How Small Businesses Can Use Social Media to Grow Their Online Presence – for Free!
A large business with widespread consumer appeal can naturally expect organic social media growth in terms of followers and interaction: people already know your name, are interested in your brand and are looking for answers. In this case, you may spend more time interacting with customers and keeping up with questions than you do just promoting content.
But we were curious: does this mean that if you are a small business with fewer resources, or in an industry not known for an interest in social media, you should abandon all social media efforts?
The simple answer: No!
We don’t mean that you can sit back, do nothing and watch the Likes roll in. But after conducting our own social platform/content test for several months, we were able to prove that by investing a minimal, but regular, amount of time and effort, any business can grow its online social presence – for free.
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Which Social Media Sites Will Work Best for My Small Business?
The answer will vary based on your particular market, but we recommend starting with the “big 3”: Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Each platform allows you to interact with different audiences that when used together allows you to create a unique community of peers, prospects, clients, and more. The key to getting the most out of your efforts is to understand these differences and use them to your best advantage.
But first things, first. Before we get into the details, let’s talk strategy, because whether you’re a large or small business, you shouldn’t “do social media” for the sake of doing social media.
What is the goal of your social media? Is it to increase sales? Is it to build awareness of your business? In our test, we’re focusing on the latter.
The next step is to set expectations for the three different platforms and understand how all three will contribute to your unique community. Our test confirmed that we can:
- Use Twitter to build relationships with others in the same industry
- Use Facebook to build a solid base of interested fans
- Use Google+ to increase reach among those who may not be familiar with your business
Finally, figure out what content you are going to promote. Do you have original blog posts that others might find interesting? Can you share images of recently completed projects? Is your business part of a larger industry of which you can curate news to share with followers?
Once you understand your content, you can set up a schedule for finding, creating and publishing on each social media platform.
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So how does my small business use Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ all at the same time, but in different ways?
Use Twitter to Build Relationships with Others in Your Industry
Even if your individual business is small, chances are it is part of a somewhat larger industry. And even if you are in an industry whose customers do not actively interact with you on social media, chances are your peers are ready and willing to “talk”. This is where Twitter can be of great benefit to you. You can use Twitter to build a business community which could lead to partnerships, referrals and even potential customers. If you can create this connection with your peers, then your content has as greater chance of being noticed by other businesses and shared among your industry and beyond. Here are three ways to help get you into the game:
1. Start following others in your industry. For example, if you have a painting company, follow others with “painting” in their name. At the very least, you may get some good sources of content from these companies, but they will most likely follow you back. Both you and your followers gain sources of content, and you gain new followers as well. Win-Win.
Our test: By following this simple step over the course of 12 months, we managed to organically grow followers for one client by 93%! By growing followers, we also grew impressions and interaction in a similar fashion, which means all of our content is now seen by a much larger audience.
2. Promote your original content via Twitter. Share it with those in your industry. Tweet at specific people to get noticed (think @ and #), and tweet often. Then, with those followers that you’ve recently gained, you will likely get likes and retweets from those in your industry. Once you break into the scene and share great content, others will notice and remember your name.
Our test: We began our content campaign in September, and by the end of the year we had already seen 80% growth in interactions, including mentions, retweets, favorites and replies. Keep in mind that we already had a working Twitter account before the campaign, but you can see when we changed tactics by the results in our chart. We saw similar results with all our clients, so believe that you, too, can see similar results with your Twitter account.
3. Interact! Retweeting and favoriting posts will gain recognition, and soon enough you’ll be part of your industry’s social media world. Once you’ve tapped into this network, your impressions are bound to increase exponentially.
Our test: We started this “interaction” campaign in November. As you can see, we grew our reach by 25% and more than doubled interaction in just two months!
This is only the beginning. By keeping up this cycle of following, promoting and interacting with those in your industry that care about the same topics as you do, you will see exponential results over time.
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Use Facebook to Build a Solid Base of Interested Fans
Unless you hired a firm that offered to grow your fans for 5 cents a Like (please tell us you didn’t do that!), chances are the majority of your followers are folks who are genuinely interested in you. These are valuable prospects and customers, because they already know your business and they care about your success. The most important types of posts for a small business are those directly related to your company. This includes images of recent projects, company news, products, etc. If you want to see interaction spike, including shares, impressions and reach, your best bet is to promote as many of these types of posts as you can. (Of course, we would never advocate 100% of your content be about you, 80% is a good target.)
Our test:In a study conducted with our signage company client, we posted three types of content over the course of a one-month period: projects/company news, original blog posts, and curated content/industry news. The same number of posts for each category were promoted at similar times of day for similar days of the week.
