Finish What You Start

Small business owners are constantly busy and may not have time to run their business and update social media and a website every day.  Sometimes business owners may have already started a website but never got to finish the entire website because they got tied up with other duties.  

Unfortunately, a half finished website can be just as bad as not having a site at all.  If the site isn't constantly updated, your customers won't be able to find the information they need and are more likely to visit another business's site to get their information.  

If you don't have the time to keep all of your social media profiles updated and your website current, it is definitely worth it to look into hiring an agency to do this task for you.  

Many agencies will be able to design the website you've always wanted, regularly post to your social media profiles, and even engage with your customers for you online. The best thing about hiring an agency to handle your online presence is that they will have professionals constantly monitoring your social media profiles and website who can respond to customers in a timely manner while you are able to run your business without sitting in front of a computer all day.

Hiring an agency to manage your online presence will obviously cost you some money.  But when you factor in the time that you are saving and the fact that customers will always be able to access accurate information about your company, it is well worth the cost.  It is also important to remember that many agencies are small businesses just like yours and they rely on support from the community just like you do.  When small businesses help each other out, everyone is a winner!

Beacons - The Future of Marketing

As a small business owner, it is important for you to stay up to date with the latest technology and innovations available to help you with your business.  Today, an emerging technology is the beacon.

Beacons are devices that allow business owners to push messages to customers cell phones when they come within a certain distance of the device. Messages are sent using the bluetooth technology in the customer's phone and messages can be placed onto beacons via the cloud.

One company that is pioneering beacon technology is Piper.  Piper is an app in the iTunes App Store that users can download for free and interact with beacons and also chat with nearby friends who also have the app downloaded. The company has partnered with McDonald's in Columbus, Ga and has placed beacons in all Columbus McDonald's locations. The beacons send out messages to customers in the drive thru and in the restaurant and push out special coupons that can be added to the Passbook app on the iPhone.

Make sure you watch out for beacons and companies like Piper in the coming years. Maybe as early as 2015, you will be able to use this technology in your own business and interact with your customers in a whole new way.

Blogging is Good for Business

After creating several profiles on social media platforms, often times, business owners overlook the benefits of blogging.  Here are three good reasons you should keep up with a blog.

1. Blogging is good for SEO

SEO is short for search engine optimization. It allows you to help your customers find you online. When you blog about different topics that your customers are interested in, your business will show up higher in search results when your customers use online search engines. By using Google Analytics, you can see what keywords your customers use when they go to your website and use those words as topics for your blog posts or you can blog about other things you would like web searchers to visit your website for.

2. Blogging makes you look like an expert

When you blog, you are sharing opinions, research, and information with people who want to consume your content. Blogging allows you to extend your influence. For example, if you owned a small pottery store in a small town in Alabama, you could write blogs about pottery and attract readers from across the world who like pottery. When blogging, make sure that you try not to post things that aren't true. You want to make readers realize that you are trustworthy and an expert when it comes to what you do. Then, when they are in the market to buy whatever you make or do, they will probably visit you first.

3. Blogging allows you to make your website appear up to date

One of the many ways your website is judged by consumers is looking at when it was last updated.  Constantly changing the content for a small company's website can involve a lot of work. Instead, you can link your blog posts to your website and give your customers something more "up to date" to read. A website that isn't updated regularly can cause customers to question whether or not the business is still open. A website that is kept up to date and links to a recent blog post lets the customer know that your business is alive and thriving!

Google+ - Your Secret Weapon

"Google+ is going to be bigger than Facebook!"

That's what everyone was saying in 2011. Unfortunately it didn't take off as fast as people expected, but that doesn't mean that it isn't helpful for your business.  By using Google+ effectively, you can boost your company's search ratings and gain more customers.

Here are three tips to help you use Google+ to your advantage:

1. Fill Out Your Entire Profile

By filling out your entire business profile, you are giving your customers more information about your small business. You want to give your customers more information about what your business does and what it's all about. Complete profiles show up higher in Google searches for keywords relevant to your business.





2. Link Your Page to Your Address on Google Maps
Linking your page to Google Maps helps your business with SEO or search engine optimization, making it easier for your audience to find you when they search online. Plus, what good is your profile if your audience doesn't know where to find you?



3. Ask for Customer Reviews

Many customers like to read reviews about a business before they make a purchase. Customer reviews help people know what they are getting when they make purchases from you. Hopefully the majority of your reviews will be positive, but if you get negative reviews, make sure that you address them and try to resolve the issue. The fact that you replied to the negative review will show your audience that you care about their experience with your business.

How to Use Vine and Instagram

Vine

A picture's worth a thousand words. So what is a 6 second video worth?

Vine is an app that lets users share quick six second videos with each other. These videos are most commonly shared on Twitter, but they can also be seen on the Vine app.  Twitter purchased Vine in 2012 and the app launched in 2013. Since then, it has grown to become very popular with millennials in high school and college.

There are even "Vine Celebrities" that some users like to follow to be entertained. Many of these "celebrities" use humor and collaborate with other users who have a lot of followers to create funny videos. These users are also sometimes sponsored by different companies.

Many companies create Vine videos with special effects and animation such as the Lowe's #FixInSix campaign. This can be hard for small business owners to do with a limited budget.

So how can you connect with your customers on Vine without spending a lot of money?

Try giving your customers a behind the scenes look at your business. For example, if you run a restaurant, create a short video of your cook preparing the special for the night, or if you run a small boutique, create a video of one of your employees opening the box of new dresses that just arrived.

The key to a successful Vine is to make it entertaining and to make sure that it gives the viewers an exclusive look at something they find interesting.

Here is an example of how the Georgia Bulldogs football team used Vine to give fans a view of the team entrance from the sideline.



Instagram

Instagram is an app that allows users to share and edit pictures with each other.  The app is exclusively for pictures...  no wordy status updates.

Instagram is very popular with millennials and even some Gen Xers are starting to sign up.  On Instagram, users post pictures for others to see and like or share with their friends.

Companies use Instagram to show customers pictures of their new products, and even pictures of food.

The key to a successful Instagram account is to only post pictures that you would consider framing and hanging in your home or restaurant. You want to avoid posting pictures with too many words or awkward looking pictures of people.  If you wouldn't hang it in your home or make the photo your next profile picture, you probably shouldn't post it to Instagram. You can also use Instagram as another way of giving your customers a behind the scenes look at a typical day for your business.

Here's an example of a good photo published to Instagram by The Home Depot.

3 More Twitter Tactics

As I promised in my post about a month ago, here are more three more tips for using Twitter to help your small business.


1. Use Pictures

When people are scrolling through their twitter feed, pictures can help catch the attention of your users.  You want to make sure that the picture that you share is attractive and something pleasing to the eye.  Avoid sharing pictures with a lot of text or screenshots of your ads.  In this post, Lowe's does a nice job of grabbing your attention with a beautiful kitchen that makes you think about getting ready for Thanksgiving, when you'll probably have family over in your kitchen.













2. Reply Quickly

Often times, your customers will want to go onto social media platforms and talk about their experiences at your store.  You can use your Twitter account to interact with your customers.  If you reply to their tweet, most of the time the user will be excited that you engaged with them.  For some people, a retweet or a reply can make that user's day.  Although many customers talk about their good experiences, many also talk about their bad experiences.  Either way, make sure you reply quickly to their tweet and never tell your users that they are wrong.  A business account on Twitter should never argue back and forth with a user, no matter how absurd they are.  In this example, Publix does an excellent job engaging with this customer who found an apple at the store that is apparently a big deal to her.











3. Use Humor

The goal of social media is to have meaningful interactions with your customers.  Although your goal
should never be to get a gazillion followers or a ton of re-tweets, you definitely shouldn't toss those statistics to the side.  A re-tweeted branded message is more meaningful and accomplishes a goal of brand awareness, while "re-tweet this if you think cats are better than dogs" is not absolutely worthless.  When you want to drive meaningful retweets, you need to think like an average user.  Most people will re-tweet topics that include stats that prove that I'm right and you're wrong, news, and humor.  For us, humor is the best route to get your name out there.  When using humor, make sure that it isn't offensive!  The best trick for this that I would use is to think of the most sensitive person you know, and if you picture yourself having to explain why the joke is funny and not offensive, then you shouldn't post it.  Yes, your joke is probably hilarious and I would laugh at it, but the easily offended people on Twitter will attack you for making the joke.
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In this example, Dos Equis plays off of their "Most Interesting Man in the World" commercials and makes another joke that received a lot of re-tweets.  These re-tweets are valuable because it helps build brand awareness.

Why Should You Use YouTube?

Creating and sharing videos with your customers has never been easier than it is today.  You can easily film a video right from your smartphone and then with a few taps of your finger, you can share the video instantly with customers by using YouTube.  Here are three ways why you should use YouTube to help attract and engage customers.

1. Integration

Once you create a video on YouTube, you can share that video across several different platforms including Facebook, Twitter, a blog, and even an email campaign.  Videos give your customers a little variety when it comes to sharing content.  Another way you can use YouTube to help your email campaigns is to create a "Vlog" or a video blog, where you can talk about whatever interests you or you can talk about any updates about your business.

2. Videos Create an Extra Visual

YouTube provides you with an additional way to communicate with your customers and it can provide your customers with more information than a photo.  For example, if you are trying to sell a lawn mower, you can create a video of someone starting the lawn mower, and using the lawn mower so your customers can actually see the product being used.  You can use videos to give customers that 360 degree view of the product and to explain how the product works.  If you run an e-commerce site, consider adding videos to your product descriptions.

3. Growing Consumption

Today, consumers are watching videos online more than ever before. They are watching these videos on their smartphones, and on social media sites.  Videos give your customers something more that they can't get out of a regular Facebook post. If your video is interesting enough, your consumers will even share your video with their friends. This is an easy way to attract more business.




If you choose to use Youtube, remember that your videos don't have to look like high quality movies for them to be effective. You can create simple videos using a webcam or a smartphone and get the desired outcome and you don't have to spend any money.