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Social Media
Building Customer Relationships That Last
One of the ways a business builds its brand is to tug at the emotions of their audience.
The way a customer and client work together and communicate can build long-lasting, meaningful relationships that turn clients into fans, and fans into clients.
You can actually set out to build these relationships by using emotional marketing techniques.
Show Them That You Know Them
The more research you do into the needs and desires of your target audience, the more your audience will be able to tell that you’re interested in them.
When you show interest in them, it will make them interested in your business and you.
When you discover something about your audience, let them know through your content and your actions.
Treat Them Right
So many times business owners have sales and special events to get new clients.
What about the clients you already have? Keeping them is far more important than getting a new client, and less costly too.
Do something special for your existing client base or fan base that shows them that you care about them. Give them a discount, or a special freebie, or something else that attaches them to you in a special way.
Be Transparent And Honest
One way to endear yourself to your audience is to always be transparent and honest.
If you make a mistake, own up to it. If you change your views on something, it’s okay to admit it.
Doing so will endear you to your audience and make you appear so much more trustworthy to them.
Put People Before Numbers
While you do things to help promote your business, it’s important to keep your morals and remember that people are more important than numbers.
If you put people first in your business, including yourself, you’ll find that you naturally improve your bottom line.
The more people trust you, the more they’ll buy from you.
Be Fun When Appropriate
No one wants to feel as if they’re communicating with a robot or someone who is not real.
Be funny when it’s appropriate so that you can show your humanity.
Your humanness will shine through when you add some humor and fun to posts, emails, and even sales pages.
Be Responsive
Your customers expect to get an answer when they have a problem, and they expect it to be quickly.
Provide many different ways for your audience to contact you.
Explain to your audience at each method how long they can expect to wait for a response. Then follow up and do what you said you’d do.
Engage With Your Audience
Find ways to engage with your audience. Ask for their advice or ideas when it comes to a new product or service you’re going to launch.
They can help name it, help define what should be in it, and even how much you should charge for it.
Your audience can also be your best source of word-of-mouth marketing.
Consider The Communication Format
Also, it’s important to try to get an understanding of how people communicate within their environment.
Communication online in chat, instant message, Twitter, or a blog, is far different from communicating on the telephone or in person.
Even email is different from other methods of communication. It’s imperative that you determine what is different and then make up for that with the type of communication they’re using.
Building customer relationships that last is part of the goal of emotional marketing. When you’ve formed an attachment with the consumer, they will stick with you for years – through price increases, trials and tribulations, and more. You can’t go wrong with building relationships.
And talking of relationships, do you network with other marketers to try to grow your influence and reach?
If you do, there is a right way and a wrong way to do this and if you get it wrong it can seriously hamper your growth so, just like your customer relationships, it’s important to build a network that lasts, so let’s look at the most common networking mistakes and how to avoid them.
Common Networking Mistakes To Avoid
When it comes to networking, you always want to make sure you do it right so you can grow your business. However, knowing what to do is one thing; knowing what not to do is something else entirely.
You might think you’re doing everything right, but if you find you’re not making the connections you expected, then perhaps you have fallen into some of the network traps out there and didn’t even realize you had.
Here are some common networking mistakes and how you can avoid making them in the future.
Not Getting Help
Many people have a hard time asking other for help. Networking is all about making connections, though. People don’t know what you need unless you ask them.
Use whatever personal or professional network you have and ask them to help you. You need to be connected to the right people.
The more people you have getting the word out about you, the better, so don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Not Maintaining Your Relationships
It’s very easy to fall out of touch with people. Maintaining contact with your current network and all of the people in it is going to help you grow.
Follow up with people – your mentors, colleagues, and other contacts – on a regular basis to see how they’re doing.
Keep them up to date on you as well. Remember, don’t make it all about you; you will want them to know what you’re up to while also finding out what they’ve been up to.
Not Taking Advantage Of Social Media
We live in a day and time where networking is really everything we do every single day.
Social media has made it so easy to be connected to so many different people throughout the world, and if you’re not using this then you’re missing out on a great opportunity.
