social media

What Social Media Platforms Should I Use to Promote My Business?

What Social Media Platforms Should I Use to Promote My Business?

Choosing your social media platforms is one of the most important aspects of creating a communication and content plan. The platforms where you engage with your customers dictate the type of content you should create, the frequency of your posts, and the type of engagement you can expect from your customers. When you’re creating a communication plan, you should use the intersection of your brand, your customers, and your capabilities to determine which platforms are right for you and your business. It’s important to consider where your potential customers are particularly active and the type of business you operate, particularly when choosing social platforms.

How Can I Use Digital Marketing to Promote My Business?

How Can I Use Digital Marketing to Promote My Business?

Whether you have an online business or a brick and mortar location, digital marketing can help drive revenue for your company. Digital marketing can help put your business in front of customers who would not otherwise find you. I typically recommend that clients spread out their marketing budget across various digital channels, but you can leverage digital in whatever ways make the most sense for your business. Detailed below are some of the options available as digital marketing channels. This is a quick guide to help you make decisions about where you spend your digital dollars.

The Interview Series: Spotlight on Julienne DesJardins

The Interview Series: Spotlight on Julienne DesJardins

Tell me a little about you and your company.

I’m a digital marketing virtual assistant, specializing in social media management and email marketing. My ideal client is a passionate, small business owner who is ready to offload some of her recurring work, with the goal of turning her attention to business growth activities.

Social Media Marketing 101: Part 6 - YouTube

Social Media Marketing 101: Part 6 - YouTube

The final installment in our social media marketing series is YouTube. YouTube is a fantastic channel for reaching your audience when your products require demonstrations, step-by-step instructions, or detailed explanations. YouTube is also great when you want to create personal connections with your audience or if you enjoy using video content. Your videos might feature a tailored message, a product demo, or a behind-the-scenes view of your workshop and process.

Social Media Marketing 101: Part 5 - Twitter

Social Media Marketing 101: Part 5 - Twitter

If your business involves building your personal brand to grow your business, Twitter can help you do that. Twitter is often compared to a giant cocktail party and that analogy is correct. Many users are talking about many topics in a single place. Twitter allows you to find and interact with your audience and people who want to listen to your message. You can share articles, courses, webinars, and other information that's curated for your audience. On Twitter, you can also share images of your 'behind-the-scenes' like you might on Instagram. Use the platform to share the same information that you would share in a regular conversation with a real person.

The Interview Series: Spotlight on Wendy Manganaro

The Interview Series: Spotlight on Wendy Manganaro

Wendy Manganaro, Founder of Social Abundance Marketing, helps frustrated heart-centered entrepreneurs attract, resonate, and engage with their social media community so that they can feel more productive and stress-free. Before Wendy started coaching she was the social media strategist for such companies as Baby’s Badass Burgers and Source4Teachers. Currently, she enjoys working with entrepreneurs and businesses nationally and internationally.  As a natural problem-solver and people connector, Wendy's clients can expect a fresh perspective on their social media strategy and implementation.

Social Media Marketing 101: Part 4 - Instagram

Social Media Marketing 101: Part 4 - Instagram

If you have a visual brand, it's hard to overstate the importance of Instagram. No other platform gives you the same opportunity to highlight the intricate details of your product's high-quality stitching or the atmosphere in your physical location. Even if you have a service brand, Instagram can be a powerful tool to interact directly with your audience. You can use short videos to capture the customer experience or quotes and inspirational phrases to motivate your audience to action.

Like most social media platforms, Instagram works best when you know how your audience uses it and create consistent images and messages that speak directly to them.

Social Media Marketing 101: Part 3 - Pinterest

Social Media Marketing 101: Part 3 - Pinterest

The second social media platform that we cover in this series is Pinterest. We consider Pinterest to be an incredibly valuable platform. Why is it so important? Because people look to Pinterest as a source of information and as a source of products. Your potential customers are more likely to buy your products as a result of seeing them on Pinterest than any other social media platform. Pinterest is also very valuable as a platform for bloggers to share content. 

