by winstonbromley | Jun 26, 2012 | Pinterest, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media, Social Media Management, Social Media Tools
As I mentioned in my article last December “Pinterest: An up-and-coming Social Media Network worth looking into” Pinterest is Growing in Massive Numbers, and Your Business Can Too! This is a Must Read For Large and Small Business Owners Alike.
Pinterest is even more incredible than ever. It has acquired over 10 million users in a record amount of time. It is the single fastest growth of any website in history even though it is still an invite-only site. The explosive growth of Pinterest.com only goes to show that any one looking to enhance their brand, their business, their services or their products should consider having a strong presence on it.
Pinterest is the best choice for internet marketing. It has grown at such rapid rates that it even blew Facebook’s notorious beginning out of the water. It is a really clean cut site that allows all businesses small and large to increase their exposure and generate more customers. We all know that all adds up to more money.
Social media is a very essential marketing tool. It is a guaranteed way to get the exposure that you need to keep up in these competitive times. All businesses will benefit in abundance through maintaining a strong presence on Pinterest.com.
Most of the users on Pinterest are females, and women are known to be the bargain hunters and shoppers in the family. You will be able to target an audience much easier than on any other social media site. People come there looking for specific services or products. Your time is much more fruitful when you use Pinterest.
It is based theme is on a post it method. You can generate deals or specials and even have contests to lure potential buyers in. You are going to get results on Pinterest without as much time, money or effort you will have to invest on other sites.
This is a fantastic opportunity to get your business on the map. Whether you have 100+ employees or you are working alone to build your company this is a great place to advertise. Your company’s name is more likely to show up in Google results with every post, and you will find that it all really makes a difference.
Marketing strategies can get expensive, however with Pinterest you can dramatically decrease overall costs. It can be a fun and effective way to interact with your customers while offering them the best deals. Nothing beats Pinterest, and if you have not seen what it can do to boost your sales and reputation, you are really missing out.
If you want to be invited (as Pinterest is set to INVITE ONLY right now), email me at winston@artbox.ca with the Subject “Pinterest”.
**** I will post at a few tips on Pinterest every week. Just sign up for my Newsletter on the right side of the website and you will get those tips sent to you in your Email box. ****
by winstonbromley | Jun 23, 2012 | Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Social Media, Social Media Tools
Almost every business has realized the potential of social media. If not, now is certainly the time to get on board.
However, social media is almost always used just as a marketing tool by itself. There are marketing benefits of using social media which I am fan, trainer and user of, however creating a social business can do a lot more and reap huge benefits in the long run.
Social business is a fairly new term on and not many entrepreneurs would know what it actually means. It definitely does not imply a business using social media for marketing purposes. It has far more utilities and benefits lined up for any business.
A social business is typically a business that uses social media in all facets of the company’s modus operandi. It is being widely believed, and rightly so, that social media is all set to become a focal point for any business. Right now, social media is just at the peripherals of any business whereby some marketing efforts yield fruit while others are simply futile attempts at conducting promotions and special sales.
Here are some of the benefits of doing social business.
- A social business puts much more focus on the value that social media can offer a business rather than only the marketing rewards.
- Social business calls for an inclusive involvement of social media and internet users which offer a wider platform to share and discuss almost anything about a business. Right there, a business gets to build a foundation for employees to interact with online citizens and gauge popular opinion. The opinion, feedback or thoughts can then be taken back to the boardroom for illustrations and a business can take appropriate steps to enhance a positive feedback or to curtail some criticisms.
- Several major corporations in the world are mulling over an idea to get the consumers involved in the creative process of product development or in the conception of an idea and developing it as per popular sentiments. In fact some companies have already started this process with various degrees of success, such as Nike.What this does is, it offers any business the leverage to do prelaunch market research and also gain specific product feedback even before something has been created or developed.
- Being a social business can have far reaching effects in terms of brand value. With social media gaining more acceptance as a common mode of communication and interaction, customers are more likely to interact with individuals and trust them rather than a brand. With people getting more exposure to social media from businesses and brands they like, it is upon the shoulders of the the entrepreneurs and executives to drive their brand value using their own reputation and skills.