By far, the posts that got the most views and interactions were related to recent projects or company news. Original blog posts came in second, but only received 62% of the reach of “projects” posts. Curated content was least effective, only scoring 41% of the reach when compared to “projects” posts.
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Now we know what works best, but does this mean you should limit yourself to only one type of Facebook post? Of course not! It just means you can emphasize recent projects and company news, and intersperse this with curated content. Remember: Curated content is always important because it brings variety to your posting – people don’t want to only hear about you.
Use Google+ to Reach Those Who May Not Know Your Business
Google+ may not be the social media platform Google was hoping it would be. But you know what? That’s okay, because that means you do not have to split your efforts to grow multiple fan bases – stay focused on Facebook and Twitter. If you do have a decent following on Google+, that’s great. You can still post to it and receive clicks and interaction as you would with Facebook. But Google+ brings an added benefit – SEO! – that does not require you to have followers.
When you post to Google+, your posts then have a chance of showing up in a Google search, which can increase traffic to your site. When you post to Google+, you want to make sure you have clear and concise titles for posts, as well as descriptions that include relevant keywords. When people search for these keywords, they may be directed to your Google+ page, which could then lead them to your site.
While we spent the majority of our interactive efforts on Twitter and Facebook, we regularly shared our content on our Google+ page. By making sure our our titles and descriptions were targeted to a specific key concept, we found that our Google+ posts showed up in Google searches for those key concepts. This allowed us to reach yet another “community” – searchers who may not necessarily know our business but who are interested in our topic.
Make it a part of your routine to share to Google+ whenever you post to Facebook. It only takes an extra minute or less.
It is often difficult to show a direct correlation between social media marketing efforts and the bottom line, particularly for smaller businesses. But when social media is viewed from the right perspective – as means of building your community of peers, prospects and customers – it’s clear that it is an important tool for marketing a business, large or small. And while it may be harder for smaller businesses with a small following to earn followers and interaction, we’ve proven that it can be done by understanding and taking advantage of the strengths of each particular platform. By following these tips, you can grow your following, increase reach, and gain valuable interaction in just a few short months.
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Sales Renewal’s insight:
A large business with widespread consumer appeal can naturally expect organic social media growth in terms of followers and interaction: people already know your name, are interested in your brand and are looking for answers. In this case, you may spend more time interacting with customers and keeping up with questions than you do just promoting content.
But what about if you are a small business with fewer resources, or in an industry not known for an interest in social media? After conducting our own social platform/content test for several months, we were able to prove that by investing a minimal, but regular, amount of time and effort, any business can grow its online social presence – for free.
8 Social Media Marketing Mistakes to Avoid (Infographic)
Whether it’s oversaturating your content or missing the point of social networks, newer marketers make many mistakes.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
Many new marketers make mistakes with social media. Some try to take on too much too soon, while others do not promote adequate content. This infographic from Digital Marketing Philippines shares the top 8 social media marketing mistakes and how to avoid them. Some takeaways from this infographic include:
- Not having a social media marketing strategy – Failing to have a strategy can mean posting blindly, which in turn will fail to engage your audience. Having distinct goals and using a social media calendar can help you become more organized and increase your success.
- Creating too many social accounts too soon – You should focus on only a couple of social media platforms at first, then grow when you have successfully engaged your followers. This can prevent you from abandoning your social media accounts altogether.
- Using irrelevant hashtags – Using hashtags is important for increasing visibility, but overuse can be displeasing to your followers. Try to limit hashtags by using sensible ones that are directly related to your post.
- Forgetting to proofread your posts – This is a big one. Nothing looks more unprofessional than typos due to a lack of proofreading. Take a moment to read over your posts before posting. This way you will gain the respect of your followers.
It is easy to make mistakes, especially when you are just starting out. But following these suggestions can help you to reduce your risk of social media meltdown and improve your online presence.
Read Original Article
The New Search, Content & Social Marketing Sweet Spot
Columnist Jim Yu asserts that brands seeking to create successful digital campaigns need to focus on fostering collaboration between search, social and content teams.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
Whether you have separate teams for search, social and content, individual employees who handle the different areas, or you’re doing all the tasks yourself, the sooner you can coordinate the activities the sooner you can maximize your efforts, those of your staff, or your teams.
Read Original Article
11 Content Marketing and Social Media Tools to Try
I have to admit – I’m sort of addicted to jumping in and trying all things “new” and “improved” when it comes to online marketing.
