Social Media Tips

5 Minutes to Better Marketing

There are any number of social media tips and tricks that can help you bolster your social media following. We believe that, first and foremost, you have to consistently create and distribute useful content to build a loyal following that both knows and trusts your company. You have to post the right things in the right ways to properly engage your followers, and with that in mind, here are some of our favorite tips to help you run a successful campaign:

Educate Potential Clients - Posts that educate can help your business in two ways. The first is that useful tips and tricks in your field prove that you know what you’re talking about. They validate your company, positioning you as an expert and building trust with a customer.

The second is that if your tip or trick is good enough, followers will gladly re-post and show off their new expertise to their own social media networks. This gets your message to another circle of people. Think what happens when those friends find your post useful.

Engage Followers with Video and Pictures - Much of the information transmitted to the brain is visual, and images are processed easier in the brain than text. You’ve heard the expression “a picture is worth a thousand words.” That rule applies in social media campaigns. You are competing for attention on your customer’s feed. So, grab their attention with an image or video, and educate, entertain and engage.

Create a Plan (and Stick to It) - Determine the goal of your social media campaign, and develop a plan based on attaining that goal. Is it to expand your number of connections, or is it to sell a specific product? This will influence the subject matter and form that your posts take on.

Create a  weekly calendar that gives you an overview of what you’re posting and when. This will help ensure that you cover the topics specific to your goal and that you don’t repeat yourself or over do it with one aspect of your campaign. It takes a lot of the guess work out a social media campaign. A typical weekly schedule might look something like this:

Schedule for Social Media Posts:

• Sunday Links
• Monday Community News
• Tuesday Safety Tip
• Wednesday Event
• Thursday Maintenance Tip
• Friday Question of the Week
• Saturday Video Link

Social media research specific to your industry can give you the upper hand in reaching potential customers. Here’s a document we use to help plan the best days to post, and when to schedule our best stuff – The Best Days to Post - http://delivr.com/1m0lt_nfc

Takeaway – Consistent, useful information will help you build a loyal social media following.

5 Minutes to Better Marketing is a twice-monthly series of direct email articles aimed at improving your marketing efforts and overall success of the small business community, specifically in the Buffalo, NY region. These articles are universal. They can help many small businesses. If you know of anyone that may benefit from communications like this one, please share this article.

Video is A Powerful Tool

5 Minutes to Better Marketing

Video for web is a key marketing tool for many businesses today, and there are several reasons why. We have been using video for web as part of our marketing plans for years because of its unique ability to convey the value of your company, product, or service to potential customers. One of the best things about this medium for small businesses is that you don’t have to have a Hollywood budget to produce a successful and engaging video. You can even get many of the benefits of web video, yourself with a Flip Camera or smartphone. Keep an eye on our Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn feeds for 5 Second Marketing Tips that often cover web video.

Grab Your Customer’s Attention - You likely already attract potential customers to your site or social media page. Grab their attention with video. A well-placed video will draw a viewer’s attention and generate more engagement on your social media feeds. The reason is simple: Visual information is processed more easily in the brain than text. People are naturally drawn to a visual medium and can more easily retain the information presented. Think of the expression “A picture is worth a thousand words.” It’s the same concept. So how many words is video worth? You are constantly competing for the attention of potential clients. Grab their attention with a video, and leave a lasting impression.

Get to the Point - Video can help you condense a large amount of information into one compact presentation. Information that is spread throughout your website, print or other marketing materials can be organized and distilled into an easy to find and high-impact message. Video is an ideal part of your marketing plan for any major event in your organization, including launching a new product or service, re-branding, specials or promotions. In just 60 seconds of video, you can convey the equivalent of several pages of content. The featured video above is proof of this point: It covers some of the same information as the written version of this article, with the added benefit of visual demonstrations, in just 36 seconds.

Connect With New Clients - This may be the the most enticing reason to utilize video in your marketing: It allows you to reach a wider audience. The popularity video on the web is undeniable. Over a billion hours of video are watched each week on YouTube alone. Think about grabbing a tiny fraction of those viewers to demonstrate your product or ‘meet’ new customers online and being building a rapport. Not only is video a great way to reach new customers, it is the best way to reach them on a personal level.

Takeaway – Video can connect you to new clients in a succinct and effective way.

5 Minutes to Better Marketing is a twice-monthly series of direct email articles aimed at improving your marketing efforts and overall success of the small business community, specifically in the Buffalo, NY region. These articles are universal. They can help many small businesses. If you know of anyone that may benefit from communications like this one, please share this article.