Author Archives: Jake

Social Media Builds Profitable Partnerships – Want To Know How?

One of the most important things for a business to learn is the importance of building partnerships. A business that tries to stand alone is destined to fail. Those who build profitable partnerships with other businesses are able to help each grow. With social media, this partnership is even easier and more important to create.

Often, customers look to see which businesses you are aligned with to determine whether you are credible or not. This is especially important for small businesses and startups. Related businesses can actually benefit from marketing together. Aligning their social media strategies is beneficial to both parties and increases awareness of both.

The purpose of social media is to make customers aware of your products, services, promotions and any important events and news about the company. What if you could double your exposure by partnering with other businesses? For instance, a catering company may align themselves with a photography studio. They could run a campaign together to offer discounts on services when you use both. This allows them to gain business, help their customers and develop a profitable partnership.

readyBUZZ is there to help you determine the best way to develop your new partnership strategy. After all, you have to have a killer Facebook or Twitter strategy in place for someone to want to partner with you. Decide what you have to offer and which businesses would work best with your own needs. Businesses do not have to be in the same physical location for this to work.

For instance, a physical bakery may partner with an online party planning business. If you order your desserts through them, you receive a discount on party supplies or vice versa. Even without discounts, one business may recommend another and list them on their Facebook or Twitter page to help customers find the next item on their list without hunting for businesses themselves.

People often go to a single business because they trust them. When you partner with this trusted business, customers turn to you as well. Create strong social media partnerships and you will see your fanbase and customer base increase.

Your Small Business Needs A Large Presence – Want To Know Why?

Do you want to learn why your small business needs a large presence? Small businesses typically have the misconception that because they are small, there is no reason to invest in social media marketing. While it’s true large businesses are successful with social media, it doesn’t mean there is nothing in it for small businesses. In fact, the entire purpose of social media marketing is to make your business bigger. Why only market to a small area, when you can market to millions through a single campaign?

Small businesses find themselves hindered by several factors. First, large businesses often have a dedicated marketing department which handles all social marketing. Second, creating and implementing social media into a business is time consuming if you don’t already understand how to use the networks to your best advantage. Third, they spend so much time getting a campaign off the ground they never see enough results to justify the time.

Partnering With readyBUZZ

readyBUZZ understands the problems small businesses face. They also know the true value of social media for marketing. Facebook alone has 700 million users. These are users you could be marketing to. What readyBUZZ offers is a way around the common reasons that turn small businesses off to social media.

There is no need to hire someone new to figure out social media tools. readyBUZZ guides you every step of the way so you know exactly what you are doing to save time, money and embarrassment from common mistakes.

readyBUZZ ensures there is never any need to sit around all day posting updates or tweets. Instead, they show you how to implement time saving strategies which equal profits quickly. When you start seeing results almost immediately, social media suddenly becomes more worthwhile.

Create A Large Presence

Small businesses can use social media marketing to expand their current customer base either locally or on a global scale. Readybuzz helps these small businesses create the perfect strategy to reach the right audience so you see profitable results in less time. Once you start using social media, your small business creates a large presence which is instantly recognizable by fans and followers. As your presence grows, so do your profits and fan base. Why be small, when you can be large?

Tips For Using Graphics For Social Media Campaigns

Here are some tips on using graphics for your social media campaigns. A social media campaign is far more than just status updates. As you probably already know, your profile is extremely important. This is where visitors find out more about your company and brand. What is just as important are the graphics you use, not only in your profile, but throughout your posts and links.

The Profile

Most companies choose to use their logo as their profile picture. While this is fine, taking an extra step will make it more personal and friendly. Choose those who are involved with your campaign and place them in the photo as well. While still professional, it gives visitors someone to associate the posts with. Overall, it makes your profile graphic far more sociable instead of just the average company logo.

Ensure the graphic is large and detailed enough so visitors can easily recognize your logo along with the fact there are people in the picture as well. Generally, choose no more than three people for the profile picture to prevent crowding and clutter.

Become Personal

Most social networks allow you to post photos in addition to regular posts and profiles. Take advantage of this to post photos of your products and services in action. Also showcase any community involvement. This helps visitors relate to your company and get an idea of what you have to offer. They never need to leave the network to view this information, making them more likely to click any links you have later.

