Social Media for Small Business
I get the question all the time…
Is social media for small business?
The answer is YES!
I’ve been doing a lot of work for small businesses lately. The main benefit they see is not only an increase in sales, but an increase in customer loyalty too. This is extremely great for restaurants, salons, and any other place with a lot of repeat business.
The big thing is, they see an increase in income as soon as I start working with them. Social media marketing is free and if you know how to do it right, it will make your business grow. However, if you do it wrong or have the wrong mindset, it can hurt your business.
Most small businesses don’t have the money to hire an employee to handle their social media management. Even if they did, they wouldn’t know how to train that new employee. If you look at the chart below, you’ll see the average salary for social media jobs in the USA.
For a fraction of the cost, you can outsource your social media management to someone who knows what they’re doing, can create a strategy and goals, like me.
© 2012 Onward Search
Social Fresh Baltimore – 5 Social Marketing Lessons
Yesterday and today, I joined social media marketers from around the Baltimore area and the country at Social Fresh Baltimore. I’m posting this blog post halfway through the second day, so if the afternoon talks are left out, my apologies–please help me out and comment with your afternoon takeaways.
Here’s the top five things that stood out for me from this event:
1. Measure the impact of mobile marketing before you dive in. As both @seo_girl and@jeannehopkins spoke to for web, and @meladorri spoke to for email, check your web and email program’s analytics to see which platforms and devices people are using to consume your content. If a lot of your traffic comes from mobile devices–and more importantly, as @seo_girl pointed out, if your mobile bounce rate is high–you’re probably missing opportunities for mobile marketing, or doing something wrong.
2. QR codes can be cool, but they can also be wasteful and ridiculous. Whatever you do, provide multiple options for access. Yes, more and more people are using QR code scanners, but that doesn’t mean you should plaster QR codes everywhere. As @thetimhaydencovered, first, think about how people are actually using their phones–do you really think people are going to be able to scan a QR code from a billboard? To get around this, when possible, provide a link, an SMS option, and a QR code so people can access your content in the way that’s best for them. For a laugh on this count, check out @unmarketing’s video ranting(thanks to @cc_chapman for providing).
3. Don’t forget SMS. According to @justinpgh, with emails, you’re lucky to get a 20-30% open rate. With text messages, 90% of people read the message in the first 15 minutes. I’d love to see the data on this first hand, but basically, for urgent, last minute, and real time marketing, SMS marketing can’t be beat.
4. Earn attention, don’t interrupt. A recurring theme throughout the event is one we harp on all the time @rightsource: don’t interrupt people to get attention, find out where they’re already paying attention and go to them there. In her lunchtime keynote, @maggiefox pointed out new advertising models from media companies such as Digg and StumbleUpon that insert content into users’ organic streams (Reddit and Twitter do this too). That makes advertising content, rather than products, essential for success–but the opportunities to create lasting relationships and grow an audience of fans who love your brand are huge. (Thanks @noordnrycherry for suggesting this point!)
5. Use psychology in your marketing. Even though he had the hard task of waking us up with the first talk of Day 2, @derekhalpern incorporated some really interesting psychological concepts into his talk. I loved his idea of thinking about your customers and potential customers as groups united against a common enemy. Derek used Apple as an example. They didn’t make Mac and PC users feel…snarkiness…toward each other with their “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” commercials. They simply took the innate human tendency to unite in groups against a common enemy and capitalized on it. Brilliant. How can everyone, Derek asked, split our customers and potential customers into group? Then, how can we play those groups against a common enemy in a way that benefits our businesses?
If you’d like a more comprehensive review, check out my open for editing Google notes here.They’ve been a hit–and thanks to @jasonkeath for the free Social Fresh T-shirt!
Last, if you attended, what did you think was a huge takeaway? Which afternoon sessions did it really suck that I left out? If you weren’t there, do you agree with the above points? Let’s talk in the comments.
This post originally appeared on the Marketing Trenches Blog. By Tracy Gold
How NOT to wish someone Happy Birthday
June 2nd was my 40th birthday. I had hundreds of people wish me Happy Birthday on Facebook. Some sent me a message instead of posting on my Facebook wall. This post is about one message in particular. I had to educate them on social networking, I hope they “got it”.
I’m protecting the guy’s identity here because I’m not doing this to get back at him. I’m posting this as a “What Not To Do” so people can learn from it.
My response to the message was:
Bryan, I take it you don’t know much about me.
I liked his honest response:
Thanks Michael for your comment. I know nothing about you whatsoever please enlighten me for your products and tips. I promote Chris Farrell to help our Facebook friends learn to get started on the Internet, we have a great group of top Internet Marketers who give their help, tips and coments and trust you will join them.
The thing is, he was trying to justify what he did and that garnered this response:
Well, just look at my profile. You would know I AM an internet marketer. I was even Editor in Chief of Internet Marketer Magazine http://InternetMarketerMagazine.com/ Also, newbie marketer mistake #1, CLOAK YOUR AFFILIATE LINKS. If you wanted to tell me about Chris’s program as a friend, you wouldn’t have given me a link like that.
Instead, it looks like you were using my Birthday as a way to make a quick buck. Not a very good impression at all.
This IS Social Media, and this IS our first interaction. You came in telling me about something that would make you money.
