If you are using social media to promote your business and yet your business is still unproductive, failing, or customers still are bailing by the droves, don't blame social media, blame yourself.  Sound harsh?  Facts are facts.  Here are some reasons I have found through my own visits with fellow business owners, research, and on hand experience why social media is good as only the people behind it executing the content.

1. Value   Are you providing good valuable content
that has interest to your followers?  Do you create content that allows interaction or are you only thinking of yourself of what you like?  Create content that will make them want to come back for more or click on other links that leads to what you do or products you sell.

2. Analytics    Do you take time to measure what you post and see if it is effective?  If what you do is not monitored or measured why are you wasting your time with that content?  Take time to invest in a measuring system such as Google or a similar program and see what is working for you.

3.  Who is posting for you  While having a young person or an employee post content for you is cost-effective, do
you monitor what they post?  What they may think is "cool" or informative may not be what you or your customers want.  Do they have your business model at heart?  Watch what they do, hire a professional or do it yourself.  The newbie might be excited and think they know it all but they
may wind up posting who they got trashed with last night or dated accidentally on your professional platforms and you, my friend, will have mess. Make sure they know what they are doing.

4.  Sell yourself and the business on Social Media. 
It's OK to suggestive sell and promote your business (not you) on your platforms. Offer a special, talk about a product that you offer. Don't be a blow-hard, don't be egotistical that you know it all but offer to your customers, your service and your expertise  in a professional manner.

Using social media can be a fun and rewarding experience to gain trust, customers, and friends when done in the right methodology.  Have a plan and execute it properly. 
Good luck and now go make some money!


 

Most small businesses are budget minded when it comes to promoting or
marketing  their business. The internet today is a must if you want any kind of
exposure since we are a digital or electronic society.  I put together some tips
that hopefully will help you get your brand out with little or no investment on
your part.  Some may not be for everybody, but at the very least experiment with
them and see what works best for you.

1.Website.
When is the last time you took a hard look at your website? (You better at least have one) 
Re-evaluate your website and make sure it is promoting your brand and the content
reflects your products or services.

2. Analytics.
Embracing analytics on that website will help you measure how well
your site is doing. Data can help you improve areas you are trying to target. 
Google Analytics  is free to use and is easy to embed on your site.

3.  Directories. I have mixed feelings about this
as many now consider directories "Old School".  Having said that, again Google
offers the Local business Center, Yellow Pages has gone digital and has a site,
and Yahoo offers listings as well.   Using analytics to boost your positioning
is the best way to have your businesss move up in search engines over
directories but if a person is searching for a particular product or service and
they are actually using a directory, then by all means having your name that
directory is a logical and smart idea.

4.  Blogging.  Promote your
talents and your business by blogging.  Start right here and create a Word Press site. 
You are good at what you do or you would not be in business right? 
Tell others about what you do and express your opinion on topics relevant of your business. 
Your business link is always attached to your blog site so if people want to know
more about you, they will follow.

5.  Finish Line. You are out to win the race.  Have goals in mind and consider a campaign
 a race that you want to win.  Always be first to cross that line. Be a winner!

6.  Competition.  
Check out what your competition is doing by visiting their websites or
even their place of business in person if you can.  Watch for their ads, type in
search engines what you do and see who comes up at the top of the list.  If you
don't and they do, why? 

7. Web Videos. Today, videos are
much simpler to shoot and produce.  You don't have to be a Hollywood director to
make a simple video about your business. You don't want to post garbage so if
you know someone who can make a decent video about your business then use them
to create a polished product for you.  Once it is done, put it on your website
or create  a YouTube account .  

8.  Keywords. This follows
analytics but your website's title is important to gaining tracking hits.  Your
business title should be unique and it should go hand in hand with what you do. 
Google has a page to help you with the understanding of keywords.  Google Toolbox. 
Next time you check your website, look in the browser header and give yourself
 a health check. What does it say up there? Does it fit on what your website describes? 
If it does not, think about revamping your header to fit more what you do for your business.

I hope these tips have helped you with your internet branding.  If you have any questions,
feel free to click on my last tab on my website here and email me. I will do my best to
gtve you an answer back as soon as possible.
 

Much of America's backbone is made up of small business.  These same
businesses are the "Mom and Pop"s with less than 15 employees. They face
challenges of advertising and promoting their name, products or services in a
much larger scale.  Although I covered this topic in earlier blogs, I thought I
would revisit this topic to help refresh some ideas for the small business on
advertising and marketing. Remember, it is possible to compete with your larger
counterparts if you just keep a few ideas in mind.

Know where your place is
Most small businesses think they need to advertise and promote themselves on
a regional or state basis.  You are killing yourself. Think within your town or
city. Use local media to advertise. People know you here and you have stronger
branding on a local scale.

