How To Successfully Market Your Business Over Social Media

Social Media has rapidly spread into the lives of hundreds of millions of people over the past few years and continues to flourish. Facebook has roughly 750 million users who spend nearly 700 billion minutes per month on its site, while Twitter adds nearly 500,000 new users per day (according to Jeff Bullas, a digital marketing and social media consultant). It is no mystery that social media and digital marketing hold enormous potential and can greatly benefit small businesses now, and in the future.

So, while there are millions of Facebook and Twitter pages, not many have strong interactive followings. Celebrities and premier athletes may have huge followings, but how should a small business approach social media?  Here are a few simple ways to better your company page and increase its effectiveness.

Stand Out/Be Memorable

• A business fan page on Facebook allows your customers or fans to “like” your business and receive your updates via their news feed every time they log in. 
• So, create a unique persona.  This is not as hard as it sounds as there are lots of ways to stand out. For example, if a flower shop has an interesting logo or a unique flower they are known for; they should exploit this quality to make themselves stand out. Take Experian as an example.  The FreeCreditScore band that we introduced in commercials and via social media years ago provides tremendous recognition and awareness to our target consumer audience.  With FreeCreditScore.com fan pages on Facebook and Twitter, consumers engage with us and with each other generating greater loyalty and engagement.  The feedback from our social media followers was so great that it even influenced us to bring back the original band (coming back 6/18/12). Effectively engaging your customers through social media may help drive you marketing and product decisions as well.    
• Take risks.  Although the FreeCreditScore band is sometimes goofy and unorthodox, they are a highly recognizable symbol for the professional quality and premier service Experian’s personal credit scoring and identity services offer. Social media is a way to let your customers experience a different side of you than they would see in traditional media. 

Mobilize Customers

• Word of Mouth continues to be one of the most important methods for small businesses to promote themselves. Yet most business owners say finding ways to drive word of mouth is one of their most difficult marketing tasks. Social Media presents an ideal opportunity in this area.Twitter’s popularity is growing rapidly, and many small businesses have already jumped on board. Businesses can use Twitter to push brief messages to their ‘followers’ or for customer service.  When customers like what you wrote, they ‘retweet’ your message to their followers, reply to it and create a dialogue with you, or favourite a tweet to show they liked your message. A great tweet can be sent again and again and again, increasing your audience many times over.
• So, find a way to engage your customers. For instance, Experian has also used the FreeCreditScore band as an entertaining twitter channel.  Responding to followers remarks and getting them to interact with each other is a great way to spread your message.  For example, when the FreeCreditScore band performs live, this creates a perfect opportunity to invite followers to attend the outing or post about it on our page later. All of this benefits Experian.  So, whether it’s connecting with a community cause, creating your own event, or running a special at your store, you should broadcast it over social media because of amazing viral word of mouth effect.

Ask Questions/Create Incentives

• Asking questions can be an effective technique to engage your customers and begin a dialogue.  “Who wants a free copy of the next bestseller arriving in my bookstore Monday?  Retweet this message and it could be you!” gets your posts spread across Twitter for many people to see, adding value to your small business page.
• Asking for feedback can also be an effective way to build a larger following. Posting statuses or tweets such as “Does anyone think I should run a contest to design my new store sign?” gives the intended audience a sense that your business cares about consumer’s thoughts and opinions, and lets them know their voice is being heard. The more responses you receive, the more “buzz” you are generating about your business and creating excitement about what will come in the future.
• Offering incentives is a tried and true marketing tactic. Many social media users even expect businesses to make them a special offer.  One great advantage of extending offers through social media is you can now use your customer’s networks to spread that offer. For example, posting “The first 10 people to like this tweet will get a free pizza at our grand reopening this Saturday” creates a buzz that can be contagious and will get followers keeping their eyes open for your posts in the future. Recipients will forward to their friends so that they can take advantage of the offer. 

There is no doubt that creating and sustaining an engaging business page on Twitter or Facebook can pay huge dividends and put you on the right track.   Good luck!

Citations MLA Format

“20 Stunning Social Media Statistics Plus Infographic.” Social Media Marketing and Blogging. Web. 05 June 2012. <http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/09/02/20-stunning-social-media-statistics/>.

“3 Ways to Supercharge Fan Engagement on Facebook.” Entrepreneur. Web. 05 June 2012. <http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/223701>.

What is everyone talking about? Being involved in social media marketing, doesn’t mean you should be talking about what you ate for lunch. After all, this is an important marketing tool for your business. Leave the personal stuff for your personal pages or accounts.

