Clearview National September 2016 - Issue 178 | Page 83

INSTALLERSUPPORT

How Social Is Your Business?
We’ve seen the way businesses promote themselves change drastically
over the last 10 years. Businesses no longer rely solely on word of
mouth, face-to-face and copious amounts of networking.
»»SOME BUSINESSES ONLY
use online platforms to attract
new business and customers.
With the growth of online and
digital, new trends are always
coming into play and it can be
a tough one to keep up with.
Lee Nicolaou, Digital Marketing
Manager at Bussinesagent.com,
discusses how to be more social
with your business and to stay
in the forever changing loop of
trends…
FACEBOOK
Facebook suits all business
sizes. You should have a Facebook
for your business no matter
what you do. Here you can keep
customers up to date with what
you are up to, new products
and any deals you may have
running.
The ‘Facebook Buttons’ feature
also allows you to put great call
to actions on your page such
as ‘Call Now’, ‘Book Now’, or
even ‘Shop Now’, where you can
integrate your online store and
products onto your Facebook
page. Its great free marketing,
especially if you are sharing
strong content, you will see an
organic growth.
If you are really looking to
excel growth using Facebook,
you will be interested in using
its ad features. You can push out
adverts and contents to Facebook
users in order to increase your
page likes for brand awareness.
You can tailor your ads to exactly
where you want them to be and
who you want to see them, by
age, location (great if you are a
local business), likes and dislikes
and gender. So you can really get
your page in front of the right
audience.

Remember to stay engaged
with your page users and try to
respond to questions quickly. This
will help your page gather a better
rating and will keep users from
leaving.
TWITTER
Twitter is essentially a big
conversation where you and
others can discuss topics, articles
and latest trends. It’s one of the
best places to show the values and
the personal side behind your
business, what you stand for and
what you are about.

‘It’s good to note
that they both offer
a Pay Per Click
service, meaning
you only pay for
the actual clicks
you receive’
Your business can come
across more as an individual
and engage and empathise with
others on topics you believe
in and feel passionate towards.
Again, using strong content, you

will be more likely to receive
Retweets and likes, which leads
to organic growth and a larger
following.
Following strong influencers
will help you see what’s on trend
and what to be discussing. It’s
important to keep on top of
whatever is also ‘trending’, using
the Hashtag you can be a voice in
the conversations and a good post
can really boost your presence.
Twitter also offers a great
advert feature, which is similar to
Facebook. It’s good to note that
they both offer a Pay Per Click
service, meaning you only pay for
the actual clicks you receive.
LINKEDIN
This is a more professional
platform to connect with users
and customers, with a huge
profile of professionals, all
categorised by job title, work
place and the groups they are
part of.
Joining groups and posting
discussion topics is a great way
of engaging and drawing in new
users. Linkedin has great features
for posting articles and creating
groups, as well as educational and
mutual interest areas.

INSTAGRAM &
SNAPCHAT
These are two slightly different
platforms based on images rather
than lengthy articles. You can use
Instagram to post engaging and
interesting photos, displaying
your work, office or the more fun
side of your business. Instagram
is huge and has millions of daily
users, if you can figure out what
will catch the eye of your target
audience, it’s a solid win.
Snapchat is slightly different,
you post images and videos to
your story and your ‘friends’ can
view this and also reply to you.
This isn’t one for every business
but for some it can really work.
One way might be to display
before and after pictures of
projects you’ve worked on.

‘for some it can
really work’
HAVE FUN
Some of the most successful
accounts are from companies who
really have a laugh with customers
and can laugh at themselves too.
It’s not a constant sales pitch
online and users will soon leave
if you are plugging your product
and service 24/7. They want to
see a more down to earth side of
the people behind the business in
order to build up a level of trust
and respect.
Images always work well too; a
post is much more likely to gain
attention with a nice image to
go along with it, rather than just
lengthy text.
Remember, there are also many
more platforms than mentioned
above but I recommend these as a
good starting point.

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