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BIMS_5.5.15

Not long ago, writing a Facebook post and asking people to share, like or comment is all it took to maintain an active business page. But with Facebook’s algorithm changes, capturing the attention of your target audience becomes increasingly difficult.

If you’ve given up hope of ever reaching your target audience, then we’re here to help you out. Read on and we’ll show you how to increase fan engagement on your Facebook page.

Use visual content

Like the old adage says, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. But for a business owner like you, it’s worth more than that.

Survey revealed that visual contents get 180% more engagement as compared to other types of content on Facebook. This is because they are easy to digest, clear and concise. Post infographics, quotes, memes, tips, people, places etc.

Post more often

If your goal is to reach more people, then you have to be active on social media. We suggest that you post at least 4 times a day. This way, you’re giving your fans 4 chances to see your posts.

Feel free to post photos, talk about news, ask questions etc. Also, publish useful content with a consistent voice that your community knows.

Post interesting content

The simplest yet most effective way to capture the attention of your target audience is to publish great content and entice them to engage.

Make use of your knowledge and experiences by giving helpful tips to your fans. You can use past blogs or newsletters and turn them into quick tips. You can also share your knowledge by creating video tutorials and sharing them on Facebook.

Include call to action

Most people would browse quickly through their news feeds. Always include a call to action if you want them stop and take action. Sometimes, all you need to do is ask, but try to be as non-salesy as possible.

 


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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There are about 2 billion social network users from all over the world. That number is expected to grow to about 2.5 billion in 2017. So, if you want to reach your target audience more effectively, you need to be active on social media.

In this article, we’ll share with you some methods that have helped us boost our social media engagement. Hopefully, these tips will help you earn more shares, comments, likes and clicks for your social media content.

Ask for their opinion

Business owners should think of their target audience as a pool of unlimited resources. Your current and potential customers will appreciate it if you listen to what they have to say.

Feel free to create a simple survey, ask an open-ended question or a fill-in-the blank type of question. This is advantageous as it will not only increase engagement, you can also use their suggestions to address their needs and requests.

Educate

Business owners and marketers are often stumped as they sit down in front of their computer and attempt to post a status update on their social media accounts.

Remember, your goal is to get your audience to engage with you and your content. To do that, you need to provide them with great content. Write about what you know and what they don’t know. If you do this, people will eventually see you as an industry expert.

Call-to-action

It’s not enough to write quality content, sometimes, it also pays to ask. Always include a great call-to-action in your posts. Ask them to visit your site, answer polls, provide content ideas or simply hit like. People are more likely to act upon it if you tell them what you want from them. As they say, ask and you shall receive.

Share photos

If you are struggling to engage with your target audience through content marketing, you might want to consider including more visuals into your marketing efforts.

According to Social Media Examiner, 87% of the most shared posts on Facebook were photos. Sharing photos are a great way to boost engagement as it can easily capture the attention of people and are easier to digest.

 

BIMS_3.24.15

Most people think that sharing content on social media is easy. They expect that their blog posts will be seen by as many people as possible with just a few clicks of a button. While social media can help drive traffic to your blog, a lot of blog owners fail to realize that advertising goes beyond just sharing all your blog posts on social media.

In this article, we’ll give you 3 effective ways to use social media to promote your content. Follow these tips and draw in new readers for your blog.

Identify your target readers

You first need to understand what your target readers are interested in before throwing up a blog post. You can do this by browsing around and visiting top performing blogs in your niche. See what kind of topics get the most engagement, which social platform they use to share their content and also, take note of the comments they get.

Doing this kind of digging will give you an idea about what your audience are interested in and which social media platform they use.

Embrace the visual

It’s no secret that images receive much more engagement on Facebook and Twitter. Even images on LinkedIn get more engagement.

Since the image you use will be the first thing people are going to see, choose a photo that sends a compelling message, sparks emotions and inspires curiosity.

