social media

My Business Has a Website, But Do I Need a Social Media Presence?

Many small businesses have a website which is a great thing. However, most people don't market their website or buy ads with Google or Bing to help their website get found in search engines. But this is ok and normal. I don't know many small business owners who have a lot of extra time on their hand to learn Google AdWords.

But now with Social Media being so important, everyone is joining everything so that they can say they are on Social Media. The first problem with this is that being on Social Media is a broad term and should not be a static statement. The second is that unless you are creating content on these different Social Media platforms, then it's actually probably hurting you more than helping you.

Establishing your website is extremely important and should be your number one priority for your online presence. But, Social Media is too big to ignore and every small business should be on a Social Media platform. But don't get caught up in trying to be on all of them. For example, if you are a visual media company then you should probably be on Instagram and Pinterest since you want people to see what you do and share it with others. However, a financial focused business might not have as much use with putting up pictures, but they could use Twitter to share compelling stats and figures that might draw a customer in to ask more questions.

The most important thing you can do as a small business, is define the goals you hope to achieve and then make sure that whatever Social Media platform you choose will align with those goals. If you don't know how to set good goals then look up SMART goals. That will get you started. 

If you are still not sure if you should be on Social Media or what platform you should be on, then send me a message and I will be glad to help you out.

David Doughty
Multi-Media Storyteller
@daviddoughty83
daviddoughty.com

Online Time Management for Small Businesses

How can a small business owner think about Social Media and digital marketing when their plate is already full with just keeping their business a float? Not to mention trying to make room for family time and a resemblance to a social life?

Luckily their are tools out there to help streamline your company's digital footprint so that you can make every step count. I will give my 3 recommendations in Social Media, Project, and Email Management, so that you can save time and resources while getting everything done.

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGMENT

Hootsuite

Hootsuite

Hootsuite allows you to manage all of your social media platforms from one place and schedule future posts so that you can work around the schedule you want. The dashboard also allows you to see the analytics of what posts are getting looked at and shared so that you can know what is working and what isn't. It can also show you what people are saying about your company so that you can be quicker to put out fires if need be.

You can also share your workload amongst teams, departments, or regions. Assign tasks, receive real-time notifications, and have internal conversations right from the dashboard. Hootsuite is an incredible time-saver and a must have for any small business.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Basecamp

Basecamp

Basecamp helps you bring people together with different roles, responsibilities, and objectives toward a common goal: Finishing a project together. Basecamp helps small businesses delegate tasks and track progress of goals and deadlines set. There is a calendar integration and a notification system to keep everyone on the same page. Another great thing about Basecamp is it's ability to give clients their own login so that they can make comments and suggestions to the progression of their project. A great tool to centrally focus your team.

EMAIL MANAGEMENT

MailChimp

MailChimp is still my top choice for email management. The ease of use and vast template options for any kind of email need is far better than anything out there. The subscriber profiles for each person on your email list will tell you which emails they opened and what they clicked on. Each campaign you send also gives great detail on where in the world each email was opened and what was clicked on. 

Now, MailChimp has a responsive design so that no matter what device you are on, you can send out email campaigns from any device. This is truly a dream for any small business owner on the go. And MailChimp already integrates with hundreds of apps and services, like Salesforce, Eventbrite, Google, Twitter, Facebook, Shopify, and SurveyMonkey. Sync your data, import content from other sources, and see how your newsletters affect your business.

With the addition of these tools, you can worry less about how you are going to keep up with Social Media and Digital Marketing and focus more on your customers and their needs.

If you need any advice or help getting your small business jump-started on some of these or other online tools, please contact me and I would love to help.

 

David Doughty
Multi-Media Storyteller
@daviddoughty83
www.daviddoughty.com

Social Media, The Law, & Somewhere In-Between

photography by Steven Lewis

photography by Steven Lewis

Social Media tends to be a place for anyone to voice their opinion on any matter and hardly ever thinks twice about the ramifications.  As a result of this, larger companies often employ their own lawyers to go over any campaign that a company might want to run to make sure that the company can't get sued or worse.

