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 Don't make a critical mistake and continue using outdated marketing techniques.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

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 :-)

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

Blogging with Success!

We most certainly have reached a new age in our world due to the tremendous growth of internet users and modern technology. Research tells us that the number of people reading blogs is growing and not only that-it is influencing purchasing decisions amongst consumers. This creates a great opportunity for businesses as they can write about their products and services and successfully reach large numbers of readers. Today's question is no longer 'should you have a blog?' it is more 'how often should you be posting to your blog?'

Here are some ways that Blogging can assist your business :

• Blogging can assist you to build your list of contacts in your target market through people subscribing to your blog
• Your list of readers could become clients
• Can establish you as a thought leader in your industry
• Expands your online presence
• Makes your website more interesting as there is a flow of new information
• Increases internet traffic to your website as blogging is a constant flow of new keywords onto your website. 
   

Besides being creative with articles and providing news, Search Engine Optimisation is the biggest advantage by far of having a Business Blog. Here are some tips to maximise SEO on your blog articles :

• Page Titles : these are very important and can help you rank higher if worded with the correct keywords. Try to keep the Title short, relevant and keyword rich
• Don't forget to add in your location if your products and services are dependant on a certain geographical area
• Use relevant keywords throughout the body of your blog article.
• Don't forget to add in the post tags onto the article in the backend of your blog
• Use hyperlinks when adding in your contact email address to that you are easily contactable
• Use links within your blog article to specific pages on your website!

On a final note, remember to add a good visual to your article-this just enhances the general appearance and makes it more appealing. Add in our social media sharing buttons to each article as this assists readers to share your content with their contacts. In closing, allow for public comments as this will boost engagement with consumers.

Enjoy the journey....and get blogging for search engine success!

What tasks should I allocate per day on Social Media?

Social Media sites seem to be mushrooming up everywhere and their popularity seems to be ever growing. The key is content! Social media only works if there is a consistent flow of information to the sites-this we all know! Marketers seem to be more and more confused as to how much time and what to do on the various Social Media platforms.

It's our suggestion that you focus on between 3 and 5 key social media sites. Once you have these set up for you professionally and they are beautifully branded-then its time for lift-off! Spending a huge amount of time on these sites daily, however can be unproductive. It's so important to have a clear strategy set in place and to stick to it!

Here are some basic guidelines to what a good day on social media, covering the minimum essential and required work, should look like :

Twitter

• Pop in and visit twice a day!
• Tweet valuable content. It is of great benefit to be informative and seen as a valuable resource to your followers.
• ReTweet your Target Market to capture their attention
• Check your messages-dont risk being seen as impolite-answer and respond to those who took the time to talk to you.

Facebook

• Post your content (1-2 times daily)
• Photos, Video's and Informative Links always perform the best!
• Content can be playful and humour is welcomed. Dont hide who you are-it will be to your advantage to add a little personality. Stick to the rules though-good manners and good language.
• Respond and answer any comments on your posts.
• Engage with your Target Market by liking their posts and commenting.

Linkedin

• Ah..a little more serious! Share your professional content here!
• Good tip : Share the content to your Company Page-and then share it across from there to your personal profile-hence always linking back to your business ;-)
• Got PDF's? Linkedin accepts these on all Company Pages so post those there!
• Golden Rule : check your messages and respond!
• Found any spam?? Delete those!

Pinterest

• Post photos and images with the link to your Website to your Pin Board.
• Comment and thank those who have re-pinned your pics!
• Build relationships by re-pinning pics from your Target Market's boards.

Google+

• Dont neglect this site. Although it needs less management. Post Links, Video's and Informative content to the Company Page. Check your settings and make sure the right circles have access to your post visibility.

The general idea is to work smarter and not harder. Dont feel overwhelmed, stick to a clear strategy and time allocation for Social Media each day.

Twitter : The Value of Tweeting

Twitter is a way for people to connect with their interests. Besides the important networking function, many Twitter  users worldwide simply use Twitter as a curated news feed of updates that reflect their passions.

