Media can be a bit difficult and time consuming. It seems like every day a new social media site appears! It can make any small business owner shake their head in disbelief and wonder how they will ever learn this one!
Who’s got that kind of time?
And the newest social media site to hit the market is Pinterest. This is an awesome site and for a few extra minutes a day, you can expand your reach to new potential customers and build your online brand even further. One of the best resources I have found to get over this learning curve is NonStoPinterest. It’s a comprehensive guide on how you can get into Pinterest, how to pin, what to pin and a lot of secrets of successful pinning!
http://www.jvzoo.com/c/17237/4226
If you’re just checking out the site for the first time you’ll see it is full of wonderful, interesting pictures; literally, all over the place. Like a virtual dream board! Essentially this is what the site is. An entire site of great pictures and images linking back to the sources and companies that pinned that picture!
What does this mean for you?
More exposure for you and your business! More exposure is always a good thing!! And… it means that with some creative skills you can easily captivate an entirely untapped market. All you need to do is figure out what pictures best represent your company and go from there. We’re not talking run of the mill boring pictures. In order to best benefit from the site you really need to have the pictures that make people stop and go “awww” or “I have got to have that!”.
Once you’ve gotten a batch of pictures that match that criteria, all you have to do is start pinning them to your own boards and then those who follow you (much like friends on Facebook) can take your pictures and repin them to their own boards and the viral effect of Pinterest can take place.
Each and every time your picture is pinned and repinned you gain yet another link back to your website, your business and another link to new potential customers. But don’t go hog wild pinning without knowing the secrets! Get informed first and foremost and grab a copy of NonStoPinterest BEFORE you start pinning and maximize your pinning presence on Pinterest!
http://www.jvzoo.com/c/17237/4226
Local Business: Ignite Your Business in 2012 with a Custom Facebook Fan Page
January 3, 2012 by Lisa Santos · 1 Comment
If you are a local business owner, you may not want to hear this…
But it is time to get on board and ignite your business with a customized Facebook Fan page.
Doing so will bring you a lot more potential customers and provide an easy, simple way for you to engage with them and convert them into long-term loyal customers.
What better way to roar back to life than by using social media when dividing your marketing and advertising dollars?
I’m sure you’ve heard that social media usage is on the rise and is expected to grow at even higher levels within the coming months and years.
This means that business owners all over the world have to prepare themselves to move with this new wave form of marketing.
However, setting up a powerful lead funnel using social media is no easy task. It takes time to build the type of presence that will create long term income for your business.
But a custom-designed, lead capture Facebook Fan page can propel your company into bigger profits pretty quickly; so this is an ideal place to start.
Motivated consumers do not want to be overwhelmed with too much erroneous information. So bring your prospect to your Fan page and when they “like” you as a fan they are moved to a reveal page.
Here, you can reward them with an exclusive report and literally have a customer for life.
Providing your online followers with massive value along with a few promotions here and there is a great recipe for business success.
Social networking means big business and big income if you do it right. It can provide you with more leads, customers, sales, and profits beyond your imagination.
Don’t miss out on the enormous opportunity to take your business to a whole new level through Facebook Fan pages.
5 Social Media Marketing Tips for Your Business
September 13, 2011 by Lisa Santos · 1 Comment
Even though social media sites are a tremendous way for small business owners to promote themselves on a shoestring budget, most small business owners don’t utilize these powerful platforms effectively. They vacillate between feeling completely overwhelmed and feeling that the sites are a huge waste of time.
Social Media is one of my favorite ways of generating interest around my own small business. But, there are some basic principles to keep in mind in order to make your marketing more effective and efficient.
Here are five important tips that will enhance your overall social media marketing experiences:
1) Create a landing page.
A landing page is a one-page website that offers your visitors a quick peek at you and your small business before they are “overwhelmed” by your business website. In addition, successful landing pages offer visitors a valuable free offer in exchange for their name and email address. Landing pages are crucial to business success because they allow prospects to connect with you on a more personal level, quickly highlight the benefits of doing business with you and give your prospects a small taste of what your small business is all about.
2) Set up complete profiles on your social networks.
