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Easy Ways to Expand Your Facebook Reach

BIMSFor many businesses, generating lead is one of the biggest advantages of creating and maintaining social presence. You create content that would pique the interest of your target audience and hope that it goes out to as many people as possible. Unfortunately, the days of posting and reaching all of your fans are gone.

The last year has brought many changes to social media. We’ve heard complaints from several businesses about the drop in organic reach for Facebook pages.

Using the right tactics will give you better results. Follow these tips to ensure that your posts can reach the audience you define.

Create awesome content

Like Google, Facebook puts a lot of emphasis on content quality and relevance. Being one of the biggest social network platforms, there’s a lot of competition out there. If you want to capture the attention of your target audience, then you need to provide them with killer content.

Higher engagement can increase your reach. The more people engage with your page, the more likely are they to see your posts. But if your content is not that interesting, you suffer the consequences of losing organic visibility.

Ask questions

One of the best ways to engage your followers is by asking them a question. Your goal is to start a conversation so be sure to start with an interesting question. Now that you got people to air their opinions, it is important to keep the conversation rolling.

Asking questions does not only help increase reach, it also provides answers to questions that may be crucial for your business’ marketing and sales.

Add call-to-action

Call-to-actions are a great way to get people to engage with your posts. Believe it or not, your audience tends to respond better when they are told what to do. However, most marketers and business owners fail to include a call-to action with their status updates.

Use better visuals

We’ve all heard the saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. But it’s actually worth more than that in social media.

Videos and images often get more likes, shares and comments as compared to text-based status updates. ForCall  a more powerful post, consider placing your message along with the photo.

 

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Characteristics of a Great Content

office-594132_640There is a surplus of information on the internet today. In fact, about 2 million blog posts are published every day. Along with that, 70,000 hours of Youtube videos are uploaded and about 290 billion emails are sent on a daily basis. The problem is that most of these contents result in a waste of time, energy and resources.

How do you go about creating content that stands out and captures the attention of your target audience?

While there is no specific way in creating great content, there are a few characteristics that most successful content shares. Keep these things in mind when creating contents for your prospects and clients.

Relevant

When starting out with content marketing, most companies create contents that are centered on their products and services. While there is nothing wrong in wanting to showcase your products and services, you first have to focus on content that your customers care about.

Your content has to resonate with your prospects and existing clients. Otherwise, those contents will just get lost among all other noise.

Provides value

Writing great content is a choice. You can produce high quality content or you can take the easy path and produce junk.

People are searching for information that will educate them, inform them and he6lp them solve a problem. If your content is entertaining, informative and interesting enough, people will be happy to share your content. Add to that, it will get the attention of industry stakeholders and position your company as an educator or expert.

Original

Creating original content will get you great results. Google rewards sites with original, high quality content. On the other hand, it penalizes sites with duplicate content. Original content will help your site get more exposure and improve your site’s ranking.

Easily consumed            

When people use a search engine, they’re not just looking for answers – they want fast answers. In fact, one study revealed that 79% of web users scan contents rather than read them in detail.

Make your posts easier to read by keeping each paragraph short, preferably 3-4 sentences each. Bulleted lists are also very helpful. They are easily scannable and make it easier for users to find the information they need.

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4 Things We All Need to Stop Doing on Social Media

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The growth of social media continues to expand. Facebook has over 1 billion users; while Twitter and Instagram has over 280 million and 200 million active users respectively.

Many of us flock to these popular social media sites to give and receive the latest scoop on pretty much everything. We all love to post different events in our lives to let everyone know what is going on, but some people gets overboard when it comes to using social media.

Whether you’re using social media for professional or personal use, here are 4 things you should stop doing.

Oversharing

You probably have a friend who updates their status every 15 minutes or so. It can get irritating sometimes, especially since your news feeds is full of their postings. We hate to break it to you, but no one wants to be that clued in about your life.

Using more hashtags than words

Hashtags are great for giving your campaigns their own special theme, finding and jumping into conversations and categorizing your posts, but piling on the hashtags just looks desperate. Please keep your hashtag usage in check.

Automated messages

It may seem like a good idea to send a thank you message to users who follow you, but I’m willing to bet that some people consider it as spam.

While there are some people who say that sending automated messages has helped grow their follower count, it may come off as detached, lazy and out of touch for some. Remember, genuineness wins when it comes to earning the trust of your target audience.

Adding people to groups without their permission

Groups are a great place to talk to people with the same interests as yours. Just because you created a group for golfers, doesn’t give you the right to add your golfer friends to the group without their permission. If you think some of your friends would be interested to be a part of the group, consider sending them a message and tell them what it’s all about.

