Which Social Media Platforms Should Small Businesses Use More?

Social media marketing for small businesses can be a tricky game. It’s difficult to know how to allocate resources to have maximum effect when there are so many different platforms, with best practices for each. One good question that every small business must face is which channels should or could be used more often—putting aside the obvious choice.

Because when it comes to social media, there is no bigger name in the game than Facebook. It’s the platform with the most users, the biggest reach, and the largest cultural impact. There may be trendier options in the game—Snapchat, with its burgeoning millennial base, comes to mind—but whether it’s for posting personal photos or for starting a digital marketing campaign, the first choice is almost always Facebook.

But there are tons of other ways to get the word out about your company’s product, or a great promotion, or a new blog post. Which platforms are best suited to helping small businesses gain traction and build social media capital?

First, recognize the power of Facebook

This isn’t a call to abandon Facebook, which would be fruitless. Mark Zuckerberg’s creation is by far the most utilized social media platform of them all, according to the 2017 Wasp Barcode State of Small Business Report. Out of the survey’s 1,100+ respondents, 68% said they used Facebook as part of their marketing strategy. LinkedIn was second at 39%.

Here’s the top 10, for the record:

• Facebook (68%)
• LinkedIn (39%)
• Twitter (34%)
• Instagram (27%)
• YouTube, Vine or Vimeo (25%)
• We do not use social media as part of our marketing strategy (20%)
• Company blog (19%)
• Yelp (13%)
• Pinterest (13%)
• Live streaming apps like Periscope, Blab, or Meerkat (5%)

Putting aside the 20% who say they don’t use social media in marketing at all, just 12% of respondents don’t use Facebook. This number is actually down from the report the previous year, which puts Facebook use at 70%. Its usage rate is especially high among mid-sized companies with at least 100 employees—but then again that goes for every platform (very small businesses are more likely not to do social media marketing or to use fewer channels).

Why is Facebook so popular? One reason of course is that it’s approaching 2 billion personal users—as the most popular overall platform, it’s the first place companies want to go to spread their brand awareness. And that leads to more marketing-specific reasons such as: Facebook drives the largest share of social media referral traffic, has the highest conversion rate for ecommerce traffic, and has an enormous influence on user purchasing decisions.

But smaller platforms can still provide great value

That’s not to say businesses should put all of their eggs in one basket and concentrate solely on Facebook. That creates concentration risk: if you focus on one area and it fails to produce, you’re in trouble. And since not every potential customer uses Facebook (surprising though that may seem), it’s beneficial to spread your message across other platforms to increase impact.

As to what social media channels are best suited for disseminating a small business’s message, look to a few of the following.

YouTube

YouTube—and to a lesser extent Vimeo (Vine, included in the survey, was recently shuttered for good by Twitter)—is relatively low on the list. YouTube in particular is an undervalued resource for two reasons:

• It’s the second-largest search engine on the internet behind Google Search—well ahead of Yahoo. If you have video content that is optimized for search, you’re creating a whole other avenue for your products or services to be discovered by users.
• Google owns YouTube, and videos are reportedly 50 times more likely to appear on the first page of Google results than other organic content.

Keep in mind that video production quality is more important than ever, so your content needs to be well-produced (i.e., well-funded) in order to make an impact.

Google+

We’ve all heard the jokes: Google+ is a wasteland, comparatively speaking, in the social media world. You won’t find much argument against that, since engagement and content sharing on this platform is a fraction of what you’ll find on Facebook. But there is good reason to believe that an active Google+ page plays a role in the Google search ranking of your site, which is incredibly important (Google’s actual proprietary algorithm is unknown, but estimated by many). Anything you can do to keep your site on the first page of Google results should be done.

Plus, Google+ does have hundreds of millions of users, and some of the platform’s features—such as live Hangouts—can be used to easily share content across all Google channels, including YouTube.

Snapchat and Instagram

These two photo-sharing (and video-sharing) platforms are grouped together here, though they are quite different in terms of the way you utilize them and the audience you’re looking to interact with.

If your audience skews younger, you’ll want to focus on Snapchat, which has a mostly millennial user base. Your content doesn’t need an overly polished or corporate look: Connecting with 18-24 year olds means having fun and being creative. There are over 100 million active users on the platform today.

Instagram, on the other hand, has over 400 million monthly users—but their user base is more well-rounded in terms of age as well as geography (meaning a majority of those users live outside the U.S. and thus won’t be prime candidates for buying from you). The content on Instagram should err on the side of professional and artistic. There’s the added benefit with Instagram of its integration with Facebook as well.

