Social Time Management

Social time management tools

One of the most prominent issues with using social media for business purposes is that it is often time consuming. It may only take a matter of seconds to post to your social account. However, checking out your posts, analyzing your data, and managing your multiple accounts can consume much of your precious time. Consequently, this leaves you little time to plan and improve your online social strategy and manage your business.

Because of this, if you are using social networking sites, you need to make sure that you are only utilizing sites that attract people who are in your target audience. [tweet this].

Choose sites that offer social marketing strategy tools that are helpful to you as you manage your online campaign.

Certain sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, have their own audience engagement and analytics tools within their sites, allowing the user to examine how effective his/her methods are. But, each of these tools will work only in their respective sites, so users still have to manage social network accounts separately. For many, the emergence and availability of social media dashboards have made managing multiple social networking sites easier.

Social Media Dashboard: How Can It Help You?

Simply defined a social media dashboard is a tool that lets you monitor and contribute to multiple social network accounts in one place. Among the popular dashboards are Hootsuite, Social Sidekick, and Crowdbooster. They provide analytics, interlinked social networks, and help make social engagement time-friendly. 

1. It lets you organize everything in one place

You can identify, retrieve, and organize valuable data from each of your social network accounts in one place with social media dashboards. Posting and tweeting is made extra easy using dashboards since they give you the ability to schedule your posts and tweets throughout the day. Thus, you get to avoid the tedious and time-consume task of posting and tweeting at numerous times during the day.

2. It makes comparing multiple analytics in one place possible

Perhaps one of the most advantageous aspects of these management dashboards is that the user can now target specific analytics within the social media world and compare certain social networks with one another. Are you using your LinkedIn site as effectively as your Facebook account? Are your tweets as popular as your Pinterest pictures? These analytics allow you to target your brand’s audience and thus enable you to fine-tune your strategies. 

3. It gives you a better picture of your audience

Tracking your audience’s interactions helps you to engage with them more effectively. One of the most prominent issues with engagement in social sites is that not every business understands that each social audience is different. Each social site has an audience that is specific to it. While users will also have accounts on various sites, they are always looking for certain characteristics within your social outreach. 

While it is possible to post the same material to multiple sites through social dashboards, it is also important to keep in mind that each audience requires a unique approach. 

Time is only wasted if it’s spent ineffectively. [tweet this].

Utilize the analytics gathered to help engage your online audience in the manner they want you to. Be sure that your online efforts as a whole are audience-focused because that’s what the social world is all about. 

Word of Mouth Within Your LinkedIn Group

Enhance your word of mouth marketing using LinkedIn

Linkedin is one of the best online social networking tools for the business owner. While sites like Facebook and Twitter have their own special uses, Linkedin has proven itself to be of great appeal for those seeking to discuss their business needs and wants with other like-minded individuals.

Where most of this linking is done is through the group networks that Linkedin hosts. Some target specific applications while others provide a range of material. Depending on your personal goals, you can choose from a wide variety of groups to help build up your Linkedin network.

What is your goal for Linkedin? Are you here to learn? To market? To expand through word of mouth marketing? Or is it all of the above, which is what it should be. Remember that a conversation is composed of two parts. First, one listens while another speaks and they discuss. Then, everyone learns and proceeds to share with others.

Participation guarantees

The first rule is: Consistent participation is essential to establishing your image. If you aren’t a regular participant, you limit your opportunities. Consider the fact that if you provided valuable information previously resulting in more individuals joining in to discuss you, but you failed to return or stay in regular contact- you would basically lose out on all those opportunities.

Schedule a specific time to participate in group discussions. Consider this a meeting and have a regular schedule on your weekly agenda to actively participate with the group. 

There are, of course, situations in which conversation turns to an unproductive direction, at least for your purposes. Don’t be afraid to change groups to find the type of activity that suits your needs and applications. Your time is valuable so don’t spend it where there won’t be a significant return.

Content gets the attention

When it comes to content, basically you need to share what you know. This allows potential clientele to get a feel for what you can provide for them. What can you do for them? They want to know what it is that you are capable of accomplishing. 

