Business Tips

You have started your very own business and are now a new player in the market. Now that the initial honeymoon period is over, it’s time to get this ball rolling and ensure that your business is a success. There are going to be ups and downs just like there is with anything in life, but it important to keep on track with your business.

Here are some tips on how to keep your business going and making sure it keeps on thriving.

1. Have a strategic plan

It might be the most obvious thing to do, but you’d be surprised just how many people lose track as to why they are going into their desired business. Before you even go to the bank to ask for the loan, sit down and write down what you plan for this business is make sure you put it as a long term plan, and always review it to see how you’re tracking. You’re plan should not just be to make money (although that is the whole point of starting a business), but focus on the specifics of what you want out of the business and what the business is about. “I want to help others, it’s my passion and I want to get paid doing what I love, I want to be my own boss.” Whatever your reason may be, put it in your plan.

2. Advertise on all relevant platforms.

Advertising doesn’t have to cost you a lot of money, in fact with the right strategies in place, it won’t cost you a cent. Social media platforms are free and easy to set up and use. More importantly you can connect to a wider target audience than what you would if you were to advertise on television or radio. If you have the funds, yes do advertise on the mainstream platforms, and get your business out there, if not use the social media and promote the hell out of your business. Use it a platform to connect with your clients, advertise what your business has to offer and promote all the good things your business and use it to your advantage, it is free after all. Social media is only going to keep expanding, so why not expand your business with it?

3. Focus on creating long lasting relationships with your clients

Sometimes it is easy to forget that your clients are the reason why you started the business. They are the reason why you’re business is making money and having loyal customers is vital to successful business. If you have lost a long-term customer don’t try to replace them, re-connect with them and try to re-establish that relationship you had with them. When a new client comes, develop a bond with them and connect on a level that is more than just a business one. Focus on giving them an experience with your business rather than the money they are willing to spend, as they are more than just a transaction.

4. Don’t burn yourself out

Stress is a major factor in any business, it can really play havoc on your health when things start going bad. If things begin to turn unfavourable, take a break from work for a day or two and refresh yourself. The last thing you want is to have a break down, or implode over something trivial. Rather than stressing, use that time with family, or focus on other hobbies or passions in life. Do whatever you feel is necessary to unwind and forget about work for a moment and just enjoy the time you have away from it.

5. Create a network

Get your name out there. Word of mouth is the best way to promote yourself, so when   an opportunity presents itself (and it will) such as job fairs, company meet and greets, business networking fairs, grasp it with two hands and create networks with prospective business partners. Don’t just look at the field you work in, see if you there are companies willing to cross-promote your brand and how you can benefit theirs. Connecting with other businesses is an opportunity that can really determine just how successful you can become. At these events, don’t be afraid to promote your business, make no apologies if you feel like you’re bragging, you want to be known and word of mouth is a powerful method of advertising.

