Are you Open for Business?

Have you taken advantage of the new LinkedIn Open for Business feature yet?  They say that this feature allows small and medium business owners and professionals to network and connect with others who are looking for the services that you might offer.  Here’s a short video to explain in more detail.

So, what does this really mean for you?  When a LinkedIn member searches for a service provider with your area of expertise, your profile will appear in that search.  It is then up to your potential clients to get in touch if they are interested in your services.  However, you must remember to tick the box that allows LinkedIn members whom you’re not connected with to message you for free!

💡 If you haven’t downloaded the LinkedIn app, you’re missing a trick.  The app is free and connects you effortlessly to your account from your phone. I think it is very easy to use, with features constantly being updated.  It lets you check your enquiries and messages, invite people to connect, and review updates.

Of course, if you haven’t updated your profile in a while then I recommend you do the following; Choose a profile picture of yourself, not your company logo, add your work experience, include relevant work experience, add a summary – use this space to explain things such as why you started your business or role, experience and more. For more information about updating your profile click here.

Summary

Your LinkedIn connections are one of the best ways to help source experts who you trust, as well as building relationships with those key prospects.  By opting in to Open for Business, (which is free of charge), you will show up on any relevant search results (see video link above).

Help encourage new prospects to come to you, give Open for Business a try!

My LinkedIn in-house workshops are tailored specifically to your company’s aims and objectives, offering real, practical, intensive and hands-on training that works.

Whether you’re looking for a one to one or group workshop I can help. Prior to your workshop, we’ll discuss your objectives and your workshop will be tailored accordingly. All workshops include 8 weeks’ follow-up, mentoring and support to ensure you succeed as a result.

Get in touch with me at info@bizwizuk.co.uk or call me on 07752 539719 or via our contact page.

By Ann Davies, Director

Photo credit: LinkedIn.com

Back To Basics

Not every social media platform is right for every business and before you get started, let’s get back to basics, starting with the what, which and who:

What are your company’s goals for using social media?

Are you raising awareness, promoting your products and services, raising awareness of your culture, updates on projects, success stories, or engaging with stakeholders?

Which platforms are we going to prioritise?

Where is your audience/s and what platforms are your competitors using?

Who is going to take ownership?

Who in your company will take ownership for your social media strategy, or will this be a shared role?  Are you going to offer any training to support them, this needs to seamless because mistakes on social media will affect your company’s reputation, and how will you review and evaluate their effectiveness, always testing and measuring success?

Complete a competitor analysis

A competitor analysis in social media marketing is an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of your current and potential competitors. Your analysis should be able to identify opportunities and threats.  This doesn’t have to complicated, here’s our guide. 

What is your content strategy?

Your content strategy should relate to the planning, development, and management of content, whether this is written, video or other.  Consider the sources of your content, will your content come from reputable sources, will someone within your company write the content, such as blogs, commentary on latest industry news, case studies or success stories, or will it be outsourced?

Get the tools!

If you don’t have the right tools to help you manage your social media strategy, it will become all too overwhelming.  There’s a never ending array of tools, here are some ideas and recommendations for you to try, depending on your budget.

Evaluate

Over time, you will get to understand, what topics your followers like, and the imagery working alongside.  How many enquiries or call-to-actions (CTA’s) did you receive, or which posts had the most engagements?  You can set your company’s own key metrics depending on what you deem suitable. However, it is important to start at the beginning, back to the basics.

Leave it to us!

We pride ourselves on getting to know our clients’ business’, their products, services and audiences, tailoring solutions to suit.

If you’d like advice or to talk through your current social marketing plan and how we can help, whether it’s a training requirement or outsourced solution, please contact us or give me a call on 0161 826 7181 or connect with me on LinkedIn to discuss ways my team and I can support your business.  Alternatively, we have a whole host of complimentary fact sheets to help you on your own social media marketing journey, right here.

By Ann Davies, Director

Outsource Social Media?

Should I consider outsourcing our social media marketing?  This is a dilemma for small business owners as there be a temptation to try and do everything in-house and, in some instances, this can be a wise decision.  However, hiring experts to manage certain tasks can mean all the difference; knowing when to outsource can help reduce labour, increase efficiency, save time and money.

