The secret of business is to know something nobody else knows. - Aristotle Onassis

5 Tips for Creating Interesting Content

Have you ever written a blog and wondered if anyone's even going to read it? A 2013 study by Chartbeat found that most readers are only getting about 60% of the way through a piece of content. 

So what’s happening with the other 40% of the stuff you wrote? Not much! Your readers have short attention spans. Your content has to keep them reading all the way to the end of the article.

You may be thinking that the industry you work in isn’t “sexy” and can be boring. There are some tricks to make content from any market sector interesting….content that will keep your readers engaged. Here are five tips that you can use to make your blogs and article interesting to your readers:

1) Be helpful.

If what you are writing about is helpful to your readers, they won’t find it boring. Focus your writing on education your readers and they will read your article in its entirety.  

2) Write like you speak.

Write naturally and let your personality come through. Do not use acronyms or business speak that could confuse your readers. Make your article easy to read and understand.

3) Let your sense of humor show.

Part of writing naturally can be allowing a humorous tone to show in some of your articles. By keeping the tone of your article lighthearted, you will keep your audience's attention.

4) Keep it short.

If your industry isn't very interesting, your readers will quite often not bother to finish your article. Keep your article brief. Remember, many of your readers are using their mobile devices to read your article. A good reading experience on a mobile device and hook a reader to want to read more from your company. Also, the less time it takes to read your article, the less likely you are to experience reader drop-off.

5) Give your readers eyes a rest.

Don’t overwhelm your readers with a lot of text. Break up your text into small paragraphs and include bullet points to condense information. White space in your article allows your readers’ eyes to rest.

Include a visual, such as a photo or video that tells your story. People are attracted to pictures.

Are there any tips you’d like to share that have made you been successful in your blogging?

Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets. - Henry Ford

How to Host a Successful Event!

Hosting an event is a great way to grow your business. You can reconnect with current customers and have prospective customers get to know you better.

If you are a savvy entrepreneur, you already know the value of networking. Take that success strategy one step further and host your own company event. You can be the ‘connector’ at your own event, connecting people that you know would work well together or have a synergy. You can also develop new relationships and so much more!

There is a lot of behind the scenes activities that go into pulling off a successful event, probably more than you can imagine.

To get you started, here are four critical steps for hosting an event that you should take before you hold your event.

1. Know your why 

It’s great to hold a party for no reason at all, but a business related party should have a WHY. Once you have your reason and motivation for hosting a company event, you can develop your theme. Be very clear about what your event is going to be about and for whom. This becomes your foundation. Don’t get distracted. Be clear on the why, the theme and your vision.

2. Create a plan

You should start planning your event at least 8-10 months out. If you are planning to host a large, 3-day conference for your clients, you may want to start planning 12-18 months out to ensure a successful experience.

If this is your first event, start small and get your feet wet with something easy like an evening dinner seminar.

Your event plan should include:

- The date

- The place (venue)

- The times

- The guest list (current clients, prospects, other guests) 

 Invitation (this is your offer. Think about how you will fill the seats. How will you reach your guest list – email or snail mail?)

- Your content (what you will present)

- Your sponsors (if applicable)

- The pricing (are you charging your guests or is this a free event?)

- The follow-up (follow up with your attendees is so important!)

3. Form a team 

You’ve heard the saying “it takes a village”? Well, event planning really does. There are a lot of moving parts so having a team in place to make sure your event will run smoothly from start to finish is imperative. Whether you are hosting a small dinner seminar or a 3-day conference, you need a team in place. Here are some suggestions for building your team:

- Your employees – they are the ones who know your clients and prospects and can create the invitation list

- An event management team, such as Blue Dog Marketing, who can manage everything from getting you a great location to negotiating a great contract. An event management team will be on-site during your event to manage the day. An event management team can also design your invitation and other materials for the event, hire an audio-visual company (if needed) and most importantly, they can keep you focused and on budget.

4. Determine your budget

Plan your event budget wisely. When meeting with your event management team, they can help you create a budget because they know the average cost for many of the items you need to make your event successful. Little things, as well as the big things, quickly add up.

Hosting an event is a great way to attract your target customers and grow your business. 

There is no time for cut and dry monotony. There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time! - Coco Chanel

Ways to Use Social Media

How to use social media? Listen, talk, build your brand awareness and support your customers. Learn more in this video.

The Basics of Social Media

Small businesses can successfully use social media to connect with customers, vendors and potential customers. Stay social!

