When I started my company SadaBlue Media
Solutions I did not have a business plan, I did not have any marketing
strategies on how to promote and make my business a success. A retiree from the
public sector in Jamaica, with a background in Industrial Relations, I was
relying mainly on word-of-mouth and referrals from fellow practitioners and my
budding clientele. After a while it became apparent that this was never going
to work and I was
advised that my business needed an online presence. My business actually needed social presence, what some persons refer to as social ‘currency’.
advised that my business needed an online presence. My business actually needed social presence, what some persons refer to as social ‘currency’.
For my business to have a social
presence it meant that I would have to get an active webpage along with Twitter,
Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts in order to generate a following and build up a
fan base.
In the article, “8
Guaranteed Ways to Increase Social Media Reach”
written by Pamela Vaughan, she says that “For
most businesses, generating leads is the ultimate benefit of
creating and maintaining a social media presence.” She continues to say that:
“The more fans and followers you have for your social media presence, the better reach you'll have. And better reach means the potential to generate more leads! So at the very core of social media for lead generation, you must take steps to increase your reach.” (Vaughan, 2011)
The
article also states that to attract fans and followers you have to optimize
your social presence, promote your social presence everywhere, share useful,
valuable talent, add social sharing buttons to all your content, find, follow
and build relationships with people in your industry, interact with fans and
followers, create a custom Facebook welcome page and offer incentives for new
fans/followers. These are all great tips and I intend to use them all
especially the tip on promoting my social presence everywhere. I will definitely
create an official ‘follow’ button that will be linked to my website when it is
up and running.
To enhance the social presence of my
business further I would have to improve my website’s Google ranking. I want Google’s
search engine to display my website on page one of their results or as near to the
top on page one as possible. Through Search Engine Optimization (SEO), I will
be able to improve my rankings on Google. I got some great tips on how to
improve my ranking on Google from the article “How
to Improve Your Website's Google
Ranking, Simple
Tips to Improve Your Rank” written by Marziah Karch.
Tips such as using keyword phrases on my website and checking Google Trends to
see which phrase is popular. Another tip was that one of the biggest factors
that Google looks at is the hyperlink and at both the links to and from your
website. In order for my website to be noticed I will have to use keyword
phases that determine the content of my website. I love the tip about making
the content social friendly in order to promote my website more.
Here is another
reason why I have to increase my online presence:
Social Media Marketing -- How It Affects Your Business.
I know that my website may not become an overnight success, but if I follow the tips I’ve shared here and spend at least two hours per day working on building an online presence, I am certain that there will be an improvement in my Google ranking and my social presence will eventually be felt.
Resource
Materials:
www.infomart.com (image reference)
Vaughan, P.
(2011, October 11). 8 guaranteed ways to increase social media reach.
Retrieved from http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/27094/8-Guaranteed-Ways-to-Increase-Social-Media-Reach.aspx,
Digital
Marketing Course Lecture Notes.
Great Post! We live in a time where social media is the key to business success. A business without social media can succeed but it isn't likely. I believe that word of mouth still works but you need to create a buzz in the online world to gain a world buzz on your company. 8 Guaranteed Ways to Increase Social Media Reach that you followed to help you reach lengths is a great read. The first steps you took was adding your business to the latest social media sites which is a great business move. I believe that your are doing great. However, I wanted to share with you a social media management site called Hootesuite. Hootesuite is a great site, check it out and I promise you will not be disappointed. Nonetheless, great post. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, I really appreciate your comments. Thanks for that great tip about Hootesuite.
DeleteThrough social media, there are countless ways that an individual or start up business might build its digital presence. The embedded video refers to how social media has proved to be the quickest way to build an audience of viewers or consumers. I think the most powerful way to incorporate a “word of mouth” technique through social media is by mobbing through hash-tags. All the business needs is a unique selling proposition. Once the primary and secondary audience members are identified, the company can begin posting hash-tags about its product, provided that it's message is relevant to the audience’s interests. Once the first group of followers re-tweet these hash-tags to their circle of friends, the business starts to attain free advertising. Social media has the ability to provide a positive snowball effect of exposure if used effectively.
ReplyDeleteAll of the channels we are learning about this month will be valuable in establishing our online presence. I look forward to incorporating email marketing, display advertising and affiliate marketing into my business campaign. You have great insight on how to build your social presence and I am sure you will build mutually beneficial relationships with your consumers. Good luck enhancing your Google ranking and I will be interested to see what long tail phrases work best for your SEO.
Michael
http://mbuckley4wwe.blogspot.com/
Thanks Michael, I do appreciate your comments. I am still trying to get a hang of the 'hash-tags'...lol....
Delete