In my role as Content Manager for Sales Renewal, I spend an immense amount of time researching, blogging, writing status updates and posting to a variety of social sites – Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn to name the obvious. I also spend way too much time exploring the latest and greatest tools to manage all this content and to get our clients’ messages out to the right audience. (In my defense, I’ve found that it’s the only way to stay on top of this ever-changing industry.)
Most I quickly abandon, but some become an essential part of my day. Here then, are some of the sites and tools I’ve used this week alone – a mix of new finds and the tried and true.
Our Take on 11 Social Media and Content Marketing Tools
Content Creation
Scoop.it: This Google-alerts type of information gathering site allows for Pinterest-style presentation of relevant information. While we’re still just exploring the site, we believe it holds enormous potential.
The scoop.it folks (who, by the way, offer excellent customer service) talk about the rationale behind the site:
We created Scoop.it because we believe algorithms alone are not enough at organizing the web’s content in a smart, meaningful way and that humans could do a much better job at it if we made it easier and rewarding… By combining a big data semantic technology that helps them quickly find relevant content with an easy-to-use social publishing platform, we help them show their expertise, develop their online visibility, enrich their blogs or web sites, save time managing their social media channels and build their communities of interests.
Our rating: Ease of use: 
Business potential:
Content Distribution
HootSuite.com: Yes, I know I’m late to the game here, but with so many accounts to manage, I finally broke down and invested time and (relatively minimal) money into this social media management system that allow for posting across multiple social networks from one dashboard. It doesn’t take the place of hand-crafting messages for each social account, it just allows me to do it in one place.
Our rating: Ease of use: Business potential:
Friends+Me: I just discovered this site yesterday. Friends+Me takes your Google+ public posts and allows you to share the messages to other networks.
Our rating: Ease of use: Business potential: Still exploring
Clip Better: allows you to email link previews vs raw URLs. It creates a rich snippet that includes an image, title, summary, and link. There are four ways to install the feature.
Our rating: Ease of use: Business potential: Still exploring
Graphics and Design
Piktochart.com: An easy-to-use site for anyone interested in making an Infographic for their blog or website that I’ve been using for nearly a year. Great, responsive customer service and open to suggestions.
Our rating: Ease of use: Business potential:
Canva.com: I just discovered Canva.com, an onl
ine design platform that allows the user to create designs for the web or print: blog graphics, presentations, flyers, posters, Facebook covers.
Our rating: Ease of use: Business potential:
PicMonkey.com: My go-to graphics site, great for making Facebook covers, collages, editing photos.
Our rating: Ease of use: Business potential:
WebResizer.com: Another go-to site for optimizing images for using online. It’s simple, no frills, and you don’t have to create an account to use!
Our rating: Ease of use: Business potential:
New Finds on the Social Sites
Pinterest Secret Boards: No, secret boards aren’t new, but I love this idea of using them for a business-client purpose. Our florist client mentioned how she wanted to use Pinterest to exchange pictures with brides-to-be so she could help them with their wedding flowers. Since the idea was for the two of them to collaborate and they weren’t interested in other people pinning and sharing, we set up a Secret Pinterest Board for each bride.
Our rating: Ease of use: Business potential:
LinkedIn Showcase Pages: Showcase Pages are like micro-sites – they’re extensions of a Company page to spotlight a brand, business unit, or initiative directly on LinkedIn.
Our rating: Ease of use: Business potential: Large businesses with multiple business units or brands can probably benefit from this; verdict is still out for the smaller businesses as to whether this will detract from or enhance a strong Company page.
Facebook Business Account: An exercise in total frustration. We have been emailing back and forth with Facebook Advertising about advertising (!) for over a month now, and we still haven’t been able to spend our money. No phone support, and each email response is a duplicate of the last one. Just about ready to give up and spend our money somewhere else…
Our rating: Ease of use: Business potential: Still exploring
All Work and No Play?
Try as I might to stay focused on “just” work, not a day goes by that I don’t find some distraction in terms of a new tool I’d like to try personally, a video to watch, article to read, or photos to look at. Today’s major distraction? This Super Bowl commercial.
Now, back to work. For this post alone, I used scoop.it (post idea came about by browsing several topics); PicMonkey.com and Canva.com (the graphic); and HootSuite.com (to distribute and share the post).
What tools do you use and love? Whether you’re a social media professional or a business owner trying to make it in the digital space, let us know your finds in the Comments section – I’d love to test it out!
And jus
t in case you didn’t click through to the commercial but really need a distraction:
Sales Renewal’s insight:
I have to admit – I’m sort of addicted to jumping in and trying all things “new” and “improved” when it comes to online marketing.
