What type of social media are you having the best success with?

Facebook and YouTube are our strongest social media avenues, but we’re active on Twitter and have a strong following there as well.

Who is your target market? Describe your average customer.

Our average customer is a middle aged white male farmer. Our target market, from a social media standpoint, is not only that farmer, but his wife and children as well – the influencers of these farmers.

Do you combine multiple types of social media or are you focusing your energy on just one?

We focus our energy on what works and where we can find most of our fans. We spend a lot of time (and money) on Facebook, and we concentrate on YouTube heavily because our Video Demos are a key asset in our sales process. Customers can make their purchase decision based on these Demos – and when we’re dealing with a $250,000 tractor or combine, that portion of the sales process is crucial. Twitter just doesn’t have the numbers – that’s all it’s missing for us, because it’s the perfect engagement platform. I learn a ton from our farmer friends on Twitter.

Which others did you try before focusing you energy on this one?

We’ve dabbled in forums, but they didn’t turn out like we’d hoped. We’re happy with the social media options we’re taking advantage of.

Would you recommend YouTube to other businesses?

Definitely. If you’re not using social media, you’re missing out on a ton of potential business. Today’s consumer needs to feel a connection – social media is the best way to make that happen.

What strategy has gotten the best results?

Connect first, sell later (if at all). We’re using social media for business in that order: be social with the media available and business will come. It’s worked so far.

Is social media for new customer acquisition, customer service or brand awareness?

All of the above. For a 3-4 year old farm equipment dealership, brand awareness is key. Getting our name out in front of people is #1 at this point, but social media has served and continues to serve all three of those options.
How do you find topics to share through social media? Conversations with customers, things happening around our store, and email newsletters/other social media channels.

How do you measure results?

Numbers of fans don’t mean anything unless they’re engaged. If we’re not connecting and having conversations, and inviting fans/followers/viewers to our conversations, we’re not getting anywhere. Facebook and YouTube provide very good analytics to keep track of how things are going and we use a few different services (as well as simply paying attention to what’s going on) to keep track of our mentions, retweets, and other Twitter measurements to learn from what works and to stay away from what doesn’t.

How do your results compare to other traditional forms of marketing?

There aren’t a lot of direct sales coming from social media – but it gets the word out about our business. The best part about social/digital media is how fast things can be changed. If you put an ad out, that’s the ad that runs. If you post a blog or a Facebook status and something’s wrong, just edit it or delete it and try again.

How much time per day/week do you dedicate to social media marketing? About half of my time – 25 hours/week – is dedicated to social media in some way or another. You don’t have to devote that much time to be successful, but to reach the level we’re at with social media, you need a dedicated specialist to stay on top of changes, find content, post what needs to be posted, and respond to engagers.

What advice would you give to another business to start similar social media?

Don’t try everything you’ve ever heard of. Yes, Google + might be the hot new thing, but are your customers there? Stick with what works. It’s better to be great at one to three social networks than to be overwhelmed and on every available platform.

How can people contact you?

Feel free to contact us on twitter at www.twitter.com/TitanOutlet

Facebook Fan Page at www.facebook.com/TitanOutletStore

Watch our videos at www.youtube.com/TitanOutletStore

titanoutlet@titanmachinery.com to email us.

I can be reached at alec.winmill@titanmachinery.com

218-233-3700

twitter at www.twitter.com/al_winmill

Al Winmill of Titan Outlet Store on YouTube Success is a post from: The Web Shoppe

Rikka Brandon, President (Executive Recruiter)

Rikka Brandon,  President (Executive Recruiter)
Building Gurus
Rikka@BuildingGurus.com

What type of social media are you having the best success with?  

LinkedIn

Who is your target market? Describe your average customer.   

Our target market is manufacturers or distributors of building products or building materials.  Typically, they have around $300-800 Million in annual sales and around 1500+ employees.

Do you combine multiple types of social media or are you focusing your energy on just one?   

We are pretty heavily focused on LinkedIn. We are also on Twitter (but just barely).

Would you recommend this to other businesses?  

Absolutely. It is a great way to build a relationship where none has existed before.  However, if you spam people or are clearly just out for your own interests you won’t have much success. LinkedIn is full of people who are “wired” to network.  They will help you grow your business if they can see a value for others (and maybe themselves)

What strategy has gotten the best results?  

We have primarily used LinkedIn to build relationships with candidates.  We have had the greatest success from using InMails customized to the individual with an offer that should be of interest to them (typically a new job that matches their background).

Is social media for new customer acquisition, customer service or brand awareness?

We have gotten clients from it, but 2012 will be the first year we have had any focused effort towards customer acquisition via LinkedIn.

