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Marketing

Using Facebook Live for Business

Video is the king of all content. By combining visuals with the message you are trying to get across, a powerful information medium is created. Facebook Live, the new live video streaming platform, allows real-time customer interaction with nothing more than a Facebook account and a video camera.

One of the biggest perks of Facebook Live is the ability to view engagement in real time. As you stream, customers can react to the video with a variety of Emojis as well as live chat. Never has a business been able to interact with their customers on such a large scale. Facebook Live can be used in a variety of applications, however, these tested methods are a great start!

Inside Looks

Customers love seeing behind the scenes of their favorite business. My giving an inside look at your manufacturing process or giving a live demo of your product, customers will be more inclined to support your business. This not only will boost engagement, but customers will feel like they are part of something exclusive.

Live Events

If you host seminars, conferences or events, Facebook Live will open your business or brand to entirely new market that may otherwise never find you. By live streaming these events, customers who couldn’t afford to go or couldn’t travel to be there can still benefit from the experience. This will help build brand loyalty and customer appreciation. Access can also be limited by groups of individuals!

Business Updates

Businesses within the service industry can use Facebook Live to talk about promotions or what the company has been doing recently. Some podcasters have started using the platform to provide information to a wider audience. If the live stream produces informational or fun content, people will likely return for another live stream event.

If you are struggling with your social media content and outreach strategies, Skynet Solutions can help you succeed in this growing medium. You can fill out our contact form to get started today. You can also connect with us on FacebookTwitterGoogle+ and LinkedIn!

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Marketing

Working with SEO Companies: Google My Business

Recently, Google released a list of recommendations for picking a reputable local company to help improve SEO and Google search rankings. Google My Business makes local businesses more easily found within search results. This can lead to an increase in organic, local customers to aid in small business growth.

Google admits that even with the tools they provide, not everyone has the time required to set up a listing or properly maintain it. Working with a third party can help achieve these results with little to no effort by the business, letting them focus on maintaining store operations. For this reason, Google released their own list over “how to work with a third-party”, however, we will go over some of the more prominent points.

Be Selective

Google makes it very clear that not all third-party SEO providers are equal. It is important to find a company that has managed business listings previously while similar target audiences or budgets equivalent to your own. Furthermore, don’t be afraid to ask what other services they can provide to further your business goals.

Stick to One Company at a Time

Testing one SEO company at a time will ensure you are receiving unadulterated results from the Google My Business management you are receiving. Business listings are only shown once for each location available, meaning multiple companies would we working over each other. For best results, test companies individually, if you are satisfied with the results then stick to that SEO provider.

Evaluate Business Performance

Google My Business offers a multitude of insights and analytics options. With these tools, businesses can track how customers are finding them and interaction levels they are achieving through the listing. Reviewing Google My Business insights monthly can help evaluate the effectiveness of the third-party in use.

Avoid Deceptive Behaviors

It is important that the third-party used to manage a Google My Business account remains transparent. As the business owner, you are entitled to know how users are interacting with your business and specific data counts, such as views and clicks. It is also important to note that third-parties cannot influence the order in which a business appears on Google Search or Maps.

Also, it is imperative that you obtain an official copy of your agreement before giving your Google My Business account to a third-party for outsourced management. This can help ensure no deceptive pricing is enforced. Regardless of what the third-party provider says, they cannot remove your business from Google or access the listing without your permission. For more information on working with third-parties read the entire Google help page by clicking here.

You can always call the experts at Skynet Solutions for help with your business listing, website development, marketing or anything else you need to help make your business succeed. With our diverse range of skills and experience, we are sure to have the tools you need to make 2016 your business’s best year yet. You can fill out our contact form to get started today. You can also connect with us on FacebookTwitterGoogle+ and LinkedIn!

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Marketing

LinkedIn for Small Business Growth

When businesses begin establishing their social media presence, one platform is almost always underutilized or completed neglected. LinkedIn can add a professional element to business’s social media marketing plan. LinkedIn was created to be a community of professionals that are interested in how other market their business and themselves, giving the ability for small businesses to reach out to top performers and adjust their social media marketing strategies accordingly.

LinkedIn company pages can function as a free marketing tool to function as a supplemental page to create organic traffic to a primary website. Company pages also get phenomenal search rankings due to the nature of social media platforms and the inclusion of keywords within the company description. If a primary website isn’t performing great, a supplemental company page on LinkedIn can help bridge the gap in search results to help others find a business’s primary page.

Creating a company page on LinkedIn can also help a sales representative for a company create positive business to business sales connections. With the overwhelming majority of employees within companies creating personal LinkedIn pages, finding the correct person to reach out to has become an easy process. Making person to person marketing more easily done. This can help build rapport between two company representatives and result in increased sales potential.

One of the biggest factors for drawing businesses onto LinkedIn, is the opportunity to search endless amounts of profiles during a hiring process. Personal LinkedIn profiles function as supplemental data to a potential candidate’s resume. When a business finds a candidate that may meet their needs, they have the ability to reach out to them directly and encourage them to apply directly from the job posting. This can help recruiters within a small business effectively diversify and fill out their company needs.

If you are struggling with your social media content and outreach strategies, Skynet Solutions can help you succeed in this growing medium. You can fill out our contact form to get started today. You can also connect with us on FacebookTwitterGoogle+ and LinkedIn!

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Marketing

Exploiting Publishing Calendars for Social Media

In the journalism industry, editorial calendars are used to control the scheduled release of information and content. If the content is released too late, it will no longer be relevant to audiences that it is intended to reach. With the transition from print media to online formats, many journalistic outlets are still using editorial calendars for new stories, however, with the rise of social media, these calendars have begun to include social media as well.

For businesses that aren’t journalistic outlets but have social media profiles, creating an editorial calendar can help organize content while keeping it consistent and relevant. Publishing calendars can help the great writers employed at a business keep on task while keeping in step with the objectives of the business. If the business has a group of writers that specialize in different topics, a publishing calendar can help divvy up content that matches the strength of a given writer. The amount of content that is included in the calendar is at the discretion of the business, but it is important to not give the writers more content to write than is manageable.

One of the best reasons for creating a publishing calendar for social media is that it creates a record of when the content was posted and what that content was. This can be helpful for determining future analytics to see what content worked the best and received the most engagement. By having this data handy, successful social media implementation will be a breeze. The downside is analytics take time to gather and during that time some good and bad times may come. Just remember it’s all part of the process!

If you are struggling with your social media content and outreach strategies, Skynet Solutions can help you succeed in this growing medium. You can fill out our contact form to get started today. You can also connect with us on FacebookTwitterGoogle+ and LinkedIn!