“Is there any advantage to buying Social Media Followers?”

It is better to speak with one genuine person who needs your product or service, than 100,000 people who are prepared to listen; and that is my position when it comes to buying social media followers, you can purchase 100,000 followers but at what cost to your wallet and reputation.

It does not matter whether it is likes on Facebook or followers on Twitter, I cannot see any advantage to be gained for your business by purchasing a crowd.

But before I reached this position, I did look at the possible advantages of buying social media followers such as;

• It is a cheap way of increasing the number of people following you on social media platforms.
• On first impressions, you would appear to be very popular.
• More people will follow your profile due to your apparent popularity.

Those are the only three possible advantages I could identify; now I’m going to outline some the possible disadvantages of buying followers.

1. The followers you have bought might have no interest in you or your business.
2. The followers could be profiles set up by a computer better known as bots.
3. The followers you paid for will not be interacting with your profile, so that will make your engagement statistics look bad from an search engine optimization view point.
4. The content you create will be analysed to determine why you are so popular.For example, I visited a Facebook business page recently and the number of people talking about the page was impressive in comparison to the number of people who had liked the page. I decided to have a look a bit deeper at the content being posted and it didn’t seem good enough to warrant the attention it was getting, I clicked into the shares icon to see who was sharing the information and found that the same people were sharing every single post.
5.  Facebook and Twitter are constantly working on eliminating fake accounts.
6.  Your reputation will suffer if you are identified as a cheat.
7.  The genuine followers you have will unfollow or unlike you.
8.  Every time you look at your social media profile you will see yourself as a cheat.

As you can see, it was an awful lot easier to identify reasons for not buying social media followers, as opposed to reasons for buying social media followers.

Unless you are Justin Bieber, where if he could sneeze online, he would get thousands of likes, the content and the number of posts you share will determine the number of people who follow you; if the ratio and the quality of the content do not match the number of followers, everybody will know the truth about you.

*Growth happens because of quality not because of quantity.

*The only goal of your social media marketing should be to create a positive awareness for your businesses brand.
Start with the customers you already have and work outwards, building a meaningful platform where you can share your messages with people who have chosen to listen to you.

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How many people see the messages you send when you use a personal Facebook page for Business

One of the most commonly asked questions in business is what returns am I getting on my investment? The time it takes to prepare and send out posts on Facebook is an investment of your time. And yet there are thousands of business owners who use their personal Facebook pages to promote their businesses with little chance of any meaningful return.

We will now look at what happens when a business owner uses a personal Facebook page for business purposes.

• The business owner sends out posts and the only way they know if anybody has read or even seen the post is if they press the like button on the post in question. The business owner may have thousands of friends on Facebook but, if the like button is only pressed by 15 to 20 people, as far as they know, they are the only people who have seen the post.
• You have spent an hour preparing and sending a post on Facebook and the only people who have liked the post are not even your customers, they are your personal friends.
• You have posted on Facebook and nobody has responded, was it not seen?
• The investment of your time has not paid off this time, I suppose you can always try again, but as Albert Einstein put it, the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.
• Promoting your business on your own personal Facebook page is not going to give you the accurate feedback a business needs in order to make the correct decisions for future promotional work.
• You can easily add up to five thousand friends on a personal Facebook page, but you will have no way of knowing, if or when they are seeing any of the messages you send.

There does not appear to be any good reasons for doing business from your personal Facebook page especially when it is free to set up a Facebook business page when you set it up yourself.

And there is one very good reason for setting up a business Facebook page, it’s called the insights page and I will explain all the benefits of this page next time.

*When you have the necessary information, your decisions will be easier to make.

 

How Businesses can be Sociable on Social media Sites

People go on social media sites to be entertained, it is a social setting and that’s what they expect. The will look for like-minded individuals who will share stories relating to topics they are interested in.

Any business that is involved with social media marketing needs to realise this valuable piece of information.

“You cannot sell on Social Media.”

I could write a lengthy article to explain what I have stated above, but I believe in this quote, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” ~ Arthur Brisbane. In this case I’m going to show you the equivalent of a small book.

We build a complete picture of a brand by adding up all the information that is shared by the brand; the total is often referred to as brand value.

Let’s look at the pictures below and see if the right message is being projected in order to achieve a positive brand.

A sense of humour is important.

I believe that all brands should have a sense of humour, just look at Coca Cola, their messages always contain the fun element that they wish to be associated with their brand.

Positive.

When you promote positive messages, the positiveness will be associated with your brand.

Respect

Your word is your bond, and a respectful one is always appreciated.

Motivation

Motivation is a great attribute to be associated with any brand.

