Social Media Help for Small Business

Charlotte's social media consulting firmSmall businesses can compete successfully in the competitive and changing global market.  How? By strategically adding social media to their marketing, sales, and customer service efforts.

Common wisdom today, as expressed by an article in Forbes, is that companies need to push past what they’ve done in to past that causes them to think in a box.  Why?  In a nutshell, to survive, to succeed going forward.  Success today means shifting “from an an 88-year-old company to a 92-year-young company”.

Adding digital communication strategies such as becoming active in social media networks can help your company gain advantages today.  Business people know that they should be involved with ,and planning for, social media engagement…but many find they don’t know how to be effective and efficient using social media to help them grow, sell, serve, and prosper.

With limited resources, small businesses today can gain significant advantages by hiring a strategic social media consultant to help them plan, implement, tweak, execute, and maintain their social media presence, relationships, and capabilities.

However, there is some confusion when it comes to hiring outside help. Should you simply get an intern or your co-worker’s kid to help set-up a Facebook account and post a few messages now and then?   Or should you hire professional consultants to dovetail social media efforts with your company’s business objectives?

Get Professional Help

As business best practices evolve, and the traditional ways business use of social media becomes more prevalent, so do the expectations of customers. What you post and where you post it are critical to allowing you to put your best foot forward with your target markets and audiences.  The benefits to a company who realizes that they need to jump-start and streamline their social media efforts is that they will expand their overall capability and affect the entire team by reducing stress and opening up more growth opportunities.

For companies in the Charlotte, NC area, Liz Horgan with Strategic Social Media can help you thrive in today’s new marketplace by helping you to add social media to your marketing, sales and customer relationship building efforts.  Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you.  (704) 301-0135 and ask for Liz Horgan, or email liz.horgan@strategicsocialmedianc.com.

Posted in Social Media & Small Business, Trends in Social Media

Strategic Use of Hootsuite – Best Hootsuite Strategies


Screen shot 2013-05-22 at 5.16.41 PMHere’s a quick summary of how you can best use Hootsuite to increase your productivity and save time managing your social media efforts.

Hootsuite is a free social media management system that lets you manage most of your social media channels in one easy-to-use place.  The big benefit is that Hootsuite allows you to auto-schedule your posts across multiple social media channels – post to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+ at the same time.

5 Top strategic ways you can use Hootsuite

1.  Thought Leadership and Visibility – Schedule social media posts from your RSS feed for the upcoming week to ALL of your social networks in just a few keystrokes.  Use Hootsuites “Hootlet” for even simpler posting.

2.  Analytics – Hootsuite offers a number of analytic reports – my favorite is the “Ow.ly Click Summary” which lets you learn which posts do the best.  Click on the far left sidebar, the Analytics chart, and choose the reports.  Information from this report can help you decide what content to focus on to post – because now you have the information to see what people share and respond to most.  This report is sent to your email inbox at a frequency of your choice.

3.  Dig Deep into Twitter – filter through the “firehose” that is your Home Twitter Feed.

  • Set up a Search on your Twitter dashboard in Hootsuite.  Click the “+ Add Stream”, click on the Search tab at the top of the pop-up, look at the “See Examples” to get ideas of how to structure a search.  For example, you can type in “social media ?” and it will show all Twitter posts on Twitter (not just the people you follow) that have a question that has the words social media in it.

  • See at a glance only Tweets by your potential clients.  This is done by creating a LIST in Twitter (set up in Twitter ideally).  Click the “+Add Stream” and you’ll see this option.

4.  See what others say and think about you – set up your Hootsuite streams to show this.

  • Easily view Twitter direct messages and mentions without continuous stream monitoring.

5.  Apps like the YouTube App allow you to see your video channel, and let you search YouTube (just add the Search YouTube App;  in the top of the column you will see the circled icon noted by the red arrow, click on it and enter in your search terms – it will search all of YouTube for the latest results)

6.  LinkedIn information available currently through Hootsuite (unless you’re looking for a job) is not worth spending much time on. Facebook is similar to LinkedIn, it shows your News Feed, but at this point it’s better to be on Facebook to engage.  Google+ has similar functionality and also isn’t terribly exciting.  Scheduling content posts is the key advantage Hootsuite brings to these networks at this point.