1. Things that are compelling or interesting enough to make people want to check back and see what you post next.
2. Important information that attracts people to your store, blog, or website.
3. Call-to-action items that gets people to vote, buy or tell their friends.

Some examples:

Photos: Try pictures of new products in your business, new items on your menu or even a new customer giving your business a thumbs-up.

Video: Think short videos. People aren’t looking for long instructional videos on social media, so save those for your website. Instead, post a cool announcement from the owner or a short testimonial from a satisfied customer.

Contests: Everyone loves a contest! Announce a contest you’re holding and don’t forget to keep the contestants updated with the results.

Surveys & Polls: Asking a simple question can engage your followers and fans. You can even ask about a specific service or product in your business to get their feedback. Make sure you post the results!

Announcements: Let your followers know about any new products or services, menu items, partnerships, events, sales or even milestones you’re proud of!

How much time have you wasted going round and round on solutions that just didn’t work? Or what about a mix and match business strategy? Where you do a little bit of this and little bit of that, does it really work out in the end?  I mean for a business, or any dream for that matter, to work we can’t just care a little bit, we have to go all in. Likewise, we can’t manage a little bit or market a little bit – we have to go all in. They’re fundamental to our business.

Here are some quick marketing lessons learned the hard way that could same you real time and real money. And you know what they say about time . . .

Lesson #1: Do the work and then do it again. 

You have to do the work to create a great product. And then you have to turn around and do the work again to create a smart marketing strategy and management solutions. Having a great product doesn’t excuse poor management or weak marketing.

Lesson #2: Website strategy shouldn’t be an afterthought. 

Every website is not the same. Some are like brochures; they just lay there until someone stumbles across it and picks it up. But others are like the energizer bunny; they just keep going and going and going. The owner creates new and relevant content and marketing campaigns that go out gets attention and visits. The energizer bunny website goes to work (just like you).

Lesson #3: Make my website simple please.

You don’t have to design your own website. You can put your energy into something else while you pay an expert to create it for you.  But in the end you still want something with a login, so that you or a member of your team can change the text, plus add a few videos when you want to. Beware of designer hijacked websites.

Lesson #4: One time around the marketing block is never enough. 

Just like we all want more than one client, then we have to market more than one time. Consistent marketing is a about a systematic approach, not a random collection of hodge-podge solutions.

It’s hard to implement 15 marketing ideas at once, especially when you’re learning at the same time. It’s difficult to remember what everybody told you. But it’s easy to choose one strategy, study it, implement it and then start another.

The key to growing a healthy business in a tough economy is to have a base of repeat customers providing a steady stream of revenues. As a small business owner, having a loyalty program can set your company apart from the competition.  Below are several strategies you can initiate to foster more customer loyalty.  (Remember, good old-fashioned customer service is what can differentiate your business from the big guys.)

Offer a cash discount. Credit card processing fees can eat into your profits. Let your customers know that if they pay with cash, you will pass the savings on to them. Gas stations have routinely done this, typically offering discounts such as 10 cents less per gallon. Now, restaurants, dry cleaners and other service businesses are getting in on the action, offering flat or percentage-based discounts.   (If you offer a cash incentive, make sure to note it in marketing materials and on your website and social media profiles.)

Get your game on. There’s a new factor in mobile loyalty programs: fun. “Gamification” is the latest wave in customer retention, allowing businesses to extend their reach and to better monetize their websites.  Location-based social media platform Foursquare gives merchants the chance to reward frequent customers who “check in” via the service to become “mayors.” Other mobile gaming programs, such as SCVNGR, allow consumers to win prizes at participating locations by completing challenges, such as posting a photo of their meal to Facebook. Prizes may include free goods or discount codes.

These games do more than foster loyalty; they encourage user engagement and social media activity—essential for building your brand. The word of mouth on your company’s fun-factor alone can help drive more sales and repeat business.

Implement a card-based loyalty program. One of the simplest and cheapest ways to reward your customers is to print up a punch card offering a free gift after a certain number of purchases. Coffee, sandwich and frozen-yogurt shops; nail salons; car washes; and recreational businesses all use such enticements.

Go digital. Punch cards too retro? Consider digital loyalty programs. These not only reward your customers, they help you by automatically keeping track of sales information and offering insight into spending patterns.

New mobile services are integrating loyalty programs with QR codes. Some companies provide customers with a personal QR code, tied to a credit card account, that they can scan to make payments at participating merchants, receiving credit dollars that can be applied to future purchases. With other services, QR codes are printed on receipts and can be scanned by consumers using a free app, enrolling them in loyalty programs. QR codes allow customers to interact with their rewards accounts and engage with your brand online, and they allow you to create customized rewards based on consumer preferences.

Support your community. Box-store weary consumers are now more eager to patronize their local small businesses. Do your part by utilizing local vendors and products. You may want to institute a reciprocal program with a nearby business to use each other’s goods or services and to note the relationship in advertising, signage or marketing materials—letting customers know that their purchase supports not just your business, but the community at large.

Follow up with a call. A follow-up phone call after a service visit or major purchase will always be appreciated; it lets your customers know that they remain a priority even after the work is completed and the bill is paid. Thank them for their business, inquire if your work or product met with their satisfaction and ask if they have questions or if there’s anything else they need. Just think of the minute or two you spend on the phone as an investment in future sales.

Send a note. Luxury retailers have been doing it for years: sending handwritten thank-you notes to regular clients. It’s an effort that makes customers feel special and will keep them coming back to you. A personal email may work, but a handwritten note has more impact.

The little things matter. Ask for your customers’ mailing address or email when you see them, add an email sign-up link to your website, or put out a bowl for business cards, offering some small prize in return. You might also ask customers to fill out a form with contact information, product preferences and date of birth. Send a note after a significant purchase and on major holidays and birthdays. Just remember: Your customers have entrusted you with their personal information—don’t abuse the privilege. Keep your correspondence significant and to a minimum, and make it clear that you won’t resell names or data.

Shaping Your Product/Service

Customer feedback is probably one of the best ways to make your business successful. Think of it like this; through negative feedback, you can shape your product/service into something you know the market will love.

Most people think that bad feedback comes from people they have never even done business with, or with some of their ‘bad’ clients, so they decide to ignore it. This is, in fact, a complete myth; most of the negative feedback you will get will be from some of your most loyal customers. Not because they want to put you down; because they want to remain your best customers.

Think of it like this; ‘bad’ customers, if they encounter a problem of flaw with your product/service, they will simply move on to the next company who will solve this problem for them. Whereas for a loyal customer, they want to tell you about the problem, hoping that you will fix it and they can remain customers of yours.

Think of it like this; customer feedback is a free way to conduct market research. Your clients will tell you how they want their product/service. They will tell you about any problems they have; although you may have to prompt them to do so; perhaps through a quiz of survey.

Free Marketing

Well, who would say no to some free marketing? Quite a few businesses actually, so it seems! Customer feedback, when it is good, can be used in a multitude of ways, the obvious one being testimonials.

Every time you get some good feedback, you should ask the client if you can use it as a testimonial on your website, leaflets, sales letters; anything which you send to a prospective client. Likewise, when you get bad feedback, you should act upon it immediately, because it really will result in not only your product/service getting better, but perhaps some more business!

Think about it; if you had a problem with a company that you bought from, and you complained about the problem then it was solved, how much more likely would you be to talk about that than just receiving a product and there being absolutely no flaws to it?

Starr Hall posted her blog on February 6th, 2012.  Read more here.

As Facebook continues to enhance its fan page options, businesses are not only struggling to keep up with the changes, but they also are still trying to figure out how to brand and market their pages. Because of some of the changes, strategies you used just last month to increase your “likes” and interactions with fans may not be as effective.

Here are a few quick branding fixes that will make it easier for prospects to find you, as well as some tips on getting more fans–or what I prefer to call interested prospects.

No.1 – Brand the URL. If your fan page URL is still set with a bunch of numbers, you are making it harder for prospects to find you and missing out on a branding opportunity. Facebook recently lifted the requirement that you get 25 “likes” before you can name your fan page URL. Now, all you need to do is go to www.facebook.com/username and set your name in the URL, which is great for branding purposes and easy link referrals. For example, instead of www.facebook.com/1283743hreu818, my link is now www.Facebook.com/StarrHalldotcom.

Related: New Tools to Create a Facebook Fan Page

No.2 – Name your page appropriately. Once you reach 100 friends, you cannot change the title of your page, so make sure you choose wisely from the start. Your brand name is the ideal title to make it easy for people to find your page when they search. You still can change the title if you have less than 100 likes by going to edit page, selecting Basic Information from the menu at left, changing the text in the Name field, and saving your edits.

No. 3 – Take prospects to a welcome tab, not your wall. When you send people to your fan page and have them land on your Wall, your posts probably won’t be enough to entice them to “like” you. Posts are just you talking. Even if you’re giving valuable information, prospects need a reason to be your fan. Instead of having them land on your Wall, set up a welcome tab. A welcome tab can include a greeting and an enticement, such as an e-book or video series, to encourage visitors to become fans. Such sites as woobox.com offer free trials and step-by-step tutorials to help you customize your page, including tabs.

Related: Understanding the Value of a Facebook Fan

No. 4 – Engage potential fans. You need to offer something that will engage people. For instance, you can use Facebook applications to create a poll or launch a game. These can be located on your welcome tab. Wildfireapp.com, for instance, provides a free trial so you can navigate its engagement applications. If you decide to use its programs, services start at $5 and go up from there, depending on which tools you use. SocialUps, a company that specializes in creating games for fan pages, starts at $300. One of SocialUps’ most recent game apps was launched at www.facebook.com/vitalyte, a fan page for Vitalyte Nutrition Products that was started three months ago and now has nearly 100,000 followers. The downside of some gaming applications is that they can gain access to your page and randomly post messages.

Related: Is Facebook Advertising for You?

No. 5 – Check market insights. Is Facebook Advertising for You? Recent enhancements to fan page analytics make it easier to know your prospects, including their sex, age and where they live. Also, you can see which posts they like best and follow a viral report showing if they did something on your page that their friends could see. Such viral activity extends your reach to friends of friends. However, this option only allows you to see that your fans are talking about you to other people; it doesn’t share information about whom they’re sharing with.

Facebook fan pages are quickly turning into Facebook websites and interactive business tools. With access to millions of prospects, it’s important to brand your page well, make it easy to find and keep the content up-to-date and engaging.

Starr Hall

Starr Hall is an international speaker, author, publicist and social networking expert. She’s the CEO of StarrHall.com, a consulting and training company based in Avila Beach, Calif.

Your company will always have haters, those unhappy customers who go out of their way to trash your product, service or customer service at every opportunity. They often find their way onto social media, thanks to the low barrier of entry and promise that any invisible comment can find its way onto the highly visible first page of Google results. But such negativity can actually be good for your business. Here’s why:

They highlight points of vulnerability. Look past the hurtful comments and ask yourself: Do the haters have a point? While they’re reacting in an unconstructive way, a genuine grievance might drive their rage. Addressing that flaw only strengthens your company.

Their minds can be changed. Most of your haters won’t harbor deep rooted or long term animosity. Perhaps they felt slighted by customer service, or misled by a salesperson. If you can find a way to fix that experience and make it right, that same person can be transformed into your biggest advocate.

They validate your social media efforts. Let’s say you’ve spent a lot of time building relationships on Facebook and Twitter. If a disgruntled customer starts hating on your brand, there’s a good chance loyal customers will rise to your defense. Observers will see the complaints—but they’ll also see the rebuttals.

They keep people talking about your brand. It’s not that any publicity is good publicity. But if you find a way to take control of the conversation, you’ll wind up with positive publicity you wouldn’t otherwise have.

Welcome your company’s haters—and use their agitation to fuel positive change.

We regularily publish white papers, tip books, interviews with small business experts and research on industry-relevant topics and issues you may find useful for your business.

Be sure to visit our Small Business resource document library and download the various documents you’re interested in.

It’s not about one marketing piece, it’s about the whole thing. To be effective, your business needs a presence both offline and online. It needs to use print and digital marketing tools. It needs both advertising (paid) and publicity (free). It’s the marketing mix that gets and keeps your company message “out there” in front of your target audience.

Here are five marketing mix tips to seriously consider and implement:

1. Brochures & Business Cards
Print marketing items are not dead yet. Sometimes our technology doesn’t work like it should, and having that business card and brochure as a backup could save your marketing opportunity. Besides, there are a lot of people who just need to have something in their hands in order to remember you, so give it to them. Have your calling card ready.

2. LinkedIn
Use this business social network as an extended business card. As people hear your name around the Web and at conferences, there is a good chance that they will check you out on LinkedIn So fill out that profile and link it back to your website.

3. Website & Blog
Your website is your digital home, so make it count. Let them know who you are, what you do, and how it could benefit them. And then solve a problem for free by answering a question that your target audience would care about. You could turn that answer into a little ebook or white paper for download, or make it a blog post. Just make sure it’s something that truly helps, because you’re building a relationship, and “fluff and foolishness” is not good for business.

4. Press Releases
Use press releases to let the local media know about your business and upcoming campaigns. Your company probably has some awesome events, but nobody cares if they don’t have a chance to know about it.

5. Email
It’s about the relationship, and email is one of the most enduring ways to build that relationship, so take the time to grow your list. For a beginner most of the initial work is in getting the code and placing it on your Web pages. But the email service that you use should have a guide or “how to” page showing you what to do. Once the code for your email subscription form is in place on your site, then you can begin to focus on what to send your subscribers each week or month. Remember, it’s disciplined and consistent marketing and marketing messages that makes the difference.

