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.
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 đ You can get the profile image generator here
I hope you find it as useful as I have! Enjoy!
Traditional publicity and marketing is a static way of capturing the attention of potential customers, and promoting your products or services. It isn’t engaging, it isn’t viral and the costs quite often outweigh the results.
Content marketing is a cost effective marketing strategy that all successful businesses need to adapt. Be there or be buried in the swamp of static websites, unknown retail stores and other, struggling businesses and brands.
Put simply, it is taking information pertaining to your industry, niche or brand, and turning it into useful material, suitable for your audience, the consumer and brand definition.
We create a variety of different media, which can be distributed through various channels and platforms, both online and offline. We create engaging content such as blogs, articles, videos, animations, images, viral photos, downloadable guides and podcasts (mp3 recordings) Â and we share and distribute them to engage our audience. We provide value in our content, encouraging end users to share and engage with our business.
Of course not! I would never suggest for one minute that local businesses and offline businesses should ditch the traditional advertising route. Instead, every business must learn to adapt new strategies and incorporate traditional marketing into their advertising campaign where it is affordable and offers the most value.
The Traditional Publicity VS Content Marketing infographic below offers a simple explanation of why content marketing is the alpha strategy for businesses to incorporate in their campagins.
For business startups with limited budget creating a high-impact marketing can be a tough and demanding job.
Traditional marketing like radio and newspaper ads, brochures and banners will instantly eat into your marketing budget. The good news is, it is possible to introduce a killer marketing campaign at a very low cost!
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
#1 You can repeat these low-cost marketing strategies over and over to get your company message and brand image across to potential customers (which affects buyersâ decisions enormously). It is effective and it won’t cost you an arm and a leg!
#2 You can direct a low-budget marketing plan into several marketing channels as opposed to traditional marketing mediums. For example, the money that you would spend on a single newspaper ad campaign can be spent on email marketing, social media and your business website combined, to create a larger, more sustained campaign.
#3 With this kind of business marketing plan you can test your campaigns relatively cheaply and stop spending money on a medium once you see that it is not effective. You can experiment with different channels and choose the one that best suits your business.
Probably the most important part of your marketing plan is finding the right target customer for your business. What you need to do is to split your target market into easily identifiable chunks and then carry out your marketing plan accordingly. For example; If you are setting up a personal training company in your local area, find conversations on Twitter, local groups on Facebook, LinkedIn Groups and local Forums, and find out the cost of placing a banner ad on the site or get involved in the group conversations and message boards as a helpful expert in your niche.
It doesn’t always have to cost thousands! Low cost guerrilla marketing tactics are often a great success and can propel a company image overnight. For those who havenât heard the term before, guerrilla marketing is a kind of advertising strategy in which un-conventional means are used to promote a product or service. Guerrilla marketing is different to traditional marketing in that it mostly relies on personal interaction and word-of-mouth. You can focus on smaller, more targeted groups to spread the word instead of large-scale media marketing campaigns. Think outside the box for example; Â you could introduce a viral YouTube video to be shared across the social media sites, you could ask for customer participation or customer video responses. Maybe ask a public question where people post images of themselves with your product.
Another surefire way to reach new customers is by a system of business referrals. This method is cost effective and proven to increase sales. Word-of-mouth is a powerful tool when it comes to people making decision about buying a product or service. One satisfied customer telling others about your product can do far better than any advertising campaign. Offer an incentive to refer your next sale; you could give a free gift, a discount or some other reward, specific to your business.
You could partner up with another business and help to promote each others services. For example, if you are running a restaurant you could offer local businesses discount coupons or free items from the menu in return for advertising space on their premises. Again, what you offer and what you get in return will vary, so be sure to contact businesses that you believe your potential customers will be frequenting.
A great way of building credibility and helping spread the word about your services is to offer free seminars, webinars or lectures which focus on building awareness about your niche. This will help place you as an authority in prospective clients’ minds. Find local pubs, bars, restaurants or function rooms – many will let you have a space free of charge if you can guarantee a set number of attendees, as they will purchase food and/or drink on the premises. You could start a regular free Meetup for people to attend, to help build your business brand.
As you dig deeper into marketing for your small business you will explore more and more inexpensive strategies. Before you launch any business marketing campaign, take some time to think ‘outside the box’ and brainstorm ways of using some of the powerful free social media and other online channels in your strategy. Feel free to add your ideas below or share some successful business marketing campaigns you have created on a budget.
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%Â 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
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.
I was having a conversation with one of the marketing directors for a well known Motor Factor yesterday, we were discussing his taking over of a £450,000.00 marketing budget for the independent retail arm of their branded carparts and accessories.
