How To Be More Effective With Your Small Business Social Media Posts

It never fails, you received a free eBook and get excited to read about the latest, and best, way to utilised Social Media posting for your small business.  You hungrily tear through the information and then re-write your marketing plan to implement this new strategy only to receive entirely different information the next day, week, month, and so on.

Fortunately, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, thanks to CoSchedule.  In their great wisdom, they have put together information from a variety of reports to provide you with the last word in Social Media Post schedules.

We learned in school that there are many different time zones across the world with 4 time zones just in the U.S.A.  So, with clients spread from sea to shining sea, what are the best times to post on the various social media platforms?

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To decide this, we need to take into consideration where most of these clients are living.  According to Census records, 80% of those people living in the United States are found in the Eastern and Central time zones.  It would make sense, then, to focus our schedules on time as it is followed in those locations. If all your clients are in the UK, then posting for the GMT time zone would make more sense.

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How to Market Your Service Based Business

What is a Sales Promotion?

When selling a product, marketing usually comes fairly easy. Your marketing campaign revolves around the product for sale and how it can be used.

When you own a service-based business, the marketing may require a different approach. Instead of marketing product features, you have to market yourself and your team.  The good news is, people are always looking for reliable services, no matter the type.  You just need to make sure they find you and not your competitors.   Here are some techniques that will help you accomplish this.

Grab our free Social Media checklist and free marketing training here 

Connect with Your Own Community

Established local businesses have their own clientele.  And, they may only be able to handle a certain number of clients.  So, if you treat these businesses respectfully, they may refer clients to you when they are at their capacity.  A good way to connect with your community is to be involved with the local Rotary Club or Chamber of Commerce. These associations will connect you with other businesses that welcome assistance from a peer.

Use Social Media and Networking

Social Media Tips - Why you should use Images with your posts.

A Picture Is Worth A 1,000 Words, You Need Them In Your Posts

You've heard the saying "A picture is worth a thousand words". I'm sure there are quite a few pictures out there like that, but when it comes to a blog post, that isn't always the case. 

Even so, you want to make sure your posts are visually appealing and attention grabbing. And good pictures are a great way to accomplish that.

Grab our free Social Media checklist and free training here

A Picture Can Draw Readers In

A picture will draw readers in and make them read your blog posts. Don't believe me? Have a look at some of the major news sites, big blogs or even your Facebook feed. It's the pictures that grab your attention in combination with the post title.

Try to find an image that tells the story of your post. The image should tell at a glance (with the help of the post title) what the blog post is all about. Of course you're not limited to just one image. If it fits the topic, grab a few to illustrate what you're talking about or show step-by-step progress.

You Need Pictures For Social Media Shares 

Leverage the Organic Power of Facebook for your Online Marketing

I started out on Facebook just as almost everyone else did. I opened an account, started finding other friends on the site and start communicating with them mostly by - I guess you could call it - Blog posting as a lot of what Facebook is really about at its base is a social platform - a blog site.

I was starting an online business and my initial focus when getting going was to write some articles, publish them to get known and then build them into books and market them on Amazon-Kindle. I did not have much more of a strategy than that in the beginning - I had just always wanted to write and publish a book. A bucket list item.

Grab our free Social Media checklist and free training here

As I began to delve in further into the world of Facebook - and this spans time - over the last couple of years in fact - I became aware of just how powerful this platform really is from a business and product marketing perspective. And I have learned a lot about the platform to date - yet I am constantly learning more things I can do on it to further my brand awareness and even close sales right on the platform itself. With this in mind, I want to share with you some ideas for using Facebook that you may not have thought of. Here is an initial list of ideas to get you started.

How To Grow Your Small Business Using Instagram

Small Business marketing using Instagram

Instagram is an online mobile application that is used for sharing photos and videos. Instagram is following in the footsteps of Facebook and Twitter and has fast become a very popular social media tool. Instagram was originally developed so that people could apply different filters to photographs that they had taken on their mobile phones and would allow them to easily upload and share these photos with friends (or account followers) using the Instagram application. More recently video was introduced to Instagram it can now be uploaded, but Instagram video clips are limited to between 3 to 15 seconds long.

Why are businesses turning to Instagram?