Success & Maturity

Sharing successful quotes and stories will always be seen to be positive.

Gratitude.

Manners is the most important attribute to be associated with your brand, to this day I do not know anybody who likes people who cannot say please and thank you.

*When your customers see your brand containing all of the above attributes, they will be loyal to your brand.

We learn by association, so always associate great messages with your business.

“Social Media is Free for Everybody to use so why should you use a Social Media Manager”

Social Media

“What you get for nothing is exactly what you will think of it, nothing.” ~Alison Shark. And that is the biggest problem facing social media marketers today.

The social media platforms are free; a lot of small to medium enterprise owners have the necessary time to be social on these sites, and these business owners have acquired enough knowledge to be able to post a photograph or share somebody else’s post on Facebook, or write a tweet on Twitter.

Well???

But as stated in the opening line, what is free is often taken for granted. How many Facebook business pages have you visited where their timeline is like that of someone who visits from another planet every now and again to say hello, or a Twitter profile that is like a deserted western town with the tumble weeds blowing down the main street as it has been so long since they tweeted anything.

This behaviour reflects on the business, and not in a good way; the business owner would be better off closing down the social media sites altogether rather than let them sit idle for everybody else to see.

For business owners who wish to continue using social media platforms to interact with their clients and customers, they need to find answers to the following questions; does our social media activity reflect our brand values, are we targeting the right people, and do we know enough about the social media platforms to use them efficiently and effectively?

Answering these questions is where a social media marketer’s true value is to be found, they spend vast amounts of time analysing social media sites, identifying what works for different brands; and they understand how to make the most efficient and effective use of each social media platform, which allows them to targeting the right customer with the right message.

It pays to have quality on your side.

Every business owner has the capacity to be social on social media platforms; so the question remains, why pay somebody to do something that is free? And the answer is;

*Social media is about socialising while social media marketing is about making money through socialisation.

“Is Social Media Marketing Free to Everybody”

That is the Question.

What is Social Media? Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. ~ Andreas Kaplan.

What is Social media Marketing? Social media marketing refers to the process of creating awareness and funneling prospects to company websites through social media sites. ~Alison Shark

Time, knowledge and a social media platform is all you need to put together an effective social media marketing campaign, isn’t it?

Now, can you guess which of these is free? They are all free you say, and you may be right, but let’s take a closer look at each of them.

Social Media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, WordPress and Tumbler are all examples of social media platforms, and yes you can set up a profile on each of these social media sites without paying one Red cent of actual currency,  you could definitely say, they are free for everybody to use.

Time: Your time is your own, isn’t it? The free time you have, when you are not in your place of business is yours. So you can say that your time is free also.

Knowledge: You have accumulated a lot of knowledge about marketing through running your own business; you know how to create an advertisement that will get your client or prospect’s attention. You already have the marketing knowledge you need, so you can say that is free as well.

Have we determined that Social Media Marketing is Free? I believe the answer to this question is no, and in my next blog I will outline why.

I would love to hear your opinion? please leave a comment.

Kind regards,

Brendan Dunne.

“If I cannot use social media to sell, why should I use social media”

The hands on my watch never stop, they continue on their never-ending journey into time yet to pass; and yet there are some people in the business world who believe that time has stopped for them, they believe that every interaction they have with their customers and clients regardless of the location has to be sales orientated. When they cannot see direct results from their marketing activities, they believe that particular marketing activity should stop.

They are of course correct but, business owners need to look at the big picture especially when dealing with social media platforms; not all sales activities begin and end on the same day or in the same place for that matter.

Social media platforms are the equivalent of networking events, they just take place over-time on the internet instead of in a hotel or The Waterford Crystal visitor centre, where I had the privilege of attending a networking event last evening.

Let’s look at a couple of examples of using social media, the first example is going to be from a business that wants to use social media platforms to be social and the second is going to show a business that wants to use social media platforms to sell. They are taken a little out of context but, the message is clear.

 Using Social Media to be social

Jim looks happy.

Jim walked up to where a girl was standing in a public house and said “Hello, how are you?” The girl replied, “I’m feeling great, thank you for asking, and how are you?” The conversation continued and Jim found out the girl’s name was Jill; he also found out that they had a great deal of interests in common. At the end of the night, Jim asked Jill if she would like to meet again?” to which she replied, yes; so they agreed to exchange telephone numbers and stay in touch. After meeting socially on a number of occasions, Jim decided to offer Jill a lift home? To which Jill replied, yes please, so they got into Jim’s car and headed off down the road.

