5 Ways to Increase Your Brand’s Exposure on Social Media

Because of social media, you have more options for your marketing budget than ever before. This is a double-edged sword, however; while this plethora of choices gives you more opportunities to connect with your existing clients and draw in new business, it can also be difficult to prioritize your time and money.

However, no matter what strategy you ultimately choose, there are five things that should definitely be in the conversation.

 

1. Create Valuable Content

While this might seem obvious, it’s worth stating because creating valuable content is possibly the most important thing you can do to increase your brand’s exposure on social media. To this end,”value” comes in many forms. The content could be funny, informative, controversial, or inspiring. As long as it enriches the people who see it, they will be more likely to share it with their friends giving you free “word of mouth” (or, in this case, “click of mouse”) advertising.

In addition to word-of-mouth advertising, creating valuable content for your blog, Facebook page, or other social media outlets will reflect positively on your brand. Like a bottle of wine with a fancy label, creating valuable content shows that you’re invested in creating a high-quality product.

2. Interact With Your Community

So people have started to notice your valuable content? That’s great, but it’s not worth much if you don’t follow it up with some good community interaction. Ideally, at least some of your valuable content ends with the opportunity for user interaction, also called a “call to action.” A call to action could ask the users to share the piece, it could ask them to join a debate, or it could just answer a question.

Basically, start a dialogue. It might be difficult to get people talking at first, but once you do, your posts will be a lot more interesting for other users to read and it will be more fun to maintain as well!

3. Localize Your Social Media Pages

Ideally, you should create blogs or websites for each locality in which you do business. This is especially important for large businesses that span cities, or even states, but this tactic also can be valuable for smaller businesses with locations in different parts of a single city as well. These localized blogs will, of course, have locally relevant content, which will be valuable to the people living in the area. Localizing a blog will also increase your social media ranking for searches in that area and will make your website more tempting to other local businesses for cross promotional deals.

If you don’t want to spend the time or money building and maintaining a blog for each of your locations, it is still a good idea to build local social media pages that will share locally relevant content. This can be a good compromise for those who don’t want to mess around with buying a lot of domain names but still want to take advantage of local internet traffic.

4. Target Mobile Social Media Users

Of the 317.2 million people in the United States, fully half own a smart phone or tablet and of these people, half actively use social media on that device. That’s a potential audience of 79.3 million people — definitely not something you want to ignore. Unfortunately, native ads don’t show up on the Facebook mobile interface (not yet at least). If you were relying on native ads, therefore, you’re missing a large part of the market.

Also, Facebook has recently started using a program called StoryBump, which decides what Facebook users will see first in their News Feeds. The old program tried to pull posts that would match the interests of the individual and, while story bump does this to some degree, it relies more heavily on how many times an article is shared and when it was posted.

5. Consider Hiring a Full-Time Social Media Manager

If you’re thinking about bumping your social media marketing efforts up a notch, you might want to consider bringing a full-time social media guru onboard. For small businesses that are operating on tight margins, it might be prudent to check all the financial factors before creating such a position. Make sure your company has the most affordable business rates for cutting  energy costs to ensure you have enough room in the budget to make such a hire. Otherwise, you may want to just consider hiring a freelancer.

Either way, however, with these five tips under their belt they’ll be well on their way to building your company a large social media following.
What other tricks do you know for maximizing a brand’s social media presence?

9 Ways to Improve Your Social Media in 2014 with the new Buffer for Business

Buffer has been around for a while now, as a great tool to publish updates to social media, which I enjoy using frequently on my Twitter account. Recently, the Buffer team announced Buffer for Business, with some great improvements to existing features and a few exciting new ones.

I thought of taking the whole product for a spin and see what I like or don’t like about it.

Here are some of my thoughts and suggestions for improvements on Buffer’s new product:

1. Admin rights for members of your team: You can approve first

When you start adding more team members to your Buffer account, your social media profiles can get a bit messy with everyone jumping in. The Buffer for Business plans introduced much-needed approval features for team member contributions.

Now, if a team member is set to contribute only, their posts will be added to a queue for approval before being published.

2. Integration with Google Analytics

We all use Google Analytics, so it’s even more useful when it integrates with another product we use. Buffer’s Business analytics now offer integration with Google Analytics, letting you set your own UTM tracking parameters for buffered posts. This will make it so much easier to track and report on your specific marketing campaigns, or those of your clients.