Here are some great examples of how people value this great Social Media site :

•  Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker): I use Twitter for the knowledge, the news, the humour, the sport, the ability to eavesdrop on the great and the good, and above all, for the nonsense.
• Fearne Cotton (@FearneCotton): Twitter is my brain spilled out in text, mates I don’t know, a great way of spying on people I love & a wonderful form of procrastination. 
• Vincent Kompany (@VincentKompany): Tweet and you shall be heard.. Tweet loud enough and you will move mountains... 
• Jameela Jamil (@JameelaJamil): Twitter gave me the voice that helped me break out of my pigeon hole. It also opened my eyes to how funny/troubled/scary people truly are 
• Richard Branson (@Richardbranson): To me, Twitter means a way to communicate with people in real-time, highlight good causes and - above all – have fun! 
• Sarah Millican (@Sarahmillican75): It's always there. A link to the world. To tell me which celebs have died or show me a video of a monkey on a pig. Friends & fans alike. 
• Tinie Tempah (@TinieTempah): Twitter is a way I express myself to everyone who supports me & my music. It's every kind of News. It's pointless & precious information 
• Gabby Logan (@Gabby_Logan): A conversation shop that never shuts. Virtual friends I will never meet & real friends I don’t see enough. Makes you think. 
• Richard Hammond (@richardhammond): On TV I can talk to millions at once but on Twitter I can talk to them one at a time. It's fascinating, infuriating, joyful and ridiculous

Generally speaking, social media networks us into a worldwide community, making the world a smaller place. It's a tool linking us together to hear each other's voices, experience news, products and services. On the whole a powerful marketing tool waiting to be discovered!

Tips for Social Media Marketing on Twitter

In today's busy world people tend to have little spare time for relaxing and browsing content. With the tremendous growth in the use of smart phones and ipads more people have access to the internet on their way to work travelling or in their lunch breaks. Twitter is short, fast and informative and hence is ideal for all us in our busy world of today.

The following are some basic guidelines for using Twitter successfully for Business.

1) Professional Visual Branding

Make sure your graphics are professional. People will 'get a feel' and make a judgement about your business should your profile have poor graphics. Your logo should be readable, no unclear images or cut off words. Professionally branded graphics will market the corporate image of your company. As we all know, perception goes a long way!

2) Personal Photo versus Logo

This is a tough question, however the best advice for marketing purposes is to use a personal photo, possibly that of a Director/CEO of the company in conjunction with the company logo.

The square profile pic, where possible, should preferably be that of a person.

Research shows us that more people are willing to engage 'with a human being' as opposed to a 'brand'.

3) Description

A concise keyword rich description of what you do or what services and products your company offers. Please do not leave out your location as this assists with search results when people in your area are browsing Twitter. By being passionate or by adding a humour here will make you more personable! Remember if people relate to you or like you-they are more inclined to follow you!

4) Contact details

Dont leave out your Website, Blog or email. Either of these make you contactable!

Without them...you are not!

5) What to Tweet!

• Always tweet as if you are speaking to someone. You would never yell out your products/services or prices bluntly when starting a conversation. Grace, politeness and non-pushy sales goes along way to develop relationships of trust with your followers.
  
  
  You want to avoid this :
  

• Be informative, offer insight, add humour! Never vent and try to steer away from negativity at all times.

• Indirect sales is the way to go as opposed to direct selling. If you are in the property industry, for example you may want to tweet about positive news or beautiful homes in the area. An interesting tweet can lead your followers to your website.

According to research the following Tweets get more responses :

• Tweets with photos and pics
• Tweets with Links (preferably to your website or blog)
• Tweets with video links!

Be sure to include all 3 of these in your marketing strategy! The good news is photos dont have to be professionally taken, spontaneous pics with your smart phone work perfectly.

6) Magic hash tags!

You may be wondering what on earth these are! Put simply, they are put in front of whatever your keyword is in your tweet. Hash tags help the Twitter search engines to find your Tweet when people in your target market are looking for what your business is offering.

There are no minimum or maximum amounts of hash tags allowed per tweet. Advisable is to use one or 2 per tweet.

7) How to grow your Followers

Add your Twitter link to all employees' outgoing email signatures

Add your Twitter icon to our website. Make sure its clearly visable. If not-its not going to be of use!

If preferred, add a live Twitter box of your tweets to your Website.

Re-tweet those in your target market to encourage them to follow you. This will ensure they notice you!

Add your Twitter link to all Company Business Cards, Brochures and Fliers

8) Who should you follow or not!