Start using LinkedIn to make professional connections. This isn’t the only social media platform you should be using, but it’s a great place to start and a way to get your name out there.
Not Making In-Person Connections
Yes, we are in a day and time where social media is super-important to networking, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop meeting people in person.
You should never do that. You can’t do everything over the internet.
If your online connection is not local to you, then use a multitude of different technologies like Skype which are at your fingertips, to make the world a much smaller place and meet up with people on the other side of it.
Not Being Grateful
Gratitude goes a long way. When someone helps you in whatever way, being grateful will go a long way.
After having a conversation with someone in person or online, send them a quick thank you note for their time.
It’s a small thing, but letting people know they are appreciated will go a long way and encourage them to want to speak with you again.
Not Making Sure It’s A Two-Way Street
When someone helps you out and makes a positive connection for you, then you have to be sure that you give back in some way.
You especially can’t keep going back and asking for help without giving back in return.
If you can avoid making these common mistakes, then you should be able to create a large and successful network for your business.
All this networking and customer relationship building can leave you exhausted and you need to ensure you have enough energy. Click on the featured resource below to help you with that and grab a free report, How To Energize Your Life; download, read it and take action 🙂
How To Create A Facebook Business Page
Everyone knows that having a social media profile is pretty much a must have for any online business.
In fact, many business will have multiple profiles across multiple platforms. This is fine if you have the time to manage them all (this is why social media tools such as Content Studio are so popular to streamline posting to multiple platforms).
But, if you happen to be short on time (and who isn’t, right?) then the most important platform to focus on for the vast majority of marketers would still be Facebook.
It is pretty simple to set up a Facebook page, but you want to optimise it so it will perform as well as it possibly can.
So, with that being said, if you want an engaging Facebook business page, here are 15 things you need to know to get the best results:
1: Don’t Confuse Business Pages With Personal Profiles
If you create a personal profile for your brand instead of a Facebook Business Page, you’re going to miss out on content creation tools, analytics and paid promotional opportunities.
Worse yet, people will have to send you a friend request before they can actually engage with you.
Business pages are there for a reason; to engage potential customers and encourage them to take some kind of action, so don’t make the mistake of trying to use a personal profile for your business.
Of course, you can share content from your page on your personal timeline, and promote your page on there too so you can get more folks to your business page and you should be doing this, although do it sparingly.
2: Don’t Create A ‘Professional Profile’ Associated With Your Business
Let’s say you have a personal profile on Facebook and you want a second profile for professional reasons.
This goes against Facebook’s terms of service and could get you in trouble.
Yes, there are marketers who have multiple personal Facebook profiles, but if they get caught they could be booted off the platform so the risk isn’t worth it.
And why do it anyway? Facebook pages are free, so there really is no reason to try to use multiple personal profiles.
The only reason I can see people doing this is because Facebook does have a tendency to reduce the organic reach of posts from business pages because they want you to spend money on ads and boosting posts.
3: Choose A Friendly, Engaging Cover Photo
This cover photo takes up most of the room above the fold on your Page, so you’ll want a high-quality image that attracts and holds your visitors’ attention.
You might consider hiring a professional to create this image for you.
Keep words in the image brief and to the point.
Faces work well at holding attention, and bright colors are good, too.
You can also use video on your cover too so this may be a way to showcase your products and/or brand.
4: Use A Profile Picture That’s Easy To Recognize
It could be your logo or your headshot if you’re the face of your company.
Being recognizable is important to getting found and liked, so choose your picture carefully and then use it consistently.
Don’t get too caught up on whether to use your face or a brand logo; the key is to be consistent.
Personally, I think most would do well to at least start out with a brand and design a recognisable logo for it.
Personal branding works for some, but if you look at most traditional business, they are full of logos rather than personalities.
Whatever you choose to do in your business, keep doing it so people will be able to associate it with your business brand.
5: Fill Out Your ‘About’ Section
This isn’t visible anymore when visitors arrive on your page, yet it’s still one of the most clicked-on items when they want more information about your business.
Put in your general description, company information, your story or whatever fits for your business at a bare minimum, but the more you fill in the better.
