Which Social Media Network brings you the most Business?
So which Social Media Network is most suitable for your Business? On my latest Survey contacted exclusively on Twitter I asked people around the world to answer this question.
Yes it was only asked on Twitter and you can say that Twitter had the privilege here, but not so fast! This does not mean that users of Twitter consider this Network to be the most suitable to bring them business and sales. So what did people responded? Check out the graph below…
As seen here 4 options were given to chose from. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. Twitter tops with 40% followed closely by Instagram with 32%. Facebook falls far behind with 17% and LinkedIn with 11%.
It is not so strange that Instagram follows Twitter on this poll with a high percentage. Celebrities and Influencers in general are very active users on those two networks to communicate with their audience and monetize. This combination is also followed by many business people and entrepreneurs across the world.
On the other hand Brands who focus on online selling work more with Facebook as their primary network. This of course varies from country to country but on this poll we get a global view of things.
Finally LinkedIn finds itself on fourth place with 11% but this is not a negligible percentage. On the contrary I find it extremely good as it is used mainly by professionals who want to network and build on their connections in a more longterm way.
How to build a successful Digital Media Strategy
Nowadays a Digital Media Strategy is probably the most important thing you need to have in order to Sell a product/service or Brand yourself and get noticed worldwide!
Despite the fact that most companies and pros use many tools of Digital Media to get their message across they lack the knowledge to create and execute a complete Digital Media strategy thus having poor results over time.
If there is something you cannot afford to lose it’s “Time”, otherwise you get slammed my competition!
Here are some of the most important factors you need to consider to build a successful Digital Media Strategy and I urge you to start implementing them as soon as possible if you want to increase your results!
1) Website – Either you have a website or Blog there are a few things to consider to increase your reach. Your website needs to be responsive so it can be easily readable in mobile and tablet. You also need to consider the languages you use. A multilingual website increases the customer experience and targets better your preferred audience. Check which audiences visit your website most and adjust.
2) SEO – This is a very big chapter and becomes even more complicated as time goes by. To make things simple here is what you need to do. First thing is to check the google ranking of your website. If you are not ranking high enough then invest immediately on optimizing your page. If you are creating content then pay attention to the value of your content (be original) as well as the headlines and keywords you use. Second thing is to make sure you are active and sharing your content on Social Media to boost your searchability.
3) Social Media – Here is where you need to spend most of the time on a daily basis to see the biggest results. Platforms you may not use much such as G+ provide a great opportunity to reach people and have better SEO results. Same thing goes with other Social Media you may be ignoring like YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest etc. Millions of potential customers maybe using them. Find a way to explore the potential.
4) Advertising – This is where you can really optimize your efforts if all other things are in place. Digital Advertising can be a very effective tool of your strategy if you are ready for it. Advertisements on Google or Yahoo for example can get you in the eyes of every potential client and that is precious. Advertising on Social Media is another great option especially on Facebook and YouTube.
5) Digital PR – It’s one thing to talk about yourself and it’s another if you manage others to talk about you. If you can create content to be hosted on other websites in your industry then this will help you build credibility and promote your Brand to audiences you cannot imagine.
6) Email – An email list may be difficult to build, if you already don’t have one, but it will serve you well in the long term. Just think of it this way: “people are connected with you for a reason and this is a communication channel”. So use your email database to communicate news and updates about your status and your offers.
If you follow the above steps you will be for sure in the right direction of reaching your goals. You need to know though that many details exist in each step that determine how good you are and how effective your message is.
Are you starting a new Business? Don’t Forget this 1 Important thing!
Are you planning to start you own business this season or trying to reorganize your existing one?
If the answer is yes then pay attention because this might be exactly what you need to make it a success.
I find that too many times business people with great ideas have the skills, passion and vision to bring to life a nice concept with all the potentials to succeed. Business people most often give their whole attention to built a great store, decorate it, hire and train their stuff to give great service, give emphasis to provide a great product and service, purchase the equipment, handle the logistics and much more…
Most of the times though great ideas don’t work well because entrepreneurs fail to recognize and plan ahead for this 1 important thing… How to communicate their message the right way to the right audience!
Yes that is often one of the most important reasons why your idea may fail miserably! If you want to make sure you have customers to make the sales you need to survive and thrive then you need to pay attention well ahead.
In today’s world getting your message across to the right people is less complicated than before due to Social Media and Digital Marketing in general. Social Media Marketing and Digital Marketing is not something you just do. It is many times the most effective, direct and important aspect of your Marketing Mix.
If you want to give your business the best chance to succeed, then plan ahead your resources and strategy to maximize your potential and gain customers from day one. If you leave this to the end it might be too late.
How to Separate you Facebook Page from Competition – Part 2
In the first part of “How to Separate you Facebook Page from Competition” I have highlighted 6 important things you need to consider if you want to be on top of the competition.