How do you find topics to share through social media?

Ha, I am never short of things to say or opinions!   But, we have developed a content platform and will execute on that in 2012.

How do you measure results?  

Money.  Basically, free resources aren’t free.  They take my time, my energy, or my staffs.  They need to have an ROI for me to think it is worth it.  Last year we can tie about $200,000 to LinkedIn.  (That is a rough estimate, but I am sure it is close to the right number)

How much time per day/week do you dedicate to social media marketing?  

Depends on the day.  Also – since we recruit within Linked In – it would probably be much higher than someone strictly marketing through it. I’d say about 8-10 hours a week.

What advice would you give to another business to start similar social media?   

Don’t pay to join the Open Networker groups – they will increase your contacts but they will be time consuming and worthless. A smaller number of quality connections is a much better route.   If you are serious about LinkedIn, Spend the $50 a month for an expanded account.

Rikka Brandon of Building Gurus on LinkedIn Success is a post from: The Web Shoppe

Teresa Lewis - The Growth Coach • Speaker • Facilitator

The Growth Coach

What type of social media are you having the best success with?

I receive a lot of positive feedback from my email newsletter (e-news). It reminds people that I am here and gives them an idea of my mindset and approach. My main objective is to get people to think and reflect and challenge themselves. Our upcoming events are listed, but the bulk of the space is the article content and some related quotes to reinforce my topic.

Who is your target market? Describe your average customer.

We can really help the overwhelmed business owner who is on a path of growth, but I’ve found over the past few years that anyone on a path of growth can benefit from our services. For instance, our quarterly workshop clients include a college student and a business owner planning for retirement and everything in between. We help people get intentional about their life and their choices and we provide ongoing accountability.

Do you combine multiple types of social media or are you focusing your energy on just one?

I prefer using multiple forms of social media, especially when it is streamlined and efficient. My e-news gets posted on Facebook, LinkedIn (my profile and groups) and my website.

Which others did you try before focusing you energy on this one?

I started publishing e-news in January 2008 and it works for me, so I’ve continued to do so ever since.

Would you recommend this to other businesses?

Absolutely, an e-newsletter can be a low-cost, valuable tool for your business. You just have to figure out your message. It is sales and promotions? Are you providing valuable information and thought-provoking insights?

What strategy has gotten the best results?

Regular and consistent publication. There have been a few times when I completed my e-newsletter at 1 am because it was the last day of the month and I was determined to get it out the door!

Is social media for new customer acquisition, customer service or brand awareness?

All of those can be accomplished through social media. It introduces you to the network beyond your network, which is helpful for new customer acquisition and brand awareness. More and more, customers are sharing their great customer service experiences on the businesses Facebook page – I’ve done it!

How do you find topics to share through social media?

My ideas come through conversations with my clients, friends and family, articles, books, radio, billboards, bumper stickers … and, of course, those random thoughts that just appear out of nowhere!

How do you measure results?

1. As far as tangible results, I evaluate the reports from the e-news (open rates, forwards, posts, new subscribers). And, occasionally the e-news will prompt someone to contact me to enroll in a workshop or schedule a coaching session.
2. On the intangible side, I see what unsolicited feedback the e-news generates. It’s an awesome feeling when someone tells me that my e-news was shared at a staff meeting or forwarded to the whole team. It confirms that what I do impacts people.

How do your results compare to other traditional forms of marketing?

For many small businesses, the best form of marketing is word of mouth. Next best, in my opinion, is social media. It’s extremely low cost compared to traditional marketing, your contacts can easily share/forward your information to others and it can introduce others to you and your business when and where it is convenient for them.

How much time per day/week do you dedicate to social media marketing?

This really varies for me. Experts recommend that you set up multiple posts a day throughout your social media outlets. I haven’t taken that intense of an approach; in 2011, I dedicated time bi-weekly. In 2012, I will dedicate time weekly to social media posts but likely will continue the e-news on a monthly basis. My 2012 planning included brainstorming a list of ideas so I have topics at my fingertips  (in case a brilliant thought doesn’t appear on the day I want to post something). With the right tools to streamline the various forms of social media, once the content is developed, it should take just a few minutes to actually post in multiple places.

What advice would you give to another business to start similar social media?

Start incrementally. As I’ve heard in seminars: Be brilliant, be brief and be gone. (I would add one more to that: Be back – so you create that ongoing branding.) If you aren’t using social media at all, don’t set yourself up for failure by establishing a goal of 5 posts a day. Look at what you are doing now and how you can incrementally add to it. Think of what makes the most sense for your business and your audience.

