Looking for an up to date guide on what to post and how to use all the top social networks? This handy infographic shows you how.
Created by Magic Logix, the guide encompasses all the essential networks for your business and gives a great overview of how you can use them for brand exposure, customer communication, site traffic and SEO.
(Click image to enlarge)
This infographic can be used to help you map out your social media plan.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if there was an online social media platform that could show you;
Source:LinkedIn
Sounds amazing? It sure is. The good news is, LinkedIn has all these resources available for you to use, for free, via their LinkedIn Skills and Expertise Page.
With over 200 million members, LinkedIn is connecting professionals and companies around the globe. So how can you tap in to this excellent resource and enhance your own business networking?
First, click to visit the LinkedIn Skills & Expertise page
When the page loads, LinkedIn provides you with some trending skills and insutries – in this example, it has brought up iPhone as up by 50% y/y (year on year) along with related skills for the industry and featured professionals.
In the box provided, you are asked to enter your skill or area of expertise. I am using Social Media Marketing for this example.
Type in your skill and hit ‘search’
Let’s look at what comes up after you search.
On the left hand side, you will see a column titled ‘Related skills’ Treat the words that appear below as targeted keywords to your field. You can click each keyword and browse the description of the skill, and also investigate the top profiles associated with that area.
You can see that social media marketing as a skill or area of expertise is up by 27% on a year on year comparison. This can be a good sign that your chosen field is on the upward trend, and popular. It can also mean that there is plenty of competition!
These are the companies that influencers and other LinkedIn members are following or a part of. You can investigate and research these companies or follow them to stay on top of news and updates in your industry.
You can click on each company and see what positions or opportunities are available there, and details of their latest updates and any discussions within those updates.
This section shows you top influences and professionals in your chosen field of expertise or industry. This is where you can begin the networking! If they’re a first-degree connection, send a personal message, For a second degree connection, when you click their profile, you can follow or connect with them, asking for an introduction. If the profiles listed appear outside your immediate LinkedIn network, you could join a shared group and connect with them there or if you have a premium account, you could send them an InMail.
When you click this button, you can add important skills from the related keywords LinkedIn has provided you with, ensuring your profile is optimized for the most related skills and expertise in your field. Help other people and companies find and connect with you by using keywords that are being searched for!
When you scroll further down the page, you will see related groups that members of your profession have joined. You can find targeted groups to join, and also how may members each group has.
So there you have it. 5 minutes to a laser targeted LinkedIn profile.
With the latest statistics, facts and figures from LinkedIn, it makes Facebook business networking look like a childrens tea party….I hope you enjoyed the post. Let me know if you are using LinkedIn to its fullest capacity yet or share the results of your efforts below.
Social media can greatly boost your business. By developing a solid strategy for all the different social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, 
Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube etc. you can enormously increase the odds of getting new customers to your business. However, in the blind race to secure a high place on social media many small and medium business owners, in fear of being left behind their competitors, have thrown their profiles on these different platforms without a clear strategy or goal. These carelessly placed-in-haste social profiles are prone to lose them business instead of boosting it. These are 5 mistakes that you need to pinpoint in your business profile and put an end to if you want to really have an impact.
In the blind race to secure a place for their business many people have put together social media profiles in haste that are unprofessional. They are incomplete and they lack the essential coherence that a brand needs. These kind of profiles are more likely to convey a negative impression than to give a positive one. If you own such profile(s) complete it now. Come up with one that is complete with all the required details and images. Then devise a strategy for it.
Then there are all those profiles that are complete and professional in the above sense but they are deserted places! You go there and you don’t find any new activity for weeks – even months. These are more likely to do damage than good as in case 1 because it conveys a sense of lack of interest. Remember to always keep your social profiles up-to-date with fresh and original content in your niche. It will keep visitors coming back for more fresh content.
Getting people to comment on your content is one of the primary reasons for writing and sharing content. However, it is seen that sometimes people don’t seem to respond to visitor’s comments in a timely manner. This can be particularly frustrating to your readers, especially when they find it very hard to take out the time to comment. This can lead them into thinking they are unimportant in your eyes and they might turn their back on you as well!
It is also important to have a proper strategy for all the social media platforms in place. It is important to know that different social media platforms have different target audience. You need to be able to have a balanced approach to tackling all of them in a systematized manner. It is not wise to establish a strong presence on one platform and ignore others altogether. Remember it all works as a whole. You need to tie the knots to make yourself visible to the crowd.
