Tag: Social Seven

Social Seven – Why Monitoring Online Reviews and Presence is Essential



Why Monitoring Online Reviews and Presence is Essential
Special Guest: Michelle Grant Hoglan of Top Hat Creative Marketing
Top Hat Creative Marketing is a company that focuses on online reputation management. They start with collecting feedback and turning that into reviews. Michelle spends time discovering client goals and what they want to achieve in order to help them become more successful.  Top Hat then coaches their clients on how to gather feedback and how to filter it and use those reviews to their advantage.
Google is super important in the fact that it is so visible. This strong online presence is essential to being found on the web. When people look up a company on Google they want to see recent reviews, current events and an online presence that inspires trust. They are looking for businesses they can Know, Like and Trust. Top Hat Creative Marketing strives to make companies more visible and trustworthy online.
Google, by far, is the #1 review site online. Yelp is quickly becoming #2 and seems to be more popular in California and the West Coast. However, it is rapidly gaining speed on Google and becoming more of a player in online reviews.
Companies don’t need to be an active player on Yelp right away. If you have your phone, you can instantly log reviews onto the site while out and about and running errands and interacting with other businesses. All you need to do is register for an account. There is a Yelp app that allows you to check in regardless of whether you haven’t posted in years or if it’s your first time. This app makes it easier to do quick reviews while on the go. This site is more regional at the moment, however, and Google is still the best place to go to monitor your online reputation.
Top Hat takes time to coach businesses on how to build a reputation on Google and, once established, then move onto Yelp, Facebook and other options.
If you are going to have a presence online, you want to have in the right places where people are using it. If the audience is there, and talking about you, then it’s important to build a presence there.
It is imperative that business owners get all types of feedback, not just positive. Reviews are important regardless of whether they are good or bad. It gives owners insight into aspects of their business that may need to change. Also, get feedback from employees as well. The audience may not come straight to a business owner with their complaints – but they will share it with their personal circles of influence. This means the company doesn’t always get the opportunity to adjust or correct whatever the issue might be. Take that negative feedback and make it into a positive change for your business!
Learn more about Michelle and her company by visiting: http://tophatcreativemarketing.com
Think this 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!

Social Seven – Top 6 Twitter Tips



Top 6 Twitter Tips with Social Bridges
Special Guest: Beth Johnston of Social Bridges
Beth Johnston of Social Bridges is our guest speaker this weekend and she has some social media tips for our audience. This is a 101 class for individuals already on Twitter but are more interested in getting their brand recognized on the platform. Here are six tips for companies who would like to get started on Twitter.
Twitter is known as the cocktail party of social media. You’ve got 140 characters or less to make your point and to make it a solid, clear statement. It’s a quick to respond platform. You need to monitor Twitter and respond when mentioned.
Top 6 Tips for Making Your Brand Known on Twitter
1. Tweet About Your Business
People are following you because they are interested in your business. You are the expert so post industry information. Behind the scenes posts are interesting. Use Twitter to educate.
2. Make Yourself the Local Expert
This is especially true if you have a local storefront. Tweet about events, activities and special occasions going on in your area. Tweet about what is going on. Reach out to people interested in your area and showcase your knowledge.
3. Engagement
Twitter is known for their quick conversations. Encourage more of that by tweeting questions. Make it about your followers.
4. Hashtags
Hashtags are critical. Using the # symbol before a trending word or phrase will draw new followers to your account helping you reach a wider audience.
5. Mentions
Mentions is when Twitter users put the @ symbol before another user’s Twitter handle. This is a way to draw attention to a specific user, highlight them, ask them a public question, or just start a conversation.
6. 8/20 Rule
As with any social media marketing, it’s important to use the 80/20 rule on Twitter. This means only spending 20% of the time (or less) on self promotion and the rest of the time on content that is interesting to the audience.
Learn more about Beth and her company by visiting: http://socialbridges.biz/
Think this 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!

