3 Social Media Tips to Ensure You’re Doing It Right

Small business owners are using social media to reach their customers and potential customers. But are they using it correctly? Some are, but there are many small businesses that are not.

Two thirds of internet users in the U.S. regularly use a social network and they spend three times more time on blogs and social networks than on email. So, social networks, not email blasts, are the way to reach these people.

Here are some tips to follow to make sure time and effort you are putting into social media pays off for your business.

Set Up Your Accounts Properly

When you sign up for a social media account for your small business, thoroughly fill out your profile. Make sure you include you company name, logo and tagline, company color scheme, a photo of you or your business, your company biography and a call to action.

Connect with likeminded people on all your social network platforms. “Like” other pages on Facebook, create circles on Google+, create lists on Twitter and connect with other entrepreneurs on LinkedIn. Once you’ve made these connections, start conversations and build relationships. Chat with your followers, comment on other industry related blogs, join and participate in online groups and share your content.

Have a Plan

Your social network use should not be intermittent and unplanned. You should have a strategy that you re-visit every six months to make sure you’re posting the proper content and interacting with your followers correctly.

Create stellar content. Write snappy headlines, use short paragraphs and include compelling images. And don’t forget to include a call to action. Optimize your content using your SEO keywords. Businesses that optimize and promote their blogs receive 55% more traffic and 70% more leads than those who don’t.

Share your content on all your social network platforms. Make your content easy to share. Ask questions and spark discussions. Blog posts shared on Twitter and Facebook receive 149% more inbound links than those not shared.

Schedule Your Posts

When you decide to use social media to promote your small business, commit to a schedule and stick to it. Use a scheduling software, such as HootSuite, to schedule your posts to publish to your entire social media platform at the same time. Occasionally, link to your webpage to convert followers to customers.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas!

5 Tips for Using Images in Blog Posts

Your readers connect to your blog content not only based on what it says with text, but what it says in images, too. Blogs that include images receive more views than articles without images.

Adding images to your blog is simple. Here are five tips to improve your blog readership.

1) Use images of real people.

Pictures of people are one of the most engaging forms of web content. Don’t just randomly insert stock photos in your blogs. Use pictures of real people. If you’re writing about a client, a new employee or even one of your product offerings, include pictures of real people. Have one of your employees pose with your new product. Get a great picture of that client.

Your readers will spend more time on your blog, maybe even read it, if it contains pictures of real people.

2) Combine photos and text to increase viewer retention and engagement.

Pictures work on Facebook. Studies have shown that posts with images on Facebook constitute 93% of the most engaging posts.

People remember in two main ways: verbal and imaginal. Images create impressions on our brains in a concrete way. Your readers will remember what you wrote if you include the correct images.

3) Optimize your images so they load quickly.

Sluggish loads are annoying. 47% of viewers want a two-second load time for images. Your images should be smaller than 100KB to load quickly.

4) Position your image to the right or left of the first paragraph in your post.

People are more likely to read an article that has an image to the right or left of the first paragraph.

Why is this effective? First, people are visually attracted to images. An image positioned in this way invites the eye to travel to the image and the text. Also, people are more likely to read short lines of text than long ones. When compared with lines of text below the image, the lines beside the image seem short. This means that people will be more inclined to read them. You have that first paragraph to capture their attention and entice them to read the rest of your post.

5) Use one image for every 350 words.

How many images should you have in your posts? In a study by Blog Pros, in the 100 of the highest ranking blogs on the internet, there was at least one image for every 350 words. You should use as many images as you need to in order to communicate your ideas clearly and precisely.

Today, we live in an age of the visual. From smartphone to video billboards, images are everywhere. Be sure to include them in your blogs. 

3 Unwritten Rules of Social Media

There are some unwritten rules for social media that you should follow when engaging your followers.

Rule #1 – Give Readers Value

The social media networks you use as a small business are the perfect platform to market your products or services. It is important that you make a concerted effort to post more than just promotional content about your business. Don’t disguise one of your ads as a social media post. Your readers are too savvy for that.

Your posts should educate your followers about what’s currently happening in your market. You can let them know that your company can provide the latest and newest product or service, but don’t make the post about you. Remember, it’s all about the pain your potential customer has and how you can solve it.

Rule #2 – Always Be Nice

Eventually, you will come face-to-face with a negative social interaction. It could be a complaint about an experience someone had at your business. How you handle the negative posts can affect how many see your company. If the person with the negative post has a legitimate complaint, acknowledge what your business did poorly, apologize and offer a solution that will make your customer happy.

Rule #3 – Double Check Your Posts

If you’re the person writing your blog and Facebook posts and your tweets, have someone check your work for spelling errors, proper grammar and accurate content before you publish it. You don’t want to be embarrassed online with blatant errors in your posts.

Consider these “rules” when posting to your social media accounts and your followers will thank you by remaining followers.

Happy Hanukkah!

Wishing you and your family a Happy Hanukkah!

If I Could Turn Back Time…

A recent USA Snapshot asked 504 small business owners what the top things they would have done differently. Not surprisingly, “doing more marketing/promotion” was the number one response.

Don’t let this be your regret. Contact an expert, like us at Blue Dog Marketing, to handle your marketing for you. We take marketing off your plate so you can concentrate on what you do best, running your business. Let 2015 be the year your business grows through marketing!