Social Media
Take advantage of this.  Incorporate your branding, marketing and advertising with
social media. Start with the basics. Use Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.  If
you are clueless on how to do it, ask your kids, your employee's kids, slip them
a few bucks and they will help you build it.  They love this stuff and for some
spending money, I am sure they will show you how to get them going.  You don't
need to hire a high cost marketing firm.  (Sorry guys, I know I am biting my own
hand but this is about small businesses who do not have the financial resources
to compete)

Save those email addresses
Having marketing information to send out to your  customers is important. 
When you get leads, or customers contact you about your
services or products  you need to build a data base.  You can pay to get data
information but again, I encourage you to start your own.  Many times buying
data base information has 80% outdated or lists of people who have nothing to do
with what you are trying to promote. You get exactly that. Lists.  People who
have contacted you are interested in what you have to offer.  Save it, build
upon it and stay in touch with them.  If you offer services lets say to
professional organizations, many times you can go on the web and find listings
in your area of people who belong to a  group associated with their profession. 
Print out that information and you are on your way.  It costs you nothing other
than your time to look it up.  That is something you can do at home or assign it
to one of your employees.

Your website
How is your website?  Do you even have one? Do you understand SEO?
(Search Engine Optimization)  You can put up a basic web site for nothing.
There are many places including Google who offer free web sites.
 As far as building it, remember those kids who love Social Media?  Yep,
they know about web sites too.

Co-op Dollars
Many vendors or manufacturers offer money to resellers to promote their products.
They will pay you via actual dollars or reimbursement after proof of performance
(radio-tv) or tear sheet (print) to advertise.  Wow, free cash!  Next time your distributor or
sales rep comes around, ask them about this.

MDF
Marketing development Funds is another free cash
program that vendors offer.  Similar to co-op but this is money you build up by
buying their products. More latitude is often given with MDF as you can not only
buy advertising by co-branding but you can do events, co-brand promotional
material and more.Usually it is 1% of your purchases and you are responsible for
reporting what you buy from them.  It is well worth it. Ask your sales rep next
time when asking about co-op dollars if they also offer a MDF program.  Many
times with MDF they will pay 100% of a marketing promotion
whereas with co-op it is only a portion dedicated to their product. 

I hope this  refresher on advertising and marketing on a budget has been a help to you. 
If you have your own success story, I would like to hear about it.  Visit my 
 last tab page here on my site  and contact me.

As if we just start to get a grasp on Instagram and Social Cam, Tumblr now
begins to grow up and out of its diapers.  This social media web site has been
around for some time. (2007)  As with any unique social media website, Tumblr
has been on a pathway of discovery.  As I look at Tumblr even today, I think it
is still evolving to identify what it wants to do.  You might call it Social Cam
on steroids.  A variety of categories from A to Z can be found on Tumblr and the
subject matter even more so.  The users are mostly the under 35 crowd and please
understand, I am not knocking Tumblr.  I find it actually pretty cool to surf
around.


For the purpose of my blog this week however, the question is can Tumblr work
from a business marketing perspective?  My answer is "maybe".  To use Tumblr for
marketing your business, it is going to take several considerations.  The most
important one is time.  Besides account maintenance, you must have some savvy in
web video presence.  This is not social cam where you post 20 or 30 seconds of
unedited "look at me" content.  There is a some thought and creativity that goes
into Tumblr productions.  Like You Tube, Tumblr strives for some quality from
its users.   Pictures can also be used and I would be amis  not to say that
Tumblr has an  excellent array of photos in various categories as well.  How
does all this fit in to the business sector?  Considering the age group on
Tumblr, if you have a business that is trying to reach the 35 and under crowd,
then yes, you might want to consider establishing a business account and post
lets say fashion ideas or gaming products, ect.  The NFL has a category on there
mixed with individual teams supported by fans.  There is even blogging on Tumblr
but I personally don't think Tumblr is the place to blog if you want exposure .  I feel
 Word Press gets more attention. (or my own web site here (:-)


In conclusion, Tumblr is up and coming but just how far up, I think we need
to take a few steps back and let it evolve some more.  In the meantime, check it
out for yourself and surf around!  Tumbler can be found at http://www.tumblr.com

We just had Pinterest and it has caught on well as a social media tool for business.  Now we have Social Cam.  Many of us have "played" around with this on our personal Facebook  pages and Twitter but then it hit me.  How could this app, if at all, be applied for business usage?  While it is still kind of new and being used mostly by young people, I do see some possible benefits  for business applications. 

First if you are not familiar with Social Cam, it is an app that can be intigrated to Facebook and you sign up for it on the web.   You basically watch short unedited videos of people and events.  Some are silly, some are interesting, some are touching, but most are just kids doing anything and everything and uploading it so their freinds can see where they are in pretty much "real- time".   Ironically as of this writing, you only can use Social Cam through your smart phone's camera to shoot videos and upload them from there.  They are working to allow desktop publishing of videos or using your web cam that is on your home desktop but as of today, that is not happening.  Perhaps that is the whole novelty of Social Cam and to do that would just make it another YouTube sort of experience. 

Now for the business aspect.  Look at this scenario.  Suppose your business is having a huge sale. You pay for live radio remotes or television commercials.  You have your smart phone with you and would it not be cool to shoot some quick real-time video of your sale?  Why not shoot some crowd action or interview a customer you know personally and get their excitement and upload it to your Twitter or FB  fan page site?  Wow, you just reached out to your masses!   I see other postive uses of Social Cam for businesses as well.  Applicants sending short introduction of themselves, maybe answering a question you submitted , new product line introduction, but I digress.  Let me know your thoughts. Will Social Cam be a novelty or will it  grow into a huge new social media tool?