Let me know what you think.
by winstonbromley | Jan 19, 2012 | Facebook, Google+, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media, Social Media Tools
I will make a bold statement here: If you are not on Google+ now, you should be as it is an important part of your Social Networking and Marketing toolkit, as it will change how we interact, purchase things as well as rank in the Search Engines.
If you haven’t heard of Google+ or have been sitting on the fence, Google+ is a newer social media platform from Google that brings together the best of Social Media networks as well as Search engine optimization and a lot of great features. A bonus is that the layout of the site is very clean and easy to read.
There are quite a few things that separate Google+ from it’s rivals. Here are the key ones in my mind as a Business owner leveraging Social Media.
Circles – Laser Focused Marketing:
One of the features is the introduction of Circles. Circles are clusters of your Contacts placed into a group that you would like to address separately. You can put your Family into the Family Circle, your Friends into a Friends cirlce, Boat enthusiasts into another circles, Joggers into another one, etc.
What this allows you to do is to be able to broadcast your thoughts or messages to select groups, such as a timely article to only the Jogger Circle. That way you are not telling your whole list about the activity that will not relate to most of your list.
By having Circles, it helps to organize the people you have friended, into circles that are easy to give them a name that is easy to remember.
As a business owner, this is a great thing to have. What you can do, is as you find people on Google+ in an area that you are looking to target, you can place them into a circle. Let’s say you are looking for Musicians to be part of a festival and you only want local musicians. All you have to do is search for them via the search features and when you find them, without leaving the page, you can Add them to the appropriate “Musicians” cirlce. From that point on, if you have an item you need to say or market, all you have to do is click on the SHARE button and pick that Circle, and voila!, only those people will see it. Again you are not “spamming” the rest of your list so people will appreciate this.
To invite people to Google+, you simply add them into your Circle that you would like them to be part of. There is a button that says “Add a new person”. Next, you need to put them into a circle. Pick multiple ones if that person should be in 2 or more circles. Type in their Email address. Once they are located and they will get an invite from you.
+1 – Increase your Popularity and SEO while telling people that others like your stuff as well:
As you can see pretty much everywhere on the internet, a lot of sites are showcasing the +1 Button. This is the Google+ button that allows you if pressed, that you appreciate this article and find it valuable.
So if you like an article, even this one (hint hint), you can click on the +1, to show you like what information is being provided.
From a Search Engine optimization point of view for our Business or personal sites, Google is the king of all search engines. We all know that. Well, since it’s their social network, you are starting to see (if you are logged into Google+ while searching around – and usually unless you log out, you stay logged in), as you are logged in, Friends and contacts in your Circles that have +1’d an article and this provides the magic component of Social proof. Social proof is a way of showing others like your stuff, and makes it more appealing to like as well.
An example is if you +1 an article, and your friends on Google+ go searching for that items, say a restaurant review site, they will see that you +1 or liked it and that will make you more want to click on it as it’s like Winston likes this page, I will check it out as well.
The other MAJOR thing about the +1 is that for Google, once again the biggest Search Engine in the world, is starting to arrange the algorithm from how it indexes now to more of Social engagement. Put another way, the more that pages are +1 from Google+ users, the more it will help to move up the rankings.
Example: Bob pulled out all the tricks with SEO (search engine optimization) to create a top ranking page for a product on an Event in his town. Tim, another local person has a page for an event on the same day and wants to beat out the ranking of Bob’s site. Tim also does a great job but is behind Bob’s site. Leading up to the event, Tim gets quite a substantial number of +1’s and comments on his page. Since Google tracks this and the social input, it will cause Tim’s site to rise to the top, as it’s social proof that people are finding and enjoying that page.
This is crucial for SEO, development of sites and marketing from this point on. Google and other search engines see that basing rankings on what people like is truly the best way to rank pages.
Business Pages:
On Google+ you can create Business Pages for your Businesses, Brands and other non-personal items.
Agan, the main benefit is that Google is running the show and this will lead to be indexing of your Brand and better page indexing than Facebook could ever do.
NOTE: Facebook is not indexed in google other than personal page indexes that link to you, if at all.
Video Chats:
As a Google+ user, you can bring together your team on the site in a video chat area, called Hangouts. You can have up to 10 people at one time.
Facebook created a deal this past year with Skype however on FB, you can only do 1 person at a time on Video conference mode. They are still catching up and keep adding in features that look a lot like Google+.
In your Account Profile:
Once you have setup your Profile (and you can even transfer over all of your details from Facebook to Google+), people can see your Stream of conversation (or if you assign status updates for specific circles, on those can see it), About you, photos and videos as well as all the articles you have +1. I like that viewing of +1 as it allows me to bookmark sites I like with the +1 and then can refer to my profile to review them or re-read them.
URL Shortener:
There is a great site, called http://www.gplus.to that will take the ugly URL that links to your page and make it into a short URL for you. Just go onto the site, enter your long URL, add a nickname, as shown above and it will create a shorter, easier to use URL. I use this as it’s a lot cleaner in my Email signature.
This is mine: http://www.gplus.to/winstonbromley
Why Google+ Matters:
As there are many Social Media sites out there to be part of, I highly recommend for all it’s benefits, that you get a Google+ account today and start building your Network. It’s a very intuitive Site and poses many features that will help you and your Business to succeed in Social Media, SEO and whatever else Google thinks up. Google is the king of Content so let’s be part of their system and get the results we want.
Come and find my on Google+ and add me to your Friends circle.
http://www.gplus.to/winstonbromley
See you there!
by winstonbromley | Jan 4, 2012 | QR codes, Social Media, Social Media Management, Social Media Tools
Have you seen this image before? It’s a white box with black (or coloured) boxes inside it and it does something.. but you are not sure what it does.. This image is a QR Code. and it will be your friend by the end of this article. We have been using them in our business for almost a year now with our clients and our own branding.
There has been a noticable increased use of the QR or Quick Response code lately and I wanted to let you know the benefits of why you should be using them in all your offline promotions.
The basics: A QR Code is really just a bar code that looks different from what we are used to, such as the ones we see on food and clothing we buy. It was created by a company in Japan to make the warehouse more efficient, in 1994. Since that time, they have become very big in Japan and Europe and recently over to North America where we see them today in Malls, in advertising, in magazines, on our food packaging and even on Clothing now.
How it all works is that a person would see the QR code in a mall, they can point their Smart Phone as if taking a picture at the Code, using any QR Reader software (most of them are free to download). Once the scan is done (it’s like taking a picture and very fast), your Smart phone will re-direct you to the page that it’s linked up to, say a Sales page or a Special offer page, on your Smart phone. So it captures your attention right away and can lead to sales.
I believe that QR code help to speed up the connection that is created between the Offline and online worlds a lot faster if used correctly. You can even link to your Social Media platforms of choice!
QR codes speed up the time of connection to your customers as you don’t need to remember a long URL to type in as it is Scanned in via the Smart Phone.
In your business, whatever you do, if you advertise in any way, QR codes offer benefits that a lot of regular lead generating tools do not. These include (but certainly not limited to):
– QR codes can dial phone numbers for you
– QR codes can link to email messages
– QR codes can link to Social Media platforms and images or even just text.
– QR codes can be read anytime and anywhere in any country, which makes it a great thing and convenient.
– QR codes can speed up purchases to generate sales (such as at malls, advertisements and mobile marketing)
Some ideas on where you can put QR codes:
– On Business cards (see the back of mine) to help speed up the connection with other people. Mine works well as people see it’s new and want to scan it.
– On food items and even restaurant menus to showcase the food content/ingredients/calories so the customer can choose the best for them.
– On your advertisement posters for your next event. Get people registered right from the Poster!
– Ticket purchases can use QR codes to be scanned at the point of entry
– Real estate agents can use QR codes to link to their website or more specifically to the property they are showing. It could even lead to a Virtual viewing. No need for the TXT messages that are on signs. Use QR codes. It’s 1 step and looks very professional.
One note on linking to a website via your QR code..
I want to show you an example of linking to a website. Please scan the image to the left with your Smart phone/QR reader and it will take you to one of my clients websites that we have done QR advertising with.
The Wine Ladies share the splendour of food and wine for all and the wonderful lifestyle it entails. They needed a way to advertise to their fans and new customers so they have begun using QR Codes in their promotional material to speed up the process of sharing information and generating sales from their Online store (by the way, there are some great things in there!)
