Thursday, July 30, 2015
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
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?
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Thursday, July 23, 2015
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.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Thursday, July 16, 2015
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.
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
The Basics of Social Media
Small businesses can successfully use social media to connect with customers, vendors and potential customers. Stay social!
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Thursday, July 9, 2015
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.
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
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:
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?
Saturday, July 4, 2015
Thursday, July 2, 2015
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