Social Media Marketing 2 - Old City Web Services

Social Media: Why Photos & Videos?

July 5, 2016 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

Using Photos on Social Media for your Business

Example of using images as a post for Facebook

Over the years Social Media has shifted to Visual Social Media. This means photos have increased in popularity for social media. This shift happened because our society is drawn to visual content. Photos help your customers relate to your business post and they tell a story. Users are more likely to engage and follow businesses that post more photos or videos. For example, photos on Facebook tend to generate 53% more likes on a post than without photos. What does this mean for you business's social media? It means using images on social networking platforms gets those clients engaged!

Overall, photos help break up content overload. Showing your clients rather than telling is what will get you customers interested in your social network. Pictures are worth a thousand words. For example, if you want to introduce a new product, take a picture of it and share it on your social media. Did you hire a new team member or redecorate your office space? Share it! Showing will leave a bigger impact on them as well as others that are following your clients posts will see your new product, team member, etc. All in all, images make connections and social media is all about networking.

You don't have to be an expert. Don't be afraid - get creative with your visual content use your smart phone, camera, or clip art online.

Here are some ideas to consider using.

[/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="no" center_content="no" min_height="none"]

Example of using an image of Facebook.

Add words to a picture by either providing a contest for your customers, a daily tip or just add a quote.
Draw a cartoon then take a picture of it.
Make a graph.
Make a video of either the daily life at the office or how you make a certain product.
Use a GIF (animations) you found.
Take a picture of your product and have customers give their opinion. EX: Does this shirt look better in blue or in red? or What should our daily special be today?
Example of using an image on Twitter

Need to see some more examples? Check out our Facebook and Twitter for more examples of using photos and videos in post.

If your business doesn't have any quality images or time to take images, we can help. Contact us today to set up a photo shoot for your business.

Picking the Right Platform for Your Business

June 22, 2016 by anoadmin

With so many social media platforms out there how do decide on which one is best for your business. The guide below should help with some of the confusion you might have as a business owner. Let’s take a look at all the different platforms and how they interact with people.

Facebook- Is an open environment where you have the freedom to share and connect. You can upload images, message friends, write post, create events, and share other people’s post. Having a business on Facebook you receive a business profile where you can make a post, create events and post things about your business. You also have an “About” section and some nice tools to view how well you are doing on Facebook with your customers. Facebook is for making engaging post so your customers will get involved by liking, commenting or sharing.

Twitter- Is an environment where you can make quick short status post. Twitter only allows you to write something that is 140 characters, able to add hashtags and pictures. You can also “retweet” or like someone’s tweet. Instead of friends, like Facebook, you have followers who are able to see all your tweets.

Instagram- This platform you can only upload images, comment or like others images. On Instagram you can only use the app version, it does not allow you to use it on a desktop. This platform you have followers, like Twitter.

Pinterest- Allows users to visually share, and discover new interests by posting (known as 'pinning') images or videos to their own or others' boards and browsing what other users have pinned. This site is very popular with women.

LinkedIn- Is a network you can connect with other professionals. You create a personal profile and list all the place you have worked and connect with other people in varies professions. It’s kind of like a big resume connector. This platform’s focus is on the person and their professional experience rather than your business.

If you are still struggling with understanding or even with setting up a Social Media for your business, we are here to help. Get in contact today to get started!

Old City Web Services Launches New Website!

June 15, 2016 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

WE HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT !

We are very excited to show off our new website here at Old City Web Services! Everything has been updated from images for the website, the "About" section to our portfolio. Not only is it responsive on any device, but it's also easier to navigate through our site. So go explore our new site, and click on everything! See what Old City Web Services can do for your business!

We recognize we have to update our website, Is it time to update yours?
Contact Us Today to Get Started!

Practical Social Media Tips

January 27, 2016 by anoadmin

Social Media can be both fun and good for business. It is a place to be a little more casual, and to let your clients - current and potential - learn a little more about you. There are things you need to know before you get started on social media though, to make sure that you make the most of the time you are spending on it, and to make the most of your customers' time.

Spend time on your profile – Don’t just open a social media account and go. Everything your business does is sending a message to your current and potential clients. Make sure your logo and branding are consistent, your message is consistent, and that you put thought into thoroughly setting up the details of each social media account.

Be useful - You want your account to speak to people. By investing yourself in new, significant content and linking to both your content and the content of other businesses in your niche that will be relevant to followers, you can expand your social media reach and establish a reputation.

Be restrained – Don’t post anything and everything that you see or hear about. If you post too often, you will become background noise instead of a relevant voice. Consider what you post and how often you post.

Add visuals – Photography and graphics attract attention, draw interest, and increase likelihood of your content being shared. Creating great visual content to go with your postings will do well for helping your social media presence as you establish yourself.

Interact/respond – If people are commenting and sharing your content, respond to them. Answer questions. Thank them for sharing your content. The more you establish yourself as a friendly, non-competitive member of the social media community, you will be treated and responded to as such and the relationships you build as a result will benefit everyone.