We have create a mobile template as well as their regular website template. Here is their website: http://www.thewineladies.com.
When linking to websites via the mobile phone, if at all possible, you should ensure that the website is “mobile friendly”. What this means is that you create a separate template for mobile phones to see the site in a nice and concise way on their screens, rather than all the bells and whistles as you would on a normal computer screen. If you scan the image above and then click on the link to the site, you will see the same content but in a more manageable way for a mobile user’s phone.
How you create a QR code in a nutshell, is:
1. You would choose the URL you would like to take people to, such as your website, real estate property page, your CV,etc
2. Copy and paste that url into http://goo.gl/ for it to generate the QR code for you
3. Download or screenshot the QR Code that is generated for you (each on is individual to the system) and
4. Place it in your Marketing material
QR codes can be generated from services like http://goo.gl/ from Google and other websites for free, however these free versions are generally small to print so you may look around for a QR Code service that generates large QR codes for you.
So the next time you get something in the mail, or from the mail, take a look to see if you see the funny White box with black boxes inside and scan it. See where it takes you..
until next time
W
by winstonbromley | Dec 29, 2011 | Facebook, Pinterest, Social Media, Social Media Tools
There are always new Social Media platforms that come out it seems every week with a new take on the medium. The one that caught my eye about 2 months ago is called Pinterest. Pinterest.com is one of the new Social Media platforms that has come out, that truly has an interesting take on bringing people together and collaborating.
Essentially what Pinterest does is allow you to share and organize images and videos into your Profile that is organized by Categories or “Boards” that you can define. Each time you add an image or video, it’s called a Pin. Think of it as a Scrapbooking, VisionBoard or Social Images board, if you will.
But if you are not into Scrapbooking (and I am not), Pinterest is much more that – so don’t discount it. It will be worth it.
An image is worth a thousand words so Pinterest is set to be very valuable.
With Pinterest, as you setup your Boards and “pin” images or video straight from items you are browsing normally, followers and people searching for similar items can become involved in your Boards by “re-pinning” your images to their boards, or if you allow, have users pin to your Boards. “Pinning” is super simple and is done by simply clicking on the “PIN” bookmark that are you asked to add to your Browser, while you are on the page you have images you would like to showcase. Once you click “PIN IT”, you get to choose the image you would like to add to your Board, leave a note on it and categorize the image. The process takes less than 30 seconds (longer if you have a lot to say on it)
As always, and as a business coach who teaches Social Media to Businesses, I am sure you are asking, “But why should I look into Pinterest”?
Well, the answer is simple: By being open to others working on your Boards or even just sharing your Boards, you can promote your Business effectively and have others share your products/services/images if done correctly.
Pinterest.com doesn’t like (and it is looked down on) overly branding of the pages or only pushing your product. They don’t consider this a good fit for their platform.
But there is always ways to fit in the system AND get the promotional / social value from over 4 million users.
For example, let’s say you are a designer who creates great clothes every season. You use the usual 5 social networks and people discuss your items. However your uploaded images don’t have as much presence on these sites (such as Facebook) as you would want. On Pinterest, you created a Board called “Spring 2012 Clothing Line” and then upload or Pin your images from your online store or website right to your Pinterest Account. What this does is take your specific images that you easily “pin” from a website you are on, and it allows you to comment on each one so others can discuss and share AND (and this is big) links each image back to your website so that people can end up on your site to find out more about your great clothing and even buy them.
As a business, another example for you to think about, would be for to create a Board for your Staff to pin items to as part of a meeting or ideas OR use the Pinterest Boards as a way to mastermind a solution to your problems by asking other to contribute to the solution
The social benefits of Pinterest, I believe, are very good for any business owner to promote what they do, in a non-salesy way, and allow the 4+ million users (at the time of this blog) to share in the visual interests you have.
If you want to drop by my account, visit: http://pinterest.com/winstonbromley/
If you want to be invited (as Pinterest is set to INVITE ONLY right now), email me at winston@artbox.ca with the Subject “Pinterest”.
by winstonbromley | Sep 10, 2011 | Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media, Social Media Management, Social Media Tools
I started out in Social Media by joining LinkedIn. LinkedIn made sense at the time when I joined as it was a smart way to promote yourself to prospective business people and of course, meet up with your co-workers. It was not the powerhouse it is today but it was very smart idea at the time.
