10 Reasons Social Media Isn’t Working for You

10 Reasons Social Media Isn’t Working for You
Why Every Brand Needs Custom Social Media Marketing
Samsung Goes Smaller, With the Galaxy S4 Mini
What is the Anchor Tag and When Should You Use it?
Freelancer.com Expands Contests To Let You Find Writers, Programmers, More
The Micro Business Home Equity Loan Crunch

Posted: 04 Jun 2013 02:00 AM PDT

A recent survey shows 39 percent of small businesses are now seeing a return on investment from their social media use. The survey also shows that almost half (49 percent) of the more than 1,200 businesses surveyed by Manta increased their time spent with social media in the first quarter of 2013.

Despite this, the mainstream media continues to focus on the 61 percent of businesses that have seen no return on their social media activities.

If you’re in this second group, experts and social media marketers say there could be many reasons why. Below are 10 possibilities.

10 Reasons Social Media Is Not Working for You

You’ve Got Other Problems in Your Business - Inc.com

Some companies complain because many of their social media comments are negative. But Carrie Kerpen, co-founder and CEO of Likeable Media, argues there may be a good reason for that. Social media acts like a mirror reflecting back your company’s image as customers see you. If you don’t like what you see, change the things your business does that create that image.

You’re Not Using Social Sites Effectively - Socialized Communications

For example, Shane Gibson insists LinkedIn alone includes over 200 million professional listings, including every Fortune 500 company and government organization. You should be using this social network to grow your business through increased sales and customer retention. If you aren’t doing so yet, Gibson and his team have put together a step-by-step video to show you how.

You’re Not Using Social Media to Forge Connections - Blondish.net

Web designer Nile Flores of Centralia, Illinois, argues social media is not always just about making sales. Sometimes it is about forging connections with others who have an interest in what you do. For example, building a relationship with others online who find you trustworthy can boost your reputation. And connecting with other business owners who offer services that compliment yours can lead to profitable partnerships.

You’re Ignoring the Facebook 80/20 Rule - Small Business Trends

One of the most popular social media networks online is also one of the most misunderstood, at least by small businesses. Mari Smith, often called the “Queen of Facebook” has this simple advice – always use the 80/20 rule when engaging with your audience. This means 80 percent of the time sharing a mix of other people’s and your own content with no sales agenda. Then spend just 20 percent of your time asking for the sale or lead.

You’re Not Measuring ROI to Find Out What Works - Urooj Kazi

Even though you may not use social media primarily for sales, it’s true some businesses do. If you want to figure out the return on a sponsored Facebook post, for example, there are some easy ways to do it. Business writer Kazi has some simple suggestions to measure and gauge response.

You’re Getting Distracted by the Metrics - Easy M6

Social media sites from Facebook to Twitter provide huge amounts of metrics that can prove quite helpful when measuring response to your social media efforts. But Lithuanian blogger Liudas Butkus recommends avoiding too much preoccupation with these metrics. The real question is whether your social media sites are driving traffic to your website, resulting in sales.

You’re Not Answering the Right Questions - SteamFeed

If you’re new to social media marketing, there’s no need to go it alone. There’s plenty of experience out there to draw from, so start by looking at what’s worked for others. DJ Thistle shares this post with responses from top social media marketers in his community to some of the most often asked questions. Check out the post and see if yours are answered here.

You’re Not Being Consistent Enough - Jenn’s Trends

If content is king, consistency is queen, says marketing expert Jenn Herman. Consistency will increase the effectiveness of your social media efforts. But how do you develop that consistency with so many other things that need doing in your business? It may be a challenge, but Herman suggests five tips for becoming more consistent in your social media efforts.

You’re Not Focusing on the Right Tools - Idea Sprouts

Not all social media platforms are created equal. Some will provide better results for your business than others. In this post, social media marketer Allison Semancik makes the case for Pinterest. Semancik insists the social site known for its highly visual content is responsible for 28 percent of the leads she has received through social media. Take a look at the overall breakdown.

You’re Not Tailoring Your Message for Your Audience - SearchBlogger

It may make sense to broadcast the same content over all the social platforms where you have a presence. Sharing the same content over multiple channels assures it is seen by all, builds momentum on all your channels and maximizes the use of content it may have taken you time and effort to create. The downside, says blogger Jamie Fairbairn, is that you annoy your followers and aren’t really tailoring your message to the very different audiences of each community.

Social Media Photo via Shutterstock

The post 10 Reasons Social Media Isn’t Working for You appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Why Every Brand Needs Custom Social Media Marketing

Posted: 03 Jun 2013 04:00 PM PDT

We love our smartphones, laptops and tablets but while new technology is thrilling for consumers, it presents new challenges for brands. In the early days of online marketing, you could simply set up a website and frame your content in any way you wanted.

