Small Business

An Overview of Social Media Tools and Outlets (Part 2)

In Part 2 of An Overview of Social Media Tools and Outlets, I want to talk about other avenues that are used for sending out messages and connecting with others in the Social Media Space, specifically Blogging, Podcasting, and Email Marketing (See Part 1 here).

One of my personal favorites in social media is Blogging. Blogs provide a way to establish yourself as a thought-leader in your field, and regular blogging on a consistent schedule can help you grow your small business because it allows you to build web traffic by providing useful information to your blog’s visitors. At SSS for Success we specialize in providing Branded Blogs which are highly customized blogs built around your brand and designed to amplify your company's message in the blogosphere and throughout the World Wide Web. One good thing about blogs, versus say a regular website, is that blogs are better for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes because a blog is updated more than a traditional website, thus prompting search engine spiders (or robots) to crawl your blog pages more frequently and increasing your chances of being found through search engine results for specific keywords.

The next social media outlet is Podcasting (or digital audio broadcasting) which is like broadcasting your own radio show, where people can choose to download it and listen to it at their leisure. Podcasting can help you drive traffic to your small business's website by providing a platform for you to talk about your area of expertise via your very own broadcast known as “podcast”. It is a great way to amplify your company's message and reach a new audience in a different online medium. Some interesting stats on podcasting: Approximately 45 million people in the U.S. have gym memberships. Why is this relevant? Because most will need something to listen to during the 30-60 minutes that they work out. Another stat: 97 million people who drive to work along on a daily basis, with an average commute time of 25 minutes. Again, a podcast for this lonely driver definitely fills a void. One of the things that I like about podcasting is its relatively low cost of entry into the field. All you really need is a microphone, some recording software, and web hosting space to store your files. This is something you can get started with for $50 or less. As with anything, once you get more sophisticated in your podcasting, it can get more expensive, but I like how you can tinker around with it first, and see if it’s really for you before making a huge financial commitment. If you visit this blog often, you might also be interested in checking out our podcast in iTunes here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sss-for-success/id420375160

Last but not least, I want to talk about Email Marketing because even in the age of mobile internet and text messaging, there’s still some people out there that are using email marketing and using it well. It will certainly depend on your industry and audience, but a well-run email marketing campaign can be the difference between an empty inbox and your phone consistently ringing off the hook! Email Marketing through e-newsletters can be used to build bring traffic either to your website or blog, and ultimately enhance your small business's overall brand by nurturing the relationships you have with your customers. For instance, email marketing builds your reputation as an information resource to your core audience, and it lets your audience know that you know what you’re talking about. It also keeps you connected with your audience, and it gives you the opportunity to stay relevant and provide useful information that they’ll appreciate. If you sell things, or at one point will want to promote something, it’s a great way to have a “pre-sold” audience who trusts you and your opinions, and it helps you build traffic and enhance your brand, while engaging in activities that help your business’s bottom line.

Another hot topic in the Social Media Space for business professionals is Mobile Marketing. It definitely has people buzzing, especially as more and more people are using their mobile devices to get more things done. I’ll be talking about Mobile Marketing soon on this blog, so please stay tuned for updates.

So, that’s a general overview of social media tools and outlets, and there is certainly more to share. The main point that I want you to walk away with here is that you want to be sure to choose the right mix of social media outlets that fit with your company’s message and branding. As always, you can feel free to give me a call at 615-336-4325, if you have any questions about how you can better utilize social media in your small business, and I’ll end part 2 of this series by asking: Have you tried any of these outlets, and what’s been your experience with them?

