Protecting A SMBs Brand With Social Media Monitoring
The Internet is a tool used by many people for different reasons. Social media has become a huge part of Internet usage. People are able to express thoughts and opinions and communicate with other individuals.
What is Online Reputation Management?
With the growing number of people using social media, Online Reputation Management software has been created. Online Reputation Management is a part of the Public Relations field that helps businesses enhance their online image. The Internet is a dumping ground of information, thoughts, and opinions, which is why small businesses should utilize this software. Social media is a way for individuals to gain information, share information, and express opinions about anything.
Some popular social media technologies are Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. Each one of these has the power to make or break a company, product, or celebrity. Facebook incorporates “Fan Pages” for businesses and products to allow for discussion and opinions to be expressed.
The Impact of Social Media on Brand
The numbers of individuals who use social media technologies is constantly growing. Companies need to understand this fact and understand that it can directly impact their business and public image. With online reputation management software, a small business will be able to monitor all consumer talk about their business and respond to the situation in a timely manner. This will altogether increase customer satisfaction (which is very important!).
Another way in which a business’s reputation can be at stake is because of product and business review options on the Internet. Many people rely on the Internet to provide feedback on certain products and even company ethics.
Reviews allow consumers to express personal opinions, which may not be censored. A small business should use this software not only to monitor consumer reviews, but to learn more about competitor’s products.
Online reputation management software can also assist in unexpected ways. The software will help with marketing research.
A small business will learn marketing trends and how they should position their product or service in the community. Information about the industry as a whole will also help a business thrive.
Altogether, online reputation management software is the smart, efficient way to monitor your small business on the Internet.
About the Author: Stefan is an social media specialist with Reputation Observer a reputation management platform based in the US, Germany and France.
Photo Credit: karola riegler photography
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Google’s Social Media For Business Draws Ever Closer But What Will it Look Like?
Facebook has been an important part of many business’ SEO and client outreach for a couple of years now.
Anyone ‘on the inside’ knows that there’s an industry expectation that your business has a Facebook profile, indeed, many TV advertising and marketing campaigns use “visit us on Facebook” rather than using their own website as the platform is ubiquitous, user friendly and the API divulges a great deal of information about the consumer which wouldn’t necessarily be available if they went directly to the web1 address. Read more
A “Stand-Out” Google Feature and Why F8 Was a Mistake
Google released the +1 in response to Facebook’s Like button, then Google+ in an overall response to Facebook and all other social media platforms. Huge numbers of people were fed up with Facebook anyway so they all migrated, found it unfamiliar and went straight back to Facebook’s comfortable, cozy familiarity. Read more
Is Google+ Like a Post-Apocalyptic Facebook?
It was all the buzz in June and July this year but the disappointment of early adopters means that Google+ is like a post-apocalyptic Facebook, technologically advanced but with none but a few jaded survivors populating the streets.
I’ve been an early adopter on a few trends, I registered for Twitter early enough to get me own name but then didn’t even look at it again for about 2 years while it matured, the same with LinkedIn and I signed up for Facebook when you actually had to know the person you were friending up. Such a difference from MySpace. Do you even remember MySpace? But I digress. The problem is, with being an early registrant, that no-one really knows how a platform works so those who aren’t really engaged go back to their familiar utilities while the die-hard fans make it a useable place to be. Finally those who had lost interest realise that all their friends are talking about it again and they take another look and realize things have really improved.
At the time of writing Google+ are asking business not to get involved on the platform while users get to know how the environment works and iron out any wrinkles that still exist. But that doesn’t mean that if you have a business you shouldn’t be getting to know your way around, investigating the facilities and strategising your activities when Google+ for business finally goes live.
Does Your Business Need Google+ Like It Needed Facebook?
