Jan
27
One of my favorite sites to stay on the cutting edge of social media is www.socialmediaexaminer.com. I found a video interview with a gentleman named Chris Brogan on their site. Chris gives many valuable tips in this quick 8 minute video, and also gives an introduction to his book. If you haven’t made the dive into Google+ yet, definitely check this video out and see how it is different.
How Small Businesses Can Thrive With Google+ from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo.
Jan
27
SocialMediaToday.com covers great Facebook fan page management tips to encourage engagement and growth.
One of the most essential aspects of user engagement is time management. It pays to be aware of the peak hours to capture the most engagement. So when’s the best time to post? Always put into consideration the timezone of your customers, if majority of them are in EST then it’s best to post during these hours: 10am-11am, 4pm-5pm, and 10am-11pm. Arguably, these three schedules will fit into PST as well, but it’s always up to you to test alternative schedules and intervals for sharing a post or asking a question on your page.
Jan
26
Socialfresh goes over three key points (in 22 specific ways) to monitor in social media to find what customers are saying about you right now!
One of the easiest ways businesses can take advantage of social media is by establishing alerts that cover a wide range of topics. By doing so businesses can quickly monitor any social media activity about their company, industry or competition.
Jan
26
Flowtown has created a “Small Business Social Media Cheatsheet” that provides some solid points of reference for those overwhelmed by social networking.
With one in three small businesses using social media, it’s no longer enough just to have a website. Small businesses must have a social media presence, too. Don’t know where to start? This cheat sheet will help you navigate the major social media sites on the web.
Jan
26
Folks over at wpbeginner.com have a great read about how to use a pretty cool Facebook plugin, SSL certificate and newsletter service to create a viral marketing approach.
As a lot of you know that we recently launched a new site List25 last month. We have been doing a lot of social media promotions for it, and in one month you can see that the site’s facebook like count is already surpassing 27,000. Yes that is pretty insane. One of the things we did to give this site a boost start on facebook was creating a facebook giveaway campaign. For which you see the ad in the sidebar of WPBeginner. In this article, we will show you how you can boost your likes by creating a facebook giveaway campaign using WordPress. This will get very interesting in terms of results, so read along.
Jan
25
One of the most common reasons businesses hesitate to get involved in social media is because of social backlash. It’s true that when you create a social network you are opening the doors to your customers and sharing your brand with them; you’re literally giving a piece of your company to the customers.
While we’re all excited about the good news, experiences and stories people will share, anyone could swear on your wall, complain about a poor customer service experience, or a missed appointment. Now, they can do it from their phone or other device, without any time to cool down. Every minute that the bad press is out there for everyone to see is bad publicity. Mistakes happen, problems occur, and they can be more visible than ever.
Negative social media is certainly a valid concern, so why are so many people jumping into it? Simply put, social media exposes your brand more than ever and the rewards of customer inclusion are vast. Angry customers have been venting since long before social media and the Internet have come along. When you dive into the social web, you create a community around your brand. It’s a space that you manage and that you control. By providing such a space, customers feel confident about your brand and will come to you to make a personal connection.
Having an angry customer write on your wall is not the end of the story, but only the beginning. Because you are the owner of the community, you want to be able to respond to the upset. Meet your customer eagerly, provide support and let them know that you care to make their experience a positive one, even if a mistake has been made. You can delight your customer, and indeed the entire community, by meeting your customer as a person on an individual level.
Hear their feedback, their frustrations, their comments. Acknowledge them, apologize that they have had a poor experience and that it’s very important to you that you have a continuing relationship. Finally, direct them to a resolution. Whether it is referring them to a customer service telephone number, a direct phone call from one of your representatives, mailing a gift card, you have the power to turn a poor experience around and have your customer service experience shared by onlookers. It happens every day, and the power to create a fantastic customer service story is now in your hands!
Sites like the yellowpages.com, yelp.com, urbanspoon.com, local.yahoo.com, local newspaper websites (and many more) all provide ratings and review services for your business. When you don’t provide a central community, customers will still give their feedback, only it will be in a place you have no control over and cannot respond.
Ultimately, you want to be present for your customers. Engage them as individuals on a one-to-one basis. Don’t bark your advertising message at them, rather create a comradery with your brand at the center. How do they use your product? How does it fit into their lives? Chances are, you can learn just as much from your customers as they can from you!
Jan
24
Twitter, MySpace and Facebook engineers got together to tackle the fact that Google’s search engine isn’t showing any “social results” from networks other than Google+ on their search results. The product is “Don’t Be Evil”, a download that will include information from other social networks into search results.
Don’t Be Evil is available for download via the Focus on the User website, by clicking on the button labeled, “Try a More Relevant Google,” and dragging the resulting “Don’t Be Evil” button into the browser toolbar.
Jan
24
It looks like Facebook will be migrating all users over to the new Facebook Timeline and no longer giving them the option to remain on the older wall-style posting or timeline. They will be giving users 7 days to edit and change their timeline before they publicize all profile information.
In case you’re unfamiliar, the Facebook Timeline makes it far easier for you to travel back through your Facebook posts – posts which normally disappeared off your Wall and into oblivion. The posts from these previous months and years are now accessible through new navigational elements on the right-side of your screen that let you quickly travel back in time to the day you were born.
Jan
23
Social Media mentor Mari Smith dives into the Facebook Timeline “cover” image, what content Facebook allows it to contain for business use and then continues on into some information for the new Subscribe feature.
Now, the main purpose of this blog post came about after a discussion began with some of my friends on Facebook. It seems there’s some confusion as to what you can/cannot have on your new Timeline Cover image. I have scoured Facebook’s Help Center and Terms and have found nothing to directly indicate that it is not permitted to have any business-related content on your Cover.
Jan
22
SocialMediaExaminer.com goes over nine different small business social media success stories, and how you can incorporate their winning strategies into your own business’s plan. Check it out.
This article highlights nine small businesses of various sizes and industries that have transformed their online presence with innovative social media marketing practices.