Hollie Clere, Author at The Social Media Advisor

January 16, 2022
Social Media Marketing

How to Amplify Your Online Presence

These days, it’s crucial for small businesses to have an online presence. Anyone with a product, service, or message can get in front of targeted audiences. However, this is easier said than done, and it requires a lot more than just setting up a website. But how exactly do you build an online presence? I’m going to share with you tips I recommend when helping my clients build an online presence.

Your Website

The first thing any small business needs to do is build a website for their company. No website? No online presence at all. If a potential lead cannot find anything about you online, this discourages them from moving further. It’s much easier to simply look for someone else in your industry/area/expertise that has a more robust online presence instead.

Once you’ve got a great website, you need people to find it. That’s where search engine optimization comes in. SEO is the art and science of getting your site to rank higher in search results — and that’s something you need if you want more visitors to your site.

Trying to become an expert at SEO can be an exercise in frustration. There are many strategies and tactics and they’re constantly evolving. However, there are some basics that will help you get started.

1) Keyword research is a great starting point because it helps you determine the best keywords to use on your website and how to use them effectively. Choose keywords that are highly relevant to your content, but don’t overstuff pages with keywords.

2) Avoid duplicate content. Search engines punish sites that have duplicate content because it’s seen as an indication of spammy manipulation tactics. If you write content for your website but want to feature that information on someone else’s site as well, it’s best to rewrite it enough to get the same point across without just hitting copy and paste to avoid sharing duplicate content.

3) Optimize your site and content for mobile devices. More people are searching on their mobile devices than ever.

4) Create quality (unique and high-quality) content for your website, blog or ecommerce store.

5) Optimize your website for search engines. Take time to learn basic SEO (search engine optimization) best practices, and make sure your site has a unique title tag and meta description on every page. Don’t forget to include alt text on images! This will allow search engines to better understand your content, which will improve how it shows up in search results.

6) Visit Google Analytics. This free tool from Google lets you see how many people visit your site, how long they stay and what they’re looking at, among other things. It’s also a great place to start diagnosing any problems with your site. If lots of visitors arrive and almost immediately bounce, it could be that the information on your site isn’t relevant or useful enough to keep their attention.

Reputation Management

It is a good idea to get yourself some reviews on your products or services online so that you can also get your reputation going. Fantastic websites for gathering reviews are your Google My Business page, your Facebook account, and directories like Yelp. While you can post testimonials on your website, the impact of a posted review from a happy customer on one of these websites is not only great for building credibility but it does wonders for your company’s online presence!

Create Consistent Content

Blogging is one of the most effective ways to get your name out there on the web. A blog allows you to share industry insights and news, post helpful tips and guides that people can use, and share interesting content that’s relevant and specific to your brand. It’s a great way for website visitors to learn more about what you do and why. It also keeps your website fresh and current, which the search engines love.

Blogging helps your target audience find you and showcases that you are an authority in your industry. It also gives you fantastic content to repurpose and share in your newsletter an on your social media accounts.

Write good content for your blog and optimize it for search engines. Make sure each page of your site has at least 300 words of unique text — 1,500 words is even better! Google loves fresh content, so update your blog at least once a month or include a “recent posts” section on your homepage.

Connect with Influencers

If you really want to make an impact, the best way to get your content shared is through influencers. These are people who are recognized authorities in a particular niche or industry, and have a big following on social media.

The trick is to find them and encourage them to share your content with their audience. The good news is that the Internet has made doing this easier than ever. Here’s how:

Find the influencers. This can be done through a number of online sites and directories. A great place to start is BuzzSumo (https://buzzsumo.com/) which also offers free tools for discovering content that’s performing well on social media. Once you’ve identified some influencers, reach out to them individually and ask if they’d like a copy of your e-book or report, are interested in a partnership or collaboration, or if they’d like to be featured on your social media.

Having a strong online presence is imperative for small business success today. With the internet, you can reach millions of customers across the globe. But this also means that your competition is bigger, more diverse and growing all the time.

Creating and maintaining a strong online presence is easier than ever before. Gone are the days of expensive banner ads, costly newspaper advertisements and the like. Today, you can get your business in front of thousands of potential customers without spending more than you can afford. Are you ready to step up and make the most of your online presence?

