Tag: Social Media Strategy

Top 3 Ways to Cultivate New Business with Social Media Marketing

Top 3 Ways to Cultivate New Business with Social Media Marketing

You’ve probably been told that your business should be on social media but you’ve just not taken the time to figure it out OR you’ve tried your hand at social but just couldn’t get it to work for you. Just know that you’re not alone. Finding new business on social media is very possible but you may need a guide and a cheerleader to show the way and cheer you on!

Here are our top three ways to find new business on social media:

Consistency

Consistency is the most common piece of advice from social media marketing experts and the one small business owners find the most difficult to follow. Because there is not always an immediate benefit to sharing something on social media, it can feel like your efforts aren’t valued and may be a waste of time. However, every new business on social media starts in the same place. You have to earn the right to have an engaged audience by showing up consistently and sharing content that your audience finds valuable. If you only post occasionally, or when you think about it, you are training people that you aren’t dependable or reliable. You aren’t giving them a reason to stick around. Invest in posting consistently for six months in a row. I promise you’ll see a major difference in your results!

Trust

Trust is the #1 reason people choose to work with any small business. Purchasing is an emotional experience. Recent studies have shown that no amount of logic will convince someone to pull out their credit card or sign the dotted line. There is always an emotional reason behind why we purchase anything. Emotions = vulnerability. This is why trust is so key to the conversion process.

Here are some things buyers may consider before buying:

  • Have I heard of this company before?
  • Has anyone recommended this company before?
  • How does their brand make me feel?
  • Do they make a social impact?
  • Are they trustworthy? What sort of reputation do they have?
  • What can I find out about them online?
  • Where can I find out what other buyers think about them?
  • Does their website and social media grab my attention and, if so, does what they share resonate with my values and what I believe in?
  • What am I going to get out of this exchange?
  • Are they going to make it worth my time to pay attention or purchase?
  • Do I trust them? Will they do what they promise? Will this be a good investment for me?

These are just some of the things buyers consider when they are trying to make a purchasing decision. All of them are rooted in trust. The more you show up, the more you share your brand messaging, the more you interact with others online, the more opportunities you have to showcase that you are a trustworthy brand.

Interest

One of the biggest social media marketing mistakes is when a small business talks about what they are interested in without giving any consideration to the interests of their audience. This is why posting too much promotional content is bad news: no one wants to engage with someone who’s clearly only there to get money out of the interaction. While we know that your marketing efforts are about converting followers into customers, it’s essential that what you share is interesting to the audience first and foremost. Otherwise, why should they stick around to see more of your posts? Be interesting, be present, share ideas and information that are valuable to our audience – these are the paths to building the trust necessary for someone to choose to do business with you.

Are you struggling with not knowing how to use social media for your business?  Not sure when to post, how to post, or what #Hashtags even are? Over three months, we will develop a roadmap of exactly how to use social media for your business in our Quarterly Roadmap Sessions.  We will work on ads, reporting, creating posts for higher engagement, and break through the fears and frustrations small businesses experience with social media marketing. Let’s chat.


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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.

Are You Incorporating Your Networking Goals with Your Social Media Marketing Goals

Are You Incorporating Your Networking Goals with Your Social Media Marketing Goals?

Networking, virtually or in person, can really enhance the connections you are building and support your efforts in social media marketing. I’ve been using networking as a marketing growth tool for the entire time I’ve been a small business owner and social media manager. While the groups have changed over the years, the benefit of connecting with other biz owners on a regular basis has remained the same.

Find New Followers

How does networking and social media connect? Exposure to any new group is an opportunity to find new followers for your social media channels. There are clever and engaging ways to encourage new people to follow you on social media and once you’ve identified how to do that, the sky’s the limit! It’s important to have 1-3 goals for any networking meeting, event or opportunity and one of those could be convincing 1-5 people to follow you on your favorite social media platform or channel. Give them a good incentive to go out of their way and hit the follow, like, or subscribe button to make this task even easier!

Invite Your Followers

Have you considered inviting your followers to your next networking event? You can build trust with your followers or customers by inviting them to connect deeper while networking.  How does inviting others to network with you enhance their own businesses and endeavors? This gets you valuable face-to-face time with them while they get the benefit of marketing their efforts with new people. Not only is this a win-win situation, if it’s successful for them the trust you’ve built is likely to convert to success for your biz in the future.

Grow Your Followers

Additionally, networking groups can help you build your tribe of supporters and expand your social media audience through the supportive engagement and shares of the other businesses in your networking group. When you leave a networking group, take time to post about the experience on social media. Tag the group, other businesses that attended, or even people you think may benefit from the next meeting or gathering. Tell your audience your favorite takeaways, give shout-outs, or recommend someone new to you people (if appropriate). By extending your networking through the use of social media marketing, you amplify both your networking AND social media marketing efforts.

