Tag Archive for small business

27 Sep 2012
facebook • marketing • online reputation monitoring • SEO • small business • social media • twitter

Social Media – How to Conquer your Fears

Scared of Social Media?

Fear of social media?
I speak to business owners regularly, and many tell me that they have social media accounts (most commonly Facebook and Twitter) but they rarely update them either because they haven’t seen any results, or because they don’t have time/don’t know what to say.  My response is that social media doesn’t produce overnight results. It’s just one part of a complete marketing strategy.  Facebook and Twitter may not be appropriate for your business; have you looked at your target market?  Finding things to say isn’t difficult at all when you use the right tools. As for the time problem,  it’s perfectly possible to manage an adequate social media presence in just 15 minutes per day! If these concerns sound familiar to you, this article should go some way towards conquering your social media fears.

Dangers of Not Using Social Media

Many businesses are aware of the benefits of having a social media presence but are still wary of getting involved. There’s no point getting involved just for the sake of it or because everyone else is – but there are risks if you don’t.

Start Small

You don’t need to jump in at the deep end and set up on several networks immediately – always consider social media as part of your overall marketing strategy. You should know your target market and identify which networks they are likely to be active on, allowing you to design an appropriate social media plan. If you’re not sure how to go about this, advice and training might be of benefit.

Customer Service

It’s a dialogue between the business and its customers/clients. Social media offers an amazing opportunity to amplify this dialogue. If someone complains about your company on a social network and you’re not there to answer, just think what might happen. We know how rapidly news can spread via Twitter and Facebook. Similarly, if someone recommends you, you can ensure that the message is spread far and wide! Simply because of the sheer numbers of people using social networks daily, chances are someone is talking about you and you should be listening.

 

social media ideas

Sales and Leads

It’s now well known that potential customers research their purchases online – they will commonly ask their friends on Facebook or Twitter for opinions on products.  Try “anyone recommend” as a search on Twitter if you don’t believe me! Most major brands feature reviews on their website – because they know that people value recommendations from their peers. You need to be where the conversation is.

Just for Young People?

This is a common misconception. Facebook is set to reach 1 billion worldwide users this year – more than half are over 35 and the largest growing sector is the over 55s! Social media is here to stay and it’s used by everyone.

Reputation Monitoring

This is one of the most important features of social media for businesses. You can track (via various tools) what’s being said about your company/brand and respond quickly if necessary.

Content Syndication

If your business has a blog (and it should), or produces articles regularly, social media offers a very simple way to reach a wider audience. Most blogs nowadays have social sharing links to enable readers to immediately share the content to their own networks. When you consider that the average Facebook user has 130 friends, and the average Twitter user around 100 followers, it’s easy to see how quickly good content can spread. You also have the opportunity to comment on other blogs, leaving a link back to your own – yet another way of raising your profile and sharing your content.

Two-Way Dialogue

We’ve reached the end of “business as usual” – we are no longer limited to 5 days a week, 9-5. There are now many ways of communication besides email and telephone and multiple devices (desktop PC, laptop, tablet, smartphone) Social media facilitates this new way of working.

How will you get started?

Forget your social media fears! Look out for my next post outlining a simple process for establishing and maintaining a strong social media presence for your business.

Need help getting started with social media for your business? I’d love to work with you, so go ahead, take the first step! Contact me on 01777 249075 or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

Image credit: fuzzbones / 123RF Stock Photo

Image credit: senkaya / 123RF Stock Photo

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06 Jun 2012
business growth • facebook • marketing • SEO • small business • social media • social networking • twitter

Social Media Gurus – Do They Exist?

Expert or Guru?

These days it seems there are scores of social media “experts”, “gurus”, “consultants”, “strategists” and almost any other word that describes someone who supposedly knows all there is to know about the topic.   I get quite upset when  I’m referred to as an expert or guru, because I am still, and will always be learning. Definition of Expert

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many web designers, SEO specialists and internet marketers are reinventing themselves as social media experts because social media ties in with their other areas of expertise, but can they really keep all these balls in the air? Let’s look at a few Wikipedia definitions: GURU –  a Sanskrit term for “teacher” or “master”, especially in Indian religions. In America, the meaning of “guru” can be used to cover anyone who acquires followers, especially by exploiting their naiveté, due to the inflationary use of the term in new religious movements. (Yikes –  a definite no-no!) EXPERT - An expert  is a person with extensive knowledge or ability based on research, experience, or occupation and in a particular area of study.  (OK, but social media is still pretty new –  how extensive is extensive??) CONSULTANT - A consultant (from Latin: consultare ”to discuss”) is a professional who provides professional or expert advice.  (Yes, that’s a bit more like it) STRATEGIST -  a person skilled in strategy   (hmmm – quite – click the link to see the definition of strategy!) If you were looking for someone to help you with social media for your business, would you be impressed by the above handles?

If not, what should you look for?

How will you know who to add to your shortlist of social media ……….(insert word of choice here)?

