All Posts, Branding, Events, Marketing, Social Media
There are over one billion people on Facebook.
Just about everyone on the planet knows that Facebook has become the go-to media strategy for business promotion. Using Facebook provides businesses one of the best opportunities on the Internet for targeted advertising. This is key because Facebook users provide pertinent information such as their age, gender, location and interests, which allows you direct access to target your audience. These Facebook ads can be used for lead generation, traditional brand advertising, and more all to promote your business – FOR FREE! Here are just a few ways to leverage Facebook advertisements for your business.
1st – Know How It Works – When you run your ad or sponsored posts/stories you are charged for the number of impressions (CPM) or clicks it receives. The amount that you pay can be restricted by your daily or lifetime budget and there are no additional fees associated with running ads or sponsored stories on Facebook. Facebook suggests you name your campaign, select your budget and set the time schedule for running your ad. When multiple ads are running in a campaign, Facebook automatically allocates more of your daily budget to higher performing ads. You can use the Ads Manager feature to monitor your campaigns performance, to measure its success and ultimately determine if you are spending your Facebook advertising $’s in the best way possible.
2nd – Consider Psychographics vs. Demographics in the Setup – Psychographics study and measure attitudes, values, lifestyles, and opinions versus demographics, which provide quantitative data based on geography, age, gender and the like. Psychographics give a true, life-like portrait of the targeted audience and consumer base for your individualized marketing purposes. Facebook gathering this key information allows advertisers to target & pinpoint their audience in a very precise and henceforth successful way.
3rd – Always Use Effective, Eye-Catching Tools & Creative Options – We know that we “eat” with our eyes first. What catches our attention through imagery certainly opens the door leading us to the relevant information. So smart use of imagery in your Facebook ad will make a significant impact on the success of the advertising and marketing campaign. And there are various forms of these eye-catching options to consider.
- Infographics are a great way to grab the reader’s attention especially when you add imbedded links to your page to promote key information about a product or service being provided.
- Video Ads – For those who prefer to watch than read, video ads are a great way to convey pertinent healthcare information or solicitations to the masses. For example, there are sports companies like Nike that use ads like Nike’s Football: The Vapor Trail to create amazing & captivating video ads to entice their target audience and promote their products.
- Job Opportunities – In need of more sales associates or another CPA for your growing accounting firm? With over 1 billions people on Facebook, it is no brainer to use ad space to market career opportunities within your business.
- Free Services & Apps – Nothing attracts new customers like the words FREE and even more so when they can actually obtain something. What better way to entice a consumer than offering a limited service for free? What about creating engagement via a free app offer as you lead consumers to your own website. Use Facebook the way Facebook uses you – to get new subscribers i.e. new consumers.
- Emotional Response Ads – Emotions are one of the most powerful influences we have. Emotional Response Marketing & Advertising works wonders in the various forums such as healthcare because there are emotional attachments to health concerns, issues and supportive causes such as Shriner’s Hospital Love to the Rescue.
- Hosted Event Ads – Events promoted on Facebook have a greater chance of success than any traditional marketing method. Business exhibitions and conferences, trainings, and career events can have a much higher participatory turnout when advertised through Facebook.
So are Facebook advertisements worthwhile for your business and particular industry? Only you know who your general audience is comprised of. But if there are more than 50% that you believe are online and use Social Media – than the answer is YES. Especially if you look at the IMMENSE EXPOSURE opportunity versus the amount of money spent on the campaign. Using Facebook creates unlimited opportunities to attain new customers, host successful events and bring global awareness to your company’s product or service. 
All Posts, Content & Copywriting, Infographics, Marketing, Social Media
Facebook is an important platform for both engagement and professional networking among business and marketing professionals. But not everyone believes that time spent on this social media forum is well worth the effort. Or perhaps you think you do have strong and proper utilization of Facebook. And if so, that’s fantastic and way to go in leveraging your social media marketing channels. However, if you haven’t seen much engagement last year or haven’t generated any leads from it, then maybe some (or all) of these tips can help you change your fate in 2013. With a little time, a few colleagues and these tips, you can easily make your Facebook marketing strategy a success, increase traffic and engage, engage, engage!
#1. Content Making Your Audience Yawn?
Too many brands are guilty of over-posting articles and links to other businesses articles. Facebook is the most ‘social’ platform for all and people want to see, read, and share knowledge. Just posting articles can make your page quite boring! A better way to engage fans on your page and keep them coming back for more is to share a wide array of content. Anything from Infographics to select business tips to short e-books. Facebook may not be free forever so use this worldwide social media leviathan to your advantage while it’s still gratis!
