by Ken Seaney | Aug 11, 2016
When it comes to social media marketing, establishing good communication between you and your followers is pertinent in driving your business forward in today’s competitive market. Depending on the type of business you run, there are different methods you can use to start conversations that will ultimately generate new business. While there are numerous ways to start successful conversations, the key is doing it in a way that supports your business goals. The following are a few basic tips you can use to get the ball rolling towards meaningful connections with your social media followers. Establish a Human Connection Unfortunately, with today’s technology, the use of robotic responses has caused many people to feel like just another “sale.” Because of this, establishing that you truly are a living, breathing human being goes a long way towards gaining trust amongst your followers. There was a time when addressing your audience by their first names or posting pictures was enough to show that you are real; however, that is no longer the case. While you can still use these methods, the trick is to verify that a person actually posted them. You can do this by making a comment on a posted picture saying when and where it was taken, commenting on the current weather in your area, or just sharing normal day-to-day experiences in your business that people will relate to. If you can do all of these things, your followers, in their natural tendency to move towards human companionship, will leave comments in response to your posts. As a result, you show them that you are indeed a...
by Ken Seaney | Aug 9, 2016
The key to website marketing success is search engine optimization, or SEO. Obviously, as a business owner, you want your website to be listed among the top search results when people search for something related to your products or services. While there are many ways to enhance the SEO of your website, it is important to note that social signals are an important piece of the puzzle. However, some business owners are under the assumption that the more page “Likes” and “Followers” they get on social media, the better SEO success they will achieve as a result. If you have 400,000 followers on Google+, Twitter or Facebook, that must mean you are well-known to the search engines, right? Not exactly; while studies have shown a correlation between higher search rankings and page activity, they may not be directly related. A Google employee, Matt Cutts, made a statement saying, “…you have this many followers on Twitter or this many likes on Facebook, to the best of my knowledge, we don’t currently have any signals like that in our web search ranking algorithms.” In other words, just because you have thousands of page Likes and Twitter followers does not mean your website will rank higher on Google searches. Social Content is Powerful It’s all about valuable, quality content. SEO has changed in the past few years; today, human-friendly content rules the world of SEO. Since social media is mostly about posting and sharing great content, it definitely enhances your SEO efforts. Content that is shared often across social media is viewed as “quality information” by “credible sources” that should be...
by Ken Seaney | Aug 2, 2016
If you run a small business, you probably already know how vital social media can be in increasing your bottom line. Getting started on social media, however, can seem daunting because there are so many options and ways to gain followers. We have gathered a few tips to help you build a loyal social media audience. Use Keywords No matter what social media site, whether Google+, Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr, using keywords is vital to increase your followers. For most of these sites hash tags work best, especially if you have your social media accounts connected with one another. This allows you to post something to all of your social media sites without having to do it physically. Using keywords in your profile can help you attract people who are interested in what you have to offer. If they like what they see on your profile, they are likely to become an on-going follower. Comment Wisely Customers and clients love hearing from the small businesses they follow. By commenting on posts related to your feild, you can get people interested in your business. You do have to remember to comment wisely, however, so that it does not feel like spam. You should also consider following people back if they start following you on any social sites. People are much more likely to purchase from a business with which they are “friends” than one that is not on any social media sites. Post Regularly People want to hear from your business. The more they engage with you, the more likely they are to become customers or clients,...
by Alyssa Seaney | Jul 26, 2016
Creating Graphics for Social Media Let’s face it: all of the different specifications for all of the many social media outlets is enough to make your head spin. Aspect ratios, recommended pixel dimensions and safe zones are not the same for your Facebook, Google Plus, Google My Business page or LinkedIn covers and can be confusing. If you have decided to use social media at some level, you must also decide how often you will use these outlets and what the best way to present yourself and your services or product to the viewing audience. Here are a couple of facts to consider. Social media is huge in letting a business reach, inform and interact with their audience. Including images when sharing increases engagement - more clicks, likes and shares. That means you have to look good, get their attention and get them to take some sort of action. You’ll want viewers to like, share, repost or click to go to your website or profile page to learn more. But as a small business owner or person not familiar with graphics formats and software, is this something you really want to do yourself? You’ll need to know to edit and use properly formatted images in your online posts and advertising and consistently post to build an audience and a following. So let’s say that you already have a couple of social media accounts. Hopefully you have your Google My Business page and a dedicated Facebook page. What do they say about your company right now? Do they show it in a good light? This is a good place...