• Avoid following those who dont have an uploaded photo. These could be bots or spammers.
• Avoid following those who do not tweet and possibly have a low following, unless they are a new account there could be good reason for why no one is following them.
• Are you following with a strategy in mind? Follow your Target Market. Its important to connect with the right people and tweet with them!
• One needs to use discretion, but in most cases unless you have a mutual referral system it does not make sense to follow your competitors.
• Follow those talking about your business! These people are interested in your company services and are more than likely potential or existing clients.

9) Basic Twitter Ethics

• Never ignore your followers when they mention you. Always reply promptly and politely
• Thank each person that Re-Tweets for you. Ignoring this simply means they wont do it again and you will lose followers
• Dont just tweet at people-Tweet with them! Engage in their conversations too!
• Do use 'ice breakers' in a friendly manner and include humour.
• Be helpful-offer insight and assistance by replying to their tweets. Make sure this is authentic and not just a sales pitch!
• Be more interested in your customers than in yourself. Your manner is vital as people have intuition and will get a feel about you if you are too self-important and not interested in them.
• Be mindful how you tweet. You just want to add value and have no agenda to“making the sale,” yet you’re strategic. Remember Twitter is Relationship Marketing!
• Avoid using DM (Direct Message) to your followers. Why would you want to hide on Twitter? Its designed to maximise exposure. Always Tweet to them publically instead.

• If you by chance you are not getting any RT's or mentions on Twitter-then change your content strategy! If you are-it means people are interested in your content so keep going!

• Messed up? Received a complaint? Apologise and be transparent when doing so. Do not ignore! Always address any complaint received.

10) Twitter Marketing ideas

Twitter can be a powerful tool to 'make your business go viral' A good technique to use is to have give-aways or competitions where you reward followers for Re-Tweeting your Tweet. The Twitter jargon for a 'Re-Tweet is known as an RT' An example could be : 'Angels Media team helps business go viral in London! RT this to win Spa voucher #Social Media'

Another fun idea is to get your followers to Tweet their own pics to you to win a prize. 'Gorgeous homes in the area #London#Property' could be a good example. Best pic sent wins a prize.

Twitter approved Logo

Twitter has recently approved the plain Twitter Bird as its sole approved logo allowed to be used in association with the Twitter Brand. Please make sure that this logo is used on your websites, email signature etc.

For any questions or inquiries please do not hesitate to contact Chanel with questions ;-) To email her click HERE

Why should your Business set up Social Media?

The Benefits of Social Media for Business

Social Media is the fastest growing industry for Marketing and Advertising in present day. Here are some key points for how it can benefit any business.

1) BRANDING

Having your various social media sites set up furthers your Brand. It is essential, where ever one has an online presence, to make sure it is done professionally with high resolution images, good content and contact/product/service information. Our highly trained team will gladly assist with this.

2) SEO

Social Media sites such as Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook, amongst others, are highly optimised websites in themselves. Hence, placing your business on these sites, simply assists in your ranking and in being found should people be searching for your products and services.

3) BUILDING YOUR LIST

Having us install your social media buttons to your website is a clever method of 'building your list' of potential customers for your business. The social media buttons are cleverly designed, where at one click the person becomes a reachable contact and no longer is an anonymous visitor to your website.

4) VIRAL

Our Web Design Team will install various sharing buttons on your website. Social Media sharing buttons enable all visitors to your website to 'with one click' share your content with their contacts.

5) NETWORKING

Our team of experts will network your social media site to other groups/pages/companies that are in your target market. New potential business contacts will result from networking.

6) BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

Social Media is one of the most powerful tools to build good and trustworthy relationships with consumers or other businesses in your target market. Through online engagement and generating conversations/feedback, with these we can develop trust and increase credibility for your brand.

7) LEADS

Daily posting of content and engaging with your target market will generate leads for your business that you can pass onto your Sales Team.

8) TIME SAVING

Social Media work is time consuming work. Most companies have limited additional available time. We can gladly assist you with all your Social Media needs, leaving you to concentrate on other responsibilities you may have ;-)

FACEBOOK ETIQUETTE FOR BUSINESS

Your personal Facebook and Facebook Business Page should remain relatively separate in order to keep your business branding professional. There are different etiquette standards for each, of course, there will be times when you have a Facebook friend who is also a Facebook fan.

