Syncing Social Media Accounts

This is one of the most popular discussions I come across and I have touched on it in previous blog posts, but I want to go into some more detail. Many social media accounts give you the option of feeding the thread from one social media account to another social media account. For example, you can setup your Facebook page to stream all of your Twitter posts. Should you take advantage of this option for your small business online marketing?

There are two sides to this discussion, those who think linking social media accounts is helpful to your online marketing and those that think it is hurtful to your online marketing plan. I'm going to present both sides of the discussion because I don't want to sway you one way or the other until the end.

Those that are in favor of linking the different accounts argue that it makes your online marketing and social media management much easier. Social media management is a very time consuming task. Streaming one account to the other cuts down on the time issue. Additionally, it ensures that your various accounts always have fresh content. If you aren't posting new, useful, interesting content people are going to find somebody who is. This side of the discussion also points out that not everyone is on every social media account. A Twitter follower may not be a fan of yours on Facebook. So by streaming and linking accounts, you can ensure that everyone is seeing everything that you have to say. This can also allow you to manage more social media accounts than you could if you were posting fresh content to each application.

Those that are against linking social media accounts argue that it duplicates content. They feel that if the customer can follow you on one social media account and see all the content you are offering as part of your online marketing plan, why should they bother following all of your accounts? This ends up hurting SEO and the ability to reach as many new customers as possible. This side of the discussion also brings up the point that each social media application may have a different type of audience. For example, you may not want to share the same content with your LinkedIn followers that you want to share with your Facebook followers. People also realize that you are streaming your pages and it may turn them away. Customers and users want to follow those that have something fresh to say, not people that are repetetive.

What's my position? Come on people, don't be lazy. Personally I feel that streaming one account to another as part of your online marketing is hurtful. This is not to say that when you post to your blog you shouldn't let people on Twitter know. Or if you update your webpage you can't share it on Facebook. This is also not to say that your profiles on social media shouldn't contain links to your other social media pages. However, I am a firm believer that streaming one account to another is more hurtful than it is helpful. Firstly, if your LinkedIn, Google+, or Facebook pages stream your Twitter posts (which are often more numerous than on other accounts) then it may annoy your friends or followers. They don't want all of those updates streaming across their pages and it may cause them not unlike your page. It's annoying, plain and simple. Secondly, if the content on all of your social media accounts is the same, people have no reason to follow you on more than one account. Remember, I am not telling you not to use your social media profiles to list links or usernames on other applications. Nor am I telling you to never post something from one social media account to another. I am just saying not to sync them and duplicate all the content.

Social media management is definitely not easy, and is absolutely time consuming, but you can start out slow. Start with one or two social media applications (I recommend Facebook and Twitter to start), then you can add more as you begin to master your system. If you are worried about the time aspect, use social media management tools such as HootSuite which allows you to schedule posts. This way you can sit down once a night and schedule posts for the next day. If you are overwhelmed and want to outsource, or if you just need some tips on how to master social media management, Contact Us.

Studying your Competition's Online Marketing

I teach my clients that online marketing is all about differentiating yourself from your competition. You want to give customers a reason to keep coming back to your website, to follow you on social media, and to subscribe to your email newsletters. However, this does not mean that you can't study what your competition is doing and learn from their successes and failures.

When formulating the online marketing plan for your small business, you want to brainstorm and make a list of your four closest competitors. Review their websites, their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Foursquare, and blog. Try and identify the keywords that they are using, then search for these keywords on Google, Bing, and Yahoo. How are they ranked? This will then help you to decide if you want to use the same keywords, a variation of those keywords, or competely different keywords. Try out variations for the keywords using the Google Keyword Tool. Try and determine which keywords are best. Also identify how much competition there is. You may want to hit niche keywords if a broader category has too much competiton. For example, instead of using "restaurant" you may want to use "italian restaurant". Also, identify variations of the keywords that are searched more often. Do users search "NY" or "New York" more often? Take the keywords on the sites of your competitors, plug them into the keyword tool, and you can get tons of information.

This is not telling you to copy exactly what your competitors are doing, but anybody that is going to be successful in any walk of life has to understand their competiton. Think of sports as an example. We hear all the time about atheltes watching tape of the teams they are about to play. They are not doing this to copy the moves and run the same plays, but doing it so they can better compete with the people they are going up against. The same goes for small businesses and their online marketing plan. You have to understand what your competition is doing so that you can compete against them.

You can also learn a lot from the promotions they are using as part of their online marketing plans. Internet marketing has to draw customers to your pages. How are your competitors doing this? Do they offer discounts? Are they giving something away for free? Are there contests on their websites? Do they offer invaluable content? How up to date is their content? How many Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ Followers do they have? How many likes are they getting? These are all questions that can give you insight to the online marketing plans of your competition.

After gathering the facts you can then analyze what was successful and what was not successful. This information can be taken into account when implementing the next step of your small business online marketing plan.