Visitors will want to know about your business so give them the information they are looking for. If they can’t find it, they may decide to look elsewhere.
The internet is awash with potential competitors for your business so you need to make people trust you and being transparent and giving them as much information about your business as possible will help them to start building that trust.
6: Add A Call-To-Action Button
This is a great way to drive traffic to your website and build your list.
Your call-to-action button might be to have visitors watch a video, sign up to your list and so forth.
All your posts will ideally have some kind of call-to-action, whether that is to go and read a blog post or to visit a sales/squeeze page.
Getting people off Facebook onto a platform you own is a smart move as you have much more control on your own websites.
7: Post Often, But Not Too Often
If you don’t post for months at a time, then your business does not look professional. Heck, you don’t even appear to be in business anymore.
However, if you post non-stop, you’ll likely annoy people.
It’s a matter of finding that happy medium, and that can vary from one business to another.
You can post your own content, motivational quotes, funny memes etc. but you can also post other people’s content.
This is known as content curation and if you do this, you should always give the original author credit but it is a good way to be posting content on your page without you doing all the writing.
8: If You Have The Time To Respond, Then Let Fans Message You Privately
It’s an awesome idea to let your customers and fans send you private messages – this can result in better customer service, fewer complaints made publicly and even more sales.
However, if you don’t have time to respond to these private messages then it might be best not to enable private messaging.
The good thing about using something like Facebook Messenger is that prospects are highly responsive so it is definitely worth considering if you have the time.
You can also use platforms like Mobile Monkey or ManyChat to create an automated sequence that will automatically respond to your prospects when they message you. If you want to make the most of this kind of automation, consider picking up this excellent training course on chatbot marketing by JayKay Dowdall called Destiny.
9: Monitor Your Page And Respond To Comments Promptly
You can monitor and respond to comments using the ‘notifications’ tab at the top of the page.
If people are taking the time to comment on your posts, it means that they like what you are doing, so really make the effort to respond to any comments that are being posted.
This also has an effect on the Facebook algorithm and may even make your page posts more visible to people who like and follow your page so a win-win situation all round.
10: Pin Important Posts To The Top Of The Page
As you post, older posts get pushed down and buried. But there are times when you want a post to remain at the top, even after you’ve published new posts.
You can pin one post at a time and use these to promote events, offers and announcements.
Don’t underestimate the power of a good pinned post. Make it a strong one with a clear call-to-action as it will be the first post that your new visitors will see when they visit your page and you need to grab their attention and grab it fast!
11: Post Visual Content In Your Timeline
Photos and videos are up to 40 times more likely to get shared on social media, so take advantage of this fact and share lots of visual content.
Memes, GIF’s and motivational posts are always good content to post on your page, and if they are good, they may get shared and this will get more eyeballs to your page.
Video content can be particularly engaging for your viewers. Just try to keep them short and sweet; 2 minutes or under tend to work best on social media.
12: Consider Using Live Video
People typically spend more than three times more time watching a Facebook Live video than they do a recorded video.
You can even use tools to let your followers know that you intend to go live at a particular time.
Let them know in advance what the topic will be so they can come with their questions. This can be super engaging and Facebook puts a lot of emphasis on viewer engagement and will push your livestream out to more people.
13: Use Facebook’s Targeting Tools
You can target certain audiences with tailor-made updates.
Segment by age, gender, relationship, location and so forth, and then send highly targeted messages to those groups for a greater response.
These tools can be really powerful but may take a bit of getting used to.
However, it really is worth getting to know your audience so you can tailor your content to their needs.
14: Promote Your Page. A Lot
Create an ad to promote your page, choose your target audience and choose your budget. Make sure your ad is directly targeted to your ideal customer and test.
This is where knowing your audience comes into play, as you can get really targeted ads to a highly specific audience to maximise your ad spend.
You might also consider boosting a post once a week as this will again push your page into your followers newsfeeds so they don’t forget about you!
15: Measure Your Success
Dig into your page’s insights to track Facebook-specific engagement metrics.
Analyze and adjust as needed.
