Female Entrepreur & Social Media
Social Networking Must-Haves
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Pinterest is the social media app of 2013 in our opinion. Sign up, pin and get inspired. Pinterest is a relatively new player in the social media mix and is highly effective as part of an SEO strategy that includes social media for optimizing women's websites.
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Add a "share this" or "add this" button to your website, so visitors can click and add to their social networking page or site easily.
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Add a Facebook "like" or "recommend" button to pages on your site, blog or store to get instant feedback and positive reinforcement.
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Link Instagram with Facebook. Instagram is a "must-have" for beauty and fashion.
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Add a Twitter "tweet this" link on your website, blog or e-commerce site. Tweet from your smart phone.
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Add links to your blog, Twitter time line, Flickr photo-stream, Facebook page , Linked In profile on your website.
Social Networking has advantages and disadvantages for small business. At Blossom® we have discovered that you need to set goals and boundaries with sites like Twitter and Facebook, and keep the end goal in mind when engaging online. It can be a colossal waste of time if you don't set time boundaries, or goals for tweeting and status updates on Facebook. For more corporate businesses we also like Linked in.
OK, think about what you need to achieve by being on Twitter and Facebook. Is it to increase exposure, gain clients, network with other like-minded businesses, learn about the competition or learn about your industry?
Make time and never underestimate the value of social marketing as a tool for business. Social networking is the way of the future for marketing and regardless of which one is the interface du jour, you must have it going on. Keep up-to-date on the popular ones and set up automated tweets, status updates and so on to keep clients and friends informed of your business and activities, as well as inspirational comments and generally contributing to the online community.
There is no such thing as a free lunch. In order for Social Networking to work, you have to invest your time and energy into generous online contributions of wisdom, experience and friendship. Generosity is the key, and sharing images, information and news is far more effective than simply selling your wares.
Blossom® Fave Social Media Networks
A free social networking and "micro blogging" service, allowing you to send "tweets" which are basically posts limited to 140 characters. You can receive and send updates to and from Twitter using a short message service (text), RSS, instant message, email or through a third party application. We customize profiles (ours is below) to reinforce your visual image and brand identity.
A fantastics social networking website that is operated and privately on which users may add friends, send them messages and update their personal profiles. Businesses can increase their exposure and brand awareness through the creation of a Facebook Page which is inked to your personal account, but you are able to just have the page as a mini-interactive website for your beautiful business. Below is Blossom® 's Facebook page.
One of my most successful friends/clients on social media is the lovely Jac Bowie with over 30K worth of followers on her page. It's work following her page just to see how she does it.
Pinterest is a virtual pinboard that allows photo-sharing. Users can create and manage "boards" in themes such as events, interests, and hobbies. Members can invite others to share, can repin photos and upload. It is a great way for Blossom® to get an idea of a client's visual aesthetic and what they like, as well as a way to share with our followers the images than inspire and motivate us. Pinterest gives us the opportunity to share our work online as well.
Saving time using mobile devices apps.
Blossom® has the Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest apps installed on our iphones and ipads, so we can fill those little gaps in the day with quick up dates, without having to invest hours dedicated to social media. For example, Diane twitters in between reps at the gym or uses Pinterest on the stationery cycle. Instead of sitting fro hours in front of the TV as night Di also updates her Facebook page, tweets and Pinterests from the Ipad.
3D Social Networking
Social networking is a valuable tool for marketing a business, small or large. Never forget you are just one tweet or status update away from your customer, celebrities and the rest of the world. Twitter is fantastic for building your personal and professional brand, as it gives an insight into the person and energy behind a company. Offering personal morsels of information may sound banal, but the more personal a tweet, the more likely it is that it will resonate with another person, and they will spread the word or respond, thus increasing your visibility online.
If you look at the way celebrities give dimension to their personal brand, you can see how this would work on a corporate level from a CEO or marketing director, letting "slip" secrets and new products, accidentally on purpose. Another example would be celebrities tweeting from backstage, to excite a crowd, fashion designers tweeting from a parade, give their fans and followers an inside peek. Human beings love to see behind the scenes stuff and to engage with a product or service.
Om Cocktails tweet prolifically, generating buzz about the brand, linking with celebrities, suppliers and and customers. They show photos in tradeshows, with celebrities, in store, and special events. This kind of PR only costs time, and in a start up business time might be limiited, but generally not a limited at cash flow. So in the beginning, use social media a lot, save your cash flow and use social media agents like Hoot Suite or Flip Board, that helps you to
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schedule tweets and facebook updates (allows you to taket multiple tome zones)
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manage your media mentions so you can when mentioned
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keeps your social media networks in the one place so it's easier to be cohesive
Do's for Social Marketing
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Be Helpful - Offer tips and techniques, information, maps, and reviews (this page is an example - I want to share this information and I share it for free. The benefit for you is that you gain my knowledge and the benefit for me is that you visit my site (hopefully more than once.
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Be Sincere - You cannot fake it. Passion is genuine. Express that passion online. Live your "brand" each day, which can mean not pleasing everyone all the time. In order to make your online connections count, you need to connect with like-minded people. The result of this will be that you will engage with like-minded people in your business. If you are sincere across all digital channels, when people look you up online they will see your online brand across all channels.
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Be Generous - as with being helpful, being generous creates goodwill, visitors and builds online relationships. Generosity might be in the form of downloads, inspiration, news, tips, advice or links, support, tweets, plugs to other businesses and so on.
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Build Online Relationships - conversations and interactions that nurtures, just like "real" relationships are vital, otherwise it is just "a bunch of digital gums flapping" (Six Pixels of Separation by Mitchel Joel). If someone shares something with you, mentions you or promotes you in anyway, respond and relate.