  • Check their social media profiles.  Are they updated on a regular basis and is there plenty of interaction with followers?  Actual numbers of followers aren’t as important as good engagement and interaction.  But if someone claims to give advice on Facebook management, but hasn’t updated their own page in months, it’s not terribly convincing……
  • What sort of things are they posting?  At least 80% of the content should be useful information (blog articles, hints & tips etc) and/or interaction with followers.   Be suspicious of anyone who never engages and only posts self-promotional updates.
  • Have a look at their followers –  do they include a good proportion of businesses in the same niche, as well as varied types of local businesses? This is an indication of good content being shared by someone who is well respected locally.
  • On Twitter, are they on a good number of lists? Again this shows that the person is well thought of.
  • Check the website – is it up to date, is there a blog?  Are there clear links to social media profiles and ways to share content easily?
  • Now it’s your turn – start a conversation with whoever you consider to be “walking the walk”.  Ask for a free consultation – essential in order to find out whether social media will work for you.
  • Be suspicious if you’re recommended to use multiple social networks straight away –  this is very unlikely to be necessary for more than a tiny minority of businesses.  A good social media adviser will work closely with you to determine the most suitable network(s) for your business,  and also show you how to integrate social media with your current marketing as well as your online and offline activities.

Have you had to search for help or advice with social media?  How did you go about choosing the right person for the job?   Share your experiences in the comments!

Get help with social media

Need help using social media for your business? Take the first step! Contact me on 01777 249075 or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

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13 Feb 2012
business growth • digital marketing • google plus • marketing • SEO • social media

How To Set Up Your Google Plus Business Page

Get Started with G+

In my last post, I discussed some of the reasons why businesses need to establish a presence on G+ as soon as possible.  This time we’re going to go through the process of setting up your profile and Google Plus business page.   If you don’t already have a personal G+ profile, you will need to set one up.  If you already have a Google account (gmail, YouTube etc) then it’s easy – otherwise just go to http://plus.google.com

google plus setup

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like more detailed instructions, below is one of the best G+ profile setup videos I’ve come across – the process is explained slowly and clearly. It will be easy to go ahead and setup your own profile while watching/pausing the video.

Did you get your profile set up OK?  Now for the next step!

Set Up Your G+ Business Page

In your personal profile,  look on the right hand side of the page and you will find a button to “create a google+ page”.

google+ page setup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After clicking this, you are taken to the next screen where you need to choose the appropriate category for your page:

Create a Google+ Page

Choose a category for your page

 

As you can see, there are 5 categories:

  1.  Local Business or Place – includes any local business, e.g. restaurant, dentist, accountant, solicitor, hair salon etc.  If your business already has a Google Places listing, the details from that will be used, otherwise you’ll need to enter the business phone number and address.
  2.  Product or Brand – according to Google, this would include cars, financial services, clothing, electronics – food and drink brands would also come under this category.
  3.  Company, Institution or Organisation – also including charities and non-profit organisations
  4.  Arts, Entertainment or Sports –  pretty self-explanatory (books, films, musicians, bands, athletes etc)
  5.  Other – to be used when your business doesn’t fit into any of the above categories.

For all categories,  users will need to choose age ranges for which their page content will be appropriate, and there is a specific choice of “alcohol related” too.  Finally, you’ll need to tick the box agreeing to the G+ Page terms, before clicking the “Create” button Make sure you read these terms before creating your page – there are similar guidelines regarding competitions and promotions as there are with Facebook, so don’t fall foul of these!

Personalise Your Page

Congratulations, you have set up your Google Plus business page!  Now it’s time to personalise and customise the settings for your  page.  Firstly, you can give yourself a tagline (“10 words that describe your page best”, according to Google), and upload a profile photo. This would ideally be your business logo, but you can of course use any photo that represents your business.  Once you’ve created your tagline and uploaded a photo, click “Continue”.

You are then asked if you want to share this Google Plus business page with your G+ circles –  you probably won’t want to do this yet, as there’s no information on your page, so click “Finish”  (you can go back later and share your page)

Edit Your Profile

Click the profile icon (top of page to the left of the google search box)

g+ profile button

On the next screen, click the blue “Edit Profile” button and fill in as much information as you can –  remember to use the “Recommended Links” section to put in details of your social media profiles, and other websites/blogs you own or are associated with.  Don’t forget to use keywords throughout your profile!

Customise your Photostrip

You will see on the profile editing screen, below your page title, the words “add some photos here”.   You can add up to 5 photos and they do not change  on each page load as with Facebook.  You could even get creative and split one photo into 5……   Just to get you thinking, here are a few examples.

Start Posting!

Woohoo – your Google Plus business page is ready to share with the world!  Once you’ve posted a few updates,  use “Spread the Word” (in the right sidebar of your page) to share your page with your contacts.

Just as with your personal G+ profile, you are able to add contacts to “Circles” – the default Circles for a Google Plus business page are Following, VIPs, Customers and Team Members, but you can of course create new circles at any time. On G+ (unlike Facebook), you are able to follow your fans back, and add them to your page’s Circles.  It’s a powerful way of connecting with current and potential customers!  Your followers can +1 your posts and you can  do the same for their comments –  all of this adds to your visibility in Google search.