Small businesses don't have the luxury of hiring lawyers whenever they want to produce a marketing campaign, but that shouldn't scare you away either. The nice thing about social media is that if it's an honest mistake there can be grace. For example if you post a picture that you don't have permission to use and the owner finds out, then you'll probably just get a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notice. This is kind of like a cease and desist order from the FCC in radio or television.

However, it is always better to provide a source of where you find things that you post that aren't your original work. The links that you create can also help you in Search Engine Optimization, so not only are you doing the right thing, you are sort of getting a slight reward out of it. Most of the time, no one will probably ever say a word because let's face it, the Internet is a big place and your small business probably isn't trending on social media. But just because no one may find out about it doesn't make it ok to do it. It's still illegal.

Where things can go really bad for you in the social media realm is when you make comments that are religious, political, racist, sexist, homophobic, and the list goes on. Stating your opinion on matters that probably have nothing to do with your business or what you're selling should just be off limits. These kind of comments can spread like wildfire and ruin your reputation and destroy your business. Just because you may have a freedom of speech doesn't mean you should exercise that right without caution.

A good thing to remember is that Social Media is organic and unpredictable. You can never assume that people will respond a certain way to what you release to the world. For example, McDonalds started a hashtag called #McDstories with the thought that people would tell about the great memories they had going to McDonalds. It ended up being more about the horror stories of McDonalds and the campaign quickly tried to shutdown, but it was already out there and you can't control what others say. Fortunately for McDonalds, they have a lot of money, so they can get through these kinds of fiascos that your small business most likely can't.

Now let me just try to clear this all up and simplify it. Think before you post anything to social media, if you have any doubts, then don't do it. 

Link to sources that you use, whether it is an article, photo, video, chart, etc.. It is always good practice and it shows integrity and validity. 

Lastly, don't be afraid to ask for help. Social Media is an ever changing monster that will never really be tamed. If you can think about it that way, then you generally be ok.

 

David Doughty
Multi-Media Storyteller
daviddoughty.com
@daviddoughty83

Marketing for Small Businesses that Work

Infusionsoft recently released a small business market research report about sales and marketing. It is quite informative and I highly recommend reading it. I will only focus on a section of it since it would be to lengthy to discuss all of it here.

First a little background so that you know this is a decent report. It was conducted in August 2014, and was focused on small business owners. Over 800 entrepreneurs participated.

I have rarely met a small business that wasn't working with a shoe-string budget. Heck, I still work with a shoe-string budget and I'm always looking for ways for my strategies to do more than one thing. This creates problems like a house built on sand that often falls apart or even worse, does all tasks mediocre. But that is a different story for a different time. The bottom line is that small business owners need every dollar they put into a strategy to yield tangible results. 

The chart above is incredibly telling about what is the most bang for your buck that a small business can do to get results. The first is a no brainer. We all know that customer referrals and word of mouth are always the most effective strategy, but email marketing is number two and many people don't utilize this. Of over 800 respondents, 34% say that this is the most effective way to market for their business. Then 24% say that Social Media is the most effective way to market.

This means that if you as a small business owner will start an email list and email out updates, sales, etc... twice a month and maintain a presence on some sort of social media platform, then you can guarantee an increase in tangible results. This should be music to your ears. Another beautiful thing is that the costs are minimal.

It is worth finding the time to invest into these digital channels. To get you started into email marketing take a look at MailChimp or Constant Contact. These are inexpensive or free depending on the size of your email list and the number of emails per month you want to send. You can even copy and paste code into your website that will allow you to have email signups that will automatically import them into your respected account. One step closer to making it easier to communicate with your customers.

If you have any questions or comments please let me know. I'm always here to help.

David Doughty
Multi-Media Storyteller
daviddoughty.com
@daviddoughty83