It’s hard to succeed at anything if you’re not focused. Whether you’re golfing, driving, taking an exam or giving a presentation, losing focus on your objective can be disastrous. The same is true of your social media activity. Granted social media marketing is a longer-term activity than golfing or giving a presentation, but the importance of focus is no less important. In particular, we’ve selected three key elements marketers should keep their focus on when engaging in social media. Continue reading “Best Practices for Social Media Marketing”
Tag: social media marketing
The Big Benefits of Social Media for Marketing Local
We think of social media as a way to reach disparate audiences spread around the country or globe. But social media marketing can also work on a local scale. For brick-and-mortar businesses offering a unique atmosphere or great dining, social media recommendations from locals can help drive customers through the door in ways that can be much more impactful than traditional advertising. Continue reading “The Big Benefits of Social Media for Marketing Local”
Twitter: Beyond Promotion
Like most forms of social media, Twitter is largely used by businesses to promote a message, product or service. However, there are a number of uses for Twitter beyond purely promotional activities. Twitter, and other social media tools, can actually provide big benefits to businesses in multiple ways. Some of the ways we have used Twitter outside of traditional marketing include the following: Continue reading “Twitter: Beyond Promotion”
Brand Building for Service Professionals: Some Practical Tips
We recently received an inquiry from a physician regarding ways to develop and manage his online brand, and it seemed like a good time to take a look at brand building tips for online brands for professionals in general. Whether you’re a physician, an attorney, an accountant, a business consultant or any other type of service professional, your business’ brand is necessarily tied closely to your own personal brand. We wrote extensively on this topic as it relates to the legal profession in “Business Development and Marketing for Lawyers”; however, the concepts are applicable to any profession. Continue reading “Brand Building for Service Professionals: Some Practical Tips”
Using Google Analytics to Track Social Media Strategies
It’s hard for marketers to escape the call to take full advantage of social media in their marketing efforts. The conventional wisdom is that it’s foolish to not utilize free or low-cost platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, which hold the potential to reach huge and targeted audiences; and, while some sites require payment for premium offerings, most are free for the basic service. (For an overview of ten popular tools, see Continue reading “Using Google Analytics to Track Social Media Strategies “
Facebook for Local Businesses
Small businesses, I think, have an edge when it comes to social media engagement, and Facebook is a very good example of this. Effective social media requires a relationship between the business/business owner and their followers. This is much easier for small businesses to attain than it is for large businesses, particularly because small businesses tend to be closer to their customers offline–the online environment simply becomes another forum for engagement.
Despite the fact that social media channels like Facebook can provide a global audience, small businesses don’t need to extend their reach globally–in fact, they can (and should) focus on their local markets.
In attempting to do this, we believe there are some important keys to effective engagement: Continue reading “Facebook for Local Businesses”
Getting More From LinkedIn
LinkedIn is my go-to social media tool, primarily because most of my work is in the B2B space, but also because of the real value the site provides business professionals, whether they are seeking jobs, doing business development or furthering their careers. Continue reading “Getting More From LinkedIn”
Engaging Your Audience Through Social Media
Social media is critical for most (but still not all) businesses these days. It is a key communication channel that allows businesses and individuals to connect with a wide audience very cost-effectively.
As a business owner I maintain both LinkedIn and Twitter accounts for myself and have used them to successfully connect with prospects, clients, the media and other audiences. I’ve gained more than one client simply through my LinkedIn profile.
As a marketing communication consultant I work with clients to develop and manage their online communications presence through content marketing and management. These activities generally involve a strategy around driving traffic from various social media activities (LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, etc.) to their web sites to generate some specific action, ultimately leading to a sale or new client interaction.
In my work I’ve found the keys to success to involve primarily two things: Continue reading “Engaging Your Audience Through Social Media”
Top Social Media Missteps: Are You Making These Mistakes?
There is no doubt that the rapid introduction of various social media platforms has dramatically changed the communication climate for businesses of all kinds. Whether you’re an independent consultant or author, work in a small “mom and pop” retail outlet, or a large multi-national conglomerate, social media is likely to play a part in communicating with key audiences. Unfortunately, sometimes the role of social media isn’t carefully considered. Messages are shared, but is anyone listening? Most importantly, are the right people listening? Continue reading “Top Social Media Missteps: Are You Making These Mistakes?”