Most of the budget has already been spent on radio and magazine campaigns already, and there’s still little or no sign of any real consumer awareness on the ground. I disagreed with the allocation of the marketing budget at our last quarterly meeting and discussed Facebook and Social Media in general as an option for a faster, more targeted and more measurable ROI and suggested running test campaigns for them to start getting some feedback and results. This was promptly ignored and here we are, three months down the line, with no real results to look at.
When I mentioned Facebook and he said ‘we’re not targeting that generation, most of our targeted audience are still using traditional forms of media such as paper, magazine and radio’
Oh dear…So I went off to gather some information to present to him, and found this great info-graphic, which shows results that show the complete opposite of the traditional ‘social media is a teen world’ stereotype.
For those of you who are still ignoring the Social Media Opportunity, I wanted to share this breakdown of demographics, compiled May 2011.
| Detailed Facebook Demographics | ||||
| Age range | Male | Female | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14-17 | 9.8% | 9.1% | ||
| 18-20 | 13.7% | 13.2% | ||
| 21-24 | 17.5% | 16.6% | ||
| 25-29 | 13.2% | 11.7% | ||
| 30-34 | 10.2% | 9.7% | ||
| 35-44 | 15.3% | 15.4% | ||
| 45-54 | 10.4% | 12.3% | ||
| 55-63 | 5.5% | 7.2% | ||
| 64+ | 4.5% | 4.8% | ||
| Source: Facebook.com ad platform. Percentages include those Facebook members who include a gender in their profiles. Data collected in May 2011. | ||||
The results really surprised me, in fact the 21-54 market is on the rise and is much bigger than most perceive. Although you still need to drill down on the stats, reports and figures, I think it’s a worthy read.
Internet Marketing Strategies
So, which Internet Marketing Strategies will you use?
I get asked “what are the best internet marketing strategies” all the time. I decided it would be much simpler if I gave a brief guide here on my blog, so here is a quick guide on the most common used tactics in IM (internet marketing)
Internet Marketing strategies are the methods used for promoting your own or someone else’s product, service, company or brand on-line. Online Marketers use their knowledge and skills to promote and market their on-line business, company and services.
Common strategies used include social media, blogging, static websites, and Joint Venture promotions.
One of the more popular entry level internet marketing strategies, especially good if you’re just starting out. No need for your own product or service, you simply target your chosen market and promote other people’s products. Affiliate Marketers find a Niche and fine tune their landing pages to their customer, eventing in a sale. It is perhaps one of the easiest strategies to apply and make money quickly. Common affiliate marketing promotion tools used to find products to promote are Clickbank, Commission Junction, Paydotcom, Amazon.
These are the big boys of the internet marketing world. Media Buyers use a specialist strategy used to purchase targeted traffic and drive it to their sales page or landing page. Media buyers target customers by demographics, interests etc and fine tune paid campaigns to compliment their niche.
Common platforms used include Google Adwords, Social Media Paid Ads, Sponsored searches etc.
Blogging is another one of the easy area to start in. Bloggers maintain an ongoing ‘weblog’ of their chosen niche. Whether they are marketing products or services, or marketing themselves, their blog is usually a popular topic niche and targeted at those who will follow the blog for regular news and updates. Blogging is ideal for listbuilding and supports great brand awareness and is ideal for marketing and communication for business or personal.
Creating a product isn’t as daunting as it sounds and product owners are some of the most successful internet marketers out there. Creating a product can be anything from a short report through to software, including training courses, traditional books, guides and physical goods. Making money from your own product one of the more lucrative online strategies.
Never ignore the power of social media! It is one of the fastest growing markets in the world. Everyday, billions of people and businesses connect via social media, so many in fact, that many car manufacturers are using Social Media to launch their products now! Simple tactics such as twitter or facebook marketing are relatively easy to learn and implement and have been providing some outstanding returns!
Niche Marketing is one of the more popular areas for online advertising. Niche Marketing is all about finding a smaller segment of a market and creating a product or a service for that market. In general a niche is a very targeted and focused market. An example of a market is “pets”, whereas an example of a niche market could be “Labrador Dogs” or “Master Cleanse Diet” Niche markets are not as competitive as the bigger, more well know markets such as health tend to be less competitive than the bigger markets like health, Diets and Pets,and are alot easier to succeed in.
Joint ventures are responsible for some of the most successful online product launches to date. Partnering with others to promote your product, create your product, build your list or brand online can result in a huge return on investment.
So, there you have it. Although I have defined each route separately, many of the routes overlap, and I think that is the biggest pitfall for anyone learning internet marketing. It’s so easy to end up with information overload, and end up trying anything and everything in internet marketing. But there are ways to overcome this. Grab some tips from my other posts to help you focus and really get to grips with online marketing and internet marketing strategies.