Kindra Cotton, Small Business Survival Specialist

An Overview of Social Media Tools and Outlets (Part 2)

An Overview of Social Media Tools and Outlets (Part 1)

By sss4success 7 Comments

I could probably write a book about the myriad of Social Media Tools and Outlets that are out there today, and that book would surely be outdated by the time it hits the shelves. What I will do today is give a general overview of the social media tools and outlets that are currently out there, and tell you a little bit about them, and how they work. Because there’s so much to share, even when giving a broad overview, I’ve broken this into two parts. The first part talks about specific platforms, and Part 2 will get into other outlets that are used for sending out messages in the social media space. Over the next few weeks, I’ll devote more blog entries and detail to each specific platform and outlet, but for the time being, here’s a general rundown of the forces currently dominating the Social Media Space:

First is Facebook. You can’t deny it. Facebook is certainly the place to be online, for both personal and professional use. I’ll start by just giving you a few stats about Facebook (from Facebook): According to Facebook, they have more than 500 million active users, where 50% log on to the platform each day. The average user has about 130 friends, and people spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook. All very impressive, but as a Facebook user, and one who understands statistics and how they’re compiled, I can tell you that I believe their “500 million active users” statistic to be quite off, and I also believe that Facebook knows it’s off. Because I’ll bet it doesn’t take into account the number of users that hold multiple accounts. I know personally, I have 4 Facebook accounts, but only 3 of those are legitimate, as one was signed up for fraudulently using one of my email address, and no one at Facebook seems to want to do anything to keep this person from hijacking my email address to use their service. The fact that this person has been using their Facebook account signed up using my email address, and Facebook has done NOTHING to police them, lets me know that there “500 million active users” number is false. It’s probably more like 300 million users, and while that number is still impressive, I just feel the need to be truthful and spread the honesty around whenever I can.

Next, on the heels of Facebook, are Facebook Pages, which are of particular interest to business owners, especially since the average Facebook user is connected to approximately 80 community pages, groups or events, meaning that they’re actively engaging their social community and likely the business community connected to it, through Facebook and its Pages. A Facebook Page differs from a Facebook account because a Facebook account or profile, which is typically what people mean when they say “I’m on Facebook”, lets you have an account where you can add up to 5000 friends. A Facebook Page on the other hand, lets you have an unlimited amount of “Fans” or people who LIKE your Facebook Page (see the Facebook Page Widget to the right on this blog), and this is especially helpful to you as your brand grows and you want to be able to reach tons more people than 5000 friend limit that’s attached to personal Facebook accounts. One of the best advantages of having a Facebook Page is that it can become the major hub of your business on Facebook, and if you use Facebook in your personal life, you can start to have a wall between your personal and professional Facebook images.

Third, is Youtube. In just over six years, Youtube has become THE video-sharing website that allows users to upload, share, and view videos loaded onto the internet. A few Youtube stats here: Youtube exceed 2 billion views a day, and 70% of their traffic comes from the United States. 24 hours of video is uploaded every minute of the day, and the best stat for business owners, the average person spends 15 minutes per day on Youtube. Another statistic about Youtube that I love is that more video is uploaded in 60 days there than has been uploaded in 60 years from the 3 major U.S. television networks. Amazing. The bottom line here, if you can pull it off, try to find a way to incorporate Youtube into your social media plan.

Fourth, is Twitter. Twitter now has 190 million users tweeting 65 million times a day. FYI: A tweet is a message sent out into the internet world for your followers to read in 140 characters or less. What that means is, if your business isn’t on Twitter, your competitors’ probably are. And more importantly, they’re tapped into the buzz surrounding your brand or industry, so if you’re not, you could be missing out. Now, to be clear, Twitter isn’t for everyone. Someone once advised me that Twitter is best for a company seeking to build a “global brand” or at least national one, where it behooves you to have connections that are far outside of your own geographic location. For many small businesses and solo-entrepreneurs carving out niches, it may not be necessary to be on Twitter, but in my opinion, I think it’s something that’s at least worth checking out, because rest assured people that are in your customer base are using Twitter, whether they’re interacting with you on it or not.

