Entries Tagged 'social media' ↓

Happy New Year!

This is it. The start of a new decade bla bla bla…

So, what are you going to do differently this year? Are you going to move your marketing up a level or will  you just be plodding along as usual?

With the noughties behind us and the teenies stretching before us, now’s the time to review your marketing messages on your website, brochures, newsletters, emails etc.

Don’t go stale

Picture this: Monday morning, you drag yourself out of bed and stagger down stairs. You open the bread bin only to find a hard, stale piece of bread which is slightly green around the edges.

Do you:

a) stick it in the toaster because no one’s ever died from mouldy, past its best bread (yet)

b) chuck it away and find some fresh bread to eat

I’m guessing you’ve gone for option b).

Why? Because the bread is out of date, stale and lifeless.

So if you thought that was a pretty obvious choice to make, why do you leave your website copy and brochures untouched for months, years and (God forbid) decades?

Keep up with the times

Your marketing message will become just as stale as that piece of bread.

The copywriting in your original message was undoubtedly strong and compelling, but even copywriting can’t stand the test of time. You move on, your customers move on, priorities and products change – so why hasn’t your copy?

If you don’t keep your copy updated and relevant you might as well not bother marketing – and we all know what a pickle that’ll get you in to. I wrote a post a while back called 4 Resons Why Copywriting Services Work in which I used a famous example to illustrate why your marketing should continue:

During the depression of 1929-33(ish) Kelloggs in the USA (whose cornflakes were a health food at the time) continued to promote as heavily with adverts, posters etc as they had been doing before that. By the time the depression was over there were no other breakfast cereals that anyone had heard of and Kelloggs achieved almost instant market domination, a position they’ve held ever since.

Time verses profit

I can hear you all now shouting that you don’t have the time to start reviewing and rewriting all your marketing materials. Well, for starters, you don’t have to do it all in one go. Prioritise – start on your website first if that’s the first contact potential clients have with your company.

If you don’t have time, invest in the services of a freelance copywriter – yes, it will cost you but you’ll save time because a) you don’t have to write it yourself and b) because you won’t have to rewrite it because it will work first time because copywriters know what they’re doing.

Using a professional will help you save money and make money – think of it as an investment. You hire new sales people to generate more leads so why not hire a copywriter to produce copy that will generate leads and convert them into buying customers?

Take a look at your website and borchures – ready for a makeover? Start 2010 the way you mean to go on – lean, mean and ready for action.

I started out as a freelance copywriter nearly three years ago. During that time, not being the greatest face to face networker in the world, I have utilised the power of social media to drive my business forwards. That’s great if you ‘get’ social media but if the likes of Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and the myriad other websites leave you cold, it can all seem like a total waste of time.

The down side of social media

If you don’t know what you are doing, social media could quite easily be the death of your business. Sound extreme? Well, it’s true.

You can spend hours playing with your Twitter account, Facebook Fan page and all manner of other forums and networking sites, but if you don’t have a clear strategy you’ll be heading for trouble.

Many people associate being busy with being profitable. But if your ‘busy-ness’ comes from the fact you’re spending hours sending out useless tweets rather than going out meeting and greeting and getting deals signed, you’re going nowhere fast.

Your social networking is there to compliment your traditional face to face networking. They should go hand in hand.

Social media for local business

Because it’s on the world wide web many people see social media as a platform for global networking. Yes, it can be that if you want, helping your company reach parts you never thought possible. But it can also be very effective on a local level too.

Networking events aren’t always the most targeted way of meeting new and valuable contacts or clients. Most of the time you never quite know who you’ll meet. By using the power of online networking you can change all that.

Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

Start a local group online

Use sites such as LinkedIn or Facebook to start local discussion groups. This is a great way to get in touch with other local businesses and share ideas.

Hold a meetup/tweet up

Get together with your online local networking groups. Find tweeters from your area and arrange a Tweetup. This is a great way to firm up those online relationships you’ve already started.

Facebook targeted ads

If you have a Facebook fan page (here’s my freelance copywriting page – feel free to become a fan, it would be great to see you there) use Facebook’s targeted advertising service to get your name in front of local prospects.

Google local 10 box

If you’re not already there, get yourself listed in Google’s local 10 box and get yourself in front of people looking for local businesses like yours.

Above all, if you’re using social media make sure you have a strategy and stick to it. Plus compliment your online activties with going out meeting and greeting.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

For many people social media is a still this mythical creature that soars around cyber space breathing fire on anyone who misueses it.

OK, we all know it doesn’t do that but for many people who just ‘don’t get it’, it might as well.

Many people still see it as a waste of time. They don’t have time to Tweet or Digg, they don’t have time for forums, they don’t have time to blog. But it’s not a waste of time if it’s done right.

Yes, if you don’t have a strategy you can waste a lot of time ‘messing’ around with social media but if you have a clear methodology you’ll win hands down.

It’s just like setting time aside to do your accounts or writing an advert – but I bet time spent building relationships through social media will get you a higher return for your cash than that old fashioned advert will.

As a freelance copywriter most of my clients find me through my social media activities – whether its blogging, facebook or twitter. Engaging with people online is vital to build trust and credibility.

I found a great post on weblinknow which explains social media marketing in 61 words:

You can buy attention (advertising)
You can beg for attention from the media (PR)
You can bug people one at a time to get attention (sales)

Or you can earn attention by creating something interesting and valuable and then publishing it online for free: a YouTube video, a blog, a research report, photos, a Twitter stream, an ebook, a Facebook page.

Brilliant!

Now do you get it?

Slower than most people, I have just started to get to grips with Facebook pages.

I use social media a lot in the marketing of my business. As a freelance copywriter the vast majority of my clients find me online, one way or another. So, utilising Facebook for business seemed the logical thing to do – after all it’s another web presence and another opportunity to build up content.

These ideas always seem great, but when it comes to putting things into practice, it gets a bit more complicated.

But I now have my freelance copywriting facebook page up and running. Why not pop over there now and take a look. If you like what you see become a fan.

I’m waiting to say hi!

For any business, social media should be as important as face to face networking, cold calling and lead chasing. In fact, once you get the hang of it you could kiss goodbye to cold calling forever.

Ever since starting out as a freelance copywriter I have harnessed the power of social media. Today I don’t have to do any cold calling and only minimal face to face networking giving me more time to get on with the important stuff – helping my clients.

It can be time consuming but no more than other methods of business generation. And yes, unless you have a plan, you can waste valuable time ‘playing’ rather than achieving great results.

This excellent post from Chris Garrett on Social Media Examiner gives 5 tips for finding time for social media. It shows you how useful it can be and how it can easily be worked into your normal working day.

If you haven’t already dipped your toes into the warm waters of social media, give it a try – you might just amaze yourself at the results you get.