These are:
1) Set up your strategy carefully
2) Design
3) Videos
4) Competitions
5) Page Promotion
6) Promoted Posts
Apart from the above you need to consider, and do exceptionally well, a few more things. These are not necessarily new but they need time and commitment to get really good results!
1) Content – Your Content must always be relevant to what your audience likes to see and learn from your company. It is not what you want to show them but rather what they want to see. To be more precise, if you always advertise your products on your Facebook page it can be quite boring even if your design-graphics are looking great. What you need to do is to try various information and posts and see to what people respond best. In this way you will prepare a nice mix of content to share on your page that people will respond to.
2) Insights – Facebook provides a huge data of insights for people who visit your Page. I doubt if most of you take the time to analyze those information. Insights will provide you with a better understanding of your audience’s demographics and psychographics as well as which of your posts are doing well and engage more people. This is important as it may give you a better understanding of your audience and help you shape your content towards their tastes more easily!
3) Respond – Responding is very important when it comes to engagement on Facebook. You may have noticed lately that a small button appeared on your Page called “Response Rate”. This gives a signal to visitors if your Page-Brand responds to messages and in what percentage. If you respond to 90% of messages in less than 5 minutes for a straight week then the icon turns green indicating that you are super fast. This fact plus the response you give to comments on your posts will give a huge positive impression about you and how well you care about customers!
4) Monitor Competition – Monitoring your competition can be an easy way to give you an edge or evaluate how much better or worse you are doing. Facebook Insights allows you to monitor some of the competition and how well they perform in some area against your company. In this way you can see which kind of posts have more engagement against your ones or how much reach they have. These insights can help you set targets or give you ideas to generate new type of content or type of approach!
5) Be Creative – Creativity in Social Media is not something new. You may have heard it before for all sorts of reasons. Creativity in your content, creativity in your design graphics, creativity on how you differentiate your Brand are just a few ways to be creative. Creativity though may be also found if you use some new ways to get your message across that competition has never used before! Let me give you an example. If you see that competition is not using videos to answer questions and solve problems for clients then that might be a creative way to communicate with your audience. Another way may be to invite a professional to talk about a subject of interest to your clients (imagine the response to that if competition is not doing it).
(for more expert advice i will be happy to talk with you, just email me at pxinaris@gmail.com)
How to Separate you Facebook Page from Competition – Part 1
Not long ago most of the companies that had a Facebook page had neither the time, skills or faith to invest on Social Media and see the benefits. The few that did gained quite an advantage for some time.
Now we are at a point where most Brands and companies do invest time, money and other resources to have the best possible presence on Social Media and especially their Facebook Page. It is a fact that quite easily and inexpensively many people can acquire the skills or hire a pro to manage their Page quite well.
At the same time this fact has shortened the gap among competitors along all industries. Many Brands do a good job and invest time and money to attract more prospects on their Page and provide a nice experience.
So here comes the question for all those who still want to differentiate and separate themselves from Competition, What do we do to maintain our edge? How do we attract more prospects and give them an even better experience to convert them into clients or increase our word of mouth or strengthen our Brand.
Whatever your target or targets are you need to do a lot more and a lot better that before.
So here are some very important things to consider if you want to keep your advantage and do a better job than anyone else.
1) Set up your strategy carefully – Strategy is necessary and must contain all the components that will lead you to success. You need to study your competitions Page and yours to see what works best and what not, when prospects respond most and when not. Your strategy must contain not only a strong message but a very well prepared plan of activities to pass it on. This means you need to consider your graphics, videos, posts etc in a very professional way.
2) Design – The designs you use for your cover photos or posts play a huge role on how your message will be received. The same message with a different graphic can be a total success or a total failure. Use simplicity in words and appropriate colours for each message you want to promote.
3) Videos – Videos had a huge rise in 2014 and continues to do so in 2015. Thus if want to be on top you need to realize the power and impact of videos and use them to pass on you message. Be careful though to do it in a professional way. A professional way does not necessarily mean to spend a lot of money in production with special effects etc. Your video may be “amatuer” but if done correctly it can have great results.
4) Competitions – Competitions are a great way to promote your Brand but in order to separate from competition you need not to fall in the trap to make one because everyone does. For a successful competition think about your audience, make the prize relevant to your Brand and then think about you ultimate target. Do you want to collect data like emails or mobile phones to use them later on? Well you most probably should! Thus you should use a third party application and make your competition look pro, smart and attractive.
5) Page Promotion – Be careful when promoting your Page. Boosting your Page can get very detailed with the analytics provided, both demographics and psychographics. Make sure you check your audience before you try to attract others prospects. Many times you may make a simple mistake and see no results. Also do not forget to adjust your page’s descriptions according to the message you have on the header banner. This will maximize the potential of attracting new customers.
6) Promoted Posts – Promoted posts is yet another way to promote your message and create Brand awareness. Since Facebook Page’s organic reach is limited to 2% then promoted posts can many times have great effects and increase engagement. Just remember about your graphics and content to be of top class.
(end of part 1)