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How to Build a Strong Social Media Presence

Social media marketing may seem like a fairly simple concept. All you have to do is to create an account on different social platforms and post updates every now and then. But the truth is, there’s a whole lot more that goes into building a social media presence and reaching your audience.

Whether you’re a large corporation seeking new ways to improve your online engagement or a new business trying to decide where to focus your social media efforts, there are a lot of ways to boost your social media presence.

Here are some steps you can take to help get you started.

Identify your audience

There are millions of active users on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media channels. The first thing you need to do is to identify your target audience and determine which sites they use the most. This will help you narrow down your options and know where your focus will be.

Build a targeted community

As an entrepreneur starting or running your own business or a professional trying to build your online brand, you want to have a good social media presence. But in order to do that, you first need to develop a large following. That means followers and fans on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other social media accounts.

Engage with everyone

Social media should be less about you and more about your audience. It’s about making connections and having conversations.

Rather than focusing on your promotion, you want to use this opportunity to engage with people. Speak to them. Ask them to take part of the conversation, ask questions and encourage them to submit photos while using your product. People are likely to like, comment and share your content if you have established a relationship with them.

Produce valuable content

There are several types of content you can post on social media. You can post videos, blog posts, client or customer testimonials and others.

Aim for social updates that contain educational content rather than product-focused content. Make sure your Facebook posts, tweets and LinkedIn updates consist of engaging, useful and valuable content.

July 5, 2016/by Caitlin McDonald

Facebook, Internet Marketing, Social Media

Rules of Engagement for Facebook Group Administrators

Many of you have probably forgotten about Facebook groups, but it’s actually one of the best tools for engaging with your audience. It is also a great way to invite people with the same interest with you and get them to converse about the same topic.

How do you get the people in your group to become more engaged? Here are 4 ways to increase social engagement in your Facebook group.

Be active

As the administrator of the group, it is your responsibility to get the conversation cracking. Ask question that will encourage members to chime in and join in the discussion. If you’re not active in the group, then they won’t either. Also, make sure you post the type of content your members want to see.

Welcome new members

Much like a tourist visiting a new city, people would spend some time on your group, exploring what it has to offer. Unless they know they felt at home, they won’t want to stick around or engage with you and other members.

Create a welcome message for every 10 or more members who have joined your group. Include details like why the group exists and who the group is for. Let them know that they are welcome to post and share within the group.

Make it fun

If you want to keep people active in your community, then you need to give them a reason to keep coming back. You can ask members to share something that they like. Invite them to tap into a part of their lives that excites them and lightens them up. Another way is to host an exclusive giveaway to reward loyal customers.

Do not advertise your business on the group

Use your group as a platform to engage with your target audience and get to know them well. People don’t want to hear about your products. Rather, they want to participate in discussions that are related to a topic they are interested in. You want them to see your group as a place where they can learn, share and collaborate.

June 21, 2016/by Caitlin McDonald

Email Marketing, Internet Marketing, Social Media

Online Advertising Strategies for Small Business Owners with Limited Budget

With the huge amount of information online and online companies popping out of the woodwork, capturing the attention of your target audience can be a challenging task. This can be daunting, especially for small business owners. But the truth is that you don’t have to spend a huge sum of money in order to get the word out about your business.

Having a small marketing budget doesn’t mean you can’t generate results. Here are a few online advertising strategies that you can use, even on a shoestring budget.

Know your target audience

Figure out your target market first before you spend a dime on marketing. You are likely to waste your time and money if you start marketing before you have a clear customer profile. Ask yourself, who will be most interested in your products or services? Male or female? What is their age group? Once you have a thorough profile of your target audience, that’s the only time you can start with your marketing campaign.

Email marketing

Email marketing can help you earn more traffic and conversions as long as you’re willing to put in the time. However, people don’t just give their email address to anyone. So you’ll have to think of some strategies in order to get people to subscribe to your newsletters.

Social media marketing

It wouldn’t cost you anything to establish your brand on most social media platforms, but don’t be fooled into thinking that social media marketing is easy.