With online marketing, nobody is an expert. I say this because the information is constantly changing. One of my favorite quotes is from a world renowned economist, John Maynard Keynes who said, "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" This quote was meant in regards to investing, another industry that is constantly changing. However, it can also be applied to online marketing. With all of the technology we have, and with search engines constantly changing their search algorithims, we need to be able to adapt. We need to constantly be learning new things. Even in respect to your industry, if the content provided through your online marketing plan provides your customers with cutting edge information, you will have a leg up on the competition. If you don't, then you can bet they will find another business that is on the cutting edge.

Our "Small Business Online Marketing Starter Package" carefully studies what your competitors are doing, as well as provides a full online marketing plan for your small business. Check it out as it is very affordable and if you like the Facebook page for Innovative Ad Solutions LLC we will give you $50 off the already low price of $567! But even if you don't want to use our services right away, I urge you to check out our Free Online Marketing Tips for Small Businesses or Email Us with any questions you might have if you plan on doing this yourself. Innovative Ad Solutions LLC will be more than happy to provide you any assistance you may need, at no cost!

Creativity is Key to Online Marketing

There are so many people in the online marketing world. This means that your customers and followers have almost an infinite amount of websites they can go to for goods, services, and information. To ensure that your online marketing plans drives traffic to you instead of your competitors you have to stand out from the crowd.

There are plenty of creative ways to reach your current customers and get them engaged in online your social media accounts. The way this benefits your business is two fold. First, it establishes a better relationship with your current customers and allows them to engage in two way conversations. They can voice opinions, ask questions, and give feedback. The small business owner can then respond and the customer feels as if they have a voice. The second way creative online marketing benefits your business is if the customer engages in your social media online, every time they "like" you on Facebook, re-tweet a Tweet, or +1 you on Google+ their friends will see it. Your current customers can be advocates for your brand and their friends and followers will see they are recommending your business. They are then more likely to become customers.

To engage your current customers in your online marketing you need to get creative at your establishment. One great tip is to have a business card raffle. Leave a jar on the table and everyone that drops their business card into the jar has the opportunity to win the prize of the week or month. Make it a stipulation that they need to follow you on at least one social media account (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, etc) to be eligible for the prize. Not only will you gain new followers on social media, but you now have an abundance of data about who your customers are and all of their contact information. Use this information to create a database. You can then offer them promotions based on their individual demographics. Another creative way to engage current customers is by offering them something for free or at a discount if they follow you on social media. For example, in a restaurant offer a free round of drinks if the customer likes you on Facebook. The final creative online marketing tip I will share is offering free advertisements to other businesses that follow you on social media accounts. There are a variety of ways to do this. One is to offer them a back link on your small business website. Another that would work for a restaurant is to offer them an ad on a place mat. Another way to offer an advertisement that will work for any business is to put up a television screen and run a power point slideshow. Your followers can submit one slide that includes their logo, website link, and contact information for their business. They only get a slide if they are a social media follower.

All of these ideas cost you very little and as we have shown in the Marketing Tips section of our website, where we talk about the Online Marketing EcoSystem, one follower on social media can exponentially reach new customers. The opportunities are endless so get creative and improve your small business online marketing presence. What has worked for other businesses that have tried creative ways to engage their customers in their online marketing plans? Share your success stories. Remember that there is no limit to the creativity and the more you set yourself apart from your competitors, the better chance you have at converting people into new customers.

If you need some ideas, send us an email to setup a FREE CONSULTATION. We can talk about your current online marketing plan. Even if you choose not to purchase our risk free Small Business Online Marketing Starter Package for only $567 we can still offer you some free advice and help you to brainstorm. We love talking about online marketing!

Don't Overdo Online Marketing on Social Media

One of the most frequently asked questions I get about online marketing is how much is too much? Usually this is in respect to the use of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn because these are the parts of the online marketing plan that are most frequently updated.

There is no direct answer to this question, you just want to make sure that you are giving users a chance to benefit from all of the information you post on your social media platforms. Additionally, if they are bombarded with information, even if it is useful, it is likely they will stop following you. Nobody wants to  stream your Facebook posts to their page if you post too often. It will make it so your posts are the only thing appearing on their page and they want diversity. For Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn I think the general rule of thumb should be between 1 and 5 posts a day at the absolute most. With Twitter I think you should also try to stick within this range for your original posts, but that does not mean that you can't retweet and respond to comments. Remember that these ranges are for your original posts, it does not include comments on other people's posts or responding to questions, comments, or concerns from your users.

Everywhere you look you will probably find a different answer to this question because everyone has a different opinion. My answer is in respect to your small business online marketing plan. The whole idea of online marketing is to provide useful content to your customers so that they keep coming back and pass the information on to their friends through social media. As we have discussed, this can lead to exponential amounts of new customers. Some people will tell you that there is no such thing as too many posts, but I disagree. Posting too often will annoy your customers. Nobody will be able to stay on top of them all and they won't want to bother to sort through to find the ones they are interested in.