- DV

Social Media News

Nobody likes to hear sad or distressing news, and given the choice, I’m sure a lot of people would go out of their way to avoid it at times. But in the online space that is social media, sometimes hearing hard or even outright traumatic news can be as easy as a few turns of the scroll wheel. So the question then becomes; how does the average person avoid seeing those kinds of things when looking for their daily cat pictures and updates from friends?
The first thing to explore is why traumatic topics are so prevalent online. A lot of it has to do with the simple fact that social media is a global entity. The six o’clock news might give you the same information, but by then it could be horribly out of date or so heavily edited that the truth and what’s shown barely resemble each other anymore. Social media puts that power into people’s pockets. With a flick of the thumb you could be reading a heart-wrenching plea for help from the mother of an earthquake victim; or see photos of poor souls suffering constant abuse. Social media is so powerful because it can bring to light so much tragedy and give a voice to the voiceless. It also allows those with the power to help to find new methods of assistance. The right link to an earthquake relief fund at the right point on someone’s dashboard and suddenly a shipment of food and clean water has reached people who could desperately need it.
But on the other side of the scale, social media has the power to inflict that trauma back onto others. Because facebook, tumblr, instagram and a few others are inherently visual, they can give those of us with visual-based phobias or even PTSD some serious difficulty. That kind of content does, unfortunately, turn the social media sites into potentially torturous ventures for the afflicted.
In recent years, there has been a push on some sites to provide solutions to the stresses people with triggers face. The most uplifting thing about it is that they are rarely instituted by the staff of the website itself, but rather the greater community. For tumblr, a man going by the name of xkit developed a way to ‘blacklist’ certain tags; meaning that if a user had a fear of, say; clowns, any post tagged as #clown or some variation thereof would appear completely blank. Facebook, on the other hand, was the recipient of a rather strange google add-on called Unbaby.me. It was originally designed for people who hated seeing photos of babies or children on their first day of school. It works by scanning your dashboard for certain key phrases, and then replacing the entire post with a picture of something completely different, the default being a cute kitten. But it has since become a way of blacklisting traumatic things. Using the same example; someone suffering from a fear of clowns would simply instruct Unbaby.me to search for phrases like clown, circus, joker etc, and even advertisements for circuses would vanish from their facebook experience.
Sometimes it’s only small things like that, but it can mean a whole lot to the right person. But it needs to go even further. Sometimes people rarely tag their posts on tumblr, or an Unbaby.me user might not be able to think of every single key-phrase that might be applicable. It has to come down to the websites themselves. There needs to be ways of filtering that content for people without invading their privacy. But that’s not saying that traumatic posts should never be online, it’s often very important to bring them to public attention. The point is for everyone to have a safe time browsing social media. Because trauma, sadness and pain are already all around us in the world, we don’t need to add it to those who are already suffering.

Publicity is not always positive

We all have something to say at any point in time. It can be a casual chat between friends, a professor giving a lecture, or a child seeking the answer to a question. As humans we love to gossip and talk. In fact, storytelling is the oldest method of teaching and we as humans learn more from the stories of others than what is written in a text book. Just like anything in life, we love to share an experience to others. Unfortunately bad news spreads more than good news, and when the press get a hold of bad news, it can spread like wild fire.

I’m sure you’ve heard about a consumer who has a horror story about an experience they have had when they were dealing with business about a particular product or service. Instead of ringing up the customer service line and waiting an hour to speak to someone or writing a letter to head office to express their annoyance, they (consumers) instead take to social media and vent their anger, or write a scathing review on a website, tell their friends to steer clear of that business, or worse, get A Current Affair involved. Now the last one is an exaggerated example of an extreme case, but the point I am trying to get across is, bad publicity has more coverage than good news, and bad news stories tend to receive more attention in the press. Forget the notion that any publicity is good publicity because the last thing you need as a business is a bad reputation and miss out on potential clients.

Social media has skyrocketed over the last decade giving people access to platforms to freely express their opinions. With more and more communication channels available to us it’s very hard to keep up with it all. But a simple yet outdated business principle plays here – ignore your customer and eventually they will go away. A negative review or bad customer experience in which the customer has posted on your social media on how the service has led them to be dissatisfied is a killer for any business. Working on preventing negativity should be a priority for any business that has entered the social media world. Of course it is hard to satisfy everyone, but keeping your core group of customers satisfied should shift your focus toward making sure the positive reviews far out-weigh the negatives, but at the same time ensuring that those who are not entirely happy are given priority so that their complaints are heard. Irrelevant details (how to claim rewards, terms and conditions) may be discussed in a private message or through email, while the crux of the resolution may be seen publically, depending on what you feel is the appropriate way of dealing with the complaint.

When entering the social media scope for your business have a plan in place or employ someone to be in charge to keep a watch over all social media channels and conversations to prevent neglect. Social media is a platform that is available 24/7, and because of that, the last thing a business needs is to lose loyal customers when they are not responded to via social media. As your social media community grows and expands, there is a possibility of alienating your core followers. You need to consider your core first before diluting your approach to please the masses you’re not currently connected to. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, but if you include the core in your growth and choices for growth it’s often easier for them to deal with change. Also remember, there are some people who just don’t deal well to change, so be mindful of that. Consider the impact on you resources and the benefits of keeping them (your core followers) happy while still addressing a larger potential community.Identify and understand your target audience well. Social media posts should be catered to have a specific positioning but not be exclusionary.