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Strategies to Keep Your Business One Step Ahead of the Competition

bims_8.10Every business owner wants his business to stay ahead of the competition. But if you want to remain successful, a lot of things should be done and most of them are not particularly easy.

Here are some strategies that you can use to keep your business one step ahead of the competition.

Know your competitors

Entrepreneurs can enjoy great benefits by keeping track of their competitors. While we urge you to spy on your competitors, we discourage you from duplicating their ideas. Your goal is to see what they are offering and what their unique selling point is. Figure out a way to make it work for your business and use this knowledge to your advantage. If you want to stay ahead of the competition, you need to do it better than they did.

Build a relationship with your customers

You and your competitors will be competing for the same customers. Whoever wins will receive a bigger segment of the market.

It is easier to keep a customer than it is to acquire a new one. All it takes is a better offer from a competitor or a single negative experience. Show your customers how much you value them by interacting with them through social media and improving customer service.

Never stop innovating

In order to succeed in today’s quickly developing world, you need to change more often and sooner than you think. What might be working for you today might not be effective in the future.

Innovation is the key to sustaining your company. If you want to satisfy your target audience then you need to give them what they want. But most of the time, their wants and needs change. You need to be able to keep up with the demands of the people. Follow consumer trends and try to keep up with the developments in your sector.

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How to Create a Great First Impression Online

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Most of you know that first impressions are a big deal. You only get one chance to make a good impression so you have to make it right.

Living in the digital world, our first encounters with other people are often via social media, blog posts or email. And once you capture the attention of the public, the first thing they’re going to do is to run a Google search on you. The pressure is on. So where do you start?

Here are 4 simple ways to make a good first impression online.

Know your audience

Successful brands start out by getting to know their audience before they try to appeal to them. Consider the interest and needs of your target audience. Focus on people who are most likely to buy your products instead of appealing to the masses. This will yield better results and end up saving a lot of money in the process.

Be informational rather than promotional

A lot of business owner think that they need to do something flashy just to capture the attention of their target audience. But in order to stand out, you need to provide them with quality content, content that will appeal to your target audience. Let’s take Wikipedia as an example. Wikipedia is one of the least flashy sites on the Web, but it is also one of the most trusted. So, if you really want to stand out, provide people with informative and quality content rather than just showcasing your products on a regular basis.

Get your personal life out of the public eye

We often use social media channels to communicate with our family and friends. But now that you’re running a business, be sure to use a separate account when talking to potential clients and customers. Remember, people will be watching you. So you might as well get your personal life out of the public eye.

Don’t forget to clean up your social media profile once in a while. While it’s normal to have fun sometimes, you don’t want people to have a negative perception of you.

Your website

Apparently, you only have 3 seconds to grab a visitor’s attention. If you want them to stay, you need to take into account the design and usability of your website. Mind you, people are going to close the window or start looking at other sites if they don’t like what they see or don’t know what to do. Make sure that your content is easy to access and your site is easy to navigate.

 

 

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Low Cost Ways to Market Your Business


BIMS_4.28.2“Making money costs money”. While there is some truth to it, you do not necessarily have to spend a fortune just to get the word out about your business.

Marketing your business is not all about spending money. It’s about coming up with creative ideas and implementing them properly. So the question is, how do you promote your business and get your name in front of potential customers while working on a shoestring budget?

Here are 3 low cost yet high impact methods to advertise your and promote your business.

Social media

Social media is undoubtedly the one of the most affordable and effective ways to engage with yours customers. Millions of people from all over the world are using social media on a daily basis. So, you should include that on your marketing strategies.

An effective social media marketing starts with defining who your best prospects are and creating contents that anticipates their needs. Establishing strong relationship with your customer base is also important.

Search engines

Creating a website can be comparable to building a house. Your family and friends won’t know you’re building one unless you tell them. Also, they’ll never find it unless you give them the address. The same goes with your website.

You can’t expect people to visit your website unless they know it actually exists. Submit your website to search engines. Also, use keywords and key phrases that your customers will be searching for so it will be easier for them to find you.

Content is king

Everyone knows this, but I’d be neglectful if I do not include this on the list. I cannot stress enough the importance of creating great content. If writing isn’t your strong point, you can always hire someone to do the writing for you.

Write articles that demonstrate your expertise in your field. To increase your reach, you can submit these articles to websites that accept guest posts. Be sure that your name and business name is included in the article.

