Social Media, a powerful new communication resource for Businesses

With rapid advances in modern technology, the question arises, should we email, call or text our clients or we should advance into the unknown waters of social media? With various communication innovations at our disposal, there is a need to research and weigh up the advantages and disadvantages carefully before incorporating them into your marketing plan and implementing them effectively. This is relevant whether building strategies to reach potential customers or simply increasing your brand awareness to consumers.

Google, the search engine monster, does however dictate what works and what does not. To become a top business in your location, the principal ingredient is whether future customers  can FIND your business. Digital marketing tools are essential; however they don’t replace the basic human need for personal interaction. To check on your progress, simply ‘Google’ your business, and take a look at the search results.

If you would like to dominate search engines in your local town or geographical area, you need to have multiple listings present on the internet. These include having your business listed on existing high ranking sites such as popular publications, directories, Facebook , Twitter  and Google Plus The latter being an absolute must and a necessity for anyone that is serious about their ranking and online presence on the internet.

Furthermore, social media is a vital customer connection tool and can help you inspire and connect with your audience. It provides customers with an alternative to calling you - messaging  via social media tends to be a time saver for them. By getting in front of your customers, the various social media platforms are a medium for you to provide value to your audience, and are ultimately an opportunity to turn your customers into your best brand evangelists. They will in turn use social media to share your content and recommend your services to their networks.

In closing, be sure to get professional advice or assistance when launching your social media. Online marketing has to be strategic and target market-specific in order to be successful. The buzz word today is digital. Don't make a critical mistake and continue using outdated marketing techniques. Be sure to keep up with the times and not be left behind. Help needed? Click here to contact us

New Strategy needed for Online Marketing in 2014

Welcome to a new year to all our readers and may 2014 be filled with new strategy, new goals and many new accomplishments!

Its always great to start a new chapter. Starting a new year is a great opportunity for us to review the past year and to build from here. Its important to look back and as I call it 'clip and trim' the hedges! Cut away what didn’t work too well to prevent falling into the trap of repeating old patterns, and then brainstorm with your in-house team how to develop more effective patterns.

Brainstorm, summarize, focus and implement! With exciting new developments as Google launches the new Hummingbird all companies need to adjust their online strategy to keep up with important changes. Search engine optimisation is going to be focusing on what they call contextual conversations taking place online. Social Media conversations will now more than ever impact your optimisation. If they are not present or you don’t yet have the various main social media sites set up, your ranking on Google will decline quickly. It's now more important than ever, not only to have your sites in tact and professionally branded, but to have a consistent good flow of daily content that generates engagement and conversations online. Blogging is no longer an option, its essential.

What I often ask my clients is to simply Google themselves and see what comes up in search results. If there is little content popping up when you Google your business name, it simply means work needs to be done online to boost your results in searches. 

One of the main search engine boosting technique is that of pumping out fresh content that is keyword rich via blog articles. Secondly, review your social media. Is there daily fresh content and do those sites show engagement such as 'likes, shares, re-tweets, comments' etc. If not, time to review and to raise the bar as far as quality and consistency is concerned. I like to say 'content is king' and engagement is definitely queen ;-) Make sure the royal house is in order and both are present!

To summarise, set new goals, review past strategies, if needed turn, the wheel and implement new ideas and actions. Help needed? Please ask, am very happy to advise or assist and can be contacted by clicking HERE  

If you're not sure on whether your online marketing strategies are up to scratch, I am offering a free analysis and report to all our readers for the month of January and February. Am waiting to hear from our readers out there! Wishing you each a wonderful and very successful new year.

How can one measure the 'Return on Investment' for Social Media?

The following short article will show how Social Media is one arm of the entire marketing channel of any business.

Many marketing companies have debated on the best ways to measure the ROI for Social Media. With the tremendous expansion in the world of more and more businesses implementing and using Social Media new 'jargon has emerged on the various social media platforms'. Terms such as 're-tweets, mentions, likes and shares' are unique to Social Media.