Another mistake that you might be making on social platforms is not combining the right kind of content for an optimal impact. You need to employ a content strategy where you provide visitors with a mix of text, images and videos. By providing such a variety of content you are able to keep the visitors to your page hooked to make them come again and again for new content. Having this kind of social media platform also shows a higher level of professionalism on the part of the page owner.
If you are making any or all of these mistakes it is time to rethink your overall social media strategy and tackle the problem areas. If you get rid of all these problem areas you will have a greater social media followership and a greater business.
Are you looking to update your social media profiles or create new profiles for your business?
So, I’m working on updates / a mini re-brand for the site and for my own social media profiles, and I was trying to find all the different sizes for Facebook, Twitter, Linked in etc. What a nightmare!
There were guides all over the internet, all stating different variations on the size theme, and after asking a couple of friends and further discussion, I decided to try to find a site that published them all.
And then I found this social media sizing cheat sheet, a wonderful resource and guide to all the social media platforms, including;
Linked In
Google +
YouTube
Not only does it include the header and prfile images, but it also include the Facebook newsfeed, events and sponsored stories image sizes, Facebook App images, Facebook thumbnail sizes, Twitter headers, cover photos and much much more!
Then, I found this handy little tool from Graphic River, which allows you to make multiple social media profile images from your original design. Exciting? Possibly the best thing to happen to my Photoshop actions all year 🙂 You can get the profile image generator here
I hope you find it as useful as I have! Enjoy!
Further to my previous post about content marketing, I found this great infographic containing some really useful help and information for any business embarking on their first content marketing campaign.
As discussed before, content marketing is the ‘ongoing promotion of a business or brand’ and this guide helps define the strategy needed for a successful content marketing campaign.
The golden nugget that I have taken from the guide is; START ANYWHERE. There is no specific starting point, and no single point is better than any other for your business.
Covering many different types of content marketing such as press releases, articles, webinars, email marketing campaigns, useful infographics and videos, it gives useful tips about how to re-purpose and share your content across various social media platforms, to engage and build your audience.
Helpful with SEO and building an audience, producing content for various channels will assist any successful brand marketing campaign and will ultimately help spread the word about your business and engage your potential customers.
You run a baby products store that also has an e-commerce site.
You place an online ad for your business and a print ad in the local newspaper. 1,000 potential customers see your ad. These customers haven’t visited your store before, and have no idea about your company or your brand. They are not sure whether you are a trustworthy company, and are not really bothered about popping into your store. They check your website, look at your products and leave.
5 customers decide to pop in and 5 customers decide to visit your website. Of those 10 customers, 2 decide to make a small purchase.
You run a baby products store that also has an e-commerce site. You produce a series of free ‘how to’ baby guides, and write a regular email newsletter about the latest product reviews and mother baby news. You never ask for a sale upfront; instead you produce lots of useful, helpful content on your company blog, including an interesting article about how to save money on pushchairs which the local paper decide to publish, along with a link back to your website.
Your newsletter sign up is available on your website, many people who followed the link sign up, and you give your subscribers an exclusive discount code to use on your website. They love your helpful guides and articles, and each month, around 20% of your subscribers make a purchase, in addition, customers who read your article get in touch, visit your website and subscribe and then use their discount code. you make a minimum of 20 new purchases.
You also get contacted by a local magazine to write another baby related article on the latest baby products and toys who will also publish your website link and your store details.
Did you spot the difference in the two scenarios above? I hope you can see how effective content marketing can be to help funnel potential customers into your sales funnel, and are thinking of hundreds of ways of reaching out to your potential audience.
Did you find this useful? What types of content marketing work for your business? Are you setting up your first campaign?
Please leave a comment below with your own tips or opinions.
Source: Fishervista
When Facebook was rolled out, nobody had any idea that it would eventually incorporate an excellent marketing tool for businesses. Today there are millions of registered business pages on Facebook, all representing their brand.
Below I
have outlined 25 tips to help you manage a successful Facebook business page.
1. Email your existing contacts to inform them that you have a Facebook fan page and to ask them to “Like” it. Make things easier for them by sending the URL of the page in your email. Also, ask them an extra favour of recommending your page to their friends.
2. Your Facebook cover image is the first thing your page visitors will notice. Your cover image should tell the visitor all about your business and they should understand clearly at a glance what your business is all about.
3. Instead of going after your personal page you need to sport a Facebook fan page design that reflects the nature of your services/product. For example, if you are in the property business your page will need to look corporate and professional.
4. Use Facebook scheduled posts feature to send regular updates to your profile. Whatever you choose to share – image, video, status update etc. – Facebook lets you choose the exact time it will go live. The tool saves you time, but don’t forget to visit your page to follow up and answer any comments posted by followers.
