We have written about effective business blogging in the past.  Social media marketing for small to mid-size businesses is a topic RevenFlo is passionate about and we have a lot to say.  Our unwavering belief in the power of social media compelled us to write this follow up post with Five MORE Tips for Effective Business Blogging. Read the rest of this entry »

Social Media is Omnipotent

Social media is all over the place, more and more frequently TV hosts remind us to check them out on Facebook or to reach them via Tweet (it sounds really odd from Dr. Phil).  Just this past week I took my bi-annual trip to the mega mall in our area and noticed a lot of signs in stores encouraging shoppers to look up their Facebook page and become a fan. My trip to the mall left me with the impression that social media has infiltrated the masses and is rapidly approaching it’s saturation point.

What does that mean for the small business owner that has a desire to maximize their social media presence and increase their bottom line in the process?  The good news it that it means there are more social media followers than ever which equates to more potential customers that are now in your extended Facebook network.  The reality is that when the saturation point hits you want to be well positioned with your fans in order to keep a captive audience.  A typical small business sets up a Fan page, invites their pre-existing friends and does little else to grow the fan base and add inherent value to their Fan page.

Keep Fans Interested and Grow your Fan Base

Let me start with acknowledging your willingness to tackle social media and kudos to you. Now that we are approaching “social media saturation” it is time for the small business owner to get a little more savvy in leveraging their Facebook presence.  The best way to add value to your site is timely and relevant page updates.

Here are the basics:

• Update your content with regularity and mix up the types of content as frequently as possible:  add video, photos, update your status to reflect what is exciting or new with your business.

• Elicit responses from Fans by asking for their feedback, opinions, etc.

• Post during “high traffic” times

• Use the calendar to add upcoming events

• Use the Facebook Fan Page to Twitter app if you are on Twitter as well

Find your Facebook groove

What is a Facebook groove?  Well it is specific to the company.  My general opinion is that if you do not have a retail store or an existing customer base that you can mine, it is much more challenging to engage a fan base.  If you are in the service industry or perhaps a niche market that customers seek out when they need your product or service, you may need to work a little harder.  A good place to start is to do a search for your industry on Facebook and check out other Fan pages.  Make note of what that particular company is doing well and implement in a way that fits your company.  Remember the old adage, copying is the highest form of flattery?  It applies on Facebook as well!

After you have checked out what your local and national competitors are doing there is another area you should address. Check out the Fan pages of large companies that you are  interested in.  This is a great way to see what others are doing to keep fans engaged and to add value to their brand.  I pay particular attention to companies that have marketing and advertising campaigns that I admire.  The best case scenario is that if a company runs a great ad campaign-they just might have a bangin’ Facebook page with a big time fan base.  Keep in mind large companies throw a lot of dollars towards marketing and advertising and have access to the best firms in the business.  The probability that you can learn something from the pros is good.  Let me help you out and give you a few companies that are “known” for having a great Fan page: Coca Cola, Starbucks and Volkswagen.  Go from there and take the time to check out companies that you admire and you will probably discover a few new ways to leverage Facebook.

Set up a Strategy

If you are not sure what to post-ask your fans!  That is a great way to get people involved and engaged.  If you offer relevant and interesting content you will have an active fan base and be more likely to grow your fan base.  The other thing you can do is create a master idea list for your Facebook page-generate a list of industry topics that you can post on, create pre -determined photo categories and commit to updating them with regularity.  People are far more likely to visit your page if update your page with relevant information.  Being on Facebook is a step in the right direction, using all of the exiting outlets a Fan page provides to craft a message, reach prospects and/or existing customers is good business.

RevenFlo offers monthly Web Marketing programs!

We ROCK your social media.  We can assist you in developing a Facebook strategy that helps position your company in the forefront of the Social Media Revolution!

David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR had a good rant posted on his blog about this the other day. There is a growing sense of frustration among web marketers who find themselves repeatedly stonewalled by executives asking “What’s the ROI?” or making grandiose statements such as “I can only commit $X funds if you can guarantee that I’ll see Y% return.” Yeah, yeah, we get it. You’ve got to CYA. Here’s what you’re missing out on though: Read the rest of this entry »

In today’s business climate, business’ are increasingly expected to have an online presence.  An increasing number of business owners are incorporating online marketing when they allocate dollars for marketing efforts.  The possibilities for online marketing are constantly evolving and can be highly effective in attracting prospects and promoting a brand.  In many cases, small businesses are putting more marketing dollars towards online marketing campaigns that incorporate social media, pay-per-click campaigns and website overhauls than more traditional advertising mediums. Read the rest of this entry »

The New Year is finally here and, I don’t know what it is, but something just feels different about 2010. Everyone at Revenflo is super excited about 2010 and the possibilities that exist. I wanted to start the new year off right with a new small business-focused approach to creating content – one that addresses the core questions and opportunities about marketing on the web. I plan to make this a weekly series about marketing and the web, so if there are specific topics you want me to cover, leave a comment and I will put it in the queue.

