As an entrepreneur, your business and online presence is a craft that you must continuously hone by keeping up-to-date with trends.
By remaining static and complacent, your business may reach an unwanted plateau, but by always integrating a sense of newness and spicing things up with changes, you’ll keep your clients happily intrigued. In order to keep up with the trends you have to always be “in the know” and in order to do so it is important to follow industry experts and leverage their knowledge and insight. The more you learn about your craft and what clients are looking for, the more you can incorporate them into your own business strategies. Also, by monitoring and keeping a close eye on what your competitors are doing is a great way to get inspiration and ideas.
1. Know your audience and engage the right people:
The first mistake that a lot of Instagram users make is that they start following a bunch of people hoping that, in turn, those people will follow them right back. That may not always be the case. If you’re a makeup artist and you’re following random people who might not be interested in your service, you probably won’t be receiving a follow back. If your specialty is doing makeup for weddings then start following people within that niche such as wedding planners, brides to be’s, etc.
2. Search the right hashtags:
3. Don’t be an idle Instagrammer:
If you’ve taken the time to build your fan base don’t forget to start engaging with them! Whether it is taking a few seconds to scroll through their profile to “like” or even comment on their pictures – sometimes it’s the little things that count and by extension, will leave you remembered.
3 Tips to Use Twitter for Business
1. Keep organized
As you grow your Twitter fan base, you will notice a substantial amount of social clutter and it can start feel very overwhelming. Be sure to keep organize by using Twitter lists to categorize customers, competitors, suppliers, people in your industry etc.
2. Optimize your Profile Picture
Your profile picture is always displayed next to your tweets, as a result, this is the image that people will identify you by. As a branding strategy, make sure your logo/image is clean and clear.
3. #Followback
If you’re using your Twitter account for business then you’re most likely trying to build brand awareness and prospectively, gain new clients. What better way to stay connected with people than by following them on Twitter? Some brands are very picky and choosey about whom they follow and care more about having more “followers” than who they are actually “following”. This practice doesn’t demonstrate quality client relations and may actually put your brand into question. The best rule of thumb is to have a 50-50 ratio, while one side may be slightly more than the other, it still shows that you value your followers and want to hear about what they have to say.
LinkedIn (The holy Grail)
I love LinkedIn
Seriously, I love LinkedIn. It is by far my favourite platform of all social media channels, yet the number of unprofessional morons using it seems to be growing by the day. I guess with over 60 million new profiles every year some of this is to be expected but if you do any of the following please expect to be removed from my 1st degree connections.
- Sending me an email when I have not opted into your data base with messages like;
Dear Adam,
Once in a while, I reach out to my valued contacts on Linkedin, outside of Linkedin itself, to say Hi!
As National Sales and Client Services Manager at NAME REMOVED, I wanted to extend an exclusive offer to you as a valued Linkedin Connection, to help you kick start your on-going personal development in 2018.
Trust me I don’t feel valued by your message! This was 1 of 7 received yesterday!
- Message me offering to swap recommendations when we have never worked together.
Yes, recommendations are very valuable on LinkedIn but only when they are genuine.
- Tag me in your status update that I am very unlikely to be interested in simply as a means to get my attention or worse still as ‘Engagement Bait’
I promise to extend you the same courtesy at all times.
END RANT!
In my book The LinkedIn Playbook I likened many social media platforms to being like a street party open for everyone and lot’s of fun. Yet LinkedIn is your fine dining experience. I still believe this is the case and that it is one of the most powerful platforms to build your online brand.
Are you humanising your brand online?
Humanizing your brand through great communication is a surefire way to make your business more appealing to consumers; especially with the rise in artisan brands, self-made movers and shakers there has been a lot of attention on shopping to support local talents as opposed to gravitating towards corporations. By doing simple things like interacting with your clients (or even prospective clients) on social media, sending out personal emails to thank them for their business or personalizing their experience with you can make a world of a difference. Making it easy for your customers or potential customers to ask you a question by being active on various social media platforms or even answering their inquiry quickly in an email not only demonstrates quality customer service, but also builds trust.
How do you treat people online?
The same way you treat them face to face!
The key to a successful business is understanding the vast difference between: providing customer service and building customer loyalty. It might be that your price is right or perhaps you happen to have the best availability – it won’t be too difficult to procure your first client, but whether or not that same client will ever come back to you or refer your business to their friends or family is a whole other story. Make each client feel special by being genuine and building a strong rapport with them and you’ll not only have exemplified stellar customer satisfaction, but you’ll have also made a name for yourself with that client and their family and friends. And as the business adage goes, one customer well taken care of could be more valuable than $10,000 worth of advertising. What’s the biggest pitfall when it comes to your online presence? Neglecting leads or not following up with clients is the best way to guarantee a business’s demise. It’s not just about responding to concerns or following through with a lead, but rather it’s about doing so in an efficient and timely manner. Waiting a week before responding back to client could mean that they have found someone else to do business with. If growing your business and building clientele is a priority for you, then it means you will have to treat every aspect of it with a high level of importance. Businesses do not grow on their own you have to nurture it to success and to do so you must be willing to allocate your time into making it prosper by being extremely responsive to those who show interest in your business. Why is networking online important? As a completely free (and sometimes the best) form of advertisement, networking is a great way to get your business name out to people who may have never heard of it before. The key to successful networking is to always remember to have business cards handy; this small piece of paper will contain everything that is needed to get in touch with you. The opportunity to network can be at any time, so make sure you are always ready and equipped to self-promote; whether it be making small talk with friendly people on the train or waiting in a coffee line – conversations can strike up at any time so it is best to be prepared.
P.S. Here are 4 ways we can help you accelerate your Lead Generation results:
- Grab our free 4-Week LinkedIn Profile Optimisation Course
It’s the road map to positioning your profile in the top 5% of the 550 million LinkedIn users currently active – Click Here
- Join our LinkedIn Group and connect with entrepreneurs who are scaling too
It’s our Facebook community where smart entrepreneurs learn to get more leads and smart ways to scale using LinkedIn — Click Here
- Join our LinkedIn Influencer Program so you can “Show out” instead of just showing up
Every 8 weeks we have a new intake into our 12 – week Influencer program… Click Here for more details
- Work with our team privately
If you’d like to work directly with us to create new marketing opportunities send us a quick message Click here… tell us a little about your business and we’ll organise a time for a deeper chat