Saturday, January 17, 2015

Social Media Marketing Plan for Small Business - Issue 10

Stellar Evolution - click to Read
When I started studying stellar physics back in undergraduate school, I distinctly remember looking at the math involved, partial differential equations, and thinking to myself, "You're screwed."  I knew calculus and differential equations but even the notations involved in partial differential equations looked foreign.  I was out of my element and I knew it.  I had no idea where to start, how to start or even if I could start. That feeling that in the movie the Replacement Players was expressed as "Quick Sand," where you knew you were sinking and even trying to save yourself, accelerated the rate that you were sinking.



As it turns out, it wasn't the death of me.  I had to pick a point, any point, and just move forward.  For me, that point was admitting I was clueless and asking for help.  2 days later, I was out of confusion and into the interior of stars. Social Media Marketing Plans felt like that for me too, and once again, I was wrong.  

At the end of this article, I list two web resources from which I drew this advice, and I suggest you go there for more information and clarification if you like what you read and want to do it.
1) Who are you trying to reach? - For example, in American Express Open forum, I read, "Women between the ages of 18 and 29 comprise Facebook’s primary audience, for instance, while LinkedIn’s users are predominantly males with graduate-level education. Find out where your target customers are networking online." If you are using Linkedin, and you're selling books on why education is a waste of time, you might want to rethink your strategy. 

1a) Sit down and write down who you are trying to reach, and why, then go after the network or networks that touch that demographic. The Pew Research Internet Project list the demographics of most of the major Social Media networks. Start there.

1b) Now make sure that your profiles are completely filled out. It's hard to find you if your information is missing. Buffer Social suggests that you keep your pictures consistent with your business and each other across platforms and that you make sure they are sized correctly. "You can consult a social media image size chart that will show you the exact breakdown of dimensions for each photo on each network."


2) Your USP, or unique selling proposition, needs to be well in hand.  Greg Silva, the CEO of United Professionals, retaught us this vital concept 20 years ago when we couldn't answer the question, "What Makes You Different than Everybody Else?"

Once you know, and can be written down, what makes you unique, you can begin to write social media posts that talk about your "USP," and even know what products you should sell or discount to stay consistent with your USP.

3) What's Your Flavor? You need to know your company's personality, Buffer Social suggest, by asking questions like "If your brand was a person, what kind of personality would it have?

Once you know what personality you are going to project, you company's flavor, be consistent in all of your posts. Don't let emotions, attitudes or other people or companies drag you out of your personality.  Nobody likes false people or companies.

4) Start slow, but START NOW.

Finally, we suggest something like Hootsuite.com to help you organize your posts.  Its easy, inexpensive, and organizes your own content the way you want it.  One way or the other, however, start.

The 2 Awesome sites we borrowed most of this from are:
American Express & Buffer Social.  Click their name here, and read their take on a social media marketing plan.
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Friday, December 12, 2014

Instagram for Small Business - Driving Sales

Click Picture to read Article

Issue 10 - 12/12/2014

Small businesses use Instagram to drive sales - from Crain's Detroit Businesses - AP This article starts out with a case study of a small Hair Salon and how the owner drives sales to her business just by posting picture of what she has done. The picture to the right is an example. One single photo generated $10,000 in sales. Since many are relying on ROI, the investment in times is minutes, the return 10K. Not Too Shabby.

The main take aways for our business use were:

  • Right now instagram does not have a way to pay to boost readership of your posts, though they are working on it. However, much good results have occurred by paying bloggers or celebrities to post you pictures linked to you website or account. 
  • There are less expensive ways to promote use. One is to scan Instagram for use. Say, you post everything with #MAK, and ask your clients too. Then you link back to their hastags. 
  • Hashtag everything! 
  • Pick a number of photo's you are going to post a day, compete with hashtag, keeping it consistent. One business in the article post 6 a day. 
  • Post a photo for a discount campaign. One business in this article posted a product discount for mother's day. Boom! 
  • Consistent use and # tag use builds your brand over time. 


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Saturday, December 6, 2014

Issue 9 - Social Media Guides for Small Business

Click to Read
This is an article that is written for small business owners, about small business owners and in a language that assumes you are not an IT expert, yet is is surprisingly complete.  Some of the topics, but by now means all, are listed below:


  • Why Social Media for Small Businesses?
  • Do Your Homework
  • Coordinate Your Social Channels
  • Get Started, but Start Small
  • Listen and Share
  • Create Your Daily Plan
  • Boost Results With Social Advertising
If you want to understand what all the Buzz is about, and how to create your own buzz, read it now.

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10 Ways to Make Your Small Business Social Media
Click to Read
Activities Rock
  - by the  U.S. Small Business Association - one of the traditional enemies of Small Businesses is government. No matter what side of that argument you stand on, it should be clear that the U.S. Government would know more about what makes businesses tick than the average bear.  This article is a collection of that wisdom, collected and presented in a way that is both useful and understandable to small business owners.

Not only do they give you 10 ways to make your social media ROCK, but they also have links to other useful information, including articles like: "8 Ways to Develop Online Content for Your Business – Even if You Hate to Write" and "Never Run Out of Blog Topic Ideas: Here are 36".

Two of the 10 ideas might strike a cord of fear or inquisitiveness: 

  • Have an Authentic Voice
  • Don’t Overly Automate
One of the mistakes that small business make, according to business publications, is jumping at the chance to "automate" everything, and that leads directly to having a mechanical or inauthentic voice.  The good news is, you can prevent it.  The bad news is, people will notice if you do not.  

Let the US Government teach you some tricks.

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Saturday, November 29, 2014

Using Tabs on Your Business Page - Saturday November 29, 2014



This is a complex, though easy to follow through on, subject. As such, this issue is about only 1 aspect, App (application) Tabs. In this case, collecting email address and sending membership action emails to prospects.