It is hard to keep track of everything with the advertising side of a business, but having good plans and structures in place so that you are constantly on top of everything is vital. You can’t expect to maintain positive relationships with clients if you haven’t worked out what your core fundamentals as a business are. It’s like becoming the coach of a sporting team and telling your players to turn up to a game on a Saturday afternoon and just play. It doesn’t work. But by having a plan before hand and working towards a goal, you can implement the right strategies and plans so the business can survive the marketplace. Of course, you want to make sure that your clients are happy with the products/services you provide, but preventing any negative feedback that might occur in the future is vital.

A social media manager will help with your advertising needs

 So you have decided to start using social media for your business. Congratulations on your new venture into the world of social media advertising. Now the fun starts, working out how to use it to your advantage on how to advertise your business. Yes you can do it yourself, but there are times when you are just short on time and the needs of the business take priority. This is where a social media manager should come into consideration. Having a social media platform is one thing, but using it to grow your business is a whole different ball game.

As a business we speak to hundreds of businesses every month in regards to their social media. The key challenges that most businesses face is quite common across most industries, which include:

1. No idea where to begin
2. No idea how social media is going to translate into sales
3. Lack of time to manage their platforms
4. Unsure of what content to post and when to post it
5. Not knowing how to engage with customers and convert them into paying customers.

It would be like trying to service your own car but not having any knowledge of cars. This is where a social media manager comes into play. Social media managers deal with all aspects of social media and they are skilled in what they do. There’s a lot of time that goes into managing a business’s social media particularly one that has a number of different platforms. So when considering social media, discuss with a company what you want from the use of social media advertising. Work out a strategy with your social media manager and about what you want and how they best feel your business can be promoted. Be clear with what you want out of it, don’t just agree with what someone says or copy what another business does, instead use it as a guide to aid you with your proposed advertising solutions. Once you’ve worked out the best strategy to take, analyse and plan how your business can be the one customer’s think of when they are in the market for a product or service. Discuss who your target market is and what your values are as a business. Make sure that they (social media managers) go through and discuss how social media will increase your brand promotion and what makes it stand out from the competition. You want your business to be the one customers turn too when they need something. Be sure to get a good understanding of your potential clients, and what they want from a business. So take the time to carefully plan a campaign that really connects with your clients.

Social media managers do more than just update statuses or uploads pictures, they are an ambassador for your brand. They promote it in a way that connects with clients to show them that your business cares about is customers and that it has a reputation that shows you care about your customers. They create content and post it to social media that is new, fresh and updated on a daily basis and oversee and publish designs/images that are relevant to your business. It is important to keep up to date with the ever changing landscape of social media and to keep up with the latest trends as social media is always expanding.

Social media is a valuable resource to use for a business to advertise, but you want ensure that your investment into social media will translate into a good return on investment (ROI) for your business. Social media managers help you research your intended target demographic and the ways in which you can turn those leads into sales. The importance of understanding your demographic is vital in social media marketing as it is a new frontier for advertising for most businesses, which is why it is important to do your research.

Having someone who can manage your social media will ease the pressure on you as you can spend more time focussing on the needs of the business, while your social media manager takes care of your advertising. Social media managers are becoming a valuable resource for businesses, as they guide you through all the necessary steps on how to best use social media as a platform for advertising. So if you’re thinking about social media advertising consider speaking to someone who has experience in this field.

We all have wants and needs

I’m sure at one point or another we have been faced with a decision where we must decide whether we want or need that particular product. One of my closest friends had said to me that they wanted to get a tattoo, a full sleeve at that. He asked me what I thought about tattoos and I said that if you’re into them then by all means get one, but take into consideration the need for it. Do you really need a sleeve tattoo? He looked at me and said that I had a valid point. The cost was the major factor in his decision as to whether he should get inked.

Eventually he said that maybe when he has his finances are in order that he may consider getting tattooed but for now he’ll save his money. My friend’s conundrum got me thinking about times where I faced a similar situation as to whether I need something more than I wanted it. Of course I have had my fair share of impulse buys on things that I didn’t need but wanted them so the desire got the better of me, and yes just like everyone I’ve had had buyer’s remorse. However, for a business creating the want is vital for their success, especially for the retail industry.