Provide value to the conversation. Remember, this is a professional setting and you should only add content that has value to the situation. Don’t detract or distract with unrelated or irrelevant material. It is often easier to connect with smaller localized groups because discussion is often specifically relevant. This can help you make better connections and reduce obtuse content as well.

Sometimes you must sit back and observe first before you can provide quality to the conversation. Don’t simply “butt in” or you might find that you’ve overstepped your bounds. Be patient and wait for the right moment to place your expertise. Then it will be most valued by your audience.

What about getting in touch with current trends? One thing to remember is that a group environment is the ideal place to not only increase image but learn as well. Groups often discuss the latest and greatest and even provide solutions to current situations. This is a great opportunity to not only share but learn as well.

Linkedin can be extremely useful to your brand image if you understand how to use it to your advantage. Above all else, you must remember that the first step to expanding your image will only take place when you participate. Never pass up an opportunity. 

What are the Most Important Elements of a Mobile Site?

Make your online personal brand mobile-friendly with these tips

As the online world expands, more sites are working towards developing mobile-friendly access. Currently, one in seven searches are done by mobile access points, meaning there is a large population out there who are searching for your site, but if they can’t find it, you’re losing business.

A mobile site is going to be very different from your regular website because it will target the specifics of mobile access. To accomplish this, you need to address some very important elements needed to not only generate a usable site, but make it easily accessible by those searching with their mobile devices.

The primary principle is not to complicate things. When it comes to mobile, simplicity says it best. Currently, mobile software isn’t able to load an extravagant page with an array of different components. 

Quick load times

You’ll want to make your site load as quickly as possible, at least from the delivery portion of the site (service can affect a user’s access speeds). Images and photos should be calculated to accommodate the smaller screen along with text format and background imaging. Remember that black backgrounds take longer to load and text should contradict the setting so that it’s easy to read, since text will be smaller on a mobile screen.

While loading is essential to the delivery and accessibility, you’ll also need to be accessible yourself. This means you need to readily make available all the info that someone searching you would desire. This includes: location, hours of operation, and contact details (phone number, email, etc.). Don’t make these difficult to find on your page because they are essentially the top three things that a mobile user is going to be looking for. They’re looking for speedy access to you, so give it to them.

As for usability, you’ll also want to make your mobile site as touch-friendly as possible. Touch screen access is currently the most prominent, which can make it hard to be accurate when “clicking” on a link or button. Make sure your links and buttons are large enough with adequate spacing to make your site as “clickable” as possible. Additionally, make sure you integrate your familiar sites with your mobile site, since a large number of mobile users access their social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin).

Personal Word of Mouth Marketing

As for the application of your mobile site, it should be pictured more as a direct access point to you. The majority of mobile searches are performed because the user has the immediate desire to get in touch with you. This could be due to a conversation they’ve just had with an associate or even an immediate need, but it is up to you to make your site a window to you. Buttons that give your location or can quick-call you are often the most desired by mobile users. This gives you the opportunity of personal Word of Mouth Marketing, which is essential in the mobile world.

With the internet now easily accessible on the go, it is crucial that brands and businesses make their sites easily accessible and are able to present their audience with all the information they need as quickly as possible. After all, time is money.

The Importance of Small Business Being Found Online

Take your small business online and start social marketing

With roughly one-third of the world's population having Internet access, it is inconceivable for a small business to not leverage the Internet.

However, having a presence online does not mean consumers will be able to find your business. Search engine marketing and social marketing provide a way for potential customers to locate a business and follow any information they want to share with them. Beyond being found, they are also able to read past customer reviews and evaluate their experiences. There has never been a time where a business has had such an opportunity to connect with potential customers from all around the globe.

Benefits of Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing is one of the most vital aspects to connecting with customers. When someone uses a search engine to find a good or service, they will need to find your site on the first page of the results. If your business is not on the first page, 99 percent of customers will never find it. In fact, the first search result gets 36 percent of the clicks, while the next four results in the listings will not reach this number with all of their clicks combined. When someone searches for your product or service, your business must come up in the results.

Naturally coming up in the search engines is much more practical than spending money advertising on them. While advertising is a guaranteed listing and often a part of search marketing, it will cost businesses money every single time someone clicks on their ad. This is great if a large portion of clicks converts to new customers, but this is not always the case.  Many consumers are aware the highlighted items on the top and bottom of a Google search along with the items you find on the right hand side are actually paid ads.  While this can supplement low rankings, there is no better way for reaching customers than having a high ranking website.

