Monitor and Manage your Brand
The web and its various social networks are packed full of information and so many different brands and businesses trying to be recognised. Consumers have easy access to all this information and they use it to make buying decisions. Social media tools designed for monitoring your brand can help to track wherever your brand is mentioned online. By tracking these mentions you can encourage positive feedback and quickly respond professionally to anything negative that might be out there. Here are two main tools you could consider:
Crowbooster - this is a tool for managing your social networks and has been specifically built for business use. It can auto-post content, manage new fans and provides statistics about your content and how it is being shared. It also shows you which of your fans are most interested in your posts and tells you when is the best time to send out content to engage with the largest number of your fans. It can also remind you to send out posts.
Google Alerts - this is an indispensable tool for checking your online business reputation and monitoring your presence across search engine results. It's a completely free tool and allows you to monitor your brand across the web. Every time a mention is made of your brand on a website you'll be sent an email. You can also monitor competitors this way.
Build and Maintain your Presence
Content is king in presenting your business professionally and developing its followers and interested parties. Your website and attached blog form the central base for all your content production and are the place you want to drive your followers too via social networks. You can use networks to reel in customers whilst your website is the prize they receive when they reach the destination. Blogging is a brilliant way of consistently providing up to date, relevant content about your business.
There are many products designed for making blogging easy and straightforward but by far the best is WordPress. It's an ideal tool for producing great blogs easily and it's a great way of small businesses creating their first website. WordPress blogs are well optimised for search engines and they're really easily to integrate with social networks and many of the sites you see online will be powered by WordPress.
Connect on Social Networks
The most powerful social media tools of all are the networks themselves. You can find your customers based on their interests, locations and also make interesting and profitable business connections.
LinkedIn - this network is perfect for business connections. It's the best social network online for getting new business leads and networking professionally. It has millions of users worldwide and your success is based upon a completed profile presenting a positive professional image for your brand. You can also create a company page at the site to further your influence and customer engagement.
Facebook - you can use the world's most popular network to create a brand page for your business and then you can keep all your Facebook fans up to date on any business advancements or developments. You can also use Facebook as a sounding board for new ideas and set up discussion groups all talking about and engaging with your company.
Twitter - this is the perfect network for sharing your content. You can track discussions about your brand or related products or services and each tweet is like a short sound bite representing your company. It's great for publishing links to your blog posts and other interesting content.
Google+ - Google+ Hangouts are becoming extremely popular for business use. It's a video chat service which allows up to 10 people to get involved and network, discuss business and share potentially beneficial info. Others can also tune in and watch the discussion so it's great for engaging with your wider audience.
Reach out to Customers
Of course the most basic and popular way of connecting with your customer base is email but you can make it even more effective by using social media tools designed for email campaigns such as:
MailChimp - nearly two million people user MailChimp for their email campaigns and have been getting increasingly effective results. It gives you an easy way of putting together effective and creative email marketing campaigns and you can design the newsletter yourself using templates before sending it out to your subscribers. MailChimp ensures your newsletter will never land in the recipient's Spam folder.
The web and its various social networks are packed full of information and so many different brands and businesses trying to be recognised. Consumers have easy access to all this information and they use it to make buying decisions. Social media tools designed for monitoring your brand can help to track wherever your brand is mentioned online. By tracking these mentions you can encourage positive feedback and quickly respond professionally to anything negative that might be out there. Here are two main tools you could consider:
Crowbooster - this is a tool for managing your social networks and has been specifically built for business use. It can auto-post content, manage new fans and provides statistics about your content and how it is being shared. It also shows you which of your fans are most interested in your posts and tells you when is the best time to send out content to engage with the largest number of your fans. It can also remind you to send out posts.
Google Alerts - this is an indispensable tool for checking your online business reputation and monitoring your presence across search engine results. It's a completely free tool and allows you to monitor your brand across the web. Every time a mention is made of your brand on a website you'll be sent an email. You can also monitor competitors this way.
Build and Maintain your Presence
Content is king in presenting your business professionally and developing its followers and interested parties. Your website and attached blog form the central base for all your content production and are the place you want to drive your followers too via social networks. You can use networks to reel in customers whilst your website is the prize they receive when they reach the destination. Blogging is a brilliant way of consistently providing up to date, relevant content about your business.
There are many products designed for making blogging easy and straightforward but by far the best is WordPress. It's an ideal tool for producing great blogs easily and it's a great way of small businesses creating their first website. WordPress blogs are well optimised for search engines and they're really easily to integrate with social networks and many of the sites you see online will be powered by WordPress.
Connect on Social Networks
The most powerful social media tools of all are the networks themselves. You can find your customers based on their interests, locations and also make interesting and profitable business connections.
LinkedIn - this network is perfect for business connections. It's the best social network online for getting new business leads and networking professionally. It has millions of users worldwide and your success is based upon a completed profile presenting a positive professional image for your brand. You can also create a company page at the site to further your influence and customer engagement.
Facebook - you can use the world's most popular network to create a brand page for your business and then you can keep all your Facebook fans up to date on any business advancements or developments. You can also use Facebook as a sounding board for new ideas and set up discussion groups all talking about and engaging with your company.
Twitter - this is the perfect network for sharing your content. You can track discussions about your brand or related products or services and each tweet is like a short sound bite representing your company. It's great for publishing links to your blog posts and other interesting content.
Google+ - Google+ Hangouts are becoming extremely popular for business use. It's a video chat service which allows up to 10 people to get involved and network, discuss business and share potentially beneficial info. Others can also tune in and watch the discussion so it's great for engaging with your wider audience.
Reach out to Customers
Of course the most basic and popular way of connecting with your customer base is email but you can make it even more effective by using social media tools designed for email campaigns such as:
MailChimp - nearly two million people user MailChimp for their email campaigns and have been getting increasingly effective results. It gives you an easy way of putting together effective and creative email marketing campaigns and you can design the newsletter yourself using templates before sending it out to your subscribers. MailChimp ensures your newsletter will never land in the recipient's Spam folder.
There are many different ways of ensuring you're doing the best
for your business and when it comes to the web utilising a combination
of these products will make a huge difference.
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