In the same way that it became a truism that you business needed Facebook if it was to have any chance to survive on the internet, being on as many platforms as possible is equally as important. And when you bear in mind that anything you produce which you release publically (rather than targeted to specific Circles) will be crawled by Google’s spiders plus a plethora of other benefits you should be able to see why allowing yourself to fall behind the curve is a poor option.
In the old days of three months ago Facebook was the industry killer when it came to social media. Zuckerberg could make up any rules he liked regarding our privacy and we’d just go along with it because we had no option. We’d put our business on Facebook so that we could look into our likers’ and friends’ API and use it as part of our client relationship management strategies, it was an industry expectation and if you didn’t have a Facebook page people would think there was something wrong. Zuckerberg seems to have changed his ideas about whether users actually need privacy and want the same comments to be visible to all your friends rather rapidly and purely coincidentally as soon as Google+ introduced Circles.
Set up a Google+ profile and follow everyone who’s in your sector, build relationships in the same way it was recommended you did in Facebook but with circles you’re able to keep competitors separate from suppliers, stakeholders from staff (if you think that’s appropriate). In much the same way Twitter users generally follow back so will Google+ users. Add them to your Circles and every time they Google something, if you’ve written about it, your articles will appear in their first page. That’s some good looking SEO for nothing but an on-topic blog or two.
Keep On Doing Everything You Always Did, Just Add Another Platform
In the same way that everyone was encouraged to Tweet about their blog and any new developments in their industry Google+ allows you to reach your followers in exactly the same way only you can provide a couple of paragraphs of précis and a small picture. The comments you and your friends and followers add stay associated with the original post or commenter and conversations can be ‘muted’ if you no longer want updates on that topic but you can still hear from the same people making comments on other threads.
As well as these relatively ordinary facilities you can also start hangouts with followers and their followers even if you’re not connected directly. These can take the form of either instant messages or video conference. At the moment you’re limited to ten participants at a time, but any more than that would be an impossibility to organise and control. If you want to visualise ideas that you are talking about there are whiteboards which everyone can contribute to and then save, these developments make virtual team management and integration more than just a realistic possibility, they actually make it fun! And given that Google+ integrates seamlessly with Gmail, Calendar and Documents even if you don’t use it for client relationships, internally it’s a free resource that is provided by other organisations at a premium.
Seeing Off Panda
But getting back to SEO and SEM, post Panda Farmer Google’s SERPS have been based on quality and, increasingly, social, be that bookmarking, Tweets, Facebook likes and Google +1s et cetera. Reposting your blogs on Google+ means that you can increase your outreach and get double the number of +1 (on your homepage and Google+ profile) so that as well as being searchable your social is optimised as well. Talking of +1, if you don’t already have the button, add it now. Forbes published an article saying that if you didn’t you could forget about being indexed on Google. They had to pull it again sharpish but the suspicion persists. Plus, they wouldn’t have introduced it if it wasn’t going to affect search, would they?
Some people wonder if Google+ is here to stay. Look at the fuss they had with other tools such as Buzz and Wave. They were technologies which solved nothing and in the case of examples such as Buzz were intrusive and unwelcome. Google+ offers so much more. With increased, more intelligent security and privacy it’s hard to make the comparison. And if those early adopters who couldn’t see the benefits and kept to Facebook are right to stay away, is that such a bad thing? There’s a place for them and if they like it, fine. Google+ may become the ‘Facebook for Business’ that LinkedIn seemed interested in becoming for a moment. The thing is that Google can afford to do it bigger, better and direct into SERPs.
About the Author: @DanCash is a features writer living on the south coast of England. He’s taking his laptop over to a friend’s later to show them the advantages of using Google+ in SEO so they can replicate the method on their barebones PC.
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Is Your Social Media Beyond Repair?
No one likes to admit they broke things. In fact, many people will run for cover so that they do not get blamed for such actions.
When it comes to your company’s social media efforts, are you putting the right amount of time and energy into them or is it done with just a passing interest?