Adding Graphics To Posts

Standard text based posts are great. However, visuals are better. Whenever possible, take the time to add a related graphic or video to your posts. While these do not always have to be business related, ensure they remain professional. A fun cartoon with a joke related to your product is a perfect way to engage your visitors. A controversial image will hurt your brand, so ensure there is nothing offensive in your graphics.

Graphics are the perfect way to not only tell visitors what’s going on, but show them as well. Whether you post the graphics or link to them, use them when you can to engage visitors as much as possible in your social media campaign.

Tip: Don’t Forget To Link Your Social Media Accounts

Social media marketing doesn’t stop when you create an account on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other network. Businesses are well aware of the need to keep their profiles professional and their statuses updated to keep visitors engaged. However, when you have multiple social media accounts, you are actually hurting yourself if you forget one vital step – linking each account to the other.

Facebook and Twitter are two of the most commonly linked accounts. Each allows you to automatically post updates from one to the other in a single step. For instance, if you update on Facebook, your Twitter account instantly shows the same information. However, linking isn’t just about duplicate updates.

Each social network offers its own benefits. You are able to post more frequently on some, while others are best for occasional posts. You also have a different fan base on each. It’s vital to introduce fans from one network to your profiles on other networks. This gives them a chance to learn even more about your business.

On every social network profile, you are able to list associated websites. Most companies stop at their company’s site. This is a must have link, but so are links to your other profiles. Link to your Twitter and Facebook pages from your LinkedIn page. The more interconnected all your sites are, the more fans you are likely to receive.

The idea of linking is to drastically increase your fan base. Why do twice the work in promoting your social media pages when existing pages help promote the others? This also provides valuable backlinks to your profiles and allows you to have a one stop page on every network for all your most important links.

Linking takes only a few minutes per site. You only need to do it once, unless you change your profile address. From updating multiple networks from a single social media site to self promotion, linking is well worth the few minutes it takes.

Add Some Spice To Social Media… With Facebook Apps

A standard Facebook page is often seen as boring. Facebook fans want something that provides a little more interaction and information. Basically, you want to take your page to the next level to provide fans with even more reason to keep coming back. The easiest way to do this is by using the apps Facebook makes available to all page owners, including businesses.

Why Apps

Think of Facebook apps like the applications you place on your phone, just dedicated to your page. They allow users to interact through both with your brand or business and each other. You don’t have to develop your own apps. Facebook makes a large number available completely free. Obviously, you can create your own, but the most popular functions are freely available.

What Can Apps Do

Apps can do pretty much anything you could possibly want. If you have a product release coming up, why not build excitement with an app that counts down the days. This increases excitement and gets people talking.

Add plenty of images by using apps showcase your photo stream. This is perfect if you want to show different angles of products or samples of the services you provide. Why use the standard photo section when apps make photos more accessible?

Use two social networks at once by adding Twitter to your Facebook page. All tweets are displayed in a separate section. This lets fans know even more about what’s going on in your company.

Get interactive with fans with apps that allow you to create quizzes, ask questions, get product feedback and perform promotions. Fans react well to apps that truly get them involved. Not only do apps appeal to fans, they work well with social marketing campaigns to see if fans like a particular product. It also ensures fans keep visiting your page, not just “liking” you once and leaving.

The Top 5 Ways To Kill Your Social Marketing Campaign – Uncovered.

Nothing is worse than carefully crafting a social marketing campaign only to kill it during the execution. Just because social media is effective for promoting your products, service and business, it doesn’t mean using it is foolproof. There is a right way and a very wrong way to do it. If you’re guilty of any of the following, stop immediately. These five ways are guaranteed to kill your social marketing campaign.

Never Update

The entire point of social media is to keep people updated. Businesses often make the mistake of simply creating a profile and posting a few posts or links. This isn’t enough. Unless you give users a reason to notice you, you’ll gain no followers and no traffic. Update several times a day, if possible, to be a true social media hero.

Post Too Often

Posting every few minutes is a major mistake. Users see this as spam. Unless you truly have something important or useful to your followers, limit your posts to no more than one an hour. You should also avoid duplicate posts as users get tired of seeing the exact same thing.