Now that Internet users are going mobile and have their own customization options, chances are that they won't stumble across your site on their own. This is why it's so important for brands to invest their content on a variety of social platforms. You need to be able to push your content around without having it tied down to your domain.

Consider how Internet users spend their time:

22 percent on social media
21 percent on searches
20 percent browsing content
19 percent reading emails
13 percent multimedia sites
5 percent online shopping

With user attention diversified through so many platforms, doesn’t it make sense to diversify your content as well? Unfortunately, posting content to a variety of platforms takes time and strategic planning. To alleviate this problem, many brands rely on auto-content posting to automate their social media.

But did you know that using auto-content could decrease your social media likes by up to 70 percent? Also, consider the fact that the ratio of social media views to shares is 9 to 1. When all statistics are considered, social media marketing isn’t going to become any easier as users continue splintering into different niches.

This is why brands must focus their efforts on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest. While Internet users are continuously browsing the Web wherever they want, social media platforms unite users onto a single stage.

And yes, social media marketing is extremely effective:

77 percent of business-to-consumer companies have earned new customers through their Facebook presence.
43 percent of business-to-business companies have earned business through Facebook.
34 percent of businesses testify that they’ve generated leads through Twitter.

What Does This Mean?

With audiences splintering into specific niches online, we know that social media marketing is the best way to reach a mass of consumers. However, with so many social media platforms, it's tempting to automate social media marketing to save time and post on more sites. But this is the worst strategy possible.

Instead of auto-content posting, brands should use custom social media campaigns. By targeting users specific to Facebook, Twitter and other platforms, you are maximizing the effectiveness of your content. Not only do you see a greater ROI (return on investment), you also create a stronger presence for your business online.

Yes, customized content requires more time or even a financial investment, but it works. Research has shown that posts that are more interesting and that are clearly customized increase exposure to both the post and the page. Remember that using creative, custom content for social media marketing results in:

Customer engagement
Increased reach
Trust
Higher traffic
Sales

The post Why Every Brand Needs Custom Social Media Marketing appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Samsung Goes Smaller, With the Galaxy S4 Mini

Posted: 03 Jun 2013 01:30 PM PDT

galaxy s4 mini

Samsung, which is known for its large smartphones, is now going smaller. Samsung is expected to launch a lower end — and smaller — version of its Galaxy S4 smartphone in June.

Aptly called the Galaxy S4 Mini, the new phone is also expected to be cheaper than the $649.99 retail price.

Details have emerged about the new Galaxy S4 Mini phone in recent days. BGR India reports on some of the technical specs of the new phone. CNET provides a side by side comparison with the Galaxy S4 Mini.

The image above is the best way to understand the size of the new mini phone. Ut will be 4.91 by 2.41 inches and have a 4.3-inch display screen.

Internally too, the Galaxy S4 Mini will possess slightly less punch, with a 1.7 GHz dual-core processor compared to the 1.9 GHz quad-core of its big brother, and about 8GB of capacity and 1.5GB RAM compared to the 16 to 64 GB of capacity and 2GB RAM of the larger phone. But other features on the phone are comparable, with memory on both devices expandable up to 64 GB.

If you’re interested in photo and video capabilities, the new Galaxy S4 Mini features an 8-megapixel rear camera compared to the 13-megapixel camera with HD quality video of the larger phone. The front facing camera is 1.9 megapixels, not too much of a downgrade from the 2 megapixels of the front facing camera for the Galaxy S4.

The camera is expected to be a less costly option for users who want a slightly smaller smartphone and don’t mind the slightly lower capacity.

See an overview and comparison of the Galaxy S4 Mini with other Samsung models in the video below from Three.

The post Samsung Goes Smaller, With the Galaxy S4 Mini appeared first on Small Business Trends.

What is the Anchor Tag and When Should You Use it?

Posted: 03 Jun 2013 11:00 AM PDT

Many small businesses are finally beginning to master using the anchor tag (a clickable link that takes you directly to a specific area of a page). This is a great way to improve navigation and give credit to outside sources that you quote in your content, not to mention the SEO benefits.

How the Anchor Tag Works

The anchor tag is essentially a tag that you can attach to a word or a phrase (exactly like you would a normal internal or external link), except it brings readers down to a different section of the page as opposed to another webpage. You're essentially creating a unique URL within the same page when you use this tag. Consider the following example:

anchor tag

If you click on any of the headings in the "contents" box, it will jump you right down to that section without you ever having to leave the page or scroll down to find it.