As more small businesses identify and understand just how beneficial social media can be to their company’s success, it is incumbent upon them to know when and be able to fix a social media program when it is broken.
Social Media Gaffes
For companies who are having issues with their social media campaigns, what are the right fixes?
Do they take the time to correct them? Do they put the problem on the backburner to deal with another day? Lastly, do they just throw their arms up in the air and abandon social networking altogether?
If your small business has seen its social media planning come up short of what your intended goals were in the first place, there are options available to right the ship.
Start by taking a look at the following:
- Frequency of social networking – In the event your company has set up a social media campaign, how often are you tending to it? If the answer is not that often, you’ve got a problem. If you’re going to take the time to set up Facebook and Twitter pages to name two, you’d better plan on actively working them. What’s the sense in the first place of having such venues if you’re attendance on them will be limited to begin with?
- Being too rigid in who can use the sites – While marketing/PR departments typically oversee a company’s Twitter or Facebook venue, that doesn’t mean others cannot utilize it. Yes, you should have some rules for engagement in place, but that does not mean contributions from other employees should be excluded. While it is fine to review any tweets, shares, etc. that go out, don’t discourage employees from participating.
- Not engaging customers – In the event you’re allowing and receiving comments to your social media pages, by all means respond to them. Nothing will discourage return customers more than if you allow them the opportunity to comment, yet you turn a deaf ear to those comments.
- Throwing in the towel – It happens all too often. A small business begins a social media campaign, doesn’t get the results it wants and abandons it. So, what exactly have they accomplished? To put it bluntly, nothing. By all means, stay upbeat and try different approaches if things are not working out. The worst possible scenario is to give up on the project, therefore eliminating a great way to be seen and heard. Like just about everything else in life, results do not come overnight. Have a long-term social media strategy and be prepared to stick it out. Developing solid relationships with both current and potential customers takes time, so don’t get discouraged if things are not clicking right away.
The best advice possible for a successful social media campaign is to be in it for the long haul, knowing that some things will work and others won’t.
One thing that will definitely work in your company’s favor is planning on being social for a long time to come.
About the Author: Dave Thomas is an expert writer on items like purchasing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs at Resource Nation.
Photo Credit: e-magic
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Don’t Promote on Social Media Unless You Know These 5 Common Mistakes
Social media has become an important aspect of online business marketing, but there is still a lot of confusion regarding how to get the right kind of attention using social media channels.
In order to create the right kind of social media personality for your company, and build credibility as you do it, avoid the following missteps:
1. Crossing the Line from Professional to Personal
You indeed want to represent your company as personable and approachable in order to reach your customers. However, often that line from professional to personal is crossed, and information that is way too personal is shared. For example, it is completely appropriate to tweet, “Sorry for my slow response; I just got back from vacation.” However, you cross the line when you tweet, “I couldn’t get back to you last week because I was partying it up in Cancun!”
2. Over the Top Self-Promotion
Your customers expect a certain degree of self-promotion. However, if your posts never vary from the self-promotional variety, your followers will get tired of them.
Discern what kind of content your followers are most interested in—what drew them to you in the first place? Then, be sure to post useful links and information that will keep them coming back; when you do post promotional information, your customers will be more likely to respond.
3. Not Interacting With Your Followers
If you don’t reply when fans post comments on your Facebook page, if you don’t ask questions and respond when they answer, then you are missing out on a huge marketing opportunity. Think of your social media sites as additional opportunities for customer service, and be sure that you are engaging your followers with questions and discussions.
4. Responding Only to Positive Comments
When you get negative comments via social media channels, it is perhaps even more important to respond to them than to the positive comments. Ignoring the negative comment is like telling the customer that you do not care. As mentioned above, responding to tweets or posts is an opportunity for great customer service.
5. Jumping in Without a Plan
Mistakes made on the internet are likely out there forever. Often, companies wanting to get on board with social media make the decision to do so, then just jump in tweeting and posting without any kind of marketing plan. Considering the permanent nature of online marketing, having a well thought-out plan is the best way to make the most out of social media.
