WSI Marketing, Surf, Search and Social

Facebook is one of the very high traffic social media sites and I am always being asked how to incorporate it into a digital marketing strategy and effectively use it to drive business results. Firstly you need to decide on your social media marketing strategy and see if Facebook is a good fit for your target audience. But let’s assume you have decided to use Facebook; what are the next steps?

Marketing your business on Facebook is just like using any social media site you need to build a presence, then establish credibility and educate your potential customers.

Here are some steps to help you get the most from your Facebook marketing:
It is best to keep your business profile separate from your personal page, so remember everything on your business page should be business related, you can have some fun with it but keep it professional.
Make sure your pages look professional: get some help to reflect the same professional image as on your web site; use the same graphics and colours; maintain your brand image. Consider having a welcome page specifically for new visitors.
Have a plan regarding what you are going to add, and what do you want the visitor to do once they find your page. Why should anyone return to your pages again? How will you react to negative comments?
Create a reason for people to provide their contact details and to pass the page onto their friends, this sort of viral marketing is where Facebook excels.
Remember to interact with others, you need to participate in the dialogue and be visible, keep adding fresh content, and answering questions.
Provide polls or surveys to engage with your audience, ask others to share their ideas and tips.
Keep everyone up to date with your latest offers and initiatives provide a good reason for them to interact with your business.
Consider hiring a professional to create an app and provide it on your page. This can really make your page go viral since fans will share them with their friends, which is all adding to your visibility and credibility.
The main thing is that once you have decided to create a Facebook page for your business you need to be consistent with your efforts and contribute regularly to keep things moving. Why not share some of your ideas in the comments section here to help others utilise Facebook to attract new business.

Get to know what your customers are saying about your brand online and learn what you need to develop an effective social media marketing strategy!

Over the weekend one of my family members asked me a question “What’s the benefits of using Twitter?” I have decided to put a short post together outlining some of them. I mostly use Twitter for researching and to promote my content. Usually when I have written a new post, I post a description with a link of the post I have made.

Find some benefits of using Twitter below:

• Researching: Research industry specific topics. Great way to get topics for new Blog posts;
• Communication Tool: Follow and be followed. Start a conversation;
• Twitter Feed reader: Yep thats right. You can subscribe to the people you are following’s RSS tweet feeds;
• News: People post news topics as they happen. Real time information;
• Recruitment: I follow some of these (http://twitter.com/NewYorkWebJobs);
• For Fun: What are you doing right now? Post it on Twitter and see other people’s responses;
• Competitive Intelligence: Find out what your competitors are up to. Be the spy;
• Engage with your target audience: Tell your Pizza fan club about the new Pizza you have made;
• Build a reputation: Post regularly about your topic;
• Build credibility: Become an expert in your topic;
• Build trust: Keep on doing the above;
• Promote your “content”: Share what you have posted, new website, pizza you have made, etc;
• Promotion: Promote your pizza;
• SEO Boost: Gain traffic to your website, blog, etc;
• Ask Questions: Most searches on the search engines starts with a question. Ask your question to your followers;
• Receive answers: Real time results are the best!;
• Press releases: Post about any press releases;
• Internal communication tool: Tweet that your secretary should come to work now;
• External communication tool: Tweet to your friends that you have been fired;
• For conferences: You can even have a conference on Twitter if you want to;
• Re-enforce Your Brand: Tell the world about your Pizzeria;
• Marketing Opportunities: Promote your pizza special on Wednesdays;
• Networking Opportunities: Maybe someone wants to buy your Pizzeria;

Found a post with 101 Twitter resources that can help you on your Twitter path. Find a couple below:

• My Tweeple – Manage your following and followers.
• The Twitter Blog – Follow their official blog.
• Explore Twitter – Learn more about Twitter.
• Twitter Search - Search in Twitter.
• TwitterVerse – What is Twitter doing lately?
• Tweetmeme – Twitter meme.
• The Twitter Blacklist – Spammers are everywhere. Protect yourself.
• Twitterholic – Shows popular Twitter feeds.
• YouTwit – Put Twitter status on Google maps.
• Twitterberry – Mobile client for Blackberry.
• Email Twitter – Mobile client.
• Twoble – Mobile client for Windows Mobile Pocket PCs.
• TwitterMail – Tweet via email.
• OutTwit – Use Twitter from Outlook.

When used strategically, Twitter can prove to be a very powerful tool in your company’s digital marketing strategy. Visit our site to read more about how social media can build your credibility and reputation online!

Companies that market to small businesses should focus on creating a social media strategy as a way of promoting their services and be open to trying new methods of prospecting. Companies that are marketing to this sector should have a strong presence at the top or on the most relevant social networking sites. Especially since this is an excellent way of getting the word out about your business.

Here are some other ideas that you can add to your digital marketing strategy to try to increase your online visibility:

Product Reviews and Ratings

When someone is deciding whether to buy something online they will nearly always look for reviews or testimonials; they provide great input to the decision making process. Make sure prospects will find great reviews of your products or services.

Podcasts and Webinars

This year has seen a dramatic increase in the use of podcasts and webinars as a way of educating your prospects as more and more managers are looking online for information. Small business owners consider these as great resources for their professional development and research. They are also not time consuming, so you are more likely to get someone to listen to a short webinar than to agree to an in person meeting.

Social Media Company and Brand pages

Creating a great image on the social media sites is now a necessity for most small businesses, but make sure you also include some educational resources. Try to answer the most common questions your company is asked as a part of the profile page. Also consider adding some presentation materials; this is easily done using SlideShare which can be added to your LinkedIn profile, and optimized for search.

Company Blogs

A well written company blog can have a big impact, but this does involve a commitment to keep on creating additional content. So make sure you have a plan for this before you start one. You need both the content strategy and resources necessary to create and maintain a good one.

All of these activities act to engage decision makers in your business or brand and can set your company apart from the local competition.

To keep up-to-speed with the evolving social media technologies and techniques of today, take a look at our Social Media Strategy Kit.

I am often asked why many of the social media profiles created are never visited or found by search engines. To get the most value from your social media activities you need to ensure that the profiles you create are easily found for the keywords that you are targeting. Here are a few basic steps to add to your digital marketing strategy that will get you results.

Keyword Placement

Place keywords in the important places of your profile or posting. If you are targeting a specific keyword on your website or blog to generate traffic, make sure these same keywords appear in your profile in areas such as titles, headlines, biographical paragraph, description of your business and past positions etc. If you use keywords consistently it allows you to control what searches you are likely to be found for.

Linking Strategy

Always make sure you are linking back to specific pages on your website, so include those links where it makes sense to do so. You should also try to make sure that the actual link page on your website or blog is very descriptive and contains the keywords you are targeting whether that is your name or relevant keywords. My LinkedIn profile contains my name as a part of the URL, and my profile contains many keywords that I wish to be found for http://ca.linkedin.com/in/wsibruceallen.

Remember that if you visit a prospect and they do a search on your name to get some background information once you have left them, you need to make sure they find excellent relevant content easily. This is where your profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook and ecademy will be found.

Social media profiles offer more ways for potential customers to find you, so make sure you make the most of the opportunity.

Learn more about how to leverage your company’s social media profiles now.