 Using Social Media to sell

Jim walks into a public house and notices there are a number of women who appear to be on their own. Jim walks up to the first women and says, “I want you to be the mother of my children.” The woman looked at Jim as if he had two heads, and then proceeded to call over the Bouncer to have Jim evicted from the premises.

• Jim did well when he acted appropriately, he got his sale but, when Jim acted in an inappropriate manner, all he received was his marching orders.

Why use Social Media

Communication has the key to Success.

There is always the right time and the right place to interact with your customers and clients, and when it is done correctly, social media platforms will provide your business owners with the following:

• Connection to customers and clients
• Building your brand
• Brand loyalty
• Promotion
• Building credibility within your industry.
• Keeping an eye on the competition
• Inviting customers and clients to visit your other online sites, where sales can take place.

Social media platforms are a great way for business’s to interact socially with their clients and customers. The question every business owner needs to ask before they stop using social media marketing is;

* If I don’t inform all those people who are using social media platforms of where my business is and what we provide? Who will? 

* Sales will be generated as a result of using Social Media, not because of using Social Media.

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“Are you missing posts from your favourite people on Facebook?”

 

Facebook has approximately one billion users to date and is getting busier and busier as the days pass by; Facebook are using their Edgerank software to ensure you see as many posts as possible, but there will always be a few posts that slip by without you seeing them, unless you take the following steps.

Liked button drop-down menu.

1) Go to your favourite person or business’s Facebook page.

2) Hover your cursor over the Liked button on the top right of the page, and a drop-down menu will appear.

3) Click on the get notifications sign.

Facebook notification.

After you have completed this process, you will never again miss an important post, because when that person or business posts a message on Facebook, you will be notified on your Facebook Home page.

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Thank you.

“How to send posts to people who want to hear from you, using Facebook’s business pages”

“It is better to speak with one customer who needs your product or service, rather than 1000 people who are prepared to listen to you.”

The above sentence should be the mantra for all business people who are using Facebook business pages to send posts to their customers. Facebook give you the option to target who is going to receive your messages, the least you can do is use it.

The Facebook feature I’m talking about is the post privacy gating option. This feature can be made available by ticking the box at the bottom of manage permission page in the edit section of your Facebook business page.

Post privacy gating option.

This feature allows you to target who is going to see your posts under the following demographic headings.

1. Gender
2. Relationship status
3. Educational status
4. Interests
5. Age
6. Location
7. Language

There will be times when the messages you want to send to one group is not suitable to send to everyone and this is where the post privacy gating feature is very useful.

Below are three examples of how the post privacy gating feature could be used:

• When you are posting content, that is specifically targeting women who are over 40 years of age, who are married, who have a degree, who are interested in horse riding, who live in the Washington DC area and who also speak Spanish; this is the feature to use.
• Another example could be; where your content is targeting men who are over forty years of age and not in a relationship.
• You are going to send a message to the American people who have liked your Facebook business page wishing them a happy Independence Day. In this situation you would use the location demographic to ensure the message is sent to the appropriate people.

Suitable?

There are other examples but I’m a gentleman at heart and couldn’t possible repeat them on this page.

As you input the demographics into the post privacy gating feature, you will get a count of how many people, who have liked your Facebook page, will fit into those criteria.

The insights page will show you how successful the post was in reaching your intended demographic audience. Depending on results you may decide to promote the post.

There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest that by using the post privacy gating feature; this will help you with your Facebook Edgerank, this has yet to be proven, but it is worth keeping this in mind, when you are looking over your results.

Using the post privacy feature will mean you are going to accomplish the following:

**Sending the right message, to the right people, at the right time is the foundation for every successful business promotion.

Sharing helps.

 

And that is good for your business.

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…

 

“What return on investment can a small business expect to get from using Social Media marketing”

This question was put to me on Twitter during the week, but given the 140 character limit on tweets, I decided to write this blog post on the topic instead.

This is the most important question that every business owner would like to have answered before they invest their hard-earned money on a social media campaign. The question is a valid one, but before we could possibly find the answer to the question we postulated above, we need to answer the following questions:

1.       Is the Internet infrastructure available?
2.       What is the businesses current stage of development?
3.       Does the business have a marketing budget?
4.       Are your potential customers online?
5.       Does the business have the expertise to run a social media campaign?
6.       What social media platform is best suited for the product or service?
7.       What can be achieved by using Social media marketing?

Is the Internet infrastructure available?

In the majority of first world countries, this question is moot because an internet infrastructure is widely available, there are some exceptions. There are geographical areas in some first world countries, where people are cut off from this type of technology. In third world countries such as Bolivia, the internet infrastructure does not exist, and therefore a social media campaign would not be a viable option.

What is the businesses current stage of development?

