Ten Tips to Help You Succeed with Social Media

by Jill Hart and Diane Ennen, Virtual Word Publishing

It’s official. Social media is here to stay.  It’s not a fad like so many initially thought and it isn’t going anywhere soon. Businesses have realized that not only is it a great way to connect with current clients, but a great way to land potential clients as well.  And that’s only the beginning. Social media also allows you to promote all your upcoming events and products, and even gives you front row access to editors and reporters who might write on your area of expertise.  The possibilities are truly endless.  But the big question now is, how can entrepreneurs best use the current social media opportunities to help increase business?  Here are some tips we feel will help.

Ten tips to incorporate social media into your marketing plan:

Determine What Social Media Sites Are Best For You. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the top three, but that’s only the beginning.  Determine who your target market is and then meet them where they are.  It’s okay to ask by taking a survey by email or on your website asking which social media avenue your clients prefer.  Once you determine that, be consistent and realize that you can’t be everywhere all the time.  Pick the ones that are best for your business and really engage.

Team Up With Other Entrepreneurs. By teaming up, you allow easy access to retweets, Facebook posts, etc.  Plus, it’s a great way to provide your audience with more valuable information on topics that would interest them by sharing information that is provided by the business(es) you team up with. Just make sure that your choose teammates with information that is a good fit for your audience.

Don’t Just Advertise, Build Relationships. – We’ve all seen them.  The tweets and Facebook postings that we know are scheduled and we know are only trying to sell us something.  We aren’t saying that you can’t promote your services or products.  In fact, we encourage you to do that.  But do it right.  Don’t just be about landing the deal.  Truly connect with your audience and show them why they would want to work with you. We know you’ve heard it a million times already, but it speaks for itself and bears repeating:  Social media is meant to be “social.”

Make It a Two-Way Street. You post and you post and you post on Facebook. You’ve tweeted away on Twitter & you’ve updated your status on Linkedin. Finally you’re done. Social marketing is ready to be checked off the list.  Not so fast!  Realize that just like you are posting there are others out there posting and building relationships as well.  Get out there and respond to others, too.  When you think about it, how do you feel when someone posts on your Facebook posting or blog entry?  It feels good, doesn’t it?  When you see a Facebook posting that you like leave a comment – always making sure you add value and are not just promoting your business.

Make It Exciting. We see this often: business owners on Twitter who get on for 20-minute increments and during that time we are inundated with retweets.  They will throw in an occasional tip or two, but basically it’s just 20 minutes of nonsense.  Now we love a good retweet, but we don’t enjoy this at all.  When you are marketing your business via social media, make sure that you engage with others and make it exciting.  Give some good information and tips – don’t just retweet to be seen.  Provide great value and your followers will not only enjoy your messages, but when they are looking to refer someone who needs your services, you will be on the top of the list.

Learn From Others. One of the best things about being in business these days is that you have the opportunity to follow the pros and see what they are doing right. They eagerly give out tips, videos, etc.  Make it a point to follow those who you respect and can learn from.  Sit back and take notes.  But more importantly, take the action steps necessary to make these points work.  It’s more than learning from them, you need to actually do what they recommend as well.
Contribute to Other Networks.  Another great aspect of social media is getting your message out to more than just your audience. Offer to guest post for other networks in your area of  expertise. You never know who may see your posts and become a client.

Create An Expert Status. Why do people follow you?  Many times it is because they see you as the best at what you do and they want to learn from you.  Therefore it’s important to always give solid tips and advice to really show your expertise. Create high quality blog postings, tips lists and posts to share with your audience. It may take extra time to create high quality work, but the effort will be well worth it in the end.

Spruce Up Your Page. Social media has come a long way in a short time. No more are you limited to a tiny avatar of your logo. Most of the social networking sites today allow you to fully customize your page with images, backgrounds and more. Spend the time to create a page that will draw in your audience and make them want to come back daily.

Be respectful. One of the things that most business owners value most is time. It’s important when you are on Facebook, Twitter and the other networks, that you be respectful of others’ time.  A few ways you can do that:  Don’t Expect An Instant Response.  Sending an Instant Message (IM) to a colleague or respected leader is fine, but recognize that they may not be able to chat with you immediately. Often times that person has allocated a certain amount of time to be on the site. If they are constantly on an IM, they can’t get what they need done. We’re not saying you can’t IM, but be respectful when you do.

Don’t Take Advantage. Social media is a relationship builder and gives us instant access to industry leaders. However, be careful not to take advantage of someone’s goodwill by asking a zillion questions.  Most business owners enjoy helping others, however, to provide personalized coaching is a different story.  Always respect the person you are communicating with and we bet you’ll find you get way more back than you ever imagined.

