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4 Ways to Use Twitter for Business and Marketing

4 Ways to Use Twitter for Business and Marketing

Business of all sizes use Twitter for a variety of reasons – provide information, interact with their followers, promote their products and services, generate leads and monitor conversations about their company.

Maintaining an effective Twitter presence can be a powerful part of your marketing strategy. Despite its growing relevance, a lot of small businesses are still not using Twitter to its full potential.

In this blog post, we’ll teach you how to turn 140 characters into online marketing gold. Read on for some useful tips on how to use this popular social media platform for business and marketing.

Engage in two-way conversations

Twitter is a great platform to reach your audience. As a business owner, your goal for using social media is to build a community around your brand and to foster relationships.

Don’t go overboard with promoting your business. If you do so, people will stop following you. Keep an eye out for particular issues you could help with. Join the conversation and feel free to give some tips and advice.

Retweet

The last thing you want is to bombard people with tweets about your business. It is worthwhile to retweet particular tweets from other users that you find particularly useful or interesting. Sometimes, this encourages people to follow you. Plus, retweeting shows your followers that you’re also willing to share tips and advice, and you’re not just about flogging your products and services.

Customer service

80% of customer service interactions take place in social media. In fact, a lot of people post complaints and product queries on Twitter. Twitter is a great tool for customer service because it allows you to resolve issues in real time. Be sure to respond in a polite and professional manner. Don’t forget to thank the customer publicly once the problem is resolved.

Make twitter a daily activity

Social media marketing success does not happen overnight. You need to spend time posting updates, responding to DMs, thanking new followers, following new accounts, liking and re-tweeting other content and responding to other users.

Because twitter moves so quickly, it is not something you can handle whenever you have the time. Daily postings and engagement is important. Otherwise, people will forget about you.

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3 Ways Social Media Can Help Your Business

3 Ways Social Media Can Help Your Business

As a business owner, you have probably considered using social media to help you get the word out about your business. Building a strong social media presence may take a lot of time and hard work, but the pay off can be incredible.

Social media can be extremely beneficial to companies of all sizes. Here’s how social media can help grow your business.

Reach new audience

Sharing content to thousands of people at once is one of the biggest benefits of social media. But instead of trying to reach everyone, you need to find the right people to engage with. Social media provides the perfect opportunity to help you reach your target audience. Plus, it is one of the fastest and least expensive ways to connect with your audience.

Identify who your target audience is, and then determine which social platforms they spend most of their time in. If you share really interesting and engaging content, you are likely to reach thousands and thousands of people in no time.

Create meaningful relationship with your customers

Social media encourages two-way communication. It’s not enough that you share your knowledge or provide some updates about your products, services and upcoming events; you also want to communicate with your fans and followers.

Social media allows you to communicate with your prospective and current customers. Once you have earned their trust and goodwill, they would be much more willing to recommend your products to their family and friends.

Customer service

Providing stellar customer service is likely already a top priority for your business. Since most customers want immediate response, many of them would post their questions or concerns via social media. If they do, it is important that you respond and address the issue in a timely manner.

If you acquire positive feedbacks, ask the customer if you can share it on your page. People will trust and appreciate you when people say good things about your business.

 

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How to Build a Strong Social Media Presence

How to Build a Strong Social Media PresenceSocial 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.

 

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Rules of Engagement for Facebook Group Administrators

RulesofFacebookforAdmins

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.

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Signs You Need to Outsource Your Digital Marketing

Online Marketing

As a founder of a growing company, you may feel that you need to do everything yourself to ensure that it is done right. We understand the buzz of excitement that keeps you going, even when you’re exhausted. We understand the passion you feel for what you do. But sometimes, outsourcing certain parts of your business is the way to go, especially if you have too much on your plate.

Here are some strong indicators that you need to outsource your digital marketing.

You don’t have the right skills

Many of you are probably familiar with social media marketing and search engine optimization. But the question is, do you know how to use them to grow your business? If not, consider getting professional help to harness the power of the internet and grow your business. Yes, you may have to spend money, but hiring an experienced marketer will help maximize the potential and profitability of your business.

You’re overexerted

As a small business owner, you have grown accustomed to doing everything on your own. As your business grows, you try to put in more hours hoping to tackle everything on your to-do list. After a few weeks, you show up to work feeling defeated because you know there is no way you you’ll be able to get all of those tasks done. You’re overexerted. It’s time to find someone who can help you manage your digital marketing.

You get a lot of traffic, but your sales are not increasing

If you’re not witnessing any growth in your sales, it isn’t always due to a poor sales force. In most cases, this is due to ineffective marketing. Maybe you should look into hiring an outside agency to help increase your sales and revenue.

An experienced marketer can help by looking at your current strategy, letting you know what you’re doing wrong and providing some suggestions on how to get your sales back on track.

 

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Online Advertising Strategies for Small Business Owners with Limited Budget

Online MarketingWith 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.

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Tips to Get More Email Subscribers

emailmarketing 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.

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How to Handle Negative Reviews Online

reviewsBIMS_5.11According 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.

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4 Ways to Increase Your Visibility on Social Media

BIMS

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.

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Reasons Why Your Content Marketing is Failing

Flat design vector illustration concept of computer and connected mobile devices with links of transmission information on various data storages and cloud computing service. Isolated on stylish colored background.

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.

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