Conclusion
A good social media campaign can contribute greatly to the success of your business. Keep these guidelines in mind as you create social media accounts that positively represent your company.
About the Author: Kaushal Gandhi is Director at Aaris Internet Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Aaris is SEO company in India. Kaushal has conceptualized SEO Traingulation Method to get desired ranking. In addition, he is also a passionate blogger and writes on diverse topics such as Search Engine Optimization, PPC Management and Social Media.
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Is Google+ a Facebook Killer?
Google+ are currently asking business to withhold from signing up to the new service until it is fully rolled out with all the bugs beta’d out of the application. Which makes sense as over the past five years social media has taken off as the key means to develop relationships with users, clients and business partners, it’s far easier to follow some-one or invite them as a friend than it is to develop a relationship over the phone or via email.
Google Dominance
A quick search of search engine market share reveals that Google commands 83.62% of the global use of internet search facilities, next most popular is Yahoo, Microsoft’s Bing comes in fourth with 3.5% of internet users choosing it above all the others.
While Google offers free search which can be tweaked to suit your preferences, free email which doesn’t have adverts in the body and is easy to navigate without doing unexpected actions if you click too many boxes when you finally get around to cleaning out your inbox (Yes Hotmail, I’m looking at you!) with the introduction of Google+ they’ve essentially guaranteed their ownership of the web (top layer at least, the invisible web is another story).
Many Issues with Facebook
Social media is a fundamental part of many people’s lives now but many people have a trust issue with Facebook, when it started it seemed that it was only going to let you network with people you really did know in the Real World but as the opportunities for business and marketing were realised each user became a potential target for marketing so change after change was introduced. Now many users find that things happen to their account and they have to opt out rather than opt in. They don’t always appreciate that kind of meddling.
But Facebook is a free service and they have to make their money somewhere so we can’t complain… But now we have a serious option. MySpace was once Facebook’s only relevant competition yet it’s been sold for a fraction of its purchase price from a few years ago and last week saw a search for MySpace directing immediately back to Google’s home page. Today things seem back to normal but you can probably remember the media frenzy when Facebook dropped out for a few hours some time ago. When it happens to MySpace: not a peep.
What Does This Mean for You?
But what does all that mean to consumers and users?Essentially, once business is able to register on Google+ Facebook could go the same way as MySpace. I’m already going through the long and drawn out process of migrating my data from Facebook to Google+, I like Chrome as a browser, I have been a big fan of Gmail since I started beta-ing that too so why wouldn’t I? And many other people will too, even if they don’t delete their accounts they will surely migrate away from Facebook and set up a new account, link it in with their RSS reader, calendar, email and docs and find that they have very little reason to look at Facebook, in much the same way that people don’t tend to look at MySpace any longer. Google will have achieved its master plan and taken over complete control of the internet.
Again, like Facebook, Google is a free application and if you don’t like it you can always use the other products which are available but if you’re in business and you’re involved in digital marketing or an active social media aficionado then getting a presence within Google itself, via Google+ is going to be far more important to SERPs than trying every-one to ‘like’ you on Facebook.
About the Author: @DanCash is a feature writer and SEO copywriter focusing on social media training. Follow me on Twitter for my views on the impending battle to the death of one or other social platforms.
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Major News Items Make Twitter, Has Your Business Done Likewise?
The killing of the world’s number one terrorist was indirectly caught on Twitter, while one of the NBA icons of the last 20 years announced his recent retirement on the social network.
Get Noticed through Social Media Marketers
There is no denying the power of social media in today’s society. Look at any product and you will see the logos for Twitter and Facebook. Watch people waiting for the elevator and see how they spend their time checking and updating their Facebook or Twitter accounts. It is important for any business looking to gain the attention that they need to succeed in the modern marketplace to understand the importance of social media. Of course, just understanding its importance will not get your business noticed, you need a professional with the ability to navigate you through the social media maze. Read more
How Social Media Savvy is Your Small Business?