See how easy social media is.  When done right it can bring amazing results for your business.  Not only will you establish yourself as an expert, but you will be promoting your products and services regularly. Make it a commitment to master social media marketing and we promise you next year at this time, you’ll be so glad you did.

Jill Hart, Founder of Christian Work-at-Home Moms http://www.cwahm.com/ and Diana Ennen, President of Virtual Word Publishing, http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com/ have teamed up to write So You Want to Be a Work at Home Mom: A Christian’s Guide to Starting a Home-Based Business http://www.soyouwanttobeawahm.com/.  Start or expand your business today with their help.  Article is free to be reprinted as long as bio remains.

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The key is to find a host that works with you instead of against you.

You want your website to:

1. do everything that you need it to do;
2. rank high on the search engines;
3. be organized so that both customers and prospects find it appealing as well as simple to use; and
4. be easy to manage, update, customize and automate.

When comparing web hosts, look for the following features:

• Research tools and step-by-step guidance. Despite your knowledge of a specific topic or your depth of experience in a business, the profitability of your online venture will depend on its being positioned to stand out from your competition. In other words, how are you going to make money? A website should provide research tools to assist you in such areas as keyword searches, identifying competitors, and setting up your business model to distinguish you from similar sites. In addition, the host should give you step-by-step information on how to use these tools.
• Website building tools. Once you have defined your market and how you will position yourself against the competition, you need to register your domain and build your site. Although most hosts offer domain name registration, the fees can vary so it is worthwhile to shop around. Furthermore, although many hosts offer templates, website customization and design tools are not seen as often. Since your goal is to have a website that is both user-friendly and unique, a template may not be enough. You want your website to reflect what is special about your business. Therefore, be sure that your website host provides you with the ability to customize, even if you are beginning with a template. It should offer site building steps, graphics, and user-friendly tools. You want to be able to drive traffic to your site, which means having high search engine ranking and content. It is vital that the host enables easy and straightforward adding, searching, and sending content. Finally, it is important to compare costs. If you build your website using several different providers, the price can easily exceed $100 per month. In addition to this expense, most entrepreneurs don't wish to spend their time trying to integrate all of the separate software. A good website host should provide the following at a reasonable price:

1. Search engine pinging;

2. Search engine tracking;

3. Traffic stats and analysis;

4. Sitemaps creation;

5. RSS;

6. Internal linking facilitation;

7. Blogging;

8. Newsletter publication;

9. Customizable forms; and

10. Email.

One host that meets these criteria and can enable you to build and maintain your internet-based business is the highly acclaimed SiteBuildIt. Offering all the suggested tools and more, it is used by both new entrepreneurs and by those who have been in business for some time. This company understands the importance that your website plays and offers a step-by-step guide to assist you toward making your business successful.

Whatever your business type, there is an ezine available which will suit your purpose. For example, if you are a children's clothing store, you can find many ezines that are targeted to mothers, to family life, and about children. Parents search the internet in order to read the resulting documents, thereby reaching your target audience. To locate the ezines that are most appropriate for your promotional needs, visit the Ezine Directory

Once you have identified the ezines to use, how can you best promote your small business? Here are three ways:

• Writing ezine articles. You are knowledgeable about your business and can offer insights related to it or to similar topics. Ezine publishers are constantly seeking articles to publish and will welcome your submissions. If you don't think that you are a great writer, consider using a virtual assistant with this skill. The key is to make sure that the article will grab the readers' attention, as well as appeal to your target audience. While there are many sites to submit your articles, two popular ones are ArticleCity.com and IdeaMarketers .
• Advertising in ezines. Compared to the alternatives, ezines offer a relatively inexpensive way to reach a large number of people who may be interested in your products or services. One idea for creating customer interest is to include a special deal available only to those that read the ezines. It is helpful to know that some sites offer multiple ezines and will provide incentives to publish in more than one of them. In addition, you may receive a better price by agreeing to do multiple runs. Always get a sample issue before advertising. Also, be sure to subscribe to the publications that you utilize to confirm that your advertisement was run as written.
• Publish your own ezine. Many business owners find this a successful way to speak regularly to their target audience. Your own ezine gives you the chance to emphasize your unique products or services by using your voice, whether it is serious, funny, quirky or whatever. Again, if you don't have the time or interest in writing this, consider outsourcing to a virtual assistant. One advertising rule is that potential customers need to see your message more than a dozen times before making a decision. By producing a great newsletter for them to read, you can reach many of them. You have given a reflection of your business, as well as providing your target audience with information that they want.

