Social Media

Facebook currently has 800,000,000 users. Many companies understand the need to use a resource like this one. It’s inexpensive and there are some serious benefits whether you’re talking about changing your customer service for the better or creating a huge fan base.

There is a real problem, though. Not everyone is quite as tech-savvy as they imagine themselves to be, and when business owners begin dabbling in Facebook but fail to make the changes they should as updates occur, some very real issues come into play.

There are a lot of social networks around now, so it truly takes something special to set one apart from all the others. Pinterest is one of the newer, and most popular, types of social networking sites around. But what is it all about, and how can you use it to help make your business more profitable?

Pinterest is basically a way to allow people to organize all of their thoughts in one place. The Internet is chock full of all sorts of different ideas and projects, and while it's possible to put each page you enjoying your favorites, it's very easy to forget exactly what each favorite is all about. That's where Pinterest comes into play.

These days, many companies are working to learn how to keep up with competitors who seem to dominate the world of social media, and the right social media strategy can help. A good strategy is the plan you create to build brand exposure in the world of social networking, and there’s quite a bit to learn about how to build the best social media strategies. Fortunately, there are some small things you can do right away to begin using social media as part of your business marketing efforts.

Begin by setting some goals. The difference between developing a strategy and simply utilizing the social media networks out there is that a strategy automatically means having an action plan that will help you meet certain goals. You can’t have a good plan without a goal. The goal, or goals, will help you measure your level of success and keep you on track at the same time.

Still not sure you need a website? Stop reading right here, because we’re going a lot further than that here. These days, a website just isn’t enough. The yellow pages are out the window. Instead, online profiles now reign supreme.

Phone books are gone in favor of Google people search. Having several profiles online is a must for a number of reasons including reputation management and SEO.  Here are just a few of the profiles you must consider having:

Every year about this time, companies begin planning how they can solidify the upcoming year. The right goals can certainly help in most cases, and for many companies, that means creating a plans for a better web presence. Here are some tips that can help.

Design a Better Social Media Strategy – You’ve probably heard that social media is forever changing the business landscape, and it’s true. It’s shifting the way customers interact with you both on and offline, and it’s altering the business-customer relationship too.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past five years, you likely know all about social media. In fact, you probably use it in your daily life. Updating your Twitter and Facebook status has become so commonplace that it’s just part of the routine these days. Many business owners, however, don’t realize that utilizing social media in your marketing and advertising agenda is actually a crucial component of brand development.

Social media is changing the way we do business and it is building relationships between customers and the company in order to help create brand and business loyalty. Basically, by incorporating social media into your website design and by utilizing it for your company, you can interact with your customers in a whole new way.

You could have the coolest website in the world, but without social media connected with it, you’re missing out on a great deal.  When people have the ability to share your site with others and interact with it easily, you’ll soon discover that it provides you with more customers and more potential sales.

The first thing is to ensure that you have a social media presence by crafting Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, and so forth for yourself and your company.  This gives people more of an ability to see you for who you are and what your company stands for.

There’s a simple truth regarding Facebook:  It changed everything.

Even people who ardently dislike Facebook will admit that.  When you hear the number 800 million, you might think that it’s the population number of a few countries combined.  In fact, that is the number of active users on Facebook today.

Many times, big companies are slow to pick up on certain trends.  One quick look and they’ll decide it’s not for them, no matter how quickly the trend may evolve or how big it might possible become (as in more than a trend).  For a long time Facebook was ignored by everyone except college students because, after all, that was the target audience for Facebook.  If you didn’t have a college email address, you couldn’t get involved.

But Facebook has since grown much larger, expanded outside of the collegiate area, and has inspired others to craft social media sites.  No longer can this phenomenon be ignored.  In fact, it couldn’t be ignored several years ago!  Companies slow to pick up on the power of social media have already missed a gigantic marketing bus.

In short, yes, social media strategies are important for small businesses. Social media is all about getting your name out through real-time interaction with your customers. Unfortunately, if you don’t do it correctly, you can negatively affect your reputation and sales.

Some business owners think opening a few social media pages and sending out occasional posts is enough. It’s not. Far from it. If you’re serious about developing a strong social media presence for your business (which we highly suggest, by the way), you can’t just go about it haphazardly. You have to have a plan. Following are the basic steps of “going social.”