Social media gives small businesses the opportunity to socially interact with the public to promote products and services, and communicate with customers. With social media, small business owners can build a strong online presence without incurring the high costs associated with building websites and launching private online communities. Social media may seem simple, but most businesses have not maximized its full potential. Read more
Learn how to Grow your Traffic with these 9 WordPress Plugins
WordPress is one of the best tools that can be used not only for the website development but the WordPress plugins are there that can help you a lot in getting more and more targeted as well as the improved traffic. The number of such WordPress plugins is great and you can go through them easily if you are a new blogger. You must understand the importance of the Search engine Optimization for a blog that delivers the best performance as to making money by attracting good amount of affluent traffic. Read more
Promoting Your Business through Smartphones and Social Media
Look at any advertisement for a successful company and you will see the familiar social media site icons posted on the bottom of the advertisement. The point of the advertisement is to direct customers and potential customers to their social media sites. The reason for this is Read more
How Social Media Helps Businesses Increase Profits and Reduce Debt
If you have a small business and want to promote it on a wide scale, social media can be the best way to do it. It may happen that you may incur debt and need to get help from bill consolidation options, but you can increase your profit in spite of debt.
This is possible if you promote your business using social media. Social media can be a huge platform to boost your business and can also help you increase the profit of your business. There is a direct relationship between the good performance of a business and the social media.
Support Given by Social Media to Small Businesses
You may have difficulties starting up a business but due to your determination and perseverance, you succeed in it. You may face many hardships on the way such as falling in debt but you can take help of bill consolidation options to get out of debt. Social media can be another way to increase your profit even when you’re in debt. Take a look at how social media supports small businesses:
Creating Communities for People
Social media help you create community and also join certain communities. If you’re able to build the trust of your consumers, it’ll make you feel powerful. If the consumers start trusting you, you can rest assured that they’ll help you build the profit out of your business. It’s not about other companies, it’s about people. These people can make or break you. So, if you take help of social media, this thing can happen and you’ll be able to market your products and people can like them and increase your popularity. This is called collaboration and it gives way to increased marketing. When you build a community of faithful consumers, they may inform others about you and this way your business gets promoted and expands. Another tip that can help you build this collaboration is that you can connect with this people as an individual and not as a company. People get more attached to colleagues than companies.
Building Relationships
After you collaborate with your trusted consumers, you can build a relationship by communicating about your business. Don’t try to force them into liking your business but you can give them ideas about what you do based on their likes and then you can build that relationship. You can start a blog of your own and ask your consumers to post their comments. There are innumerable social networking sites that can help you communicate about your work and strategies. You can also share photos and videos with your faithful consumers and they can in return post their comments. Write good content so that your customers can easily visit your blog and get the idea about your business. You can also share your shortcomings and how you were able to overcome them. This can become an inspiration for other people. This will help you have a direct conversation with your consumers and will also help you get their opinion on how to increase the profits in your business.
Entertaining People
Always remember that people haunt those places where they can have fun. Certain social media sites are fun places to chat and also make friends. You can target that area and also post fun videos to promote your business. There are many big companies who used fun videos to promote their business and people really liked tem. So, if you can entertain people with your promotional strategies, you can always expand your business and increase your consumers.
There is an option in the social sites that you can open up a business account and then you can promote it. You can also learn about using social media to promote your business when you search for the same on the Internet. The profits you incur can go into bill consolidation procedure to get you out of debt.
Contributed by: Debt Community Member
Photo Credit: Webtreats
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Does Online Group Buying Hurt Small Business?
There is a recent consumer craze sweeping the internet in the form of social media coupon sites. These group buying sites harness the power of group buying in order to drive prices down for consumers and, supposedly, to drive new business to small businesses and large businesses alike. The idea is that businesses will benefit from the attention such deals give them, even if they take a slight loss in selling their products and services at reduced prices.
