You have a business and you know that social media can be a powerful weapon in your marketing scheme. It’s become almost standard practice for businesses to have their own Facebook page, but what about all the other social media sites out there? The truth is there are a dizzying number of social media platforms that can be utilized for business. People are now constantly asking how do you know which one will best boost you brand. The answer’s really much easier than you think; here’s where to start.

Tips for Choosing the Right Social Media Platform

Research: You won’t find the right social media channel without doing a bit of exploration to see which one is compatible with your specific business. Think about what product or service you’re offering and what resources you have available to dedicate to social media. Though social media is largely free, it does require your valuable time.

Don’t Get Sucked into What’s Popular: There are new social media channels popping up all the time. Don’t get tempted to sign up for every single site just because it’s popular. Stick to what is most relevant and effective to your business. It’s better to have solid social media campaigns on one or two channels than mediocre attempts on many.

Develop a Social Media Strategy: Create a clear and implementable plan before choosing which network you’re going to be using. By drawing up a plan, you’ll be able to stay focused and work out which strategies will be most effective to get things done.

Stick With It: Social media can become time-consuming and frustrating, but don’t let it get you down. Be consistent and over time the results will start to come in.

Go Where Your Audience Is

Knowing your audience is the key to all marketing success and it rings true for social media platforms. Don’t spend hours on LinkedIn if you’re trying to sell food recipes, try a more visual platform like Pinterest. Many businesses are trying to be on everything popular, but it’s much better to strategically plan where and what you’re going to post to be the most effective.

Here’s a rundown on the major social media platforms and what audience they serve.

Facebook

This is the one network that everyone is on and should be on, with some 1.15 billion users (1 million active users). It’s pretty much a guarantee your audience is here at least part of the time so make a mini website via Facebook if you haven’t already.

LinkedIn

For a more corporate or professional social media experience choose LinkedIn. Think services like coaching, consulting, copywriting, web development, business development, recruitment, and so on.

Twitter

Twitter now has 450 million users, 65% of whom are female and split in the ages of 25-34, 35-54 and 45-54. It pays to tweet often and make copy that’s catchy and intelligent, not to mention 140 characters or less.

YouTube

If you’re looking for a younger (majority 18-34) audience, Youtube boasts 1 million unique visitors each month and can be a powerful video marketing tool.

Pinterest

While it began as a tool for artists and creatives, Pinterest has found plenty of room for people selling products and services, given they’re attached to great images. There are 30 million users here, 80% female, with the largest audience 45-54. It can work well for mediapreneurs, entrepreneurs, artists, creatives, service providers and e-commerce related brands.

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When it comes to the reputation of your business online, it definitely is a global village. With a click of a mouse, potential customers can check out reviews and find both negative and positive comments. According to the Huffington Post, 90% of customers are influenced by online reviews.

In this environment, your business lives and dies by its reputation. Taking care of how you are perceived on the internet is a must for any business.

You may choose to not deal with it, but the situation won’t go away. You are at the mercy of your reputation. Smart businesses are proactive.

Why Reputation Management Is Important

Consumers rely on the testimonials and reviews of people who have used specific products and services. Whether it is Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, Angie’s List, Google, forums or blogs, customers are not shy about getting the word out about their experiences with online and brick and mortar businesses.

Every business has occasional troublesome encounters with customers. This is to be expected. It can be a package that wasn’t delivered on time, a widget that broke, an app that had a glitch or a meal that was served by a surly waiter.

The goal of all smart business owners is to resolve problems as soon as they come up, preferably before reviews are written but definitely as soon as you hear about it. This keeps a customer and prevents word of mouth from scaring away others.

Here are six tips that have helped successful businesses protect and manage their reputation online.

Manage Your Brand

#1. Take control of your brand.

Make sure you are the one in control of your brand name, on including domains and social media platforms. Use the same name to be consistent. Use a service like KnowEm.com, which provides a list of social networks and domains to check in order to be sure only you have claimed it.

Pick three to five major social media platforms and get active on them. The major players are Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Angie’s List and Google+. But it might serve your business to look into YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn and others.

To establish an active presence takes consistent effort and time. More than five outlets will be more than a businessperson can handle alone. Don’t overdo your social media efforts or your will end up not establishing a strong presence anywhere.

Set up your brand on each of the platforms you choose. Use the same logo and name for brand recognition.

#2. Post consistently.

Put up new info and answer questions at least once a week, though two or three times is better. Do it regularly so people know you care.

#3. Track your reputation.

Keep an eye on how you are perceived online. Use online monitoring tools to help you keep up to date on your reputation, like Twitter Search and Google Alerts.

Tell People About Yourself

A solid, consistent presence online will help people get to know you. If you feel like an old friend, people online will tend to discount negative reviews and give you the benefit of the doubt. This leads to positive word of mouth if a negative comment is posted.

#4. Be active on your blog.

Write regularly and don’t worry that you don’t sound like Hemingway. Simply let people know what is new at your business, write about things that inform your readers and entertain them. Your blog is your safe harbor online. It gives you a channel to respond to bad reviews or situations.

#5. Use testimonials.

Prominently display on your blog a link to testimonials on your website. These are an excellent antidote to negative reviews.

#6. Respond immediately to problems.

