Social media is undoubtedly one of the most powerful marketing tools around today. It allows you to reach out directly to customers, engage with them immediately and raise brand awareness in new and innovative ways. If you’re lucky, social media can also send you viral.

As with any marketing approach, however, measuring results so that you can see how your current strategy is working is critical. Metrics reveal:

• How well your campaign is performing.
• How your audience is engaging with your business online.
• Which content works best for your business.

Spread your time and effort wisely

If you are a small to medium-size business, spreading your marketing activities too thinly can be counterproductive.

You end up doing nothing well and your message gets diluted. Focusing on a few key social media platforms that work for your business means you can put more effort into them. It also makes the whole business of metrics much easier to understand.

Set your goals

As with any...

There are lies, damned lies and statistics.

If you’ve always been a bit wary of online statistics about marketing, you’re not alone. There are thousands of them out there and many aren’t true or get misinterpreted.

To help, here are a few I’ve dug out from the many to help inform your 2021 marketing strategy and what they mean.

1. Get your SEO right

According to BrightEdge, 68% of experiences online start with a query on a search engine like Google. SEO is still an important part of any marketing strategy. While getting it right takes time and effort it should continue to be a priority for your business in 2021.

SEO essentials for search success:

• Crawl accessibility (aka spiders) - ‘Crawling’ is what search engines do to look at your site and determine what information is on there.
• Compelling content - Once a person visits your site, you should aim to keep them there and give them the information they’re looking for. Blogs, news, product...

Every business out there needs a great marketing campaign and a fully thought out online marketing strategy. There are many social media platforms, they are all different and each need their own processes.

Instagram is fast becoming the most popular social media platform.

In fact, it was the most popular site in 2019, and this trend is expected to continue into 2020 and beyond.

Instagram is growing rapidly, with over a billion active monthly users, of which 72% have admitted to buying an item they originally saw advertised on Instagram.

Instagram not only provides you with the perfect platform to showcase your products in all their glory, but it also has an extremely large number of ready, willing, and engaged users.

This means there is great scope for you to use Instagram in the day-to-day running of your business. You need to learn how to utilise this free source of advertising to maximum efficiency. Don’t miss out. This page is designed to help you create your very own...

Do you want to get more engagement and business leads on social media?

Yes - of course you do!

But it's surprising how many people get it SO wrong when posting... 

So, instead of the usual 'Tips to get more engagement on social media ' post... here's three things you SHOULDN'T be doing.

Enjoy!

First, we MUST remember that social media is a 2-way tool, and if you only use it to talk AT people, you’re not doing it right.

Whilst in principle, social media ‘listening’ is all about tracking, analysing and responding to customers comments and behaviour (often using third party software), this won’t necessary be the case for smaller businesses that won’t be experiencing the same kind of exposure, engagement and conversation, as a large brand.

So, we first need to encourage conversations and then we’ll be encouraging engagement. Which in turn, will provide valuable insight and free intelligence for future marketing campaigns.

 Here’s my top tips of how we can ‘listen’ to our target audience using social media:

1. Ask questions – what do your audience think about X? Are they interested in Y? If you did Z would they be interested?
2. Hashtags connect you with people talking about the same things. Try searching for relevant...

Question: What makes a business stand out and engage on social media?

Plenty of businesses make the fatal mistake of being non-human. And it’s surprisingly easy to do.

Being corporate is fine.

Being formal is fine.

However, being a brick wall made purely of corporate messages, sales promotions and business jargon is not. These businesses are using this brick wall to alienate their customers. They’re being the opposite of engaging, and the result is that they push their target market away.

It’s a fact: People buy from people. We all desire the ‘human’ interaction, and social media humanises our business and personal brand.

We MUST follow the golden rule: humanise your brand.

But how?

1. First and foremost, remember that everyone who will see you on social media is also a human. They think, feel and act like humans. Even your boss. It doesn’t matter if they’re using a personal or business account. They have interests, likes and dislikes, and a...

Generating awareness, engaging with your target audience and growing your brand can be challenging and complex - even for us marketers!

It's good to know there's a wide range of free tools and paid-for software which can help you plan, manage and measure your marketing activity.

One of the common questions I get asked when coaching is, what tools and software do I use in my business - so, here's my top five list*... I hope it provides some value to you all :)

1. Kajabi https://lnkd.in/ganWHic

2. Lumen 5 https://lumen5.com/

3. Buffer https://buffer.com/

4. Stencil https://lnkd.in/gRJu_kt

5. Ubbersuggest by Neil Patel https://lnkd.in/gh7mmGD 

*Please note - some of the links are affiliates for which I may get paid a small commission.

"Social Media is a waste of time and money - unless you can convince me differently, I will no longer be using it!!"

This was a statement made to me a few months back by an extremely frustrated business owner who was about to give up using social media for marketing his business.

When I viewed his business profiles across LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, I could see why...

- content was heavily sales driven 'buy this', 'discount offer', 'price match', etc...
- too much waffle and not enough substance - no value proposition!
- no real target market identified - trying too hard to appeal to everyone...
- boring images and lack of creativity...

I could go on...

Sadly, this is a common trend across many business social media feeds... dull, uninspiring content being used to aggressively push products and services rather than trying to engage, listen and build relationships.

So, here's my top five tips for creating engaging, interactive and noticeable social media posts. 

#marketing ...

Managing social media… So, you’ve got your Facebook page and you’re desperately trying to be ‘Liked’. You’re tweeting for England while you’re LinkedIn profile is receiving invitations from people you’ve never met. But not to worry because you’ve got some great office ‘selfies’ in your Instagram account, not to mention your Google+ page and YouTube channel.

Sound familiar? Then you’re not alone.

I recently visited a new client to talk about managing social media marketing requirements. Within ten minutes of our introduction, they informed me that social media wasn’t for them. It didn’t ‘work’ and therefore there was no need pursuing that avenue any further. When I asked why, they proceeded to tell me about the numerous social networks they had subscribed to in order to ‘stay ahead of the game’ and the types of ‘content’ they had inflicted on their...