It might all sound complicated, but you’ll quickly get the hang of everything here.
So, there you have it. 15 ways to optimise and get the most out of your Facebook business page. If you only implement a few of these I’m sure it will make a difference but imagine what a difference it would make if you managed to implement them all!!
For more information on creating a Facebook business Page, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/business/products/pages
Social Media Marketing Tips: The Top 10 Most Common Mistakes To Avoid INFOGRAPHIC
Social Media Marketing Tips: The Top 10 Most Common Mistakes To Avoid 
What Are The Benefits To A Business Of Using A Chatbot?
With sites like Facebook and Kik opening their platforms to automated messaging for companies, chatbots have really exploded in popularity.
Facebook went from zero chatbots in February 2016 to 18,000 by July of the same year. Kik had approximately 300,000,000 registered users, and those users exchanged 350,000,000 automated messages with the platform in the first seven months of its chatbot.
You’ve probably seen chatbots in action. They are on all sorts of websites, from major retail chains to mobile phone service providers and many other types of sites and apps.
At first, you might think you’re talking to a real person. Usually, a popup appears with a picture of an agent, along with a name. The “agent” asks something like, “May I help you with anything?” Or, “Do you have any questions?”
Chatbots use artificial intelligence that is often quite advanced to answer many questions a user might have, and in the event that the bot is unable to help the user, it will usually as the user to call, email, or fill out a support form, or perhaps to check a F.A.Q. page
Chatbots are quite advanced, and many of them can almost manage to fool users into thinking they are speaking to a real person. This is beneficial, because it allows companies to lower their overhead by using chatbots to replace customer service agents in many circumstances, and only when the chatbot is unsuccessful in helping the customer must a real agent step in.
What are the benefits to a business of using a chatbot?
Well, they do have a few drawbacks, but they also have many benefits. So, let’s look at what the pros and cons are and whether chatbots are right for your business.
Benefits of Chatbots
Chatbots are very useful for a lot of different applications—from simple user contact, to answering questions, and even helping the sales process along.
One of the biggest benefits of using chatbots is that you can have fewer actual employees, because chatbots can take care of a lot of issues that might take up time from paid employees. This frees up paid employees for more important tasks and allows them to have more time to help customers with major issues.
This benefits customers, too, because they can get answers to questions and help with problems much faster than they might if they ended up contacting customer service through traditional means.
Bots can also provide you extremely valuable information about your customers if you log those conversations and analyze them, because you can see the types of questions they are asking. Never overlook those logs as a way to find out more about them.
Drawbacks of Chatbots
Of course, chatbots have a few drawbacks, too. No technology is perfect, and bots are no exception.
The biggest drawback is that artificial intelligence, no matter how advanced it may be, is not yet at the level that can replace actual humans. This inevitably leads to failure to help customers sometimes, which may end up frustrating the user enough that they leave your site. This is rare, but it can happen, so you must make sure your chatbot can direct customers to live help when needed.
Many bots are poorly programmed because they have been rushed to market to take advantage of the surge in chatbot use, so you must be on the lookout for this, as well.
The cheapest solution isn’t always the best, so it’s vital that you test your chatbot thoroughly to make sure there are no problems with it that could end up frustrating your customers.
Are Chatbots Right For You?
Chatbots aren’t right for every business. If you find that you don’t have a lot of contact with customers normally, you may not need a chatbot. But, on the other hand, if you do have a lot of contact with customers, or if you find you have a lot of shopping cart abandonment or your customers tend to ask a lot of questions or need additional help, a chatbot just might be perfect for your needs.
Here are some situations where a chatbot might work for your business:
- Your customer service agents are overwhelmed. If you find that your agents are overwhelmed by the volume of help requests you get daily, especially if the are simple requests that could easily be taken care of by a bot, it makes perfect sense for you to use one.
- You have a high rate of shopping cart abandonment. If you find that a lot of people are abandoning their shopping carts or leaving your site without converting into email subscribers or buyers, a chatbot might help by asking the customer what went wrong when they try to leave your site, and then guide them through the process so they can complete the conversion.