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

January 9, 2022
Social Media Strategy

How to Amplify Your Social Media Marketing

The social media landscape is always changing, and it can be hard to stay on top. When it comes to your business, you need to take advantage of the opportunities social media presents in order to find success for your company. Here’s how you can amplify your social media efforts in 2022.

Change It Up

Social media is the number one platform marketers use to connect with customers. But while staying relevant on social media is essential, it’s not enough by itself. The new challenge is to figure out how to amplify your social media marketing and reach more people in a world where consumers are growing increasingly distrustful of brands. The key is to look for fresh ways to “bring value” to your customers and community through your content, products and services. An obvious first step is to provide helpful information that helps them do something better or easier. As always, be authentic. Your customers want to hear from you, so if you’re not providing them with useful information or entertaining content, then they’ll move on to someone else. The key is to provide value and encourage interaction.

Change Your Perspective

Social media is no longer a trend. It’s a way of life. Social media marketing shouldn’t be looked at as a one-off activity, but rather as the way your business is run in the 21st century. Don’t treat your Facebook page (Instagram account, LinkedIn profile, etc.) as just another layer on top of your website or blog; instead, make it unique and let it stand alone as a social destination for people who want to read or watch content from you.

Treat your social media accounts like you would treat a customer service line or sales desk. You want to help your followers feel valued and make sure they’re satisfied with the content you’re posting. It should be easy to comment and connect with others through social channels, as well as easy to find what you need when they are looking for assistance.

Transparency, authenticity, and reliability — these are the pillars of trust. When you prioritize trust in your business over everything else, you build a community that values your business. And when you value your community, they will support you on social media.

Change Your Strategy

A social media strategy will typically include the type of content that you’re going to create, how often you’re going to share it, and where you’re going to post it.

Before you can develop a successful social media strategy, you need to know what your goal is. Are you trying to attract new customers? Increase engagement with current customers? Drive leads? Each objective requires a different strategy, one that takes into account the best ways to reach your target market. For example, if your goal is to drive traffic to your website, then you might consider boosting posts on Facebook advertising if your target audience spends lots of time on that platform. If your main goal is to generate leads, then you might focus more on paid advertising on LinkedIn or Twitter advertising depending on where your target audience spends time online. By identifying exactly how and where you want to reach people, you can tailor your efforts accordingly and be more effective overall.

How can you improve your social media marketing? Focus on quality over quantity, have a strong digital presence that is backed up by unique and helpful content, and use analytics to find out where your audience resides and what they are looking for.

In the end, though, it’s important to remember that today isn’t so different from the past. There’s nearly always a new technological development on the horizon. But social media marketing is still social media marketing: you still have to create content that your audience finds valuable, relevant, and suitable for sharing if you want to succeed. The new tactics might change over time, but the basic fundamentals will always apply. For now and in the future, that means always putting your customers first.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

January 2, 2022
Social Media Strategy

How to Amplify Your Business This Year

My word for 2022 is Amplify.

When you break down this word, it means to increase the volume of something. And, in 2022, I want to increase the volume in both my professional and personal life. I’m ready for more success AND to have more joy and abundance in my life.

Does this sound like a good plan for you as well?

Well, if you want to amplify your business this year – you’ll need to ramp up your marketing.

Amplify Your Online Presence

Did you have a robust online presence? Can a complete stranger interested in your work find enough information about you online? Building out your online presence is all about trust. There are many ways to do this but I always recommend starting with your website.

If your business doesn’t have a website yet, then begin there.

The more information people can find about you online, the more comfortable they become to reach out, connect, and ask questions about what you do.

Here are some other ways to amplify your online business this year:

Build your Google My Business (GMB) page and post to it at least once a week.
Submit your business information to relevant online directories.
Build out your social media profile(s) and post regularly.
Pitch what you do to content creators that do interviews with other business others so that you can get on their video show/blog/podcast.
Encourage your existing clients to post a great review about you on Facebook, Google, or Yelp.