In my role as Content Manager for Sales Renewal, I spend an immense amount of time researching, blogging, writing status updates and posting to a variety of social sites. I also spend way too much time exploring the latest and greatest tools to manage all this content and to get our clients’ messages out to the right audience. Here then, are some of the sites and tools I’ve used this week alone – a mix of new finds and the tried and true.
A Successful Content Marketing Program Begins with Your Employees
Do you know how many of your employees subscribe to your business blog? Follow you on Facebook and Twitter? Even know that you have a Google+ Page? If the answer is “very few” or “none”, you’re not alone.
When starting any type of content marketing or social media program, getting buy-in from your employees is an important first step.
1. Be sure your employees know that you have a company blog.
When you introduce your company blog to the public (via email or some other announcement), be sure your employees get the message, too. Give them an overview of the blog, including what they can expect to read and how often you plan to update it.
2. Make sure they know that they can sign up to receive new posts via email – and ask them to subscribe.
It’s a sure way to know they’re aware of any new post that’s written. If your mail service allows you to add addresses yourself, you may consider subscribing them all directly.
3. Give your employees a role in the blog’s success.
A few ways to involve employees:
- Ask for their content ideas and input. Some may even welcome the opportunity to be a guest blogger.
- Set up an in-house “Name that Blog” contest. Ask employees for their ideas, and may the best name win!
- Feature your employees in your blog. Whether in a regular (monthly) column, in a welcome post for new employees, or in coverage of a special accomplishment, just about everyone likes to see their name in print.
4. Let your employees become your company’s social advocates.
Invite them to follow your company’s Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter page. Depending on your company’s culture, you may encourage them to share, retweet, or comment on your posts.
Of course, before you ask for this level of engagement, your company should establish some guidelines that define what it considers appropriate behavior on social media sites. A written policy that is shared company-wide can go a long way to maintaining a positive online reputation. It’s also a good idea to be sure employees understand the etiquette of different social media sites. Read our post Putting the Social in Social Media for more tips on how to put together a team of employees for your content marketing program. And subscribe to our Growth Spurts blog for an upcoming how-to on creating a company social media policy.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
Do you know how many of your employees subscribe to your business blog? Follow you on Facebook and Twitter? Even know that you have a Google+ Page? If the answer is “very few” or “none”, you’re not alone.
When starting any type of content marketing or social media program, getting buy-in from your employees is an important first step.Here are four ways to get started.
Quick Tip Tuesday: 3 Ways to Use Pinterest You May Not Have Thought Of
If you’re a consumer-oriented, “visual” business, you’re most likely using Pinterest – a virtual bulletin board for images – to gather and share pictures and videos that you find on the web. And since Pinterest is more of a social media site than a photo sharing site, you’re probably building boards that are a good mix of your own and other content and working to build a community by sharing what you’ve found.
Pinterest can be more than a social media site, though, and we have three easy ideas to get you started:
Secret Boards: You may be using secret boards as a place to gather inspirations and ideas that you’d like to keep to yourself. But how about a Secret Board for your business? We work with a client who creates floral arrangements for weddings. She had tried email and a shared Google Drive folder for exchanging ideas with her brides and their families, but both were very cumbersome – emails got lost, images were too big, even logging in to Google Drive was an issue. We suggested setting up secret boards for each bride, where she could post pictures of flowers she liked, our client could post her thoughts and ideas, and together they could arrive at the perfect colors and arrangements for the bride’s special day. Brides – and their mothers! – loved having their own special board and the simplicity it offered.
Here’s how: Scroll to the lower third of your Pinterest page, where you’ll see the option to Create a secret board. In the details pop up, be sure to add the people you’re sharing the board with in the “Who can add pins” section.
Embed a Board: Your website needs fresh content, but with everything else you need to do, keeping it updated isn’t always a priority. You can maximize the time you spend on Pinterest and update your website at the same time by adding a Board widget to a page on your site. This way, any time you add images to the board on Pinterest, you will be updating the page on your website, too.
Here’s how: Select the board you’d like to embed, click the < > button, and copy the code in the pop up. Paste this code on your web page, and voila – your board will appear, showing up to 30 of that board’s latest Pins. To customize the embedded board, select Analytics, then Tools, then Widget builder. Choose “Board Widget” from the menu on the left, choose the appropriate Custom Size option, click Build it! and copy the code.
Create a Slideshow: An alternative way to showcase images from a board is to create a slideshow of the board and even embed it on your website.
Here’s how:
- First, set up a storify.com account and install the bookmarklet.
- Visit the board with the images for your slideshow.
- Use the Storify bookmarklet to add each image you’re using to your Storypad.