#2. Tumble Weed Blowing Through Your Pages
There’s nothing worse than having a dead Facebook page. Many businesses Facebook pages were guilty of serious neglect with posts dating back weeks or even months ago. Not only does posting infrequently kill your Edgerank (the system that controls content visibility on your network’s News Feed), but it also sends a message to your fans that you don’t care to much about their loyalty to your brand and voice. The best way to improve visibility on Facebook is by frequent postings, advertisements and product/service imagery.
#3. A Little Vanity Is Good
A lot of businesses still don’t have a vanity URL (username) and are using the same old default URL given by Facebook from when they first signed up. To business prospects this can look tacky and unprofessional. Remember that once you have 25 fans, you are able to claim a dedicated username for your page. This comes in handy when you’re directing people to your Facebook page from other sources. You don’t want them to type in a URL that’s long and awkward. If you need help changing your URL, here’s how to do it.
#4. Don’t Let Your Page Be Visually Impaired
We all know that most of us “eat” with our eyes first. Visual content remains one of the number one way to engage with your network. What catches your reader’s attention through imagery certainly opens the door leading us to the relevant information causing them to spend more time on your page. Without it, your run the risk that fewer people will ‘Like’ your page or share your content. Infographics are a great way to grab the reader’s attention with imbedded links to your page to promote key information or a healthcare service being provided.
#5. Facebook Features and Apps
Business brands may not know or choose to use custom tabs for highlighting interesting content. But they should. With Timeline, a default landing page is no longer a must for businesses. You can now draw attention to your free resources, YouTube videos or other great content by using the (four) custom tabs underneath the header image (or cover photo). Custom tabs are fun and easy to create – here is a wonderful guide to get you started.
#6. Lacking Personality?
Although you still need to be professional on your Facebook page, it doesn’t mean you have to omit personality and excitement about your services and products. Once in a while ask your fans short, entertaining questions (even within the business context) to keep them engaged. Try to consistently engage your fan base by weekly postings with a certain theme. For example, try highlighting a product or service of the week, share a business tip or customer testimonial. Nurture your Facebook community while still maintaining your humor and lightheartedness in conveying the strength of your brand and business products/services.
Facebook is a fantastic business tool that can surely help you grow your business, but you have to use it properly for it to work to your advantage. So feel free to buck business stuffiness a little while using it to generate leads, engage your fans and gain a faithful following. Stay tuned for next week’s follow-up article highlighting Tips to Promote Your Business with Facebook Ads.
All Posts, Marketing, Social Media, Web Design
We’ve all heard the old adage, you only get out of it (a particular action) what you put into it. And that is so true when it comes to the online marketing of your business and the sweat equity you put into it. It takes time, effort and can also cost a considerable amount of cash if you have it. But if you are a frugal business owner or have fallen on hard financial times due to the economic climate, you need to review these 8 ways to promote your business online completely gratis!.
Free Social Media Resources
#1 Facebook posts need to occur on a regular basis to be effective. Most people are logged on during the prime time hours of 5-9pm. You can create quick posts about a new product or service, a free service tip or even ones that are relevant to seasonal time frames. For example, “Stay warmer longer and out of the cold less with a new SmartStart remote starter!”
#2 Blogging via your website is easy enough by adding a few paragraphs with information specific to your business or service. Adding fresh content on a regular basis will give you consistent indexing on major search engines. You can do this yourself or consider asking a friend or family member that’s a pretty good writer to put a brief article together that gives you an authoritative voice about your particular niche and hopefully a faithful following!
#3 Twitter posts are the easiest but seem to be the hardest to keep up with. Why I don’t know. But I do know is that prioritizing a few Tweets per week can help keep your business relevant in this social medium. If you just don’t have the time, there are social media management programs to help schedule postings on a daily or weekly basis.
#4 Hootsuite is a free social media management tool can help you to schedule and manage multiple Social Media networks and your daily/weekly postings. It’s free up to 5 networks and then becomes a paid service. This is a great no cost/low cost option and it’s super easy to use. Another option would be to consider asking a college student to do it for a few bucks so they can leverage it as professional Social Media management experience.
Free Website Resources
#4 merchantcircle.com holds major clout when it comes to online business networking as the largest social network for local business owners. They offer free online business listings, free marketing tools, internet advertising and so much more. It’s 100% free to set up a profile account so you can connect with other local businesses and promote your services/products.