The question is how does one determine an ROI on things like 'social media community influence, engagement and conversation'? Its one thing generating many fans and followers, however its concrete proof of the ROI that people are looking for. If we cant find a way of measuring the ROI then businesses cant justify what to spend on Social Media marketing.

We feel the main problem is that RIO is a financial term. The good news is  that whether this is the best way to try and measure the success of social media really doesnt matter! At the end of the day ROI is the measure for success of the business. Social Media is one marketing sector that plays its roll amongst many other aspects to boost the overall ROI of any business.

An interesting and very valid point is that your Social Media expenses can be compared to what an average business would spend on Google Adwords or PPC advertising. A simple measurement can be taken here, such as the cost per click, cost per impression, cost per conversion and all the internet traffic generated to your website. When doing this you will have something concrete that justifies a marketing budget.

When reviewing your social media insights you will see an exact measurement of engagement and clicks on 'like per post' on Facebook or 're-tweets and mentions' on Twitter. Monitoring the success of these is directly comparable to what you would have to spend on Google Adwords / PPC.

At Sapphire Dawn, we print monthly Insights Reports from Facebook Business Page Insights. This tell us how often people are engaging and what type of content is performing. We also have our clients registered on Google Analytics. Once you have a clear understanding of the above dynamics, it is much easier to measure costs and ROI when conversions are directly resulting from social media.

A common question is 'will Social Media result in more sales for my business?' There is a clear misunderstanding here as Social Media is a platform to develop connections in the company's target market and to generate leads! It is the duty of the company's sales team to convert leads to sales and therefore expectations have to be aligned accordingly.

To put it clearly Social Media generates soft leads, the conversion of sale will depend on proactive actions from the Sales team to call, email or visit/meet with, once the lead is successfully generated and passed on. To summarise, Social Media is 'one line item' on the budget of many marketing channels. Its up to the company to understand its role and integrate this into the overall marketing plan of the company. To exclude Social Media simply means a 'missing link' in the marketing division of any business that wishes to grow and utilise all effective channels when pursuing company objectives and growth.

Our advice? Happy Tweeting and Posting :-)

Harness the Power of your Employees, and may the force be with you!

A long time away in a galaxy far far away...united members of a team set out on a mission for online marketing success. Along the way they met a wise being called Yoda, he empowered them with skills and words of wisdom and left them with the following notes!

Mission of success according to Yoda

Have you LEVERAGED your biggest Brand Advocates? These are your employees! With their combined professional networks of clients, colleagues and friends it is ESSENTIAL to get them on board, supporting and being involved in your Social Media. This is the 1st step in developing a solid follower base!

On way too many occasions I have sat in consultation with clients and taken the time at length to explain this. It seems to be 'they understand the concept' but time and time again fail to implement my advice. Quite despairing to say the least!

As with all marketing techniques from SEO to Advertising Campaigns there are guidelines and essentials that need to be implemented for success. When it comes to Social Media marketing, your first foot hold up the ladder to success is 'getting your employees' on board. Here are some basic tips :

Linkedin

• Are your Employees following your Linkedin Company Page? (am hoping the answer is yes!)

• Has each employee updated their personal profile to reflect the company's current website, location and contact details? The galaxy is a big place and we want people to be able to find us.

• Where the company is mentioned on their Linkedin Personal Account, does it have a clickable link through to the Linkedin Company Page? It should! Please ask us to help you with this if its needed by simply clicking here Email Scottie at Mother Ship

Facebook
The same principles apply here as to Linkedin. Encourage your employees to like your Facebook Business Page. It goes without saying that the continued success of the very company they work for, is and should be in their interest. It takes team work to jointly care and support 'the mother ship' ;-)

• Be sure to ask each employee to select 'The Facebook Business Page' where they fill in their employment on Facebook so that it becomes a click through link to the page

• An occasional 'like' on the company's content posts will assist your content going viral. I sometimes feel that people dont realise how valuable their active participation can be. If they knew and understand the value they would be more prepared to engage.

