Posted by: candice
on Feb 20, 2012
With 800 Million users already registered, Facebook is the premier social media website. With this opportunity to reach prospective clients, many businesses are creating Facebook pages to promote their products and services and build their social media presence. If you’re thinking of joining the ranks of these Facebook entrepreneurs, remember the golden rule: your page is only as good as the number of visitors it attracts.
Make your page magnetic
If you want your Facebook page to keep clocking up the ‘likes’, here are some strategies you can apply to establish your presence and generate new leads – by making your page a magnet for visitors.
Use Widgets: By embedding your Facebook page in your company website or blog, you’ll draw more visitors who will ‘like’ what they see!
Add your Facebook web address to your email signature – everyone you correspond with by email will be able to visit your page.
Link your personal Facebook page to your company’s page. Your friends and colleagues will easily be able to visit and ‘like’ your page, or recommend it to their friends.
Link your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts to your Facebook page by tweeting the link regularly and adding your page to your LinkedIn profile.
Use Facebook Ads – they are a great way of directing people to your site, and if you can get fans to ‘like’ you in the ads, all the better!
How to be liked a lot
Once you have 25 likes or more, you can create a page which contains your company name in the title. After you’ve done this, keep the likes coming by making your page attractive and enticing. Don’t direct fans to your wall where other fans’ messages may bore them, instead make your landing page the focal point, with a great design and regular videos, links to other sites, and competitions to keep your fans returning.
Don’t forget regular status updates, which will keep your page in sight and very much in mind. It’s also important to interact with your fans by replying to comments, and offering answers and solutions to questions they may have.
Posted by: candice
on Feb 13, 2012
Many business owners become frustrated when their twitter presence doesn’t yield the results they were hoping for. Even if you tweet regularly, you’ll need a twitter plan – a strategy that includes writing monthly tweets in advance - in order to harness the power of this social media tool.
What are the benefits of a tweet plan?
Planning your tweets in advance has several benefits, especially as a business owner. Firstly, it brands your presence on twitter so that even when you go off topic slightly, you’ll be tweeting consistently and establishing a following.
The second advantage of a twitter plan is that it ensures consistency. Even if you’re out of the office or busy with something important, you’ll still be tweeting and engaging with your followers.
Finally, a twitter plan saves you time on a daily basis. By generating tweets in advance and scheduling them to come out daily – part of your online content strategy – you’ll save time every day.
Creating your twitter plan – steps to success
Who is your audience?
Your twitter audience is broader than just prospective clients. You’ll want to include current clients, referral sources, suppliers, joint venture partners and your whole business network to make the best use of twitter
How many tweets will you send daily?
This depends on the number of tweets you currently send on a daily basis, as well as the amount of time your audience has to read them. Bear in mind that your tweet plan is just the beginning – you can add as many daily tweets as you like depending on the amount of time you have.
Choose your keywords
The keywords you use can determine the success of your twitter plan – your followers will respond best to keywords they use too so bear this in mind. Also, twitter has a 140 character limit per tweet which means that shorter words are best.
Tweet Formats
If you’re going to be scheduling 5 tweets a day, you’ll need to write 140 tweets per month. To ease the workload when you’re writing tweets, divide them into various categories. This will allow for variety in your twitter feed which will appeal to your audience.
What time should your tweets go out?
It’s important to space your tweets over several hours, taking note of the times when your audience is most likely to be free to read them. One tweet every few hours should be enough for starters – remember you can always add more!
Posted by: candice
on Feb 07, 2012
Social media marketing is the new frontier for businesses looking to attract new clients and make more sales by harnessing the power of the internet. Gone are the days when it was enough to have a simple ad on a search engine or place your website on an online directory – today’s online user must be approached through social media, and that is a challenge in itself.
Standing out from the crowd
The realm of social media is a crowded place. With millions of users on Facebook, more twitter feeds than you could follow in a lifetime, and a host of other social media sites just waiting to grab the attention of potential clients, your message really has to stand out from the crowd.
It’s also important to remember that web users don’t sign up with social media websites in order to read advertising material. Facebook is a place where friends and family connect, while twitter is like one big conversation between people who are seeking a really good chat. None of these users is there because they are looking for the latest product or service.
These two factors spell out the challenge for any social media strategy. Your message has to be compelling, unique, and must speak to the audience as individuals – with the same personal touch as their friends’ Facebook updates and tweets. If you’re able to craft a message like this, your social media strategy will be off to a great start.
Know Your Audience, Personally.
The key to compelling copy is to really know who your audience is. There’s no point in producing something so generic that anyone might read it – chances are, no one might read it. Instead, try to visualise the individual person you’re writing to, taking notes of the person’s dreams, desires, goals and personality. Think of someone you know who would fit the bill, and write a piece of copy that would blow them away.
The ‘wow factor’ is a very important part of any content strategy. When it comes to attracting potential clients, you’ll see great results if your content is tailored to the person reading it – your newest client.