Yelp

You may not think of Yelp (or other review sites such as TripAdvisor) as social media in the purest sense, but it’s actually another great way to connect with users and elicit real (hopefully positive) feedback. If you’re worried about some of the controversy and negativity that has arisen from Yelp reviews, note that the Yelp team is known for helping businesses improve their status on the site and rise above the vitriol.

The truth is that the vast majority of consumers let Yelp reviews guide their purchasing decisions. Whether or not you want to play this game, many others are—so it’s in your best interest to find how to make Yelp work for you.

At the end of the (work) day, different platforms might work better for your company depending on what you sell and who your clientele is. Experiment with these platforms (the Snapchat vs. Instagram debate is sure to rage on for years) or others like Pinterest to see which ones might get you the most traction.

But be warned: It’s not advisable to stretch your message across a bunch of platforms or download every single social media app because you think you need to. Try concentrating on a few to build your audience and cement your brand, and go from there. Good luck.

The post Which Social Media Platforms Should Small Businesses Use More? appeared first on AllBusiness.com

The post Which Social Media Platforms Should Small Businesses Use More? appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Brian Sutter.

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The Little Kitchens That Could

Food entrepreneurs vie to defy the odds and make it big with creative concoctions at the Winter Fancy Food Show.

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6 Highly Effective Sales Training Techniques That Every Manager Should Know

A training manual is typically written with great care, following a style guide and listing every single detail in drawn-out paragraphs. It’s also likely to be forgotten, even before the sales rep gets their hands on it.

While written documentation is helpful for referencing policies, the real way to train a new salesperson involves hands-on techniques that actually show instead of just tell a salesperson what to do.

1. Role Playing

Conversations can be started with even the busiest of people, and saying the right things can make them want to carve out time for future interactions. Role playing is one of the best ways of practicing how to get the edge when there’s a limited amount of time. Reps can get feedback about their attitude, confidence, tone, and body language that they will hopefully take to heart.

Awkwardness can kill a conversation before it even starts, and so can a lack of listening. Clients typically never have to qualify exactly why they rejected someone, which means that role playing is a time to get those answers in a supportive environment.

2. Rewards

Every person in the world is driven by rewards, but salespeople in particular respond to set milestones. These rewards don’t have to be gift certificates or bonuses. Sometimes the glory comes from friendly competition, and other times it just comes from getting the plaque or certificate as a symbol of doing hard work.

One thing to remember is that you are trying to inspire the team you’re given, meaning you’ll probably have to learn more about them before you decide which rewards are going to be worth dangling in front of them.

3. Micro-Learning

If you sit sales reps down for a meeting and talk at them for an hour, then you’re not allowed to be surprised when they don’t remember anything.

Typically half the total information delivered during training is lost to sales reps within a few weeks, unless they’re using the information on a daily basis. You’ll get more interest and retention if you use text messages rather than long emails, or have short meetings where employees have the opportunity to ask questions about small, digestible pieces of information. Also, beware of over-training sales reps as it’s been known to break down confidence. Use small bits of encouragement as a part of micro-learning too.

4. Constructive Feedback

Feedback has been a consistent suggestion throughout this post because it works. When reps are given certain tasks to achieve, they want to know how they’re faring in the eyes of their managers.

You don’t have to give people compliment sandwiches or sugarcoat your feedback to protect their feelings. Just be honest, let them know where they stand, and give them the opportunity to use their voice if they’re frustrated. You should never hire people who aren’t open and receptive to tweaking their approach to sales, so hopefully you won’t get a lot of pushback when it comes to this training technique.

5. Integrating With Other Departments

Sales training changes over time, which often means that one department is up-to-date while others aren’t quite sure what the protocol is. This can end up confusing human resources, upper management, or even older sales reps who have had very different training. This can also lead to sales reps getting conflicting advice about what they’re supposed to do, and how their first few months will be at the company.

For best results, keep people informed on what’s going on—especially when it comes to incentives, time tables, and territory assignments. Typically training becomes more rigorous as a company grows, and it helps if everyone is on the same page when there’s any type of change.

6. Success Stories

Success stories make a big impression on salespeople because they’re easy to understand, relatable, and they let sales professionals know that the power really is in their hands when it comes to making a name for themselves. However, when sales trainers use stories, they shouldn’t just be sharing anecdotes that pop into their head—the experiences should offer some type of moral that gives the salesperson a sense of the values of the company. For example, a sales instructor may want to tell the story of how a sales rep took a dying territory and made it great.

Final Thoughts

Few companies choose to offer this type of training. Most will only have a few half-hearted interactions, and then immediately send their salespeople out on the floor. Without a way to connect with salespeople, though, you give them the impression that they’re on their own, meaning they’ll be loyal only to themselves and their commissions rather than to the company. Providing memorable sales training will start the sales rep-company relationship off right in more ways than one.

