Entries Tagged 'social media' ↓

Social media marketing is something that every business should be doing. It doesn’t matter what size you are – SME or a large multinational – social media is the way to promote your business.

But it’s not just about PR, social media is also an effective way to monitor your brand and improve your customer service.

So why aren’t you out there doing it?

My time is precious

Although social media marketing isn’t expensive in the traditional sense – you don’t need to invest in large quantities of hardware or software – it is a drain on your time resources.

“I can’t afford to spend that amount of time playing with social media.”

That is the attitude of many businesses. But can you really call it ‘playing’ when you weight up the benefits it will bring your business?

How many other things offer you:

• Unlimited PR opportunities
• Direct contact with your customers to gain insightful feedback
• A way to constantly monitor your brand
• The opportunity to respond to negative feedback in an instant
• The chance to ‘talk’ directly with your customers at any time

But if you still think you don’t have the time to adopt or develop a social media marketing strategy, just think about how life in the office has changed over the years.

Once upon a time people could only phone you at the office, now they can get hold of you anytime thanks to mobile phones. At one time you would find yourself wading through a pile of mail every morning and dealing with all your clients via post. Then came along that new-fangled thing called email – now, you can’t function without it.

Social media marketing is simply the next stage in the communication development.

Embrace it and win

Learn to make time and your business will benefit hugely from this new technology – listen to me, ‘new technology’ – it’s hardly new anymore so why aren’t you doing it?

Work out what you need to do within your company. Which is going to be best for you? Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, article marketing? Probably a mixture.

Then plan who will be dealing with this. This is your opportunity to talk directly to your customers. And remember, the responsibility for your social media marketing strategy doesn’t have to fall solely on one pair of shoulders.

Although you may want just one person dealing with your Twitter account (continuity of voice helps to generate a strong bond with followers and potential clients), there is no reason why you can’t share the blogging responsibilities.

Many companies are tempted to ‘farm out’ this kind of work. As a copywriter I would be happy to help you, but remember that blogging is your opportunity to get your opinions out to your readers. You are trying to build a relationship with them, so using someone outside your company may make this difficult.

By all means use guest bloggers as this can often bring in fresh ideas which you could use to further develop your blog.

There are a huge number of posts out there about using social media, probably telling you similar things to this one. So why are you still ignoring them?

Don’t get left behind. Your competitors are using social media to keep ahead of the game – they know what their customers want (and don’t want) before you do, they know if there is any negative feedback about their business and can deal with it before you know about it. By using social media they will remain one step ahead of you so isn’t it about time you took the initiative to redress the balance.

Social media marketing will help you stay one step ahead of the game or at least remain on a par.

What’s right for you?

A little while ago I wrote post about whether Facebook can help your business.

I set up my own fan page for my business as a freelance copywriter and I have to say that the jury is still out at the moment.

But whether Facebook is right for your business or not, you have to consider the best way to represent yourself.

Page or group?

With Facebook you have the option to set up a Page or a Group. But how do you know which is going to be right for you and your business?

A great place to start looking is this post I came across on Mashable – Facebook Pages Vs Facebook Groups: What’s the difference?

Howard Greenstein discusses the differences between pages and groups and their advantages and disadvantages to help you decide which road you should go down.

As with any social media marketing tool, Facebook will suit some businesses more than others. But the only real way to know whether it will work for you, is by trying it out.

Give it a go and let us know how you get on.

Are you embracing the world of internet marketing?

It is one of the fastest ways to get your products and services out in front of your customers. But it also comes with a health warning:

It is powerful, it is wide reaching but it takes time, patience and a damn good writer.

Internet marketing and social media are incredibly powerful tools. Recently I have a talk about how I’ve used the power of social media to build my business. However I don’t profess to be an expert – I don’t think anyone can. It is a field that is constantly changing. Just as you think you’ve got a handle on it, something new is thrown into the mix.

But that doesn’t mean to say you shouldn’t use it within your business. In fact, there is no good reason why you shouldn’t.