• There are more than 300 million Instagram users worldwide.
• Approximately 70 million photos are uploaded per day.
• The account is 'free' to set up so there are low barriers to entry.
• It is a medium that allows for easy sharing of content 24 hours a day.
• What sort of success have businesses achieved using Instagram?
• Businesses such as Levis, L'oreal and hundreds of others have been able to use the tool to:
• To increase awareness of their products and services.
• To increase brand recognition.
• To showcase their community and pro bono work to inspire and attract prospective customers to engage with their product, service or brand.
• Run successful promotions, competitions and giveaways.

Grab our free Social Media checklist and free training here 

The Rise Of Instagram And What It Can Do For Your Business

Why use Instagram?

Since 2010, Instagram has proved itself to be the fastest growing social media platform around! It has a user base of around 300 million and that is set to rise further. So why is this seemingly simple app growing so quickly? Well it all comes down to creativity really, Instagram have found new ways of sharing content across its platform and making users experience more seamless. For example, Instagram stories were launched to rival Snapchat, allowing for users to provide disappearing pictures or videos.

Sounds simple right? Well that's because it is. Instagram now has more sway over all its users who may have been using Snapchat in tandem to its own app, reducing the need to use both and stream lining these users to its own services.

Grab our free Social Media checklist and free training here 

This aggressive tactic has paid off as Instagram has surpassed Snapchat in users. Instagram stories also encourage more sharing of content and giving it a chat element to its app, allowing it to compete with all the other direct messaging platforms. Innovation like this is the reason for Instagram's sudden growth.

What's all the fuss about Instagram?

3 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Starting an Online Business

Although making money online seems to be very appealing and quite enticing, there are traps that one must avoid otherwise you will be another business failure statistic. More than 50% of business start-ups will fail within its first 5 years. In other words, your chance of failure is greater than your chance of success. If the failure rate is so high, what makes one want to start an online business?

There are many reasons why. Maybe you are totally frustrated with your daytime job and you feel trapped. You want to get out of the Rat Race. Maybe you are tired of working for someone else and it is time for you to be your own boss. Maybe you just lost your job and you have nowhere else to turn. Whatever the reason, an option of starting an online business has crossed your mind, otherwise you would not be reading this article. Let me make one thing clear. Starting an online business requires work.

Create an online business - grab our free Social Media checklist and free training here 

If anyone tells you otherwise don't believe them, run the other way.

If you want to start an online business allow me to share with you 3 common mistakes to avoid when starting an online business.

Rocking Twitter for Your Business

Twitter may seem like an enigma to you but if that is true, it is time for you to get to know how to use it and to embrace all that it has to offer because its potential is vast.

There are the basics and then there are the advanced features 

If you run a business, you probably have some sense that Twitter is a great, effective way to communicate although it limits those communications to 140 characters (with spaces) per tweet. You may be surprised at how effectively you can communicate with such a limit.

You may have a good understanding of the way Twitter basically works. However, at the same time, you may not be aware of all of its capabilities. Once you learn about them, you may be able to take advantage of those advanced features for great benefit to your business.

• Build Twitter lists: When it comes to business, lists are a critical organisational tool that no business person can do without. One important, advantageous list that you will want to build through Twitter is your influencer list. Not only should you list the influencers on your list but you should also add a place where you can make notes about what the influencers want to know. If you have a capability of answering his or her questions, you will be able to build a relationship that will be solid and enduring. The truth is that communications via Twitter seem to move very quickly. That means that there is a danger of your losing some of the information (or some of the information falling through the cracks). However, if you have captured important information in your list, it will be exactly where you want it and where you can access it at any time. Twitter lists are an extremely powerful tool and, surprisingly, fewer people take advantage of that feature than you might expect.

• Get involved in Twitter discussions: 

Getting Started on Twitter for Your Business

How to Set Your Profile, Make Connections, and Start Expanding Your Business Exposure Through Twitter

July is Twitter Month for us so for those already using Twitter for their business stay tuned for more 'how tos' and tips on using Twitter for business!

For those of you who haven't braved the Twitter social media waters quite yet, this article will provide compelling reasons why you should use Twitter for business and then dive into how to set up your profile and how to get started building your following on Twitter.