An established business will be able to build their social media marketing campaigns on the business relationships they already have with their customers or clients, whereas a business that has just been established will be required to start from a much lower position of power. 

Does the business have a marketing budget?

There are no costs in setting up a business profile on any of the social media platforms, but in order to use those social media platforms effectively, a business needs to invest in promoting their online activities through traditional marketing techniques and digital promotion options provided by the social media platform providers such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

.

Are your potential customers online?

This question can only be answered with research, but given that there are up to 1 billion Facebook users, 500 million Twitter profiles and 300 million on LinkedIn, the chances of finding the people who have need of your products and services are quite good. 

Does the business have the expertise to run a social media campaign?

If your business does not have the personnel, who are knowledgeable about how social media marketing works? The return on investment will be limited. Social media marketing is not rocket science, but understanding how it works requires time.

What social media platform is best suited for the product or service?

The social media platform you decide to use should be determined by, what is the best fit for your business? Whether you operate in a B2B or a B2C environment, will determine which of the social media platforms is the best fit for your business.

What can be achieved by using Social media marketing?

Social media marketing, like all marketing, is about creating and building relationships with your public’s, it is a brand building exercise, a place where you interact in a social setting with your customers, and it is their choice whether to interact with you or not, because all social media platforms operate on an opt-in basis. Social media platforms are places where you interact with prospects and invite them to the areas of your business, where sales transactions can take place.

*Your business will be successful as a result of using social media, and not because of using it.

*-* So what will be our return on investment from using social media marketing? Given the number of uncontrollable variables involved, answering that question would be nearly impossible as each business will have uniquely different answers to the above questions, but the question you should be asking is,   

*“How much will it cost me, if I don’t move with the competition and use Social media marketing?”

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“I Do Not Require a Facebook Business Page. Do I?”

Facebook! Never!

The following couple of lines are the most popular excuses given by SME business owners, when somebody suggested, they should set up a Facebook business page.

• Excuses for not setting up a Facebook business page.

*A Facebook business page, I think not, no, it’s not for me, I do not know how to set it up, and in the economy we are currently operating in, I cannot afford to pay somebody to set it up for me.

*No, no it’s not for me at all, not to mention, it takes time to get people to like a Facebook business page, whereas I can have 20 new Facebook friends with a few clicks of my mouse.

*I can post the same information to thousands of my friends from my personal Facebook profile as I could from a Facebook business page, to a smaller audience, why should I do that?

• All of the above seem to be valid reasons for not setting up a Facebook business page, except for one huge stumbling block, which is; it is against Facebook’s terms and conditions to use a personal profile as a business page.

Not jail this time.

What does this mean for anybody who currently uses their personal Facebook page as their business page? The Facebook terms and conditions are quite clear where this is concerned; anybody caught using their personal Facebook page for business purposes, will have their Facebook page deleted.

“I will be able to open another Facebook page and reconnect with my friends” you say, and yes, you are correct, as long as you get written permission to do so, from Facebook.

All of the above are reasons not to set up a Facebook business page, now let us look at the reasons to set up a Facebook business page.

Reasons for setting up a Facebook business page.

1)   The most important reason for having a Facebook business page is Facebook insights. The Facebook insights data is available to all business pages which have been liked by more than 30 people.

Overview of Facebook Insights

• How many people your posts have reached?
• How many people are engaging with, and talking about your posts? The insights also show you the number of people who click on your post, but decide not to leave a like or a comment, some experts think that this number could be as high as 50 percent.

Demographics of Facebook likes.

• The insights show you the demographics information relating the people who have liked your page. This information shows the business owner if the right people is being targeted.

When you have access to this valuable insights information, you can clearly see; what works? And what you need to change?

2)   A Facebook business page helps to give your brand that professional image.

3)   The Facebook tabs give your visitors access to your other social media activities such as Twitter or Pinterest.

4)   A Facebook business page allows you access to Facebook advertising. An ideal way of targeting the audience with the messages you want them to see.

5)   A Facebook business page gives the business owner, the ability to delegate page administration duties to other members of staff, without giving them access to their personal information.

6)   A Facebook business page’s about section is designed to give potential clients, a clear understanding of the business, what the business stands for, what the business provides, where the business is located, and how the business can be contacted?

7)   There is no limit to the number of people who can like a Facebook business page; a personal Facebook page, on the other hand, has a 5000 friend limit; if a business owner has serious aspirations for the future of their business on Facebook, this is a limiting factor they have to take into account.

Facebook! Forever!

• The number of reasons to set up a Facebook business page exceeds the number of reasons not to, even if using a personal Facebook page for business was allowed.

• Facebook will work for your business, but only if you work with Facebook.