How to: Pinterest Marketing

How to: Pinterest Marketing Pinterest marketing is something often overlooked. Pinterest can be used for more than DIY birthday gifts and nifty holiday desserts. If you’ve been using the site already for pinning ideas you think are interesting, you might be surprised to know that marketing with Pinterest doesn’t take much extra. Like other social networks—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram—Pinterest gives you the ability to share things you like. And for a business, it allows for free exposure. Pinterest is all about networking, sharing things, and linking to content, which makes it ideal for driving new customers to your product or service. …

Should I “Like” My Own Facebook Posts?

Answer:  YES!!!! The Facebook algorithm is designed to show the most relevant and interesting posts to followers.  The rationale is that there is so much content being posted, it would be overwhelming to show us everything.  True, this is quite a “big brother” philosophy, but alas something over which none of us has control. So are some of the characteristics that Facebook determines make an interesting post: Number of likes a post receives (and how quickly it receives them) Multi-media content (video, images) Number of comments a post receives (and how quickly) Facebook also runs a test to see how …

Should I Use A Business Or Personal Facebook Page for my business?

If your account is setup like most, you have a Facebook business page that is part of your Facebook personal account.  When followers like your Facebook page, they do not see the connection to your personal account and vice versa.  If you are using your personal page as a business page, you do run the risk of Facebook suppressing it at some point and undoing all of that good work you have done to promote it. Having a Facebook page provides your business the following benefits: Access to tabs to provide more information about your business The ability to run …

Recipe For “Brand Chocolate”: How To Be Irresistible

How do some brands seem to have that irresistible quality that creates a loyal following of happy clients who talk about them and refer others?  How do some brands seem to be found while others disappear? To explain, I like to use the analogy of a chocolate shop.  The chocolatier’s dilemma is that she has this amazing ingredient to work with that so many people will enjoy once they experience it but there are other chocolate shops on her block, so many ways she could prepare her chocolate, and so many different customers she could serve.  So how does she …

Digital Marketing Trends for 2016

This year has shown us that any doubts we may have had regarding the dominance of mobile is over. Mobile is clearly where it’s at. That said, as I have often advised, behind every digital campaign is real people who are seeking information, education and entertainment. Responding to real people requires that your brand be authentic to who you are. Data analytics may be cool but it represents the behaviors of actual people so if we remember to speak to those people with our content in a way that responds to their needs, then we are more likely to make …

Retweeting protocol for small business owners

What’s the proper protocol for re-tweeting when you own a small business? I am frequently asked by my clients what is the correct way to re-tweet. Here are some helpful hints that I have compiled: Following the User. You shouldn’t automatically assume that you are already following this particular user, so make sure by checking your account. If that user was interested enough to share your content, then you should reciprocate when appropriate. Look at their profile to see if they’re a person or organization you’d like to follow and if so, then add them. List the User. If you …

Make Your Business Stand Out on Twitter with These Secret Tips

  Utilize a dashboard The mightiest twitter tools include Dashboards such as TweetDeck, Seesmic, Hootsuite etc. fall under the bracket of the most powerful twitter tools. Why? Because they expand beyond Twitter’s ability of displaying single columns of tweets as well as the standard right panel information that we see when we log on to twiiter.com. Dashboards allow you to customize and create your twitter experience the way you want. You can have streams show only mentions of your Twitter handle, or you can go for advanced options such as creating a column that displays all mentions of your product, …

A Hashtag Primer for Small Business

A hashtag is a keyword or phrase preceded by the hash symbol (#), that people include in their social media posts. Essentially, it makes the content of your post accessible to all people with similar interests, even if they’re not your followers or fans.  For instance, let’s say you’re an Apple fan and that you’re playing with the idea of buying an iPhone 5. A simple “#iPhone5″ search on any social network will open a dedicated news feed with all iPhone 5 latest updates, deals, rumors and hacks. The results you see on this feed are the aggregated posts of …

Google Circles and How They Work

Several of my clients come to me confused about Google+.  Should they have a page?  Is it worthwhile?  In a word, yes, if for no other reason than the fact that Google loves Google+ and tends to rank its pages quite well in search results.  So claiming your piece of Google real estate and posting content regularly is important. Google’s entry into the social networking world debuted June 2011. One of the features of Google+’s service is the Google+ Circle, similar in design and purpose to Facebook’s Lists or Groups. Because relationships are at the core of any social networking …

social media dos and donts

Social Media Do’s and Don’ts

Social media dos and don’ts are crucial aspects that my clients, who are new to utilizing social media for their businesses, often seek advice on. They inquire about what is considered appropriate or inappropriate to express online, the frequency of interactions, and the appropriate individuals with whom they should engage. To address these queries, I typically provide the following high-level response: Approach your online interactions with the same etiquette you would employ at a cocktail party. Just as you wouldn’t barge into a room shouting your business name or distribute business cards haphazardly without establishing rapport or sharing captivating anecdotes …