Social Media 3 - Old City Web Services

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!

Feeling Invisible Online? 3 Tips for Being Seen on the Web

April 15, 2015 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

You have a website, social media pages, and send out a newsletter or emails to your clients on a regular basis. Yet you still aren't getting the results you'd hoped for, the online sales you are seeking and the social media response that is warranted after all the effort you put in.

There are plenty of times that as a business owner you can feel like you are doing all you should but you still feel like you are talking to a wall at times and you just aren't sure that the online world is giving you the results you expected.

Here are 3 tips for no longer feeling invisible on the internet:

Update, Update, Update: Keeping fresh content on your website will not only keep your online audience interested, it will keep search engine ranking up. You have to be high in search engine rank to be found and once you are found, you have to give visitors a reason to come back. Keep a blog, post updates about sales or specials, or simply update photography and content so that your page is always fresh.

Keep your social media updates compelling: Great photography gets shared more than anything on social media. Share a photo that will stop a web surfer in their tracks, compel them to click and read more, and to share what they've read afterward. More people will find you and continue to share, and your online presence will become more visible bringing you the results you hoped for when you set up your Facebook and Twitter pages.

Add social media share buttons on your webpage: Adding buttons to your website that not only take people to your social media pages but that make it easy for them to click and share your website and the content on it is a top way to get people sharing and ultimately seeing your business online. Providing a special or a deal for social media shares only is another way to encourage users to spread the world about your business online.

At Old City Web Services, we specialize in optimizing your website and training you in social media so that your online presence is optimized to its maximum potential. Call us (904.829.2772) or e-mail us and we will be happy to offer our services!

The What, Why, and How of Twitter for your Business

November 5, 2014 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

Using Twitter is necessary for having a well-rounded social media strategy for marketing your business. There are so many new tips and tricks for making Twitter easy to use and effective when it comes to getting your brand out there to the public. Whether you are new to Twitter or if you just want to see new results with your current Twitter account, here is help.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a way of communicating with your followers in posts (tweets) that are 140 characters or less. Twitter is a great way to quickly and efficiently share information about your business. Tweets can include photos, videos, links (to your website or blog post).

Why Use Twitter?

People follow your Twitter account, and you follow other people. This allows you to read, reply to and easily share their tweets with your followers (this is called retweeting) which helps you build an audience and relationships with not only your customers but also other businesses like you. It's best to not only use Twitter to promote yourself but to also promote others. This will spread your brand awareness and help you get the message out about what your business offers.

How Do I Use Twitter?

Be consistent with your brand

It is important that your Twitter presence have the same look and feel as other aspects of your marketing tools. People will be able to identify you and will trust you. Choose an account name and images consistent with your other online presences and your brand.Your Twitter profile header is similar to the Facebook cover photo, your header photo appears at the top of your profile page. Use the same photo so you are consistent across social media platforms.

Follow and Find Followers

In general, start following these people:

Your customers

Your business partners, suppliers, contractors and vendors

Your competitors or peers

Businesses in your neighborhood

Businesses run by people you know

Get Tweeting!

There are a few different ways you can communicate on Twitter: Tweet (post your own message), Retweet (post a message from someone else using the retweet button), Direct Message (send a private message to another user), Mention (use someone's twitter name in your own tweet), and Reply (respond to another tweet which then goes to the person you are replying to and your followers

Use Hashtags

A hashtag is a word with # before it and is a way to search and follow topics on Twitter. With the OldCity twitter account, using and following #StAugustine helps us follow and be followed by those interested in talking about happenings around town.

Hopefully this helps and is a good introduction for how to get started with Twitter or how to improve your current Twitter experience. Happy Tweeting!

Build and Develop a Social Media Presence for Your Business

October 9, 2014 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

Build - Once you choose the social media platform(s) you want to utilize to increase online awareness of your brand, set up your profile(s) including a short, compelling bio to attract people letting them know who you are and what you do. Having a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Places, and YouTube in addition to your website can push your business up in rankings on browser searches. Include links to your website so that people can learn more about you and your small business.

Connect - To connect with your community and your existing and potential clients, you need to keep up with your page. Ask your friends, current clients, and other small businesses in your area to like and share your pages. Like and share their pages as well. Add a link to your email signature to your website, too. Establishing a presence on a social media platform requires active, consistent participation.

Engage - Social media is not meant to be one-way communication. You may use it to spread your message, share your business, and broaden awareness about who you are and what you do, but you must do this both by sharing and also participating in two-way communication. Listen to your customers and create community with other businesses and clients. Make your social media page not all about you. The 80/20 rule is a good one to follow: 80% of your activity is being friendly through retweets and comments. The other 20% is your chance to contribute your own content. Be an active participant and engage your audience with relevant content instead of just promoting yourself. Ask your audience to participate in the conversation, share photos of them using your product or enjoying your services.

Influence - Your ability to influence depends on your credibility and your reach. A strong, professional and engaging social media presence adds to your credibility. Your reach can expand beyond the number of fans and followers you have as your customers share your content, products and services within their circles.

How many people are finding your site?

December 11, 2013 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

Proven ways to market your website

So, you've taken the time and spent the money on a brand new website, but now what? You now have the challenge of bringing in traffic and not just any traffic, but new, qualified visitors that will spend time exploring your site and essentially contact you for either more information or to secure the deal.

