Small businesses have many opportunities to increase online visibility and be found by their ideal customers if they just know where to focus. Since most of us have minimal resources to call upon, we need to be smart when selecting online marketing activities that deliver the best results for our efforts. Remember that marketing is an investment, not an expense, therefore invest wisely to achieve the greatest ROI.
Small business owners ask me a lot of Facebook marketing questions, so I decided to compile the 10 most often asked questions and answer them in an eBook specifically for small business owners. These most popular questions include: Should my business be on Facebook? What does it mean to market my business using Facebook? What’s the difference between a Personal Profile, a Business Page and a Business Account? Why do I need a Facebook Page for my business? What is the best way to drive traffic to my Page? Why do I need an email list when I have a community of Facebook fans? When and how often should I post on our Page? What content should I post? When […]
I recently presented a workshop at the New England Business Brokers Association meeting about how to integrate online and social media marketing for lead generation. As professional service business owners, we build our credibility by demonstrating our expertise and knowledge of our discipline and the use of social media makes building your reputation much simpler than before. As a small business owner, how you approach online marketing can make the difference between a successful campaign and an overwhelming exercise. Learning how to use online marketing to drive visitors to your Website and generate leads is going to impact your marketing and ultimately the success of your business. Lead Generation: What Works Today from Masterful Marketing (more…)
Is One More Successful than the Other? I consistently get asked by small business owners if they should be doing social media marketing to help them grow their business. Before I answer their question, I usually ask them if they understand who their ideal client is and where they hang out. Of course I get that “doe in the headlights” look followed by “no but I should be doing social media marketing”. If you assume you need a Facebook Business Page because you’ve “heard” that you should have one to market your business, you need to step back and understand some marketing fundamentals so that you make the right choices for your business. For a business to develop a quality […]
You’ve developed your social media marketing plan, created your profiles, provided quality, relevant content and attracted followers, friends, fans and connections. Now that you have your growing communities, how do you keep them as raving fans and ultimately turn them into clients or customers? Building a community requires you to both nurture the members so they remain in your community and engage them so they participate. People who participate in a community find their experience more satisfying and rewarding. (more…)
There is wide-spread confusion about the difference between a Facebook Profile and a Facebook Page and how to effectively use them. I’ve recently had a few friend invitations from profiles using business names. Creating a profile in a business name is frowned upon by Facebook and you run the risk of having your account warned or disabled. A Facebook Profile is not a Facebook Page Facebook Personal Profiles The name should tell it all. Your Personal Profile is the regular user account that you log into when you sign in to Facebook. It contains your friends and your interactions on the site. Profiles can only be used to represent an individual and must be held under an individual name. Plus you can […]
I have always been about quality. I know a lot of people, but value my few close friends. When it comes to clothes, I would rather have one quality, custom outfit than a dozen that were just ok. And when it comes to social media, I want to build a quality network of people rather than a massive list of names. The first step in building a community is to develop relationships with people who have similar interests to yours and then engage in conversations, offering something of value and interest to them. My goal is to build my networks strategically. I don’t add followers, friends or connections just because I can. I add quality people that have some personal or […]
The United States Golf Association (USGA), of which I have been a member for years, launched a tribute to Arnold Palmer for his 80th birthday. It seems like just yesterday that I kept score for Arnie when one of the first PGA Senior Tour event was held at my home course of Marlborough Country Club. In honor of his birthday, the USGA is creating the Arnold Palmer Memory Book. According to an article on Mashable, the site is powered by private label social network provider KickApps. The site allows users to share their personal memories of Arnie, telling stories via pictures, video or text. Stories range from professional golfers sharing their memories to sports fans reminiscing of their 30 seconds […]
In a recent Business Week Viewpoint article called “Beware Social Media Marketing Myths”, Gene Marks highlights what he feels are 5 myths of social media marketing that small business owners should be aware of. Although all 5 of these statements as he describes are myths, I believe this article is misleading to readers on the value of using social media as a channel to build visibility and awareness for your business and personal brand. So let me weigh in on these 5 myths of social media marketing. Myth 1. Social media sites are free Reality: This statement is not a myth but a gross understatement of the value of social media. There is a significant cost in time which is an issue if […]
As you get more active in social media, one of the things you will notice is the increase in email notifications from the various tools. Having these emails flood your inbox is both distracting and cumbersome to manage.
