Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Top 10 Guidelines for Posting on Google+



Google+ is one of the social networking sites arising in our generation today. But what makes it unique from other social networking sites is that it aims to make sharing online with different things and with different people, more natural and a real experience. Here are a few guidelines for making your posts on Google a more “Googley” one.

1. Do not be terrified with combinations. You are composing a Google+ article, not a resume cover mail. So, fall the ritual and compose like you talk. This is a discussion, not an official exposition.

2. Consider the difference. Information with a lot of written texts is terminated until an individual broaden the information. Know where that difference drops so that you can include your connection, key details, and other diversionary tactics before the leap.

3. Phrases are wordy. There can be nothing more complex than to research an annoying, massive written text. Your vision has no idea where to concentrate; your attention interval is after tax. Crack your article content into quickly digestible conclusion sentences or small sentences. Your customers have plenty to research. Make life simpler for them.

4. Phone a companion. Often, when we make a lot of articles, we lose viewpoint. We get idle about editing and aren't bothered with our audience’s level of understanding. That is why it’s crucial to get someone else to study your articles, examine your sentence framework and punctuation, and make sure that you aren't going crazy with shortened forms, specialized info, and outrageous syntax.

5. Be humble. Be thankful. Give credit by acknowledging influencers, associates, or members on Google+. Recognize when clients offer you excellent reviews or valuable critique (even when you contradict with it). Your clients, more than anything, want to be attended. Let them know you’re giving them attention.

6. Personalize your articles. There can be nothing more strange than a column by an anonymous web page. Allowing your clients know who they are speaking with is key to having a discussion that goes beyond the simple return of details and actually makes a mutually valuable, human-to-human interaction.

7. Post as your web page. Interact with as yourself. If personalizing your articles is not your cup of tea and you want to keep your articles a little more formal or business-like, use your private account to practice articles. This allows you to respond to questions as yourself instead of as the product, and is an excellent indication of a more in-depth relationship. This can be an excellent bargain for those of you looking to publish a specific product without dropping an individual feel.

8. Images are worth a million terms. If something can be conveyed figuratively, take plenty of chance to put one together. It’ll look awesome, reshare well, and connect more details with less term.

9. Set objectives. Sometimes, we do not have a chance to observe relationships for time or to react to every +notification. It’s essential that you let your clients and supporters know what you want to react to and what you will not. Your “About” tab is an excellent way for that. Otherwise, set your own recommendations for how long you will observe discussion on your articles. Hourly? Daily? Weekly? At a certain point, you will need to move on to your next publish, but it’s excellent to look in on old articles every once in a while to see if there are any forcing concerns that require interest.

10. Differ your duration. Try to mix up the types of articles you’re promoting. Sometimes, a short and direct to the point publish with a web link will do. Sometimes, a longer publish is needed to connect an idea. The scariest thing you can do is to make a tedious supply. We see a lot of articles with a single phrase and a web link to a short article or exterior site, recurring over and over. Not only does it look uninteresting, but it cuts off your ability to connect, makes your product seem idle, and does not display your brand’s character. Take the best chance to improve your composition. The benefits are huge.

After learning all these basic guidelines, you may now enjoy and develop a more genuine, more personal, and open relationships with your friends, associates, clients and other people who are also real just like you! Managing a social media account is simple, if you know your backbone, if you have a strategy, and you know how to implement it.

6 Fastest Ways to Win New Customers for Start-ups

For most new businesses, the first hurdle to overcome is getting the customers know about you and your business. One good way to accomplish that is by creating an already used technique of “host-beneficiary” tie-ups or partnerships with recognized companies which have existing customer base, similar to your target clientele. You as the ‘beneficiary’ will be able to use their customer base to endorse your startup business. The recognized business or the ‘host’ will be able to reward their loyal customers with gifts  or special promotional offers sponsored by the ‘beneficiary’ but under the name of the ‘host’. 

The great advantage of this collaborative partnership is that the beneficiary is able to gain access to the host’s customer database, giving the new business a good number of potential customers on the spot and the host is able to reward loyal patrons with gifts without any additional cost on his part.  And the best part is, both host and beneficiary gained something from each other – the beneficiary having an unstated endorsement from the ‘host’ while the ‘host’ is applauded by customers for its generosity.  



Case Study Example: Women’s Clothing and BMWs

This technique was exemplified by a startup high-end women’s clothing boutique which entered into an arrangement with a local BMW dealer, where letters are sent to female customers of BMW saying that they are entitled to a free silk kimono as a token for their past benefaction. The female customers are instructed to pick up their gift from the boutique. The offer was so appealing that more than 600 women trooped to the boutique to claim their gift. Each of them received a $100 kimono which actually cost the store only $16 per piece. All of those 600 women ended up buying other merchandise from the boutique averaging $400 on their first visit. It’s easy to calculate that the $9,600 investment of the startup successfully amassed a sales income of $240,000 not from its own customer base but from that of BMW’s. It’s not difficult to guess how the startup had grown its own client base after that.



The Six Steps to Success

Host-beneficiary is a rather simple and cost-effective marketing technique which guarantees tangible results if you adhere to some basic principles:


1.  Accurately identify your target customers. Be more specific with your target client base. “Women 35 to 55” is too broad in scope. If you have clear details of what your customer base will comprise of, the more prospective hosts you can tie-up with. In the case of the startup boutique which utilized this marketing tool, they have clearly identified that their potential client base will have specific preference for types of cars owned or driven, hair salon visited, health club members or those who while away their time playing bridge. A birdseed store, on the other hand may have a customer base of people who are involved in local conservation activities or campaigns or those who frequent outdoor equipment outfitters.


2. Survey local companies with the same market as your business. You will have to think a step ahead and choose tie-up partners who would give potential returning customers and not just on the promo period.  Potential good tie-up partners for a cigar store are upscale men’s couture shops, high end shoe stores, luxury car dealers and of course, exclusive country clubs.. Not to be disregarded are civic organizations.

3. Each tie-up partner must have a specific offer relevant to their business.  Think of special offers like discounted product or service with a low investment cost but with a high face value for the intended customers.  Promotional offers like free computer repair service for two hours given by a computer technical support company to the clients of a local accountant, or free jewellery cleaning by a jewellery store to hair salon customers, will go a long way in building your own client base. Free seminar on how to improve sales was given by a marketing consultant to the advertisers of a local newspaper. A framing shop delighted the first 200 customers of a photo supply store with free photo framing.  The idea is to be creative and cost-effective with the promotional offer.

4. Highlight the advantages and benefits of the plan to the host business. Your proposal should look nothing like endorsing your business but more on the name and reputation build-up of the host business. Rewarding customers with gifts at no cost and effort is a proposal that is hard to refuse. You achieve your goal without being obvious.

5. Invest in the letters to be distributed by the host. A well-drafted and ready-to-sign letter which the host partner can send to its customers will expedite the plan and show the host partner how effortless it will be for him to take part in this marketing strategy.
Such letters may be inserted or attached to the monthly bills or newsletters of some businesses for free. There are other businesses that charge certain fee for separate mailing. All things considered, even for a fee, the investment is still small for the marketing mileage it will give your business.

6. Strategize to gain returning customers from original redeemers.  This is actually your long-term goal. The strategy of offering free kimono by the women’s boutique had gotten the potential customers to the store and check out other merchandise as well. Instead of just sending the gift straight away, the redeemers were afforded the chance to see and buy the other products in the boutique.  A new bakery came up with the concept of giving away chocolate éclair by distributing buy-five-get-one-free VIP card with the free give away pastry. This will see the customers coming back to use the VIP card. 

Regardless of the specific strategies, the host-beneficiary marketing tool is one such effective way to instantly reach a huge number of good potential customers to the new business. This is way more effective than the traditional referrals or print adverts in gaining access to customers who will get your cash register ringing endlessly with sales.


And the best part is you are riding on the success of another business that had spent years in building and maintaining a solid customer base. In more ways than one, the need to reinvent the wheel is no longer necessitated as you employ one simple and already used technique or strategy to jumpstart the business - effectively and productively, that is. The challenges are too many for a startup to think about, and this arrangement is one smart business way to do it
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Thursday, June 14, 2012

Three Simple Yet Effective Social Media Management Tips


In this day and age, nearly everyone is using the Internet. Roughly 98 percent of the world’s population is using the internet from virtually paying their bills to getting in touch with old friends and relatives. 



The World Wide Web or the Internet has indeed revolutionized the way how we communicate and connect with other people worldwide.


Since its emergence, social media has helped many companies augment their revenues by becoming an ultimate online marketing tool in promoting their products and services all over the world.



Getting in Touch with People


In every business maximizing any marketing effort is imperative, thus making any business succeed. Since the old days, companies worldwide exert so much effort in marketing their business to their locale, but only limited to where their business is located which has somehow isolated them over the years.



Over the years, marketing methodologies and tactics have changed. In this Internet age it has become more innovative and much easier compared to the old days, however, it became more competitive. You are not only doing business locally but internationally, thus creating high competition.



It is very important that you have the ability to connect with all of your customers in order to maximize the opportunity to succeed. Not just connecting to your local market but also connecting to your international prospects. In order to address such points a business should be able to adapt and use social media marketing effectively. Here are some tips.


  1. Select your social media pillar


The most popular kinds of social media today are LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. These are the widely used social media worldwide and it would be best that you make your business visible in those social networking sites. There are other social networking sites that you can utilize depending on the needs. Selecting a social media backbone is the first important step in your online marketing efforts and at the same time you should be ready to adapt and compromise your techniques especially in some countries that are not with the trend.


  1. Be firm and strategize your tactics wisely


It is highly important that you are firm. Once you have established the tone of your social media profiles, it is very important that you are firm in keeping that tone. Consistency and firmness helps you define your business’s traits. Major international brands have been very enthusiastic in setting and creating a mark, thus providing them a very stable identity and brand.


Nike has concentrated their function on creating applications that integrate their brands whilst Pixar have gained achievement in their Facebook page through incorporating the Toy Story trilogy.

You may also accomplish this kind of achievement by adjusting your strategies with each type of social media without compromising your profile structure. It's wise to have teams that would deal with different campaigns to become constant.
Moreover, it is best that you always take into consideration all of your methods in reaching your established and potential marketplace targets. Using social media is not just simple especially for business; it should be utilized wisely and perfectly tuned with your business profile. Connect with people not because you want to sell but because you want to inform and engage with them.


  1. Evaluation and Implementation


Every single task will be successful if you closely monitor it. Assessing the progress of a project is significantly important to its success. Every plan should be evaluated in order for you to effectively gauge the status and tilt tactics whenever needed and take not of both good and negative feedbacks. Consistent monitoring and evaluation will help you measure the projects improvement and focus. It is in consistent evaluation you are able to do away with bad practice and maximize the good ones and ultimately create positive new guidelines and policies is beneficial for your business.



These are just few suggestions on how you can effectively manage your social media profiles that will help you reach your marketing goals and will eventually help you succeed. You may also wanna consider hiring an online marketing assistant to do tedious the work for you. Always make sure that every campaign you make reflects the personality of your business which will help you easily connect to your clients.