There has been a major shift in web marketing during the past three years, brought on largely by three factors:

• Search Engines – Whether it’s Google, Bing or whatever comes next, let’s face it – most people think of that box with a blinking cursor in the middle of their screen AS THE INTERNET.

• Content Creation – Businesses are now pumping out blog posts, email newsletters, video, tweets and such for a new connected world

• Social Media – Facebook has blown up the world, and it only gets bigger from here…WAY BIGGER.

These three factors quantify How, Why, and Where people are spending their time online, and should also define – wait for it – HOW YOU SPEND YOUR MONTHLY MARKETING BUDGET.

But how do you do that? I’d like to present the six most effective tools to spend your marketing budget on, and give you an idea what percentage of that monthly total each tool should consume. It’s a sliding scale, and the precise percentage will vary between business model. But hese numbers will give you a rough idea of the cost and/or importance of each tool.

Here, then, are 6 real-world, start-tomorrow suggestions on HOW TO SPEND YOUR MONEY.

#1 Get a NEW Website…

listen, before you go any farther…make sure you are in a fully scalable system that allows you to publish content and alter your site on the fly. If not, it will take much longer for you to respond to changing factors in your industry…making the whole endeavor that much harder. It you are using a Content Management System (CMS,) then go to step 2.

#2 SEO – search engine marketing

In the plain terms that I like to talk about with tactics, there is no other place to start the conversation, because its where everyone else is starting – at least for the near term. In the coming years this will start to change, as businesses begin to receive rankings and referrals from social media, but for now SEO is the top of the heap, and the best bang for your buck. Think about it, if you don’t show up on the first 3 pages of Google, Yahoo or Bing then your website has no chance – and I do mean zero – of producing for you. Spend 40% of your money here.

#3 Blog Posts, Press Releases, Written Content for your site

This goes hand in hand with the first two recommendations. We can do so much with written content and the search engines love it. Google ranks you on many factors and almost all of them revolve around written content creation. So here is what you should do, from the very beginning: hire a company that can help you get this process under control. It would be great if you could take some time to write. It really isn’t that hard and the process can be quite relaxing after you get the hang of it. But, ask yourself, will you actually take the time to do it? Likely about half as often as your best intentions. But that’s not bad if you have a company taking up your slack when you have an important golf trip or need a mental health day at the beach. You see, Google doesn’t care about your golf trip…just that your website is producing regular content. Spend 20-25% of your money here.

#4  Automated Email follow-up

This is a fairly new concept, and it differs from just pushing out an email newsletter. It is client-specific, client-tracking, client-metrics, client-strategy, and it has just recently come down to an affordable price. Don’t contract with a vendor, pay thousands of dollars to license software, and then pay a butt-ton of monthly fees – there is a better way!

Monthly services like Infusionsoft are affordable and downright easy to integrate into your daily workflow. Get this, you set up campaigns and not only can your track the campaigns but also THE CLIENT or PROSPECT! How amazing is that? But you must strategically work through the process: creating the content, capturing your client education and buying process, and constructing a campaign. That is where you are going to spend the most money…after it is created then you will just need small tweaks and updates and an administrator can perform. Spend 10% of your money here.

#5 Social Media

In 2009, many well-known brands and large businesses stepped up to the plate, spending significant money on social media. Small businesses are just starting to get their feet wet with this form of media. One big thing to consider here is the message you are promoting. To really make a dent in social media you need a strategy and some tried and tested methods that will produce the type of conversation that works in social media. So keep your spending moderate until you are able to hammer out the details and the framework of your campaigns. The great thing about this medium is that with a little time and budget its a very meaningful way to connect with your sphere of connections. Spend 10% of your money here.

#6 Video

Video is changing how we interact with the web. Youtube is the second largest search engine. Video hardware is getting better and cheaper. More consumers are migrating to high-speed internet connections, and those speeds keep increasing. All of this is leading us into a time when business will use video to communicate regularly with clients, be it training, demonstrations, interviews, product reviews, promotion, and so on. Revenflo is delving into this area as we speak. We have an appointment later this month with our Revenflo videographer for an interview style session. Our approach will be to produce regularly scheduled, informal 3-5 minute segments of video interviews (during one video session) with the owner of Revenflo, Jason Broadwater. Spend 10-20% here.

We want to know what you think and what questions you have. Take a moment and let us know.