Hands-on Help with Hootsuite

I  help individuals and businesses optimize and set up their social media channels – and provide them with specific strategies to use and engage in social media most effectively to meet their specific needs.

Contact me at liz.horgan@strategicsocialmedianc.com, phone (704) 301-0135, or visit my website and request I get in touch with you.

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Posted in Social Media Measurement/ROI, Social Media Time Management, Trends in Social Media, Uncategorized

Biggest Marketing Problem for Small Businesses in 2013 – Noise

Social Media, Noise, AvoidThe biggest marketing problem for small businesses today is noise – it’s hard be heard because of everything going on all around us.

The challenge is to cut through the noise and be heard by your buyers!

The 2013 Approach to Buying:  Think of how you buy goods and services today.  You note a problem, you do the research, you reach out, you wrestle with the details and come to a conclusion, and you make the purchase.  Throughout this process, you get input that helps you make your buying decisions.

Given the way people buy today, the challenge is to provide your people with relevant information when and how they need it. Good information that is helpful, and valuable to a prospective buyer, is not noise.  

Offer helpful, valuable information:  Understand what information your prospective buyer/client needs at every step of their decision making process.  At the beginning of their journey, they need details about the problem they are facing.  Next they need to see solutions and understand them, including the pros and cons.  Finally then need pricing, support, how-to’s, and action assistance.

Craft your content – your messaging – to meet the needs of your buyer at every stage of their purchase process.

Because so many people look to the Internet and search for what they want (Google or Bing, Facebook or LinkedIn), it’s important to have your messages and information come up during those queries.

Message Visibility:  Improve opportunities for success in becoming more visible, valuable, approachable, and accessible to your people through social media.

Tips to break through the noise:

  • Grab Attention:  Write creative, catchy headlines (#1 Plumbing Nightmare vs. Leaking Pipes Cause Damage).  Use video in new ways (show both the human side of your business and the product/solution you offer – experiment!), make sure you entertain, inform, keep viewers curious to learn more, make sure the audio is clear and that your message can be heard .  Try podcasts as a way of delivering greater detail on your product/solution.  Creativity and knowledge of your customer should influence how you approach gaining their attention.  
  • Segment and Focus:  Target different messages to your different audiences.  Increase your focus on attracting higher-quality followers and connections on your digital platforms (Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn) rather than on simply the number of connections. Share interesting, relevant content to each target group – this means spending time to improve your audience segmentation, and developing a multi-pronged communications strategy where messages are tailored to your segmented groups and adapted to the social platform being used (more formal on LinkedIn, picture-rich and chatty on Facebook).
  • Engage:  Be social – talk to people, see what they’re thinking, how you can help, what you can offer – and do this in a timely manner and on a consistent basis. 
  • Think SEO:  With all of the content (blog, post, video, podcast), optimize for search.  This means using keywords and structuring your content to be sharable, likable, and a comment magnet.

You will have to take stock and ultimately make some tough choices this year as to where to engage your audiences in order to achieve maximum impact.  Social media changes rapidly, so it is important to have an updated strategic social media plan to be efficient and effective online.  Integrating your in-person, traditional marketing, and online marketing efforts is critical to your success.

The bottom line:  consumers/clients/customers want to do things on their terms.  Adapt your marketing messaging to meet their needs for information, and you’ll find greater success as you cut through the noise and offer value.

 

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Posted in "How To" basics, Social Media & Small Business, Social Media Measurement/ROI

Enhance your Career in 2013 using Social Media

Strategic Social Media Charlotte NC Liz Horgan

Is 2013 the year that you focus on you? Strategic Social Media Charlotte NC Liz Horgan On improving your career, expanding your prospects, keeping your job in this competitive environment, getting a promotion or changing to a new, better job?  One of the key components for success in today’s job market is to have updated, useful skills that complement your work and life experiences.

One set of skills that can give you an edge are abilities with digital communications – specifically social media.

Social media skills can help you enhance your career.

So…how are your social media skills?  Are you using social media at work, for work?  If you are – congratulations to both you and your employer!!  If not – both you and your company are missing out and likely face greater marketplace risk as a result.