Use the right social media channel

It seems that new social media platforms come out once in a while. While it’s tempting to use them all in the hopes of reaching as much audience as possible, you might not get the results you want if you do so. A better approach would be to determine the best social network for promoting your blog and focus there.

If your target audience is more visual, you might have more potential traffic on Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram. If your blog posts are more geared around business and professional readers, Google+ and LinkedIn are your best bet.

 

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Business owners know that holding events are one of the best ways to get customer through the door. If your goal is to get as many people interested in your event, social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can be an excellent way to spread the word to your customer base, followers, family members and friends.

This week, we’ll give you 4 easy ways to use social media to create a buzz-worthy event and increase the number of attendees.

Engage

Social media is an ideal channel for initiating conversations. But before anything else, you want to identify your target audience and the types of people you’re trying to reach.

Post your event on Facebook and encourage engagement. With over 1 billion users worldwide, it is an ideal place to interact with potential attendees and speakers.

Promote early. The earlier you promote the event, the greater your chances are for success.

Hashtag properly

This is an important element of your event marketing strategy. When creating a hashtag, be sure to keep it short, unique and relevant. Don’t forget to do your research so as to make sure that it hasn’t been used previously.

The hashtag is a great way for attendees to follow conversations about your event, engage with speakers and each other. So, be sure to use it every time you post something about the event.

Create buzz

Create buzz by highlighting your greatest assets, your guests of honor. Considering that these people are admired in their industry, they already have loyal fans. This makes it a lot easier for you to get people to attend the event. You can also mention them in your tweets, in the hopes that their followers would see it too.

Be sure to incorporate the official hashtag and call to action at the end, urging people to register or buy tickets.

Updates

Set up a blog and post short updates to give attendees an idea about what to expect. Include photos and videos in your blog post to build traffic and engage your audience.

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Creating content is a fundamental component of an online marketing strategy. Unfortunately, a lot of business owners fail to generate a steady stream of high quality content.

While we understand that most of you are occupied with running and managing your business, keep in mind that your content plays an important part in your marketing campaign.

If you find yourself feeling discouraged about how long it takes to write a couple of blogs, please know that there are steps you can take to become more efficient  and effective in your daily tasks and speed up  the content creation process. Here are some of them.

Write about something you love

This is one of the most important tips you should keep in mind. When your write about something you absolutely love, words are going to flow quickly. But if you write about something that is not your area of expertise, it’s going to take you a lot longer.

Outline a month’s worth of ideas in advance

Coming up with new ideas to write about is probably the most challenging part of content marketing. To make things a bit easier, we suggest that you come up with a month’s worth of content ideas in advance.

Just because you have a list of topics, it doesn’t mean that you have to stick to it. You can always write about new topics, especially if breaking news or hot topics come up in your industry.

Do not multi-task

Contrary to popular belief, multi-tasking does not help you get things done faster. In fact, studies show that doing a number of things at the same time may cause you to commit mistakes and even double the amount of time you need to accomplish the task. So do yourself a favor and focus on one task at a time.

Do not self-censor

In an attempt to come up with a masterpiece that would wow your audience, your inner critical voice would hound you to constantly check and revise your content until you are satisfied with the result. However, this can slow you down.

If you wish to spend less time creating content, you have to turn off your inner critic temporarily. Let the ideas flow and give yourself a time to write. Once you are done, you can then review your work and start editing.

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I know a lot of people who would log on to their social media accounts when they wake up in the morning. So, that’s probably one of the best times to post on social media, right?

But wait, I heard that most people also use it in the afternoon to mess around when they get bored at work. Or maybe they spend a few hours browsing through their newsfeeds after business hours. Okay, I’m officially confused.

Determining when to post on social media requires that you consider which platform your target audience is using. Remember, each social network has different users and their activities vary.

If you’re posting a status update when the majority of you audience are not online, then your time and effort goes to waste. Since you’re a busy person, you can’t afford to waste time.

