How to Deal With Negative Customers on Social Media

As a small business, you are marketing yourself on various social media platforms. This is a good thing. But, anytime you post and give your readers a platform where they can comment about your products or services, you do have some risk.

When you allow your readers to comment on your posts you could get a bad review or a damaging comment. And these negatives are out there on the Internet for everyone to see.

While you can’t completely avoid negative comments on social media, you can plan on how to respond to it in a professional manner. This will reflect well on your brand.

Set up Google Alerts

You want to know what people are saying about your company. If you can’t see their comments, how will you know?

It’s easy to set up Google Alerts to notify you when your brand has been mentioned online. This will give you a chance to respond, if necessary.

Step back

Don’t take everything posted in your comments so seriously. Sometimes negative comments are just a by-product of the world we now live in. People feel safe making negative comments online because it’s sort of anonymous and they just don’t think about the effects of what they are saying online.  Some people intentionally malign individuals and companies online just to get a rise out of them. Don’t play into their wacko plans.

You have to avoid letting people’s comments get to you. Sometimes, you just have to ignore things and let them go.

Don’t be defensive

It’s difficult to not feel defensive when facing a negative comment about your company – especially one that you don’t feel is accurate. Remember that everything you post online is visible to everyone so you can’t afford to get defensive and go after the person who made the comment. This will make you look like a bully, which isn’t healthy for your company’s image.

Acknowledge when you’ve made a mistake

It is possible that a negative comment about your business is justified. If that is the case, you need to quickly give an apology to the affected person and make a promise to do better in the future.

While using social media is a great way to promote your small business, you have to keep an ear to the digital ground and identify and respond to comments about your company so that your time promoting your small business on social media isn’t wasted.

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How to Avoid Social Media Mistakes for Your Small Business

We’re all plugged into social media. It’s a daily part of our lives. We post and share information on Facebook and Instagram; we tweet about our lives and our businesses on Twitter; we look for jobs on LinkedIn; and we post and watch videos on YouTube.

There are more than 1.71 billion monthly active users just on Facebook so your small business should seriously look at having a presence on Facebook if you don’t already.

It’s so easy to make mistakes on social media when it comes to posting for your business. Here are some tips to avoid making mistakes with your small business social media posts.

Be focused

There are dozens of great social media platforms available and some of them are pretty strong. It’s tempting to be active on all of them. Unless you have a great social media team working for you, you won’t be able to successfully make an impact on all of the social media platforms.

If you try to be everywhere, you will quickly be overwhelmed. It’s best to choose 2 or 3 social media platforms that would work for your business. Knowing who your target audience is will help you choose which social media channels will work for your small business.

Be consistent

Most small business owners don’t have time to post every day. If they have free time, they’re tempted to post several times during that day. This is not the best way to make use of social media or your time.

Create a social media content calendar and stick to it. There are many tools, such as Hootsuite, that allow you to schedule your posts to different social media platforms. Your readers will come to expect a post from you on the same day and time each week. Don’t disappoint them.

Use spell check

You want to present a professional image on social media so make sure your posts are free of spelling errors and grammatical mistakes.

Make sure your reread your content before publishing it to ensure it is perfect.

Be social

You’re on social media so be social with your followers. Responding to comments and questions is important. You want to engage your followers and this is the way to do it.

Are you ready to leap into social media for your small business? If you need help, Blue Dog Marketing can assist you in creating a content calendar and even writing your posts for you. Give us a call!

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Create a 2017 Marketing Plan Even If You Don’t Want To

2017 will be here before you know it, so now is the time to prepare your small business for the coming year by creating your 2017 marketing plan.

It’s so tempting to stick with the same old marketing plan that you’ve been using with the hopes that it will work better next year. But that’s not a smart move. Now is the time to update your marketing strategy for the upcoming year.

Here are a few ideas to help you create your 2017 marketing plan:

Review last year’s plan

See what worked and what didn’t work. Not all your great plans for 2016 turned out as you expected. If you can look at what didn’t work and understand what went wrong, you won’t make those same mistakes again.

Reviewing your marketing plan will give you concrete evidence that supports continuing or changes your marketing strategy. This one of the most important things you should think about when creating or updating your marketing plan for 2017.

Include new technology

Since technology is here to stay, your marketing tactics should include ways to use technology.

To increase your profits in 2017, use technology in new ways to deliver content and services. Are you using a mobile app to reach your audience? Do you have a strong online presence? Are you using the correct social media platforms?

Increase spending on ads

Advertising can be expensive, but you can measure ROI (return on investment) advertising online and with other platforms. Include advertising in your 2017 strategy. Plan your ad placement smartly and you’ll see positive results.

Include new products and services

Are you adding new products or services in 2017? Don’t use the same marketing tactics on new products or services that you are using on existing products and services. You want your customers excited about your latest offerings. This necessitates a change in marketing emphasis.

Sure, last year’s marketing plan worked fairly well for your business, but why not aim for better results in 2017 by creating an updated marketing plan?

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Do You Have a Social Media Calendar?

As business owners, we’re all busy. When we’re busy, we need to have a plan in place so tasks get done even if we forget about them.

Successful social media requires you to regularly post on your social media platforms.

A social media calendar helps you get organized. You won’t be scrambling when your next post is due! If you use your social media calendar the right way, you can plan your posts weeks, or even months, in advance.

By having a great post on hand to post will save you time. No having to search online for a great post to share or frantically write something last minute.

With a social media calendar, you can plan your posts for each social media platform instead of using the same thing for each one. You can also plan for holidays and such fun days as National Beer Day.

Your social media calendar can be in something as simple as an Excel spreadsheet if that works for you. Just set it up as a calendar and put your topic titles in each day you want to post. In Excel you can even paste your posts into a column so you have them for reference and you can re-promote past content.

The next step is to spend a few hours writing all your posts for the month. Then it’s done and you just have to post them on the day they are due.

Get your social media organized and you’ll be more likely to stick to your schedule. And your readers will love you for it!

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Who Is Your Target Market?

If you are a small business owner, consultant or entrepreneur, you need to choose a target market…who your customers are! Concentrating on your probable customers will save you both time and money because you will be ‘talking’ to the people who are most likely to purchase from you.

How do you find your target market?

Here are four tips to help you hone in on your potential customers.

Problem solve

Think about whose needs and problems you can solve. Your potential customers are those whose problems you can solve.

Think about it this way, the more a person’s need matches your product or service the easier it will be to persuade them to buy from you.

Who are your current customers?

Take a look at who your current customers are. The traits of your current customers can be a guide for what to look for in your target market.  Don’t have any customers yet? Take a look at the next tip.

What is you competition doing?

If you really want to get more insight into your target market, check out what your competition is doing and who their customers are.  Can you do the same thing, only better?

Is there a gap in the market your competitor is missing? You can market to that niche to sell to an untapped customer base.

What makes you unique?

Know what sets you apart from your competition. It’s the added value that you offer that differentiates you from the competition and can win you customers.

Shout this added value from Facebook, Twitter and all your other social media platforms. Have it on your website home page. Use testimonials and pictures of your 

real clients when promoting your services.

Once you’ve defined your target market, it’s time to start letting everyone know who you are and how you can solve their problems. Focus on where your customers are. Now’s the time to go get ‘em!