Starple.co.uk

Dealing with the core aspect of a business such as sales and customer service can be a challenging and time consuming task, that demands a great deal of time and attention.

However, with the ongoing buzz of social media marketing and the fact that recent survey showed that 50% of small businesses acquire new customers from social media such as Facebook and twitter, many business owner have tried to build an account without any real success.

This is because the time and the dedication required to build consistency, add value to followers and keep the conversation going is just not available. In fact many businesses are now hiring social media managers all across the UK to tap into this new media and to bring value to their business.

In fact, a simple search on one of the UKs’ biggest job sites- Reeds returned over 100 search results for businesses looking for social media managers for up to £40K per annum.

But hiring just anyone to run your Social media campaign may not work in your favour. Here are 7 reasons why you need a business minded, social media manager who understands that building relationship is what it takes to be successful in social media marketing.

1) PROPER TARGETING: Study by Gartner back in July 2010 reported that 74% of consumers reply on feedback on social media network to guide purchasing decisions. Your social media manager should therefore target those who influence other peoples’ purchasing decision.

2) BRAND CONSISTENCY: Consistency matters especially if your goal is to build a brand and be portrayed as professional. Your social media manager must be aware of your branding and convey its consistency across multiple social media platforms.

3) RIGHT PLACE: There is no point setting up a page on MySpace if your target audience is on Twitter and vice versa. Your social media manager must have some insight about where your potential clients are having day-to-day conversations. They should also have a working knowledge of how Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn work.

4) ADDING VALUE: Without value on a social media platform, you fall out of place so all across the board your business need to bring valuable information to fans and followers. This comes in the form of blog post, links and other factual information. Your social media manager must understand this and do their home work on a daily basis in order to bring your potential and existing clients the value that they expect.

5) ENGAGE PEOPLE: Social media has shut the door to a one-way conversation and it’s not good enough to dish out masses of information. An effective business asks questions and seeks feedback. A good social media manager knows this and so they will keep up to date with you to find out if there’s any pressing issues that can be addressed via the social media platforms.

6) BE ACTIVE: Being active is a key to social media success but there must be a balance so that your conversations aren’t missed or become a nuisance to others. A skilled social media manager knows the difference and can discern between them.

7) FAST RESPONSE: Because of the open nature of the platform, any business owners must be alert and respond to queries and complaints in a timely manner. A good social media manager is skilled enough to keep the situation under control while they consult business owners on the final verdict.

When looking for a social media manager, ensure that they know their boundaries and the extent to which they can speak on your behalf. You should also ensure that you give out any specific instructions about the management of your account/s. You must also agree on the task that should be carried out on your behalf.

All in all, a professional social media manager can bring value to your business and save you hours of keeping up-to-date with online social media marketing task. The good thing is that you will always be in charge as there should be a comprehensive monthly report and ongoing means of communication.

Many people want to own their own website these days. When I ask people, why? Most answers seem to suggest that,the intention was for it to make its owner loads of money. But there issomething that I tell people and it's this. It’s not just good enough to have a website.

What do I mean by this very blunt statement? Let me explain!  With over 13 billion websites on the Internet and hundreds of thousands of competitors- how do people find your business above the rest? How have you planned to pull traffic to you website? Or, is your website in the non-existent zone on the web.

If people cannot find your website it doesn't exist. I always tell people that having the website is the easy part whether or not they designed it or hired someone else to do it. The hard work really comes with keeping your website in the way of traffic, and traffic that will generate business.

I wasn't going to use this analogy- but I might as well. A website is like a baby who needs close attention if it should grow. (Forgive me, just had to)

Ok let's carry on! Here are sometools that must accompany your website if it's going to reach anyway apart from before your eyes only.

1.      Submit to search engines

2.      Submission to online directories,yellow pages esp. those specialist to  your business

3.      Ask others to post in their own page or social profile

4.      Blog as often as possible

5.      Create podcast them on iTunes where people can subscribe to it

6.      Create a press release

7.      Set-up and join social networking pages

8.      Write and publish articles to article directory

9.      Put website address on printed and all promotional material

10.  Link swap (but be careful where your site ends up)

11.  Participate in question and answer platforms

12.  Add website link to all email signature

13.  Paid per click- PPC

This list is not exhaustive but it is a way to get you started on the journey of making your website stands outand brings you the business that you've set out to have.

Another point to add to this is to ensure that your website is what is called SEO friendly as it's only through such a website that the above will have effect.

2.4 billion People are using the mobile phone of which 30% of this amount surf the internet via their mobile phones. No wonder why the popularity of web development is increasing, with Apple Store reporting a download of 9.9 billion on the 22nd of January 2011.

A mobile compatible website involves product development, applying modern development procedures and special designing. Therefore, you need to understand first that web browsing in mobile and in computer has a major difference hence why you should design a special website that is compatible to view on your customers' mobile devices.

Here are some tips and hints to consider for your mobile site. You should avoid tables in layout because it's not good for mobile designs. Try CCS layout as it it gives maximum compatibility in mobile web site.

Your mobile website can even be more sophisticated with the usage of XML or XTHML coding and set it as UTF-8 in character encoding. You need to consider that there are many mobile screen dimensions associated with the Iphone, Ipad, Blackberry, and Android etc. Your designs should therefore work and be compatible with the most screen dimensions.

20 kilobytes is the maximum size of mobile website. Hence, you should fit all the contents combined with the pictures in that definite size. You also need to put all the important business details and product in a prominent position on the home page

These are the examples of mobile-friendly websites designed for Smartphone.

For search:

• Google: http://m.google.com.au/

• Yahoo: http://au.m.yahoo.com/

For Social Networks

• Facebook: http://m.facebook.com

Whether your business' target audience is local or national, having a mobile website or landing page is more than a good idea. This is because research proves that it increases traffic to your site by up to 13%.

With over 16 million people accessing their internet by the phone within the UK alone, there is not a better time to go mobile.

A mobile website will present your content in a mobile compatible way to your potential customers and drive call to action such as click-2-call, direction to business driving instructions and consequently foot traffic to your business.

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