• Check in's! One of the least known and most highly effective marketing tools! If your business has a geographical location, ask your employees to use their smart phones to 'check in' This is super quick-takes a couple of seconds to do and results in sharing the Business Page link to possibly 100's or 1000's of people out there in the galaxy.

Twitter

• Ask employees to follow their Company back (support the 'Mother Ship'!)

• Encourage them to re-tweet the company's tweets-assisting the post and content going viral online

Building success when it comes to all round marketing requires team effort. Wishing you success in promoting the Mother Ship and...may the force (of Social Media) be with each of you always ;-)

GUIDELINES FOR A PROFESSIONAL LINKEDIN COMPANY PAGE

Drive business results thought leadership and amplify your brand!

With a membership of over 200 million users globally, Linkedin has become one of the top social networks to be part of. Research tells us that out of all Social Media networks, Linkedin's members consist mostly of influential professionals. Are you show-casing your company professionally on this powerful network?Here are some great guidelines to help leverage the marketing potential of Linkedin's powerful network.


Establish your Brand by setting up a professional Linkedin Company Page
This will be the 1^stimpression of your business when visitors and potential clients find your company on Linkedin so it is vital to ensure it is as visually appealing and as comprehensive as possible.

• Upload professional branded graphics and logo's
  
• Include a compelling biography /company description
  
• Feature your products and services
  
• Add relevant url links
  
• Upload YouTube video if these are available

Develop your Company Page Following
How do you leverage your existing networks to connect back to your company page?

• Add the Linkedin Company Page icon to your Website
  
• Include your Linkedin Company Page link on your email signature and that of all your employees

• Leverage the networks of your employees on Linkedin by getting them to add the company page link to their own Linkedin Personal accounts and also to follow your newly set up Linkedin Company Page

Activate your Marketing
Once set up and a following has been generated, your Linkedin Company page is far from complete. The next step is marketing implementation whereby you will post a flow of interesting content to the page to begin to broaden your network and attract a higher following. Here are some great tips :

• Post content that is relevant to your industry
  
• Include visual images when posting to make it more attention grabbing
  
• Add links 'to your Website or Blog' in order to drive traffic to your own sites. Be aware that sharing links to other sites will drive traffic to those.
  
• Include questions now and then to start conversations
  
• Use CTA's (call to action) by asking readers to like or share your posts
  
• Optimal posts are mainly during office hours
  
• Post a maximum of once a day
  
• Ask your employees to like or share your weekly posts to assist in them going viral

Linkedin Company Endorsements
Endorsements work very much like that of a good testimonial. Each one received will speak to new potential customers boosting their confidence in the services that you offer. Not only that, but each time an endorsement is received it will be visible to the connections of the person giving the endorsement-very good free advertising! Endorsements of your company's products and services therefore amplifies your company page across Linkedin.

Any questions? Please do not hesitate to contact me-am only an email away Click Here to Email

TIPS FOR A PROFESSIONAL LINKEDIN PROFILE

Linkedin is an incredible social media channel for business. With its high level of search engine optimization, your Linkedin profile can be found by most who conduct a web search on you. It is therefore essential that your Linkedin Profile is complete, professional and has good and informative content.

One of the most important reasons for having a Linkedin account is to expand your Business Network.
Here are some great tips below to complete your Profile in a professional manner :

Add your Company Website and a contactable company email and make sure they are visible publicly. Hiding these is counter productive.

Write a good 'Headline' worded clearly to grab the attention of visitors to your profile. It should be instantly clear what it is that you do, readers will within seconds know if they should connect with you and if your industry is relevant to theirs.

Write a powerful opening paragraph

Your opening paragraph should be used to encourage readers to connect with you. If you dont get their attention quickly they will move on to someone else.

When listing the name of the company you work for, be sure to connect it with its correct Linkedin Company Page. This will allow the reader to hover their mouse over the company name and immediately see more information on the business. It simply adds a professional touch to your profile.