So what are you waiting for? I hope this has inspired you to get your business   established on Google Plus –  please share in the comments how you’re getting on, or if you’ve encountered any issues.

Need help setting up your G+ page? Take the first step! Contact me on 01777 249075
or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

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16 Dec 2011
facebook • google • online reputation monitoring • small business • social media • twitter

Your Online Reputation Matters!

Do you care about your online reputation?

I’d consider it pretty strange if you’re in business and you don’t!  OK,  it’s not that easy to monitor your offline reputation (unless you’re into eavesdropping, or wish to employ a private detective).  But it’s not at all difficult to keep track of what’s being said about you online.

Online reputation monitoring is one aspect of social media activity that people don’t automatically consider when the subject is mentioned.   From my experience with networking events and chatting with a variety of business people,  many of them dismiss social media because “it’s about what you had for breakfast”.  They haven’t looked beyond the noise to discover the real power of social media.  This is a pity.

So, let’s look at a few methods for tracking your online reputation.

Here’s an example of what might happen,

and British Gas’s timely Twitter response (including typos!)

British Gas on Twitter

What if the company hadn’t had a presence on Twitter?  That complaint was seen by the followers of the original poster and of British Gas,  in other words several thousand Twitter users…….if just a few re-tweeted, you could multiply that by several thousand more.  See why it’s essential to  keep an eye on things?

Google Alerts.

You may already have come across this free tool.  You can set alerts for absolutely any keyword or phrase, including your business name, your own name, or a brand.

Google Alerts

The drop-downs are “everything; news; blogs; video; discussions; books”, “as-it-happens”; once a day; once a week” and “only the best results; all results”.  So you have a good choice in setting up your alerts.  If you use quotation marks around your specified search term, you’ll get only exact matches – so this would be useful for monitoring your company name, for example.   I’ve used Google Alerts myself for several years – it’s well worth a try.

Social Mention.

SocialMention

Quoting directly from SocialMention:

“Social Mention is a social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user generated content from across the universe into a single stream of information. It allows you to easily track and measure what people are saying about you, your company, a new product, or any topic across the web’s social media landscape in real-time. Social Mention monitors 100+ social media properties directly including: Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google etc.”

Basically, SocialMention is Google Alerts for social media – and is also free.

TweetBeep.

TweetBeep

TweetBeep is another “alert” application and as the name suggests,  restricts its searches to Twitter.  So you could search for any mentions of your own name, your brand,  your company, or your competitors :)

Finally,  there are the social media management tools such as Hootsuite and Tweetdeck (each with a loyal following). These allow monitoring of online reputation,  and also pre-scheduling of tweets and Facebook updates.

Now what’s your excuse for not knowing who’s talking about you online?!

Do you have other monitoring tools you’d recommend?  Share your thoughts in the comments.

Need help with monitoring your online reputation? Take the first step! Contact me on 01777 249075
or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

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20 Nov 2011
business growth • facebook • linkedin • small business • social media • twitter

Social Media for Small Business

Social Media For Small Business – Some Statistics

I came across this infographic the other day via Socialnomics. I found it quite eye-opening,  yet very consistent with my own experience.  I go to a lot of networking events and naturally, am asked what my business is. This usually leads into a discussion around social media and its uses for business – 9 times out of 10 the other person says that they’ve set up social media accounts but don’t have any idea what to do next……

Small Business Social Media Infographic

Social media for small business – takeaways from the infographic:

A massive 88% of owners believe that social media does, or will, impact on their small business – so it’s clear that they see the potential.

A somewhat lower proportion (63%) have established social media accounts, the majority spread across Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Another survey found that 31% of small businesses were not using social media at all,  and the reason given for this was that they “don’t know where to start”………  this is sounding very familiar!

Apart from “don’t know where to start”, other reasons for not using social media were “don’t have the staff”, “costs too much”, “information overload”, “too many sites to manage”  and astonishingly, “doesn’t help me or my business”.

Confusion over who should manage social media for a business is also widespread, responses varying from “business owner” (18%) down to 1% for HR, customer service, corporate, administrator etc.   All a bit vague, isn’t it?

Social media seems to have become a huge mystery, a black art,  something only to be attempted by those of strong constitution. This is borne out by the fact that 67% of small businesses do not plan to increase their investment in social media for 2012.

In light of this, it’s rather strange that virtually none of the small business owners surveyed had plans to hire anyone to help them with social media.

How about you?  Do you find yourself mystified by social media?  Would you consider hiring someone to help with social media for your small business?   I’d love to hear your comments.

Need help with social media? Start by contacting me on 01777 249075
or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

you can also TEXT

INF SOCIALMEDIA or INF SOCIALMEDIA + your email address to 60777

to receive your free copy of my booklet “10 Reasons Why You Need to Get Up To Speed With Social Media”.

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