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B2B (Business to Business), B2C (Business to Consumer), Business Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media for Business, Twitter, YouTube

No Secrets – The Success of Social Media in Small Business

.There really are no secrets when it comes to the success of social media as a business tool.  The sheer convenience of being able to communicate and interact with customers is enticing a growing number of businesses to jump on the social media bandwagon.


According to the 2011 Domainz eBiz Review, 50% of businesses with an online presence were using social media, compared with just 29% in 2010.  In the next 12 months, the majority of the 725 businesses polled plan to increase their investment in website and internet tools.

But it’s not enough that your business is using social media – you need to be using it in the right way.  That’s where marketing specialist Kerry Ensor, founder of Social Media Mgr, comes in.  The impact of specialist advice on business social media strategy can be the difference between success and failure.

Some local businesses have shared their experiences on how social media has helped them.

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Is anybody out there?


For social media to be effective you need to be where your customers are, … Read More

B2B (Business to Business), B2C (Business to Consumer), Business Blogging, Facebook, Social Media for Business

Know Your Audience

My son, who is 9, is involved a school programme called PrEP – Primary Enterprise Programme – an in-school programme designed to teach year  4 to year 6 children about business.

 

He has been appointed ‘Deputy Advertising Manager’.  I decided to be smart and instill my wisdom upon him.  So I started to say… “now these days advertising is an ‘old’ term and when marketing your products and services you need to be thinking about the internet and social media” (I said with the tone of enthusiasm and hype!).  He smiled at me and said, “Mum, you are just saying that because you are the Soc-al Media Manager but we are just selling to the school kids – the internet is no use to us!”.  Slightly taken aback, I then realised: wow he has grasped the number 1 rule of marketing! – Know Your Audience!  Smart boy!

 

Many people truly get caught up in the hype, or conversely, think only of how they would like to be communicated with, instead of considering their target audience.

 

This is never more true than with marketing your products and services in today’s world.  No longer are we just focused on what television programme or magazine does our target market tune into – we are now surrounded by more and more communication options and some of them are so affordable that it is a marketers dream.  Inbound marketing using blogs, social media, direct marketing and SEO, is now proven to generate more leads at a lower cost than traditional outbound advertising.

It is tempting to set up a profile on Twitter or Facebook or flick out emails to your database and start broadcasting our advertisements to this audience.  Some industries (eg. beauty industry, real estate) are so entrenched in this form of communication – one-way – that they continue to market this way in the social networks, forgetting that Social Media Marketing means being social and engaging with people.   Relationships first, Selling second.

 

Being in love with what you do can sometimes be a handicap and some people feel that they are being dragged into a dream that is not their own.  Some follow theories without understanding the reality of business and life.

Don’t get caught in the hype – stay focused on what is Real and Relevant.  Here are some key points to remember:

… Read More

B2B (Business to Business), B2C (Business to Consumer), Facebook, Resources, Social Media for Business

Facebook Timeline – 3 big changes that all marketers need to know

 

Last week changed the landscape of Facebook for Business.   The introduction of the Timeline for Pages was not unexpected but the extent of the changes has surprised some.   As with everything on the ever-changing landscape of social media, we will soon adjust and forget the old ‘Wall’ and the new ‘Timeline’ format will become second nature.

By introducing this new style for business pages, Facebook have done the equivalent of turning a diary into an online magazine with columns and features – all providing great opportunities for branding and storytelling.

If you wish to update your Page yourself, there are a lot of how-to articles available including a nice overview pdf from Facebook.  But as with any social media platform the ‘set-up’ is always the easy part, it’s making the page work for your business that takes more time and effort.

So what do these changes mean for all the marketers out there?  Broadly speaking Facebook now offers more diverse ways to enhance an authentic brand experience away from a base level of direct promotions and brand messaging.

True to the core values of Facebook, this ‘magazine’ format is designed to present engaging content and story-telling.  This reflects the interests of the consumer – essentially people are not on Facebook to be sold to.  They are there to engage with ideas and areas of interest and to interact socially – a great opportunity for any business that wants to differentiate themselves by sharing their brand personality and adding value to customer service…. Read More

About Us, B2B (Business to Business), B2C (Business to Consumer), Business Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media for Business, Twitter

The BLOG – the HUB of Social Media


The Blog is the Hub of a businesses’ communication and social media activity.

It is the space that you own (as opposed to 3rd party sites like Facebook) and that you can use to discuss anything related to your industry or of interest to your audience.    In essence it is an online community.

“Blog” is still a relatively new concept in the business world of NZ.  In fact 46% of major websites in NZ do not have a Blog on their website, despite the majority of them using them Facebook and Twitter as a marketing tool[1].

Where social media platforms can drive traffic to your website, the blog and its contents will keep them there and keep them coming back for more.

By building a Blog into your marketing strategy you will benefit from:

  1. Search engines like Google like fresh content and will reward your site with a high search ranking (especially if you use your keywords and post tags correctly)
  2. You can publish your own Content, when you wish and as you wish
  3. Your content is archived and always there (unlike a published article in print)
  4. The reader can interact directly with you by leaving comments and sharing the article on their networks
  5. Visitors can subscribe to your blog – and you will own that database… Read More

Facebook, Resources

Facebook Facial Recognition

Facebook Privacy is in the news again – this time with a new “feature” called Facial Recognition.

A couple of months ago I wrote a blog post on Facebook Privacy Settings as I felt strongly about the fact that many people still did not understand the settings, or know how to fully protect their privacy, or even why they should.

I regularly meet with small business owners who are willing to explore the benefits of social media for business and embrace this new way of marketing online.  I absolutely admire them them for stepping outside their normal means of interacting with their customers, however the biggest concern I regularly hear expressed, is about privacy, ie. the need to protect personal privacy and keep it separate from business.

So the first thing I do is ensure their Facebook Personal Profile privacy settings (and those of their family, particularly their children) are set appropriately.

Meanwhile, Facebook is ever-changing and there’s been some recent talk in the online space over the rolling out of the Tag Suggestions which effectively means that faces are being scanned with facial recognition software…. Read More