Many business owners (the same business owners who initially only considered Facebook to be a social media site that they forbid their employees from using during work hours) have discovered its potential for extremely effective selling and business relationship building.

Your content in the two different types of Facebook accounts should be different and the language of communication should be different when speaking to your fans (people who have 'liked' your business page) when compared to the style of communication with your personal friends.

The benefits of a Facebook BUSINESS PAGE.

If you publish content on your Facebook Business Page, you have a good chance that it will be included in search engine results, which may, in turn, strengthen your chances of good search engine optimization (SEO).

Facebook Insights ( analytics ) which Facebook sends out to all Page Admins and Page Owners once a week, allows you to measure and monitor your effectiveness on Facebook.

If a person wants to become your fan on a Facebook business page, he or she does not have to display his or her personal profile to be able to connect with your business. This eliminates the privacy concerns that many people have.

There are many things that you should do when you have a Facebook business page to generate more business. There are also things that you should NOT do when you have a professional page because it may not be appropriate and will not produce any positive results.

Do's

Promote your upcoming events: If you are holding an event (in a physical location), make sure that you let your professional Facebook connections know about it. Give them as many details as possible to encourage them to attend the event. Chances are very good, if your professional connections are situated locally that they will be able to attend your event. They may well in turn also encourage some of their business connections to attend. You have a good chance of continuing the relationships with those business connections if you have been able to interact with them at your event first. You will see that they will keep coming back to you to do business.

Offer online coupons OR special offers: A powerful way to entice people to buy what you are selling is to post “online only” coupons on your Business Page wall for your products/services. The coupons should offer some appealing discount or bonus offer and the incentive will be that anyone who orders from your business’s Facebook page will be able to take advantage of the promotion. This will go a long way toward turning regular customers into loyal customers. You are expressing gratitude toward them for going above and beyond when it comes to following you. The strategy will strengthen the bond in your relationship.

Product research: The customers who target your business and become your fan on Facebook are probably much more interested in your business than average customers. Those people will be more than happy to provide you with feedback for your business that is valuable for your business. This will give you very valuable insight into what your customers are thinking and what they would like your business to offer and it will also clearly communicate to them that their opinions, feelings and ideas are valued by you and your business.

Don’ts

There are certain etiquette rules that you must follow no matter which type of Business Page you choose.

Don’t post on your wall numerous times a day: No matter what you are trying to market, don’t post numerous times on your wall. This will definitely annoy people more than intrigue them. (ie: you want to avoid coming across as SPAM)

Friend requests: You shouldn’t send out a friend request accompanied by information on your business. Build the relationship 1^st and then share your Business with them once trust and credibility is established.

Don’t ignore your fans: It is essential that people feel that you and your business are approachable and that feedback is welcomed and will be taken seriously. However, you need to be discriminating when it comes to responding to feedback. There is definitely a balance that you need to achieve when it comes to feedback response. You don’t want to ignore the comments that you receive. If you do that, before very long, people will stop paying attention to you and your business. You should consider which type of comments will help you to strengthen your reputation and exposure as a business owner. Your responses to feedback will generate content (through discussions) and in turn may generate other people responding to you in turn. The more discussions that occur, results in more exposure for your Business.

Conclusion for Personal and Business Facebook Accounts

Whether you are more comfortable interacting through your personal Facebook account or your Facebook business page, it is very important to follow the appropriate rules of etiquette. You should state, up front, what your intentions are when you approach someone about connecting with them. In this world of social media, it doesn’t take a very long time or a great deal of effort for people to get annoyed by your interacting with them if you do it too frequently or too aggressively. Always respect boundaries and be sensitive to those you interact with on social media.

You need to make sure that you are always sensitive and that you are providing people with helpful and informative information that gives them exactly what they need and want in the quantity that is good and comfortable for them.

A good suggestion is to write a blog article no less than once a month. Post to either Facebook or Twitter a max of once daily and a minimum of twice weekly. Please note that minimal flow of information will stump your Page growth, therefore its essential to allow for a consistant flow of information on your social media sites. If there is no flow of information- there will be no growth of your followers and fan base ;-)

For any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact Chanel by simply clicking HERE to email her. We are always happy to advise and help our fellow business owners and entrepreneurs. Please also like us on Facebook to stay in touch by simply clicking HERE to see our Page.