There are no one-size-fits-all options when it comes to the right social media platform for your small- or medium-sized business. Facebook might be the biggest name in social media networks, but there are trendier platforms like Instagram and Twitter that millennial customers usually prefer.
Which social media platform fits your SMB?
Is CRM software essential to your business?
The right technology investment can lead to business success. With customer relationship management (CRM) software at the helm of your sales and marketing efforts, you can nurture long-lasting business relationships and improve your bottom line.
More teens leaving Facebook for other sites
More teenagers are leaving Facebook for other online platforms that feature images or videos and give them more control over who can be their friends. Based on a new Pew Research Center survey, only 51% of US teens are using Facebook. By contrast, 69% of US teens were reported to be using Snapchat, 72% Instagram, and 85% YouTube.
How To Raise Your Profits, By Raising Your Profile
I recently listened to an interview with David Avrin, author of the book, “It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who Knows You.” His message is pretty simple but powerful: the more your marketplace KNOWS your brand, the more sales and profits you’ll generate. I highly recommend his book since it contains a lot of good, common sense strategies for small business owners. Here are a few of the tips from David that I wanted to pass on to you and my other readers: You Can’t Control Your Brand: You can only INFLUENCE it. I actually thought this insight was very powerful. If you think about it, your ‘brand’ is formulated in the mind of your customer. It’s the feeling they get when they think of your company, product or service; but since the CUSTOMER generates the feeling, only they get to decide what that association is. To that end, your brand is the sum total of everything you do. For example, you eat at a restaurant where the food is outstanding but the bathrooms are dirty, the waiter is rude and they get your drink order wrong…twice. Unfortunately, the food may not be enough to get you to come back again. An Important Question You Should Know The Answer To: As business owners we spend YEARS perfecting our services, working on our operations and building our business – yet most of us only spend minutes thinking about what message we want to portray to the marketplace. During this interview, David posed the following idea: “What question do you want to be the answer to?” For us, it is… . Marketing Is Not A Department: Most people think marketing is just about web sites, brochures and postcards. Not so. Marketing should infiltrate every aspect of your business. To that end, make a list of every touch point you have with your customers and prospects and ask yourself, “Am I being INTENTIONAL about how we interact with our clients to make sure we are fulfilling our brand promise?” That would include often overlooked areas like how you answer the phone, or what you print on the invoices you send out. Being “Good” Is Not Good Enough…Anymore: With SO many choices, being “good” at what you do is no longer an advantage in the marketplace – it’s the entry point to doing business. Think of how many “good” restaurants you go to, or how many “good” stores you frequent. Chances are they deliver a satisfactory product or service, but not one that blows you away. In order to truly win the hearts (and wallets!) of our clients, we have to work on being outstanding.
Social media helps improve content
To truly understand their customers’ purchasing habits, all content marketers have to do is follow the clues left on social media platforms. By doing this, they can send the right content to the right audience and increase conversions and sales. Here’s what you need to know to utilize social media to your business’s advantage.
The Facebook tools your business needs
Businesses in the digital age rely on a strong online presence to stand a chance against stiff competition. This explains why many SMBs are turning to social media marketing. And with platforms like Facebook with a global audience of 1.8 billion users, the time to leverage the right tools to your advantage is now.
Using Pinterest to market your SMB
Many small- and medium-sized businesses are abandoning traditional marketing methods in favor of social media platforms, and for good reason. Take Pinterest, for example, whose latest product “DIY Promoted Pins” allows businesses to promote their Pins to increase click-throughs, improve reach, and potentially drive more website traffic.
Boost your SMB’s social media presence
Many small- and medium-sized businesses utilize some type of social media or content marketing strategy. But since your competitors are possibly using similar platforms, you have to constantly find new ways to make your company stand out. Here are some tips to leverage the power of social media and content marketing to your business’s advantage:
Come up with and implement a media crisis management plan
It’s normal for businesses to go through a crisis or two.
A beginner’s guide to Snapchat for business
The 21st century is the age of social media, with a plethora of outlets available, users are spoilt for choice. Business owners are faced with the same dilemma, between Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and about thirty more - which one should they invest in? It’s important that the platform is simple, interactive, and touches base with numerous users with every post.
Switch up marketing tactics with IG stories
Behind the application is the business, and behind the business is the need to drive revenue. With Stories, Instagram aims to capitalize on their platform and the enormous consumer reach it has -- an impressive following of over 600 million monthly active users.
