Social Media

Social media is an extremely accessible method of customer outreach for businesses, though it does not guarantee success on its own. There is a distinct difference between social media accounts with zero promotion for the business or no follower base.

Determining which social media platforms to use is an important first step for businesses. In this age of social media, it is imperative to identify where your potential customers spend time the most. It is unwise to post on five social media apps inconsistently, and it this will likely be more damaging than strategically avoiding social media.

Consistency plays a large role. Building an audience requires regular posts, which can be as little as a couple times a week. If a business posts sporadically and with long periods of no posting, it does not promote audience growth.

To post content with high engagement on social media, businesses should avoid polished promotional posts. Presenting behind-the-scenes content of your business, customer reviews, or any content with your business’s persona shows more personality and is generally more engaging than content created solely for the promotion of sales.

Constant sales content will turn customers away.

Building and maintaining a community on social media is as important as the actual content creation. Engaging directly with your followers, replying to comments, and answering questions builds a community around your brand.

The best way to build a community is to gather inspiration from your competitors. Observe their content and strategies on social media to determine what content gaps exist that are within your abilities to fill. In fact, some of the best content ideas derive from observing what is currently lacking in the market.

Social media is one of the largest outlets for business advertising that requires the most work, but it does not have to be perfect from the start. Time and effort being put into social media advertising gives space for businesses to develop their branding and unique advertising voice alongside their loyal audience.

Is The Google+ Platform Dying?

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Rumours have been circulating for a while that Internet giants Google will be switching up their Google+ platform very soon, with two separate products being readied for release in the near future. Photos and Streams, already part of the Google+ platform are said to be the products which will standalone .

“The effect of the breakup is it’s making real what people have been talking about for a while, the lack of passion amongst the masses. In terms of social media marketing, Google+ is not and hasn’t been the place to be.”(Lee Odden, TopRank)

This statement is pretty accurate. Although Google+ may have the users, these users are mostly down to Gmail and YouTube being their preferred Google platform. In terms of activity, Google+ is nowhere near the likes of Facebook and Twitter. We look forward to seeing whether the break up of products helps Google in their social media war.

2 Ways In Which Social Media Can Help Your Business

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How can social media help your business. Many companies ask this question when deciding how much time they should dedicate to social networking. Below are a couple of ways having a Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and all the other available social platforms can help your business.

Engagement – One of the main selling points of social media is that your business is given the ability to engage with your customers any day, any time. A cost-effective way to be in direct communication with your desired audience, you can inform current and potential clients of business news, offers whilst they happen.

Authority – You may be surprised to know this, but many people now check a company’s social media account before making a purchase for the first time. By having a strong social media presence, it will give off the impression that your business is more reputable.

The Benefits Of Advertising On YouTube

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With YouTube being the web’s favourite video streaming site. Have you ever considered advertising on the platform for your business?

You can promote content on YouTube via promoted videos, true view video ads and even create a channel for your brand. The main benefit of advertising on the YouTube platform is the increase in brand awareness.

With advertising, you can choose where your video is advertised. If your company isn’t looking to reach people anyone outside of the UK, you can specify your target audience.

YouTube video’s are also a great way to increase your ranking in Google’s search engine. If the video includes a link to the company website in the description, the likelihood that your ranking increases is very high.

3 Reasons Why Your Business Should Be On Google+

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Google+ is the sleeping giant of social media platforms. Many people question whether investing time into Google+ is worth it, especially when Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter seem to be the most popular. Below are three reasons why we recommend you should use Google+ as a business.

  1. According to recent figures (June 2014), there are over 340 million active Google+ accounts. Of course this is much lower than Facebook’s 1.3 billion but we would never recommend ignoring 340 million users!
  2. If search results are important to you, then you should definitely have  Google+ business page as everything posted is immediately indexed by Google. This will also help rank your company higher on the search engine.
  3. Have you noticed, whenever you search on Google a list of local search results come up? This stems from the businesses having a Google+ account. Again, increasing the likelihood of higher search rankings.

Facebook Marketing For Local Campaigns

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Facebook advertising often times receives bad press, but within specific situations it can be an effective method of reaching your target market. Hundreds of millions of people use Facebook every month, so there is a lot of room to reach your target market.

The nature of Facebook provides people interested in advertising on there with the opportunity to really knuckle down and begin to use highly targeted campaigns. You can base the campaigns upon location, which is immensely useful for small businesses which operate on a local level. Not only can you define your campaign parameters by location and a variety of other demographic factors, but also so that it only shows up for people who’ve shown an interest in what you’re selling. This could mean it is a listed interest, or it could be based upon the discussions they’re having.

The good thing about a Facebook campaign is that you don’t just get the click-through that you get from a standard campaign, you also get the added exposure on the social network, which could help to develop your brand even further.