To learn about social media and become knowledgable about digital communications and how platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, and others can be used efficiently and effectively for business purposes.

Some companies understand the value of educating their employees – a recent article in Forbes suggests that “Social media training is quickly becoming mandatory for an ever-growing range of companies”.

But what if your company doesn’t have social media training?

In today’s marketplace, it can benefit you to take matters into your own hands and  gain knowledge about social media and digital communications.

Online Resources:  There are a number of online resources to choose from:

Personal Trainer:  Get yourself a social media personal trainer – someone like me.  As a social media consultant, I’ve learned –  from working with a variety of business people and individuals looking to change jobs – that hands-on training is the most efficient and effective way for people to get up to speed on social media, social networking, and digital communications.

Just as you would hire a personal trainer to help you get in shape and to develop habits you can run with, so do I help individuals by delivering digital communication skills tailored to their unique situation/industry/interest.  It’s quick, manageable, and designed to empower the individual to confidently go forward and excel using their new social media tools.

Contact Liz for a no-obligation initial consultation – in person if you’re in the Charlotte, NC area – via Google Hangout, Skype or phone otherwise (in Hawaii – let’s talk!).

Elevate your skills – it’s time to take some positive steps in adding social media to your skill sets and improving your prospects for the new year.

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Posted in "How To" basics, LinkedIn for Business, Social Media & Small Business, Trends in Social Media

Thoughts on How to Do Social Media Better for 2013

Social Media 2013 trends and future tools

Want your business to be more successful in 2013?  One way to make this happen is to tap into social media and leverage social media’s relationship building advantages.

There are plenty of resources online that can help you learn more about social media – Social Media Examiner offers insights and practical how-to’s, a number of local and national firms offer online training in nearly all aspects of social media (just Google these), bloggers write strategically about social media, and both virtual and inperson conferences abound.  For those who prefer the benefits of personalized, customized social media assistance, there are a number of good social media consultants (mini plug for those looking for help in the Charlotte, NC area).

If you’re already involved with social media for your business, now that 2013 and thoughts of the New Year are upon us, it seems to be a good time to reflect on what might be ahead for social media, digital communications, and social marketing as it relates to small business.

Social Media 2013 trends and future tools

The Jetsons

Just as the Jetson’s cartoon of the 1960′s had imaginings of tools of the future, so today do we look to what we know and add what we can imagine to it.  Will we be right?  No!  Or at least not totally.

While we’re still dealing with potholes and traffic issues, not buzzing around in space a la Jetsons, we do have robots, microwave ovens and frozen dinners that were showcased 50 years ago in a cartoon which projected how the future could be.  In other words, we can have a clue.

So as I look ahead for small businesses, I see that 2013 will continue to be all about building relationships and having your product or service visible to the people who want and need what you are selling.

The trends support this: rapid changes in technology – with mobile, continued growth of the Internet, the cloud – and the continued personal pressures of 24/7 living and multi-tasking.  One way to adapt to the evolution in technology and to leverage personal time constraints is through efficient and effective engagement with social media.

So what specifically can you do this next year to improve your social media and digital communication business benefits?  Here are a few ideas:

  • Focus on building relationships
  • Use Twitter strategically by reaching out and having conversations with people you don’t easily have access to – search by either conversation (keywords help here) or by person (prospects, thought leaders, customers, anyone who can benefit from your product or service).  You can do this on other social media platforms as well.
  • Participate in LinkedIn Groups – showcase your knowledge and provide help (non-salesy) to people by answering questions and contributing to discussions.
  • Use LinkedIn for research – before meetings or networking events to gain knowledge about who you’re talking to and who they may know that you would like to know.
  • Select the few appropriate social media platforms to be involved with (every business is different – some will best build communities on Facebook, others on Google+, Pinterest, etc.) and engage regularly.

Social media continues to evolve and be relevant as a tool to help you manage and craft your future.  Done well, with strategic intent and focus on your audience(s) and business goals, social media can expand your reach, do some of the heavy lifting in nurturing relationships, and position you and your business to be able to find leads and convert them to customers.

 

 

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Posted in Facebook for Business, Google+, LinkedIn for Business, Social Media & Small Business, Trends in Social Media, Twitter for Business