I stumbled across this great post by Ian Lurie of Conversation Marketing entitled 25 Internet Marketing Facts. If you are thinking of using internet marketing or are using it already, you need to know these:

1. Internet marketing is hard. Really hard. It’s not something that easily succumbs to a ‘miracle system’. Guys like Shoemoney have it right – they have systems, but they don’t say it’s easy.
2. Internet marketing can’t be done by a computer.
3. You’re still marketing to human beings. That’s why #2 is true. As long as we’re selling to humans, we’re going to need humans to handle the marketing.
4. ‘Internet’ marketing is more of a medium than a method. Marketing is a method/technique. Internet where we now do it. Yes, the techniques have changed a little, but not as much as you might think.
5. It’s measurable. While you can’t automate internet marketing, you can measure it. If you aren’t measuring each click, sale, interaction and citation for you and your business, you’re losing a lot of data.
6. Data is gold. That data (see #5) is solid gold. It’s the stuff you interpret, in part, to develop a strategy. Without it, you’re doing seat-of-the-pants marketing, which isn’t bad, per se. It’s just not as targeted.
7. Data is turd, unless you interpret it. You have to use data to make it worth something. Leave it lying around and it’s untapped potential. Sort of like cow pies.
8. Internet marketing takes time. A lot of time. There are aspects of it that can feel like a real slog if you’re new to marketing.
9. Internet marketing is the fastest marketing. To those of us who started out in 19coughcoughmumble, internet marketing is the fast forward of marketing. You can change something and see a result in less than six months?!!!! Holy CRAP!!!…
10. It’s two-way. Duh. I won’t beat this one to death any more.
11. If you try to learn it all at once, your head will explode. I figured out that I’ve spent a hair under 30,000 hours in this profession. I still have huge gaps in my knowledge. If you’re planning to buy a book (even even this one) and learn it in a week, you’re in for a rude awakening.
12. Internet marketing is the most accessible form of marketing ever. You can reach more people, faster, for less money than in any other type of marketing.
13. Access does not imply expertise. Anyone can launch a web site and try to sell something. That doesn’t mean they’re qualified to do it, any more than my access to a sharp knife means I’m qualified as a medical examiner.
14. Your web site is a hub, not the universe. You’ve got a web site? Great! Now you need to attend to all the other stuff. The web site is just a landing place. All the conversations swirling around it in search engines, social media, etc. are where the real marketing happens.
15. Internet marketing is distracting as hell. Twitter. E-mail. The most recent person saying SEO is dead. You could spend all day just reading about the field, and never doing anything.
16. You need focus. Only the most focused succeed. If you let the distractions pull you away, you’ll be lucky to launch a MySpace page.
17. You can’t fire-and-forget. If you’re a CMO, or a small business owner, you can’t just hire an internet marketer and then forget the whole thing. It requires your input. You at least need to check in now and then. Otherwise, crappy results are as much your fault as your consultant’s.
18. User generated content is a blessing and a curse. Everyone’s babbling about user generated content now. Great. Did you know that the average American reads at a 7th grade level? What kind of content do you think you’re going to get? I’m not slamming anyone. I’m just saying you need to be aware of the limitations.
19. You are never an expert. I’m not an internet marketing expert. Every day, I’m learning something new. It never stops, and you’re never an expert.
20. Relationships make or break campaigns. Your relationships with clients, colleagues, bloggers and others will drive your marketing. Relationships lead to recommendations, retweets, blog posts and a thousand other subtle citations what make internet marketing work. Don’t neglect them.
21. Ego can kill you. Ego-driven internet marketing can ruin the best campaign. Don’t let it. Pick your SEO keywords based on your audience’s questions, not yours. Design your site for your visitors, not for your family.
22. Ego can save you. At the same time, understand you’ll spend a long time shouting in an empty room. Be confident that what you’re doing will work. Otherwise you’ll end up in the modification toilet bowl of death, making one change after another, and getting no results.
23. One-year plans are doomed. You can’t write a detailed step-by-step plan describing how you’ll be spending money from now until next year. Well, you can. Just be prepared to feed it into a shredder in a month. Your audience is too dynamic to fit that kind of plan.
24. Those who talk, fail. If all you do is meet, talk and plan, then you’re not doing any marketing. You’re going to fail. Probably before you even launch anything. Meet briefly, if at all. Work hard, in bursts, then talk to the team, then go again. Always be launching a new initiative.
25. You have to write. I know, you think a YouTube video or two will do the trick. Plus you can hire 30 people at $5/article to write all your content! Wrong. If there isn’t a really, really good writer behind your internet marketing campaign, it will be a big, fat fail. Even your YouTube video requires a description and a script. There are times when you just have to pay for good copy.