#5 Yelp touts they are “the best way to find great local business” and true enough they are one of them. The site is well-known as the word-of-mouth for the digital world when it comes to reviews and opinions about businesses. Creating a profile is easy, smart device friendly and it is similar to Zagat, allowing consumers to rate your business. Don’t be afraid to ask your favorite and most long-term customers to add reviews to your business profile which helps increase your ratings. Remember, you will look better to consumers with 3 great reviews rather than someone who has none. But make sure you monitor your profile regularly in case someone puts something on there that’s less than becoming. You want to be able respond timely to anything that’s said which could affect your business’ reputation.
#6 Google Places helps consumers, much like Yelp, to help choose the right businesses based on their needs. These searches focus on geographically locating your personal needs in the areas of food, service industries and more. Here you can add photos, videos, coupons and even weekly specials all on your Place Page.
#6 Google+ Profile Business Page is another great tool by Google helps you find, share, rate, and recommend your business to their friends, and people across the web. But here’s the real gold nugget value – on this site you can also hold free customer meetings via 1 to 1 or even a 10-way video meeting called Google Hangouts. You can even stream and record conversations for playback later.
#8 A Free YouTube Channel for your business will allow you to upload your videos and market via your own channel! Plus you can really leverage this medium by programming certain settings and keywords to make your channel appear in people’s online searches. Not sure what kind of video to shoot? Consider educating your consumers via a Tips Video with several how-to’s or why choose your business infomercials. For example, if you’re an automobile service business, give a how-to-tell if your tire has a real flat or if it’s just the outdoor temperature affecting the pressure.
Last Tips
-Unless you want to pay someone to do the work for you, it sill takes a consistent effort of rolling up your sleeves and getting these resources to work for you.
-Remember, the goal is to create engagement and grow your online business presence leveraging these free online tools.
-Be consistent in your business descriptions across all these mediums so that search engines pull the same company information about your business.
-Keep in mind that with these resources, there’s no “set it & forget it” recipe. Even with Hootsuite, you’ll need to follow-up on your postings to check for comments and post responses to those consumer comments.
-You aren’t going to see dollar-for-dollar return on these efforts & the time investment you put into it. But I am confident that within 6 months, you will be surely see the fruits of your labors with leads and consumer recognition.
-Pace yourself so you don’t burn out and remember, slow and steady still wins the race all the way to the successful business finish line.
All Posts, Content & Copywriting, Marketing, Web Design, WordPress
Let’s lead in with a fact shall we? The Online Publishers Association (OPA) research has found that 57 % of technology users time is spent accessing content via the mobile Web, while the remaining 43 % is spent accessing content via apps. Wow, one wonders what the future of PC’s will be at those increasing rates of usage of mobile devices in a manner that was once relegated to PC’s. Don’t bother pondering too long because according to Peter Thompson’s recent article it has been predicted that during 2013, mobile devices will overtake PCs as the most common technology to access the Internet. That means smartphones & handheld device content will remain hand-in-hand and maintain quite the profitable marriage this coming year.
What it Looks Like
Based on the statistics above, the mobile device viewing of web content is growing at astronomical rates. Because of this, mobile operating systems and device specific websites require optimized content and high-quality imagery resolution for smartphone & tablet users. So most web designers and content writers are trading in their traditional methods of web marketing (including HTML sites) and traveling down the aisle with other tools on their arms such as WordPress and SEO-rich platforms.
Entertainment Content
Now a days, “infotainment” (which is information-based media content or programming that also includes entertainment content in an effort to enhance popularity with audiences and consumers) is a premier reason enhanced mobile devices screen resolutions need to be what iPad with Retina display has achieved for games, music and video. And just when you thought that was a match made in heaven, Chris Yewdall informed us that coming in 2015, software & mobile device giants like Samsung & HTC are releasing 3D phones that will not only enable consumers to shoot 3D content but to consume 2D content in 3D. AND to watch the converted 3D content on their TV’s. All of this innovations help us escape from the daily grind and enhance users experience.
Free Apps
Although most weddings cost a fortune, when it comes to espousal of apps & mobility, cost-free remains the key to our hearts. Many note that with the current economy, customers are increasingly on the hunt for free apps. Recent statistics show that Android free apps will continue to outnumber free iPhone apps into 2013. According to DISTIMO, a leader in app analytics, there are now more free apps available for Google’s mobile OS than the iPhone.
Purchase Power On The Go
After honeymoon bliss, couples go about the business of daily living and with most of our time spent on the go, our lives require mobile purchasing power. The ability to make purchases when the customer is “on the go” requires mobilized versions of websites that are fully functional but with quick and easy purchasing directives. Vivid imagery & engaging content are required to move the consumer from enticed to committed buying making on-device purchasing easy & effective.
