by winstonbromley | Oct 23, 2012 | Pinterest, Social Media, Social Media Management, Social Media Tools
Social networking has swept the world, taking along with it best friend and business alike. There is now no better way to communicate effectively with the people around and across the world from you than the use of any of the great social networks. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest have all drawn a heavy flow of interactivity to the internet in ways that have never been seen before.
Not only is communication that much easier, but business techniques and means of selling things have now been forever revolutionized. No longer is a storefront necessary to become a successful small business; almost anyone can do it from behind a computer.
Here, you’ll learn 10 best Pinterest business tips for online marketing.
- Plan Properly – Set your log up correctly to allow it to pin the things you want to it properly. Have your follow button prominently displayed on your website to ensure that a high volume of traffic is able to reach your Pinterest blog.
- Research – Know and research what your ideal client or customer is pinning, and set up your boards to get things going!
- Honor The Source – Know the copyrights of everything you post, and keep an eye out for any infractions. Know the sources of the things you re-pin and make sure things you post have your own watermark. These things can save a lot of headache down the line.
- Pin Strategically – Be social when it comes to pinning. Pin across several boards and follow, pin, re-pin, and comment.
- Drive up Traffic – Being social and pinning across several board will see a return on that invest back towards your board. Add appropriate web links to pins as well as time your pins out over time. Don’t just dump them all out at one time!
- Visual Content – The internet is all about instant gratification and seeing things. Use this to post great visuals to your and other boards.
- KISS – Keeping it simple with easy to understand, clear visuals will get you noticed a lot easier.
- Create & Curate – Cultivate the culture of your brand by pinning things not just about you own business but about others in the same niche as well. Finding these people are a great way to ‘buddy-up’ and reach and even larger audience.
- Content, Content, Content – Creating fresh content is another great key to finding and building report in your customer base.
- Learn from the Best – Being a diligent student by learning from other brands and what they have pinned successfully can become very profitable, as well as connect others to you.
Enjoyed this post? If so, please share on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to let your friends know about it. Your help spreading the word would be really appreciated.
by winstonbromley | Oct 18, 2012 | Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Social Media, Social Media Management, Social Media Tools
Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have taken over the world by storm, connecting people in ways that no one ever thought possible. There are many different types of people that use LinkedIn and access its benefits in the best ways possible, and this has quickly become a great tool for those seeking to expand their personal professional networks to others who they may only know from afar.
What is great about the success of these social media outlets, is that anyone can sign up for a profile and start meeting people, even companies. With the new LinkedIn Company Pages, companies now have the ability to make connections to others via the social network that wasn’t available a while back.
Getting a company page is akin to making a page on Facebook; both are meant to outsource a person, brand, or products availability in a way that is convenient and conducive to finding out more information. LinkedIn has created a way to share a company’s information on its site, versus the personal profile layout of the majority of its visitors.
The LinkedIn Company Pages allow companies to express their brand through pictures that they might not have the ability to share otherwise. This is invaluable since the internet is really about instant gratification and pictures can many times speak for themselves (I am looking at you Pinterest!). It also allows companies to showcase what they have to offer, such as being able to quickly give a customer the ability to scan what it is that you offer in a hands-off, non-intrusive way. This quickly builds a customer rapport on a level that regular advertising does not. These pages allow a company to highlight what’s important and keeps their followers up to date.This allows for a connection to the individual in a way that companies in the past could never even dream of!
People all over the world connect to each other every day through social media. Now, with the revised LinkedIn Company Pages, even companies can connect to their customers at the base level like never before through status updates, pictures, highlights, and comments. Companies are now able to interact directly with the people who are buying their product, supporting their brand, and who have questions. Although similar only in idea as a Facebook company page, companies can now interact so closely with their consumers like they can through LinkedIn Company Pages as LinkedIn is more about doing business and connecting, whereas Facebook is about sharing information.
Well done, LinkedIn.
by winstonbromley | Oct 16, 2012 | LinkedIn, Social Media, Social Media Management, Social Media Tools
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with more than 90 million users from across 200 countries. LinkedIn profiles have enabled numerous jobseekers to find the right job and have also been instrumental in companies’ quests to find the right candidate for a specific job. It is also an excellent way for Business owners and Entrepreneurs to get the word out about what they do and network.
To date, LinkedIn endorsements were considered to be the most effective marketing tool or a resource which could establish the credentials of a professional. Most people will tell you that these testimonials or client feedback do get a lot of attention from profile scrutinizers. Recently, LinkedIn has added a Skills section to the member’s homepage. This new Skills section appears just below the educational qualifications section.