Your marketing towards your targeted demographic should persuade them to want something more than they need. We all want a high powered sports car, in reality we just need a vehicle that will get us from point a to point b. But why do we desire that dream car so badly? Because of the brand. The brand is what we want not the actual car. We want to say, yes I drive this model car and we represent that brand. Without even realising it we become ambassadors of that brand. We represent that brand that maybe synonymous with an influential person or has historical relevance to a particular period of time, or we just like the look or name of the brand. Either way we become walking billboards.

Nowadays people love showing off on social media of things they have purchased, and of courses we may be envious of them or happy for them. But ultimately what they are doing is advertising the product on behalf of the brand. They are telling their friends ‘look what I have just purchased’ but without realising the fact they are just endorsing a brand. This is why the want far outweighs the need, and businesses should start to shift their focus to the want of the consumer. People are happy to pay for the name of something simply because of the name.

The best thing that a business can have going for them is happy clients who will promote the companies brand over social media, one because they are excited about the product, and two it costs them (the company) nothing in advertising fees. The client has willingly advertised it for them. The brand you create should be the brand that people want to be seen with.

Remember the name Adam Pacitti? If so, you probably remember a young English man back in 2009 who had a dream about his perfect girlfriend. He was so entranced with this image that he woke up drew a picture of her and went on a worldwide search. Sadly he never found the girl of his dreams. Fast forward to 2012 and Adam had graduated from his university studies with a degree in media production. And like most graduates he struggled to find a job in his preferred field. After losing his job at the arcade where he was working and not having any luck with his job applications, Adam decided to spend the last of his money to rent a billboard in Shoreditch, London asking potential employers to give him a job with his website employadam.com. The campaign went viral and Adam was swamped with hundreds of job offers eventually landing his dream job in media production.

Ok great, he found his dream job but what has that got to do with anything? Let’s first look at the campaign he ran for himself. He made his intentions known and had a vision in mind as to how he wanted to get the attention of employers. If you’re a job seeker, the first thing you need to do is work out what sort of position you are looking for. Now that you know which field of work you want to enter start researching companies associated with that industry. If you want to be a journalist, an industry that is hard to break into for a graduate, don’t get discouraged if don’t land that dream job at your desired newspaper. Instead, use social media to showcase what you have to offer potential employers.

Social media is the most advantageous tool you can use to promote yourself. After all you are trying to promote yourself. If you have written an article that is worthy of the front page, splash it all over your social media that you use. Share it on Facebook, tweet it to followers, upload it to Google+. Promote it like it’s going out of fashion, create a following, even if you don’t get paid for that article, use it to create a portfolio to for future job interviews that you may have. It is a free resource so use it to your advantage, and sites such as BlogSpot and WordPress reach a worldwide audience. With so many platforms, use them to create a collection of your works so that when you apply for jobs you will stand out from the rest.

Also, monitor how you use your social media. If you use it like most people to communicate with friends, no doubt you write you as ‘u’ and by the way as ‘btw’, if so try to avoid that and start to use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation. If want to work in a professional environment, employers want to see how well you can read and write, so unless you are referring to the name of an organisation try avoiding acronyms. Obviously when talking to friends you can express yourself however you want, but if you have created a personal page for yourself where you publish your work, monitor and manage your content and how you present yourself to others.

Engage with your clients on a more personal level on social media

Yes you have read that correctly, disconnect from all your social media that you use. In fact go 24 to 48, you know what, make it an even 72 hours before you log back onto Facebook or re-tweet that hilarious post or upload the picture of that delicious steak dinner you ate at the local on Tuesday night. Think you can go this long without using any form of social media? If you can you are better person than I am.

Now I know what you’re thinking, and before I give a definitive answer no I have not lost the plot, or have become an anti-social media advocate. But you’re a social media marketing agency why are you telling me to log off my social media for?

Put it this way, how often do you see a status that someone has posted that makes no sense, or a picture that is reminiscent of the hotel scene from The Hangover? I bet that there is about 20 or more people who like that status or picture and 50 comments below it. How awesome is it when you have all those likes.

