Need Help Marketing? » social media

70% of Local Businesses Use Facebook For Marketing

Need Help Marketing — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 05:36:58 +0000

70% of Local Businesses Use Facebook For Marketing is a post from: Need Help Marketing?

A new report from Merchant Circle revealed that businesses are funneling more of their budget towards Facebook Marketing. Since Facebook is probably the most well-known social media site this probably makes a lot of sense. Also worth noting here is the amount of time users are spending online including time using Facebook. In a recent study conducted by Neilson’s, they estimated that the time spent on Facebook for January 2011 was as high as 7 hours per month. You can review their study results here: Neilson’s report.

The 70 percent number is up from 50 percent for 2009, surpassing even Google as the most widely used marketing channel.

Traditional Offline methods:

What does this mean for traditional marketing? Well 24 percent of the survey respondents say that coupons or direct mail are still one of their top three most effective marketing tactics, followed by 23 percent using print Yellow Pages.

Marketing Budgets:

Another interesting metric to monitor is the amount merchants are spending on their marketing budgets. In this survey the marketing budgets were under $2,500 a year, and 60 percent have no plans to raise their budgets this year.

Survey Sample Size:

The Merchant Circle survey is based on a random sample of 8,456 small business owners in the United States.

More Marketing Resources:
For more information visit Facebook Marketing Solutions

Possibly Related Posts:

How To Get New Facebook Fans

Need Help Marketing — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 17:04:07 +0000

How To Get New Facebook Fans is a post from: Need Help Marketing?

Since most companies are starting to promote that they now have a presence on Facebook, a lot of business owners will be wondering if just having a presence is enough. The truth is that without participation your Facebook pages will just look like a ghost town. You probably remember visiting an online forum and the last posts where from months or even years ago. Well if there is no content on your Facebook page and no participation the same thing can happen.

Facebook has a user-base of over 500 million active users so it is certainly a worthwhile audience to try to market in to. So how do you show your prospective customers (aka FANS) that you are serious about communicating with them on Facebook? Well the first thing to do is after registering your profile is to create a fan page. Which you can think of as a mini-website with several tabs.

If you would like to see an example of a Facebook fan page visit the Need Help Marketing Fan Page.

Here are some pointers that we have come up with after reviewing successfully implemented Fan pages. As well as researching Facebook Marketing best practices.

Steps for an engaging Fan Page:

1. Create a Welcome tab
By creating a welcome tab you can introduce your visitor to what you have available on your Facebook fan page. This way you can link to the different content. But most importantly is to tell visitors why they want to join your page by clicking the Like button. When they click on the like button their friends will also see their activity and will increase your marketing reach. However you do not have an incentive or promotion for why someone should join your Fan page most won’t.

Most recently I saw a Fan page that said when the press comes knocking to ask for a customer reference to talk to we go to our “fans” on Facebook. Using this technique might be just the incentive to get them to signup to your fan page.

2. Use Photos or Videos
This is your chance to add some multi-media and add more interest. You may want to add pictures of company events, trade shows, customer visits, or even behind the scenes at your office. For some online businesses this will show credibility and that you are the real deal. Not to mention that photos and videos are shared frequently online which will help bring more traffic and potential customers if you have interesting content to share.

3. Add a Notes tab
Using the notes tab is a great way to add content to your fan page. In our case our Notes pages reproduces content from our main blog so that anyone that uses Facebook to search for marketing help will find our content. With so many users on Facebook it is becoming a bigger resource for searching for different topics to find out what is going on.

4. Add an About Us Page
An About Us page is your opportunity to introduce yourself to someone who is not familiar with you. Unless you are major brand like Nike that people recognize you should probably add some information about your company and information on your products or services. As well as links back to your main web site for more in-depth information.

5. Post on your Wall
Posting on your wall would probably be the most obvious recommendation and for most that is all they do. However that does not create repeat visitors and followers unless what you are posting to your wall is helpful, valuable or at a minimum interesting. You may push special discounts onto your wall so that your fans will get value out of being a fan of your page. Giving back to your fan base will also help you to get more fans and of course loyal customers.

Bonus Tip: Add “Like” buttons to your website, email newsletters, blogs, etc. Anywhere you can promote your Facebook Fan Page will greatly help get more traffic to that content as well as encouraging more fans which is always a good thing.