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Tips for Finding the Right Social Influencers for Your Brand

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With the powerful combination of social media and word-of-mouth, businesses from all over the world are changing how they market to consumers.

As marketers, our first instinct is to create contents or videos that would allow us engage with our target audience and persuade them to buy our products or avail our services. But today’s buyers are smart and savvy. They start losing interest the moment they realize that you are selling a product. One of the biggest keys to connecting with your target audience is leveraging influencers.

With thousands of bloggers and Youtube stars in your industry to choose from, finding the right influencer to partner with may seem like a daunting task. Find out how to choose the perfect influencers to inspire trust from your customers.

Content

This is the most important characteristic when targeting the right influencer for your brand. Read through the blogger’s posts and determine how aligned their contents are with your brand message.

In order to stay relevant, you need to determine the type of content your audience is interested in. Take a moment to browse through the influencer’s blog posts, infographics or videos. This will give you an idea if the influencer will be a good fit for your brand.

Engagement

Engagement indicates how active an influencer’s social community is. Do they share, respond or comment on his posts?

Just because someone talks about your product, doesn’t mean that you should get in touch with that persons and turn him into an advocate. Your goal is to find someone who talks about your products or services and are earning high levels of engagement.

Reach

Part of what makes a social influencer is the fact that they have a large following.

In order to determine whether or not this influencer will be a good representation for your brand, it would be best to define your target audience and compare them to your potential influencer’s audience. There’s no point in partnering with an influencer with 200,000 followers if their audience doesn’t align with yours.

 

 

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Tips for Planning Your Social Media Holiday Campaign

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The holidays are just around the corner. With the Halloween rapidly approaching and Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, this means marketers are solidifying their holiday campaign for the most wonderful time of the year.

The holidays are the busiest time of the year. And you might find it difficult to stand out in the marketing frenzy if you don’t plan ahead. Since most people start shopping for Christmas presents after Halloween, it would be a good idea to start hanging the social media ornaments as early as now.

Incorporate these tips into your social media campaigns and make sure that your holiday campaign gets noticed.

Strategize early

The holiday season is slowly creeping up on us and will be there sooner than you think. The key is to plan ahead and get creative. Use social media to create a buzz around your brand leading up to the festive season.

Stand out from the competition

With the holiday season comes a horde of advertisers desperately vying for your attention. Think outside of the box. Remember, majority of marketers are planning to use some sort of promotional offers to capture the attention of their target market. Differentiate yourself from the competition and think of something that would get the public interested and excited to engage with your brand.

Offer coupons

Studies suggest that consumer spending increase by 11% during the holidays. Since it’s the most wonderful time of the year, give your customers a reason to shop by offering discounts or coupons.

Share holiday tips and tricks

Increase your social media engagement by throwing a bunch of informative and interesting content into your social marketing mix. With so many brands flooding the market with discounts and deals, sharing information about DIY home decorating projects or winter recipes for baking desserts will help you get noticed.

You can also ask questions to get people talking about their activities during the holiday, purchases and traditions.

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4 Ways to Enhance Customer Relationship with Social Media

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Your prospective and current customers are already online, and most of them are spending a few hours a day on social media. If your business is not active on social media, now is the right time to build a solid online presence.

Social media enables you to engage with your customer as never before. So, instead of relying solely on phone communication or email, consider reaching out to your target audience and existing customers through social media.

Here are a few tips on how to use social media to enhance client relationships, put smiles on customer’s faces and lead your business to growth.

Connect with your customers

If you are looking to build a social media presence, it is important to connect with your customers and make sure that you are having a two-way conversation with them.

Run polls. Ask questions. Turn your social media from a one-way channel into a two-way channel.

Encourage participation

Instead of supplying the information all the time, it would be a good idea to encourage your customers to share their photos and stories. As a way of saying thank you, take the time to come up with genuine individualized responses. This way, your customers will fee that you are truly interested in their experiences and are appreciative of their contributions.

Own your mistakes

Even big corporations are not immune to mistakes. So, when an unhappy customer tweets about a late order, take their complaints seriously, acknowledge the mistake and work on solving the problem fast.

Sincerity and humility goes a long way in social media in showing your customers that you respect and value them. While it is acceptable to make mistakes, owning up to your mistakes and saying “we’re sorry” is the best way to handle complaints.

Reward loyal customers

Highlight customers who take the time to consistently engage with your brand. Give them free merchandize or say thank you with simple personalized responses. By doing so, you can show them how much you appreciate and value their support. Mind you, that emotional component could turn a customer into a promoter.

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