Why Use Twitter For Your Business? 

10 Proven Ways to Increase Your Facebook Likes

Whether for personal or business purposes, one of the main goals of most Facebook users is to garner more likes and reactions. This article will outline 10 simple ways to increase the amount of likes for any post.

1. Keep Your Page Updated

It is important to note that keeping your page updated is not synonymous with spamming your Facebook followers. Getting more exposure on social media by posting periodically will result in more likes, reacts and even comments. However, posting too often is quite, frankly, annoying. As a result, your friends will literally like your post less, which translates to Facebook likes too!

2. Filtering

You can and should choose what you share on Facebook. If you have a Facebook page that you are updating correctly, but the content is lacking, you may still find yourself not reaching your goal of likes. Ask yourself: What is the point of this post? A post will have more of an impact if the meaning behind it is clear to its audience, whether its intention is to be funny, touching or thought-provoking.

Struggling to manage your social media? Free 30 day trial with Hootsuite will save you time ow.ly/Eebl308BwId

Marketing Successfully With Facebook

Which social media channels work most effectively for your business? If you are like a lot of other business people, Facebook is probably among the list of your most used social media channels. However, do you think that you are leveraging Facebook for all that it can offer your business?

Some of your Facebook efforts will work and some will not 

The fact is that Facebook has a lot of power and possibilities behind it when it comes to business. Additionally, Facebook has been around for quite a while and it has gained respect among business people. Of course, the Facebook of today is not the Facebook of yesterday. In the beginning, Facebook was used pretty exclusively by college students to communicate easily among them. However, nowadays, Facebook is used by millions of for all sorts of purposes.

The truth is that Facebook holds tremendous potential when it comes to content marketing but you need to have a clear understanding of which aspects of the social media channel will work effectively for your business and which ones will not. Because each business is different, it is important to really wrap your mind around the particular needs of your business. Some of the aspects of Facebook that may serve your business very well are:

• Posting on a regular basis: 

7 Ways to Increase Traffic Using Social Media

Social media is huge and growing. There are groups, fanpages, company pages and your own personal page that you can use to engage with your target audience. The following 7 tricks, tips and techniques have been proven to increase the amount of traffic you get from large social sites and more: Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn and other social media sites are just a few of the popular sites and should be considered when producing material for publication.

1 - Automate the Process

Automated social media engagement is possible through HootSuite (free and paid) and IFTTT. They put your marketing on autopilot, and when you are consistently in the face of your audience, your traffic tends to improve. There are other paid software options that you can use to expand your reach that you may or may not find of benefit.

Free 30 Trial with Hootsuite - Click here.

An Incredible Guide to Use Social Media for Business

Remember how "Paper Boat" created a mass engaging campaign on social media last year? It actually made them become one of the brightest stars of the startups in India. Not only the newbies, but the well-known companies like Make My Trip, AirBnB and Nike plus Social awareness groups like Deepika Padukone's Live Love Laugh Foundation used the power of Social Media to create ripples on the World Wide Web. If used in a right manner, Social Media can give a massive upsurge to your business.

Let us see how: Using Digital Media is an inexpensive deal. If your brand is cool, it can get cooler with the hype you can get on Social media. Considering the rise of internet usage in India, we are adopting the digital trends with a really fast pace. So, it has become really essential to have a digital profile.

Make sure to use these Social Media tips in your campaigns:

6 Tips to Enhance Your Brand Reputation Through Social Media

Whenever you start your new product or service and want to sell, gain subscribers, persuade followers to a point or sway the hearts and minds of readers to your cause your customers need to know you at the first place. To do so you need to have a brand image and you can encourage your brand only through its authority.

Creating brand awareness could be a foundation stone of successful marketing. To do so social media is used as rapidly evolving ideal messengers. Now it's on you how you merge your product & services with effective social media strategy. In fact, recent reports shows that 71% of brands are planning to invest much more in social media in the coming year to get new followers and to do brand reputation.