Sign up for the eNews on the website.

Teresa Lewis – Email Newsletter is a post from: The Web Shoppe

What type of social media are you having the best success with?

Facebook. The only social media you need is Facebook. Other social media is more of a distraction. Everybody likes Facebook, not everybody likes twitter. Facebook is worldwide. Even your parents are on Facebook. If your parents know it, everybody knows it. No other social media has a movie about it.

Dive95 also uses Twitter, but it is automated. Facebook posts automatically to twitter so people can get updates on their phones.

Who is your target market? Describe your average listener.

Men and women age 16 to 35 in the local FM area. They are people who are interested in local events, not necessarily just music related.

The idea of using social media is to stay in their face without forcing people to interact until they want to interact. We offer information that might be pertinent to their normal lives, keeping us fresh in their minds.

What strategy has gotten the best results?

Communication first, then interaction. Be social first – even though you are a business, you are still a person. Becoming a friend as a person means so much more than if you are just a business. People will be loyal if you make that connection to them.

Facebook is our second website. The website has content, Facebook is the social pot luck. You never know what you are going to get.

Is social media for new listener acquisition, customer service or brand awareness?

Brand awareness and communication.

Dive95 can only be contacted through Facebook or the contact form on the website. There is no phone number.

Dive95 is a non-profit radio station that survives on the donations of listeners. Donations usually come in through Facebook then we send them to the website where they can donate through the PayPal button. Only 30% of donations come from walk-ins. When we are in the station, we post it on Facebook and encourage people to stop by. We don’t advertise, because we don’t have the money to. If you build a friendship, they will think of you because of that relationship.

How do you find topics to share through social media?

Blog sites and news sources like The Blaze, CNN and NBC. There are a lot of news re-publishing sites out there. When one of the news sources re-publishes news as their own, they tag it. Click the tag and follow it to the originating site. That site will have much more new content and other stories to choose from. Always link from the original source.

Offer things of value – local information such as free events and cheap gas. Find unique articles about things that may affect people such as credit score based on FB friends. Create drama and interest to get people interested and involved. Challenges are always good. Random photos with “what is this?” for the caption also work well to get people interacting. Avoid posting information from political sites.

Posts that get the most response are tech, music, movies, local events like the Unglued Christmas market, local and small business information, and things that make you think. Questions are the biggest, as long as it is a neutral question posed in a form that will cause a debate. The Facebook app on phones allows for a quick reply which is great for quick responses. When someone responds, it posts on their own page as well as the Dive95 page. That gets their friends involved.

We don’t do many giveaways. Ticket giveaways attract cheapskates and leeches. Those people are not loyal – it’s a waste of your money and time. Why do you think big radio stations give big money? It gets people talking and listening. Unless you have $10,000 to give away, it’s a waste of time.

How do you measure results?

We monitor the numbers that come in from Facebook. That data gets used to write grants and get new donations. We got 2000 fans in our first year just through word of mouth and an additional 500 the second year.

How do your results compare to other traditional forms of marketing?

Facebook is our only marketing method.

How much time per day/week do you dedicate to social media marketing?

It’s a constant thing. If you want to be the most effective, get Facebook on your phone to upload a photo and text right away. If you find something interesting, someone else will find it interesting, too. We dedicate about 15-20 hours a week and could easily do more.

Staff is involved in adding posts as Dive95. The trick there is to only allow people you trust to administer the account. You don’t want bad customer relations developing from a bad comment or two from a staff volunteer.

Would you recommend Facebook marketing to other businesses?

Yes. About a year and a half ago, Ben set up a Facebook page for Family Life Thrift Store. They have customers from the Cities and Canada based on what they see on the Facebook page.

What advice would you give to another business to start similar social media?

It’s a full time job – you have to stay on it and comment often. Find topics that pertain to your business, and share them. Take pictures, and post them. Share your successes and your failures – people like to see both. The more honest you are with people, the more they connect with you. If you post an interesting topic you will notice your customers walking through the door and mentioning it. It helps break the ice, and that means money. Too many people don’t understand the social part of social networking.

If you plan on being successful and only posting a couple times a week, you haven’t figured social media out.

Get employees involved, let them have a voice – feed them the kool-aid!! When they can promote the business how they want, they are much happier about the company they work for.

Set guidelines for Facebook use. If all employees are responsible for controlling and policing the Facebook page, you won’t need to hire another person to manage it.

Any other tips or advice for businesses using Facebook?

It’s the difference between a playground and a school gym. Linked in or Facebook. Gyms have rules, playgrounds are fun.

Connect with other businesses that are similar and bounce ideas off each other.