5. Increase your fanpage “Likes”. Go to the top of your business page and click where it says “Build Audience” and then click “Invite Friends”. Invite all of your friends to your page who are likely to be interested in your service or product.
6. You may not be the only person who manages your Facebook fan page. Rather than sharing a Facebook account with others you can authorize other people as administrators. Just click “Edit Page” at the top and from there click “Manage Admin Roles” and follow the steps to add multiple admins. Now you can adjust timings with other admins to manage your page seamlessly.
7. You can get “Recommendations” for your business which can benefit you highly. However, to make the recommendations available you need to provide the exact location of your business in the “About” section.
8. Your Facebook fan page should act like your “Facebook blog”. Share original content – comments, images, videos etc. – to keep the stream active. If don’t post regularly your subscribers will eventually ‘unlike’ your fanpage, thinking it is dormant.
9. Because the main purpose of your Facebook fan page is to convert visitors to fans, make sure your timeline cover photo image is eye catching enough, and ensure the ‘About’ section is completed, so people know exactly what your business is about.
10. Facebook gives you the ability to target your ad campaigns by gender, educational status, relationship status, age, location, interested in and language. This allows you to target a campaign at a particular group of fans. Be sure to research your demographics thoroughly before creating a campaign.
11. Facebook gives businesses the ability to collect data from users in a fun and smooth way. You can have fans to your page sign up for a direct newsletter through an app or you can offer them a promotion where they are required to answer a few questions before they enter. Be sure to search for available apps for business pages.
12. When you first create your page, Facebook offers a standard set of tabs like the Wall and the Info tabs. You can extend the capability of your page greatly by creating some custom tabs in addition to the default tabs.
13. Facebook gives page administrators the ability to send their fans updates. When you have something of value to share with your fans send them an update to let them know about it. However, you should be careful with updates: do it when you have something really worthwhile to share.
14. Entice prospective audience into joining your page by offering something of value. It can be an eBook, entrance into a contest, or a free coupon. This way you can have more prospective customers connected with your business.
15. Make sure that a vanity URL is available for your business. It should be something simple and easy to remember.
16. Find out what content your fans engage with the most and when to post it on Facebook. There is a third-party application – EdgeRank Checker – that you can use to do that. This application will determine for your page the most effective day of the week to post on, popular keywords, the most suitable type of media for your audience and how often to post.
17. Encourage people to comment on your page. This also means that you must connect with the people who are commenting on your page by responding to they say regularly. If you don’t reply, engage and comment back, people will feel ignored and they won’t engage or get in touch in the future.
18. When it comes to posting, pictures and videos are unmatched in engaging visitors. Share interesting and useful pictures and videos related to your business. You can also tag top posting fans or new fans in these to send them a notification whenever you post.
19. Promote your Facebook page through different media platforms. Provide your Facebook page URL on your business card, include it in your email signature, add a Facebook “Like” button to your website etc.
20. Use “Facebook Insights” to learn more about the people who like your page. Based on their specific Facebook behaviour you can tailor posts and offers to match their specific needs.
21. Offer exclusive content to visitors but require them to first “Like” your page before they have access to the valuable content. This exclusivity will more often than not entice people into liking your page and getting hold of that valuable content. You may need to use an app for this feature.
22. Engage your followers by running polls on your page with the standard Facebook “Questions” feature.
23. Update your Facebook page with your blog post as soon as it is published – share the link and post it as a status update.
24. Join Facebook groups related to your niche. Post to these groups in order to drive traffic to your own page and website.
25. Post your YouTube videos to your Facebook page stream. This is another channel to build credibility and get more people to like your page.
Did you enjoy these tips? Do you have any more Facebook tips to share or any case studies? Whats working for your business page right now? Feel free to share below.
Is social media really important to your business? Is it a strong channel from which you can engage with an audience or does it simply make no difference at all? Get the results from a consumer survey conducted in the US showing how social media affects shopping decisions.
Two key stats shared here instantly grabbed my attention –
This re-enforces my current business advice for local business owners that mobile marketing and Facebook business pages are essential for brand awareness campaigns and for growing audiences.
I know it seems there is much hype surrounding social media right now, but with the rapid integration of technology and business apps, it makes no sense to sit there dragging your heels or pretending it won’t affect your business or doesn’t apply. With over 55% of people ‘liking a brand on Facebook’ and 27% checking in from their mobile phone, it makes sense to integrate social media into your marketing strategy right away.