It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference. - Tom Brokaw

5 Facebook Mistakes to Avoid

Today’s small businesses know they need to have a presence on Facebook. Facebook (and other social media avenues) allow you to communicate with current customers, promote your business to prospective customers and even to vendors. Facebook has so many uses for your business, but are you using it correctly? Here are five Facebook mistakes some small businesses make that you should avoid.

1) You set up a profile instead of a business page for your business.

This may seem pretty straightforward, but you'd be surprised by how many small businesses make this error. Facebook profiles are meant for individual people and Facebook Pages are meant for businesses.

2) You don’t monitor the posts or comments on your page.

The point of Facebook is to interact with your current customers and prospective customers that are already on Facebook. And, since Facebook has nearly two billion active users, it’s quite probably that your target audience is on Facebook. 

Remember the ‘social’ part of social media. When you set up your Facebook Page, make sure that you choose the publishing options for your Timeline that are appropriate for your business. Turing this option on allows your fans to post and leave comments on your site. That’s the social part. You can manage this by allowing your fans to post and leave comments on your but you must manually approve them before they show up. Some companies don't give their fans any publishing permissions at all. 

Once you have your publishing permissions set and are posting, don’t forget to monitor your page daily and respond to your fans’ comments when appropriate.

3) You don’t respond complaints.

What do you do it your fans leave a negative comment or complaint on your page? This will happen because you can’t stop people from saying things about your products or services, good or bad.

What you can do is respond respectfully and provide helpful information. Responding not only shows people you're concerned about their happiness, but also that you're engaged.

4) You don’t post videos.

In the past, photos dominated Facebook. Recently, Facebook made some changes and now images have the worst organic reach. Video is now the best post type for organic reach since Facebook’s most recent strategy shift toward video. You can still use pictures in your posts, but add videos to the mix.

5) Your posts are too long.

Surveys have found that shorter posts generate higher engagement. Concise posts of 1-40 characters generate the highest engagement.

Experiment and see what works best for your particular business and audience. The optimal length of Facebook posts will vary from company to company. 

6 Facebook Business Page Features You Should Be Using

Most businesses use Facebook as a way to reach potential customers and stay in contact with current customers. There are several Facebook business page features that you may not be using, but should, to make better use of the time you spend on your Facebook page. 

Here are 6 Facebook Business Page features that Blue Dog Marketing recommends small business owners use:

1. Calls-to-Action

Last December, Facebook introduced calls-to-action (CTA) as a feature available on business pages. The CTA is located on your cover photo section. This allows you to drive your business objectives. The CTA drop down allows you to choose from a group of seven actions, including “Shop Now,” “Sign Up,” “Book Now,” “Contact Us,” “Use App,” “Play Game” and “Watch Video.”

2. Manage Sections

You can adjust the layout of your Facebook business page by hovering over the title bar of any section featured on the page's left side, such as "People," "About" or "Photos." When you do so, a little pencil will appear that enables you to “Manage Sections.” From there, you can drag to reorder how sections are displayed on your page, such as moving the “Photos” section above the “About” section.

3. Schedule Posts

You have the ability to schedule and backdate your posts on Facebook. After you write your post, instead of selecting “Post,” you simply need to click the arrow next to “Post”  to view a dropdown menu (see image) that provides you with the option to schedule a post, backdate a post or save a draft of the post.

4. Similar Page Suggestions

To increase your organic reach, you should make sure that your “Similar Page Suggestions” option is turned on. This option is found in the “General” tab under the Page’s “Settings” menu. By having this option turned on, the Page will be featured when Facebook recommends similar Pages that people might like on a timeline.

5. Event App

You can add apps to your business page, including the event app. The event app is really useful if your business is trying to drive foot traffic to your store or to an event you are hosting. You can add the event app to your page by visiting the “Apps” tab under the “Settings” menu. From there, you should select “Add App” next to the event app option. Once added to the page, you can create an event by filling out an event form which includes details like event name, location, date, category, ticket URL and audience targeting options. It is also important to note that you can more prominently feature your events by featuring the app on the menu bar directly below your page’s cover photo. This can be done by clicking the “More” option on the menu and choosing “Manage Tabs.”

6. When Your Fans Are Online

Knowing when your fans are online is imperative. You want to post at the times they are online so they always see your posts. Go to the Insights menu on the “Posts” tab and you will see “When Your Fans are Online.” This section sheds light on the overall activity of your page’s audience base.

These Facebook features are a few of the Facebook Page features that small businesses should be using. Do you have a favorite Facebook feature? 

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July from Blue Dog Marketing!

Have a save and happy holiday!!!

Networking

As a small business, where should you network?