So what has this got to do with my advice to shut off social media? Well as an individual you post a Facebook status or an instagram upload reach a certain audience. You are giving information away about something personal to share with friends, family and followers because it is how connect with them on a personal level. And that’s exactly what it is, personal.

For a business to do this it would make no sense. Or would it? How awesome would it be if a retail giant liked a status that a young woman has posted to her own account? She would be beside herself showing all her friends and feeling the love from that company.

Connecting with your followers on social media uses a different method of reaching your audience by being personal and connecting with them on a personal level.

Think of it like a celebrity on twitter. They may have two million followers, whom are fans of the particular celebrity (at least you hope they are all fans). They post a tweet about a new pair of jeans they’ve purchased. Instead of people re-tweeting that post, they begin using word-of-mouth amongst their friends. “Hey did you see such and such wearing those $500 Gucci pants on that they posted on their twitter page?”

Now that is just an example of social media usage. As a business connecting with your followers should be about creating a relationship with your consumers rather than promoting specials. If you have a new line of products coming in-store and you post a Facebook status with hints about the release date, what’s the first thing a consumer does when they are shopping in that store? “Excuse me, has the new product come in yet?” That connection creates more than just a transaction.

By using social media to promote your business as a social forum rather than an advertising board, you connect with the consumer on a personal level rather than seeing them as just another customer in store.

Crowd Media HQ- Social Media for Fashion

Social media is the perfect fit for women’s fashion. It is a platform where users can share their lives with friends, particularly from a visual perspective. A woman’s attire is often a prominent feature of her social media profile, potentially shared and liked by over hundreds, or even thousands, of people. If your brand is the one being worn and showcased, it is a positive benefit for you, fostered by social media.

Fashion is often the centerpiece of the photos women take of themselves, or have taken of them on their Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest. They show their new purchases to friends and family, discuss the latest trends, and share their collections. The clothing brands they wear act as a representation of who they are. Many brands are getting online to be in that space, and further engage with an active and interested audience by showcasing the best and newest looks through a visual portfolio.

Instagram and Pinterest are two of the biggest visual platforms to share women’s fashion online. From posting individual pieces of clothing from new and old collections on Instagram, or a whole portfolio on Pinterest, these two pictorial applications are the easiest and most effective way to create a visual masterpiece of your brand’s clothing.

Facebook and Twitter, whilst also possessing photo sharing capabilities, are most useful for sharing information. From creating consumer events on Facebook, to tweeting live updates and announcements or ‘retweeting’ industry news on Twitter, or providing written customer service on both, Twitter and Facebook are your information portals.

Blogs are another strong tool for sharing information regarding your brand. Women, in particular, are very responsive to blogs, which can be important bearers of visual and written content, news, styles, ideas and design. Platforms such as WordPress allow users to design a distinctive look and feel about their brand that can be read and interacted with by many users.

• 50% of Australian women run their own blog,
• 68% of women had bought something based on a blog review
• 43% of blog readers had researched blogs before making a purchasing decision.
• 75% percent of those who read blogs said a blog or blog post had changed the way they felt about their life
• 67% of businesses form relationships with customers through blogging

(Source: Power Retail, 2012)

Overall, social media has enabled audiences to feel more connected with fashion on a personal level. It allows them to interact with their brand of choice, and fully immerse themselves in the brand’s online presence. In many ways, seeing the fashion industry communicating with consumers almost humanizes it. It allows customers to voice opinions right to the source while showing off.

In 2013, the Business Review Weekly described how one women’s clothing retailer turned their business into a multi-million dollar trade with the help of social media:

• “Wez Bryett happily admits that understanding the fashion whims of women aged between 16-26 years isn’t exactly his strong suit.

• But the digital expert, who launched the digital arm of fashion retailer Princess Polly in 2010 with his wife Eirin, clearly has a good understanding of e-commerce. The business is turning over more than $10 million online, plus nine retail stores (including some franchises).

• “Instagram is getting a lot more traction. It’s just a great creative outlet.” he says. “Girls are still using Facebook, but they are using a variety of social media platforms now.”