Get people involved with human interest and family life topics. Talk about helping a family going through a tough time. Make friends, include them as nameless stories on your site. Appeal to the heart and you’ve got their business forever.

Ben Larson at Dive95 on Facebook Success is a post from: The Web Shoppe

That depends. It depends on the type of business you run, the type of customer you are targeting, where those customers spend their online time, what kind of social communication you use, what your definition of return on investment is, and a number of other factors. There are so many articles and seminars on using social media for your business, it seems like any business can set up a free Facebook page and the customers will start pouring in. Don’t be discouraged – that can happen. Like anything else, you get out of it what you put into it.

I am all for businesses promoting through social media. In this day and age, it’s practically a requirement. Before you go wasting all your time setting up accounts than later abandoning them, I’m going to try help to steer you in the right direction. Your time is valuable after all.

How much time do you have to dedicate to social media? If the answer is little to none, social media may not help you at all. Social media involvement might just be the most time consuming marketing you can do for your business. Is the return on investment worth it?

How do you define Return on Investment (ROI) for social media? How will you measure your success? Is it the number of followers or likes? The level of interaction? The number of people who sign up for your email newsletter? The leads that are generated? The traffic that gets sent to your website? The number of new customers you get? The increased revenue generated purely from social media?

What budget can you dedicate to social media? One of the biggest myths surrounding social media is that it is free. It’s not. It takes up a lot of time and time is money. If you are not willing to dedicate your own time to it, how much of your staff’s time can you allocate? Even if you dedicate time, you may want to include an additional budget for graphics, research, tools, contests or giveaways.

Which social media should you use? This very much depends on your business and customers. The simple answer is, go where your customers are. Because things are never as simple as they seem, we are going to spend the month visiting with several local businesses on the types of social media they use and what is successful to them. It might be an eye opener to find out the time and dedication businesses dedicate to social media to really make it work.

The Web Shoppe has interviewed several local businesses on how they are successfully using different types of social media.

Some takeaways: 

B2B businesses are better off using LinkedIn to make contacts and promote.

Retail business can connect with more customers with Facebook.

I found no local businesses with actual ROI from Twitter. Twitter is best reserved for tracking sentiment and customer service.

Business selling hands-on type of products that need to be seen and heard can benefit greatly from YouTube.

Email newsletters are great for B2B or businesses reaching customers that don’t spend much time on social media. Email also works in conjunction with social media to expand your reach.

The interviews: 

Ben Larson of Dive95 on Facebook Success

Rikka Brandon of Building Gurus on LinkedIn Success

Teresa Lewis of The Growth Coach on Email Marketing Success

Al Winmill of Titan Outlet Store on YouTube

Is social media really going to help your business? is a post from: The Web Shoppe

Set up a Facebook page for your business. Don’t confuse this with a personal account. Personal accounts have friends, business pages have likes.

If you set up a personal account for business use, visitors have to send a friend request to stay in contact. If you have a business page, all they have to do is click the “like” button to get your updates. A personal account is limited to 5,000 friends. Business pages can have unlimited likes.

Add Like Buttons To Your Website and Blog

If you have a business page you can add a “like” button to your website. There are two basic types of like buttons. The first kind allows visitors to like that one specific page of your website and share it on their own Facebook profile. The second like button will allow visitors of your website to like your Facebook page directly. This is also shared on their profile. The second button is the type we use on TheWebShoppe.net.

Use Facebook As Your Page

One of the things you can do is use Facebook as a page. This is a great option if you are B2B. You can like other business pages with your page. When the page you liked sees your page listed in their notifications, they can click to your page and follow you back. You can leave comments on other business page walls. Their visitors and people who have liked them will see your post. Be professional about what you post, you are representing your business after all. Spamming pages with links and irrelevant comments is more likely to get you blocked for spam than to get your page liked.

Get a Vanity URL

When you have 25 likes, you can get a vanity url. This will change your page url to something more memorable and meaningful than the standard string of numbers. If you added links to your Facebook page from your website or blog before changing to a vanity url, make sure you update those links or they may stop working.

Give Your Facebook Page a Name

Match your business name if you can. Be careful of odd spelling or using dashes, dots and numbers. If you have ever tried to search for a page in Facebook, you know how bad the search feature is. Unless you type the name of the page exactly, there is a pretty good chance it will never show up in the search results.

Link to your Business Page From Your Personal Account

When you view a personal profile, one of the first things listed is Works At [link to business Facebook page]. Make sure your own personal profile as well as your employees profiles are linked to the correct page. Business place pages can be added by anyone that checks in or tries to list your business in their profile. A business page created this way can be claimed or consolidated with the official page after jumping through a few verification hoops.