Getting Too Personal

Remember you are running a business. Keep your personal life, including your opinions, out of your social media campaign. Nothing kills a campaign faster than controversy due to political, religious or slanderous comments. Your followers may not share your opinions. Always keep posts business relevant only.

Creating A Single Strategy

Most businesses use multiple social networks. Using a single strategy for all of them means only one will succeed. Every social network is drastically different. While there are similarities, create a different plan for each to ensure you take advantage of each network’s strengths.

Ignoring Followers/Friends

Once you gain a following, nothing hurts a campaign more than ignoring those who like you. Participate with your fans. Just like with updating frequently, you must respond to messages and comments. This doesn’t mean respond to every post, but show fans you actually read what they post.

The Top 4 Ways To Launch A Product On Facebook NOW!

Now that your business is on Facebook, it is time to do more than just gain website traffic and fans. The next time you launch a new product or service, be sure to utilize these four tips for ensuring launch success on Facebook. The potential audience is massive, the cost is low and the feedback you receive is invaluable.

Build Anticipation With Giveaways

For the week building up to your product launch, host a contest or giveaway for fans to participate in. There are two ways to do this. First, post a status update with the contest information. State that you will choose a random name from everyone who comments or likes the post. This can also be done through a link to an entry form through a Facebook app, which automates the process.

The second method is to give away the upcoming product or something related to it each day. Offer a limited number of freebies. Those who sign up after the limit is met may receive a coupon or something of slightly less value.

Giveaways get people talking. You also gain more fans, which gives your product a bigger audience at launch.

Create Targeted Ads

Facebook users are not bombarded with ads. This means the few that are displayed are usually seen and even read. If the ad is appealing, users will click on it. Create a visually appealing ad. Use keywords, such as interests and locations, so the ad appears for the right people. Targeted ads get read far more than general ads. Use a witty line to get people interested in your product. A different ad each day for a few weeks also helps your product get noticed by more people.

Offer Freebies For Feedback

The best way for a company to know whether a product will be well received on not is through feedback. Ask fans to sign up to test or try your product in return for valuable feedback. Fans feel as if they truly matter, the company receives feedback on how to improve the product (if at all) and word spreads about the upcoming product release.

Get Your Product Noticed

Once you have thousands of fans, you can stick to the basics. Every day, provide more details about the upcoming product along with pictures. Pictures get people to actually read more. You can also offer links to more information on why fans would want or need your product.

Sharing details about your products on sites like digg, reddit, etc are also great ways to get your target audience to learn about and talk about your new product(s).

Get The Most From Facebook – 4 Quick Facebook Marketing Tips

Now that you have begun using Facebook for marketing your business, you may wonder exactly where to begin. There is so many possibilities that it is often overwhelming. To get started quick, here are four tips you can start using today to get your business noticed in the Facebook community. The best part is all of these are free or relatively cheap.

Make Time For Customers

Set aside at least one to two hours each day for Facebook marketing. Setting up a page is not enough. You must actually be active on the page. Customers and visitors tend to come back when you update. Also, most people “Like” a page so they can see regular updates in their news feed without having to visit individual pages.

Take time to communicate with customers and fans. Answer questions posted on your wall or in the comments on posts. Post daily updates on new products, events or links to relevant information. Interact and you will gain fans.

Offer New Fan Promotions

One of the cheapest Facebook marketing methods is first time “Like” promotions. The object is to gain fans. If they “Like” your page, you offer then a coupon or something free. Visitors will quickly check out pages that give them something in return. All you need to reach is a few hundred people. They will then recommend your page to their friends. Ensure you offer a way for them to post your promotion to their own walls.

Create Pages

The biggest mistake businesses make is creating a profile instead of a page. A profile requires visitors to become your friend, opening up their information to your business. Businesses are not people. Pages work differently and allow fans to interact and join your page without sharing all their personal information. They are also far easier to customize than profiles.

Make Updates Fun

Do not just post a boring product update. Instead, have fun with the updates on your page. Post interesting links related to your business, use witty comments, make your fans laugh or post questions for your community to interact with. By engaging fans, they become more interested in your business and also recommend your page to others.