A solid content marketing is essential if you want your business to succeed. The most successful companies are the ones who post and share things that are interesting to their audience. You may not have a lot to offer in terms of discounts and giveaways to lure in new customers, but you have great contents to share.

Blog

Helping people before they need your help is an excellent marketing strategy. Not only will it help you get the attention of your target audience, it can help you build a relationship with them. Make sure that you provide them with useful tips, industry news and good content that is relevant to them.

June 7, 2016/by Caitlin McDonald

Boulder Marketing, Connecting with Customers, Email Marketing

Tips to Get More Email Subscribers

While everyone is focusing on building a strong social media presence, others tend to forget about the importance of email.

Your email list plays a big role in your marketing campaign. It can help you build relationships with your target audience, generate buzz about your business and attract new customers. That said, it makes sense to continuously grow your email contacts.

Interested to grow your email list and grow your subscribers? Then you came to the right place. In this blog post, we’ll be sharing with you some effective strategies on how to get more email subscribers. Follow the tips below to get your first 1,000 subscribers.

Place a subscription box on every page of your website

Most website owners think that people would first access the home page before navigating through the site. But that’s not always the case. They may check your products, scroll through the “about us” section or any other page on your site. In order to get people to subscribe to your newsletters, make sure your sign up box is a prominent feature of your website. The more visible it is, the more subscribers you’ll get.

Content is king

You won’t have a hard time getting people to sign up for email updates if you have great content on your site. As a marketer, it is your responsibility to constantly supply your readers with fresh, relevant and informative content.

Offer an incentive

People love receiving free stuff. If you can give them something like a free trial of one of your products, a free ebook with useful information or access to an exclusive video, you’ll make an impact to your target audience. When done correctly, it can help you build a relationship with your audience and grow your email list.

Your offer should be interesting enough to your ideal customers. Find out more about your target audience and know what’s keeping them up until 3:00 am.

Run a contest

Social media contests are one of the most effective ways to get email addresses from folks who want to hear from you. You are free to hold whatever contest and on any social media channel you want. But since majority of the adult population has a Facebook account, you might want to start there. Also, ask people to enter their email address in order to participate.

May 31, 2016/by Caitlin McDonald

Social Media, Target Market, Website Marketing

Tips to Find Your Target Audience on Social Media

Content is king, they say. But even if you create high quality content, it won’t have an impact unless it is pitched to an appropriate audience. With millions of people on social media, it’s not always easy to find and reach your target audience. How can you break through the walls, cut through the noise and use your content to establish a connection with your audience?

In order to achieve success with your social media marketing campaigns, you need to know who your target audience is and where they are.

Start with the demographics

Demographics are the best place to start when identifying your target audience. Are your typical customers young or old? Are they male or female? What type of job does your target market have? Is your product sold in certain areas of the country?

Answer these questions and use these information to give you a deep and clear understanding of who makes up your target market.

Know where your customers spend their time

With the increasing number of social channels, it would be waste of time and effort to build a presence on each one of them. The best thing you can do is to determine where your audience spends most of their time and focus on that social channel. Use the information you have gathered above to help you select the right networks to reach them.

Linkedin is popular among college graduates. Users of this site are between the ages of 30 to 64. Instagram and Pinterest remain popular among female uses, particularly between the ages 18 to 29. Facebook continues to be the biggest social media site. In fact, 58% of the entire adult population are Facebook users. When in doubt, use Facebook.

Identify industry influencers

According to studies, 92% percent of people trust the recommendations of the people they know – family, friend and influencers. No matter how many times you share your content, people won’t pay attention. Well, that’s until someone they trust asks them to actually read it.

Industry influencers have good online reputation and are often considered as experts. People listen to them and even ask them for advice. Seek out influencers and engage with them. Once you’ve build a relationship with them, you’ll be able to gain more followers.