Reply right away to negative posts and comments on your social media accounts. Jump on them quickly before negativity spreads. Ask what the problem is and listen to the response. Don’t act defensive or aggressive.

Listen, apologize, explain if it will help and offer to reimburse them if that is appropriate. Do what it takes to make the situation better.

Then fix your payment system, sales info or whatever was the source of the problem. That way it won’t happen again. Never argue with an angry customer online. EVER!

Following these six steps consistently will help maintain a positive reputation for your business online.

If you are a business owner in any of these genres, financial, photographers, dentists, hotels, restaurants, construction, HVAC, hardware stores, real estate, or any business owner and want more information on Instagram or Social Media Marketing, please contact Blast Creative today!

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Search Engine Marketing is being talked about all around the world. Today, I will give you an exact definition of what it refers to, and how it relates to both Web Search and Web Marketing.

Search Marketing is also known as Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and as such we will refer to it as SEM.

Search Marketing is a part of business marketing efforts that is aimed at increasing traffic (the number of visitors) to your website from the search engines. Additionally, it addresses conversion (the percent of visitors who become buyers). The first is achieved by increasing search engine visibility, i.e. the position of your site in search engine results for certain keywords that people type in the search box to obtain these results.

For instance, if someone wants to find a landscaper in MT, they will go to a search engine such as Google and type “MT landscaper” in the search box. Google will list, in this case, a bazillion results. If you are a landscaper in MT, offer any related services, your site may be listed among these results. Here, everything depends on how deep you are. If you are on the first or second page of the search results, it’s more likely that such visibility will bring many visitors and customers from Google. If you are the 300th result, it’s unlikely that anyone at all will come to you from Google.

Together with the power and size of your banner / ad network, your affiliations and partnerships, SE visibility comprises a broader concept – Web visibility (aka online visibility).

Generally, there are two main methods of carrying out SEM: 1) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 2) using pay-per-click and paid inclusion listing models.

Although paid inclusion and pay-per-click advertising methods seem like the fastest methods to search engine marketing, website owners prefer to adopt a more time consuming search engine optimization method to obtain better marketing of their website on search engines.

Organic rankings are results that you get for free. That is, you create Web copy and publish it, then after a certain period of time a search engine robot finds it (either by itself or as a result of your submission).

Finally, the robot reads your content and puts your site into its index. Now your site will be found by this search engine when people query for some words contained within your pages. Obtained this way, your positions in the result list are called your “organic search engine rankings“.

Paid listings are different: pay a search engine and it guarantees the inclusion of your site in the index. Moreover, many search engines offer advanced pay-for-performance programs, such as showing your site / ad in the search results for keywords of your choice. These are the so-called “sponsored” results. Most commonly, you will have to pay a specified rate for each visitor that comes to your site from this search engine that clicks on these ads.

Mastering both methods and their proper combination can provide maximum search engine visibility. Because things keep changing, search engine marketers need to devote a good deal of time staying on top of the SEO industry and its trends.

The aim of SEM is not only to find a proper balance between organic and paid listings, but also to achieve maximum conversion of visitors into loyal customers. Nowadays SEM relies on the statement that it’s not the traffic itself that matters, but how targeted and convertible it is. The way your traffic converts also matters a lot – even more than your site rank on a search engine. You can rank worse than a competitor and yet the percentage of your visitors that turn into buyers can be high enough to actually outperform a competitor several times over.

SEO Services cover a lot of areas like email marketing, directories, and the list goes on and on. If you have questions, post them on the blog, or contact BLaST Creative.

SEO Resources

Google Page Ranker

Who Links 2Me

WordPress

GoDaddy

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It’s the most-asked question from PPC managers and clients both: what is a good click-through-rate percentage on PPC ads? Of course, there will always be debate over what is considered good and what should be labeled subpar, but everyone agrees that higher is better. Many factors go into the CTR for PPC ads, so let’s look at these a little closer.

What is CTR?
Since you’re reading this, you likely already know that CTR is short for click-through rate. This measures the percentage of people who end up clicking on your ad after they’ve seen it. Why is it important? A high CTR tells Google and other search engines that your ad is attractive to people, indicating that it’s helping people find services or products that they want. Put simply, search engines evaluate data like this when determining ad placement for searches. A higher CTR helps secure a higher position on a search page, among other things. Most experts agree that 2% is considered a good CTR rate for pay-per-click advertising. Certainly, there are other factors or circumstances to consider, but this number is a great goal to start with. Keep reading for information on how to start improving your CTR.

How Can I Improve My CTR?
Click-through rate can be improved in numerous ways.

• Rethink your keywords. Using keywords is a given, but you don’t want to throw everything at the wall to see what sticks. Use targeted keywords that match with user intent.
• Create compelling ads. No one sets out to write a poor ad, but some are more effective than others. Highlight testimonials and reviews. Be highly specific about the problem your product or service will solve. Appeal to the person’s desire to solve their problem immediately by offering time-sensitive product bonuses or service upgrades.
• Use strong verbs. Strong verbs spur people to action. Think about using verbs like double, improve, create, and get.

As mentioned above, 2% is considered a good CTR. This may vary a bit from industry to industry, platform to platform, and campaign to campaign. The “magic number” might be a little different for your ad. Be sure to have a testing system in place so you can measure the efficacy of any ad placement and to see where you can improve your CTR percentage.

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