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Social Networking for Small Businesses

06/09/2011 By Mushroom Internet

Facebook

Social Networking is the term given to a variety of new techniques for communication with clients, customers, prospects and other interested parties. As with other marketing techniques it needs careful planning to ensure that the right message gets through to the right (target) audience.  Whilst using social networking and media can be a blunt, scatter gun approach, with careful planning and dedicated application it can, like a rifle, be accurate, well targeted and can be useful in developing relationships with the target audience.

TwitterWhat it is.

Social networking is the name given to a variety of tools that can be used to develop relationships with customers. Of particular importance is the fact that the use of these tools will help to drive traffic to a website or blog and ultimately help search engine optimisation of the website.

For businesses these tools can be used for reputation management, test marketing and feedback from customers on existing or proposed new products. It can also help to increase brand awareness of  the business and raise the profile of individuals establishing them as experts in their field and can be linked to articles, websites,   blogs and a variety of other media.

LinkedInThe main tools for small and micro businesses are LinkedIn, Twitter and increasingly Facebook where Business pages can now be set up. Facebook has currently over 500M users and businesses find this increasingly useful to provide a channel for communication with customers. For instance videos and photos can be downloaded from the site and forums set up to discuss various aspects of the business and its products.

What it isn’t

Social networking is not a quick fix for getting customers. Like all marketing it needs a careful and thoroughly thought out plan to achieve goals set for it. It should be used as part of a complete plan and not instead of it. At all times the focus must be on the business goals and not on chatter about your social life. If that is what you want to network about, then set up additional  accounts with that as the main focus.

Each of the three tools identified (and there are many more that you should consider to see what is right for you and your business) have different purposes. LinkedIn for instance allows you to search for specific people in your target market. It also has very useful Q & A area where your expertise can be shown and your own reputation as a knowledgeable expert can be developed. Twitter on the other hand only allows 140 characters in each ‘tweet’ so the main purpose is to drive traffic and enhance your Google search listing as tweets are also indexed by Google.

As mentioned previously Facebook can be used for business and personal reasons. Currently the development of Facebook for business is in its early stages but it can still be used for developing your expertise and to link to other media such as your website and blog.

How to get started

Getting started is simple. All the tools I have mentioned are free to set up an account and to use. Just register and start using. A word of caution, however. Although they are free to use to be effective needs a considerable amount of time.  Firstly you need to establish your account; then you need to gather fans, friends or other contacts.  This can be done by searching for your target audience or ensuring that your communications are keyword rich. Then you need to provide useful content and information. Only then can you start to see the benefit.  It needs co-ordination between these tools and your blog and website. However before you even start, develop an action plan so that you can integrate this form of marketing with your existing plans and make sure they work with each other.

If you require further information or want to discuss how Social Media and Networking can help your business contact bob.francis@sgba.co.uk or call 07941 426807

All trademarks acknowledged.

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: action plan, Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, SEO, SMEs, social media, social networking, Twitter

Small Businesses Need to Step up Online Presence

12/07/2011 By

In the 21st century, a good online presence is almost essential for a business to succeed. So, is there a way to enhance your online profile without parting with much-needed cash?

The answer is yes, but businesses need to be innovative to attract traffic. Successful small businesses quickly learn about their customers and adapt their marketing activities to fit. As you’d expect, many startups have no choice but to rely on low cost and creative means such as word-of-mouth and social media due to a limited budget which more often than not rules out traditional advertising.

Social Media

The emergence of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have been hugely beneficial for small businesses, allowing them to connect directly with their users and amplify the “online word-of-mouth” that is usually associated with satisfied customers endorsing you offline.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

In additional to using social media platforms, good SEO can be a very effective way to ensure you have a strong online presence, and can be broken down to three key areas: code, links and content.

Firstly, code. Search engines send out web crawlers to find relevant information that relay into web results. These crawlers, which are also known as Web spiders, use things called backlinks – essentially code that is not visible to visitors to your site – to find keywords and bits of code that categorise websites. These web crawlers are constantly being updated and the search engines are savvy enough to filter out any blatant code manipulation. So, sorry, but adding long lists of keywords at the bottom of your homepage is not going to help!

Secondly, Google gives more prominence to sites that have incoming links from respected sites. This naturally happens when a site has good content, deals and reasons for other sites to link to, but you can help enhance the natural evolution of your site’s links by making connections on social media platforms such as twitter and getting involved in online forums. Links from other sites add weight to your own – and a ‘heavy’ site is more likely to be found by search engines than its ‘lighter’ peers.

Finally, good SEO starts with good content. This means adding relevant and fresh product descriptions, articles and blog entries. Make sure your site’s content is as unique, relevant and well written as possible. This should hopefully mean that the visitors you attract to your site will stay there, find the information you’ve provided of use, which will make them want to come back, or even do business with you.

If you don’t have the technical know-how to do this yourself, which most small businesses will not, it’s worth shopping around to find a trustworthy agency that can help you with your SEO.

Contact the SGBA for a FREE website review where the above points will be reviewed.  

Article extracted from www.smeweb.com

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: Facebook, SEO, social media, Twitter

>Social Networking for Small Businesses

10/05/2010 By Mushroom Internet

>

Social Networking is the term given to a variety of new techniques for communication with clients, customers, prospects and other interested parties. As with other marketing techniques it needs careful planning to ensure that the right message gets through to the right (target) audience. Whilst using social networking and media can be a blunt, scattergun approach, with careful planning and dedicated application it can, like a rifle, be accurate, well targeted and can be useful in developing relationships with the target audience.