Wise words – heed them well and your internet marketing efforts will be rewarded.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

Social media is for the younger generation.

Hogwash!

No one is too old for social media so there is absolutely no excuse for you not using it to further your business (or to make new contacts).

There is no unwritten law that states you are not allowed to participate in social medial if you are over the age of, say, 35.

If there were, my business shouldn’t exist. Why? Because as a copywriter I have utilised social media to build my business.

There is no mystery

To many people even the name social media marketing send a shudder down their spine. It sounds technical and scary – well, it’s not. If I can do it, anyone can.

Blogging, article writing, Twitter, Squidoo, Facebook they are all simple to use and fun.

“I’m too old for it…I prefer talking to real people…I wasn’t brought with computers so I don’t understand it.”

Can you think of any more excuses?

You’re never too old to learn

I came across a great post the other day by Beth Dunn on Hubspot that addressed this issue. It’s called “Are you too old for social media?”

In it she shows how many ‘older’ people are utilising this highly effective way of marketing. As she points out, all you need is practice – as with everything in life.

None of us are born able to run, talk or write – we only learn those skills through practice and social media marketing is exactly the same.

So banish your hang ups about age or ability – dip your toes in the water and see what happens. I think you’ll be surprised at the results.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

As a freelance copywriter, I use social media to promote my company and the services I provide. Up to now that has been mainly through blogging, article marketing, bookmarking, Twitter, online forums and networking sites. But there was one outlet I hadn’t delved into – Facebook. I am on facebook in a personal capacity but had never considered it for business use – until now.

Can facebook really help businesses?

Before I go any further, I’m not an expert on using facebook fan pages – I’m still learning myself. But with the growing popularity of social media marketing I realised that it was something I was going to have to get to grips with sooner or later.

Facebook pages seem to becoming increasinglt the second home page for businesses online. As such, SEO is an important factor in the design of your page. So how do you squeeze the most SEO benefits out of your facebook page? Well here are a few pointers to kick you off:

1. Choose a great name and stick to it – your business name is ideal.
2. Pick the best URL possible. Now, if you have 25 fans or more, you can choose your own URL (mine is http://www.facebook.com/freelancecopywriting) in which yo ucan incorporate you keywords.
3. Make your About Us box count – this is prime realestate for your keywords so use it wisely.
4. The info tab should include http’s of related websites and specific information such as your keywords, geographical location etc.
5. Post direct links to your website from your page.
6. Use your facebook badge of your websites to show people you’re there.

Is it really worth it?

Well, here are 11 mindblowing reasons your business needs Facebook curtesy from Social Media Examiner:

1. There are over 350,000 million global users of facebook
2. There are 100,000 users in the US alone
3. The average facebook user spends a staggering 55 minutes on it every day
4. Nearly 80,000 sites use facebook connect
5. Facebook fan box is becoming pervasive
6. The average facebook user has 130 friends
7. The average facebook user “fans” 2 pages per month
8. Only 4% of pages have 10,000 or more fans
9. Wall posts do’t impact popularity so make use of video, photos and links
10. Customised news feeds
11. Real-time search ability changes the game completely

Beginning to see how it will help your business?

Get yourself a fan page today like mine – see how you get one with it. Why not come back here and tell us all about your experiences and any tips you have picked up along the way.

Briar Copywriting – Leading UK Freelance Copywriter

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