Social Seven – Budgeting for Social Media Ads

Here are some tips on how to budget for paid ads in social media and how to set yourself up for success.
Tip #1: Credit Card Safety
If you have really struggled with Facebook charging too much for adds or having fraudulent charges show up on your credit card, there is something you can do. Go to the store and get a Visa gift card. Put on there the exact budget for what you want to do. That way it never interacts with your bank account or credit card. The cards can be refilled as needed.
Tip #2: Don’t Rush
You’ve got to be able to look at advanced features. Do not rush through creating your ads. Facebook, in particular, has a lot of options for paid advertising. Twitter, Pinterest and other platforms now have options for paid advertising. There are more opportunities than ever to get higher visibility syndicated as a sponsor. With that knowledge, however, comes the ability the mess up. If you rushing through the ads, you are going to run into situations where you are overcharged because you didn’t pick an end date or you didn’t pick the right keywords. You have to be really specific with your target.
Tip #3: Images
Images are going to make a world of difference.  People like images so include clear, crisp, attractive images in your ads.
Tip #4: Keywords
Think about all the keywords in your ads. Who’s your demographic? Who are you trying to reach with this ad? Then speak directly to them. Don’t copy another company’s keywords. Your demographics are not going to be the same.
Tip #5: Your Budget
What is an ideal amount of money or a sample budget for social media ads? People are going to disagree but your budget is your budget. Remember that. Don’t let anyone suggest an amount you aren’t comfortable with. You can go as little as $5 a day in any ad on Facebook. If you wanted to run a campaign for five days, start off with a $25 budget ($5 a day) and track your results. It’s small but you will be able to see some results.
There is a theory that if you don’t spend more that you won’t get bigger results. However, how are you ever going to be comfortable and confident with this if you don’t try? Start small. You may find that the smaller ads have a better or more significant reach. Tracking and monitoring is important. This will help you establish an ad strategy.
Tip #6: Advanced Options
Make sure you are checking all of those advanced options. Check every single section. If there is a down arrow, you need to be clicking on it and opening that section to make sure that all options are combed through. Some of the Facebook ads allow you to pick your start date and time but others don’t. You will only know that by clicking on an area and answering the questions.  Do I want to boost this post? Do I want to get more traffic to my website? Do I want to boost this page for more likes? Am I going to pay to have my new call to action visible?
Tip #7: Ad Location
What about the ad space on the right side of Facebook? Should you use that square shaped ad on the Facebook newsfeed? If I am scrolling the feed and I already ignore that side of the screen because they are all ads, this might not be the best place to purchase an ad. Consider using other options such as desktop and mobile advertising. Viewers are now well trained to ignore the areas of the screen where ads are more likely to be placed.

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

 Join us each week as Erin Cell of Socially Powered and Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor dive into conversations about Social Media Tools, News and Guests in the Social Media World!  

Social Seven: Tools of the Trade – Post Planner

Post Planner claims to triple your engagement and reach. Erin used the tool for her own business for a while to compare its effectiveness against simply posting natively to Facebook.
It goes back to posting images versus just posting text. Posts with images get more engagement, likes and shares than if you just use text. People are drawn towards color and visual stories. Text alone is boring. It’s good to have a healthy combination of both. There is a lot less reach with a text only post than if an image is added. One of the things Erin really likes about Post Planner is that they have added the capability to create a post in Post Planner then create an image in Canva and the tool will automatically share it. It combines the two processes into one step and saves time. It’s connected to your Facebook and Canva so all those designs are saved in both places.
Another great thing about Post Planner is that it gives you ideas about what to post. When you are drawing a blank, you can search Post Planner for images, quotes, or engaging questions to ask to boost your content management. This is similar to what Hootsuite and Buffer offers but it is more of a searchable database than a list of links. Post Planner also offers insightsfor those seeking motivation or additional ideas.
Post Planner is only $7 a month to use, with occasional sales to make it even more affordable. Therefore, it is a reasonable, cost effective tool with some decent perks to help keep up with social media management.
We’d love to hear your feedback if you have used Post Planner and it has helped your business or helped you engage your audience.
Think this 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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