- Customers keep asking the same questions over and over. Let’s face it, customers rarely read F.A.Q. pages. Sometimes you may wonder, “Why even bother having a F.A.Q. page? It seems like nobody reads them!” And that’s true. But chatbots are a great way to get more people to find out the answers to simple questions without wasting your or your agents’ time. You can program common questions into your bot and let it answer those questions.
- Your business is oriented toward service. If you’re in an industry that is notoriously service-centric, such as the travel industry, for example, chatbots can go a long way toward helping customers get assistance while alleviating some of the initial work that agents might otherwise have to deal with.
These are just a few examples, but hopefully you’re beginning to get an idea of whether or not a bot might be a good fit for your business.
FB Messenger Marketing
The use of Facebook Messenger as a marketing tool has exploded in the last 12 months and it doesn’t look like it is going to slow down any time soon.
Many marketers report much higher engagement rates with Messenger bots than email marketing. This isn’t to say that email marketing isn’t effective, but rather that engagement is higher using Messenger chatbots.
This is probably due to the immediacy of the Messenger service which means that prospects can interact with the Messenger bot as soon as they request help/information etc. and time is all important.
And if you jump on this marketing opportunity as an early adopter, you will still be on the cutting edge of marketing techniques moving into this year and beyond, so it is well worth considering adding FB Messenger bots to your marketing toolkit to give you an edge over your competitors.
If you want to investigate this marketing strategy further, then I highly recommend a course by JayKay Dowdall. It is called Destiny and is probably the most comprehensive course on FB Messenger marketing currently available and is very reasonably priced so do take a look.
Chatbot Solutions
There are already a number of chatbot products on the market. Some are quite effective, while others have been obviously rushed to market and are full of bugs that will frustrate you and your customers.
Let’s take a look at some of the products that are currently on the market and are considered to be good quality.
Mobile Monkey
The Mobile Monkey platform is one of the most popular chatbots available for the Facebook Messenger system, and also works with Facebook comments. They are remarkably affordable, with a 30-day free trial and a permanent free plan for under 100 customers.
The Mobile Monkey platform will even allow you to sell products directly to customers through Facebook with Stripe, Paypal, and other payment platforms.
Botsify
>> Botsify.com
Botsify is another very popular platform that works for Facebook Messenger, but also has a version that works directly on your website. They have a free plan (only for Facebook Messenger) that has a lot of features, but their paid plans (which can be used on a website) start at a very reasonable $10 per month.
Botsify also allows human takeover at any time, so you can have a customer service agent take over whenever the chatbot isn’t helping the customer properly.
ManyChat
ManyChat is another very popular platform that has been specifically designed to work with Facebook Messenger. They have a free plan that has a lot of features, but their paid start at a very reasonable $10 per month for up to 500 subscribers. This is the preferred service for the Destiny FB Messenger course mentioned earlier.
ChitChatChimp
ChitChatChimp is poised to be one of the frontrunners in the chatbot realm. It allows absolutely anyone, even with zero programming knowledge, to create their own chatbot.
It can create all types of bots, including:
- Customer support bots
- Sales bots
- Research-gathering bots
- Educational bots
- Entertaining bots
If you need something flexible and customizable that doesn’t cost a fortune, ChitChatChimp is probably your best option.
OK, there you have chatbot marketing in a nutshell. Adopt this strategy into your marketing and give yourself the best possible solution to collect leads, make sales and grow your business.
And don’t forget to check out the Destiny FB Messenger Course for some stellar training to make the most of this new marketing opportunity.
How To Write A Good Tweet (15 Ways To Create Effective Tweets)
How To Write A Good Tweet (15 Ways to Create Effective Tweets)
Twitter has 320 million current active users so it’s no wonder why it’s getting more and more difficult to be seen on Twitter. But done correctly, Twitter can still be a great source of traffic.
And as you know, if your Tweets aren’t driving traffic, then they’re not doing you or your business much good. That’s why I’ve compiled this list of 15 ways to get your Tweets seen and clicked on by your followers.
