Posts

, ,

Promoting Yourself Through Social Media

Sharing your posts via social media should be one of the first things you do when you are looking to showcase new content on your blog. It is important to share these updates on social media sites because it builds brand awareness, helps to increase traffic on your website, and is great for reader engagement.

 

Here are a few tips to help you make the most of your blog posts to successfully promote yourself.

  •  Select what social media platforms you want to use to help promote your blog. Base your choices on what works best for you and what you feel comfortable with, but try to choose more than one type of social media platform, this will allow you to reach a variety of readers. Facebook is wonderful for promoting new content with text and image, Twitter is great for short and sweet bursts of information and links, and Pinterest is mainly used for eye-catching images and graphics.
  • Write as if you are sharing information with a close friend; blogs should be informal, simple, and friendly. Writing like this makes it a little more fun and you don’t feel so pressured to come up with super structured dialect.
  • Ask questions you genuinely want answered and don’t be afraid to interact with your readers. A lot of people are probably visiting your blog because they have interest in your posts and what you have to say, so conversation should flow pretty naturally.
  • Update your blog regularly! Keep people interested in your website by providing new content as often as possible.

 

In the end, if you feel good about what you are posting on your blog, share it! Once you develop your own little online community, people will be watching for your updates. It may feel a bit forced or uncomfortable at first, but practice does help.

 

 

Source: http://www.hollymariedesigns.com/promotion-social-media/

/by
, ,

Starting Your Own LinkedIn Group

First things first: as a small business owner, you should be active on LinkedIn. If you are not – create an account right now!  Yes, right now.

The beauty of LinkedIn is that it is full of resources. You can join groups that are full of professionals in your industry. Then you can use these groups to get product or service feedback, network, and even connect with future business partners or employees. In addition to creating a personal LinkedIn account, you should also establish a company page on LinkedIn for your business.

If you are considering starting a group on LinkedIn, here are some tips that will help you take full advantage of all of LinkedIn’s opportunities as a group leader.

If you choose to begin your own LinkedIn group, you have the option of creating a closed or open group. An open group allows any member to contribute and is visible to the public. A closed group is private and requires a user to be accepted to the group before contributing. When making your choice, consider that an open group will clearly grow faster, but it is also likely the group could be prone to spam.   Alternatively, a closed group will grow more gradually. Yet, the members will be much more targeted. Consider how you want your group to be seen and used when making this decision.

Remember that you started this group, so you must be a part of it. Be active and let your presence be known to your members  – it will help you network rapidly.

As the leader of the group, remember that you can make rules – this is a power that should be taken seriously. If there is an unruly member of the group, you can remove them. On the flip side, if there is a member that is a great contributor to your group, be sure to acknowledge them!

One huge advantage to creating a group is that you can send weekly announcements out to your members! This is an opportunity for you to contact your members directly. Just be careful to fill those messages with useful information – you want to ensure that your followers actually engage with the message (not just overlook it as spam).

LinkedIn is becoming a giant resource in marketing and business development. Use it correctly to see what it can do for you.

/0 Comments/by
, , , , ,

Small Businesses on Social Media: Get It Right

Most small businesses feel a sense of urgency to get onto social media because of the tidal wave big brands have made on all social media platforms. Focus on your social media goals. Whatever they are, the bottom line should be to build relationships and grow customer trust. That means that social media is not the place to display your promotional copy. Get rid of anything remotely resembling a “BUY ME” button. Social media is about social engagement. Think of yourself in a social situation – do you spend the entire time talking about yourself? Hopefully the answer is no. This type of etiquette applies to social media as well. Just as you would in a social environment, strive to be interesting on social media. Post content that gives your followers or friends something to react too. If someone were to walk up to you and give you a compliment or ask you a question, you would never just ignore it. You would acknowledge it with a “thank you” or a reply. The same thing should be done on your social media platforms.

You are a small business. Your budget is probably much smaller than that of Starbucks. Inevitably, your social media strategy will be different than those big brands – that is okay! You don’t have to keep up with Pepsi. If you do not have the budget to giveaway the latest IPad – don’t do it. Offer a prize your company can handle such as a service, discount, or small product.  This also means that the participants in your giveaway are likely to be interested in your company, and not just in it for the free Ipad.

You have probably already picked up on the fact that there is no physical cost to join social media.  As a small business, marketing without fees probably sounds like the best kind.  But don’t be fooled – social media marketing is anything but free. Doing it right requires serious man-hours. The commitment to social media is unrelenting and endless. Engaging with followers and sharing valuable content is a full time job.

As a small business, you do not need to be present on every social media account. If you use Facebook over Google +, it does not mean you are a social media failure. The biggest error you could make is to have a Google + account that is completely neglected and shows inconsistent activity. It is better to have one or two active and up to date social media accounts than have five accounts that are not receiving adequate time and management.

Small businesses tend to make these mistakes, which can do serious harm to their social media success. Make sure your business gets it right!

/0 Comments/by