Ezines are a powerful tool for a small enterprise to easily reach both new and existing customers and to describe its special products or services. To learn more about ezines and to decide if they are right for your small business, visit Alexandria Brown's EzineQueen.

Sell features vs. benefits – Sell the benefit of your product to the consumer, and not the product's features. The example cited is of a lawnmower: what is important is not how powerful the engine is, but how that powerful engine can mow a lawn in half the time.

Don't underfund your ad – be realistic about your ad budget. Don't expect to recover the cost of your advertising entirely through sales.

Focus your ad – don't try to say or sell too much in one ad. Instead, advertise different products in different ads.

Don't pull your ad too soon – ads need at least six months to gain brand recognition.

Track your results – you need to establish whether or not the medium and the ad you chose are effective. Use a unique phone number or URL to track your results.

Time your ads according to your sales cycle – don't blow all your money on one ad. Spread it out to coincide with your sales plan.

Reach beyond your comfort zone – target potential customers outside of your main base.

Include "transactional" and "relational" components in every ad – transactional focuses on the product, while relational focuses on the customer service experience.

Be aggressive – you need a big idea, but not necessarily a big budget – example cited is a frozen yogurt shop which offered free cones until midnight, in the dead of winter. They spend $1,700 on the radio ad, and $500 on the 11,000 cones they gave away. Business increased by 80%.

The six key advertising "do's" are:

• Provide compelling copy
• Include a call to action
• Choose the right medium
• Pay attention to visuals
• Stand for something

For more, read the article here.

Remember, managing ad campaigns can be complex and requires testing and tracking for success. Ask your virtual assistant how to best optimize your advertising budget, so you are not wasting your time and money on unproductive, expensive or poorly directed ad purchases.

However, having a strong brand is also crucial in raising capital. Banks and investors are looking to fund companies that are professional and are therefore more likely to generate revenue and prove stable and secure over time.

In addition, a strong brand can help you to attract good employees and to negotiate better terms with vendors. People want to work for and do business with a company that appears professional and established.

"PartnerUp" (www.partnerup.com) offers the following nine tips for creating a successful brand.

1. Find the right name for your company. A short one which accurately conveys what you do is best. Try to find a name that allows you to obtain its .com domain name. Also, make sure that the name you want to use isn't already trademarked or in use by another person or company.

2. Have an expert design your logo. As the centerpiece of your brand, this will be a key recognition factor for your company. It will appear on everything from business cards and stationery to your building and signage. In the past it might cost thousands of dollars to have an ad agency design a logo for you. Today, through the internet, you can find firms who offer excellent services at a reasonable price. Before choosing a logo design company, look through their portfolio and make sure that you like their work, and check with a few of their customers to make sure that they were satisfied with the results.

3. Create brand guidelines. While most people have never heard of brand guidelines, they are important to a strong brand. For a small business, this can be as simple as writing a 2-3 page document that details such items as what color your logo appears in, what fonts you use, and what your tagline is. The goal is to assure consistency in all of the different types of media presentations of your brand.

4. Have stationery and brochures designed by a specialist. While it can be tempting to try to save a few dollars by creating these documents yourself, it is worth the investment to have the work done by someone proficient in this area. These items are vital in conveying a professional and consistent image for your firm. Companies that do logo design often offer this service also. If you have created your brand guidelines first, the designer can make sure that the stationery and brochures conform to your brand standards.

5. Get everything professionally printed. On a per-page basis, the cost is comparable to printing things yourself. More importantly, the results are significantly better. This is important in creating a strong brand.

6. Get a web site and domain name. Again, the investment in skilled design and hosting on your own domain name will pay off. Because business has shifted from being done using phone books to being done online, this will often be your initial contact with potential customers.

7. Buy a phone system, and get a phone line for your business. It used to be expensive to buy a phone system, often costing tens of thousands of dollars. Now, you can buy simple pre-configured phone systems with an auto-attendant for less than $1,000. This is another way that you maintain the image of a highly professional company.

8. Invest in public relations. One of the most important things that you can do is to gain third-party validation of your business. Once you get your company featured in a few articles, you can show these to potential clients, investors and vendors, helping to further solidify your company's brand and position in the marketplace.

9. Remember, it's never too late. If your existing small business doesn't have a stellar brand, remember that it is never too late for you to rebrand your business using the above advice. If you decide to rebrand, make sure that you roll out your new brand all at the same time, instead of piece by piece. This will help to generate excitement as well as a consistent presentation of your company image.

Remember too –You can give the impression of a larger company, while you work at home on your business, by having a virtual assistant handle your customer support and contacts.