Just remember, it’s about consistency and the total marketing package. It’s up to you to believe in your business—and to get the message out.

We have all heard the old adage that half of all advertising dollars are wasted; the problem lies in figuring out which half. The numbers become even more interesting (or alarming) when one examines the typical response rates for conventional (and unconventional) media.

Most direct marketers are happy to achieve a response rate of 1 percent to 2 percent — or 2 percent to 4 percent if they include a telemarketing component. That means the recipients discard 98 percent to 99 percent of their materials without a second thought. The results for brand marketing or advertising bring even more frustration to marketers and business owners alike, mainly because consumers’ perceptions about brands are so difficult to quantify. Yet, every business, especially a startup, needs marketing to survive and thrive. So what can an entrepreneur do?

- Focus on generating leads over building a brand. Leads bring customers to your door. Then their experience of your product or service, as well as the reputation you develop for customer service and delivery, will build your brand.

- Create materials that properly sell your product or service and allow you to track responses. The difference between response-driven marketing and branding-oriented marketing is that you can track, test and measure the first type and adjust it until it is right for your business.

Why is it so important to track, test, and measure? You need to establish baseline performance numbers for your business in your particular category of business and then to try to improve upon them. This is very difficult to do. Even professional marketers find it hard to “move the needle” when it comes to measuring customer response. If you focus, though, on two metrics that most others do not, you can work your marketing and advertising in new and more profitable ways.

- Figure out a lifetime value for every new customer. That is, how much the average customer will spend at your company over the course of the business relationship.

- Calculate the customer acquisition cost: the amount you spend to acquire a new client for your company. You never want to pay more for a new customer than you absolutely must; and you are striving for this person to eventually spend more than the initial acquisition cost so that your marketing is profitable.

For lifetime value, simply come up with a guesstimate for the value of a typical sale to a customer (say, $200). Multiply it by the number of times annually he or she will buy products (say, three times) and multiply that by the number of years the typical customer does business with you (say, three years).
The result (in the above example, $200 X 3 X 3 = $1,800) gives you an indication of the importance of setting up a repeat-business program that not only raises the amount that a person buys and the number of shopping occasions, but also extends the length of time he or she remains a customer.

For the acquisition cost, if you spend $1,000 on an ad and pull 100 people in the door, you are paying $10 for each lead. But if only 10 people make purchases, you are shelling out $100 for each sale (10 X $10=$100).

The above example demonstrates the value of boosting the rate of converting leads into actual sales, as well as targeting a level of return (at least $100) so that your campaign breaks even — or brings in more so that your efforts truly profit.

What’s key is to use actual numbers from your own company’s experience and business category to help you make better decisions about spending your precious marketing resources.
Here are five additional tips to help you focus your thinking to generate a better response from your marketing and more return on your investment:

1. Define marketing differently. One of the simplest interpretations is to consider it communication and education. You are communicating to customers or prospects on a regular basis with actionable, sales-oriented information about your business, product, or service.

2. Adopt the mindset that you’re not advertising; you’re buying customers. Consider your efforts a way to purchase for your business the best customers possible – just like Billy Beane did in Moneyball. That means you always market and advertise with the expectation of realizing a return in the form of new leads. If this is not your result, end your campaign and move on. But if the new leads materialize and customers purchase your products, then you have the basis for a winning campaign.

3. Realize nothing has really happened until a sale occurs. You might have a great logo, a slick business card, exceptional letterhead, a killer website, and all the other props of a company, but you don’t have a real business until you net customers and sales. So orient everything you do to realizing leads, sales, and repeat business — especially the latter, which is where your profits and growth will lie over time.

4. Rely on the formula: “Target, Offer, and Copy.” Define your ideal, perfect customer. Then target that customer again and again with benefits-oriented offers (“what’s in it for them”) and marketing work that supports your sales message. Then measure the results. Profiling your ideal customer (through demographics and psychographics) and discovering the media to best target that client will keep your focus laser-like. This process alone will help you eliminate most media or at least limit your choices. Or if you plan to purchase radio or TV ads, you will be able to weed out the stations or programs inappropriate for your target.

5. Test any new marketing medium first. I have seen some startups set aside $50,000 or $100,000 for an ad budget and then fork it all out for a single media campaign. It’s better to take $5,000 or $10,000 and experiment first. That way, you will have enough resources left in a contingency fund to try something else if the first effort does not work. Plus, your company will be able to survive an ineffective campaign.