- Create a new story, using the images you selected.
- Once it’s published, you can grab the Embed code – choose Story, Grid or Slideshow – and add it to your website.
Have you used any of these ideas? Do you have any other ways your using Pinterest to share? Please let us know!
Thanks to The Daily Freeman blog for the Storify idea.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
If you’re a consumer-oriented, “visual” business, you’re most likely using Pinterest – a virtual bulletin board for images – to gather and share pictures and videos that you find on the web. And since Pinterest is more of a social media site than a photo sharing site, you’re probably building boards that are a good mix of your own and other content and working to build a community by sharing what you’ve found.
Pinterest can be more than a social media site, though, and we have three easy ideas to get you started…
How to Grow, and NOT, Grow Sales: SalesMemes 48 – Doing Good Can Pay
Sales Renewal’s insight:
In a viral, Like-driven world, sometimes it pays to do good.
While we don’t suggest helping charities just to promote yourself, working on charitable projects can often yield surprising benefits for a company (extended reach, social capital, Likes & Follows). In Sales Renewal’s case, we’ve been working for two years with Kids Really Rock, a free, all-day music and festival for families in the Boston area. Learn more about this Oct 5, 2014 family event and the charity, Cradle to Crayons, it supports.
Check http://www.SalesMemes.com every Friday to see the latest SalesMemes: the best and worst ideas to increase sales. See more #GoodExecutionErica, and hercolleagues: #HucksterHank, #BadExecutionBob, #SmugMarketerSam and #TrustworthyTom.
Client’s Collaboration with Sales Renewal Leads to New Strategies, Brand, Site, Marketing Programs and … a Blue Ribbon
It is generally rare for two different companies, let alone a client and its vendor, to work together so thoroughly, on so many levels, that the resulting whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
However, thanks to Sales Renewal’s revolutionary JointSourcing Solution (a unique hybrid combining elements of joint venturing with elements of outsourcing, in which shared risks and rewards align Sales Renewal’s economic incentives with those of its clients), such synergies are the norm.
If you’ve been wondering how JointSourcing and its three, Blueprint, Build and Sell steps actually works in practice, in the real world, this latest installment of our JointSourcing in Action Case Studies series is for you.
This issue provides a detailed, step-by-step view of how Sales Renewal partnered with our client MATsolutions to overcome their business, marketing and sales challenges to produce a marketing & sales system neither company could have developed as quickly or efficiently on its own. One result of the collaboration: MATsolutions receiving the prestigious Blue Ribbon Small Business of the Year for 2014 award from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
As Steve Wedler, VP Sales and Marketing, MATsolutions has said:
“Over the last year with Sales Renewal’s critical assistance, we’ve rebranded the company, launched a new e-commerce site and introduced marketing programs and supporting technologies that truly distinguish MATsolutions from its competitors. Having two highly dedicated and bright teams responsible for this transformation has allowed us to deliver something far superior than either team alone could have. This award is a great acknowledgement of the advances we have made.”
Read the JointSourcing in Action case study.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
If you’ve been wondering how JointSourcing and its three, Blueprint, Build and Sell steps actually works in practice, this latest installment of our JointSourcing in Action Case Studies series is for you.
This issue provides a detailed, step-by-step view of how Sales Renewal partnered with our client MATsolutions to overcome their business, marketing and sales challenges to produce a marketing & sales system neither company could have developed as quickly or efficiently on its own. One result of the collaboration: MATsolutions receiving the prestigious Blue Ribbon Small Business of the Year for 2014 award from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
How to Grow, and NOT, Grow Sales: SalesMemes 46 – Promotions
Sales Renewal’s insight:
We’ve heard that the head of the egg department is quite clever too.
For both humans and Google, headlines are far and away the most important words in any blog post, white paper, etc. So check out our 6 Tips to Writing Better Headlines.
Check http://www.SalesMemes.comevery Friday to see the latest SalesMemes: the best and worst ideas to increase sales. See more#GoodExecutionErica and her colleagues:#BadExecutionBob, #SmugMarketerSam, #HucksterHank and#TrustworthyTom.
How to Grow, and NOT, Grow Sales: SalesMemes 45 – July 4th Special
Sales Renewal’s insight:
Tastes like freedom?
For some marketing ideas that don’t involve eating endangered species, check out The Red, White and Blue of Marketing Your Business Online
Check http://www.SalesMemes.com every Friday to see the latest SalesMemes: the best and worst ideas to increase sales. See more #BadExecutionBob and his colleagues: #GoodExecutionErica, #SmugMarketerSam, #HucksterHank and #TrustworthyTom.