List your interests and charities of choice

Adding in these will tell the reader a little more about you as a person. People need to get a feel for your personality and who you are. Be sure not to omit these.

Feature your groups

By including your main groups of interest on your Linkedin Profile, people will gain a clearer understanding of your interests and begin to get a feel for the person behind the profile.

Your Linkedin Summary

When you are writing your Linkedin summary, make sure that your content is clear and concise and that you focus on your skills, accomplishments and goals. Be modest, but communicative at the same time. Try to put yourself into the reader’s shoes and write something that you would want to read if you were the reader. Always write your summary in the first person and dont be shy to add in a little humour (in good taste of course). At the end of the day adding in some personality, encourages people to want to connect with you.

Endorsements

A new wonderful tool on Linkedin is that of endorsements. Receiving these from your clients and connections verifies certain skills that you have listed. Obviously the more endorsements you have, the better your profile will appear. I must add that it works two ways. People may endorse you, but be sure to make a concerted effort to give an honest endorsement back where deserved.

Recommendations

These are a little more difficult to secure, but of great value. Recently worked for an important client? Be sure to send them a 'recommendation request'. Each recommendation added to your profile is a powerful tool that can assist in leveraging new clients and business. As with endorsements above, be sure to return the favour as social networking is after all about building relationships.

The impression that you create with your Linkedin Profile will mean the difference between getting people to interact with you and eventually want to become your customers and clients. Spend some time tweaking and completing it. A professional Linkedin profile is an investment in marketing your business and the services that you offer. Please do not hesitate to ask me any questions or need assistance. Simply click HERE to email me :-)

Should you use your Facebook Personal Account for Business?

Although business networking and posts should mainly be conducted via your Professional Company Page on Facebook, there are opportunities for networking and referrals via your personal Facebook Account.

Facebook, as well as other online social networking sites, allow people to share valuable information with their network which may be composed of personal relationships or professional relationships. Due to Facebook having a high level of traffic and your network most certainly visiting this site on a frequent basis, you would be missing out if you didn’t include it in your online marketing strategy.

Here are some great tips to enhance your personal Facebook account for Business Networking :

• Uploading your Graphic Image

It is important to upload a good-quality photograph so that people can see what you look like. The result is they will be able to relate to you more easily which could encourage them to be more inclined to do business with you. Also include a good cover photo as this will add colour and character to your profile.

• Write a Good Biography

You need a biography that describes who you are and what you are doing in a compelling manner. Remember that you have very little time to capture the attention of your readers. Your friends will read this and hopefully know to refer 'market related business to you' so it is important that your business details are included.

• Add Interesting Content

It is acceptable to mix some personal and professional details on your Facebook profile. You need to make sure that you seem human so that your readers feel that they can relate to you on a personal level. Facebook provides you with a golden opportunity to share information about your business and about you as you relate to your business. By taking advantage of this, you will be positioning yourself as an industry leader and a subject matter expert. Be sure to include your company website and business location and to make this publicly visible not hidden by security settings.

• Add a Clickable Link on your Personal Account to your Facebook Business Page

After setting up a separate professionally branded Company Page, be sure to select this page from the drop down list when typing in and adding your work information. Visitors to your Personal Facebook Profile will therefore have immediate access to your Company Page. This will assist in building your fan base likes.

• Networking

Facebook is an excellent social media channel for networking. You should network as much as possible with people who share your professional interests and goals. When sharing professional relationships through Facebook remember to always consider the needs of your connections. As with all online connections its important to acknowledge and engage with them according to their interests. Avoid direct selling and discuss topics that are of interest to them.

To conclude, if you ask yourself whether your personal account on Facebook is good for business, the answer is definitely yes! Facebook in general, business pages and personal accounts combined will prove to be a good marketing tool that will make a large contribution to the ultimate success of your business.

For any questions please email me by clicking HERE and I will be happy to advise or assist :-)