Below are the facts which will help you to improve your brand reputation through social media

1. Choose a social platform which supports your product image 

8 Golden Success Secrets for Small Businesses

Running a small business is as challenging as trekking to Mt. Everest without having oxygen cylinder, prior practice, and a valid map guide. The challenges are only because there are no authentic rules that can lead a small business towards success while other major obstacles comprise: low budget, limited manpower, and lack of efficient resources. But as a small business owner, you must delve into the pass-codes that help you decode the secret patterns of operating a successful startup or small business. It not only helps you to sustain your current growth but also excel your business planning's to achieve higher objectives. There are a few suggestions based on real-world experiences, which can assist you to hit the bull's eye.

1- Utilise the power of social media:

Nowadays, the entire world revolves around social media and if you are able to use its full potential, it can immediately help you increase your sales and brand reputation with very minimum resource and effort. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, help you connect with a large scale of users, where you can directly interact with them, thereby allowing you to convert them into your potential clients. It forms a two-way channel that not only allows you to put your message across but also, listen to what your targeted audience want, which eventually goes a long way in improving and growing your business.

2- Research and analyse your competition:

5 Twitter Marketing Tricks You Might Not Know!

Can you remember a time before Twitter? It's hard for me, because it seems as if I've been on there forever. I've operated an online business ever since the Internet became a thing, and started using Twitter in February 2008, just a couple of years after it launched (March 2006). While I didn't make the most use of it back then, I've hung in there. My very first tweet was "I'm opening a Twitter account." Today it's a major part of my social media marketing strategy.

Twitter, in my opinion, is one of the most amazingly powerful marketing tools - ever. Just plain ever. 

Think about it. Twitter is wide open, unlike Facebook, which comes with its privacy settings, and other issues (like how it decides your content should be distributed). Twitter allows you to deliver your marketing message 24/7, directly to the people searching for your products and services. (Hello, hashtag!)

But there are several Twitter features many business owners don't seem to be making the most out of. The following are five of my favourite Twitter marketing tips. The good news? You can start using all of them today!

Small Business Marketing: 4 Social Media Metrics Tools

One of the reasons businesses use social media is for lead generation. For this reason, marketing tools are available to measure the return on investment (ROI). There is a host of tools to help companies reach their prospect goals such as Google Analytics, Hootsuite and Bit.ly. Like all online marketing strategies, social media requires knowledge and time to implement successfully.

There are some tools that measure all online marketing activities including website, referral traffic, return or new visitors and gender of the visitors that mostly read a site's content. I will start with one of the most popular measuring tools - Google Analytics.

5 Simple Tips For Profiting From Facebook

Facebook has become an integral part of our lives. On any given day a huge percentage of the world's population will find themselves logging in, spending a few minutes or hours) checking on the goings on of their friends, family, and even favourite businesses, authors, and thought leaders.

So the question is, with all this activity on Facebook, have you found an effective way to build a fan page that not only bring in followers, but also leads them to becoming buyers? Have you found a way to profit from it for your business?

If not, or if you've only begun to explore the depths of what you can do on Facebook, then check out these tips on stepping up your game: 

TIP 1 ­ Build a community around you and your business

The Best Social Media Platforms to Use in Your Business

How does one establish the best social media platforms to use in business?

As a company owner, your action plan is potentially never ending, so adding social media administration to your ever growing list of priorities can appear to be somewhat daunting.

There are a number of very distinctive platforms that are available to you and it often seems close to impossible to find the time to be able to engage and start using them all.

But the crucial point to remember is that one does not need to be on them all!

With only a limited amount of time and resources, your first task is to find out the social media platforms that will be of direct benefit to your business. In order to see, which would be the most appropriate for you, here is a quick guide as to what you should look out for. But first do need to decide if you really need to be on Social Media in the first place? That question should be a no brainer!

15 Infallible Ways to Increase Your Followers in Different Social Media Platforms in an Instant

Social Media has become a global phenomenon which has made millions and millions of people worldwide to be engrossed in its use, but for a social media page to be a booming success especially in the world of entrepreneurship; one has to exhaust all the efforts to attract loyal followers. Here are some of the most valuable recommendations on how to make this possible:

1. Market Yourself

Obviously, the very first thing to do is to encourage and persuade people to follow you and what best way to do this is simply to "ask them to follow you". This could be effectively done by making your page available in social media pages so social media aficionados will no longer take too much time to look for your profile. This can be done in ways such as: