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November 1, 2021

How a Social Media Manager Can Help Reduce Your Stress and Make Your Online Presence Soar

As a business owner, you have a full plate. Chances are some of the things on that plate include managing your social media accounts and conducting promotions. Social media promotions are the lifeblood of many businesses. They also require time and expertise and may not be your strongest suit or even an area of interest.

You can’t quit social media. But, you can hire a social media manager to make your life easier and increase the quality and effectiveness of your social media presence. If you think that sounds expensive or like a lot of work, hear us out about how bringing a social media manager onto your team can reduce your stress and workload while changing your online presence for the better and creating meaningful results for your business.

The Basics

There are four main steps to running a social media promotion. At a high level that includes:

  • Setting goals for the promotion.
  • Creating an offer and making a plan.
  • Communicating the offer.
  • Assessing your results.

Let’s look at how a social media manager can enhance each of these areas for better results.

Setting goals

Ideally, your social media promotions will drive more business, reach new customers, and cement loyalty with your base. Because it’s essential to identify what you want to achieve at the outset of any communication activity, goal setting is the first step for online promotions.

As you embark on a promotion, your goals may vary. For example, your goal could be expansive–like attracting 500 new followers. Or, it may be specific, like selling a certain number of products within a particular time frame. Either way, setting clear goals for the promotion is the first step.

When you work with a social media manager, the goal-setting process grows and is more expansive. You’ll work together to take a broader look at your social media presence and think about where you want to go in the short- and long term.

The social media manager can create an overall social media strategy that broadly supports you based on your business and growth goals. Often, the strategy will include promotions with specific goals aimed at particular audiences and in distinct timeframes. 

For example, a social media strategy may span six months and have four promotions across three different platforms. One of the promotions may be aimed at attracting new followers and one may seek to reward your best customers with a special offer. Each requires a different approach, which the social media manager can identify.  

As part of goal setting, the social media manager will set specific desired metrics for each promotion. The metrics serve two purposes. 

  • Helping the social media manager develop the right tactics to share the message and refine her approach over time. 
  • Providing a view into how different promotions perform. This knowledge can drive decisions on future promotions and provide important insight into what matters to your customers.

Creating an Offer and Making a Plan

The next step in social media promotion is to create an offer. Many business owners have a feel for the types of promotions that move their business forward and often return to the same well when creating new promotions. While this approach can be practical for a while, in the fast-moving environment of social media, these promotions can fall flat and stop delivering.

When you work with a social media manager, she will include your preferences and historical offerings into the planning process. But, she also has the skill set to create new and different types of promotions that can help keep your content fresh.

With insight into the types of social media campaigns that other companies are doing and knowing more about how those efforts are working, a social media manager can identify the promotions that make the most sense based on your objectives. She can also explain the ins and outs of the process based on her experience.

In addition, she will bring you new promotional ideas–some of which may push the envelope beyond your comfort level. But, it’s still helpful to have a sense of the universe of promotional opportunities and see where the market is going.

Once the two of you agree on a strategy and goals, your social media manager will create a calendar of promotions and posts aimed at realizing your goals. 

Part of this process includes selecting the right platform for your message. Social media managers understand the nuances of different social media sites. So, they can conduct detailed audience analysis to determine which social platforms are most attractive to your customers while creating plans to develop new audiences. 

The calendar will include plans for optimizing your posts with keywords and the right hashtags so people can find your company and see your promotions. 

The calendar may also include opportunities for paid posts to boost your exposure at crucial inflection points and with specific audiences. In some cases, your social media manager may recommend a partnership with a key influencer.

Your social media manager will look across the plan to ensure brand consistency across platforms to ensure your promotion consistently reflects the right tone. And, she will make sure that the timing of each promotion makes sense and fits into the broader plan.

Communicating the Offer

When communicating the offer, a good social media manager does the heavy lifting. She will move into creative mode to produce the media used to share your message and the specifics of your offer. This can include:

  • Developing social media content, such as writing posts, taking photos, making graphs, creating memes, and developing infographics.
  • Creating video scripts, sourcing talent, and producing video work.
  • Finding related content that can be cross-promoted through your sites.
  • Updating your company’s profile pages to reflect the latest information about your promotions.
  • Responding to comments and posts on your behalf. This includes answering questions and sharing regular updates with you in a summary.
  • Integrating customer data from other platforms and other social media sites and using email and website traffic to ensure that your promotion and message find the right audience.

 

Assessing Your Results

At the end of each promotion, your social media manager can analyze engagement across platforms. She will determine how each post performed and tie that work back to the goals established at the beginning of the project. 

If posts or promotions are falling short of goals–or if something is taking off–she can adjust the plan and the calendar to keep you moving in the right direction.

At specific time increments, your social media manager will sit down with you to discuss progress and help set new goals.

Finding a Social Media Manager

Working with a social media manager doesn’t have to be expensive. Many excellent social media managers work as contractors and find clients through niche sites such as HireMyMom. 

If you can offer flexibility and a remote job opportunity, you are well-positioned to find an experienced resource who can help your business grow and make your social media content sing.

When you use HireMyMom, you have access to a dedicated pool of professionals looking for remote work. Because HireMyMom charges job seekers a fee to access job listings, all our job seekers are serious about finding work. And, the volume of resumes that flow in is more manageable than the numbers that arrive when jobs are advertised on free job sites.

Tell us About Your Experience

We’d love to hear about your experience working with a social media manager. Please drop us a line and let us know how the partnership changed your social media presence and helped you realize your goals. 

 

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November 16, 2020

Business Promotions Made Easy with These 4 Simple Steps

Social media is an inescapable force. It appears on your phone, it can drive a news cycle, and it is the basis for many conversations between friends and neighbors. Love it or hate it, social media is an efficient, low-cost way to reach a broad audience to promote your business and grow your brand. More and more, small businesses are using social media to interact with customers and potential customers. (Check out our prior posts on creating a stand-out social media presence.) One of the key ways social media can grow your business is through promotions. Here’s a step-by-step guide for finding and running the right social media promotion for your business. 

 

Determine the Goals for your Promotion

In addition to generating buzz about your business, promotions are great tools to achieve specific objectives. So, as you consider a promotion, think about your purpose. Because there’s a vast universe of promotions, there’s not a one-size-fits-all prescription for promotional goals. Some potential options include:

  • Gaining followers
  • Growing engagement
  • Finding referrals
  • Promoting loyalty
  • Sales of a particular item or over a specific time frame

Once you know your goal, it’s easier to choose the right promotion and create an offer meaningful to your followers.

 

Craft Your Offer

Crafting the offer’s specifics is often the most fun (and challenging) aspect of the process. In general, the offering should be unique to your business and feel special for your followers. Consider your overall value proposition and how your offering could drive engagement. Make sure the promotion offers something that your followers will find desirable.

Specific promotional options are endless. Here are some ideas to help get you started:

  • Contests, including scavenger hunts, talent or art competitions, kid writing or coloring contests, product raffles, or prize drawings, often generate a lot of participation.
  • Free items, like a gift with purchase or a small free item during certain hours/days, can drive business during slower times.
  • Discounts and coupons available to anyone who shares your promotion or earned with specific interactions, such as tagging friends or starting to follow your social media accounts, are popular options.
  • Swag giveaways of premium items, such as mugs, hats, pens, and branded water bottles, can really bring out your fans. Many business owners like to give away promotional items because it results in free advertising as customers use them.
  • Exclusive access opportunities are a great option to drive traffic to shops, restaurants, and events. Social media followers can gain exclusive access to your business/product based on the steps you outline in your promotion or by using your website or other online processes to make a reservation.

As you consider your offer, keep the potential prize proportional to the entrant’s investment to participate. For example, don’t give away a high-value item to everyone who shares your link. Likewise, if you ask your followers to make a significant investment in your promotion, such as creating a meme that shows why they love your product, the pay-off should be more exclusive. If you conduct a contest, you may need a panel of judges (such as employees or other superfans) to pick a winner for your prize. Discounts in exchange for link sharing are generally a good trade-off in this area. 

You also want to make sure that the graphics that you have for this campaign shows your business logo, too. This helps familiarize your audience with your logo and improve your brand awareness. Designing a professional logo is easy with the use of logo makers such as BrandCrowd or working with graphic designers.

Next, develop a timeline for your promotion. Include plenty of time to do any pre-work and build in some time for follow up and assessment.

 

Draft a Communication Plan

With your offer and timeline in hand, it’s time to consider your communication plan. Communication is the key to a successful promotion. Look at any existing communication plans you maintain and see if opportunities exist to take an upcoming communication or advertisement and add information about your promotion. Depending on your goals, consider a mix of social media and traditional vehicles for reaching your audience.  

Then, prepare your posts and other media well in advance of your start date. Be sure to:

  • Clearly outline how the promotion works, including any exclusions or deadlines.
  • Include plans to publicly share the name of your promotion winners, if appropriate. 
  • Thank everyone who participates. 
  • Share your appreciation for the enthusiasm your followers show around the promotion.

When the launch day arrives, deploy your communication materials and monitor the feedback you are getting on your posts. Posting comments and making updates based on questions or comments that appear will let your audience know that you are engaged in the promotion. To help keep your promotion top-of-mind, regularly share information about it with your followers.

 

Assess Your Results

When the promotion ends, take a look at how it went. Consider:

  • Did you meet your goals?
  • Did managing the promotion take the time you expected? Less time? More time? (If the answer is more time, you might want to hire a Virtual Assistant to help in the future.)
  • What feedback did you hear from those who participated? How about those that mentioned the promotion to you but didn’t participate?
  • What did you learn in the process?

Answers to these questions will help you craft even more successful promotions in the future.

 

What’s Working for You?

Promotions are a fun way to drive business. We’d love to hear about your experiences–the good, the bad, and the ugly. Drop me a line and let me know what promotions you’ve tried.

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September 21, 2020

How to Create Top Notch Social Media Content

Social media is everywhere and if you aren’t already using it to promote your business, you are likely considering it. But, good quality social media takes more than a few Facebook posts. If you’re thinking about dipping your toe into the water (or if you are already fully swimming), these tips can help you make the most of your social media presence.

Find Your Why

The first rule of social media is that you should treat it like all other content. It should be:

  • Authentic to your brand.
  • Relevant to your mission and goals.
  • Strategically focused on helping you meet your goals.

The best way to make sure your social media meets this criteria is to identify what you want readers to know, feel, and do after engaging with your content. Asking this question at the beginning of your journey can help direct you, as you map out your social media strategy and start posting.

The best way to do this is to think about what you’re trying to achieve. For example, do you want your social media accounts to:

  • Create awareness of your business?
  • Build your brand?
  • Increase sales leads?
  • Lead to more engaged customers?
  • Serve as a supplement to your website? Replace your website?

 

Identify Your Base Level of Engagement

Knowing your social media starting place makes it easier to track success. Here’s a quick and easy way to assess engagement:

  • Take an inventory of all your social media accounts.
  • Identify your number of followers for each platform. Keep a tally by platform. (For example, 80 Facebook followers, 91 Instagram followers.)
  • Review all your posts on each platform in the last 45 days.
  • Look at each post and count reactions from followers. If a post has 47 likes and three comments, count that as 50 reactions.  
  • Calculate an average engagement score over all of your content for each platform.

Based on your number of followers and overall engagement score, you now have a quantifiable social media baseline. 

 

Set Goals

With a good sense of your current engagement level in hand, it’s easier to define what success means to you and identify the time period in which you hope to grow. Here are some sample goals:

  • Attract 50 new Facebook followers by January 15, 2021.
  • Grow engagement by 20 percent by March 1, 2021.

It takes time and commitment to nurture a social media presence. Set a realistic time frame to achieve your goals.

Also, this is a good time to check in with your own gut and consider how engaged you want to be in the process. Hire a social media manager if you desire a level of engagement beyond your time availability. HireMyMom is a great resource for finding someone to help with this.

 

Find Your People

Like all communication, understanding your audience is key. Think about what interests them, what drives them, and what moves them to act/buy. You may find it helpful to create an avatar of your typical customer/follower and use that person to guide your work. Determine if you want to spend some advertising or promotion dollars to help find your followers. A social media consultant can help with this.

 

Find Your Platforms

Next, determine the platforms most relevant to your audience. Check your competitors to see which platforms they are using. Look at influencers in your industry to see what they are posting and where. Observe how your competitors and influencers engage with their audience. Note what hashtags are trending. A few hours with a social media consultant can make this process easier. 

 A few tips:

  • Develop a strategy for each platform. What works for Facebook is different from what works on LinkedIn.
  • Get the right tools for each platform. For example, high quality photos make a big difference on certain platforms. Professional quality videos are key on others.

 

Find Your Voice

It’s time to start posting! Find the best way to enter the conversation and start executing on your strategy. Here are a few final tips:

  • Create a monthly or quarterly editorial plan for each platform to help you stay organized and manage your online presence more easily. Monitor trends so you can add or remove content, as needed.
  • Develop a blog to help you tell your story authentically. This is another area where a freelancer can make life easier for you.
  • Be prepared to engage with your audience. Successful social media is about conversations and your audience expects connection through engagement and comments. Identify a staff member to take point on responses or hire a virtual specialist to help. 

 

Share Your Story With Us

Social media is a great way to grow your presence and your brand online. We’d love to hear about your experiences. Join the HireMyMom Facebook community or send a note sharing what’s worked for you.

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May 28, 2019

5 Practical Tips To Leverage Instagram As A Freelancing Mompreneur

I don’t know about you but Instagram has been one of the most challenging social media platforms to navigate as a mompreneur and like most platforms, it’s constantly evolving and changing. I find that just about the time I find a good rhythm and create a strategy that works for the HireMyMom Instagram account, it all changes.  

Well, you know what they say, you either have to beat them or join them, right?

As a freelancing mompreneur Instagram can be a great tool in reaching potential clients but it requires consistency and having a strategic social media marketing plan.

In this post we are going to break down 5 practical tips you can implement today to help you get more out of your Instagram marketing. Before we dive in, I want to offer you some encouragement: any social media platform takes time to grow and that is especially true for Instagram.

You aren’t going to post to Instagram for a week and have thousands of new followers. It will take showing up daily even when you don’t feel like it. It will require consistency even when you don’t feel like you have a clue about what you are doing and you will have to keep showing up even when it feels like no one cares or is even listening.

Give yourself some grace while you are learning, everyone starts out a beginner. Even the accounts you drool over with 30K+ followers at one time started with that first post and only 5 followers. Try to focus on having fun with the journey while letting go of the outcome or you will drive yourself straight to the bottom of the pit of comparison.

So take a deep breath and focus on taking this one day at a time remembering that Martha Stewart did not build an empire in one day.

 

1. YOUR BIO

When potential clients land on your Instagram account, what are they going to see first? Your bio, right. It’s that first impression when someone steps into your online space. Take the time to create a bio that really showcases your personality.

Instagram bios have a 150 character limit so make your words clear, powerful and compelling to convey what you do and the problem you solve. Be creative and use emojis if that fits your personality but stick to the few that best represent your brand. Too many emojis can look messy and be more distracting than helpful.

Ensure you have a good profile photo. If you are leading with your personal brand use a clear crisp fun photo of yourself or if you are leading with a business brand, a good clean logo or graphic is crucial.

You can have one clickable link in your profile so it’s important to leverage it wisely. If you have multiple places you want to drive your Instagram traffic to you can use Linktree to do that. It’s a pretty awesome tool.

2. IMAGERY IS KEY

Instagram is a platform driven by photography and imagery so it’s important to use photos that are creative, high quality, cohesive and aligned with your brand and personality style. If you are more extroverted and don’t mind being in front of the camera, you can use that to your advantage just ensure you stay on message visually.

If you are more introverted, don’t fret. It doesn’t mean Instagram is not for you, it just means you have to think outside the box and find a strategy that works for your business. You can curate photos from free accounts like Unplash or from other Instagram accounts BUT I want to stress the importance of always giving photo credit to the sources you are using. Don’t be the person who tries to pass off someone else’s work as your own. It’s icky and won’t earn the trust of your followers.  

Here is an example of how you can properly credit photos you curate from another account. We gave credit to @lemons.for.days for this cute photo and you will find that when you market properly, the accounts you credit will often comment on your post thanking you and even follow your account as a result.

If you love photography and can take your own photos, that’s awesome. Ensure that your Instagram feed has a theme to keep it consistent and cohesive. Think of your Instagram feed like a magazine. The photos should all work together and compliment one another.

The HireMyMom brand has an orange and turquoise color scheme so therefore I look for photos that compliment this theme to create a visually interesting feed.

This may take you some practice to get a theme down for your account and that’s okay. Practice makes perfect when you strive for progress over perfection. You can use apps like Snapseed to help you edit your photos and brighten them up so each photo has the same look and feel to it.

 

3. TELL A STORY AND GIVE VALUE

Instagram is no different than any other platform in how you use it will determine the kind of results you get. If you are going to throw something up just to post with little thought or you use every post to try to sell something you won’t attract many followers so you have to not only think about the image you are posting (will it work with the image you posted before it?) but you have to take the time to think about how you will use the image to give or share something of value.

There is nothing worse than an Instagram post that has nothing but hashtags in the caption. Your followers are on your account for them, not you so it’s important to choose quality over quantity and give your reader a reason to keep following along.

Pair a how-to tip with your image, share a story that will lead to a conversation with your followers and give your followers an insight into what you believe. Instagram has quickly become a very conversational platform so take the time to think about what and how you will share. Marketing requires intentionality.

 

4. #FRIDAYINTRODUCTIONS

Are you participating in Friday Introductions? It’s a great way to connect with others and build community. Every Friday the #FridayIntroductions hashtag is trending and here are some tips to make the most of it:

  1. Post a picture of yourself. I know if you are introverted this is hard to do, I get it. I cringe at the thought of taking a selfie much less posting one.
  2. Use #FridayIntroductions in your post so you will pull up in that hashtag feed.
  3. Share a story about yourself, a fun fact, the why behind what you to do, etc. Focus on sharing something personal so your followers can learn more about you. The more they feel like they know you the more they will want to stick around.
  4. Share, Don’t Sell. This is an opportunity to share and connect with others without an agenda so if you want to make the most out of this let go of the need to try to sell anything or drive traffic to your website when participating in #FridayIntroductions.
  5. Follow the #FridayIntroductions feed and connect with others. Take the time to follow accounts that really speak to you. Like and spend time leaving genuine comments on their posts.
  6. Make this a part of your weekly social media plan, I promise the consistency will pay off.

5. LEVERAGE STORIES

Instagram stories are seen 10x more than regular posts so they are pretty important to your marketing strategy. They are perfect for those less than polished photos and behind the scenes type of content that aren’t appropriate for your regular feed.

You can let your followers know about a new post you have and why they should care, a new blog post that you have up on your website, a product sneak peek you are working on to build excitement and share a word of encouragement.

And here is an awesome bonus tip: use popular hashtag that is relevant to your business when you share to give them a boost. For example, you can use #mompreneur, #graphicdesign, #ontheblog, #fashionblogger, etc.

Spend some time researching popular hashtags that your target audience would be following for stories and test them out. Stick to 1-2 hashtags for stories and try to minimize them so they don’t overpower the other info you are trying to share. You can make the text small and place them in the upper corners or cover them with a sticker.

Here is an example of how to let your followers know through an Instagram story to check out a recent post. You can see the #mompreneur hashtag at the top. By using hashtags in stories, people following the hashtags you use have a good chance of seeing your content even if they aren’t following you because they are following that hashtag.

I hope you found these tips and examples helpful in getting started with Instagram as a freelancing mompreneur. There will be a learning curve with it like anything new. Give yourself permission to be okay with being a beginner knowing you will have it mastered in no time with patience and consistency.

Looking for more social media tips, training and support? Why not check out more of what HireMyMom has to offer! We have been supporting mompreneurs like you since 2007. Click HERE to learn more.

 

 

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August 10, 2017 0 Comments

3 Top Tips to Use Pinterest for Business

According to SocialMediaToday.com, “87% of Pinners bought something because of content on Pinterest” – which means that Pinterest is still clearly a very powerful social network. You can truly make sales from this network, and it’s important that you’re using it to your advantage in business.

Not only is Pinterest a great place to find recipes and home ideas, it’s a useful place to share your business knowledge. From images of your work to blog post graphics, it’s crucial to utilize Pinterest’s visual medium to produce content for your clients and prospects.

Work on your images

Pinterest is a visual platform, so your images are crucial! Pinterest images should be a certain size to be optimal, and that size is 735 px x 1102 px. You can use a program such as Canva.com to create graphics in this size.

In addition to the correct sizing, your images should be eye-catching and optimized. You can optimize images by naming them something relevant, versus simply leaving them as is. If you’re writing and then pinning a blog post featuring homework tips, you can name it something like: “top-homework-tips-for-kids.” It’s also important to look into keywords here, as that will make your images even more likely to be found. This allows your images to be optimized and more SEO-friendly. In addition to your image file names, you’ll want to include a detailed description of the Pin.

According to CoalMarch.com, you can use keywords to create image file names by using this formula: Industry + Service Provided + Location or Feature (not both). Use Google Trends or another keyword search to find trending topics, as well as keywords that those in your industry are seeking.

Lastly, you can use free graphics programs to create a custom image. Find a stock image of your blog theme, add some text, and make it look nice! Attractive images are more likely to be pinned.

Get social

Pinterest is place where you can share, but it’s also a place to be interactive. Follow relevant Pinners, Pin others’ content your boards, and generally stay active.

The more you add content, pin others’ content, and continue to follow new users, the more your page will be viewed, and the more your Pins will be saved. Try following other Pinners every day, and see how many you get in return. If you’re putting in the effort to follow others, it will likely come back to you.

Be consistent

Consistency is very important in using Pinterest for business! Whenever you write a blog post, piece of content, or produce a product/service with quality photos – Pin them. Get into the habit of sharing your content on this platform, as it’s very visual, and visual networks are encouraging for buyers.

By spending some time optimizing your images, creating stunning graphics, naming your files, being social, and posting consistently, you can see the outstanding sales and business results of Pinterest.

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May 15, 2017 0 Comments

4 Types of Content to Post on Social Media

We all know how important it is to have an online presence – especially on social media.  It’s a place where we can share information, tell others about our businesses, and hopefully make some sales.

Unfortunately, a lot of business owners utilize their pages incorrectly, and don’t post content that intrigues the reader to build a relationship.  Today, we’re sharing tips to build your page, keep consistently posting content, and eventually – make that sale!

Value

When readers come to your page, they’re likely somewhat interested in you and/or your product or service.  They want to know that you’re an expert, and that you know what you’re talking about.  Make this easy for them!

Use your page to post thought-provoking, valuable content that answers their most burning questions.  You can post your own blogs, syndicate articles and blogs from outside sources, and do tips, advice, and Q&A posts that will share your knowledge with your readers.  While it may seem counterintuitive to give away your knowledge for free, it gives your readers some trust in you, making it easier to hire you someday.

About You

Whether it’s a behind the scenes post, news about your business, or information on your latest hire, readers like to get an inside glimpse into your business.  Social media can be fairly casual, so it’s the perfect place to go live with tips, share something personal (but relevant), and communicate with customers.

Share some personal things about yourself and your business – it doesn’t always have to be so formal!

Inspirational

We’ve all seen the inspirational quotes and graphics going around social media.  They might seem simplistic, but they’re easily shareable and provide your readers with a “feel good” message.  As we mentioned before, not all content has to be so heavy and information-filled.  It’s fun to mix in positive messages, tips on a graphic, or other fun content that will be easily shared.

When your graphics are shared, it’s more likely that more people will like your page, growing your following.  Be sure to include your website and business name on each graphic, and work to create your own content versus taking from others.  It’s fine to share directly from another page (with proper attribution, of course!), but creating your own graphics is much more powerful.

Sales

Last but not least, we come to sales.  This is because very little about your social media profiles should include sales information!  Once you’ve given lots of good content, it’s fine to ask for the sale.  You can run an interesting promo, offer a discount code to social media followers only, or something else that involves a direct ask to your products or services.

Again, this should be a small, small part of your strategy! Don’t drive away sales by constantly asking for them.  It’s important to strike a balance between value, solid information, fun information about your company, and finally – the sale.

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June 25, 2015 0 Comments

4 Top Tips for Social Media Success

Social media is a key component to a successful business and professional life.  Whether you have your own business or simply want to share information via your own social media channels, it’s important to have some best practices for social media success.

While there are many tips, tricks and “rules” out there to succeed online with social media, here are some of the top professional tips for your profiles and business profiles that will set you apart.

Don’t leave it blank

Whether you started and abandoned a business or you simply lost time to update your Facebook page, do not leave blank profiles! If you know you aren’t going to ever update your business page or your LinkedIn profile is 5 years out of date, it’s best to simply delete it (or never start one to begin with, if you’re considering it!)

When business prospects or potential employers see these profiles, it can be confusing.  What message are your profiles giving off?  Is your business closed?  Are you out of touch with online technology? Be careful of keeping profiles open that you don’t plan to use or update at least semi-regularly.

This also goes for your information – is it updated? Make sure that the image you’re giving off is reflecting what’s current and accurate in your life.  It’s important that you keep your profiles up to date, especially if you’re in the job search market.

Update regularly

Updating is key to using social media as it was intended! While updates of what you’re eating can be great if you’re a food blogger, do your best to provide the best value possible.  Even if you don’t have your own business, what’s an area of expertise that you can post on?  You can still provide value to your audience!

This is especially crucial if you own a business, or if you’re seeking employment.  Employers these days absolutely look into your social media profiles, and the more you can show your expertise, the better.

Keep it separate

Do your best to avoid sales on your personal page.  This isn’t to say that you can’t be friends with your clients, but keep selling to your business page(s).

When you’re constantly utilizing your personal profiles for business, people may decide to unfollow you or at least, may become annoyed with the pushing.  It’s much easier (and up to them to follow) to sell on another page that’s dedicated to your business or sales.  People use personal profiles for personal reasons – keep 90% of sales and business posts to your business pages.

Decide what’s necessary

You don’t need to have a profile on every site, and doing so will likely drive you crazy and drain your bandwidth! Choose a few key profiles that you enjoy, or a few key profiles where your customers and prospects are likely to be.

The top profiles that will offer the most bang for your buck will be Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  Although, there are so many industries where Twitter is irrelevant.  Are you a visual company, or do your interests lie in that realm?  Pinterest may be perfect for you! Look into the profiles that will help you both personally and professionally – and choose ones that you’re willing to use on a consistent basis.

(Image courtesy freedigitalphotos.net)

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June 25, 2015 0 Comments

How to Stand Out From the Social Media Competition

Having a prominent, consistent and engaging social media presence is non-negotiable if you want to be successful; it builds trust with customers, draws in new customers and helps retain customers. That said, there are specific strategies businesses can use to improve social networking tactics and, ultimately, drive more business.

Focus

There are countless social networks to choose from, each one with its own medium. For example, Pinterest and Instagram focus on visuals, Twitter relies on text and Reddit runs on its discussions. Not all business models are fit for every social network. It is important for businesses to focus on one to two social accounts that really fit the business model, brand, customer base and overall goals. To do this, research your demographic to find out which social networks they use the most. From there, narrow that down to the networks you can use effectively and consistently.

