Social Media Consultancy London

Making Media Work For Your Marketing

Isn’t the Internet great?

It’s helped many different businesses reach a lot more people who they never would have a couple of decades ago. As a result, they are able to make more leads and turn those leads into lucrative sales. It’s fair to say that the Internet has helped many companies flourish!

But is your company using the Internet to its full potential? Most businesses are already on social media and have their own website. But if these look bland and boring, there is no way they are going to help you attract any new customers. That’s why you need to vary the types of media that you use on them! Not sure which media will work best for your company? Here are some different types and how you can utilise them.

Video
It is now easier than ever to share videos. You can quickly post them to Facebook and Twitter, and you can also add them to your website layout. However, for your videos to make a big impact, you need to ensure that they are of a high quality. Lots of companies find that it really pays off to hire film companies to create some inspiring footage for them. Alternatively, if you have a very tight budget, you should be able to find some reasonably priced camera equipment if you fancy having a go at making a video yourself.

To brighten up your company website and social media accounts, you should use as many eye-catching photographs as possible. These days, you will find lots of websites that offer free stock images that you can use. However, it’s always best to use photos that you have taken yourself. That way, you can be sure that you hold full copyright and can use them however you want. Remember to add a photo to ever Facebook status or tweet that you publish, as it can help to draw people’s attention to it. A social media update that is just text can be boring and very forgettable.

The Graphic Interchange Format is more commonly referred to as a GIF. This is a moving picture and is most commonly used on social media. More often than not, they show a scene from a TV show or a movie that lasts only a few seconds. Some GIFs feature text, others do not. These are fun additions to your social media posts and can be very effective in place of a standard image. If you don’t have a photograph or video that is suitable for a specific post, I’m sure you will be able to find a GIF that can do the job. As GIFs are moving images, you will find that they attract a lot of attention to a post as they can attract a lot of attention. Not only that, though, but they make a post very shareable.

As you can see, you have lots of media to choose from. Whichever you go with will depend on the specific social media post or website page that you are adding it to!

Is It Worth Hiring A Social Media Manager?

Ahhh the bane of social media.

Time consuming, tedious, yet the majority of your competitors are using it forcing you to at least TRY to keep up appearances.

But is it worth hiring social media assistance? After all, you seem to be surviving with the obligatory 3 tweets a day…. even IF engagement is minimal, so what other services can a social media manager provide?

Time Restraints

Unfortunately, if you’re a founder, 3 tweets a day is probably all you can manage within your time constraints, and seeing as your tweet is likely to only be seen for a maximum of 20 seconds, you’ll need all the engagement you can get!

This is where a social media manager can be invaluable.

Not only can they manage multiple social media accounts, they can also monitor your competitors, engage with their customers and potentially create new leads.

After all, at the end of the day our main aim is to create leads and a strong brand presence and the simple fact is…… this can take time, time which you probably don’t have.

Balanced Content

The majority of social media managers will use your account NOT just to promote your product or service, but to post on topics relevant to your niche.

You see, there’s nothing worse than over promotional tweeting and nothing will make me unfollow someone faster.

A GOOD social media manager will use the 80/20 ratio, where they will divide promotional activities with content that holds VALUE! Increasing your following AND your engagement.

Sales

A GREAT social media manager always looks for the potential sales and opportunities. Did you know that you can find leads through Twitter just by typing in keywords in the search bar?

For example, if you’re a D.I.Y store looking for leads, just typing in ‘I hate D.I.Y London’ will bring you up potential leads from frustrated people having issues with D.I.Y furniture, painting ect – so a social media manager can engage with them and provide a solution.

Also, simply by monitoring your competitors followers and engaging with them, you have the potential to convert them to loyal customers. A good S.M manager will create Twitter lists for your target audience to engage with them on a daily basis.

Business Development

You may be surprised to find that social media managers have a plethora of skills, from sales, PR, SEO, to PPC and website design.

Social media and business development also go hand in hand and every opportunity can be taken to develop partnerships and target potential distributors in your niche.

My current client has already managed to be featured in 3 website articles in her niche providing her with much needed PR and backlinks. After all, who DOESN’T want to increase their google rankings?

Blogging

As much as you may hate it, it’s a fact that Google HATES static websites. Yes, it can take an hour or two out of your day but to start with, you only really need to be posting once or twice a week, and each post can be UNDER 500 words.

Creating a business blog for my last client was the SOLE reason we increased our traffic so dramatically, and even doubled our preferred London audience base.

When it comes to content, lists are always very popular. If you were a dating agency for example, short posts such as ‘ The 3 most romantic rooftops bars in London’ or ‘ The 3 best date outfits’ are simple yet catchy.

Too many founders see social media as something we do to keep an online presence, and not as a valuable sales tool.

So what it really comes down to is if you don’t have the time to put in at least 5 hours a week to engage with potential customers, create new blog content and look for potential partnerships & PR opportunities, then it would be worthwhile looking to find some extra help.

Click HERE for my social media & business development packs!

This Software Will Boost Your Business

Modern businesses can hardly call themselves modern businesses if they don’t have the right software. A lot of business owners swear by Microsoft Office suites, which works out well for many of them. But there are at least a couple of problems if you’re only going to use Microsoft Office. The first is that Microsoft Office suites are expensive – you can get most of the same functionalities from the likes of OpenOffice and Google Drive for free. The second is that you might find yourself surprisingly limited if you’re not willing to look into other software solutions!

We’re going to take a look at some of the best software solutions for many different aspects of office-based businesses.

Accounting

Don’t just assume that an accountant is going to do just fine with pencils, a calculator, and maybe a copy of Microsoft Excel! This isn’t really the most efficient way to go about the job. If you’re interested in improving efficiency for accountants, then you might want to take a look at the software that Intuit offers. QuickBooks is one of the most popular software solutions in this area of business, though some feel that there are better and cheaper solutions. Still, a free trial of QuickBooks is certainly worth investigating if you want to make your accountant’s job a little easier!

Human resources

You have an HR department, right? Sure, not every business needs one, but as soon as you start to go from a very small business to a small-to-medium-sized business, you might want to rethink your approach. Ellis Whittam provide assistance for those looking to set up such departments. On the software side, BrightHR is one of the more popular names in the field right now. The right software makes it so much easier for employees and HR workers to keep track of communications and requests. Employees can access the software in order to book days off or check how much annual leave they have remaining.

Project management

Without the right management, projects can turn into a confusing mess very quickly. Even projects that seem fairly simple at first can turn into a chaotic jumble of crossed wires and missed deadlines. Making sure everyone is on the same page, with project and task visibility at a high priority, is what you should be aiming for here. There are some free web-based solutions that you should consider; Trello is a user-friendly project management platform that is popular with both businesses and individuals.

Analytics

Without analytics, you’re not going to have a great idea of just how potent your web presence is. And, as I’m sure you’ve heard from other sources, a good web presence is essential for businesses that wish to grow their consumer base. Google Analytics is the first name that most people will suggest and, to be honest, there’s little reason for us to suggest that you should look to another solution! Love it or hate it, Google can be instrumental to the success on your website and social media platforms, so using their solutions is usually the most reliable way of improving and tracking your presence.