Author: Hollie Clere

#GiftYourBusiness – The Gift of Clients

This week we are going to talk about another way you can #GiftYourBusiness for the holidays. This is, traditionally, a pretty slow time of year for a lot of businesses. Retail aside, many consumers are more focused on the hustle and bustle of the holiday season than they are about anything else. Here are some tips to help you keep filling that funnel anyway. Give your company the gift of new clients!
Find Your Audience
When you just begin to generally market your business, you are hitting a lot of people that simply are not the right audience for you. That’s just a waste of time, money and effort. In order to maximize the potential of generating quality leads and winning new work, you have to spend time narrowing down your focus.
With online marketing, the goal is to figure out who your target audience is and where they are most likely to spend their time. There are a lot of social media platforms and online communities out there. However, just because one of them is a big name doesn’t mean they are going to be a hot ticket venue for what you do.  The key is to understand what each site excels at and then determine if that is a good fit for your business. Don’t dilute your efforts by trying to be everything to everyone. You’ll just get overwhelmed and that’s not productive.
Become Your Client
Take some time to really consider your ideal lead. What do they search for online? What hashtags would they use on Twitter? What groups would they join on Facebook or LinkedIn? What influencers would they follow? What type of events would they sign up for?
These questions will help lead you to places where people are already in the right frame of mind to listen to what you have to offer.  It will also give you a much better insight on the keywords that will work best so you can incorporate SEO into everything you do online.
Now Engage
Once you now where to find your prospects it’s time to start engaging. However, don’t just go in there guns blazing. Promoting yourself too heavily or coming off too strong is the best way to push leads away. Start small. Start liking posts, sharing, or re-tweeting. Leave a comment on something they’ve posted to start a conversation. Team up with some influencers and collaborate. This will establish your expertise in the field and give you more credibility.  Do some prospecting and make some connections.
Then, once you’ve dipped your toes in the water, start sending a few messages. Don’t overdo it. If you work this process well, interested potential clients will reach out to you.  This is not only more effective, it saves you time.
Track Your Progress
There are plenty of different tools available to track your effectiveness. Most of them are free. Use them. Just because your gut says Facebook is the place to be doesn’t mean that the numbers will agree. This will allow you to continually fine tune and adjust your plan. There is no point wasting effort on a site that just isn’t producing results.
Follow Up
Often, this is where many businesses drop the ball. Yes, it is time consuming to input all of these leads into your CRM database. Developing a landing page or an email newsletter list involves investing up front. However, all of the progress you’ve made to this point is a complete waste if there isn’t adequate follow through. If you don’t have time to make it happen, hire someone who does.
Yes, it seems like a lot of work. However, if you are doing the preparation on your own it could not cost you a thing. Unlike traditional methods of marketing and advertising, there is no budget required. Just time. And if you effectively utilize some of the time management techniques from our last blog post, you could free up the time to really go out there and sign up new work! 
It can be easy to get buried in the day-to-day tasks and projects of running your business. Take some time this month to really think about how you can best #GiftYourBusiness and make next year the best one yet! And remember to #BeAwesome.
~ Social Media is changing the way people do business.  Don’t get left behind ~ 

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 her Social Media Workshops, Classes and Seminars.

Social Seven: Tools of the Trade – Commun.it

Social Seven – Social Media Podcast

With Erin Cell of Socially Powered and Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor




What is the primary function of Commun.it? It is a Twitter tool used for scheduling and managing this social media platform. It can be used to stay connected with new followers, to stay engaged, and to monitor clients and mentions. Users can follow/unfollow and track who is following and unfollowing them on Twitter right within the tool. It will send a reminder to let users know when it’s time to reconnect with someone. Commun.it also offers suggestions on accounts you might like to follow.
We do tend to get really busy and lose track of the last time we connected with someone within our communities. It’s social media. It’s meant to be social. That means stepping outside of your box and actually having online conversations with people and engaging with them frequently. It’s not just a matter of pushing content out. Acknowledge when someone shares something of yours and when you get mentioned. If someone asks you a question, you should at least respond.
Commu.it includes some canned responses that can be used to immediately reply to specific types of engagement. Try not to overdo it, as real engagement is more valuable and effective than automated responding. However, this can be a way to stay on top of the fast pace of Twitter.
These tools also include worthy analytics that can be used for tracking effectiveness and then submitted to clients.
Using Hootsuite, Buffer and Commun.it combined is a fabulous way to optimize your social media content management. Commun.it is an easy to use tool, that is simple, and worth checking out. These tools will help you increase your online engagement, which will help to organically grow your audience.
It’s social people; let these tools help you remain social!