Include Your Facebook Page Link On Other Social Media Profiles

People who are active on Facebook tend to be active on other social media sites as well. Add the Facebook link to your Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and any other social media profiles you have.

Optimize Your Facebook Page To Get More Likes is a post from: The Web Shoppe

Happy Holidays from The Web Shoppe

Happy Holidays from The Web Shoppe is a post from: The Web Shoppe

While that description makes email sound pretty boring, that’s actually a good thing for your business. The reason it’s a good thing is because it means people are comfortable using email. That makes it a dependable communication channel. As a result, if you can get into someone’s inbox, you can build a relationship with them. Although getting into someone’s inbox may sound like something that’s not on the up and up, that’s the exact opposite of the approach you want to take. While spammers stick to the brute force method, you want people to invite you into their email inbox.

The Simple Way to Build an Email List

The simplest way to make people want to give you their email address is to show them that you have something valuable to offer. Because every industry is different, there are no limits to how you can go about making this known. For some businesses, it’s as simple as saying “we send out great deals via email, so make sure you sign up to avoid missing out.” For other businesses, the best option is to literally give something away in return for an email address. Although you may be concerned that you’re not going to know what to offer, the main question you need to ask yourself is whether or not it truly provides value to the recipient. If whatever you’re giving away really does offer value, people aren’t going to have a problem signing up for your email list.

You’ve Got Their Email Address. Now What Do You Send to Them?

The biggest mistake businesses make with their email lists is forgetting about providing value. If you’re going to send out an email that is commercial in nature, make sure it’s something people want. From an exclusive coupon to a notification of a great sale, there are plenty of options that do provide value. But if your business doesn’t currently have something like this to offer, any email you send out to your list should offer a different kind of value. In most cases, that means providing your list with something that’s educational, interesting or entertaining to read. Even though this covers a broad range of topics, the key is once again making sure it’s something that’s actually going to appeal to your audience.

If email marketing is already part of your business, what tools do you recommend to others who are just getting started?

Craig Klein is the CEO of a Sales Nexus which is a CRM software and business email marketing company located in Houston Texas.

Social Media is Hot, But What About Email Marketing? is a post from: The Web Shoppe

Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling
The most important traits to good web design are also among the simplest to follow and the most often ignored. These include good basic coding, a clean and modern design, and proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Visitors cannot really see the coding, but search engines can; search engines do not pay much attention to the sleek, modern design of the site, but real viewers do. Both search engines and viewers notice misspellings, bad grammar and sentence structure, and inappropriate punctuation.

Website Owners Bio
These days, it helps to have a detailed bio and picture of the webmaster or author. The depth of the information is not as important as simply having it made available; sites without this information are less likely to be trusted. All images on the website should be of professional quality. Do not use generic looking clip art or stock photography and have your logo professionally designed.

Social Media Integration
Include social sharing options such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google +1. Most social networks allow you to create a free profile for your business or website. Having a social media presence is no longer just an option, but these accounts must be regularly maintained. The goal in providing access to these services is exposure across social networks, but do not confuse this with advertising.

Quality Content
The single most important web design element is quality content. Whether you are looking to attract views or incoming links, having good content is the way to do it. Use proper grammar, sentence structure, spelling, and punctuation, and write cleanly and logically. Be unique but try to remain consistent in your approach. Finally, update frequently. Both search engines and visitors like new content, but if you cannot post as frequently as you would like, at least update regularly.

Clean, Modern Website Design
There is no sense on working to attract visitors to a website that is not ready for them. You need a clean, modern design with easily accessible contact information and high-quality graphics. A professionally designed logo is a must. Visitors will decide on whether or not they trust your site from the moment they land on it. You want to capture their attention and gain their trust immediately so that they stick around long enough to read your content.

The single most important aspect to trustworthy, professional web design is high quality content. Without it, visitors will not return – nor will they link to your website or recommend it to others. Include social sharing options to allow viewers to share your content with others, but be sure to maintain your social network accounts and profiles.

Work with The Web Shoppe to get a professional business website. Contact us through our contact form or call 218-422-0000 for a free consultation. 

Start with the basics of good coding, layout and design, and basic SEO, then add as many of these positive traits as you can to develop a trustworthy website.

Does Your Website Look Trustworthy? is a post from: The Web Shoppe

Dan Cox and the team of business management consultants at Streamline Solutions offer business process management services. Their new website design needed to highlight their services, processes and experience. They also needed a way to feature their client case studies.

Website Design: Streamline Solutions is a post from: The Web Shoppe