Where are you networking and what accomplishments has the group seen over the year so far? What groups have you heard good things about but haven’t tried yet? Some business owners thrive when given the opportunity to connect one-on-one with other people each month. If that sounds like you, let’s talk about how you can optimize your networking returns using social media. Give the Social Media Advisor team a call today to discuss options.

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.

Developed Your Social Media Marketing Goals for the Rest of the Year

Developed Your Social Media Marketing Goals for the Rest of the Year?

Our word for the year is LIMITLESS!  Do you have a word for the year? 

Is your messaging reflecting your goals, your vision, and your mission or are your channels and messaging out of date?  What accomplishments have you had so far this year?  How do you plan to level up for the rest of the year?  Now is the perfect time to revisit existing goals or develop new ones to work on through the second half of the year.

If you don’t know what you want to work on when it comes to social media marketing, here is our advice:

Optimize Your Online Presence

Spending some time and energy a couple of times a year to review your current online assets and making sure they are still on-point is always a great idea. While it’s certainly possible to sign on new clients without them every using the Internet to find out more about you, that’s the exception, not the rule. 

Just about every lead is going to look you up on Google. What will they find? Is your messaging current? Are you easy to find online? What do folks uncover about your business with a 5 or 10 minute search?

While you are updating or refreshing your profiles, add some new keywords or phrases that will help your ideal client find you while browsing the Internet. 

Get Comfortable with Social Media Strategy

If you are tired of throwing spaghetti at the wall and waiting to see what sticks, it’s time to talk social media marketing strategy. If you don’t have a strategy for your social posts yet, we highly recommend sitting down and drafting one. First, you’ll need to decide on your social media goals. After that’s determined, your social media strategy is designed to work towards those objectives. It should include an editorial calendar, defining your brand messaging and keyword phases, picking hashtags, identifying your ideal audience, crafting content, and making a decision about promotion and advertising. 

It may feel overwhelming but we are experts at helping small businesses develop a social media strategy that works for their brand.

Outsource, Outsource, Outsource

While it’s up to you, as the business owner, to set the socials and determine the strategy, that doesn’t mean you have to tackle all the work solo. Here’s where you bring in trusted experts to help you execute those tasks that aren’t in your genius zone, that you may procrastinate on, or that you simply no longer have time to do yourself. An unexecuted social media strategy won’t do your business any good. 

Bottom line: it’s never too late to create social media marketing goals that will help you move the needle with your business.

If you are overwhelmed, let’s start with our first tip. Every platform is searchable.  Every word matters.  Do you have a few paragraphs in the about section of each of your social media accounts? Are they padded with the right, searchable keywords? Is your messaging current? Not sure what your online presence says about your business? Now is the time to revamp your online assets! This commitment in time, money, and effort will produce results you never expected and it’s a great way to position your business better online without making a long-term financial commitment. Give the Social Media Advisor team a call today to discuss options.


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.

Top 3 Reasons to Ramp Up Social Media in the Summer

Top 3 Reasons to Ramp Up Social Media in the Summer

After decades of working with small business owners and coaches, we’ve found that many companies experience a dip in income once or twice a year. This can vary depending on the industry, location, and business but tends to occur in either the summer or winter months. 

However, this is not the time to abandon your social media marketing efforts! Everyone may ‘be on vacation’ but there are some solid reasons to keep at it this time of year. Here are our top 3 reasons to ramp up your social media marketing in the warmer months.

Planning Today, Impact Tomorrow

There’s a valuable piece of business advice that makes the rounds in many of the networking groups I’ve been a part of and that is: what you do today is not likely to produce results until three months from today. That means you need to be thinking about your slow seasons way in advance. You’ll have to give yourself enough time to plan and create content that you can share three months before you expect that annual dip. If you procrastinate on this, and then try to throw something together at the last minute, you’ll often be disappointed in the result of your efforts.

Experimentation

If you are truly slow in summer, this could be a great season to test out content that you may have hesitated to post during your other launches or campaigns. Your slow season is an excellent opportunity to take some small risks, try something new, and get creative with finding new people and engaging your current audience.

Keep the Money Flowing

We’ve found that our clients that commit to social media marketing, even in slower seasons, find that they no longer experience a dip in income potential. Most of our clients have found that they no longer experience slow seasons and business is consistent throughout the year if they create and execute a social media strategy. We assist them in developing strategies around boosting posts and investing in paid ads to target new audiences while keeping an eye on specific outcomes and goals so that the business continues to grow all year long.

By posting consistently with a themed editorial calendar, busineses are able to strategically plan for those “slower” months so that the messaging isn’t only relevant to the season, but relevant to what they can plan for in the upcoming months.

If you are using social media yourself, you may have noticed that you engage with pages that share content you can relate with. Simply posting is not enough. You need engaging content that is easy to find and interesting enough to like, comment, or share. Are you ready to define your story and build a long term relationship with a loyal audience? Let’s do a Discovery Session to see which of our programs best fit your social media marketing needs.

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.

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