Possibly Related Posts:

eMarketer Reports on Twitter Message Content

Need Help Marketing — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 02:39:07 +0000

eMarketer Reports on Twitter Message Content is a post from: Need Help Marketing?

Earlier today eMarketer reported on the findings from a recent white paper from marketing agency 360i which looked at the content of twitter messages from marketers. Why is this research interesting? Well the findings of the research indicated most marketers where communicating with only 16% of their consumers (which would include any followers). And the rest of the tweeted messages were about sharing information including new products, features and/or services.

However if you think about this data a bit more you may come to the conclusion that a lot of consumers are following brands on Twitter specifically to get access to this type of news and information. Marketers may just be using the right channel to communicate to an attentive audience. You will need to watch your follower counts to see if they go up or down based on your usage and what kind of content you are putting in your tweets. And remember to always try to respond to anyone trying to reach out to you using your @twittername mentions.

To read more about this report visit Boosting the Power of Marketers’ Tweets

Possibly Related Posts:

Need Help Marketing? Now available on Facebook

Need Help Marketing — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:07:59 +0000

Need Help Marketing? Now available on Facebook is a post from: Need Help Marketing?

As part of the new year we are going to be extending the Need Help Marketing blog and adding a Facebook Fan Page. The reason for deciding to set up a Facebook page was to allow more people to interact with us where ever they might be. Since Facebook has a lot of people using it including businesses it makes sense to set up a space to make our resources available from within Facebook.

What this really means is if anyone searches for “marketing” or “help marketing” they are likely to find about the Need Help Marketing? blog. And some of us prefer to get updates from our friends while logged into Facebook.

Starting today you will now notice a prominent new button on the blog’s sidebar linking to our new Fan page. So if you are a fan of Need Help Marketing you can also add it to your own account.

Facebook Fan Page Link

If you are already a regular reader of our blog you can now interact with us through either posting comments or questions on our Wall or within the Discussions forum. Hopefully we can add compelling topics and discuss your most important marketing dilemmas. And having a discussion forum on Facebook allows us to interact with an even bigger community of your peers and other Need Help Marketing readers.

Need Help Marketing Page on Facebook

Our Need Help Marketing Fan Page allows you to keep up with the conversation and marketing blog on the “Notes” tab which will contain the same information available from the main website’s blog. So you can choose to read our content either on the website or within Facebook itself. Which will allow even more people to learn about the information and insight we provide. As well as engaging them to participate in an open discussion with other fans using their existing Facebook account.

We hope to see you on Facebook! Remember to become a fan and follow the group today.

Earlier posts about Facebook Fan Pages:

Possibly Related Posts:

KnowEm – Designed to help you get started in Social Media

Need Help Marketing — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:00:22 +0000

KnowEm – Designed to help you get started in Social Media is a post from: Need Help Marketing?

More and more individuals and even more small businesses are venturing into Social Media. So how do you get started?

Well usually the first step is to reserve your online name just like you have a custom domain name for your company. Doing so will ensure your online branding remains the same across your websites, and into social media networks as well. But how do you know if your username is going to be available? This is where KnowEm Username Check comes in. KnowEm goes out and registers the username of your product, company or brand online across many social networks saving you the time and reserving your account for future use.

In their own words:

KnowEm allows you to check for the use of your brand, product, personal name or username instantly across over 340 popular and emerging social media websites. Grab your name before someone else does.

Quick Username Search

Put another way KnowEm is trying to help businesses to register their usernames on social websites in advance. Which is quite similar to what has been happening with domain names in the last couple of years. Having your domain names and variations of those domain names is important to prevent identify theft. Both in terms of your individual name as well as for your business.

An example of what your business profile might look like:

To date KnowEm has helped to register (reserve) 100,000 user profiles on behalf of their users.

Several pricing plans are available too for both initial registration to full registration and responding to the verification emails, etc. Plans for both Individuals and Companies are available.

At the very least you should be checking for the availability of your desired brand name. Because you may want to use it in the future on Twitter or Facebook to add to your marketing plans, thereby extending your reach. KnowEm and similar services are definitely worth looking into if you are not familiar with social media and which websites to focus on.

Possibly Related Posts:

The Power of Social Sharing from Email

Need Help Marketing — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:27:30 +0000

The Power of Social Sharing from Email is a post from: Need Help Marketing?

