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Social Media and SEO: Do Your Employees Struggle with Change?

March 7, 2012 By 2 Comments

Social media and SEO are strategies to increase business and profitability. What happens if your employees don’t embrace these latest technologies? Employees may believe social media and SEO is a waste of time compared to the ‘old’ ways of increasing business, profits, and customer satisfaction. How do you get them to support social media and SEO strategies? Find out below and get everyone in the company on board with these 21st century strategies.

Social Media and SEO: How to Get Employees to Support New Strategies
SAN FRANCISCO - NOVEMBER 15: Facebook founder...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Explain the benefits of social media and SEO. Employees may not understand the importance and benefits of being on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Schedule a meeting and explain how implementing these latest strategies will benefit everyone in the long run.

  • A dialogue can be created between a company and its customers on Facebook. It’s a good way to address any concerns they may have. Plus, starting a conversation builds interest in your company.
  • LinkedIn is a fantastic way to connect with other professionals within your industry. Who knows, you may find opportunities to collaborate.
  • Twitter is a great way to share your blog posts, eBooks, articles, and other helpful content. You can also share videos too!

Social media and SEO are here to stay. Like it or not, these technologies aren’t going away anytime soon. It would behoove employees to embrace them; otherwise, they could be left behind.

Social networking increases business and profitability. The key to social networking is to establish and build relationships first. Employees can use this tool to find out the problems that ‘potential’ customers have and then offer assistance to solve them.

Tip #1: Develop and build relationships through social networking. Ask for business (or referrals) when you’re confident business relationships have been built on a solid foundation.

SEO helps a company’s ranking in search engines. Companies use SEO strategies to gain organic web traffic. If your company uses a SEO company, schedule a meeting with them and your employees. Once employees understand ‘why’ SEO is important, they’ll be able to embrace it.

Social media is great for introverts. If some of your employees are introverted, let them manage one of your social media accounts. There’s no face-to-face interaction on social media websites — it’s all internet based.

Tip #2: Introverted employees can overcome their ‘fear’ by getting used to communicating with clients, customers, vendors, etc. Before you know it, they’ll be preparing and giving presentations, attending trade shows, and setting up client meetings.

Social networking can be fun. The internet allows us to communicate with people all over the world. Who knows, your company could gain new business nationally and internationally through the use of social media.

Social media (social networking) and SEO are strategies that help companies increase their web traffic, business, and profitability.

Employees may be hesitant to embrace these technologies for many reasons such as fear of the unknown, fear of losing their jobs, fear they may not be able to ‘grasp’ the knowledge, etc. The obvious theme is fear.

Ease your employees’ fears by informing them that companies use social media and SEO in addition to other strategies/tools such as offline and online marketing, branding, positioning, etc. to increase business activities. Everyone will benefit when the latest tools are implemented.

Are your employees struggling with SEO and social media? Share.

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Filed Under: Clients, Freelance Writing, Overcoming Obstacles, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

How to Generate Leads and Sales

September 7, 2011 By 4 Comments

What is marketing? Marketing is about sharing value with new and existing customers. It’s not about being pushy or manipulating potential customers into purchasing your products and or services. Its’ not about treating people as if they’re cats; waving sparkly, razzle dazzle marketing campaigns in front of them won’t work. They’ll see through the ‘smoke and mirrors’ and walk on. Follow the strategies below to generate fruitful leads and sales.

10 Lead and Sale Generation Strategies

1. Partnerships. Form partnerships with ‘like-minded’ business owners that have the same target market as you do. There’s strength in numbers! You could combine resources and opportunities. Hold events and maximize your expertise. You can grow your business by strategically working with others.

2. Speaking engagements. Most people would rather have root canal than speak in front of an audience. But it will pay for you to get over your fear of public speaking. Speaking allows an audience to experience your passion first-hand; they’ll be able to see and get a ‘feel’ for you. They’ll be able to assess your sincerity and knowledge. People like and feel comfortable working with people they know. More importantly, the best form of advertising is word-of-mouth. All it takes is one person to tell someone else about you and before you know it, the word will spread that you’re an expert in your field.

3.  Content writing. This includes article and blog writing; eBooks, newsletters, press releases and other writings. Provide unique and timely content to your target market. Build relationships with your target audience by providing relevant and useful tips, tricks, tutorials, newsletters, eBooks, etc. Customers and potential customers should be able to implement your information straightaway.

4. Networking. Attend various networking events and get to know people in your field or those who compliment your business. Build relationships and ask, “What can I do for you? How may I help?” You’ll be surprised by the reaction you receive.

5. Link exchanges. This is a great way to increase your visibility. Make sure you exchange links with those who complement or match your target audience.

6. Referrals. Ask current clients/customers for referrals. Most business owners don’t like to ask for referrals; however, it’s in your best interest to ask for them. Let’s face it; if your customers are happy with you and your products/services, why wouldn’t they want to refer you?

7. Social media. Focus on two to three social networks and stick with them. The top three are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. However, you may find that Tumblr, StumbleUpon, Bebo, Flickr, Digg or another network works better for you and your business. Keep your ‘target audience’ in mind when you utilize social network sites. For example, did you know that 72% of Facebook users are ages 25-54? If your target audience is teenagers, they may prefer Tumblr to Facebook because their parents want to ‘friend’ them on Facebook and they don’t like that.

8. Teleseminars and webinars. If you decide to conduct a teleseminar or webinar, please provide attendees with substantial information, not 60-90 minutes of a fluff and sales. I’m speaking from experience. I’ve attended many, many teleseminars and webinars and thought, “I wasted 60-90 minutes of my time for this; I didn’t learn anything. Why did I sign up? What was I thinking? I was hooked, line and sinker. I’m not the target market. This was nothing but a ‘sales’ fest.”  Potential customers will be turned off if your teleseminars and or webinars are nothing but a sales promotion.

9. Direct mail. If you’re new to an area, introduce yourself to local businesses. They won’t know about you unless you tell them you’re available to solve their problem. You may consider holding a promotion that’s specifically for the businesses in your area.

10. Podcast and or video series. Have you ever wanted a career in radio or television? Creating a podcast (you could use Blog Talk Radio) or video series could do wonders for you and your business. You can use programs such as Audacity to quickly and smoothly create valuable podcasts. You’re probably familiar with YouTube. Keep podcasts under 15 minutes; videos between 5-10 minutes. Some people want to get the most out of a podcast/video in the shortest amount of time. If you’re podcast or video is too long, you may lose customers.

Rebecca

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Filed Under: Freelance Writers, Freelance Writing, Networking, Overcoming Obstacles, Social Media, The Bottom Line with Rebecca, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

What Doesn’t Attract Clients and Customers

September 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This is a reprint from Barb Wade, M.A. who specializes in teaching Coaches to create thriving, 6-figure practices in under 20 hours a week!  For a FREE “How To Get Clients” BUSINESS BREAKTHROUGH KIT just for Coaches, visit BarbWade.com today and tomorrow gain new clients and customers.

Please note: Even though this post is targeted to coaches, every business owner needs to market their business. Remember, “You’re in business to solve a problem and market your business.” If your web content, blog posts, articles, newsletters, marketing materials, etc. aren’t working, perhaps it’s time to evaluate your target market and analyze if you’re targeting the right market. You may need to ‘tweak’ your market, even if it means losing Twitter followers, Facebook fans, etc. Think about the long-run versus the short run.

Some coaches just don’t like marketing. They don’t like to promote themselves and they may even find it distasteful! In fact, until I learned that marketing was nothing more than letting others know how I could help them with their biggest problems, I thought marketing was a “necessary evil” at best.

On the other hand, there are some coaches and entrepreneurs who have no problem with marketing – or so it seems. BUT they use it as an excuse for not moving forward or to “hide out.”

Do you know what I mean? It’s the endlessly tinkering with your website.

Or taking forever to craft your “elevator pitch,” and then never actually using it!

Or spending tons of time, energy, and money getting just the right logo… or business card… or… well, you get the idea.

Of course, doing this comes from good honest intentions. Those things do help support spreading the word about your services. But it’s all too easy to get stuck in an endless loop of tweaking and fiddling with the minutia.

The truth is, doing so can actually keep you from getting clients!

Here’s the big news: your clients aren’t attracted to your coaching practice because of your business card, logo, website, or any other collateral. Even if they are really beautiful and elegant and “cutting edge.”

Yes, those things can help get your potential client’s attention, but that’s not what holds them or compels them to come back.

Ultimately, your clients will respond to the connection you create with them. Those people that you are meant to help will resonate with your authentic and unique brilliance. It is you being willing to share your experience and expertise – in the way that only you can – that makes an impression on people.

Your clients want to be seen, acknowledged, heard, understood and helped by you. And the more they get to know the real you, the more they will want to continue to work with you.

This is the concept behind the “Know, Like, Trust” factor you may have heard of. It works like this. First, your potential clients hear about you somehow – on the Internet, at a live event, on a tele-seminar, etc. And the more they get to know you, they more they begin to “like” you (note: this is not a popularity contest. Instead think of “like” as “appreciate” or “value”) And the more they like you, they more they begin to trust you as a teacher, advisor and friend.

And what I have found is that when you cultivate that kind of connection with your market, it actually accelerates your ability to attract clients and it makes your work so much more joyful!

So, if you find yourself spending too much time “crossing all the T’s and dotting all the I’s,” try adopting this mantra that was taught to me by one of my mentors: “Completion Not Perfection.”

Get into action and get it done – perfection is highly over-rated!

Barb Wade, M.A. who specializes in teaching Coaches to create thriving, 6-figure practices in under 20 hours a week!  For a FREE “How To Get Clients” BUSINESS BREAKTHROUGH KIT just for Coaches, visit BarbWade.com today and tomorrow gain new clients and customers.

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Why It’s Important to Share Your Newsletter

August 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

 


 

 

For Email Marketing you can trust

 

When I receive a newsletter that’s filled with useful information I like to share it. However, this isn’t always possible because the owner of the newsletter didn’t include social media ‘sharing’ icons. Nine times out of a ten a newsletter does contain the pertinent ‘follow’ buttons such as Twitter and Facebook. However, some newsletters don’t contain ‘share’ buttons. Why? Why not? Perhaps it’s an oversight. You may want to reconsider sharing your newsletter. It could help you increase your customer base and gain referrals at the same time.

If you want more leads and referrals for your business, allow others to share your newsletter. More importantly, make it easy for clients and customers to share your newsletter by included social media ‘share’ buttons. It’s take more time to open Facebook and Twitter and post a link then it does to click on an icon which opens up Twitter or Facebook. If customers and potential customers have their social networks open, they can easily post a link to your newsletter. If they don’t, they’ll say, “Forget about it.”

Tip: Include Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, and LinkedIn ‘share’ icons. You can add others but these are the most popular. In fact, StumbleUpon is out-performing Facebook.

Sharing your newsletter is an easy way to market your business, products, and services. Word-of-mouth advertising is still a viable way to market a business. Most people would rather do business with a company whom their family and friends deal with. Let’s face it; most families and friends connect via Facebook. With one click, your newsletter could reach hundreds, thousands of potential new customers. People would rather do business with a company that’s been referred by someone they know and trust. It’s as if they’re receiving a ’guarantee’ that your company will treat them well, and provide excellent customer service along with products and services. They don’t have to search the internet or Yellow Pages (some people still receive these) for whatever it is they need. They can find what they’re looking for through Facebook and Twitter. It’s that simple!

Rebecca

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The Secret to Twitter Retweets … Choose Characters Wisely

August 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Question: I’d like to increase the amount of ‘retweets’ on my Twitter stream. What can I do? I adhere to the 140 characters or less. This can be tricky because Facebook allows 420 characters. I receive some ‘retweets’ but not many. Help!

Answer: Forget about tweeting 140 characters … Tweet 100 characters!

Remember, Twitter is about content and Facebook is about developing relationships. If you provide great content along with cleverly written ‘tweets,’ you’ll see an increase in the amount of retweets you receive. However, it’s best to post a tweet that’s 100 characters or less. This leaves 40 characters and allows another person the opportunity to add verbiage to your tweet such as, “Read this now; Check this out; and Visit this link.” It allows followers to provide their input to the conversation. On the flip side, if you’re ‘tweet’ is too long, followers may have to edit it. They may not want to spend time editing your tweet. They’ll find something else to retweet.

How to write the perfect tweet that gets retweeted

1. Write eye-catching tweets that will be retweeted. Put your ‘reporter’ hat on and think about the story. Remember the importance of who, what, where, when, how, and why. Peruse newspaper headlines to get a ‘sense’ of how readers are ‘hooked’ into reading a story.

2. Share valuable content.

3. Stay under 140 characters.

4. Shorten the URL before you post it. FYI: Twitter is now shortening links.

Tip: It’s important to write attention-grabbing and concise tweets. Of course, you may not have enough time to spend on social media management. You can hire a freelance writer to manage your social media sites. Communication is their business.

Before you post a tweet read and reread it. Is it eye-catching? What makes the ‘tweet’ unique? How informative and pertinent is the content? More importantly, is it 140 characters or less? If you’re tweet is 140 characters, revise it. Edit it until it’s 100 characters or less. Once you develop this habit, you’ll never go back to using 140 characters. Before you know it, your tweets will be retweeted. Go forth and tweet!

Rebecca

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