If you have a project requiring a high level of expertise, it would be time consuming for you to undertake this in-house meaning you’ll only put it off and the work will simply not get done.  By choosing to work with us, you can be assured that the project gets started quickly and is completed on time.

Small businesses outsource their social media marketing to us and we are in a position, having built solid relationships with other agencies over the years, to recommend various other aspects of digital marketing such as content marketing, website design, PR and graphic design, to these trusted agencies.  We keep up to date with changing marketing trends so our clients don’t have to, but bear in mind the following advice to make certain that outsourcing works for you:

Cost efficiency

One reason you might want to outsource is to reduce operational and labour costs while improving the bottom line.   This comes into question if your project is left in the wrong hands, so choose your expert carefully.

Your Business’ Reputation

It is vital that the highest possible standards are maintained when managing reputation; businesses live and die by their reputation.  Failing to take a business’ reputation into account when outsourcing may be the biggest mistake you could make.  Ensure your expert company has excellent processes in place; do not allow service levels to drop or your identity to be at risk.

Innovation

Internal constraints in businesses can stifle development projects.  For example, a software development company recently outsourced their marketing to us because internal team members were too close to the business to “think outside the box”.

Ultimately, outsourcing your areas of business to us means you can focus on what you should be doing: running and growing your business in the knowledge that your social media marketing activity is being expertly handled.

Take time to reap the rewards

Outsourcing is a key element for small businesses today and to dismiss it as an unnecessary function is short-sighted leaving companies at risk of being left behind by their competitors. Efficiency will be lost for those who attempt to manage all areas of their business in-house without external expert support.

Leave it to us!

We pride ourselves on getting to know our clients’ business’, their products, services and audiences, tailoring solutions to suit.

If you’d like advice or to talk through your current marketing plan and how we can help, please contact us or give me a call on 0161 826 7181 or connect with me on LinkedIn to discuss ways my team and I can support your business.  Alternatively, we have a whole host of complimentary fact sheets to help you on your own social media marketing journey, right here.

By Ann Davies, Director

10 Fresh Social Media Ideas

One of the hardest parts of managing any kind of social media marketing campaign is coming up with new ideas.  If you’re expected to juggle numerous social media platforms and keep them up-to-date with fresh posts then I’ve put together some fresh ideas especially for you – enjoy!

1.Run a competition or giveaway

Everyone loves a freebie, and they’re a great way to encourage engagement.  However, it’s not as straightforward as you may think;

Is your giveaway going to be related to your brand?  Consider free products, free membership, free guides, free videos, free advice.  It’s not necessary to relate the giveaway directly to your brand but it can be useful to do so, especially if you do have branded freebies to give away.

Does your competition have terms and conditions, point of contact, contact details, etc?  You must include terms and conditions if anything goes amiss, plus it shows your competition in a legitimate light.

2.Create bite-size video

Video is necessary for brands but sadly many don’t see the investment worthwhile.  However, video gets loads more engagement than text alone and especially useful on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  There are some great ideas from the @KrispyKreme feed here.

3.Re-purpose your content

For every piece of content created, either written or video think about ways to promote it beyond its original format.  For example, pull a client testimonial or quote and re-purpose it into an image via Canva (my team really like this platform).  Likewise, re-purpose your video content into bite-size previews of your longer video from your YouTube channel.

4.Tutorials and how-to’s

Free advice, and step-by-step guides and tutorials are a great way to educate your followers.  This can works especially well in the food and drink sectors for cocktail making and food recipes – think Jamie Oliver for one.  Consider short, to the point videos while still giving loads of free information.

5.Go live

There’s nothing more compelling than live video to capture your audience’s attention.  All social media platforms offer the opportunity to stream live.  Whether you’re vlogging from your kitchen table or conducting a Q & A session, responding to your followers in real-time establishes a more personal connection.  Don’t forget you can re-purpose and use again across your platforms.

6.Give your clients the spotlight

What better way to promote your brand than to ask your clients for a testimonial, here’s one that we made earlier.

Alternatively, you could show your clients how much you appreciate them by giving them a shout-out.  This goes beyond tweeting those who support your business with something much more powerful and special.

7.Take advantage of trending news

The best ideas come along when you least expect them to.  Trending news on Twitter and Facebook signify a way for your brand to capitalise on a window of opportunity for such content to be relevant.  Use Google Alerts for hot-off-the-press news and various industry-appropriate news channels as soon as it goes live.