As you can see from the below chart prepared by MarketingSherpa sharing email content via social networks really does have benefits. In a recent survey to a sample of 1400, 80% agreed there were two clear reasons to encourage email subscribers to share your email content.

The clear winners for sharing emails through social networks were

1) extending the reach of the email content

and

2) increasing your brand reputation and awareness.

Possibly Related Posts:

How to collect email addresses on your Facebook Page

Need Help Marketing — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:33:03 +0000

How to collect email addresses on your Facebook Page is a post from: Need Help Marketing?

Many businesses have started creating their own Facebook Fan pages to communicate with their customers and fans. However not everyone knows that you can also use your Fan page to collect valuable email addresses to contact your fans directly in their inbox. Adding a newsletter sign up form to your Facebook fan page only takes a few minutes but can be very effective in growing your email list.

If you are looking for more information on why your business needs a Facebook Page you can read our earlier post: Do you need a Facebook Fan Page for your business?

What you will need:

1) Facebook Fan Page
2) Email sign up form (Many online email marketing tools offer a built-in tool to create an HTML sign up form for your website)

How to add a Newsletter Signup form to your Facebook fan page

Step 1: Login to Facebook and go to your Fan Page
Step 2: Click on the “Ads and Pages” link in the footer toolbar of your Fan page
Step 3: Click on the “Pages” link, and then on “View Page”

Step 4: Add the “Static FBML” application to your page by click on the “Application” icon in the footer toolbar.
Then select “Browse More Applications”

Step 5: Search for “Static FBML“, and click on the icon for the application.
Looks like this:

Step 6: Click on the “Add to my Page”

Step 6: Configure your newly added application, by clicking on “Edit Page” on the left menu.

Step 7: Put your mouse cursor over the blue pencil icon, and click on “edit” under the Admin Options.

Step 8: Paste the HTML code for your sign up form. This was the second item from our what you will need checklist above.
On the Edit FBML screen paste your sign up for source code and then click “Save Changes“.

Step 9: Your Facebook Fan page should not contain a new Newsletter tab which when clicked will display your email sign up form.
If you do not see the Newsletter Signup form option click on the ‘+’ sign to see more tabs. Your page probably looks something like this:

http://www.benchmarkemail.com/blogs/detail/how-to-add-a-newsletter-signup-form-to-your-facebook-fan-page

Possibly Related Posts:

How to get more Followers in Social Media

Need Help Marketing — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:57:56 +0000

How to get more Followers in Social Media is a post from: Need Help Marketing?

When you set out to engage your audience, or build a community of followers in social media you need to encourage them to start following your updates. Of course you probably have offer different ways to stay in touch, which could include options to Subscribe to a Newsletter, subscribe to an automated Feed for updates. Also known as RSS. Which are all universal ways to be able send updates to your readers in this social media context called followers or fans.

If you are using Twitter to engage your online audience you can send them updates via “Tweets” which is a coined term to mean short 140 character updates that are sent in real-time. Twitter also has an option to integrate with your mobile phone so you can get text messages from the people and/or businesses you follow online.

How to get more Followers in Social Media

Know your Audience
This is one of those golden rules, but it is very true. You do not want to alienate a loyal following or fan base. So you need to establish a tone and regular updates that will interest your readers.
Connect with your Followers
This is an interesting topic, because you can not assume all your target market uses the same tools. Some age groups for instance are more likely to use Facebook vs. Twitter. And knowing what tools your readers use is very important. If you are marketing to a Business to Business crowd maybe LinkedIn makes more sense because that is a geared to professional networking.
Build Trust
You are trying to build credibility and to represent yourself as a trusted authority, so try to be as genuine as you would be if someone was to meet you in person. Remember your personality should and can come through in the way your write.
All your Followers are Important
This point can not be emphasized enough. Even if you just started and have a small following you still want to respond to your followers and let them know you are listening. If you do not interact with them then the benefits of social media fall down. The purest form of being social is developing a two-way conversation otherwise it is just promotion and that can tune out your readers. By joining your online brand or Facebook page, etc. they want to feel part of your brand experience.
Followers are great Evangelists
If what you are trying to build is a community of evangelists then there is probably no better place than online. Having loyal fans that will promote your business and brand to their friends online is the easiest way to get word of mouth advertising and referrals.
Share other people’s ideas
You want to be seen as open to new ideas, and sharing other’s content and ideas is a great way to do that. Whether it be linking or discussing another Blog post, tweet, etc. The more you share the more people will notice you and start following your blog, tweets and what you have to say. This helps to grow your following by discussing topics that readers are interested in hearing about.