You should watch this short video Beginning to End. It has excellent content and will help you immensely:
That video I made 3 years ago and generally show it to people like this. Hopefully they “get it” but some don’t understand that what is portrayed in the video is the WRONG way to do things. It’s entitled “How NOT to be Social”. I also Bolded the part I hope he took note of.
He responded again but still doesn’t get it. The thing is, if he would have spent 30 seconds on my profile, he would have noticed I am not “starting out on the Internet”. I put up my first webpage in 1994 and have been an internet marketer since 2005 or 2006.
Here is my response to him. This response is what sums everything up. SOCIAL NETWORKING is SOCIAL.
The point is, your first impression was you were using my birthday as a way to make an affiliate sale. If you would have taken 30 seconds to look at my profile, youwould have known I’m not a new internet marketer.
If you were at a social gathering, would you walk up to someone and say: Hi, buy this….?
If someone did it to you, how would you feel? Would you recommend them? Would you introduce them to someone else?
In a social gathering, whether online or offline, you should build a relationship. Then offer to help.
I hope you do that today. The next person you say happy birthday to, just say happy birthday.
He didn’t reply after that. What are your thoughts on this subject?
Social Media Marketing Dashboard
What is a social media marketing dashboard?
If you’re doing any sort of social media marketing, you know how hard it can be running campaigns and keeping track of everything. I run campaigns for multiple clients and the tool I mostly use is MarketMeSuite.
I just received an email from Tammy over at the PieDog Media office. She let me know MarketMeSuite 3.0 is about to be released. This is amazing, because the app really has everything in it already. In fact, I have added some of what the current 2.4 version has in it below.
You could check out a sneak peak demo video here: MarketMeSuite 3.0 social media marketing dashboard
Here are some of the current features(taken from their site):
- Marketing Suite: MarketMeSuite goes beyond amazing management (which it has) to give you a PRO ACTIVE marketing suite. Get out there and start conversations, follow people, brand yourself and shout “I’m Here, and I want to Take Social Media By Storm!”
- Unlimited Accounts: When we looked at other Twitter business services, the first thing we noticed is the confusion in the choices of accounts and limits. Businesses often have many personas, so we give the ability to add multiple Twitter profiles and Facebook accounts.
- Brand Management: This means that you can send tweets branded with a link back to your website! You can send your customers to a twitter related page on your website.
- Scheduled Tweets: When it comes to business, we know you’ve got better things to do than Tweeting at all hours of the day. That’s why we created ‘Scheduled Tweets,’ a way you can accurately schedule as many tweets as you like, up to a year in advance!
- Smart Following & Unfollowing Algorithm (user controlled): Keep control of your account! Carefully crafted by our Software Engineers, we offer a way to find highly targeted followers, and unfollow those who aren’t enriching your account.
- Automatic Direct Messages: Automatically send a welcome message to any new follower. Put in as many rotating messages as you can think of and make sure people know who you are!
- Twitter Management: No other Twitter business software has a comprehensive management side. See your friends timelines, replies/mentions, easily manage and delete direct messages, groups, search and more! Customizable Panes & Expandable Interface!
- Facebook Integration – *New Feature* Post to your profile page AND unlimited fan pages! View your facebook activity in a gorgeous interface that makes keeping up with friends and contacts a breeze.
- Location Targeting – *New Feature* This is new, location targeting, that’s right, its time to get excited. Interact with people who are in the same place as you, making the quality of connecting so much higher!
- Reply Campaigns: Now this something we’re really excited about at MarketMeSuite. This is a feature we built from the ground up – It allows you to find users in your niche and start conversations, and it’s completely user controlled to maintain the highest quality!
- Multiple Computers / Team Members: You can download on as many computers as you like! Get your whole team to download MarketMeSuite on their own computers. No limits.
- Auto RSS Tweets – *New Feature*: For Maximum Exposure! Import your blog feed directly into MarketMeSuite! Post automatically or manually.
- Email Mentions – *New Feature*: Get an email letting you know who has @mentioned you on Twitter so you never miss a thing!
- Language Targeted Tweeting: No longer grow a mass following of unresponsive users who aren’t relevant! Build a following of users who speak the same language! You don’t have to to fit MarketMetSuite – MarketMeSuite fits you.
Free Updates
We listen to our customers, that’s how we were able to create this product. Without you this product couldn’t exist, and to say thank you we will be continually supporting and upgrading this product for all licensed users!
Ping.fm Integration -*New Feature*
Have a Ping.fm account? Use MarketMeSuite to post using your favorite service! *This product will use the Ping.fm API but is not endorsed or certified by Ping.fm.
Schedule on iPhone, Android, Blackberry – *New Feature*
With our Google Calendar integration, you can now schedule tweets on the go using your iPhone, Blackberry, or Android device – and anywhere you can access your Google Calendar!
Twitter Search
With our search feature you can easily keep up to date with who is searching you and your company, and respond with deadly accuracy.
OAuth Secure
New requirement from Twitter is OAuth security encryption, and we have it! What does it mean? Well put it this way, we NEVER store your Twitter username or password. Now think about your other tools…
Post To All – *New Feature*
We will never sell, trade, give, share, or do anything else to your information.