I have to say when I joined Twitter a few years later (because EVERYONE I knew told me to join…. and I caved), I was not impressed. Within about 3 days of being on there, all I saw were posts about going to lunch, what a great jog or run they had in the morning, and other daily items. I remember clearly thinking to myself, “What am I doing here?”.. I am here to tell you it can be much more that That… but more on that in a bit…
The same initial reaction happened with Facebook. All the people I knew were playing games on Facebook, buying virtual gifts, nudging me to respond and posting comments about their daily lives. It felt like I got dropped into a party and was the odd-man out.
Then I got to thinking…. There has to be more to this than just daily life activity postings? There must be a practical use for Social Media in Business.
Being a web designer and programmer, with some successful online products at the time, I realized that if I could use Social Media in a business sense, then it would be a great tool to reach a lot of people all at once and leverage other people’s connections to increase my Business profits.
Well it worked, and I started to see results for myself, and more importantly, for my clients (I was their Social Media Manager – although that wasn’t a real job title at that time ;).)
Well, fast forward to September 2011 and Social Media is the Buzz word of the last two years or so. Almost every Entrepreneur and Business owner I meet are talking about Social media and wanting to apply it in their business. This makes really me happy to see.
A good percentage of them either 1. Know that they need to use Social Media now in their business but don’t know where to begin or what to do OR 2. They are using it in their businesses however aren’t seeing any results from it, which my Business helps them out with if needed.
As one business owner to another business owner, I wanted to share with you 5 reasons that Social Media is ideal for your Business, products and Services.. and yes, you need to get started now, if you have not already begun.
Also, it is definitely not too late to be profitable using Social Media.
Here are my 5 reasons:
- Leverage your Social Reach and Impact: By using Social Media, it allows you to attract and target potential customers that may never have known you and your Business existed, for a fraction of the price you can pay with costly and less-and-less effective traditional advertising. It also allows you to connect with your existing customers in a fun yet professional fashion with rewards, promo codes and timely information.
- Develop and Build your Social Proof: Using social media for your Business allows your Customers/Followers/Friends/Connections/(insert the social media platform of choice) in Social Media to build your business up with comments, tweets, recommendations, links to your website that other people will see, which build credibility for what you are offering. People are using Social media now to get reviews on products. We tend to buy and use a product or service much quicker with a referral or word of mouth, because of the Social proof of others talking about it. I know that I buy a lot that way and I would suspect you would to..
- Every Possible Demographics for your Business is in here: There are over 750 Million users on Facebook (33% of that number is women in the age group of 35-65!), over 12 Million Small Business owners on LinkedIn, Google+ grew to 25 million users in just 1 month time and Twitter continues to grow. What is powerful about these stats is that I am sure there are portions of each major social media engine’s demographic that is your ideal client. So why not figure out which ones to “target”, attract and engage them while at the same time, leading them to becoming a customer.
- You control the message: With Social Media, you can control the message. If something goes wrong, you can fix it pretty fast with Social media (United Airlines didn’t get this right until a musician and 1 Million Views on Youtube did it for them) . This also allows you to create messages that you can write and post everyday if you wish. You are not stuck with an 1 year paid ad in the Yellow pages, or a large Billboard that costs money to re-do. Social media is meant to be flexible. If you want to throw out a special offer to your lists or mention a new service, you can do it for low to no-cost to you.
- Build Loyal Communities: Social Media truly builds a community of people that have similar likes and interests. You can find people who love to Scuba dive or people who like knitting. Being part of these groups by leveraging your Social Media brand, you can become part of their conversations and be a solution to their needs. People follow or connect with their interests and if that interest happens to be your ideal client, you should be there to help them along to make a decision.
To end off, in Social Media, you do not “hard sell” anything. What I am referring to is helping people make an informed decision by seeing that you are the best choice for your Service or Product, complimented by your social media strategies, that just so happen to move them in that direction…..
until the next post.
Winston Bromley
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