What it is.

Social networking is a variety of tools that can be used to develop relationships with customers. Of particular importance is the fact that the use of these tools will help to drive traffic to a website or blog and ultimately help search engine optimisation of the website.

For businesses these tools can be used for reputation management, test marketing and feedback from customers on existing or proposed new products. It can also help to increase awareness the business and raise the profile of individuals establishing them as experts in their field and can be linked to articles, websites, blogs and a variety of other media.

The main tools for small and micro businesses are LinkedIn, Twitter and increasingly Facebook where Business pages can now be set up. Facebook has currently over 400M users and businesses find this increasingly useful to provide a channel for communication with customers. For instance videos and photos can be downloaded from the site and forums set up to discuss various aspects of the business and its products.

What it isn’t

Social networking is not a quick fix for getting customers. Like all marketing it needs a careful and thoroughly thought out plan to achieve goals set for it. It should be used as part of a complete plan and not instead of it. At all times the focus must be on the business goals and not on chatter about your social life. If that is what you want to network about, then set up additional business accounts with that as the main focus.

Each of the three tools identified (and there are many more that you should consider to see what is right for you and your business) have different purposes. LinkedIn for instance allows you to search for specific people in your target market. It also has very useful Q & A area where your expertise can be shown and your own reputation as a knowledgeable expert can be developed. Twitter on the other hand only allows 140 characters in each ‘tweet’ so the main purpose is to drive traffic and enhance your Google search listing as tweets are also indexed by Google.

As mentioned previously Facebook can be used for business and personal reasons. Currently the development of Facebook for business is in its early stages but it can still be used for developing your expertise and to link to other media such as your website and blog.

How to get started

Getting started is simple. All the tools I have mentioned are free to set up an account and to use. Just register and start using. A word of caution, however. Although they are free to use to be effective needs a considerable amount of time. Firstly you need to establish your account; then you need to gather fans, friends or other contacts. This can be done for searching for your target audience or ensuring that your communications are keyword rich. Then you need to provide useful content and information. Only then can you start to see the benefit. It needs co-ordination between these tools and your blog and website. However before you even start, develop an action plan so that you can integrate this form of marketing with your existing plans and make sure they work with each other.

All trademarks acknowledged.

For futher information email bob.francis@sgba.co.uk

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: Marketing, search engine optimisation, SEO, social media, social networking

>Social Networking for Small Businesses

10/05/2010 By Mushroom Internet

>

Social Networking is the term given to a variety of new techniques for communication with clients, customers, prospects and other interested parties. As with other marketing techniques it needs careful planning to ensure that the right message gets through to the right (target) audience. Whilst using social networking and media can be a blunt, scattergun approach, with careful planning and dedicated application it can, like a rifle, be accurate, well targeted and can be useful in developing relationships with the target audience.

What it is.

Social networking is a variety of tools that can be used to develop relationships with customers. Of particular importance is the fact that the use of these tools will help to drive traffic to a website or blog and ultimately help search engine optimisation of the website.

For businesses these tools can be used for reputation management, test marketing and feedback from customers on existing or proposed new products. It can also help to increase awareness the business and raise the profile of individuals establishing them as experts in their field and can be linked to articles, websites, blogs and a variety of other media.

The main tools for small and micro businesses are LinkedIn, Twitter and increasingly Facebook where Business pages can now be set up. Facebook has currently over 400M users and businesses find this increasingly useful to provide a channel for communication with customers. For instance videos and photos can be downloaded from the site and forums set up to discuss various aspects of the business and its products.

What it isn’t

Social networking is not a quick fix for getting customers. Like all marketing it needs a careful and thoroughly thought out plan to achieve goals set for it. It should be used as part of a complete plan and not instead of it. At all times the focus must be on the business goals and not on chatter about your social life. If that is what you want to network about, then set up additional business accounts with that as the main focus.

Each of the three tools identified (and there are many more that you should consider to see what is right for you and your business) have different purposes. LinkedIn for instance allows you to search for specific people in your target market. It also has very useful Q & A area where your expertise can be shown and your own reputation as a knowledgeable expert can be developed. Twitter on the other hand only allows 140 characters in each ‘tweet’ so the main purpose is to drive traffic and enhance your Google search listing as tweets are also indexed by Google.

As mentioned previously Facebook can be used for business and personal reasons. Currently the development of Facebook for business is in its early stages but it can still be used for developing your expertise and to link to other media such as your website and blog.

How to get started

Getting started is simple. All the tools I have mentioned are free to set up an account and to use. Just register and start using. A word of caution, however. Although they are free to use to be effective needs a considerable amount of time. Firstly you need to establish your account; then you need to gather fans, friends or other contacts. This can be done for searching for your target audience or ensuring that your communications are keyword rich. Then you need to provide useful content and information. Only then can you start to see the benefit. It needs co-ordination between these tools and your blog and website. However before you even start, develop an action plan so that you can integrate this form of marketing with your existing plans and make sure they work with each other.

All trademarks acknowledged.

For futher information email bob.francis@sgba.co.uk

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: Marketing, search engine optimisation, SEO, social media, social networking

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