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The post 6 Highly Effective Sales Training Techniques That Every Manager Should Know appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Danny Wong.

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Help! How Do I Increase My Business Presence on Social Media?

I am not one to ask for help, but in this case I must. I am a fairly successful marketer but I don’t do social media. Kind of hard for me to be a better marketer without it right?

Well, I’ve gotten by for many years, but I am at the point where I want to scale my business. I know that in order to scale, I must have a steady stream of people I can interact with, much like my mailing list which has been very successful for my business. One way to do this is to increase my social media following.

I got lucky a few months ago after reaching out to a few influencers for help. I met social media specialist Leonard Kim, managing partner of InfluenceTree. He had recently completed a case study on social media growth which I authored on Influencive. In doing so, I was able to learn many techniques that I will be implementing in 2017.

In 2016, Kim increased the social media following of Keck Medicine of USC by 1,265 percent. While I don’t have that high of a goal, I am convinced that applying some of Kim’s techniques, I will at least double my audience. Kim agrees that even applying a few of these strategies will help increase my following.

Why My Social Media Strategy Sucks

The problem I have with social media is my strategy (or lack thereof). You must have a social media strategy in order to determine your social media return. Kim says, “One of the main problems people have with growing their audience is that they have no strategy. There is a secret behind social media growth and strategy is the main driver.”

I have no strategy for how to grow my audience. I know all the methods that people have recommended, but have not sat down and put them in an order I can follow. I am more of a “do it as you go” social media strategist. So basically, I have no strategy which is why my social media efforts are suffering.

Where I’m At and Where I’m Going

Currently, I have 5,331 followers, combining my stats from Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. I chose these three networks as they have been the most engaging for me. (I have tried other networks such as Pinterest, but I did not have the interactions I was hoping for.)

• Twitter – 2,017
• Facebook – 98
• LinkedIn – 3,216
• Overall – 5,331 (Actual)
  

I find Keck’s 1,265 percent growth to be an unattainable goal for me. After all, I will be limiting the amount of time I spend implementing my strategy. Ultimately, I am striving to triple my following by the end of the year. This means I will amass 15,993 followers by the end of 2017, and I am aiming to triple my followers for each individual platform as well.

• Twitter – 6,051
• Facebook – 294
• LinkedIn – 9.648
• Overall – 15,993 (Anticipated)
  

How I Plan to Get There

The first two things everyone must do when trying to gain followers is update their profile and create a strategy. Yes, part of your strategy includes creating the strategy. Bear with me here.

Prior to publishing this article, I went to all three of my profiles and made sure all the information was correct, I had profile images, and everything was up-to-date. You can see that my LinkedIn profile has the most followers which I can attribute to the LinkedIn best practices I picked up from some influencers a few years back.

Next, came my strategy, which again, if you don’t have one, you will have no way of telling if what you are doing is working (or what needs changing). My strategy isn’t complex, but it is more than I have ever had. Keep in mind that it may change depending on how I attract the most followers. I will publish updates to this post if that happens.

“One of the best strategies you can have is to have a content calendar, whether it be for a week, a month, or a year,” adds Kim. “The further ahead you get, the better off you are because you won’t have to scramble around for content and come up with things to do on the fly.”

Each weekday I plan on spending 30 minutes planning posts for all three social networks. The two software suites I will use are Feedly (to help find information to share) and Buffer (to schedule the posts). I am switching from another social media scheduler simply because Buffer integrates with Feedly so I can get more done in less time.

I will be doing four scheduled posts per day, per social media profile. In addition, I plan to share four other posts that I normally find in my feed (which I will repost/retweet with a unique headline).

Facebook seems to be where I need the most help. In order to increase followers and try Kim’s suggestion of boosting posts, I will spend $1 per day to boost posts. I am going to take the most popular post of the month and boost it the next month. Even spending as little as $1 will make a difference according to Kim. He says, “By spending a dollar a day on your most popular post, you are able to get more engagement on it. When more people like your post, you can start to invite the people who like your post to like your page as well.”

That’s it. May not seem like much, but it’s a plan—something I lacked up to this point.

Final Thoughts

When you read through Leonard Kim’s case study, you will see many best practices I did not mention herein. Many of these, such as the use of Twitter cards for posts, are something I have already set up. These are the minor things you can do to help attract followers and they are easy to implement.

I still don’t plan on being a social media guru, but I do plan on testing this study. Over the course of the year I will provide updates (Guess where? Social media!) to track my progress.

The post Help! How Do I Increase My Business Presence on Social Media? appeared first on AllBusiness.com

The post Help! How Do I Increase My Business Presence on Social Media? appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Mike Wood.

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Your Mother’s Maiden Name Is Not a Secret

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