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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

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

B2B (Business to Business), Facebook, LinkedIn, Resources, Social Media for Business, Twitter, YouTube

Researching your Competitors using Social Media

I have just read a very good article in the Social Media Examiner called How to Gain Competitive Insight with Social Media.

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This is a very interesting topic which not only highlights  a) how you can research your competitors online, beyond Google, but also, b)  gives some insight into what you can be doing online yourself, in order to be one step ahead of your competitors.

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The further advantage is that you can research what people in your industry are doing in other territories of the world – this can also give you a competitive edge for your local business ahead of others.  Great stuff !

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The article gives some good tips of researching competitors – have a read of the article to find out how to do the following indepth research.  There are also references and links to some good online tools you can use:… Read More

About Us, Business Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media for Business, Twitter, YouTube

Sky News Australia talks Social Media for Small Business

I have just watched a fantastic news clip from Sky News from last Friday (12th Nov), called Technology Behind Business where they interview a panel of Australian Social Media experts.

If you haven’t got 13 mins to watch the interview in full, I have summarised it below.  Some great content, especially how they summarise Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin from a business perspective.  Also, I enjoyed listening to hear the Aussie accent for a change  :)

Summary:

It starts off introducing the topic by saying that

SME’s (small to medium sized businesses) view Social Media as the “unknown” with more than 50% currently shying away from it …… Read More