Be patient. This is a long game. In fact, if you don’t even have a website yet, the search engines may ‘ding you’ for the first few months to make sure you are a legitimate business that plans to stick around before they start showing your website in search results.

Amplify Your Social Media Marketing

Do you have a social media strategy for 2022? If not, it’s time to sort that out as well. Creating a consistent presence on social media is a great way to amplify your business this year. We recommend starting with only one platform. Preferably, one that you will enjoy using and sharing content on.

Once you are consistently posting, it’s time to look at social media advertising to get your content in front of more people who want to see it and engage with it. Social advertising is an affordable way to gain more traction and reach with your social media marketing.

Amplify Your Relationship Marketing

Making connections with other people in your community is the most effective way to amplify your business. Relationship marketing is all about connection, collaboration, and community. Bring your value to the table, get to know others who are sharing their value, and work together to support, lift, inspire, and motivate each other.

Once you start building relationships, as opposed to focusing solely on sales, you’ll notice more word of mouth, more referrals, and more satisfaction in the work you do.

What better way to amplify your business this year than to find a group of people that inspire you to be the best you can be?

Amplify Your Impact

How can your business make an impact in your community this year? If you truly want to amplify your work, consider adding a philanthropic or charitable aspect to your work. Small businesses and community impact go hand in hand! People will be drawn to your mission and vision and will talk about the great work you are doing with others. It’s a win/win/win situation for both you and the people around you.

Join me this year in amplifying our efforts to reach for even more success and impact in 2022! We gather in my Be Awesome in Social Media facebook group to support and encourage each other and collectively increase our impact together.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

November 2, 2021
Social Media Strategy

Showing Gratitude in Your Social Media Messaging

Marketing your business online is more challenging than ever before. As more small businesses are created, there is an ever-increasing amount of noise on the Internet. Everyone wants your attention. Everyone wants your business. It’s easy to lose focus of what really matters as a small business owner.

Are you showing what your company is grateful for in your social media messaging? November is the season of gratitude and an excellent opportunity to praise and celebrate your customers, your power partners, and your vendors.

Stay True to Your Vision

What is your vision for your small business? This vision is a key element in creating content to share online. Whether you use it as a guiding compass or incorporating it into your social media and brand messaging, your vision is where everything starts. Your vision is what inspires you to do the work you do and it inspires others to follow you, sign up, and spread the word about your brand. This month, we are challenging you to take your vision and GO BIG on social media with your content by combining your vision and your gratitude into social media messaging.

Keep It Simple

One way to avoid overwhelm in your social media marketing AND to show your respect and appreciation for your people is to have a plan! If you develop a plan using simpler systems, your online marketing can be fun! Discovering and implementing new tools and systems to streamline your marketing efforts helps you to free up time in the long run and get clear on where your priorities are.

If you need help getting started, our team is well versed in creating a marketing roadmap for small businesses. We teach our clients how it all works using online tools and walking you step by step through each process. These tools will help you create content in an easy way and incorporate strategies that help you get found organically.

Honor Your People

Once you have a plan, supported by your vision, then it’s time to shout out your gratitude to the world! Take this opportunity to tell the world just how grateful you are for the people that help you do what you. This is the perfect time of year to create appreciation content for your audience, your clients, your team, and your collaborative partners. Whether you create shout-outs to share on social media, promote a giveaway or contest for your followers, or give a behind-the-scenes tour of how it all works (and all the amazing people involved) – folks love to consume real, authentic content that gives insight into your mission and vision.

Do you have to show gratitude in your social media marketing? Of course not. However, my team has found it’s an effective way to grab audience attention, get engagement from followers, and inspire loyalty from your team and partners.

How do you use social media? Pay attention to the people and pages that inspire you to like, comment, and share their content. What makes these content creators so relatable? The answers to these questions are the first steps into designing a social media strategy and content marketing plan that works for your business. Are you ready to define your brand story and build a long-term relationship with a loyal audience? Let’s do a Discovery Session to see which programs best fit your small business needs and get your ramped up before the new year!

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

Free + Free = Win!

Are you telling your brand story in social media?

Author: Hollie Clere

Learn how to use social media to grow your business online with our video series!

Follow me

Categories

Latest Articles