In addition to the pointers listed above, you want to build your followers because that is who you will go to for feedback on product ideas, how to improve your business processes such as customer service. You might also just find your next prospect or customer is generated from first being an early follower.

Possibly Related Posts:

Do you need a Facebook Fan Page for your business?

Need Help Marketing — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:59:16 +0000

Do you need a Facebook Fan Page for your business? is a post from: Need Help Marketing?

By now you have heard of Facebook and it’s massive membership growth over the last couple of years. Even more interesting is the trend for users older than the college generation signing up everyday too. Maybe you need to see the numbers to convince you. Building a fan page is a great way to get started in social media and in building a community of loyal followers.

Facebook Statistics (Source Facebook)

200 million active users
More than two thirds of Facebook users are out of college
The fastest growing demographic are those 35 years old and older
Average reach of 120 friends on the site
More than 8 million users become fans of Pages each day.

What is a Facebook Page?

According to Facebook, a Page is optimized to share information and create a presence to engage with your fans. Only official representatives of an organization can create a Page, but that is in fact how you gain validity and credibility to your presence on Facebook. This way users will know they are communicating with the real company directly and this will empower them to get involved and engage. Facebook users can add themselves as a fan to your Facebook page which is created for your company, product or brand name.

Learn more about Facebook Pages in the Facebook Help Center

Why should a business want to get involved on Facebook and create their own Page?

Low cost (Free to setup)
Basic setup of a Page can be done free of charge. And now with vanity urls you can even create links such as facebook.com/yourcompany which make them easier to find.
Interactivity
Encourages fans (other Facebook users) to interact and build a community of other people who share the same interests. Providing constant feedback to your business on what customers like and don’t like about your company. Free feedback is very valuable and saves having to survey or conduct focus groups.
Promotion
When you launch a new product or service and give your promotion a little boost by first telling your fans and posting on your Page. Write updates on your “wall”, offer discounts to your loyal fans (followers), and update what you are working on. A lot of small business websites do not have this type of functionality and community building features.
Search Engine Marketing
Facebook is seen as an authority online. Meaning that when search engines find your Facebook Page and notice that Facebook is linking to your business website it will likely rank higher in the search results.

Should a Facebook Page replace my website?

Probably not, since not everyone is using Facebook and some employers are also also blocking access to this site. But if you do not yet have a website a Page is a great place to start building up some community around your new business.

What does a Facebook Page look like?

Example Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Renttropolis/5870033562

Get Started

Facebook has a 5 Step Guide to building your Presence which can you help get you on your way.

Possibly Related Posts:

Pull Marketing Works for Small Business

Need Help Marketing — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 06:17:56 +0000

Pull Marketing Works for Small Business is a post from: Need Help Marketing?

Pull marketing (also known as Inbound Marketing) is all about getting the message to your audience where and when they are listening. Which is quite the opposite of push marketing (also known as Interruption Marketing) such as direct mail, online banner ads, or TV commercials where you are delivering your message even when it is not solicited.

Instead with pull marketing, lead in with the prospects’ goals, concerns and values. Pull marketing is all about building brand authority, influence and visibility to achieve business goals. This marketing technique is intended to get people to seek you out, and find you simply because you have demonstrated experience in the field that you operate within and added additional value. Ultimately you want to be seen as a thought leader in your respective industry that knows what they are talking about. As long as you can get a foot in the door the prospect will be more inclined to listen later when they are looking for an “expert” in your field.

Ultimately being active with your inbound marketing strategies will ultimately help you to generate leads and establish your brand/business as a respected resource.

What can you do get pull marketing working for you?

Start an opt-in newsletter
Start contributing to a Blog (your own or as a guest writer on an existing blog)
Start using Twitter as a way to connect with your prospects
Speaking engagements have been well known to increase your exposure
Write a column in a newspaper or trade journal
Build a community – allow visitors to your website to interact and provide their own insights
Examples: uservoice for encouraging customer feedback

Possibly Related Posts: