Small to medium-sized business make self-defeating mistakes when it comes to their social media marketing campaigns (or lack of)! In this post, I’d like to cover the 4 most common mistakes business owners commit; and, in my humble opinion, if they continue on this path, they’ll find themselves out of business sooner-than-later!
1. Quantity Over Quality (though a more proper term is measurable metrics):
90% of business owners that my agency runs social media audits for are under the FALSE belief that the number of fans they have is more important than the quality of fans/followers. The big mistake here is that business owners still view social media networks as mass tools to shove content down consumers throats. This is so frustrating to me. Gone is the ear of telemarketing and pushy sales. Social media is about tangible connections which offer solution driven content. You want to know the secret to client conversion, STOP PUSHING YOUR SERVICES/PRODUCTS on them. They’ll resent you for it! The reality is that it really doesn’t matter if you have 12,000 followers, if they’re not sharing your content, videos, tweets and the like, it’s equal to having ZERO fans! Social media is based on engagement. In fact, SEO will change and depend largely on how much interaction you’re having with your clients/fans/followers.
2. Too Many Social Media Handles:
From Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn to Pinterest to Google Plus to Tumblr to Instagram to SnapChat, what’s a business owner to do? First, pick two or three you’re comfortable with. Plus, sit back, take a deep breath and analyze what these social media sites offer and the type of business you have. If your business caters to women, Pinterest is quite appropriate. It’s not if your business mainly caters to men. If you’re a dentist, Twitter and Facebook are quite appropriate. If you’re a realtor, Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter are more than enough, if you’d like to add LinkedIn for extra measure, go for it. You don’t need the other forums. However, if your business caters to teens, you’d want to focus on Tumblr, Instagram and SnapChat. More and more teens are growing bored with Facebook, so it would be a waste of your time. Pick up to three and you won’t waste your time or get overwhelmed.
3. Making Your Tweets and Posts All About You!!!
Notice the extra exclamation marks? I can’t begin to explain to you how frustrating it is for me to explain to my clients that social media networks are not about them or their business, but rather about the fans/followers/consumers. If you keep pushing your services down their throats, you’ll lose out to your competitors. If fact, I’ll go out on a limb, and make this bold statement by saying that within five years, you’ll be out business if you continue to ignore or use social media as it is meant to be. The last thing you want to do is bore your fans/followers by always talking about your brand. Of course, you want to sell more products and/or services, but unless you focus on how these services/products will improve their quality-of-life (so to speak), you’ll lose out. I guarantee you that if you start pushing out interesting and useful content, you’ll gain more fans/followers through engagement of comments and shares!
4. If You Fail To Plan, You Plan To Fail:
First, let me tell you this– if you’re not taking risks in social media, you’ll fail. I urge you to try different forums. Play around with your content and see what type of response you’re getting. If you’re not interacting and your content is not shared, change it up. Don’t be afraid of failure! I recommend that you make a weekly schedule. Pick a day or two for writing helpful content. Then pick a day or several days to share the content via the social media forums that best suit your business.
Please let me know if you have any questions or need a specific idea for your business. I’ll be happy to answer short questions and give you some quick social media marketing tips and advice. Just leave a comment below.
Wishing you much success,
Anabelle Taub
Thanks for visiting my social media blog. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Anabelle Taub. I own Eco Press- a Miami based digital social media marketing and web design agency. I am so passionate about social media, that I often blog about it.
I am in the business of keeping small businesses in business! [Please forgive the redundancy, but there's no other way to convey that in writing]. I know what an amazing tool social media can be, and WILL BE, for every small business owner (realtors– pay attention too), if you hope to be in business in the next couple of years. Unfortunately, the majority of business owners, realtors, or any person working as an independent contractor, is just how out of touch or naïve many can be.
One of the most common questions my new clients ask me is “What’s the return on investment?”, “When will my business grow?” If you expect to have more than your expenses covered in the first year, it is a naïve notion. Traditional marketing no longer works! PR as we all knew it, well, that’s changing as well! Social media and online engagement is the new way to market, and is the new PR! Unless you’re willing to make the transition, and wrap your head around this FACT, your business will lose out to your competitors that do get it.
This is why I am taking the time to write out this blog article. If you read it (I suggest a few times over), take it to heart, and take out parts you think you can carry out, your business will be sure to thrive, instead of lag behind your competitors. Thus, let’s go over these points:
- Should you Twitter or Facebook? The clear answer is this……. how many leads are you currently getting from your Twitter and Facebook accounts? If you are honest with yourself, and your answer is 0, maybe 1, your best choices are (1) focus on another way to market your business, or (2) hire an experienced social media marketing specialist to run your social media campaign for you. It’s not that you are failing in any way, it’s just that running a Twitter or Facebook business account takes a lot of work, and the right kind of work. You’re in the business of providing whatever specialty you offer, don’t expect to be a social media maven, too.
- BE PATIENT!!!!!! Notice the extra exclamation marks? They’re there for a good reason. So many people I speak with, interact with through my blog or social media profiles (some of my new clients as well) expect clients to be knocking down their door, or maxing out their voicemail capacity. This naïve, but certainly legitimate notion will cause your business to fail, before it has the chance to flourish into a steady money-making machine. Social media marketing is an ongoing, long relationship building tool. You’ve heard the cliché statement, Rome wasn’t built-in a day…… Well, same applies to your business. So please be patient! If you’re starting out as a new business owner, you should plan for expenses as part of your budget. Please, please, I urge you– if you’ve hired a social media marketing specialist, don’t expect him/her to work miracles for you in the first year, even two! If they promise you miracles, run the other way. If he/she tells you it will take a good year before you see any kind of ROI (return-on-investment), hire this individual, without thinking twice. For he/she has spoken the truth!
- Understand the rule of engagement! If you’re reading this, and not sure what I mean by this, your best bet is to hire a social media marketer, who knows the importance of engagement in social communities; as well as how a particular program will serve the needs of the community audience your business is targeting. Here are two great examples of how to engage your target audience/clients:
- Sydney! Faye-Davis, an accomplished luxury realtor, specializing in Williams Island real estate– rather than having a boring website, Sydney! opted for a website which engages the residents of WI. She accomplishes this, by writing about all the financial matters which affect the pockets of this exclusive island’s residents. She also engages residents by writing about social events and a bit of gossip at the island. Take a look for yourself: williamsislandrealestate.com).
- The Acne Solution– a product line offering chemical free, yet effective skin care products to treat acne– well, we run a brilliant type of engagement for them. They actually offer a free online service, whereby people can write in any type of skin care question they have, without any type of obligation to buy anything. In less than six months, they amassed 40,000 subscribers. That’s 40,000 people who know about their product line, and can (and d0) spread the word around to others. Please have a look for yourself: skincaretreatments.tv. There is no way, that you can get that much exposure if you tried to sell yourself and your services, the sales will follow, but first, you must captivate your audience’s attention!
The bottom line, start thinking about what I’ve written above. Let it marinade for a bit; but, not too long. You need to jump on the social media bandwagon sooner than later. Set realistic goals and expectations.
If you don’t know anything about social media marketing, please include this VITAL service in your business budget. Please don’t hesitate to ask me any questions you may have about social media (you may write in at comments section below).
Wishing you much success!
Anabelle Taub
Before I begin…. if you’re interested in blogging for small businesses, this article is for you as well!
Hello, there. It’s your self-professed social media maven, again! Writing about a topic I think most small businesses fail to implement while trying to market to locals (or, globally for that matter). I am going to give you a couple of examples of how you can engage your clients, site visitors and/or blog subscribers, just like the old days.
Remember when years ago, we remained loyal to the local butcher? Ok, ok, terrible metaphor for this animal loving Vegenista- but I am trying to make this relatable. Why? Because your local butcher remembered your mother’s name, your grandmother’s name, your father’s favorite cut of meat (sorry if I am not using correct terminology, I am not a meat eater)! He always asked about your family members, he was marketing while being genuine! He would tell you about the specials coming up, while sending a sample on the house with you. Believe it or not, things are not much different today!!!! Sure the demographics have changed. Geography too. Years ago you could walk down two streets to get to the local market; today, if you don’t own a car, you better wear your favorite walking shoes, and apply copious amounts of sun-screen. However, the concept of catering to people with genuine intentions, with the hope of building solid business relationships has not changed!
Let’s go over some examples:
- Take a local small taxi company owner in Hollywood Beach, Florida. Rather than just having a website serve as a business card (let’s face it, a website without a blog, is just that- an online business card!), this small business owner is catering to his clients’ needs. The majority of them are tourists. What are tourists most interested in? Attractions, entertainment, and restaurant recommendations. Guy’s Hollywood Beach Taxi Service, offers all of the above! Instead of just offering a taxi service, my clients makes an effort to give them all the information they may need, right at their fingertips. It’s not much different from the butcher scenario I gave you. Same concept. Different times. Different method. Same results!!!!
- Take Sydney! Faye-Davis (a spectacular realtor specializing in Williams Island real estate). Just on a side note- if you love fashion and style!, you must subscribe to her blog. She helped get Harpar’s Bazaar get off the ground, so if anyone knows anything about style and luxury, it’s Miss Sydney! herself. Ok, I digress, I know…………….. If you check out her website, you will see that she writes about other topics, not just rentals or sales at Williams Island. She writes about all things that may affect the island’s residents, such as assessments. She writes about the tennis club. The updated summer dinning schedule. If you love your Birkins, Sydney! just wrote an article about how Hermès’ employees were found to be participating in counterfeit merchandise. Considering that the majority of residents at WI are wealthy, Sydney! writes about subjects that would interest them- money and designer labels. She literally caters to each resident’s interest through engagement, and genuine desire to purvey the latest news.
- Let’s look at Miami’s best authentic European med spa- Bay Harbour Med Spa. Instead of just selling treatments such as acne facials and products, we try to educate the public about preventive measures by writing informative articles, so that one can avoid getting bad acne. Ok, I must admit, I am biased in this case. The owner of this fab establishment, is my amazing European-borne and educated, glamorous mother. I help run all aspects of the marketing for her business. In this instance, I am able to gauge the success of what we do on a day-to-day basis. In the last year, my mom’s website has garnered over 30,000 visitors. A lot of them land on pages because they are looking for a home remedy. There are locals that can afford her services, and many that cannot. However, because we openly share preventative skin care tips, we have had quite a few new clients walk through the door, because they remembered an article they read about two years ago. Most med spa websites talk about themselves; not about the prospective clients. As Julia Roberts said in the movie Pretty Woman to the snauty saleswoman- ”Big mistake. Big. Huge. I have to go shopping now.” My favorite scene in the movie. We talk about the client, cater to the client, and focus on the client’s needs at ALL times- that whether today, next week, or next year, the return on investment dividends are exceptional!
- Need another example? Roberta Shapiro, a mental health therapist based out of Miami Beach, provides her blog visitors with a free eBook to help reduce anxiety. The butcher knew you by name. Do to geography we don’t have that luxury anymore. However, Mrs. Shapiro knows the plight of those suffering from anxiety, so she provides them with tools. Thus, many of her readers, end up purchasing her Sleep Solutions meditation CD, as well as her other Calming Collection products.
- Last example. Take my clients in Sarasota; they provide home concierge services. Part-owner, Leighton Klevana, writes about tax issues affecting second or vacation homes. Now who is not concerned with taxes? Anyone I know is!! Most of his subscribers, have become active on the website because of this very topic.
Suddenly, the local butcher is a global one, but with a down-the-street kinda feeling! I’ve given you plenty of examples. I hope you are able to think outside of the box, engage your current and future clients, and go back to the ol’ way of doing things, with a dash of modern-day social media marketing tactics.
Are you getting the point now? Feel free to comment (bottom of this page) if you agree, disagree, confused. Or, wanting advice on blog topics for your own site.
Cheers,
Anabelle Taub
Thanks for stopping by Eco Press. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Anabelle Taub. I own and operate a social media marketing and web design agency based out of Aventura (Miami), Florida. I am passionate about social media, search engine marketing, and the latest trends in social media networks. As such, I love to share my thoughts, and some useful marketing tips.
Today’s topic- online coupons. My opinion– I hate them! I hate what they’ve done to many local small businesses. In fact, I don’t advise any of my clients (nor will I take on a marketing campaign) to join any of these online coupon/discount sites. Instead, I advise my clients to offer sound promotions (where both the merchant and consumers walk away happy), offer VIP programs, give away a product with the purchase of a service, or give some kind of educational material which leads towards sales.
Coupons in the form of online offers should be avoided like the plague that they are! Unless of course you’re giving away something that is free that you never hope to sell for more than nothing! Some of you may be thinking that this is a bold statement, I am well aware of that. Here’s why I think you should not take part of online discount/coupon services- because this type of “deal of the day offers,” encourages fickle, lower-end clients, who are looking for a CHEAP one time deal. The statistics show that a large majority of people who take part of these type of deals NEVER return as repeat clients. Need more convincing? The low cost services in high volume wear out your staff, their morale, can can damage the perceived value of your brand.
I know of several businesses that literally had to close down their doors, because they committed to selling hundreds of deals, had to fill them, made no profit, and still had to pay their staff. [ I will be including some case studies in the next few weeks. Be sure to subscribe to my blog].
Instead you should drive potential customers through proven marketing methods. In order to attract new clients, you will have to implement social media marketing techniques. If you can afford it, you should have a professional, reputable marketing agency do this for you.
Your Turn: Have you had a negative experience with any of the online websites offering discounted offers? Would love to get any feedback, good or bad.
Thanks for stopping by Eco Press. For those of you who don’t know me, allow me to take a moment to introduce myself- my name is Anabelle Taub. I am the proud owner of a Miami based social media marketing and web design agency. What I am most proud of is my love for pets- particularly, needy, sick, stray dogs and cats. I inherited the compassionate bug from my mom. Thus, when I create marketing campaigns on behalf of my clients, I take visually and hearing impaired individuals into account as well.
The videos we create for our multimedia clients always include subtitles- this way, we know that the hearing impaired can follow along as the videos play. However, for a long time, we were going through a tedious process. A little while back, we found a nifty tool- which makes adding subtitles to your videos SUPER EASY- this awesome tool is provided courtesy of Amara. Stop by their site, and watch their short one minute video, you’ll see for yourself how easy it really is. You can easily upload your youtube videos (old or new) and have add the subtitles as the video plays.
I hope you find this tool super helpful.
Cheers,
Anabelle Taub
Hi there,
Thanks for stopping by ecopressinc.com. For those of you who don’t know me- my name is Anabelle Taub. I am the proud owner of Eco Press- a digital social media marketing and web design agency located in Miami, Florida. I write about all things related to social media marketing, social network marketing, and my favorite- search engine marketing. Recently, during a consultation with a new client, I had to explain to her what the difference was between what is known as traditional marketing vs. internet marketing.
My client, a very intelligent and capable woman was confused, so I realized that others may be as well. Thus, today’s blog topic. Allow me to begin by explaining the difference.
TRADITIONAL MARKETING vs. INTERNET MARKETING
- High cost Low cost
- Broad target Narrowed targeting
- Requires time for exposure Immediate exposure (if handled by professional)
- Difficult to track results 24/7 availability to track results, allowing for immediate changes if needed
The truth of the matter is (in my humble opinion) that as technology advances, the traditional methods of marketing are dying out. Print media is dying out. Even high-end print media, such as Vogue and the like, may suffer losses. Think about this- when Jennifer Lopez wears a dress at the Oscars, it literally goes viral- you’ll find it on people.com, usmagazine.com, and many more websites. High end designers get a ton of exposure within a matter of minutes; honestly, that is FREE exposure. With a tweet that goes viral, what is the purpose of spending millions of dollars on ad space in magazines?
The same applies for small businesses. Gone are the days of having to advertise (at high cost) in local newspapers or magazines. For a fraction of the price, you can get tremendous exposure on the internet that is available 24/7 and covers your targeted demographic and then some!
However, I’d caution you about the following if you’re not going to hire an experienced online marketing professional- unless you create a sound social media strategy, you will not experience an increase in revenue! Social media without a planned out professional strategy is a waste of time. Why? Because social media should be used as a means to send traffic to your website or blog. Unless you know how to utilize your website or blog to your advantage, you’re losing tremendous exposure.
Feel free to subscribe to Eco Press’ Blog for future social media marketing tips as well as updates on changes in social media which may affect the way your business or brand is viewed on the internet.
If you’d like a marketing professional to run you online marketing campaign, please consider Eco Press. Feel free to email me with any questions at: ecopressmiami@gmail.com.
Take care,
Anabelle Taub