Social Media Marketing 101: Part 2 - Facebook

Social Media Marketing 101: Part 2 - Facebook

The first platform that we're going to cover in our social media marketing series is Facebook. This content portion is broken into two parts - one for service businesses and one for products companies. However, some things are universal between both service and product providers. No matter what kind of business you run, you'll probably want to create a page for your business and use it to share helpful information with your potential customers. You'll also need to identify who your audience is and determine how they use FB. Do they participate in groups? Do they follow brands? Or do they just check their feed for the latest posts from their friends and family? Once you understand how your ideal customer uses Facebook, you can create your platform strategy.

Social Media Marketing 101: Part 1 - Choose Your Platforms

Social Media Marketing 101: Part 1 - Choose Your Platforms

For the next few weeks, we'll run a series of posts that offer some basics for your social media marketing. If you follow along, you should be able to build a basic strategy for your overall social media marketing and pick up a few best practices and tactics for each of the platforms that we cover. This week, we cover how to choose the right platforms for your business. Starting next week, we'll go through a few of the platforms one-by-one and provide a few tips that will help you get the most out of each of your social accounts.

When you're selecting social media platforms for your account, it's important to consider three major factors.

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Do I Need a Digital Marketing Strategy?

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Do I Need a Digital Marketing Strategy?

A digital marketing strategy is a plan to increase brand awareness or grow sales using digital channels. Digital channels include everything from your own website and email campaigns to social media and blogs. A good digital marketing strategy helps you reach your customers wherever they want to interact with you by providing several opportunities to learn about, interact with, and possibly even purchase from your business. You can hire a marketing pro to create your digital marketing strategy as part of a larger marketing plan or on its own. Either way, your professional will most likely provide you with a comprehensive plan that leverages your website, email list, social media, and outreach.

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What Social Media Should I Use to Promote My Business?

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What Social Media Should I Use to Promote My Business?

Social Media planning is important for any entrepreneur or small business trying to build a following for their products and services. If you know how and where to spend your time and create a social media strategy around your business, you can leverage your social media presence to increase your brand awareness and grow your audience. If you operate without a strategy, you can waste valuable time and resources on a platform that does nothing for your business.

The Interview Series: Spotlight on Daniella Shapiro

The Interview Series: Spotlight on Daniella Shapiro

Tell me a little about you and your company

Daniella Shapiro is a Disruptive Entrepreneur, Marketing & Branding Strategist, Social Media & PR Specialist and Speaker. 

Daniella Shapiro is the Founder and CEO of DaniellaShapiro.com, a Premier Marketing, Branding, Social Media Management, PR and Event Planning company dedicated to building products, services & brands for the future. 

Daniella has a BA Marketing Communication degree from the University of Johannesburg and an honours degree in brand leadership from Vega College.

Find the Right Media for Your Marketing Message

Find the Right Media for Your Marketing Message

Whether you're aiming for paid or earned media, you need to do your homework to determine whether a partner is the right fit for you and your company. When you choose a media outlet to pitch as part of your marketing efforts, do the research upfront to ensure they are the right fit for your products and services. When you research the publications or even blogs where you might want your portfolio to be featured, you can create a priority list of partners, and weed out those that are not a great fit for your brand.

When you start doing your research, determine who the readers are. If you have a strong, well-defined customer profile for your core customers, you can easily match up your customer profile to the reader profile of the media outlet that you want to target. 

Promoted Pins on Pinterest: A How-To Guide to Getting Started

Promoted Pins on Pinterest: A How-To Guide to Getting Started

Promoting pins on Pinterest can be very beneficial for your business, particularly if your product categories are already popular on Pinterest. Pinterest Ads are still fairly inexpensive compared to other online advertising. Pinterest users are among the most likely to make a purchase of all social media users since they are 'shopping' among the pins already. Pinterest users also spend about twice as much as Facebook and Twitter users. (Digiday)

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What Is the Most Important Thing to Know When I Launch My Business?

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What Is the Most Important Thing to Know When I Launch My Business?

Perhaps as a marketer I am biased, but I think the most important thing to know when you are launching your business is your customer. Without a solid understanding of your customer, your business probably will not survive. With a good understanding of your customer, you can meet and even exceed their expectations at every touch point.