For starters, the skills section is where professionals can mention their skills or expertise. Earlier, details about specific skills, certifications or achievement were either mixed in with educational qualification or put together in the summary section which was more out of sight and not very effective. With the dedicated section where professionals can list their skills, expertise and certifications, LinkedIn is now a much more friendly resource for jobseekers, networkers and Business owners.
Every LinkedIn member should utilize this skills section to its utmost potential. What it can do has to be looked at from three perspectives.
First, this skills section enables a user to update his or her profile with all the skills and expertise they would have. It allows as many as 50 skills which is very good as you may be very talented!
Second, these skills are searchable. People can now search for certain skills and based on whether those are listed in this new section of a user’s profile, the profiles would be displayed in the search results. It works pretty much how SEO works on major search engines. With the new skills section and the existing endorsements features, LinkedIn can become an even better job hunting and networking ground for everyone.
Third, based on the skills you have put on your profile, this allows you to connect with professionals having the same skills.
The three prong benefits of LinkedIn skills are unprecedented and should be use by anyone who uses the professional network.
Now, the skills are not just one or two qualifications or only desired expertise. It can be certifications, experience of specific hardware and software, experience in training the trainers or anything, the possibilities are endless. From a ballet dancer mentioning the variety of her choreography to a programmer mastering a new skill, everything can be given importance.
And the best part, once you have the Skills on your Profile, people can ENDORSE those Skillsets which allows others to see the Social Proof of your Skillset.
Enjoyed this post? If so, please share on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to let your friends know about it. Your help spreading the word would be really appreciated.
by winstonbromley | Sep 6, 2012 | Facebook, Klout, Pinterest, QR codes, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media, Social Media Management, Social Media Tools, Twitter
Here is a secret that I want to give to you that I give to my clients that I train about Social Media Marketing techniques. As with a lot of other Companies out there, my clients are working on developing, implementing or adding in social media strategies to leverage social media in order to get results. We put a plan into place and I walk them through step-by-step how to attract more clients and increase profits using Social Media.
The number one thing that I see with a lot of Companies these days is to only rely on Social Media platforms to be their main “website” platform of information. This is a mistake. It really is, for a number of reasons.
I have always cherished the statement “You get what you pay for” and it is relevant in many avenues.
I am a huge believer in Social Media Marketing and what it can do for businesses. Social Media works and it works well. Having been part of the web business for over 17 years now with building sites, I have seen it all.
Here is what I want to tell you:
Facebook (or any other Social Media setup – Pinterest, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+ etc) should NEVER be your main website platform.
Here is why….
1. You are ALWAYS playing in some one else’s sandbox: If Facebook wants to change your layout of your site when they want, they do and you end up with Timelines (I am a fan by the way). LinkedIn is now updating their Company pages and this will again upset people who have spent time and effort crafting the perfect look and feel to their site. With your own main website, you are in Control. No “social media handcuffs”.
2. The Social Media Platform owns the content that you upload: When you upload content to ANY of these sites, make sure you read their Terms. On Facebook, they own all the content so you really are just “leasing” a space from them and then can remove it at any time. That isn’t the best business model, right?
3. Everything goes in phases: Remember MySpace? It was Facebook 5 years ago and now it’s almost embarassing to be on there. Social platforms go in and out and granted, Facebook is very strong, but just like the Roman Empire, it will not last forever.
4. Google and other Search engines will not benefit your Social Platforms as they will your Website: Granted, search engines will still index your information IF the social platform allows it, however you will generally only have 1 page that is indexed versus many from the website you run.
5. A Place to call Home Base: By having your own website (a full website hosted on a paid service – not a free service), you can control all of your content and all of your information. Make this the place to lead ALL of your social platforms to. This is where you want clients and customers to come to. Facebook is great for interactions as is Pinterest and Twitter, but in the end, if you want true ongoing sales, you have to bring them back to your website. Always.
I want to ensure that your online business continues to do well with Social Media. If you already have your Facebook page, and all other items but do not have a site yet, please consider setting it up as the main place for people to land.
One last note: This doesn’t mean in any way that you stop using Social Media. I recommend to use it all the time, profitably however when you use Social Media combined with a solid website strategy, you will yield the best results.