May 28, 2016/by Caitlin McDonald

Social Media, Website Marketing

How to Handle Negative Reviews Online

According to Zendesk, a customer service software program, 88% of buyers rely on the opinion of others when making purchasing decisions. That said, you should always strive to get positive customer reviews. But sometimes, no matter how hard you try; bad reviews happen. There’s no way around it.

Negative reviews are one of the biggest nightmares of entrepreneurs and business owners. Any testimonial from unsatisfied customer can adversely affect your business.

While negative reviews are unavoidable, there are some things you can do to prevent them from ruining the image of your company. Here are some tips on how to handle negative reviews online.

Investigate before taking action

Before you formulate a strategy on how to respond to negative reviews, you should first determine whether or not what the customer said is true.

If you found out that it really happened, we suggest that you acknowledge the person’s input. Then, apologize, present your side of the sorry and then tell the customer how you plan to address the issue. If you found that the statement is incorrect, talk to the commenter privately and provide evidence that proves that the comment is incorrect. Once it’s settled, politely ask the person to delete the comment or review.

Cooler heads prevail

We know that you work so hard to keep your customers happy. That said, it can be quite frustrating to read bad and hurtful things about your business. Your immediate response is to react in the heat of the moment. But if you do, you will only make yourself look bad. The last thing you want is to become known for lashing out at customers.

Before you respond to the criticisms that are being thrown at you, you might want to take breather and formulate a polite response. Customers will gain your respect if you respond to a negative review in pleasant and helpful way.

Stay positive

People are not expecting you to be perfect. We are humans and we are all bound to make mistakes. Just make sure that own up to your mistakes and deal with the negative reviews in a transparent and polite manner.

May 17, 2016/by Caitlin McDonald

Boulder Marketing, Connecting with Customers, Internet Marketing

Tips to Get More Online Customer Reviews

With today’s savvy buyers, you know how important online reviews are to your business. People would share their experiences and what they have to say about your company. Given that majority of the adult population spend most of their time online and would read reviews before buying stuff, these reviews, whether they are positive or negative, can have a big impact on your business.

Customer feedbacks do not only affect buyer’s decision, it can also help give you an insight as to what customers think of your business; thus, allowing you to make certain changes that would make your products, services and business better. Remember, it’s your customers that pay you, so make sure you listen.

Here are a few simple ways on how to get customers to review your business online.

Just ask

After you’ve delivered a product or a service, try to ask your customers for feedback. It does not necessarily have to be a good review, just an honest review. Don’t be pushy. Rather, let the customer know that you are very much interested to know whether or not they were satisfied of the transaction and that you value their opinion.

Offer incentives

Sometimes, the best way to encourage customers to create reviews is to give them something in return. It doesn’t have to be expensive. If you own a restaurant, you can offer a free dessert on their next visit. You can also offer a free gift or a free trial version to those who will send in a review. The better the incentives are, the more reviews you are likely to receive.

Increase customer satisfaction

Happy customers will be very much willing to share their experience with the masses through the web and social media. This can help scale positive world of mouth and attract potential customers in the process.

Improve your services and people will start talking about your business. Remember, it would be impossible for you to get good reviews unless you have happy customers to write them.

Customer survey

Customer surveys are a great way to get feedbacks. This allows you to get customers to answer specific questions and find out what they really think about your services.

May 10, 2016/by Caitlin McDonald

Internet Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Social Media

4 Ways to Increase Your Visibility on Social Media

Implementing a strong, multifaceted online marketing can help increase your company’s visibility. Social media marketing opens up a business’ doors to customers they wouldn’t be able to reach.

Here are a few suggestions to give your page maximum visibility and to ensure your posts are being seen by your fans or followers.

Content is still king

The more engaging and informative your content is, the more interaction you’re going to get. As a result, more people are going to see your posts.

In order to get this right, you must first know your target audience. This way, you can focus on creating contents that would be of value and interest to them.

Create conversations

Business owners and marketers use social media to stay in touch with their customers and clients, as well as to reach potential customers.

Make it a point to communicate with them on a regular basis. Use plain, straightforward language when communicating with your target audience. No corporate speak, no jargons, no acronyms. Speak directly to that person and make your communication personal.