Impact on Business
However, research reported on by The Christian Science Monitor shows that these group coupon plans don’t actually drive new customers to businesses. In fact, most customers use the coupon once, and then never return for repeat purchases.
Essentially, those who use group buying programs and deals aren’t in it to find new businesses to patronize, but rather just want a good deal. The author of the study, Utpal Dholakia, a professor at Rice University, told The Christian Science Monitor, “Because the Groupon customer base is made up of deal-seekers and bargain shoppers, they might not tip as well as an average customer or be willing to purchase beyond the deal.” That customer base does not make for a very loyal one.
Extreme Example
The greatest example of how group buying can harm businesses comes from the Gap and Groupon mega-deal that swept the nation this summer. Although Groupon deals are usually smaller, the company and Gap partnered to offer the deal concurrently in many different cities. This led to over 400,000 sales of Gap merchandise at half-price. Groupon looked to take half that revenue, but Mashable suggested that Gap may have lost nearly $8 million on the deal due to the above characteristics of an extremely unloyal customer base.
Buyer Beware
So what does this mean for small business owners? Ultimately, it means that small business owners should be wary of entering into any program that would make them a part of group buying deals. If such a program offers you membership, and you choose to do it, insist that there be some way to protect your business. For example, if there isn’t a clause in the contract that allows you to cap the number of discount sales, then a sudden run on your business could spell disaster.
Track Your Results!
If you still decide to go through with a group buying program just to try it out, be sure to track your customers. If they make a purchase with a group coupon, ask them if they are a returning customer or a new customer. Ask them if they would return in the future. Track the amount of money they spent on the purchase. Was it above the coupon price? If so, how much? If not, then you can count that as a loss. Above all else, having good records will help you decide as to whether or not such a partnership could help or harm your business in the future.
About the Author: This guest post is contributed by Kate Willson, who writes on the topics of best online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: katewillson2@gmail.com.
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Targeting Your Social Media Efforts
Whether you like it or not social media has become a piece of the marketing puzzle and can be a great way to reach your target audience on a more personable level. But before you start making Facebook fan pages and YouTube channels, you should do some research on who and what people are looking for when they go to these sites.
A Look at The Numbers
A study done by Chitika, a full service online advertising network, has broken down the users of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Digg. They found that an overwhelming 47% of Twitter users go there to find news, while 51% of MySpace users are there for either video games or celebrity/entertainment purposes. Twenty-eight percent of Facebook users go there for the news, while Digg seemed to be distributed evenly between news, tech, and video games.
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These types of numbers are important to know where to target your social media efforts. Having a game plan is half the battle—for both offline and online marketing. It seems that many marketers are starting to realize that social media is important, they just don’t exactly know what to do with it yet.
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Another study conducted by Econsultancy and Bigmouthmedia concluded that 86% of the companies they surveyed said they wanted to allocate more money to social media, but not sure what to do with their findings once on these sites. Knowing why people are going to these networks can help with this.
Find Your Target
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Once you target your efforts and know exactly why your customers are going to these sites, the easier it will be to give the information they want. Since 47% of Twitter users are there for news, have your Twitter updates be more information based. Your tweets may not have to be all informational, but give the people what they want.
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If you apply your knowledge of traditional marketing strategies to social media you can be very successful. You wouldn’t run an advertisement for makeup on a channel predominantly watched by males—so why would you create a YouTube Channel if no one is interested there?
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Research is half the battle in marketing, the same goes for social media. It can be very beneficial for companies when used right, it just takes some planning and research first. Tackle it like you would other traditional marketing tactics and you should see some success.
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About the Author: Shannon Suetos is an expert writer on phone systems based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as VoIP Service at Resource Nation.
Photo Credit: Bogdan Suditu
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