8.Run a social-media exclusive deal

Adding a promotional code to any offer will help you to get the insights you need to know how many are buying from you and how much they are engaging.

9.Respond to your followers

Brand should always be willing to talk to their followers.  Time is precious and taking the time to respond, shows that you care.  Whether you’re praising, addressing a concern or question, or just saying hello, your response can represent your brand in a whole new light.  Think about combining customer service with a humorous twist, telling them how much you value your followers’ feedback.

10.Go behind the scenes

Show the people behind the brand because the core of any brand is their people.  “People buy people before they buy your services.”  Offer a “behind the scenes” snapshot of your people in the office, over a team lunch or team get-together.  It’s important to humanise a brand!

BizWizUK can take your business to the next level by supporting your social media marketing plans. If you don’t have the in-house resource or expertise, we provide an outsourced tailored solution.  Get in touch with me at info@bizwizuk.co.uk or call on 0161 826 7181 or via our contact page.

By Ann Davies, Director

Your Startup on Social Media

Getting your startup business on social media has never been as important and with 3.48 billion people now use social media, that’s an increase of 9% from last year¹. This means an astonishing 45% of the total world population are using social networks, and that is growing every day.

Check out my 5-step process to help your startup get started.

1. Set S.M.A.R.T Goals – Make sure your goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.  For example, you may want 50 new followers in 30 days.  Use analytics platforms to track your online activity in real-time, we use and recommend Cyfe.
2. Competitors – Look at your competitors by conducting a competitive analysis that will help you to understand who your competitors are and spot any opportunities, strengths and take advantage of their weaknesses.  This is also a great way to draw on inspiration from other businesses that are great on social media, taking note on the different types of content they publish and how they engage with their audience.
3. Set up Accounts – Determine which platforms you are going to use, looking at those where your target audience lie.  Set up and optimise your accounts, completing all profile fields using your industry specific keywords and any hashtags, use branded images that correctly reflect your new start-up and are correctly sized for each individual platform.
4. Start a Social Media Calendar – Start creating a content schedule that lists the date, time and different types of content for each channel.  Use a social media management platform, which will help you to makes finding, scheduling, managing, and reporting on social media content much easier, we use and recommend Hootsuite.
5. Test, Measure and Test Again – Tracking your activity and data using one of the monitoring tools above will help you to see what works and what doesn’t.  Evaluate and test again until you see what works and what doesn’t.

Summary

Help to improve your startup’s brand loyalty, engage with your audience, and build stronger client relationships by getting on social media. This will set you apart from your competitors by showing your audience how your company is different and reinforcing that your business is the experts in their field.

Should you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch, whether that’s for a bespoke LinkedIn workshop for you or your team, a face to face or a remote-based one to one workshop or ongoing, outsourced social media marketing support.

¹ Hootsuite

2019 Social Media Strategy

As we approach the end of the year and prepare for Christmas, we are also looking forward to the start of a brand new year. In this fast paced environment of social media marketing we can already predict many of the changes and trends that are likely to take place in 2019.  With this in mind, it is important that you start to look at your 2019 social media strategy to ensure that you are ahead of the game. Some elements to consider are:

Keeping up with social media

Big changes coming to Facebook’s messaging platform

As of the 1^st January 2019, Facebook Pages will need to be successfully approved for subscription messaging permissions if not, they won’t be able to send the free messaging type called ‘non-promotional subscription messaging’.

If you’re a Page admin you need to read this.

The type of content you upload

As above, the battle to be seen amongst the vast array of competitor content means that you have to make your own content stand out. Careful consideration should be given to the sort of content you’re posting and its relevance. Your content should be a rich mixture of video, live streaming and info graphics. Text heavy updates will simply not be enough when it comes to your social media strategy!

Taking advantage of new platform features such as Facebook ‘Watch Party’

It’s official!  Facebook Watch Party has been officially launched!  It’s a new feature for groups that allows admins to hold a live screening of pre-recorded videos that are publicly available on Facebook. Group members can watch and comment on the videos at the same time to create a shared viewing experience.