Think Commun.it might help you with scheduling content and staying on top of your social media? Follow us on social media to find out when our Social Seven podcast is streaming live!

#GiftYourBusiness – The Gift of Time


For most small businesses, time is often a source of frustration. Not having enough time, how to balance time between life and work, time is money, and many other aspects of time management that can be overwhelming. The truth of the matter is, taking the time to figure out how to best utilize this precious resource is vital to running a successful company. This month’s series is focused on gifting your business what it needs for growth in the new year. Gifting your business the commodity of time will lower stress and increase profit. 
Be Strategic
December is the month for thinking about what you will do next year. Diving blinding into it without a plan is wasting valuable time, effort and energy. Take a few hours to plot out what each month should look like – goals, priorities, and desired results. Having a month-to-month outline will help you stay focused and on task. If you aren’t sure how to accomplish this, or what your year should look like, it may be time to invest in a business coachto help you get on track.
Use Technology
New apps and devices are being created every day with the goal of helping businesses get ahead. It is important to find tools that both streamline and automate processes. Does it make your life easier? Does it speed up output? Then it is worth investing in. Be cautious of having too many tools and spreading yourself too thin.  Also, if a tool is more hassle than you thought it would be, don’t hesitate to change your game plan. The time involved in trying to figure out a complicated tool or in bouncing between various options is a waste. Take the time this month to ask fellow business owners and entrepreneurs what tools they love – and absolutely hate.
Eat the Frog
We all have a project that we put off because we know it is going to take more time and energy than the others – or simply because we can’t stand doing it. A popular time management phrase is ‘Eat the Frog’, which basically means do this project first. Get it out of the way. That way you can power through your other tasks without this one looming overhead.  
Outsource & Delegate
Another approach to dealing with tasks you don’t like or don’t have time for is to either delegate or outsourcethe work. It can be hard for some leaders and entrepreneurs to give up some of their work. However, this could mean freeing up your schedule to focus on business growth instead of daily tasks and projects. Find a reliable, talented and trustworthy individual and begin unloading time consuming tasks to others.
Evaluate Meetings
Meetings are often unavoidable. However, try to keep them to a minimum. Ask yourself just how valuable or necessary the appointment is. If it’s absolutely necessary, be sure to go in with an agenda or outline to keep everyone on task. Time each agenda item. If the problem hasn’t been resolved within the timeframe, task attendeesto go back and problem solve and come up with solutions at a future meeting. Don’t allow people to sidetrack or derail the meeting.
Prioritize
It can be easy getting caught up in checking voicemail, responding to emails or checking social media. It’s true that these tasks need to be accomplishedbut it’s ridiculous how often, and how many times, you do this throughout the day. Put aside time each day to accomplish these low priority tasks. Time yourself and do it at the point of the day where you are typically least productive. If your most productive energy is first thing in the morning, don’t waste that time checking your email. If the 2 PM slump usually slows you down, that might be the perfect opportunity to tackle the least important projects.
Time is an easy resource to waste. Not having a plan up front will ensure that time is not used wisely. #GiftYourBusiness the full extent of the time and resourcesyou have available by giving thought and planning to how you will use your time to #BeAwesome next year.
~ Social Media is changing the way people do business.  Don’t get left behind ~ 



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 her Social Media Workshops, Classes and Seminars.

Social Seven: Tools of the Trade – Buffer

Social Seven – Social Media Podcast
With Erin Cell of Socially Powered and Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor



Tools of the Trade – Buffer

Buffer is a content creation and management tool to help increase engagement and save time. Content can be created within the tool and scheduled for posting. There is a queue where content can be added and then scheduled and posted as desired. This allows users to pick the best times of day to post and schedule social media content in advance. 
 

Buffer can be used in tandem with Hootsuite. Buffer is great for tweets and Google+, but can’t be used for Facebook. It is more beneficial to post content natively in Facebook, when possible. However, these tools compliment each other so well that is often best to use them together instead of separately.
Buffer offers up to ten different feeds for favorite social media accounts. Users can add RSS feeds and share links from websites instead the tool’s dashboard. Buffer will pull the latest stories and content for you and allow you to share it.
Buffer analytics are available as well. For some clients, numbers matter and they want to see engagement ratios. There are some aspects, such as dark traffic, that keep users from getting visibility at all since it is mobile activity. How do you track mobile users versus other users? Are those numbers actually right? It’s hard to say. So, it’s important to keep them in mind when viewing analytic reports. Each platform offers it’s own set of analytics. However, Buffer does offer this as an option.

Think Buffer might help you with scheduling content and staying on top of your social media? Follow us on social media to find out when our Social Seven podcast is streaming live!

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