Customer Retention Part I: Build Your Business Community to Build Your Business

June 29, 2015 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

The most important part of your business is the customer base you have, and ultimately the community that you build around your business. Sure, a customer is a customer, but loyal and long-term customers that form a community around your business are what will keep you running strong.

How to Build Community with Value:

Unfortunately building a strong customer base and community around your business isn't one-size-fits-all or a trick that can be done overnight. It takes a lot of time, a lot of patience and a lot of hard work on your part. But at the heart of building community is offering something of value. Value is something that holds worth. Something that is important to someone. Something that serves a purpose.

Value will be something only you know based on listening to your customers, seeing what they gravitate toward when they come to your business. Why are they there? What are they looking for? This is all about them and not about you. You may have your favorite room, product, meal or item in your shop, but if that isn't what your customers are after, you have to listen to them. Provide what they are seeking. Loyalty will come naturally.

Use Social Media to provide Value:

Value is something that you can offer regularly. With social media, you can build on your customer base by offering self-less ideas. Share ideas of people or businesses in the same niche. You don't need to just compete. Share others' ideas. Share others' opinions. Show you hear others and what they need and they will appreciate and respect you and your business and come to trust your brand for the honest voice you use with your community on social media.

Next Week, we'll continue discussing Customer Retention and social media when we look at Customer Retention Part II: Using Social Media for Word Of Mouth Marketing.

Tips for Building Your Social Media Strategy

May 6, 2015 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

Setting up social media accounts and posting to them occasionally is not a sufficient social media strategy designed for success. You have to have a plan and a way to implement it to find success on social media and to have that success result in positive results to your business success. Here are some tips for formulating a strong social media strategy and how to implement it for success.

1) Know who your audience is, what they want, and what attracts their attention. This takes research and experimentation. Drop ideas that don't work or get little feedback and keep going with ones that draw attention.

2) Social media is a vehicle of your overall business strategy not the entire strategy. Use it in unison with the overall marketing strategy for your business. Measure your social media results. Experiment with your marketing approach, your social offers, your choice of social platforms. Then measure again.

3) Before you build a profile on yet another social site, make sure that you have the resources (people and time) to post consistently and respond speedily to all customer and prospect activity. Measure the effectiveness of your choices with analytical tools for social media. Don't start a Pinterest board if you don't have the time to dedicate to it or it doesn't fit your brand. Don't spend too much time on Facebook if the majority of your followers are on Twitter and they continue to expand your reach. Put your resources where the people are.

4) Choose and use a social media management platform like Hootsuite to coordinate all of your social accounts and RSS feeds from one screen, schedule posts. This will make the time spent on social media more organized and efficient and eliminate wasting your time.

5) Have one employee dedicated to the job of social media. This will streamline the message, give your brand a familiar voice, and will keep things simple and less confusing. Having someone posting to social media for your business who doesn't know the answers to the questions in #1 above will be worse than having no social media presence at all.

6) Be helpful, while promoting your business. Share useful information. Don't small talk and don't clutter people's lives and social media streams with information that doesn't help them or you. As with any marketing effort, your social media postings must have the ultimate goal of gaining and retaining customers and increasing sales.

Does this sound confusing or overwhelming? How can we help you understand social media better? Give us a call or email us today! Call us (904.829.2772) or e-mail us today!

Expand Your Concept of Customer Service

March 27, 2015 by anoadmin

There are so many ways we are told daily that will help us boost our business. Expanding your concept of customer service is key to your business model and has to be part of a larger strategy for customer engagement. It is important not just to engage customers, though, but to meaningfully engage customers while delivering excellent service.

Customer service isn't just something you have to do once - it needs to be an ongoing conversation using a variety of modes of communication. Using the web in addition to your face-to-face interactions is vital to your customer's experience. This interaction needs to be genuine and relevant - with those things you will build trust and form a positive relationship with your customers that will keep them loyal to your brand.

Use Email - Email marketing can be a very effective tool when used properly and in a way that both engages your customers and encourages them to buy your products or services. Email messages should be clear, concise and enticing. Emails should both inform and entice. Share what you are doing as a business and entice with a deal, special or freebie.

Use Social Media - You need to clarify your audience's needs, wants and challenges-not to mention where they're spending time online. You can discover these things by surveying your customers. Once you know where they are online, you can use your company's social media presence to interact with them. Whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or Linkedin - having a presence and interacting with your clients where they are the most is vital.

Blog - Having a blog connected to your business website will help you present a more casual yet useful and informative side of yourself and therefore your business. Share information is current and relevant, add a personal flavor to the writing you put on your blog. Even use your blog for promotions to encourage sharing on social media and shopping online or in person.

Helping you write content or set up social media accounts and train on best practices are things we can help you with here at Old City Web Services. If you want to take your customer service to the next level by engaging your customers in these ways, let us know how we can help you by contacting us today!

If you'd like for us to help you in taking your business to the next level, call us (904.829.2772) or e-mail us and we will be happy to offer our services!

How to Write Engaging Post on Social Media

Using Photos on Social Media for your Business

Here are some ideas to consider using.

Social Media Trends & Businesses