While I’m not saying you need to be on there every hour of the day posting offers and status updates, I think it’s really important to present yourself as a well rounded company and claim applicable social media channels and vanity urls and ensure your customers can find and reach you if they want to.
If you’re finding it difficult to keep on top of posting and updating your channels, try making a social media marketing plan – start with one post per week and gradually increase your updates as you become more fluent with your approach and your audience grows.
This infographic by empathica shows US consumer use of social media to make purchasing decisions.
Does your business engage and encourage social media during the transaction with your customers or are you still holding back and waiting for the social media hype to die down?
So what are UK small businesses using social media for and how are they using it? Find out how from this infographic created by Sage.
This interesting research carried out by Hiscox has been turned into an infographic by Sage and presents some interesting statistics for Facebook, Twitter and Linked in.
Research shows how uk small businesses value social media as a part of their marketing plan and how they are using it to help build or strengthen their business.
Interesting statistics include;
Many of the figures show huge potential for small business owners to use the various social media platforms to build a loyal company following and increase their audience. With just 57% currently using it as a tool for marketing and promotion, it shows there is potentially more scope and maybe even some untapped resources still left for small businesses on social media, especially from a local business aspect.
This infographic was produced by Sage UK
I was quite surprised to see that just 13% of those surveyed are using a blog for their business. A blog is an excellent way to communicate with your customers and can really help grow brand awareness online.
Interestingly enough, Facebook still seems to dominate the charts when small business owners were asked ‘where is your audience’ – I am not sure if this is due to lack of knowledge or experience on other social media platforms, or whether Facebook truly is still dominating the social business marketing arena.
I know many business owners who are exclusively using Linked in now for networking, recruitment and promotion, however these are mostly B2B businesses, hence the lack of casual interaction on Facebook.
Sage have also created a handy guide for your business to download free. You can get a copy here
Which platform do you tend to use most? Have you had huge success on Facebook and none on Twitter? Are you aware of Linked in for business or have you chosen not to explore another platform? Please comment below.
3VD4N9AXKV7Q
I found this Great socialmedia marketing mindmap, clearly defining the key elements and components of social media built up around your brand.
Source Brian Solis, Jess3
It’s a fantastic overview of the social marketing elements that brands need to include in their online marketing campaigns. Content marketing for business is essential in today’s digital marketing age, and building a plan around at least some of these elements will ensure that your efforts convey the correct message to your audience.
Creating brand awareness and a loyal following is essentially a process, and with the current trend of ‘social marketing’ you need to ensure your business brand is portrayed on the right channels, and the angle is fitting to the audience you are trying to reach.
Syndication and content marketing are hot areas to focus on and really must be included in any brand strategy. Reusing content and re-sampling it to suit different audiences and channels is the ideal way of creating a strong brand presence. For example; consumers love social proof – there’s nothing better than receiving a great testimonial. Why use that glowing report just the once? Turn the text into a video, include it on your company digital brochure, create an eye catching image to share on twitter or Facebook with an extract from the text, encourage audience participation by asking for more testimonials, and so on. Remember, different types of media suit different audiences.
If you are just about to embark on your own brand awareness campaign, or are in the planning stages, remember this simple strategy to make your content go further –
1. Choose your content 2.Re-sample to suit different audiences 3.Choose the platform depending on your desired outcome.
e.g;
The opportunities really are endless. I am sure you can think of a thousand and one ways of spreading the word and building brand awareness. Remember, it’s not just about the content, it’s also about how you present it and where you place it that determines a successful brand awareness campaign.
SCROLL DOWN FOR PRESENTATION
About to begin your next social media marketing campaign? Doing some research on consumer demographics? Fed up with the same old parameters? Here are my social media marketing presentation slides discussing how demographics have changed the face of our marketing campaigns and important concepts to include when selecting your target audience.
In December last year, I was invited to speak at the Brighton Social Media Meetup. It was a great experience, a really friendly mixture of entrepreneurs and social media marketing mavens. We had a great time, and the presentation was timely and of great use to many attendees. I thought I would share the presentation, as it’s very thought provoking and may help you fine tune targeting for your next social marketing campaign.
The basis of the presentation is about whether we can still use traditional demographics to target our social media campaigns;
Is age, homeowner, marital status and number of children still a huge factor?
Are our likes, interests, interactions and collective interests more important now than ever?
This is my first presentation using Slideshare for sharing my business presentations – I will post more about using slideshare and the results soon.
I hope you enjoy the presentation. Where do you think we should be looking for future demographics? Are current marketing platform capabilities commensurate with todays ‘social consumer’ led marketing campaigns? Please comment and discuss below.