Let’s get into the stats then.

Schedule tweets for lunch time

If your target market is on Twitter, be sure to tweet between 1-3 pm. During lunch break, a lot of people are checking in on Twitter. Traffic starts to build at 11 am, with peak posting days from Monday to Thursday. Avoid posting after 3pm on Friday.

Post Facebook status in the afternoon, when less people want to be at work

Engagement is one of the key considerations to a post’s visibility. An ideal time for engagement is between 1-4 pm.

Most people need some form of entertainment just to get through the afternoon slump, like around that 3:00 pm lull. For a lot of people, that means logging on to Facebook. These numbers hit rock bottom during the weekends, before 8 am and after 8 pm.

No one uses LinkedIn on a Friday

People are less interested in what’s happening on LinkedIn when they are winding up and winding down their work week. That means you shouldn’t bother posting on Monday and Friday. The best time for engagement is between Tuesday to Thursday, particularly before and after business hours.

 

BIms Marketing 1.27.15

As a startup business, it is understandable that you don’t have a wad of cash to market your business. But that does not necessarily mean that you can’t get your brand out there.

The internet is teeming with marketing platforms that would not require you to spend a ridiculous amount of money. If you want to maximize your success, you need to take advantage of the power of the internet and learn how to promote your business online.

This week, we’ll give you some pointers on how to get the word out about your business and start driving sales.

Optimize your company’s website

In the world of constant Googling, search engine optimization cannot be underestimated. The idea here is to write your website’s content in such a way that it would appear in major search engines such as Bing and Google.

Embrace social media

Today, virtually every business, whether big or small, has accounts on different social media platforms.

Without social media, your inbound traffic is limited to people who are familiar with your business. Use social media to create more awareness for your company and to present a more personal side of your business. You can also post updates from time to time to keep your fans posted on your business happenings.

Start a blog

Blogging is a great way to boost your site’s ranking in search engines and drive traffic to your website. This is particularly important if you are running an online business.

For this to be effective, you have to write blog posts frequently and provide your audience with relevant information. As you continue to provide valuable information and solutions to your target market’s problems, you’ll soon become a trusted source of information. Once they see you as an industry expert, they are more likely to buy from you.

When you grow, hire a pro

When you’re starting out, it is natural that you want to oversee every single aspect of your business, including online marketing. But as your business grows, you might want to hire a professional to take over the marketing side of your business. After all, these people have the skills, knowledge and experience to help you reach and connect with your target audience and generate new leads.

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Since business owners have discovered that they could make fans through their Facebook page and market through a broader group of consumers, many of them have slowly abandoned the Facebook groups and focused their time on managing their page.

With so many changes taking place on the said platform, business owners have assumed that groups are no longer effective. But as soon as they abandoned the groups, they seem to forget about the “social” in social media. They focused on paid advertisement, limiting the interaction between the company and it audience.

So how do you use Facebook groups for your business? Here are 4 ways.

Exchange ideas with group members

When thinking of creating a group, one of the main reasons should be to keep in touch with your audience.

While a business page allows a company to broadcast new products, services or content, Facebook groups is a good place to ask questions or start a conversation with actual customers without posting a sales pitch.

Gather people of like interest

We do like to converse with people with the same interest as ours, right?

Through Facebook groups, you can gather people of like interest together. Here, you can ask questions, tell stories and offer advice to others. As the conversation evolves and as you start building a relationship with the group members, they might consider inviting some of their friends to the group.

Provide customer support

For small businesses that are still not capable of hiring people and offer customer support round-the-clock, having an active Facebook group is advantageous as it gives customers a place to share, collaborate and connect with others. Here, people can offer support and advice to fellow customers, even if you’re not online.

Create a secret group

A secret group provides you the chance to interact with your loyal customers. Here, you can give them exclusive updates to your newest products or services. Plus, it gives an incentive to customers who have supported your company through the years.