If you want your marketing efforts to work, make sure that your social media profiles are complete. If prospects land on your profile page and it doesn’t have a picture and contains sparse information, they aren’t likely to feel any connection with you. You should provide as much information about yourself as possible. Remember, people want to get to know you, so give them what they’re looking for.
3) Participate; don’t push.
When marketing on social media platforms, always keep in mind the 80/20 rule. You should spend 80% of your time sharing, answering questions and interacting with others and only 20% of your time promoting your small business. If you stick to this rule, you’ll be viewed as a true participant as opposed to a pushy sales-person.
4) Be consistent.
Social media marketing is all about consistency. It’s extremely important that prospective clients see you on a regular basis. Exposure is the key to gaining your client’s trust and eventual business. So, get on those sites and interact on a daily basis.
5) Create a daily schedule.
If you don’t have a schedule, it won’t take long before you’re sucked into the “social media black hole.” Determine how much time you have to devote to your social media marketing and stick to it. If you only have 30-minutes each day, then only utilize three social networking sites and generate a strong presence on them. I like to use a timer (honestly!) to keep myself on track; when it beeps, I’m off to the next site.
Social Media marketing is extremely effective as long as you understand how to tap into its power. If you implement these five tips into your marketing efforts, you should quickly generate impressive results for your small business.
About the Author: Jessica Swanson has helped thousands of small business owners, all over the world, implement low-cost, high-impact DIY marketing campaigns. Armed with years of teaching and a M.S. in Written Communications, Jessica takes complicated marketing concepts, turns them upside-down, and makes them incredibly simple and outrageously straightforward.
Known for her energy, passion and “get-it-done” attitude, Jessica shares her savvy marketing tips through her weekly ezine, blog, podcasts and videos. To download your FREE Shoestring Marketing Kit, visit: www.ShoestringMarketingKit.com.
Jessica recently joined the Manta team of industry experts.
Do You Think Outside the Box In Social Media Marketing Terms?
July 26, 2011 by Lisa Santos · Leave a Comment
If there’s one thing that social media marketing is definitely all about, it’s thinking outside of the box. You could argue that marketing in general should always be about thinking laterally and coming up with different solutions, standpoints and positions, but in social media marketing we often use tools which a traditional small business owner might never have considered before. A case in point is video marketing. Videos go hand-in-hand with social media. We just need to look at the meteoric rise of YouTube and understand that it’s now one of the most important search engines on the Web, as well.
It’s no coincidence that Google owns YouTube and perhaps not surprising that videos often show up in very prominent positions within Google in response to any given query. It has been proven time and again that we are drawn to a moving image on any Internet page and as such we should be taking steps to create marketing messages that are video-based, as well.
Video marketing should be an integral part of social media marketing for any organization. However, it’s something that many people shy away from as they believe that it is too complicated, costly or challenging. They may feel that they have to invest a considerable sum of money in production facilities, talent and post production, to say nothing of distribution.
Video marketing does not have to be complicated. However, it does go without saying that whatever you produce should be professional and be representative of your organization. Given what’s available and the great solutions around, these days with a little ingenuity and being aware of these solutions and options, videos can be produced that are relevant to your organization’s subject matter without too much difficulty.
Many organizations choose to produce a video that is a voiceover of a presentation of some kind. Others choose to use video to showcase their customers, or how a particular solution worked well in a certain set of circumstances. The secret is to always create videos that are entertaining, educational and informative and remember that you should not be an overt marketer in social media marketing circles.
A good virtual assistant knows how to create videos using good quality but relatively inexpensive hardware and software. They will also know how to correctly optimize the video so that it has the best chance of featuring online. There are some very sophisticated distribution networks available today to help you to showcase your optimised videos. Good content presented here could help to position the organization as the go-to expert. Many of the most successful companies online have focused on video marketing as part of their social media marketing efforts, to great effect.
Why not go one step further and consider creating a YouTube channel? Many companies have used this concept to create their very own branded, marketing channel within what is generally acceptable in social media marketing terms. If a video that you produce has the advantage of going viral, your gains can be truly exponential.
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