Do you remember MySpace? How about Friendster? Or a more recent example, Google Plus? These were some major players in the social media scene but today? They’re gone, replaced with newer, better social networks. It’s incredible how even giants can be worn down by time and innovation. Perhaps even… Facebook? Facebook is still the king of social media and should be a key component of every small business’s social media strategy, but it isn’t the only one out there. Other social media networks are popping up every year, looking to dethrone the king. As a marketer, I need to be…
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Cross-country marketing can be a fascinating thing. Companies can take the exact same product but market it entirely differently depending on the country they are in. For example, there might be completely different advertising campaigns for a product like Pepsi in Mexico, Canada, and the United States. This is despite the fact that they’re all located on the same continent, two of them primarily speak English, and it’s the same product. It all has to do with local conventions of the media, cultural differences, and values when it comes to marketing. Marketing on social media is a little bit like…
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Do me a favor. Go onto your Instagram or Facebook account and see how long it takes you to find a picture of a cat or dog. Don’t worry; I’ll wait. My guess is that it happened WAY faster than you expected. Pets have taken over the social media world. We might be torn apart by world events, pop culture, and trolling on social media, but there is one thing that brings us all together: Cute pictures of animals. So, the big question is, how can you harness the awesome power of pets to put a spotlight on your small…
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If there is one thing that I’ve learned doing digital marketing over the years, it’s that yesterday’s fad is today’s “next big thing.” A perfect example is SnapChat. When SnapChat debuted a few years ago, it was treated with scorn from many marketers. Heck, even the general public looked at it with suspicion. Why on earth would you only want to take super-short, 15-second videos of yourself? And then share them? Who would watch them? Just a few years later and SnapChat-like functionality has been integrated into countless apps and social media networks: Facebook among them. But probably the most…
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If I asked you to name the biggest social media networks, what would immediately come to mind? Facebook, of course. Twitter would probably be up there too. Some people in a younger demographic might say Instagram (A rapidly ascending favorite). One that you might not think of is Pinterest, and that’s a real shame. While most people only think of Pinterest for personal use, its application for business and social media marketing is rarely used to its full potential! How Pinterest Works If you’ve never used Pinterest, you need to know that it works a little differently than most other…
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When you were a kid back in elementary school, did you ever trace? Tracing was like a gateway into drawing. You just put a piece of paper over top of the original and draw a copy. No, it wasn’t your work, but it was a great way to learn the basics. I’ve always found that frameworks act in much the same way for learning a new skill, like creating a social media campaign. When you first start out, you might not have a clue how all of the moving parts work together, but if you have a framework to base…
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How much engagement is your blog getting on your website? If you don’t know the answer to that question, then you might be in trouble. Many small business owners spend hours and hours every week writing the perfect blog that will get them clicks. If you’ve followed me in the past, then you know I am hugely in favor of this! Having a blog on your website is one of the best ways to keep it active and updated regularly. It also gives you lots of material to work with on social media and through email marketing. But here’s the…
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As small business owners, the internet has given us so much. It’s often used for procrastinating, with cat videos on YouTube or reading random articles on Wikipedia. But that’s the “bad” stuff. It’s also given us social media networks that we can use to connect with clients directly.
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We spend so much time talking about the marketing potential of Facebook and Instagram that we sometimes forget about a very popular social media service: Pinterest!Although Pinterest doesn’t necessarily have the same reach as Facebook (although that might change in the future), it does have over 200 million dedicated users who do one billion searches on it each month. That’s an incredible amount of activity and engagement. The big difference between Facebook and Pinterest is in their purpose. While Facebook is designed to bring people together, making is a fantastic way to connect with clients and customers, Pinterest is a…
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Do you know what the most effective method of advertising was back in the golden age of “Main Street” America? The storefront window. Pedestrians would look in all of the storefront windows on main street to see the most interesting. And it worked! People would come in off the street to take a look around the stores. If the store owner was a particularly effective salesperson, they would walk out with a bag full of products. In the marketing world today, the storefront window is the internet and the pedestrians are the ones browsing online. If you want to sell…
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