To give a clear example of how this information can be used,
Click to see the Page Live
I followed the examples above directly, and I will illustrate the results here for greater understanding.

To the Right, you can see the App, "membership offers" on our facebook page, @mccoysactionkarate

We changed the picture from the Aweber Icon to a picture we made, and the words to "Free Email Membership Offers."  The App itself is supplied by www.AWeber.com. We have chosen Name, Email and Phone number because when we ask for more, use declines, and when we ask for less, i.e. just email, no change occurs. 

Once the subscribe, the start receiving email, 1 a week for twelve weeks, automatically, unless they unsubscribe or join. Aweber stores the information for our later use.  If we get a phone number, we call.

Our consulting firm, United Professionals, designed the letters we send and our webdesigner, http://www.eswdg.com/ put this exact form on our marketing web site, www.MccoysActionKarate.com, but many organizations supply a similar service and app.


We purchased a domain name, www.FreeMAKOffers.info, as the video suggested, and pointed it to our email tab, also as suggested.

When you either click on the TAB marked by the yellow arrow or the tab shown above, you go to the page shown with the red arrows above.

The somewhat surprising information for me was that this alone would have nearly ZERO impact or utility.  The video above suggested you register a URL just for this purpose, and then run facebook ads that drive or funnel people to this tab.  

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Thursday, November 20, 2014

Using Instagram for Business - Thursday November 20, 2014

Share your Brand's Unique Point of View with Instagram - by Business Instagram  - The home page for Instagram
Click to Read Article
Business has a few case studies about major corporations that use Instagram in advertising, and they document the 2 -3 times increase in results over just using facebook or other online advertisements.  All of them integrate Facebook Ads with Instagram ads.  The stories of these mega corporations are compelling reading.

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Click to Read Article
Getting Started - by Instagram -Business Instagram -  This article starts like every other article about advertising.  1) Start With Clear goal, 2) Chose themes to tell a cohesive story, 3) Create High Quality Content.  After that, however, it gets into the nitty gritty of how to actually use, set up, logo and function as a business with and within Instagram.

I have had an instagram account from the get go, however, never one we used for business.  Today we started the process.  To see what we are doing, so you can avoid our mistakes or let us know how awesome we are doing, visit instagram account http://instagram.com/mccoysactionkarate/. We are currently running a series on sport karate, trying to get more students involved.  
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26 Tips for Using Instagram for Business -  by
Click to Read Article

socialmediaexaminer.com - This article starts with some advise that will easily be ignored at your disadvantage.  Point 1 is take some time to get acquainted with Instagram.  Back in the day, before we stated teaching anyone how to write code or use a computer for business, we had them play games on them, just to get used to how to enter data, push keys, start it up and the like.  If you skip this stage, your boat has already sunk.  It then gets more and more detailed, so that this one article can set you up for business with Instagram in a day.
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Friday, November 14, 2014

Facebook Ads - Friday November 14, 2014

Facebook Advertising - This Week's Social Media Scan :


Emerging Entrepreneur Nick Unsworth: How To Market On
Click to Read Article
Facebook Like A Pro - a Forbes Article by Cheryl Conner: in essense, this is a book review and case study of Nick Unsworth that is about Facebook Marketing.  The Book, The Book On Facebook Marketing: To Help You Set Your Business & Life on Fire, an e-book, just happens to be free Today.  I don't know for how long, so reading this wrap up the day its published might help in the future, if it is no longer free.


I suggest you "buy" the free book, then read the article. Forbes has been bringing it my entire career in sales, and it does not fail you now.

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How to Create Successful Facebook News Feed Ads - by
Click to Read Article
socialmediaexaminer.com - This is a soup to nuts article for facebook news feed ads, and begins by asking "would your business even benefit from Facebook ads," then goes on to explain the different types of ads.

It show you how to do every step of ad creation, with screen shots so there can be little confusion. It even tells you how to track the ads to see if they need to be changed or stopped. Very good information.

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10 Quick Steps to Creating a Facebook d Campaign by
Click to Read Article
entrepreneur.com - Jonathan Blum and Alex Dalenberg - This is reminsesant of the old "Everything you needed to know for the complete idiot" type of article, in that it not only shows the screen shot of how to do a small business Facebook ad, but it explains it in a way that does not require you to be the expert from a fortune 500 company, just the expert in your own business.  Very easy to understand, do and make work.


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Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Using Facebook for Business - Wednesday November 4, 2014


Click to Read
This Week's Social Media Scan :


5 things your business needs to consider before starting a  Facebook Page from InsideFacebook.com: This article is good advice if you are planing a Facebook business page or if you would like to start running a professional and productive one. It tells you why you want a business page, what to do with it and it even tells you which metrics to watch and how to watch them. Very informative.


10 tips to creating engaging Page posts by Facebook - First
Click to Read
off, when I was studying physics in undergraduate school, we had the opportunity to go to a lecture by Dr. Philip Morrison from MIT, about Oak Ridge and the Manhattan Project in NM. I studied the math, had an Oak Ridge scientist as my advisor and professor, and loved nuclear physics, but having the opportunity to learn from one of the physicist who was actually part of the original project, did the original math and was there and part of the team when it was finally built could not be replaced by any secondary or tertiary source. This article is BY FACEBOOK, so you can literally take it to the bank. If you need more to read this one, then this article tells you how to create engaging copy and to create 2 way conversations along with 8 other easy to do methods of making your facebook page awesome.


Facebook for Business by Facebook - Another article from

facebook about how to use facebook for your business. This
Click to Read
one give case studies and best practices from several large corporations, giving you some clear trails already made for you to follow. This particular one is about finding customers and increasing sales.

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