Online Marketing

6 Social Media Myths Debunked

Social Media Myths DebunkedHere are six of the most common and harmful social media myths

Social media is one of the best ways to get the word out on your small business. Doing it right, however can be a challenge, especially when there are so many misconceptions and myths about how social media should be used. Here are some of the most common and harmful social media myths today.

1. You Have to Be on Every Social Network

It’s more about quality than quantity when it comes to your small business’ social media presence. You could be on every social network site but not be using them at all effectively so it wouldn’t make any difference. Try to reach your full potential on one social network at a time and then move on to the next – still managing each with some consistency to keep your customers engaged.

2. One Social Media Site Is Sufficient For Your Online Presence

With that being said, the importance of quantity should not be undermined either. It is vital that once you have established a solid presence on one social network that you proceed to branch out to a few others. Facebook may be the biggest one but others are growing at increasingly rapid speeds making it extremely valuable to broaden your horizons. The more your small business is involved in, the more customers you will reach.

3. Your Customers Are Not Active In Social Media

That simply isn’t true. A reported 80% of internet users are involved in social media meaning they span all demographics. You are doing your small business a disservice if you are overlooking social media, regardless of your target demographic.

4. All You Have To Do Is Create a Page and Leave It Alone

Absolutely nothing will happen to your social media pages if you don’t stay on top of them. Keep up your social media activity in order to attract new followers and generate buzz. No one will hear you if you don’t speak.

5. Pinterest is a Passing Fad That Your Small Business Doesn’t Need to Be Involved In

Pinterest is growing extremely quickly right now, actually. It’s attracting about 2 million Facebook users daily. It can’t hurt to get on Pinterest – do not underestimate it’s power (especially if many of your customers are women).

6. It’s Impossible to Have a Significant Impact if You Don’t Have Thousands of Followers

That ain’t true! It’s more important to have a small audience of dedicated customers than large audience outside your target market. Don’t get too hung up on numbers. Just do your best to provide valuable content to your current followers and more will come.

 

 

 

 

Photo courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Pros and Cons of Content Marketing

Pros and Cons of Content MarketingWith all the different tools, concepts and executions that make up marketing, you might be asking yourself what is content marketing. Well to answer that as simply as I can, it’s the process of producing some sort of value through blogs, social media, apps or content on your own platforms, that results in continued visits or shares from your target. Similar to social media marketing, there are pros and cons, right and wrong ways to do content marketing. Here are our biggest pros and cons.

Pros of Content Marketing

It provides insight

If you have a loyal following and create quality content, you will be rewarded with customer feedback. Some of the responses might be negative but you can use that to make adjustments and improvements.

Increase your chances for shares

While I don’t think that you should create content with the expectation that it will go viral, I do think that the best chance you have is creating quality content. If you’re producing work that moves people, they’ll want to share it and you’ll have a chance for it to go viral. The more consistently you can put out quality work the more your customers will visit consistently and share your content.

Cons of Content Marketing

It won’t come easy

It takes time and hard work to be successful with content marketing. If you don’t have the time to commit you might want to think about bringing someone on in order devote the time it needs. If you can’t do this then maybe it’s not the right time to start your target marketing campaign.

You Need to Be Organized

You need to be well organized in order to make sure all the content being produced is thoughtful and related. If you’re just throwing out seemingly random or unorganized content people won’t know what to expect from you and be less likely to follow.

In my opinion, as long as you have the time to dedicate to content marketing the pro’s definitely outweigh the cons.

 

 

Photo courtesy of Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

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Social Media Chatter: How Effective Is It?

Social Media Chatter: How Effective Is It?There is always a lot of chatter about whether or not social media marketing is truly effective. There are people on both sides of this issue. While both sides have valid arguments I believe that the truth lies somewhere in between and is dependent on how you use social media in your marketing plans.

What Is the Social Media Chatter in 2014

Some say that because Facebook has changed its algorithm many people are starting to think that social media marketing isn’t worth it. They are saying that e-mail marketing is still a better alternative.

One of the statistics thrown out there is that e-mail marketing reaches 100% of the people on your e-mail list but social media is dependent on the platform your target audience is using. But you do need to take this information with a grain of salt; how many of those e-mails are actually being opened?

Online chatter also mention that 3.6 billion people had e-mails in 2013, while at the beginning of 2013 Facebook had 1.11 billion active users. I believe those numbers are skewed because people could have set up multiple accounts in both categories.

The biggest problem, in my opinion, is that people look at social media marketing as one note. They think that it’s all about reaching new consumers by advertising on different platforms. But social media’s greatest strength is about being social.

Social media has plenty of benefits that help grow your consumer base. For example, it helps you offer better customer service, maintain your reputation and can lead to word-of-mouth advertising. All these things will lead to better reviews, shared content and more sales of your product.

I think you need to use social media as an extension of your campaigns and not as a stand-alone campaign. It is A tool not THE tool to use when marketing your company.

 

 

 

 

Photo courtesy of KROMKRATHOG / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Web Site Strategy

When was the last time you asked your clients how they view and use their web site? And when was the last time they asked their clients? Have they ever asked? Are their clients telling them? And is it really that important?

Of course it’s important because it’s basic Marketing 101.

Web Site Strategy and Marketing

I took a client out to lunch this week for two reasons: for some social time and to discuss the web site strategy for his company.

I really love this part of my job. I get to enjoy the company of some great people over great food. But equally important, connect in a way that you can’t through texting and email.

As we discussed the web site and what direction it should be going we touched on mobile web sites, responsive web sites, cell phones, notebooks and customers. We talked about design, content, providers and devices. We discussed how people view and use web sites, and how they prefer to. And we discussed some web sites that have left users in the ether to jump on the latest technology bandwagon.

That last part is still the key to your web site strategy, and really is Marketing 101. Who is your target audience, what do they need, how do they want to communicate with you, and how do they want you to communicate with them?

Marketing Is Still the Same

I realized during lunch that with all the extraordinary changes in the communications world over the last decade marketing hasn’t changed a whole lot. The basic premise is still promoting and selling products or services. It’s only the way it’s delivered and communicated that has changed drastically.

As we’ve morphed into a mobile society with the expectation that everything can and should be at our fingertips, web site strategy has become the focal point of many marketing campaigns. Hence our business lunch to plot web site strategy for the coming years. And like 10 years ago, and 20 years ago, and 50 years ago, and 100 years ago we will start with the customers, what they need and what they want. We will ask them.

Do you need help with your web site strategy? Give Mary Joan a shout at (312) 421-2129. You never know, you could end up having lunch.

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