1: Add Images
Did you know that tweets with images receive 18% more click-throughs, 89% more favorites and 150% more retweets?
And you can create multiple images for each blog post, using attractive colors, centered headlines and interesting textures.
Don’t forget to add your brand or URL, too.
For a slew of free design tools, check out this infographic: http://feldmancreative.com/2016/08/free-online-design-tools-infographic/
2: Use Faces
Studies show that few things in print or online media captures people’s attention faster than faces, so why not use them?
3: Use Your Own Face
Don’t forget to tweet your own face now and then, especially if you’re using a logo as your profile picture. You’ll increase the stopping power of your tweet as well as build more of a personal connection with your followers.
4: Use Brackets
This is a great subject line trick as well – include something such as an afterthought in brackets, like this:
“Love the shoes [too sexy!]”
5: Quote Someone
Twitter users love quotes. They can be funny, famous, timely and so forth. When you come across something inspiring or thoughtful, by all means share it. And if the quote is over 140 characters, feature the quote in an image.
Here are 20 tools to help you create some great image quotes. http://louisem.com/2573/make-picture-quotes-easy
6: Hashtag Your Topic
Your tweets are usually seen only by your followers. But if you add a hashtag or two, your tweet can potentially be found by others as well.
Want to do some hashtag research? Check out http://hashtagify.me/
7: Make Your Tweets Contagious
To get your tweets shared, Jonah Berger, the author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On, says to make them viral using any of the following:
- Social Currency – how smart a user looks to others when they share your tweet
- Triggers – top of mind content people are triggered to think about
- Emotion – focus on feelings rather than function
- Public – built to show, built to grow. Think of a brand that puts a red bottom on all of their shoes and you get the idea.
- Practical Value – news you can use
- Stories – tell stories people want to share
8: Add Emojis and Symbols
Non-text characters make your message stand out. If you’re using a smartphone, you’ll find the emojis right on your keyboard.
If you’re on a computer, you can download a Chrome extension or copy and paste Twitter symbols from a Twitter library such as this one. https://www.piliapp.com/twitter-symbols/
9: Ask Questions
Posing questions to your followers is an effective way to engage people. Be sure to follow up with everyone who answers you so they know you’re listening. And you can always highlight answers by retweeting them with your response, keeping them alive and inspiring even more interaction.
10: Use Polls
Twitter Polls are a great tool for attracting attention and engaging followers. Click the “Add poll” icon beneath the tweet box, add up to four questions, and choose how long you want your poll to run.
11: Thank Profusely and Often
When your fellow tweeters have promoted your content or even contributed to it, thank them. This makes you look like a really nice person, plus it’s great for building relationships.
12: Use @ to Get Specific Attention
If you want someone specific to see your tweet, mention them by including their username preceded by the @ symbol.
13: Use an Image to Grab Group Attention
If you want to get the attention of a group of people, include an image in your tweet. Then when Twitter prompts you with “Who’s in this photo?” you can tag the image with up to 10 users without affecting your character count.
14: Use Twitter Cards
Twitter cards let you include additional media types – such as images, videos, audio and download links – in your tweets. They’re not the easiest thing to use the first time, though, so you might want to follow along with Twitter’s CMS Integration Guide.
https://dev.twitter.com/cards/cms-integration
15: Tweet Multiple Times
Tweets go by so fast, many of your tweets will never be seen. That’s why you want to tweet about that new blog post of yours several times over the course of a few days.
Bonus: Use ‘Start a Fire’ https://startafire.com/
This service lets you increase the reach of your content as you share free links. Here’s how it works:
First you add a branded badge with content within any link.
Let’s say you’re sharing content from Mashable – you simply add a branded badge to the link.
Next, you share your third party content to increase engagement. After all, a link from Mashable will often get more clicks than a link from your own website.
And by the way, this strategy doesn’t just work with Twitter – it works with Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and several other social media networks. Lastly, your re-shared links continue to carry your recommendations to new audiences, exposing them to your content. And you can track, measure and get instant insights on the performance of your third party content, too!
Make the very most of your Twitter time by using these little tricks to get your tweets noticed and shared.