5 Ways to Get More Pinterest Followers

Want to get more followers on Pinterest?

Are you ready to take your Pinterest marketing to the next level?

Here are tips to show you how to build up your Pinterest fast.

Post Original Content

80% of the posts on Pinterest are repins. Posting original content is a great way to stand out.

Repin Content

Repinning posts should be a big part of your Pinterest marketing strategy. You will get noticed by the original source and may get them to follow your page.

When repining, be sure to add your own descriptions to the posts. Include your keywords too.

Follow the Leaders

A simple rule for Pinterest: If you follow others on Pinterest, you’ll gain more followers. It’s that easy.

Use Keywords in Descriptions

How you pin images is just as important as what you pin. Use relevant search terms in your descriptions. Your keywords should be terms people search for on Pinterest.

Make Your Website Pinterest-Friendly

Another way to get more Pinterest followers it by adding Pinterest follow and share buttons to your website. If a website visitor likes one of your pictures, they can easily pin your image. 

5 Awesome Ways to Promote Your Blog Posts

You’ve spent hours researching and writing your blog posts. Now, how do you get someone to read them? The answer is you need to promote your blog. Here are five ways you can promote each of your blog posts.

Be consistent with your blogging

This means you need to pick a schedule of when you are posting your blogs and stick to it. If blogging two or three times a week is too much for you, then only blog once a week or twice a month even. The idea is to post your blogs on a regular schedule so your readers will know when to come back to read more.

Add Interesting Graphics

Do you add visually appealing pictures or graphics with each of your posts? Your pictures should be relevant to the post and unique. Pictures can grab a reader’s attention and make them want to read your entire post.

Share Your Blog on Social Media

Don’t just post your blog and be done with it. You’ve spent time researching and writing your blog, so share it with the world! Add your blog to your personal and business Facebook page. Share on your LinkedIn profile. You can tweet about your blog too. Make sure your blog is connected to your website. People visiting your website might also stop to read your blog. You can also share your blog with your circle and publicly on Google+ to increase your SEO.

Don’t Forget Your Current Contacts

You might already have an email or newsletter list. Use it to promote your blog. Include your most recent blog in your email newsletter. You can link to your blog so reader can get more information if they want. Include a link to your blog in your email signature.

Leverage Other Bloggers’ Networks

Offer to guest blog. You know how much work blogging is. Bloggers appreciate offers to guest blog because that’s one day they don’t have to worry about. Through your networking or involvement in associations, find other businesses that you could partner with (don’t compete with) and write a blog relevant to their market. You can link back to your blog. This way you increase your audience reach into a whole new market.

6 Pinterest Tips for the Holidays

If your small business uses Pinterest, it’s important to have a strong presence there as the holiday season is upon us. Pinterest is the go-to social network for sparking gift ideas and referral traffic from Pinterest pages is growing at a significant rate.

If you want to obtain some of that referral traffic, you must position yourself as a must-follow pinner. It does take time to build your credibility on Pinterest, here are a few things your can do to create a stronger presence in just a few days.

Be Informative

Optimize your Pinterest profile. This section provides potential customers with valuable information about your company and your brand and it can influence their decision to follow your brand.

To optimize your profile section, make sure to write a description that informs visitors what kind of business you are and what kind of products you offer. It is important to include your keywords in this section.

Plan Board Placement

The boards that are featured above the fold on your company’s Pinterest page will influence visitors in their decision to follow and re-pin you. Place your most popular boards at the top of the page. For the holidays, you will also want to position time-sensitive holiday campaign boards at the top.

Know Your Niche

Use Pinterest’s analytics to provide insight about post content that is engaging. The analytics dashboard will provide you with a visual look at your most popular boards and pins.

Interact with Pinterest Influencers

Follow influencers on Pinterest and repin, like and share their pins. By doing this, these influencers will be more likely to engage with your content, which will increase your visibility on the site. Piqora is a contest promotion tool that helps you create your Pinterest contest and allows you to run analytical reports about your contest.

Hold a Contest

One of the best ways to increase engagement on Pinterest is to hold a contest.  A contest will strengthen your company’s presence on Pinterest and will attract a lot of attention.

Grow your Audience Using Facebook

By connecting your Pinterest and Facebook pages, you can grow your audience. Using Pinvolve, a software that automatically posts Pinterest pins to your Facebook page, makes it easy to increase your Pinterest traffic. 

Create a 2015 Marketing Plan Even If You Don't Want To

2015 will be here before you know it, so now is the time to prepare your company for the coming year by creating your 2015 marketing plan.

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

Here are a few ideas to assist you in creating your marketing plan:

Review Last Year’s Plan

See what worked and what didn't work. Not all your great plans for 2014 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 changing your marketing strategy. This is one of the most important things you should think about when creating or updating your marketing plan for 2015.

Include New Technology

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

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

Increase Spending on Ads

Advertising can be expensive, but you can measure ROI advertising online and with other emerging platforms. Include advertising in your 2015 marketing strategy. Plan your ad placement smartly and you’ll see positive results.  

Include New Products and Services

Are you adding new products or services this coming year? Do not 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 you, but why not aim for better results in 2015 by creating an updated marketing plan?