Latest Changes and Updates

The search marketing atmosphere is constantly changing. The rise of the Internet has lured many people to the possibilities of making money online. When this happens, people will inevitably try to "game" the system and have their sites rank on the top of the search engines. This has caused search engines to alter their ranking algorithms and try to combat these unrelated or unworthy websites from taking over the results. If you’re not working with a firm that is doing things reputably or organically, you may have seen a decrease in your page ranking.

Promoting a business now starts with high quality content. If a business merely puts up a website with no content, they will not be given a good ranking. Quality content and knowing the appropriate keywords people are searching for can propel a site to the top of the search listings. Repeat customers will remember a site's name, but potential customers will be searching for a solution to their problems.

Benefits of Social Marketing

Social marketing provides a way to directly communicate with customers. If they are looking for an item on Twitter, providing them with insightful information about it may lead to a sale. However, businesses normally use social marketing to keep their past customers up-to-date with their newest products, services or deals. Some small business will even run promotions where they require people to "like" them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter to participate. This draws in new customers and keeps old customers interested in the business. If someone decides to communicate with a business through a social setting, they will expect to see communications between past customers and a business. The need for high quality customer service has never been more in demand. Treating customers well online can lead to an abundance of new customers at all times. Just look at what @comcast and @zappos have done to set the bar for customer service via Twitter.

Customers are starting to expect a business to have avenues of contact online. In fact, it’s often a negative if they can’t find or interact with you online at all.

The Difference between Wants, Needs and Strategy

Your social marketing strategy matters

It’s essential that you know how to market yourself. You need to be able to stand out from among the crowd and differentiate yourself from all the other applicants. You need to be able to convince someone that you’re the right person for the job. You need to sell yourself effectively in order to get that sale, that project, or that customer.

The competition is fierce. You don’t want to be someone who’s just average and easy to forget. In order to be a cut above, you need to utilize some effective marketing strategies, with social and word of mouth marketing being one of the most popular types today.

Today most people spend a lot of time on social media sites, so it’s important that you establish your presence in some of these social media platforms. Don't jump in too quickly, however! Before you start this type of marketing, it’s important that you identify your objectives and plan out your strategy.

It’s easy to say that you want a thousand followers in one week, or that you aim to establish a presence in all the social networking sites in just a month. But these aren’t strategies – these are goals that you want to fulfill. In order to meet these goals and be successful in your social marketing, you need to formulate a strategy that cuts through the clutter and helps you to reach your objectives within the time frame that you have in mind.

What are some of the things you need to think about in order to create an effective social marketing strategy for your brand?

     1. Create goals and objectives

A ship needs a destination, or else it will just go around in circles. Just like a ship, when it comes to creating a personal brand you need to have some goals and objectives so that you can map out how to achieve them. Otherwise you’ll simply be flailing around, wondering where the shore is. Make these goals concrete by writing them down and putting them in a place where you can see them regularly.

     2. Focus on needs, not wants

Sure, everyone wants a million followers on Facebook, and hundreds of people signing up for their newsletter, but if you’re just starting out, these “wants” may not exactly be feasible and can only discourage you when you don’t achieve them. Focus on what you need in order to be successful in your social marketing. Even if you have thousands of followers, does it really mean that all of them are actively engaged and connected with your brand? Not really. Seeing that you have 3,000 likes on your Facebook page may be remarkable, but if no one is commenting on your posts and updates, then that’s still a red flag that can alert you to problems with your social media marketing strategies.

     3. Identify your target audience

Who is your target audience? If you want to attract new clients, employers and customers, it’s important that you do some research in order to discover how to gain their attention. It’s important to describe your target audience in detail, their demographics, locality, etc., so you know how to identify them and reach them.

     4. Be creative and innovative

Though there are tried and tested strategies for succeeding in social marketing, you should also put some creativity to your plans so that people won’t think that it’s just the same old marketing all over again. Check out your competition and see what kind of approach they’re taking. Encourage active participation in your social media accounts through polls, questions, contests and giveaways, and make sure to add some multimedia to spark conversation.