Professionals love the fifth choice of LinkedIn. With now more than 100,000,000 users, all geared towards professional interactions, LinkedIn is definitely the place to be if you’re looking for a job, or seeking qualified candidates in your field. LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet in over 200 countries and territories. The idea behind LinkedIn is that you’re connected to other professionals based on who you know, and your connections are based on a 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd degrees influence. First degree connections are people that you know or have allowed into your LinkedIn network. You can directly message and interact with them, without any filters. Second- level connections are people that you may know based on your professional or educational affiliations, people who are known by the other people in your network, or even people who belong to a LinkedIn Group with you. Finally, third degree connections don’t know you, nor do you know anyone in their network, and you have no connections to them, and you’re limited in your capacity to reach out to them.

So, those are the major social media platforms that are all a-buzz these days, and in Part 2, I’ll talk about some other social media outlets that can be used to grow your business in the Social Media World.

Are there more I could mention? Surely. But for brevity’s sake, I’ll end this here by asking: What's your favorite social media outlet? What platform do you find to be the most useful for your small business?

Kindra Cotton, Small Business Survival Specialist

An Overview of Social Media Tools and Outlets (Part 1)

The True Cost of a Domain Renewal: A Tip for Purchasing Domains

By sss4success 8 Comments

When I consult with someone about creating a website or blog, one of the issues that comes up is purchasing a domain. The ideal scenario would be to purchase your company or brand name at its .COM extension, but now days, a full several decades into “The Internet”, you’ll find that many .COM extensions are taken, especially for popular terms and phrases.

In cases where people actually do find their preferred .COM domain, the next issue is how many years should you purchase it for. Meaning, how many years are you going to pay for now, before it’s time to renew your domain again, typically at whatever the “then current” renewal rate is.

Allow me to back up a little bit here and explain how domains work. A domain is like a telephone number. Once you acquire it, as long as you pay for it (typically to a domain registrar) it belongs to you. When you stop paying for it, or cancel it, or allow it to expire, just like with phone numbers, it goes back into the pool of available domains that someone else can then purchase.

So in this respect, when confronted with purchasing a domain, I typically tell my clients to purchase their preferred .COM domain for as many years as they can afford. Most companies, like GoDaddy, will allow you to purchase your domain at a set price and they’ll offer that same price for multiple years. For instance, this current GoDaddy Domain Sale offers .COM domains for $7.49/year, which means that you can purchase your domain for several years, say 5, and pay about $37, as opposed to what you’d pay if you purchase it for just one year at $7.49, then renewed annually at whatever the current rate was at your domain registrar.

The True Cost of a Domain Renewal: A Tip for Purchasing Domains I use the example of a $10 domain on my company’s website (see the image to the right), because I think that gives us good clean numbers to work with. In the example, the domain starts off at $10 per year, and the price of a renewal increases annually by 20% (which is on par with the industry standard). Purchasing the domain the first year at $10, then renewing it annually at its current rate would mean you’ll end up paying a total of $74.42 over a five year period. Whereas, if you purchase the $10 domain for five years, you’d have spent $50 upfront and essentially saved about 33% by making that purchase when you first acquired your domain.

It’s a fairly simple transaction, but a great way to save money, especially in the early years. Add to that the confidence that you have in your brand, and it’s definitely a worthwhile investment.

One other tip I’d like to add is this: If you’re fortunate enough to acquire your .COM domain when you first start off, buy all of the other domain extensions like .NET, .ORG, .MOBI, .INFO, .BIZ, and even the newest .CO that you can afford, in addition to any common misspellings, if you can afford those too. Do this to protect your brand, because there is a whole industry of people that make their living off of buying similar domains of popular brands and either re-selling them to you at a premium rate, re-selling them to your direct competitor, thus siphoning off your web traffic, or worse, positioning themselves as you, under a very similar domain name, and infringing upon your brand name in that way.

Just some tips and advice that I hope helps make the Web 2.0 environment a little less intimidating.

Kindra Cotton, Small Business Survival Specialist

The True Cost of a Domain Renewal