Sometimes you have a lot of good ideas in a day and you want to get it out and that is understandable. One suggestion is to use a social media management application, such as Hootsuite. You can use this application to schedule future posts. So if you hit your max for one day, schedule the post to hit the next day.

Additionally, I suggest that you do not stream one social media account over another as part of your online marketing. I have tried this and just feel that it is a waste. Firstly because it eats away at your daily post max for each application. Secondly because if the content from Twitter is available on Facebook, then nobody has any reason to follow you on Twitter. You want to make it so customers have a reason to follow you on each application that your small business uses as part of its online marketing. To do this the content on each has to be fresh and useful.

The final decision on how often to post on each social media application is up to you, but before you make the decision take all of these points into consideration. Put yourself in the shoes of your followers and think of what you would want if you were the customer. By doing this you are more likely to have a successful online marketing campaign.

Engaging Your EcoSystem in Online Marketing

Owners, employees, customers, creditors, and vendors are all part of the ecosystem of a small business. You rely on the relationships to build your business. The question is, how to get everyone to buy into your online marketing plan. For me, the most important groups that must engage in your online marketing plan are the customers and the employees. It is great to have your vendors and creditors involved on your website and social media accounts, however it is not imperative.

Offering good content to your current customers will result in them sharing the content on social media which will reach all of their friends. The friends will then view the content and can be converted to new customers. This cycle will continue to revolve and continuously provide access to new customers.

The customers are the most important group. Customers are the ones that can advocate for your business. By talking about you on social media and leaving positive reviews for your business they are helping to build you a positive online reputation. For example, if they like you on Facebook, all of their friends see that they liked your company. This will hopefully lead to their friends also considering doing business with you. Additionally, if they write a positive review for you on a site such as Yelp, or Tweet about your business, they are also helping to show potential customers that others have had a positive experience with you. For centuries businesses have built leads through referrals.

Now with the technology we have we can reach even more people. The question is how to ensure your customers are engaging with your business through social media. There are a variety of ways to do so, all of which will help online marketing. The first is through accessibility. Integrate social media applications into your business website. Ensure you have the social plugins for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and any other social media applications you have. Another way to get customers to engage in your online marketing plan is to offer them discounts. Offer a discount or a free item to any customer that likes you on Facebook, give an incentive for following your business on Twitter, offer them a chance to sign up for company newsletters. There are endless ways to get customers involved, share your thoughts with us as small business owners often have the best ideas.

Getting your employees involved with social media and online marketing is also key. They need to understand and follow what is being said about your small business online so they too can react to it, answer questions, and learn from criticism. I suggest that at least once a month small businesses should have a company meeting to discuss their online marketing campaign. During downtime, have your employees go online and post updates to Facebook, Google+, Twitter. Or you can even just have them browse your websites and social media accounts so they can answer questions about your content.

The more people you get involved, the better presence you will have, and the more beneficial this will be to your online marketing plan. Contact us for some more information and make sure to check back for weekly tips about online marketing.

Online Marketing with Google+

Last year Google released their own social media application, Google+, which they hoped would offer new competition to Facebook. It has been out now for about a year and in my opinion it has yet to really catch on. So this raises the question as to whether Google+ is a necessary part of a small business's online marketing plan.

The answer to this depends on your situation. Any time you can add more links to your business it is beneficial to your online marketing plan. Google+ is just another platform for small business owners to offer useful content to their audiences. If you are going to use Google+ make sure you give users a reason to check out your page. The content is what drives them to the site, and within the content you can "market" your small business. We have discussed this in prior posts such as embedding links and using keywords.

But is Google+ really worth your time. The answer to this is subjective to your situation. I do not think that Google+ should be any small business's #1 or #2 social media platform. Facebook has almost a billion users, Twitter has over 300 million users, and Google+ has only about 100 million users. The goal of any online marketing plan should be to reach as many potential customers as possible. When you think of it like this it is clear that Facebook and Twitter will be much more effective. However, if you have already mastered these other forms of social media, give Google+ a try. Check out the Google+ page for Innovative Ad Solutions LLC. If you like it, and you have the time, give it a shot. It hasn't really caught on as much as Google would like, but I still think it can be effective as part of your small business online marketing plan.

One part of Google+ that I like is the various circles that you can join. A circle is much like a group on Facebook. If there is a circle that is relevant to your industry this is even more of a reason to give Google+ a try. But remember we do not suggest you use it in place of other social media applications. use it in conjunction with them for an extra platform to offer content to your customers and embed more links and keywords. If you choose to try it out, make sure you have enough content to put on the site. Even if you just share links to blogs, tips, and news about your industry you will always have new content. A huge part of online marketing plans for small businesses is sharing information that others have put out there. This is a lot less time consuming and as long as you give the author credit it is okay!

If you want to know if Google+ is right for your small business's online marketing plan, Contact Innovative Ad Solutions LLC to talk more about it!

The Social Media Marketing Blog: From Social Sharing to Creative Collaboration

The Social Media Marketing Blog: From Social Sharing to Creative Collaboration    great discussion on how social media helps small businesses collaborate with others in their industry and their customers.