Be on different social networks

Social networks are the perfect channel to improve the visibility of your brand or company. It can also be used to connect with your prospective and current customers. If you want to generate visibility, consider being on different social networks. But if you find it difficult to manage different social media accounts, you might want to concentrate on platforms in which your target audience spends most of their time in.

Partner with other visible brands

A direct partnership is a great way to build your own brand visibility. If you sell coffee makers, consider having a direct partnership, an affiliate partnership or an implied partnership with a coffee manufacturer.

Viral or video marketing

Videos commonly go viral. Living a busy and fast-paced life, most people choose to watch videos instead of reading a long article. Information is easier to consume and they’re easy to share. Because of this, video marketing gives you the ability to reach a large group of people in a short span of time.

May 3, 2016/by Caitlin McDonald

Blogging, Internet Marketing, SEO

Reasons Why Your Content Marketing is Failing

So you set up a blog. You were so thrilled at the prospect of sharing your expertise with an eager audience. You started creating valuable content assets and created a few downloadable pieces. You have done everything experts said you should, and yet you’re conversion rate isn’t increasing.

Here are 3 things that might be affecting your content conversion rates.

You’re attracting the wrong type of traffic

If you’re successfully driving people to your blog or website, but your conversions aren’t increasing, you’re probably targeting the wrong people.

Some people assume that an increase in traffic means an increase in conversion rate, but that’s not always the case. While visits, email sign ups and exposures are all great to see, they are not going to make much of a difference to your bottom line. You want conversions. In order to turn traffic into conversion, you need to attract the right kind of traffic.

Your calls to action suck

If conversion is the goal of your content marketing, then you need to create a compelling call-to-action. Most blog posts, however, do not have a call-to-action. Even if your messaging is consistent and you’ve hit the right audience, visitors won’t advance further into their buyer’s journey without a clear call-to-action.

Telling your readers where to click, what they can get in exchange of their email address and how to take advantage of your offer can noticeably increase your conversion rates.

You think SEO is not important

There are lots of great content out there. But the problem is that these contents do not reach their desired audience. Why? It’s because they have taken SEO for granted.

SEO is a vital part of content marketing. This will help your content rank in search engines; thus, bringing it closer to your intended users. All you need is a little bit of keyword search and a few minutes to put proper title tags, meta descriptions, tags etc.

April 26, 2016/by Caitlin McDonald

Internet Marketing, Social Media

Dos and Don’ts of Using Hashtags

Years ago, the pound sign on your phone does not serve any function. Today, however, the pound sign is considered as a vital part of your social media success. In fact, it is considered as such a prominent part of tech culture.

Hashtags help increase the chances of your post being found and track conversations among consumers, and other businesses. When used correctly, hashtags can help you generate more shares and increase awareness of your posts beyond your own follower base. Use them wrong, however, and it will lead you down the path to social media destruction.

Here are some dos and don’ts to consider to help you get on the right track.

Dos

Keep hashtags short

When creating hashtags, be sure to keep them short so they’re easy to type and remember. Long hashtags are difficult to read. Imagine mentally inserting spaces in between all those words. Not fun!

Create your own hashtag

Create a hashtag that is interesting enough that it can help you capture the attention of readers, yet popular enough that it can help you gain followers. Tailoring your hashtags will ensure you reach your ideal audience.

Use them to engage

Hashtags are often used to track what is said about their business and competitors as well. Since social media is about engagement and social interaction, you need to take part of that conversation. Use hashtags to pull users into a conversation with the brand and vice versa.

Don’ts

Overuse them

While there is no doubt that hashtags can increase your visibility, too much of it in a single post will kill your message. Readers tend to avoid posts with too many hashtags. For best results, limit your hashtags to 3 for each post.

Use irrelevant hashtags

Just because the hashtag is trending, it does not necessarily mean you should use it. Never use an unrelated hashtag just to get noticed. There is no bigger social media embarrassment than a wrongly used hashtag.

April 12, 2016/by Caitlin McDonald

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