Setting up a blog is a great way to add content to your website, improve SEO, and demonstrate your expertise, but only if people are reading and sharing your blog! You don’t have to be a professional writer or marketer to attract and keep readers. Regardless of which industry you’re in, just watch out for these nine common blogging mistakes to make the most of your blog (courtesy of Edie Melson at The Write Conversation).
Facebook Tips for Small Businesses by Leslie Krukowski
So, you created a Facebook page for your business, and you shared it with all of your friends. Now what?
Posting what your business is doing once in awhile may not be sufficient. Stating the obvious—”I’m a great person to buy insurance from,” or “Visit my store”—creates no excitement or interest in your audience. They’re scrolling through thousands of items in their Facebook feed, so you need to stand out!
You need to:
- Make your post visually appealing.
- Make them want to DO SOMETHING.
Make Your Post Visually Appealing
As a business owner, you want to create a post or ad that’s visually appealing and that makes a potential customer want to either click on your link or visit your location. That mean’s there MUST be a graphic. It could be a photo, a short video, or a meme, as long as it looks good.
Make Them Want to Do Something
To urge your audience to do something, include a Call To Action (or CTA, as most social media managers say). For example, if you’re hosting a flash sale, you can make it visually appealing by including a graphic like the following:
Then your description could be a CTA explaining that the sale is for a limited time, and asking the viewer to visit your store or click on a link. I recently ran this ad for a customer, and it generated almost $500 in sales within two days!
Those two things will help your posts stand out, but here are a couple of more tricks to help you navigate Facebook.
Increase Exposure
When you are first starting on Facebook, a great way to increase exposure it to boost posts or pay for ads. When you do that, Facebook lets you set your audience to a specific demographic.
For example, you can make sure that your ad is only seen by women, aged 25-55, with a median income of $45-$75,000 that live in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. You can broaden or narrow your demographic as much as you would like. If you have an e-commerce site, you can even embed a Facebook Pixel code into your site, so you can target your ads to people who have visited your site before. That will let products that they have viewed on your website show up on their Facebook feed! Pretty slick, huh?
Another way to increase exposure is to start a private Facebook group. Groups work great for artists, writers, or businesses that have a following, and for retailers, like sports outfitters, mountain bike shops, and ski shops, who already have a specific audience. Any business with a following or fan base can benefit from creating a private group.
Facebook groups allow your fans to form a community where they can gather and communicate with each other as well as with your business. It provides a streamlined form a communication between everyone without having to worry about paying for ads. The downside to a private group is that it’s, well — private, so not everyone will see what’s going one (but that’s more incentive to join your group!).
Social media is ever-changing, and Facebook seems to be in the midst of many changes as we this post is being written. Regardless of what’s happening with algorithms and news feeds, just remember:
Keep it visual, include a call to action, and keep posting!
Good luck!
—
Leslie Krukowski is the principal, CEO, and main consultant of Black Dog Business Group. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in English and sub-concentrations in both marketing and business management. After spending several years in management, marketing, and social media marketing positions, she received a Master’s Degree in Administration. She has proven success in managing large groups of people and loves leadership development. Leslie has two black dogs at home, Bertuzzi and Scout. Feel free to reach out to her at leslie@blackdogbusinessgroup.com for a free initial consultation.
The Importance of Content in Social Media Marketing (via The Social Ms)
FREE MARKETING!
That’s essentially what social media sites provide – an opportunity to promote events, share information, and connect with your clients all without having to pay for the service.
But is free worth it if it doesn’t work?
Suppose you own a flower shop, and someone volunteers to work for you for free, but she spends all of her time making sandwiches. Are her free services worth it?
Unfortunately, that happens all the time with social media. People set up accounts and start sharing information, but they don’t attract new customers or increase their online traffic. At that point, you’re not paying anything for the service, but you end up wasting time on something that isn’t benefiting your business.
So what’s the secret to successful social media marketing?
Content. Not just well-written content, but shareable, valuable content.
Susanna Gebauer at The Social Ms puts it this way:
If you do not have great content to build your social media marketing, what will happen is the following:
- People will not follow you, because they don’t get anything useful from you
- People will not help you build your brand and share your posts, because there is nothing to share
- Your accounts will not grow
- Your results will not be what you were looking for
Are you still not sure that content matters? Click here to read Gerbauer’s thoughts in “The Importance of Content in Social Media Marketing.”
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5 Tips for DIY-ing Your Visual Brand by Sierra Kellermeyer
As small business owners, we often have to wear many hats – CEO, copywriter, social media manager, designer, etc. If you’re wearing your designer hat at the moment and trying to figure out how to create a logo and a cohesive visual brand, I have five simple tips to help make that process easier.
#1: Decide on Your Message
Do you know what the difference between design and decoration is? The message. Design communicates something, while decoration is purely about creating aesthetic pleasure.
Design is more powerful than decoration, so think about the message you want to convey.
I suggest focusing on these three pillars of your business:
- Who you are
- Who you serve
- How you serve them
#2: Keep It Simple
In your message and your images, the old K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid) acronym is still great advice.
You want to keep the message your visual brand communicates simple, so that it comes across clearly. I advise my clients to reduce their visual brand message to five words; their brand personality.
For example, a web designer may have an innovative, modern, sharp, skillful, problem-solving brand personality.
By reducing your visual brand’s message down to five value words, you can focus your design to communicate just those qualities, giving you a strong and focused message.
But simplicity doesn’t just help you in your message. Selecting a limited color palette, and just one or two fonts will not only help your visual brand stay consistent and reliable, but will also help you spend less time designing.
#3: Don’t Design Your Own Logo
This may be an odd bit of advice for a DIY-focused post, but logos are one of the most challenging design projects you can take on. A lot of trained graphic designers even avoid designing logos.
So what’s the best course of action for a small business owner with a small budget?
Buy a template.
I suggest buying a logo design template from either Creative Market or Etsy. (Don’t forget to find one that matches your brand personality.) This guarantees your logo will look professional, and will save you a lot of time studying logo design.
Now, a logo made from a template or purchased through Creative Market or Etsy isn’t a long-term solution if you plan on growing your business. The main reason being, you can’t trademark something made with a template. Eventually you’ll want to invest in a logo custom designed for your business, but when you’re just starting out, a template logo can really help boost your professionalism until your budget gets a little bigger.
#4: Read Up on Color Psychology
Color psychology is about how people and cultures react to different colors. For example, blue has a calming effect, while yellow is energizing and cheerful.
Because of the strong emotional connection between color and emotion, your color palette is a great place to showcase that brand personality you chose earlier.
For ease, I suggest choosing one main color, one accent color, and one to two neutral colors to be used with black and white as your color palette. That combination gives you plenty of flexibility, without being overwhelming.
#5: Create Branding Guidelines
Creating a document, or even just a folder on your computer, that contains your logo, color palette, font selection, and photos will help you keep your visual brand consistent.
It’s especially helpful to collect a bunch of stock photos at once, so you can focus on choosing a handful that work well together and reflect your brand personality, instead of choosing a random photo when the need arises.
Following these five tips will not only give you a consistent and communicative visual brand, but it will make the work of designing your visual brand much easier.
Sierra Kellermeyer who helps business owners who are tired of their marketing efforts pulling “okay” results. She helps them stand out online by designing a noteworthy visual brand that attracts their ideal clients effortlessly. She says, “My favorite part of brand design is the marriage of creativity and strategy. I’m not simply creating something beautiful, I’m creating something beautiful that works and has a purpose.”
There’s a lot of misconception about visual branding, with people thinking it’s just about looking good, but it’s more than that. “Your visual brand is a communication tool, and if you’re only trying to make something that looks nice, rather than telling your audience about your business, you’re missing out.”
Sierra will be sharing her visual branding tips in February, May, August, and November. In the meantime, you can find her online at:
https://www.skellermeyerdesigns.com/
https://www.facebook.com/skellermeyerdesigns2014/
10 Reasons Why Content Matters (via Forbes)
Picture yourself in a room full of people. You’re mingling and chatting while you snack on gourmet cheese and olive tapenade when “that” person walks us. You don’t need to ask who he is or what he does, because he’s already telling you. The details may be different, but the conversation sounds something like this:
Hi, I’m a leading innovator in my industry. I’ve published articles in six journals. I’m the most creative, best qualified person to help you. You should call me.
What’s wrong with this?
Don’t tell me you’re an innovator, show me. Let your work speak for itself.
That’s why content matters – you’re not just telling people what you do, it’s an opportunity to show the world that you really know what you’re talking about.
But don’t believe me. Check out Forbes’s “10 Reasons Why Content Matters” by AJ Agrawal.
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