• Princess Polly posts regularly across social media and, like many fashion brands, has worked hard to ensure its photography is of a high quality. The site is particularly clean, with a good deal of white space. “We want to keep it clean so we make our product pop. Our range is very colourful.”

• Social media is also important as a market research tool. As a new garment gets shown off on social media, the Princess Polly team get rapid feedback on whether their community will embrace a product.”

Social Media for Property Investment Business.

Property investment is a sector that has largely left social media untouched. However, if one’s audience exists on social media, then why not tap into this space and start engaging with then? Whilst property investment may not as ‘fun’ or ‘social’ a sector as other industries, a highly informational social media campaign can nevertheless be highly beneficial for your business. Should your firm be one of the first property investment companies to look beyond the traditional one-way communication advertising methods of print ads and billboards, you could be an industry leader in your field on social media.

As Gen Y – who has a prominent existence on social media – increasingly enters the property market, social media marketing should be a key priority. You can distribute advice, share your publications, provide new offers and listings, offer consultations or promote deals to an informed and eager audience. By doing so, you increase your brand awareness, which can be crucial in a sector with many competitors.

Professional sites like LinkedIn allow you to network with like minded individuals and professional organisations – here you can share and receive industry news, discover potential business partners and discuss ideas with others. Following the informational trend, you can also use YouTube to post educational seminars, or blogs to transmit your wealth of knowledge and be a trusted industry leader

However, property investment is not just about sharing information via written content. Property possesses a very important photographic element. Use Instagram or Pinterest to keep a portfolio of the properties you deal with, and present them in a visually appealing way to grab the attention of potential audiences. In a competitive industry, a top social media campaign could be your key to standing out above your competitors.

Social Media for Car Rentals.

Like many sectors before, visuals do play an important role in the car rental sector. Vehicles are visual beasts, and photos and videos of your business’s fleet is a good way to attract an audience to your range.

With many alternative competitors available, online deals via social media are also a prominent way to keep audience’s eyes on your business. You want your social media to be of benefit to your followers- they won’t follow you for just any reason. Saving your customers money via your social media pages is an important element.

However, at its most fundamental, a car rental business should use a social media platform for customer service. The easiest way for a consumer to seek answers regarding their enquiries about particular vehicles and store locations is to quickly ask a social media page. The quicker you respond, and the more informative and empowering the more trustworthy and referable you become.

For all the direct communication with your customers online, it is also helpful to break it up with conversation starters. Questions regarding an audience’s favourite vehicle from your fleet, common places of visit using your vehicles. All positive interaction with your audiences sees them become the brand advocates with their positive word-of-mouth referrals.

Furthermore, feedback is an important element of your industry, and this is no different online. Should a customer not be satisfied with your services, or if there was a misunderstanding, how you respond to feedback and criticism will be representative of your business. Proving that you are willing to listen and take time to honor your customers with an appropriate response is a hugely beneficial action for your business.

Additionally, the car rental industry on social media can have a very functional existence. Rather than just being about lead generation, an application can be integrated to easily allow users to create bookings via a social media page, or link the section on the website to allow this. Either way, it is increased exposure for the brand, and easier access to the booking process.

Currently, Enterprise in America is the best example of how to run a successful car rental campaign on social media, growing at 34%, more than double the industry average. Forming part of their success is their immediacy of response :

“Enterprise takes customer support seriously,” replying to more than 1,000 tweets in an average of less than two hours, Unmetric says.

Unmetric’s unique “Engagement Score”, which is calculated based on the number of likes, comments, shares and estimated impressions each post gets, gives a fair comparison of the quality of the content on the page

The content strategy employed by Enterprise integrates current events, brand information, travel tips, CSR activities and other uniquely branded posts. Its series of “Family Road Trip Tips” have been a huge hit and the standardization in the images makes them easily recognizable from a branding perspective. The quotes/ideas from employees brings out the human side of the company and is a content strategy that is shown to work very well for other “non-sexy” brands.

To round out Enterprise’s social media strategy, its YouTube channel has a good catalogue of videos and it is updated regularly with new content. Unlike brands which just add TVCs to their respective channels, Enterprise has created unique videos especially for YouTube viewers.”

(Source: Tnooz, 2013)