Use Hashtags and Tags

Customers browsing through social media platforms find businesses at random through hastags. Hashtags group relevant content together making it easier for potential customers to find your business. You can create a hashtag specific to a campaign to expand your brand reach. As an example, Lifelock uses this technique on their Facebook page with the hashtag #Lifelockforgood which highlights the businesses volunteering efforts.

Build Trust Through Consistency

Social media platforms are excellent resources to build trust and sincere relationships with your customers and clients. But, in order to build that foundation, your business must have a consistent presence on social media. When a potential customer or client considers buying from you, they will likely visit your social accounts, and if you haven’t tweeted, pinned or updated a status in more than three weeks, it could cause the customer to veer away and buy from someone else. Build a consistent schedule that your business can stick to. Gain the trust of your customers and prove your validity as a resource for what your audience needs.

Engage and Respond

No one wants to interact with auto-responses or a constant barrage of pre-scheduled posts and updates. It is essential that businesses engage with customers and respond to inquiries in a timely manner. This humanizes your business and instills a certain level of comfort and shows that your employees are relatable. Engaging with your customers will make your brand stand out instead of blending in with flat, one-dimensional businesses.

Create a Manageable Schedule

Being a consistent voice on social media platforms can be a hefty amount of work if you’re not organized. Creating a schedule or editorial calendar is more efficient than spending hours posting everyday. A few things to consider:

Is your audience engaged? Creating a winning editorial calendar that posts everyday at noon is pointless if your demographic is most active in the evening. Use social media analytics tools like Buffer or Hootsuite to determine the best time of day for you to schedule posts.

What content is most popular? Track the most popular content for your audience so you can continue to maximize on that interest and engagement across all channels.

Are you posting actionable marketing? You want to include things like coupon codes, previews of new arrivals or any other incentive for followers to find out more information about your business and make a purchase.

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January 19, 2015 0 Comments

4 Tips for Social Media Success

There’s a lot of talk about social media these days. Not only is it popular for personal use, but businesses are realizing the power and impact behind digital marketing. Despite the abundance of social media advertising information available, it can be hard to determine what you can do to leverage it for personal success.

In general, keeping social media current and frequently updated is key, especially if you hope to land a job in the digital marketing world. If not, it’s still important to keep your resume and work information current and your profiles professional.

  • For Facebook: Keep your info updated and professional. Did you know that you can add your past and current work experience to your profile? Beyond work, of course you can share personal information (that’s what Facebook is for!), but do your best to keep it as professional as possible and avoid photos and information that you wouldn’t want an employer to see.
  • For LinkedIn: This is your online resume, so take extra care to ensure it is current and written with quality. Use the personal Summary section to really shine, as it’s a great place to articulate what you bring to the table in paragraph format. LinkedIn is the ideal site to connect with influencers and decision-makers, so it’s crucial that your information is updated. For bonus points, update your LinkedIn profile with valuable, professional content daily or a few times per week.
  • For Twitter: If Twitter is applicable to a job you’re looking for, make sure you have a presence. If Twitter is of no interest to you, that’s still okay. It’s a great place to find out what is going on in the world through trending hashtags, and it’s another place to learn about companies and organizations. Most people only look to websites and Facebook for company information, but Twitter can give a truly unique insight. You can see how a company tweets and responds on Twitter, which is typically a good barometer of how they work offline.
  • For Google: Google and Google+ are rarely considered to be on the same level as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but they have their place. Google links your account to your Google+ profile and everything else you do on Google (Gmail, YouTube, etc.), so it’s important to have a presence. You can accumulate followers to share your posts and you can also follow other companies, people and organizations that interest you. Success with Google+ is an updated profile, using the +1 feature to show your appreciation for others’ content, and posting to your profile from time to time. Utilizing Google+ demonstrates a higher level of technological and social media knowledge that not everyone possesses.

Take the time to open these accounts and realize the power of social media advertising to gain that home-based job or more clients for your home-based business.

Check out these other great articles about marketing and social media as a work from home professional. Also check out our current job postings for mom professionals.

(Image courtesy of bplanet at freedigitalphotos.net)

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