     5. Listen and respond to your audience

One of the best things about social media is that it really allows you to interact effectively with your audience. It’s not like advertising, which is a one-way broadcasting to the people. Social media allows a two-way conversation to happen, enabling you to really connect and engage your followers. As you advertise in this way, be sure to listen to your fans, take their suggestions into consideration, don’t dismiss their feedback, and always respond to them. This is a great way to spread the word of mouth about your brand, encouraging communication and participation within social media.

Yes, you want to fulfill your social marketing wants. But it’s very important to focus first and foremost on what’s important, on the needs of your personal brand. Once you have concrete goals and objectives, only then can you really create the best strategy in order to achieve these goals.

Focus on what’s feasible and attainable. As a personal brand, you must be grounded and focused on your strategy and goals.

Now We Can Measure Pinterest

Pinterest is fast becoming one of the most popular social networking sites in the world. It currently ranks third with regards to the number of users, with Facebook and Twitter the first and second, respectively.

Due to Pinterest’s increasing popularity, more and more brands – business and personal ones – are signing up and using the site for social marketing. After all, brands need to be where the people are, so that they can spread the word about their brand as well as engage and connect with people.

Since Pinterest is still a pretty new platform, many brands are wondering how to measure the success of their marketing campaign within the site. Unlike other popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, where there are already various ways to measure the ROI or success of your marketing campaign using the sites, the best way to measure the success of your Pinterest campaign remains elusive.

So how do you know if your Pinterest campaign is getting the results you want? How do you measure success? Is it enough to count the number of followers you have? Is it enough to see people liking and repinning your content? Can you already say that your campaign is successful?

Even if you answered yes to those questions, how can you be certain? As a small business owner, you have to ensure that you devote your time in the most lucrative way possible, so if you aren’t sure of the results of your Pinterest campaign, should you continue to devote time and resources to it?

Maybe not.

But don’t lose hope. Now there is something interesting that has come up to help you with this problem. A monitoring and analytics platform for sites involved in social curation, such as Pinterest, recently launched – and they’ve already signed up more than 150 brands and agencies.

Curalate is entering the scene at a perfect time – with the growing popularity of socially curated sites, brands really need to have the ability to measure the success of their social marketing campaign, otherwise, what’s the point of using the site, right?

What exactly does Curalate do?

Right now, it is the only available tool in the market that helps give brands a complete picture of how successful their campaign is in socially curated sites such as Pinterest. It uses a sophisticated mixture of proprietary image-recognition techniques and analytics to make you see how effective you are in engaging your audience. You gain insight on how your brand is influenced by your activities as well as your fans. Curalate is currently the only platform that is able to measure both first and third party actions – and this really gives it an edge over other platforms.

As a small business owner, you really want to make sense of social curation. You want to benefit from it, and that’s exactly what Curalate brings you – a way to monitor, measure, and help you grow your presence in socially curated sites.

Other social monitoring tools are effective when it comes to monitoring texts, but not when it comes to visuals. This is why Curalate really stands out – it helps you make sense of today’s visual platforms.

Within the site, you can easily review and respond to mentions of your brand. This helps you connect and engage better with your audience. What Curalate does is that it finds and consolidates all the conversations about you in one place, so it’s easy for you to reply to these mentions.

Curalate also helps you discover your fans and learn who your brand advocates are. These people are the ones who promote your brand and who can influence others to like your brand, so it’s very important that you learn who they are.

Another benefit the site offers is that it helps you identify what types of content are popular with users, so that you can plan your campaign effectively. After all, with socially curated sites, visual content is the most important.

It even gives you insights on your competition – Curalate gives you reports on how your curation efforts weight against those of your competitors. This is an excellent way to determine if you need to step up your campaign in order for your small business to succeed.

The best part is, Curalate shows you the complete picture, so you know which content is driving the most traffic to your site or store. This really helps you discover which area you need to focus on in order to promote your brand effectively.

Social curation is all the rage today, which is why brands need to have the ability to measure brand engagement as well as the success of their social marketing campaign. Curalate offers you that and more, so don’t hesitate and try their free trial now.