Changing demographics

When considering your marketing plan you should take into account who your target audience is.  Think about the varying understanding of technology, contact preferences and tome of voice that might best appeal to each demographic.  For example, graduates, teenage consumers and the ageing population means people of an older age that might not have been targeted previously should now be included in any marketing strategy.

Deciding which platform serves what purpose and how you can take full advantage

So, we now know that Facebook is looking more towards video as I have mentioned above, and LinkedIn has launched changes to Company pages so where does Twitter fit in?  Twitter has announced a relatively small, but significant update, which now means that advertisers using the platform’s in-stream video ads will be able to reach a global audience with their ad content, as opposed to being region-restricted.  Twitter has also announced a new update to its ‘Explore’ section which splits the latest news into sections, helping to improve relevant content discovery.  Twitter is more associated to real-time content, so it might prove more beneficial to users who are looking to keep up with the latest news and events.

I hope my latest blog has given you some ideas for your 2019 social media strategy?  Make sure you’re ahead of the game by using the above points to help inform your strategy or you can sign up to our monthly newsletter here.

Should you need any further assistance don’t hesitate to get in touch and my team and I can help draft a bespoke plan that will ensure your brand is on top in 2019.

By Ann Davies, Director

Competitor Analysis

“Competitor analysis” – what is it?

A competitor analysis is an in depth look in to the competitors of a business to identify their strengths and weakness and any strategic opportunities.

Is a competitor analysis essential?

It should be a vital part of your company’s marketing plan. By undertaking a competitor analysis, you can benchmark your business, learn from your competitors’ strengths and take advantage of their weaknesses, establish the level of service your target audience expects, what they engage with the most and determine a niche to set your company apart.

It plays a key role in informing your overall strategy and setting out your business goals.

Investors and key stakeholders will be particularly interested in a competitor analysis; they want to know that you are both realistic about your positioning in the market and thinking strategically about what direction you need to be heading in to future proof your business.  Here is a useful article from Entrepreneur which also gives you an overview.

How do you do it?

Firstly, you need to know who your competitors are; a minimum of three competitors should be identified at local level and at least one at national level.

You should then determine where each holds an online presence across the various social media platforms. On each platform, you should note the number of followers, the kind of content posted, the level of interaction and whether it’s positive or negative, the level of humanisation (Do they sign off with a name or initials, do they address followers personally?), what tone they use, how often do they talk about themselves etc.

Once you gather the data you should plot it into a matrix and give each factor a score reflecting their attainment. From this, you will be able to identify who are the leaders in each area, what your target audience responds to the most, what everyone does well (bare minimum requirement) and what nobody does well (strategic opportunity).

To compete in the world of business you have to know your competitors!  For more information on our services please click here, call us on 0161 826 7181 or email info@bizwizuk.co.uk.

By Erran Taylor, Digital Marketing Manager

Competitor Analysis in a Nutshell

What is a “competitor analysis”

A competitor analysis is an in depth look in to the competitors of a business to identify their strengths and weakness and any strategic opportunities.

Is a competitor analysis essential?

It should be a vital part of your company’s marketing plan. By undertaking a competitor analysis, you can benchmark your business, learn from your competitors’ strengths and take advantage of their weaknesses, establish the level of service your target audience expects, what they engage with the most and determine a niche to set your company apart.

It plays a key role in informing your overall strategy and setting out your business goals.

Investors and key stakeholders will be particularly interested in a competitor analysis; they want to know that you are both realistic about your positioning in the market and thinking strategically about what direction you need to be heading in to future proof your business.

How do you do it?

Firstly, you need to know who your competitors are; a minimum of three competitors should be identified at local level and at least one at national level.

You should then determine where each holds an online presence across the various social media platforms. On each platform, you should note the number of followers, the kind of content posted, the level of interaction and whether it’s positive or negative, the level of humanisation (Do they sign off with a name or initials, do they address followers personally?), what tone they use, how often do they talk about themselves etc.

Once you gather the data you should plot it into a matrix and give each factor a score reflecting their attainment. From this, you will be able to identify who are the leaders in each area, what your target audience responds to the most, what everyone does well (bare minimum requirement) and what nobody does well (strategic opportunity).

To compete in the world of business you have to know your competitors!  For more information on our services please click here, call us on 0161 826 7181 or email info@bizwizuk.co.uk.

By Erran Taylor, Digital Marketing Manager