Canadian Small Business Women

Connection, Synergy, Community

Three C’s of Social Media for #SmallBiz

 Kelly headshot (2)

It’s great when someone tells a new business owner that they “have” to be on Social Media. But, what does that look like? Where do you start? What can I spend the least amount of time on? What’s essential?

Entrepreneurship in the 21st century demands a knowledge of so much more than just what your specialty is. A business owner today needs to be adept at all facets of business, or at least how to navigate through all the outsourcing options to find the best resource at the most cost-effective rate. Social Media is no different. There are numerous companies who will manage your online presence, but like other outsourcing options, it is up to the business owner to dictate how and what that presence will look like. That demands an understanding of the unique realm of Social Networking.

To help you get started, here are three essential C’s for every small business social media marketing plan.

Be Consistent – Accounts on all major networks with the same username so customers/clients can follow you. The top 10 networks (at the time of writing) include: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest,  Instagram, Vine, Tumblr, Flikr. While choosing which platform best suits your demographic, companies should have a consistent presence across all social media platforms, whether or not the profiles are equally active.

Be Cohesive – Cohesive branding across all accounts is the key to gaining brand recognition. Your logo and/or profile pictures on all your social networking accounts should represent your brand. Colours used in posts and in your email signature should also be representative of your brand. Take the time to ensure that you have the required sizes of your logo for all the different platforms (no, it’s not as simple as having one image file for your logo!) and that they are formatted and centered correctly.

Be Connected – To grow your followings on your social networks, make it easy for your clients and contacts to find you! Include your Social Network links in your email signature, on every page of your website or  blog. Then, link back to your website from your social media profiles. Making navigation easy for your followers will build brand loyalty and consequently increase your network.

  

Kelly Farrell is the Founder and Chief Facilitator of Teach Me Social, a visionary company that has a mission to empower small business entrepreneurs to take control of their own online presence and manage it in-house to maintain an authentic voice for their brand. Teach Me Social has been providing valuable Social Media and online marketing support to small business owners for 2 years, while Kelly’s personal experience in the marketing and Social Media realm extends over 15 years.  Connect with Kelly via her WEBSITE, TWITTER, or FACEBOOK page. You can also email her at info@teachmesocial.ca

10 Step Checklist to Quickly Optimize Your Blog Post

Dwainia

Over the last few months we looked at how to optimize your blog for business using social media, search engine optimization (SEO), and awesome content.  This month I have created a quick and simple checklist to help optimize your blog posts.

1. Does my post convey the objective of the blog post?

2. Do I have a clear call to action (telling readers what I want them to do after they read the post)?

Search Engine Optimization

3. Have I used my search engine optimization keyword in my blog post? Preferably in the title?

4. Have I tagged and categorized my post for search engine optimization using relevant keywords?

5. Have used relevant links internal and/or external?

6. Have I optimized my images for size and with alt and title tags?

Social Media

7. Is my blog post truly shareable?

Does my post provide useful or entertaining information that others will want to share?

8. Have I used media (an image or video) to enhance my post and to inspire sharing?

Facebook has 1.1 billion photos, Instagram has 100 million photos, Flickr has 87 million photos and Pinterest has 49 million photos!

9. Have I included share buttons with the post to encourage sharing?

10. Have I shared my post on all my social media profiles such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+?

When you complete your blog post use this handy checklist to ensure you have optimized your post and it’s ready to publish.

 

Dwainia Grey is an online marketer at Awesome Biz Online. She creates awesome websites and blogs for businesses as well as working with
companies to optimize their websites with Search Engine Optimization and Social Media. She can be reached at Awesome Biz Online or by phone at 647-799-1090 x 104. You a can also follow her on Facebook to get the latest on online marketing.