How to Monitor Your Business Brand

Monitoring your business brand is important because it is how you will know if your marketing strategy is effective or not. With businesses taking their brands to social media sites, the need to monitor how brands are perceived by consumers is a must. It is through monitoring that you find out what others are saying about your brand. It is where you can get ideas on how to improve your product, services, or just about anything that can help you improve your business.

Using social media monitoring tools can assist you with your brand. When you have a lot of followers and you want to know what everyone is saying about your brand, you can gather the information you need by listening through such tools. You can also find out what other people are saying, even those that don’t follow you. This is a way to measure if you are meeting your marketing goals.

Here are some ways on how social media monitoring tools can help you improve your brand:

Gives you ideas for content marketing – Through social media monitoring tools, you can get ideas for your website content. It is not easy to come up with content ideas but if you have access to such tools, you can come up with content ideas just by reading through what your customers are saying about your brand. You will also get an idea on what kind of content best engages your readers or customers. If you continue to give them engaging content, you are likely to hear more from your readers.

Find out your demographic – Knowing who your followers are will help you come up with effective ways on how to engage them. The more you can engage your followers, the more chances you have of building a network with them. This can also help you make more informative business decisions.

You can even track conversations made by others who are not following you. With this type of information, you can strategize on how you can attract these people to follow you and join your community.

Customer service – Because social media is an easy way to reach out to brands, customers like to use the platform to call the attention of companies when there is a problem. With a monitoring tool, you can get to those customers faster. And customers love it when they get immediate response from brands regarding their concerns. It makes them feel that they are valuable to the company.

Monitor your brand and other brands – It is always good to know how the competition is doing. If you are in a competitive market, it’s wise to find out how your competition is doing. This helps you stay focused on how you can constantly improve your brand. You can also monitor brands that inspire you. All these will help you measure where you stand as a brand and push you to keep improving even when you are already ahead.

Engage in conversations – Because you can see conversations happening around your brand, you can join in on the conversations. This will help close the gap between brands and customers. If your followers or customers feel comfortable talking to you, then they are much more likely to share their ideas about your brand. It is also a good opportunity to build your brand reputation because you are reaching out to your customers yourself. This is your chance to make them feel valuable to you.

These are just some of the things that you can get from monitoring your business brand. Know what is happening around your brand and gather ideas on how you can constantly improve your brand. Listen to what your customers are saying about you and try to strategize on how you can get your needs and their needs to meet.

Social media monitoring tools can really help your business brand. Just remember that when you are using social media, you have to look into building a community and engaging customers instead of just focusing on making sales. Customers like it best when you make them feel that they belong in a community and not that you just want them to continue to buy your products or services. If you strategize your social media campaign well, you will be able to gain customers just by engaging and interacting with your readers and without having to drop a sales line. Just remember to be true to your brand values. Social media is a great place to build brand reputations so be sure you plan it well and have ways of monitoring your online presence.

You are Your Business Brand

If you want to attract customers, you have to have a good marketing strategy. As a small business, especially when you are only starting out, you have to carefully monitor every step. You also have to monitor whether your efforts and strategies are working at attracting and gaining customers.

With small business owners, your business brand often assumes everything that the owner’s personal brand has – the good and the bad.

How do you marry the two so that it’s sustainable and duplicatable by others (team members, assistants) who come to represent your business?

Here are a few tips on how you can start building your own brand:

Your business values – You can only start building your brand when you know what impression you want to make on your customers. Setting your company values is always a good place to start. You can shape your brand based on how you want your customers to remember you. If you have employees, train them in how to act and do business the way your brand does it. Keep in mind that whatever you or your employees do or say gives people an impression of your brand. As a small business with a relatively small workforce, it’s easier for you to control your employees so take advantage of this.

As part of your marketing campaign, choose a simple branding message. This message should convey who you are and should attract consumers to try your products or services. It should be aligned with your products or services so that when consumers try it out, they will trust that you are someone who does good business.

Set the right tone – Your company voice should have the right tone when communicating with your customers. Your company “voice” should always be aligned with your business values and your brand. This adds consistency to your branding strategies. So whether you are physically or virtually interacting with customers, you should be sending your brand message in a consistent manner. This alone will help you stand out from the rest and it will help your customers distinguish you from the market.

