Social Media
If you don’t use it, you probably don’t get it. I realize that’s a pretty blanket statement, but the perception of social media is so different than the actual practice that those who aren’t on facebook, or who don’t tweet often view it all as a big waste of time. If that’s you, you may even be asking yourself why you’re reading this article. “Because I see it everywhere, so there must be something to it.” Great. At least you understand that. Even if you’re not a big social media person, you get that your customers (or many of your customers) are. And this is one more opportunity for you to get in front of them.
Take facebook for example. It’s the largest social network in the world with over 500 million users. Users who are spending hours and hours posting updates, browsing pictures, playing games, and more. Even if you don’t think your business is a social one, you need a presence here. Get “fans” to follow your updates so that you can stay top of mind. There are a lot of articles already written about how to use facebook for your business, so I won’t repeat myself here. I would, however suggest that if you’d like to see a business that is very good at using facebook to interact with their customers and more importantly, drive actual sales, you’ll want to be a fan of The Grass Pad Inc in Kansas City. They do a great job and would be a fine example to follow.
Twitter has its unique value as well. While there aren’t as many people using Twitter, it’s still not something you should ignore. This story might get you interested in at least monitoring Twitter, if not using it. A woman went to a restaurant for happy hour and was unhappy that her particular brand was not one of the happy hour specials. She got on her smartphone and tweeted to the world that she was unhappy and mentioned the restaurant by name. Someone at the restaurant saw the tweet, found the lady in the dining room (using her twitter pic) and then explained to her why her drink wasn’t a part of the happy hour specials and then offered her a free appetizer. The woman immediately tweeted her happiness and the negative comment was balanced out with a positive one. Keep in mind, even if the restaurant had not been a twitter user, or monitoring twitter, the negative comment would have occurred. So don’t think you can avoid negative tweets by not participating! Want to learn to use Twitter? My best advice – just start using it. You’ll figure it out. I promise.
The Value of Blogging
The question that often goes along with blogging usually sounds something like, “Who wants to read a blog about equipment rental?” (or whatever you sell that isn’t perceived as very interesting.) Well, first of all, there are actually interesting things about every business. Take a look at your industry websites and news periodicals. There’s something there worth writing about. Secondly, keep in mind that a large goal of blogging, isn’t actually about humans reading it. A lot of it is pure SEO. Google and the other search engines LOVE content – especially fresh content. A blog will give you more opportunity to enhance your website for whatever area you’re trying to promote.
Here’s an example. ‘Dr. Plastic Surgeon’ mentions on his website that he does tummy tucks. He has some info on the procedure, along with some before and after pics – your basic quality content. But he’s not ranking for the keyword tummy tuck. An on-site SEO strategy that he can use it so write a blog post about tummy tucks. Maybe the pros and cons of a tummy tuck, or the different procedures for a tummy tuck, or stories of patients who have had a tummy tuck. See how many times I repeated the keyword tummy tuck? If a Google spider were reading this, there’s a good chance it would think this article is a good match for someone searching the keyword tummy tuck. You can use that same strategy to promote whatever keywords you’re trying to rank for and in the process expand your website with content that shows that you are the expert in your given field.
Don’t have time to write a blog? Ask me about how you can get someone else to do it for you!