Marketing your website once it's live is just as important (if not more so) than the site itself. Today, we are going to give you two HUGE ways to pull people into your site.

SEO, SEO & MORE SEO

We cannot emphasize the importance of this enough! Search engine optimization (SEO) is the primary way people are going to find you online. Search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo are taking over the web and you can guarantee people will be searching for you (and your competition!) on them. DO NOT let your competition get ahead. Make it easy for people to find you, and only you, by having your site fully optimized by a professional. Test it out by signing into your Google Analytics account and see what common keywords and phrases people are using to find you. Then Google these key-phrases and see if your website comes up as a result. If you don't see a link to your site on the first results page, people aren't finding you, plain and simple. Since SEO trends are constantly changing based on alterations made by search engines, this is something that should be ongoing and maintained to ensure your one step ahead of competition.

Facebook Ads

In September 2013, Facebook had 728 million daily active users and 874 million monthly mobile active users. Furthermore, these millions of users are spending a huge amount of time on the site-- an average of 55 minutes a day or 30 hours a month! The final kicker-- Everyone's on Facebook! All types of demographics are now regular users of the social network. So how does this pertain to generating more traffic to your website? Facebook Ads allow you to target specific demographics based on location, age and even those who have "Liked" your page. Basically Facebook Ad's are a cost-effective way to take advantage of Facebook's traffic in order to bring these users to your website.

Make sure your SEO and ad campaigns are done right the first time -- contact Old City Web Services so that people will start finding your website online today!

Once you've mastered these two crucial marketing challenges, you can focus on growing your website and expanding your social media presence, which will in-turn increase your web traffic exponentially.

Are you ready for Black Friday?

November 29, 2013 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

Last year, $59.1 billion was reportedly spent on this highly sought after event, which now spreads from the Thursday before to post Black Friday weekend deals, with Small Business Saturday on November 30 and Cyber Monday on December 2, closing out the weekend shopping extravaganza.

How can the small businesses compete with the big guys you ask? Here are three ways to help you enjoy a piece of the pie while shoppers seek the biggest and best deals of the year.

Freebie Giveaways

Try setting up a stand, booth or section of your store offering small gifts to your customers that compliment your products or services. You are sure to have a plethora of people in and out your doors this weekend, so take the opportunity to engage with them so that they'll leave with a little reminder of you for next time. Are you an eCommerce shop? Offer an exclusive Black Friday e-coupon gift!

Two Heads Are Better Than One

There's a lot of truth in the saying "power in numbers." Team-up with other small businesses to spread the word. For example, if you're a local restaurant that offers gift cards, come up with a deal, network with other restaurants offering similar deals, create a coupon code and promote the offer on one flyer including all of the participating company logos. Put a Christmas spin on it since Gift Cards make great holiday gifts!

Make it a Social Event

Host exclusive Black Friday deals via your social media networks. Make it something that only your social followers will see and can take advantage of. If you want to be really creative, try offering different deals on different networks! Just make sure you keep track of the in-store or online responses you receive.

Even though you're busy entertaining family and preparing a Thanksgiving feast, take some time to really think about ways to generate more revenue for your small business this Black Friday weekend. Most of all, have fun, be creative and don't forget to let us know how it went!

Holiday Marketing Tip Challenge

November 20, 2013 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

FACT: St. Augustine attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each holiday season.

Whether a visitor stays for one night or all month, it is widely known that during the holidays, tourism in the nation's oldest city is thriving. If you own a B&B, restaurant or tour company, you're probably busy answering the phone and responding to email inquires this time of year.

Even though you're busy, don't forget to engage your customers with holiday marketing initiatives! This season, Old City Web Services challenges you to try at least one of these three marketing tips. Test it out and then shoot us an email or give us a call to let us know if it was a success!

1. Dress-up your Facebook page

As you dress your turkey for Thanksgiving, why not dress-up your Facebook and Twitter pages while you're at it! Create a holiday-themed cover photo that includes one incentive to customers--a promotion, discount or giveaway. What better way to engage customers while getting into the holiday spirit at the same time.

Not sure what a Facebook cover photo is? Old City Web Services specializes not only in custom design, but in Social Media too! Contact Us for more info.

2. Invite your website to the party!

Is your website holiday-ready? Make sure your site is updated with holiday flare, such as photos from Nights of Lights, a video featuring how to make a delicious holiday treat or a new Christmas package/special. Add a minimum of one piece of holiday flare to your website that will let customers know you're the go-to business to visit during their stay in St. Augustine.

Do you have the flare, but not the web expertise? Contact Us for a quote on giving your site that extra holiday glitz you need!

3. Give thanks to your customers

This is the perfect time of year to give thanks to those who love and support, not only you, but your business too! Send out an email to your past and present customers, letting them know you appreciate their brand loyalty. It's almost guaranteed this will bring back at least one new sale or prospect. After all, what harm can it do? If anything, you will put smiles on your customers faces...what more could you ask for?

No way of getting the message out? Old City Web Services can design an e-mail template using your photos, logo and colors & text, upload your contact list(s) and send out a mass e-mail blast to all your customers for you! Contact Us for more info.