Mobile Marketing & Online Customer Getting Solutions

Social media for small businesses must be done in a particular way or it’s a black hole of time.

You don’t want it to be a time suck. You don’t want your employees wasting time.

So how do you generate a positive ROI from social media?

1. Stay focused

Put out interesting and engaging content. This should be of interest to people in your industry. And people who are searching for education, reviews and FAQs about your industry.

Don’t only talk about your products and services. Ask provocative questions.

2. Set time limits

Set aside 10 minutes a day or maybe 15 minutes per day for one of your employees to monitor social media.

They should look at what others are saying about your business and your brand. They should respond appropriately.

They should also look at customer reviews from around the web to make sure they are positive. Any negative ones should be responded to. Not in a mean-spirited way but with an explanation of what happened.

People appreciate authenticity. Admit your mistakes and tell the story of how it happened and what you’re doing to correct it going forward.

Now that you have a moneymaking strategy here is why you must be on social media by the numbers:

1. Facebook

- has over 800 million users

- over 30% of them are over age 35

- 72% of baby boomers are on it.

- Baby boomers are the fastest growing segment joining Facebook. These are the money people.

- most users check it at least once per day usually more often.

2. Twitter

- over 300 million users

- answers the question: “what’s happening now?”

- soundbites – great for giving out tidbits, news, live event announcements, provocative or engaging content

3. LinkedIn

- over 135 million users

- 1 million new users every 12 days

- more affluent

- more influential in business

- more educated

4. YouTube

- over 490 million users

- king of online video

- video is the most persuasive and trust building communication online

5. Mobile

- over 450 million smart phones sold in 2011. 50% growth rate versus 2010

- over 50% of status updates on Facebook and Twitter are done from mobile devices

- over 100 million views on YouTube from mobile devices

- 18X – 18 times more mobile traffic in 2016 and 2011

6. Pinterest

- over 12 million users and growing rapidly

- 2 million daily users connect via Facebook

- sends more traffic than Google+, YouTube, Linkedin combined

Images are the way we now communicate because of the iPhone and androids. It’s the reason Pinterest surged to the top of social media faster than any site in history.

See these infographics and stats. Click here.

How active is your business in social media? If you’re not on these sites your competitors are passing you by. What’s holding you back?

Leave your comment below and I’ll guide you in the right direction.

Social media sites are being accessed in droves from smart phones and tablet mobile devices. You must craft your message based on these users’ mindsets.

Know the platform.

Twitter marketing must be done in sound bytes.

Facebook marketing should be honed as a 2-way conversation so it can be longer.

Mobile marketing should be done in very short bursts, incorporating low resolution photos and short video clips.

Photos are the new In-thing.

Pinterest marketing is soaring.

Iphones and androids now dominate smart phones so textbased communication is devalued. Photos and videos now rule the roost.

Campaign design

Mobile users want instant solutions preferably location based.

Social media users are looking to engage in conversations and be heard.

So keep this in mind with each of your communications. Is it going mainly to a mobile device? If so, then design your message with the mobile device users mindset determining your content.

More from Mashable:

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4. Point the way. Make the connections to your social media presence obvious in your mobile tactics. Be sure the ability to tweet, follow, “like” or connect is not only prominent, but encouraged.

5. Think in layers. Social networking is about the engagement between consumers and your brand. Mobile is about the device itself, timeliness and location. Layer mobile device functionality and purpose over social media’s strong suit of building long-term relationships. Create campaigns that include geography and immediacy and foster conversations about your brand, products and services.

6. Reward winners. Use your inbound marketing platform to find your best social sharing customers — the influencers who give your content and your brand the most bang for your buck. Then, give them incentives to share even more about your brand with their network, optimized for mobile.

7. A holistic approach. Being social and mobile doesn’t mean abandoning everything else you know about inbound marketing; in fact, just the opposite. It’s more critical in social-mobile marketing than perhaps anywhere else. First, understand what your customers prefer in social media and on mobile devices. Then, define your social-mobile goals. Make sure your social-mobile tactics fall in line with those goals. Provide value and relevance, and content that is interesting, engaging and timely.

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How are you using mobile marketing in your local business? If you’re not, what’s holding you back?

Leave your comments below and I’ll respond setting you on the right track.

Many of my business owner clients whine to me about blogging. “Why do I need a blog?”

“I just don’t have time for blogging.”

Myth: “It takes too much time.”

Staring at a blank page sucks. Fortunately, the #1 most powerful blogging strategy right now is…

1. Curate the News

You know your industry better than anyone. You know what your customers are interested in discovering.

Set up a Google alert to pull in stories of interest to your readers and customers. Just type in appropriate keywords for news your readers find fascinating.

The value you bring is filtering out all but the very best 1% or 2% of those stories. See my examples for fresh small business marketing ideas, social media marketing, and small business growth.

In slower news markets this may mean only 1 story every 2 or 3 days. I recommend at least 1 story per day. Google loves this. So you must learn to love it.

In faster markets you could find yourself posting between 5 and 8 times per day. Google loves this even more.

I highly recommend you hire an assistant or freelance writer.

For about $10 per curated article you can get quality writing. These are Americans and Canadians who grew up speaking English.

Your customers will appreciate this conversational English.

2. Behind the Scenes

People love the story of how you got involved in your industry. They love interesting facts behind how your product or service was created.

Don’t be too long-winded. People don’t want all the details.

Trim down to only the most fascinating.

The litmus test is whether a 10-year-old child would find it interesting enough to read the whole thing. If they stopped reading at any point that’s where you got boring.

Here’s 50 blogging ideas from entrepreneur:

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1. Customer success story. When you receive a great testimonial from a customer, ask for permission to turn it into a post. Use the post to solicit more customer stories.

2. Mention a popular post. If you notice a post by a popular blogger in your niche getting a lot of attention, add your viewpoint and link to the original post. Be sure to let that A-list blogger know about your comment and link.

3. Disagree with a popular opinion. Get traffic by stirring up controversy and taking a contrary position.

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I also love #3 be contrarian. There’s always at least 2 sides to every story or industry.

The common opinion is covered to death.

A contrary opinion is ripe for the picking.

What’s your favorite blogging strategy? If you’re not blogging, What’s 1 thing holding you back?

I pledge to read and respond to your comments. Let’s make this a lively discussion.