Enjoyed this post? If so, please share on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to let your friends know about it. Your help spreading the word would be really appreciated.
by winstonbromley | Aug 27, 2012 | Facebook, Instagram, Social Media, Social Media Tools
Instagram in your Business
Instagram is a free photo-sharing program and social network that was launched in October 2010 and by now, you probably have seen a vintage styled image from this platform. Instagram is like an online photo journal that enables you to share your life’s experiences with friends and family in a fun and imaginative way using your mobile phone. The mobile app is free to download and use and you can share many outlets including Twitter and Facebook. Snap, filter, post!
Now if you haven’t used Instagram yet, not to worry. The Instagram interface is very user friendly to use using your iPhone or Android Smart phone.
Instagram can be used for a lot more than just personal use.. Much like Pinterest these days, Instagram can help build and expand your business exposure and needs.
With Instagram, you can develop a strong online presence, and get your name out there using images. This is a great way to leverage online and social media marketing into your strategies with a potential audience reach of over 37 million users as well as the ability to get instant feedback with this personalized outreach marketing by posting images of products or services you are currently selling or ones you are testing.
When using Instagram, make sure that you are using the appropriate tag words for your business, products or services so that people have a chance of finding you in their search results. Also make sure that include a good description to help people along.
Much like on other Social platforms, you will begin to see a major shift once you start interacting with consumers on an individual basis by commenting and liking their images (if you feel it is an image worth “liking” or commenting on. This will start to build social proof and in turn, make you Front-of-Mind and a great choice to work with as they will like and trust you easier.
Here are some tips to use Intagram in your business model:
– Double tap when you want to like an image including your own (sounds odd but it works)
– Add in Hash Tags or keywords to help people know about your business and be able to find you in searches
– Add in a good description of the image
– GeoTag your location so that the images can be found via GeoMapping or via an online GPS Map system
– Comment and Like other users images that fit with your Demographic, i.e. If your market is brides-to-be, if you find images from those users, like and comment on them and they will notice you Account and most likely return the favour.
I am still tinkering around in Instagram but I will post more tidbits as I get them
Got any tips you want to share? Post them below.
Enjoyed this post? If so, please share on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to let your friends know about it. Your help spreading the word would be really appreciated.
by winstonbromley | Aug 16, 2012 | Facebook, QR codes, Social Media, Social Media Tools, Twitter
Any real estate agent or real estate investor worth their weight would take advantage of the biggest marketplace known to man, The Internet.
No matter how much you try or how clever the ads, the fact remains that TV or newspaper spots only reach a limited number of potential clients. Taking your advertising services and marketing approaches to social networking can introduce you to thousands of potential customers, you just have to know the best social networking tips.
Taking Your Business Online
You’d have to look far and wide to find somebody who isn’t on Twitter or Facebook, or at least doesn’t use their spouses account to browse through the newsfeed. Social Networking truly is the future of communication and people use the different sites for a variety of reasons from communicating with friends to playing games against strangers. Taking your real estate business online is a great idea and in truth it might be an inevitability. Facebook and Twitter make it easy to create professional accounts and you should start following developing your profile at once.
What To Do Once You’re Online
Once you’ve got a Facebook or Twitter profile developed, the first tip is to start slow and give people space. You should join groups and build up a network of friends and associates but lay off the selling at first. You don’t want to over hype your services or else people will simply ignore you. Instead, post interesting and engaging content but don’t flood people’s timelines. Especially when dealing with Real Estate, a majority of your online friends can be classified as potential clients instead of immediate sales candidates. As you build up rapport and trust, people will start coming to you asking for your professional services and they’ll often have friends of friends that will be looking to move into the area.
Using Social Networking For Advertising
One of the key advantages to starting off building your social networking profile at a patient pace is that you’ll have more time to develop a complete web site. Once you’ve got a professional looking site packed with information, you can start using your Facebook or Twitter address in commercials or ads. People will hear or see your ads that say “Follow us on Facebook” and you can build a better base of potential clients because these people have some sort of interest. It’s like a car dealership developing a mailing list by having people put down their names and numbers for a ‘free air freshener giveaway.’
Social Networking is a great way for real estate professionals to get their name online without spending hundreds of dollars in overhead. A few hours of time each week could lead to a windfall of business down the line.
If you are looking for a program or tool to show you Exactly how to use Social Media in your Real Estate business, drop us a line as we have a Social Media for Real Estate Investors Online course that you may be interested in coming in September 2012.
Until next time….
Winston B.
Enjoyed this post? If so, please share on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to let your friends know about it. Your help spreading the word would be really appreciated.
