a marketing guide for small business
Social Media Marketing
Social Media: Which Network Works Best? Infographic
May 1st
Social Media and Marketing
As a small business owner, you have more important things to do than to waste time on social media marketing. Right?
Wrong!
The problem for the business owner as well as the entrepreneur, is social media is taking over the role of marketing and has become the primary marketing communications channel for all sorts of products and services.
So what is a small business owner, an entrepreneur to do? Here are three quick steps you can take to reap the benefits of social media marketing.
1. FOCUS!Focus on what?
Focus on the one or two social media networks that makes sense for More >
Social Media And The News – Infographic
Apr 28th
Is Social Media becoming primary news source?
I met with a client yesterday. When I walked into her office, she was listening to a local news video stream from her home town in Minnesota on her computer. Seems there was a terrible accident in her old neighborhood.
I found the scene interesting as this is a client who is not at all comfortable with the computer. She loves her Blackberry and her Facebook profile, but becomes completely helpless when she has to access Constant Contact , her Facebook page or her web page through the computer. Getting the news about an incident in her More >
Social Media: Rise and Fall Of Internet Giants – Infographic
Apr 24th
Social Media Giants or Flashes-in-the-Pan?
Everything moves pretty fast online. As soon as you think you’ve got all of your social media ducks lined up, up pops another network. Maybe its Pinterest or Quora or yet to be determined social media outpost.
Yes, it can be frustrating. Yes, it can be time consuming. Some of these social media up-starts do gain popularity and traction only to fizzle later on. I’d dare say most of the failures due to some level of mismanagement. Others keep growing and evolving into even bigger power houses. Facebook is such an example.
But ignoring the social media up-starts really More >
Social Media: Is Pinterest Worth It?
Apr 11th
7 Questions to Ask Before You Invest in Pinterest
You’ve probably heard something in the last couple of months about Pinterest. For those who may have missed the news, Pinterest is a new social media platform. It allows users to create visual boards (think old fashioned cork boards) and to virtually pin photos of the things they like, they find of interest, they wish they had, ideas, etc.
The last thing anyone who markets their own business – online and off - needs is yet another social media platform that requires time and resources. But, before you dismiss the newest social media More >
Social Media – Want To Know Who Is Using What?
Mar 14th
As I’ve said repeatedly, the first rule of effective any marketing is to know your audience. The second online marketing rule is to know which social media platform they use. The infographic below identifies the user profiles of the most popular social media platforms.
Before you do, allow me to complain. The legends for age, education and income can be a bit confusing in this inforgraphic making it difficult to decipher the information. That said, this inforgraphic is perhaps the most complete list of gender, age, income and education for the large social media sites I’ve seen to date. The bottom line More >
Social Media Stats
Mar 6th
Social media tends to focus on liking, sharing, following, connecting, etc. But at the end of the day, the real objective is to communicate with the right folks. Every media, including social media, has a core audience, a group that gravitates to that media. The audience can be dominated by males, females, teens, geeks, etc.
When you know the audience profiles of the various social media, then you can:
a) select the right media to reach your audience
b) avoid wasting time hunting for your audience on social media platforms where they don’t hang out
c) develop creative and effective strategies to reach them More >
Social Media: Whose Responsibility Is It?
Feb 27th
I talk to small business owners all the time and the one common, always present complaint is…
Is social media and marketing a top priority?
“I just don’t have enough time.”
I understand. I don’t have enough time to do everything I should do in my small business. But this is the nature of the beast. It isn’t like you’re the only business owner who feels this way.
But I do a couple of things many small business owners don’t. I prioritize and take responsibility for my business. Particularly when it comes to social media and marketing.
Marketing and Social Media Priorities?Yes, I make the More >
Social Media: Is it Youdia or Media?
Feb 23rd
We all suffer from it. The mental blank that occasionally forms when you ask yourself
“What can I tell my social media folks?”
You’ll find some helpful tips on this blog regarding social engagement, but they are not nearly as entertaining as this 1 minute interview from Peter Shankman giving you the load down on “engagement”.
After you view it, ask yourself…do you practice Media or Youdia?
Social Media: Who is Who?
Feb 17th
The world of social media expands and contracts daily making it difficult to keep up with what is really happening. The infographic below from Imbue Marketing helps narrow the field and to focus on the big players.
However, I see some of the data may be a touch out-of-date or a bit misleading. Linkedin‘s audience for example is closer to 130 million and growing. But an outdated figure doesn’t dilute the value of the infographic. It gives you a really good idea of the established players as well as some of the new, up and comers like Pinterest, which is really More >
Social Media: Expect the Unexpected
Feb 16th
Social Media Partnerships
I was busy checking into my various social media accounts last week, when out of the blue, I spied this request from Tracy Sestili, CEO of Social Strand Media on Twitter. She was asking me to do an interview for her blog. How nice is that?
For those of you who don’t consider yourself savvy about social media, these types of requests and connections happen all the time and are really a nice treat. I gain exposure to Tracy’s audience and she doesn’t have to create new material for her blog. It’s a win-win alliance. These are the type of More >
