by admin+ | Oct 3, 2013 | Uncategorized
This article is about Facebook Pages. I am not going to talk about groups or personal profiles, although we will discuss these at a later date. The article is about using Facebook for Business and the 3 steps required for success. If you follow these steps you improve your chances of success and will be able to better reach and engage with your target market. The 3 steps for success are outlined below: Building your Facebook Page – Without a Facebook Page, you will struggle for success on Facebook. You need to build your page and update it regularly. You need to create a cover photo, have an image as your page’s profile picture and make sure the about us section is filled in correctly. There are some rules about Facebook Cover images and you need to ensure that you follow these rules. Successful Facebook Page updates are short and visual (you need to use lots of images for a successful Facebook Page so if you are not proficient with Photoshop you need to engage someone who is. Facebook also provides you with useful insights so you can quickly learn what is the best time of day to schedule a post for peak interaction with Fans. It is important that you also set up your own Facebook unique URL. You can go to facebook.com/username to set this up. Connect & Engage – Once you have created a page, you need Fans for your page. There are a number of ways that you can get Fans. You can invite friends and family, you can send emails to existing clients and...
by admin+ | Sep 24, 2013 | Twitter
Are you on Twitter? Are you sometimes confused by some tweets that people put out where particlular words or acronyms are proceeded by a #. Hashtags are a useful tool on Twitter and a way Twitter account holders can better manage tweets and conversations. Twitter Hashtags are a useful tool for your business if used correctly. In this article I want to share with you some does and don’ts when it comes to Hashtags. Used effectively, hashtags are a great networking tool and can help find you new clients and prospects. Used badly and you will likely end up turning people off and alienating potential customers. Hashtags help to catalogue tweets about particular topics. They may be tweets around a conference or event, they may be tweets associated with a particular sporting event or they may be tweets around politics. Twitter Chats are also popular. A Twitter chat is a real time conversation whereby each tweet uses a particular hashtag so participants know you want to be part of the conversation. One of my personal favourites is #ozsbchat. This is a regular twitter conversation for Australian Small Business Owners. If you want to add some hashtags to your tweets here are some tips I would suggest: 1. Make sure the hashtag is relevant – There is nothing wrong with adding a Hashtag to a tweet, but make sure it is relevant to what you are talking about. 2. Make sure you participate in the conversation – if people are chatting around a particular topic and it is trending, don’t just add links and tweets to the conversation. Participate by...
by admin+ | Sep 23, 2013 | Fan Engagement
Customer Engagement is critical, and businesses can learn a lot from sport. Let’s face it, a Fan is better than a customer. Fans have an emotional attachment to a brand. Sporting teams create fans but they are also, in essence, businesses. We can learn a lot from these brands. For example, I am a fan of the Essendon Football Club. 2013 has been an emotional roller coaster for Essendon Fans. But I am still a member and I will be a member next season. I will still by merchandise and still attend games. I will stand up for my team when others criticise them. Don’t you want people to have this emotional reaction to your business? Wouldn’t it be good to have some Fans in your corner if something goes wrong? Here are some things you can learn from Fans in growing and marketing your business. I’m going to concentrate on the Essendon Football Club because I am a passionate Essendon Fan but I am also a believer that they utilise channels well. Utilise a variety of channels – Essendon FC has a prolific communications department creating content across their website, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter amongst others. They combine video, pictures and text well. Mix up your content – Essendon FC utilise a variety of content forms – photos, news, questions, special offers, insider views – to keep their customers engaged. There is not only one type of post that would quickly bore a customer. They utilise a number of different content styles to ensure that customers don’t get bored Control the channels – Whilst on Facebook Essendon has...
by admin+ | Sep 3, 2013 | Uncategorized
Small business marketing budgets are often relatively small. You need to get in front of prospects and you need to get their attention quickly. First impressions count. You’ll likely have no more than a minute (probably less but I am being generous) of attention from a prospect so you need to grab their attention with your important message. (As an aside, if you don’t understand, the name elevator pitch comes from the ability to answer the question “so what do you do?” if you are stuck in a lift with someone for 20 seconds or so.) The Elevator Pitch must contain the following elements if you truly want it to be an effective tool in your content marketing arsenal. No Jargon – Industry jargon and buzzwords do not impress anybody. They can also be hard to understand. The best elevator pitches use simple but powerful words and create a strong impact. Under 45 seconds – I haven’t scientifically tested this one but in my anecdotal experience, people’s attention spans are getting shorter so you need to practice your elevator pitch until you get it under 45 seconds. this is all the time you will have to hook someone in before you lose their attention. Tells a story – Position yourself as a problem solver. Tell a story. Help illuminate what you do in the mind of your prospect. Stories are more likely to keep them interested than boring statistics or features. Targeted – Make sure your audience wants to hear what you have to say. If you have a number of target audiences you may want to write a...