A brand logo – People are quite visual beings and there is nothing more impressive than sending out a consistent message along with a logo or image that represents that message well. Having a good logo that complements your message will add consistency to your marketing strategy. This will also make it harder for consumers to forget you because they have something to associate their great experiences with.

Trial and error – Branding does not happen overnight which is why you have to be patient. You should be ready to try and mix things up until you can get the right tone, message, and logo to truly show who you are as a brand. Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback. If you have a social media account, use it to listen to what other people are saying about your business. Interact with your customers, whether online or offline. Take the feedback and use it to tweak your message, tone, or logo in order to satisfy your customers better.

Take care of your customers – Consumers can make you successful in so many ways. While it may be true that you were the one who came up with an innovation, your customers can help you shape it so as to attract even more consumers. If you know how to take care of your customers, even in the smallest way, you can become successful. Pay attention to their needs and they will keep coming back to you. Watch out for consumers trends and you will attract even more.

The toughest part of any relationship is the people. Isn’t that the truth!  Help yourself by connecting the dots on how you express your personal brand and how that translates to you business brand.  Share that with new team members and help them connect the dots from their personal brand to your business brand.  The ideal situation is when a person can express your business brand in their own style and voice – nothing is more genuine and powerful!

Create Effective Content to Market Your Business

As a solopreneur or small business owner, you may think that content marketing is a huge undertaking and that there are better things you can do with your time. You should realize, however, that putting out great content is an excellent marketing tool for building your brand and establishing customer loyalty.

In recent years, there has been a shift in marketing campaigns. Advertisements have lost their power over customers. Nowadays, people buy from brands they like and trust. But where does this trust come from? Through engaging and building relationships with your consumers using effective content. This is essentially known as content marketing.

You want people to subscribe to your blog updates, follow you on Twitter, opt-in to your email campaign, and subscribe to your page in Facebook. Through the repeated exposure of your content to an audience, you effectively build a relationship with them, giving you opportunities to get them to convert.

The tricky part though, is creating excellent content that can connect and engage with your audience. How do you create a social marketing buzz around your brand? Here are some tips:

     1. Know your audience

Before you can create effective content, you must know your audience. What are their likes and dislikes? What makes them happy? What pains them? What are they looking for?

For example, if you’re a small business owner with an online business selling mom and baby products, then it’s important that you understand what moms like. What do they look for, what problems do they suffer from? What kind of content would get them excited?

By knowing your audience, you can create content that’s relevant and focused, and effectively promote and market your business. Keep in mind that you must inform your audience as well as entertain them.

     2. Be unique and creative

Although it’s easier to simply copy what others have done before you, duplicating content is not really going to effectively capture your audience’s attention. Your audience will simply think “been there, done that,” and you’re left feeling discouraged and wondering why it didn’t work for you.

In today’s world, you need to be creative and unique. Don’t just copy what others have done before you; on the other hand, you can pattern your ideas from them and create something new and different. Something that will make your audience stand up in attention and say, “Wow!”

So don’t be a copycat. To create effective content, put your own personality and style into the content you’re offering.

     3. Experiment

If you’re using Facebook, for example, and are not getting the results you want, maybe it’s time to experiment a little bit. Try different kinds of content and use different kinds of platforms to discover what works with your audience. Maybe you need to mix it up a bit and create more meaningful Facebook posts to connect with your followers. Or maybe creating a blog would be better for your small business brand to help you engage with readers.

Experimentation is important because otherwise, how else will you discover what works or not?

     4. Personalize your content

People want to engage with other people, not brands. So it’s important that you show off your personality through the content you offer. Tell your story and make people empathize with you. Don’t be afraid to share something about yourself, because this is how people will be able to relate with you and your brand.

     5. Be consistent

This is a very important thing you need to do in order to effectively market your business. You must post regularly and consistently in order to engage with your audience.

How will people remember you if you don’t provide regular content? If you don’t update your Facebook page, then how are people going to read your valuable Facebook posts?

So be relevant and consistent. If you abandon your blog or Twitter account, then your followers are going to abandon you as well.

Creating effective content to market your business can be tricky, but following these steps may help you find the right balance in engaging with your audience and marketing your small business. Remember to listen to your audience first and learn what they want – the rest usually follows after that.