Jumping the Broom with Cars?
Getting hitched on the physical & technological mobility bandwagon, Hyundai is taking us to another level! Ready for release in 2015, this car manufacturer will be coupling smartphone technology with their vehicles via the Hyundai Connectivity Concept. This new innovation is designed to wirelessly mirror the contents of your smartphone directly within your vehicle. By 2015, Hyundai says it can replace a conventional key fob with the consumers’ smartphone to lock/unlock doors by placing it over the NFC (Near Field Communications) sticker on the window or door. Inside, the smartphone is placed in a docking station within the center console where it activates the user’s profile & streams content to a touchscreen that displays all of the user’s music, radio stations and phone contacts. It can even control the navigation and various other on-board infotainment and telematics systems. Yes all that while recharging the phone’s battery wirelessly. And here’s the real gift of this technology and user interface nuptial, multiple users and their individual smartphones can access the same car in the same way.
So there you are folks…technology wed to content equals blissful & entertaining engagement for us.
All Posts, Content & Copywriting, Infographics, Marketing, Social Media
What’s Trending…
Choose a topic currently trending in your industry or that of your client. Yahoo! and the various Social Media outlets are great sources for quick, current topics.
Keep A Stash
When the clock is not your friend, you need to have a reserve that you can quickly draw from. Try to jot down some topics and/or write a few lines about a particular topic so that when your back is against the wall, you don’t need to waste time trying coming up with new ideas.
Change The Format
Rather than being “informative” and using the written method, choose to do an instructional video on a topic you have adequate knowledge of. This can be a very effective and engaging form of blogging. You can also choose to create a quick Infographic as another great way to convey key information in a visually pleasing and quick manner.
Quality vs. Quantity
Writing about something you are passionate about or have adequate knowledge about is a sure way to write well. But to produce this kind of blog, don’t get caught up in the 700+ words of your average, well-researched blog post. Stick to what you know and convey it in a confident and concise manner. Direct, key points work best.
Use Imagery to Fill White Space
Using relevant imagery to support your topic is a great way to fill up the white space of your blog. In your spare time search for & purchase various images on iStockphoto or 123rf and keep a reserve that you can quickly draw from.
End with a Call to Action
Calls to Action take a little more pressure off the writer and puts some of the onus on the reader. It’s another great way to engage your readership by creating dialogue about your blog and hopefully a following.
Save Editing For Last
Once you start to write, write-write-write! Don’t stop to correct, edit or add hyperlinks, images or anything else. Save the clean up work for last.
Last Words
These simple steps will allow you to create a quick yet informative blog in a fraction of the time. Remember folks, you’re not going for a Pulitzer. So do what’s needed, do it well and then click post.
All Posts, Branding, Marketing
In this time of economic hardship, every business big or small is hurting. Declines in product purchasing, or rationalizing the use of a costly service has many business owners trimming their financial trees. However, I believe during this time of Thanksgiving, it is important to let your faithful customers/clients know just how much you appreciate them sticking with you and giving you their business.
Chachkies (Yiddish word for small gifts or collectables)
Small token gift ideas from business owners to customers can be accomplished in a cost-effective way. Great, inexpensive product marketing sites like Vistaprint offer a variety of low-cost options that tout your brand while reflecting your customer appreciation. And Vistaprint is almost ALWAYS HAVING A SALE! Understand that this inexpensive token of appreciation can translate right back to you with consumer loyalty and an increased revenue stream. This category of business branded items can include:
E-Cards
If money is tighter than your pants will be at 6pm this Thursday, an inexpensive, higher-end E-card might be just right for your limited budget. There are some great options out there with music and scrolling imagery using Flash Animation that will convey glad tidings to your customers/clients. Some clients might be happy that you are choosing to reduce your carbon footprint by not sending traditional, printed cards. Check out some great interactive options at http://bit.ly/Q5qQUH or http://bit.ly/Q5sHsH.
Holiday Rewards
Let your customers know how special they are with a one-time Holiday special/promotion for them remaining dedicated customers. Make sure to let them know that you are holding the special at this holiday time in tribute to them. If it’s a product, give them a percentage off their next order. If it’s a service, give them $ credit on their account.
These small giftings for faithfulness should be a key consideration for small business owners. Although I recognize that most don’t have the extra funds lying around to use on what might seem like a frivolous expenditure, the long term affects on those relationships are worth it. I believe that it’s important to keep your business in the minds of your current clients since the impression can go a long way to keep those customer’s repeat business AND referrals to their professional & personal networks. And if you do it right, you’ll see the ROI on this token of appreciation and jingle all the way to the bank.
