2.Twitter – for Business
The next place is that you want to be actively engaging in is Twitter. Twitter has over 300 million monthly active users and 500 million Tweets sent every day. I have come across a lot of people don’t know how to use twitter at all and basically don’t get it. In a past blog post, we covered the importance of Twitter for business, and today its even most so. So let’s try and demystify the Twittersphere for you.
First off I always here “Why do I need twitter, I’m not a celebrity” It is true that Twitter is largely used for following your favourite band, actor sports team, random internet celebrities. However, these days your product and services can be the hero, and people will follow you for exclusive offers and information about them.
One of the things to consider is Twitter is 100% opt in, so a follower wants to hear from you, they added you, this gives you a great platform to speak to customers as they are there of their own accord.
Another great reason to consider is that Twitter is one of the best ways for Google to notice your new content. Just tweet a link to your blog post or article and google picks it up pretty quickly. In the end that’s what we most covert isn’t it, googles notice.
The main points to remember when marketing your business on Twitter are:
- You can post images, videos, links and text to Twitter. Mix it up, do a bit of everything. Keep it fresh.
- Remember you are limited to just 140 characters per post. Use real estate wisely.
- When you use videos or photos it’s important to note they will be counted as a link and cost you 22 characters. So whenever you use these in a post make sure your accounting for the 22 characters.
- You can now use more than 140 characters on direct messages, that’s right now you can use up to 1000 characters.
- Stay away from the ‘hard sell’ just engage your followers, post helpful information, ask questions and get feedback.
- Use hashtags! A hashtag is any word or phrase without spaces, they begin with the # symbol. You can use hashtags to organise conversations and make it easier to find content on a chosen topic. You can also click directly on the hashtag to see the search results for that term.
- A Mention. This is how you bring a tweet to another person’s attention by using the @username in the message. This can be used to thank someone or ask them a question, or to promote/highlight a piece of content.
- Replying to Tweets, as with all social media replying to a tweet will engage the customer and build relationships with follows and allow you to join in conversations.
- Retweets is where you, re-post someone else tweets to share with your followers.
- Interestingly, “73% of SMB Twitter users said Twitter provides them with a quick way to reply to customer service issues.” So you can use it to quickly and easily respond to support queries and to develop a good reputation for your business and strong relationships with customers.
3. Google Plus – For Business
If this blog was written 2 years ago Google + would have sat as the best second option in this list, however with hardly anyone actively using it anymore. It has dropped to 3rd and honestly I’m not sure if we shouldn’t be putting Instagram ahead of it. As of August 2014 Google plus was sitting at 300 million active users, which is the same as Instagram. Google plus however is a lot more functionality than Instagram so that is why it comes in 3rd place.
Firstly, it’s owned by Google! The platform works hand- in-hand with Google Search, potentially ranking higher on search results, integration with other Google for Business services .
Secondly, you can promote posts, deals, specials and other content to your audiences, from those in your Google+ “Circles” to people simply searching for your business via Google.
Thirdly Google+ users are mostly business owners, marketers and industry of some kind. In a way, that makes it almost as professionally oriented as LinkedIn.
Google Plus just had a major update, so what’s new?
The latest fix for google plus has taken a lot of the business-related focus like giving the owner the ability to add a description, photos, videos and provided a place to send customers to see and leave their reviews, this has all gone now. The focus is on content, communities and collections now.
The new Google Plus is now more about connecting around common interests rather than people. Through collections and the ablity to follow streams of content on a given subject or from a given shared interests or communities. One key difference is that it’s now possible to follow a member’s posts about a specific subject without receiving that person’s posts on other topics.
On the way out are the Hangouts messaging service, a tool for organizing events, sharing your location. Photo uploading still works, but the ability to tag people by name is limited.
You will have to decide if it’s worth your time or not. I for one think its necessary as it gives you another road to the top of the mountain, albeit a road less travelled these days.
The main points to remember when marketing your business on Google Plus are:
- Make your Google+ profile easy to find, by adding a badge for both your personal and business profile on your website, allows for people to connect with you on Google+.
- Use +Post Ads from Google to promote your Google+ plus content and get it in front of third party websites in the form of advertisement.
- Optimize your content, use rich media within your content to maximize the reach and engagement of each post. You can integrate YouTube videos directly on Google+ or use any audio, video, infographics and Google+ stories.
- Integrate it with YouTube. If you have a YouTube channel, integrate it with Google+ and you will reach a wider audience. YouTube is the second largest search engine currently so you would be mad not to try and take advantage, also any comments on your video being viewed on Google+ will show up as comments on YouTube as well.
- Use hangouts on air, it a free service for delivering webinars or schedule live broadcasts in HD on Google+ or your website. Host interactive conversations with people from around the world, and build you’re an excellent relationship with your customer base by doing expert Q&A’s.
- Embed posts on your blog and increase the life of your content.
- Create video with pictures using Google+’s Awesome Auto feature. Just download the Google+ app on your smartphone, take a few photos and upload to Google+ and shazam it will turn it into video for you..
- Use full HD uncropped images without having to resize. Google+ won’t do it for you. So if your brand is highly visual you can now flaunt your high-quality images with minimal modifications.
- Group your Contacts in Circles! By doing this you can maximize your audience targeting efforts. Also, check the “email your Circle” option. A lot of people will not check there Google+ feed daily as they are too busy, however, they all check there email, give them a reason to read your content by emailing them your updates.
- Google+ can help you build a different community than that of Facebook. It’s worth looking into how it works and giving it some love. If done correctly, you will get the love back.
Read more in this series –
Part 1: Facebook for business
Coming soon –
Part 3: LinkedIn Company Pages & YouTube for Business
Part 4: Instagram & Pinterest for Business
Have you found success on these or any other social media sites, or do you have any tips to help others starting out?