3. Adding a large number of social accounts

With Buffer’s Business accounts, you can now add even more social media profiles. Currently the product supports Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and App.net. With LinkedIn groups and Facebook and Google+ Pages, there are so many places to keep up with your brand’s social media presence that the extra account options will certainly come in handy.

4. Options for more team members

You can also add up to 25 team members to manage your social media profiles now. If you’re managing an agency or a marketing team, this will be really useful for spreading the workload.

5. Brand new analytics: tracking of clicks, retweets and more

The new, improved analytics of Buffer is one of the parts I’m most excited about. The team has pushed for more flexibility and reliability in reporting, and it shows. They’ve added graphs so you can visualize your stats and you can choose different elements to compare, like posts per day and clicks or retweets.

6. See how fast your fans and followers are growing

One thing that I’ve always used other tools for is visualizing my follower growth. Now, I don’t have to. Buffer’s Business analytics include the option to see a graph of your follower growth compared with your account’s activity and engagement.

7. Custom date ranges for analytics

Unlike previous version of Buffer, where you had to scroll through your updates chronologically, you can now choose a custom date range to view your analytics plotted on a graph. There are some built-in date ranges as well, just to make things easy. But if 7 days, 30 days or 90 days don’t suit you, you can choose to view 6 months or a year’s worth of stats, or even choose specific dates based on your marketing campaigns.

8. Reorder your analytics

One thing I’ve been wanting to do for a long time is understand the trends in which of my posts get more clicks and which get more engagement. In the new Buffer analytics grid, this is easy to do by clicking on a heading to reorder the stats.

9. Export your data

Lastly, I’m really excited that I can export my analytics now. This means I’m not tied-in to Buffer and I can use my own analysis or just save the stats to come back to later. I can also send them as a report to other people in my team or to clients.

My wishlist for Buffer

The Buffer team have done a great job with Buffer for Business, and I’m excited to see where it goes in the future. There’s always room for improvement, of course, so here are a few things on my wishlist for the team at Buffer:

• Continued improvement for analytics: The current improvements are great, but I think this is an important area for Buffer to focus on. I’d love to see even more options to control how the data is presented and to really drill down into useful insights about my social media marketing.
• Grouping of accounts based: When you’re using Buffer to manage social media for multiple clients, it can get quite unwieldy with a lot of social media profiles in your account. A way to group these profiles by client would make it much more manageable.
• support for Facebook groups and tagging (and Pinterest!): I’m keen to see more social networks added to Buffer like Instagram and Pinterest, but first I’d like to see better support for Facebook. Being able to post to specific groups and tag other Facebook users will make Buffer a much better marketing tool.

If you’re looking to make a few changes in 2014 to your Social Media marketing and getting it up to date, I think the new Buffer product might be worth taking a look.

Of course, I’d love your take on the pros and cons here. Have you tried it out before? If so, what’s your thinking? Hit me in the comments below.

Dealing With Online Trolls As A Businessperson

Internet trolls have become unavoidable, no matter what kind of website you have or what industry you’re in. Trolling is basically making a comment that’s designed to make people upset and get a reaction out of them. Most of the trolls I’ve noticed make anonymous posts and comments, but they sometimes make their identity known.  As a businessperson, you don’t want to come across as being aggressive with anyone, customers and non-customers alike.

No matter how much an online troll can frustrate you, you always have to keep your composure and take the higher ground when dealing with them, otherwise you risk ruining your brand and your online reputation. So what else should you do when dealing with trolls?

Remember What They Want

Just like your customers, you have to remember that trolls want something, and that something is a reaction. Trolls will use any means necessary to elicit a reaction either from you or your customers or your readers if you have an online blog. The limits they can go to to stir the pot can be quite shocking, but don’t give them what they want.

While you can ban them or delete their comments, who’s to say that they won’t make up a new profile just so they can continue with their malicious attack? This is why it’s important that you learn to properly deal with them rather than simply delete their harmful comments or ban them.

Ignore Them

Instead of deleting troll comments or banning them, you can simply ignore them and tell your other readers or customers to do the same thing. The moment you engage with them is the moment they really start to set their sights on you. While it’s always a good policy to always respond to comments about your products or services, be they good or bad, online trolls are the exception. Don’t give them the reaction or attention that they’re aiming for and they’re sure to move on.

Don’t Take Things Personally

While it might not seem like it, Internet trolls aren’t attacking you personally. I don’t know what makes people want to scour the Internet in search of innocent prey that they can use to unleash hateful and rude comments on, but I do know that it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with them. Should you ever encounter trolls on social media, never think that their comments mean that something is wrong with your products or services. Again, it has everything to do with them and nothing to do with you or your business.

Report Them

Even if you do ban a troll you should still report them so that they don’t keep up with their foolish behavior with other individuals on the same social media site. You should also report them if you’re ever unable to ban them from your social media platform. Make it difficult enough for them to engage anyone in conversation and eventually they’ll move on from the social media site entirely, making things better for you and everyone else.

Laugh About It

Instead of getting angry or frustrated whenever you encounter a troll, have a good laugh about it. Here you are trying to better your life and run a business while other individuals have nothing better to do than make nasty comments. Which of you is actually making something of your life? In fact, maybe you should be flattered that out of all of the other businesses out there they decided to leave a rude comment on yours. You must be doing something right to receive such an honor.

No matter how big or how small your business is, there’s always a chance that you’ll become the next victim of trolling. Learn how to deal with them now so that you can make all of the right moves when/if it happens and so that you can get back to your business as soon as possible.

Electronic Word of Mouth – The highs and lows of your product.

For centuries it has remained evident that word of mouth is the best form of advertising a business can ask for. Endless customer surveys and questionnaires are conducted and still the final question remains; ‘ …and would you recommend this to a friend?’. But, centuries ago our social groups were probably what we would now consider as ‘local’. To think of the reaches we can access now through social media is a stark contrast. The term for this ‘e-wom’ (electronic word of mouth).

Image: www.brandingstrategyinsider.com

Our praises for a product can be expelled out to our 300+ Facebook friends, be tweeted and blogged reaching thousands in mere minutes. And we do it constantly, without even realizing that we are doing it. For example, you go out to meet some friends for dinner…before, after or during one of the group would have posted something like; ‘Great time eating at _______...’ You can even check yourself in at that exact restaurant, in your exact city. Then you tag your friends, add your hashtags and ‘post’. Within minutes people will have ‘liked’ and commented on it; and that’s it. You have marketed a product to tonnes of people without even thinking about it. Be honest, if one of your friends posts about something you like you will start thinking about it, and often buying it yourself. Its fun and its sharing, and that is what social media is for.

So it can be easily deduced from this that ‘e-wom’ is has incredible potential if you want to launch or continue a successful product, service or brand.

In contrast of this, it has been proven that if you enjoy a product or service you are actually less likely to talk about it. But if you have had a bad experience, you generally tell anyone you come into contact with. Of course social media doesn’t have a filter of who sees what you post so it’s evening out the ratio slightly; but still there is a risk now that really has been taken out of any businesses hands.

The issue that this introduces is that one simple criticism can snowball and suddenly begin a #angrymob against your product or site in plain, public view. Many large companies in the past few years have invested in a social media department, which will monitor any bad press. If they get an online complaint, they will contact the disgruntled consumer directly and arrive at some agreement – off screen, preferably. This can quell small disputes but the public are scary and demand high standards. If your product or service has an issue it must be rectified – and fast. Bad online press for a company can be extremely damaging.

Like us, celebrities are also constantly promoting products, people and services online. Unknown to many, this free marketing is actually illegal. An example below; Kim Kardashian promoting both Reebok and Dicks Sports Co.

Image: www.dailymail.co.uk

This unashamed way of plugging and promoting other products is incredibly effective. No effort from the business or the celebrity has to be made; but still within seconds the exposure is global.

So where do business ethics come into this? It seems only the biggest and most prominent brands are getting the use of it. Many smaller companies must be a little disgruntled as they fight for space in this already overcrowded domain. But if there is the capacity to monitor this, who is responsible? The big companies are benefitting so obviously not them and what can the social media sites do to prevent it? This is something we may see unfold…

Another positive of e-wom is the exposure it gives to non-profit organisations such as charities. Big and small, global and local charities can set up accounts like any other business and get themselves recognised. I hope to see more emphasis and help for those who are trying to use social media to promote helping others.

Image: whitefusemedia.com

The instantaneous online world can be sporadic but using e-wom seems extremely effective for many businesses. It is proving, like any form of advertising that as long as you know your market, you can get positive results from putting yourself into the public domain and being talked about.

Do not be ignorant in the fact that if you get your product or business on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook that you can become complacent. Plant the right seeds at the right time, keep up to date and interactive and you will build an online presence.

It is clear that the most successful brands are using tried and tested business strategies and applying it in the world of social media. Use e-wom to propel your business into the online world, be careful of the risks, and refrain from being blasé – do your research and you will get the results.

Do you do your companies social media or do you use a management company?

Faye Cannon

Six Google+ Business Page Tips

Here are six steps to help your business grow in Google+ influence and in search engine results.

These steps will increase your chances of getting seen on Google+, and more importantly, help Google drive traffic to your page.
#1: Fill Out Your Page

The first thing you need to do is create a page for your business. For step-by-step directions, check out Kristi Hines’ How to Set Up a Google+ Page for Your Business.

As you’re setting up your business page, focus on using keywords as you fill out the Introduction in your Google+ page’s About section. Use both the keywords you want to rank high on and the keywords your customers are using.

And as you fill out this section, be sure to think about what would be attractive to your customers. The day Google opened business pages, Chris Brogan tweeted:
brag tweet

Read over your page and ask yourself if it's bragging about how great your business is or if it's engaging your customers.
#2: Add Links Throughout Your Page

Google+ business pages allow you to add links in lots of different places. Take advantage of it! You are able to create links in the Introduction section.

In the image below, you see examples of inserting links as phrases (like “fundraising training”), as a web page (like “FundraisingCoach.com”) or as a straight web link (like “http://fundraisingcoach.com/subscribe/).
google plus about page link opportunities

Help drive traffic to your own site by using all the link opportunities on your Google+ page.

These links will help you get found in searches. And more importantly, they will help customers go directly to your website.
#3: Make Use of the Hover Text

As with setting up personal Google+ profiles, you can influence what people see when they mouse over your business name in Google+. They might do this when searching on a topic or simply responding to a post.

So you’ll want to have a compelling, short tagline.
hover card

The tagline both explains your business and fills in the "hover card" on other parts of Google+.


google plus hover card

The extra words on this hover card come from the business' tagline on their Google+ page.

You can see that only the first five words of the tagline made it onto the hover card, so make them count!
#4: Promote Your Business Page Everywhere

One of the best ways to get people to follow your Google+ business page is to let them know you have one! In addition to putting the link in your email footer and on all of your other social media pages, you can add a badge to your site.

Google+ offers a way to make a badge. But a prettier way to make a badge is to use a site like Widgets Plus. This site allows for an impressive amount of customization.
Widget

Adding a badge to your site allows people to circle your business without having to go over to Google+.

Including an interactive badge helps people circle you while on your site. They don’t have to go to Google+ to do it. As soon as they circle you, they’ll be able to see your updates in their news feed.

Getting people to circle you is crucial. Being in more people’s circles, or having more Google+ followers, improves your position on regular Google searches.

And at this point, businesses can’t circle people until people have circled them first! You’ll want to be aggressive in telling people about your Google+ page so you’ll be able to share with them too.
#5: Get Your Employees on Google+

Because your posts are generally only seen by the people who’ve circled you, you want to encourage your employees to set up personal Google+ profiles. You can’t tell them how to use those profiles. But you can ask that they add your website as a link in their Links section. You should also ask them to share your business page and its posts with their friends.
#6: Be Interesting

Steps 1-5 set the foundation for Google+ dominance. But only interesting posts will keep you there. Unfortunately, interesting is defined by your customers. Here are some tips to make your posts interesting:

Experiment across platforms. Try posting the same updates on Facebook and Google+ and see where you get the better response. You’ll be surprised at how the followers interact differently.
Try posting your blog in Google+. If you already have a blog, rather than simply posting a link to it in Google+, try posting the text and the link in an update. Posts that take up more of someone’s news feed seem to gain more traction than the Twitter-like 140-character updates.
Use pictures and video. Pictures and video work incredibly well on Google+. People are far more interested in sharing images then straight text posts.
Be quirky. Google+ users are very interested in sharing and commenting on quirky posts. So if there’s any way for your business to do something quirky, it will help people become interested in you. One great example is this picture of a Crockpot from Jeremiah Owyang. Posted soon after Google+ opened, his question generated lots of conversation about food and workplaces.

quirky update

Being interesting on Google+ involves a willingness to be a bit quirky.

What could you ask your followers that would make your company seem more “human” and generate comments?
Google+ Is Open for Business

While still new, Google+ is open for business. And it will benefit your business both in search engine results and increased interaction with customers.