The Benefits of Using the Anchor Tag

There are really three main benefits when it comes to using the anchor tag:

No Scrolling. The biggest benefit to the anchor tag is not forcing your visitors to scroll down tons of information to find a particular section. This can get daunting, and depending on just how much content is on the page, it can be very difficult to find a certain section amidst all the content.
Organization. This helps webmasters keep things in order. Instead of having to create several different webpages or splitting up a document, you can keep it all in one place.
Search Engine Use. Google sometimes uses this tag to help send a user to a specific section of your webpage, which helps make things easier for users. This isn't overly common, but Ann Smarty of My Blog Guest offered the following screenshot as an example on SEOChat:

The name anchor works great if you're publishing a tutorial, a study or anything with a fairly large table of contents. Wikipedia is a great place to find examples of the anchor tag in use.

How to Get Started Using the Anchor Tag

Fortunately, using the anchor tag is actually very simple. It's all about using a series of different HTML codes which might remind you of the normal HTML linking tag you're used to using. The steps are as follows:

Open your text editor and figure out where you want to insert the name anchor tag. You can do this anywhere—a heading (most common), a word, a phrase, etc.
Insert the anchor tag around the text you're going to link (the same way you would any type of link). The code looks like this:

Once you have created the anchor tag around the word, phrase, or heading that you would like, you will want to link to this URL in your content. The tag is similar to the coding you're used to, except it is preceded by a # sign. You should open the HTML version of your content and insert the following tag:

The anchor tag isn't quite as popular as many other types of linking and is easy to miss if you're a startup, but it's a great way to help keep things easy for your visitor. It's easy to implement and it's never too late to get started.

Have you used the anchor tag in the past? Did you find it successful?

Photo Credit: the-seo-site.com

The post What is the Anchor Tag and When Should You Use it? appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Freelancer.com Expands Contests To Let You Find Writers, Programmers, More

Posted: 03 Jun 2013 08:00 AM PDT

contests

Freelancer.com, a site for outsourcing projects, allows businesses to post contests to get freelancers to compete for design projects. And now, it’s no longer limiting contests just to design projects — you can post a contest for programmers, writers, mobile app developers, and more.

On the Freelancer.com contest page you can now create contests for categories like “websites IT and software,” “mobile,” “writing,” “data entry,” “product sourcing and manufacturing,” “sales and marketing,” and “business, accounting and legal.”

This means that if you need a piece of software code written or some articles written, you can establish a contest and see which freelancer does the best job.

To set up a contest, you fill out an online form and set a “prize” for the end project. Prizes for design contests can start as low as $30 and average around $500.

For example, small business owner Justin Lang, of Caringbah, Sydney, created a contest using Freelancer.com that allowed him to select from over 900 designs.

“Not only was the contest useful for getting a great logo but I was able to make contact and sort through hundreds of freelancers for projects that I will do in the future,” Lang was quoted as saying in a prepared company release.

Of course, those who compete in the contests are often small business people, too. They are generally freelancers attempting to win jobs, clients and perhaps long-term business relationships with the sponsors.

Best Practices for Freelance Contests

Contests like the ones hosted by Freelancer.com and competing sites are controversial. Graphic designers and other freelancers whose businesses are dependent upon getting paid for completed work, sometimes view contests as doing work on spec.

A post from Creative Bloq looks at the concern that some contests are nothing more than spec work. Freelancers can spend a lot of time on spec work, but unless they win the contest, they’ve spent their time on non-income producing work. Since most freelancers are one-man operations, that limits the time left for paid work.

Another post at Freelance Switch explores which of these contests represent a legitimate opportunity to showcase abilities versus spec work. To avoid doing spec work, Thursday Bram writes that contests should involve a pitch and perhaps a portion of sample work, along with the promise of pay for any future stages of the project.

For small business owners and entrepreneurs looking to find a freelancer through a contest, keep in mind what’s reasonable to expect from the freelancer. For large projects, such as writing every page of your entire website’s copy, you may want to structure your contest to ask for a sample of 2 or 3 pages. Attach a small prize to the sample. Then you and the prize winner can outline a follow-on project for writing the rest of the pages.

Contests have become popular for straight-forward design projects. It remains to be seen how well the contest model works for larger or multi-phase types of projects.

The post Freelancer.com Expands Contests To Let You Find Writers, Programmers, More appeared first on Small Business Trends.

The Micro Business Home Equity Loan Crunch

Posted: 03 Jun 2013 05:00 AM PDT

home equity loan

To obtain the capital they need to finance their business operations, some micro-business owners tap the equity in their homes by drawing on home equity lines of credit. But in recent years, this strategy has become more difficult for business owners, as banks have cut back on home equity lending.

Seventeen percent of businesses with less than $100,000 in sales use home equity lines of credit for business purposes, Barlow Research's October 2012 Small Office/Home Office Opportunity study – a random sample of 100,000 small businesses with less than $100,000 in sales listed in Dun and Bradstreet – reveals.

That's surprisingly high. The Federal Reserve's 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances reveals, that 18 percent of the self-employed don't own their own homes, so they can't get home equity lines of credit. The National Federation Independent Business's 2011 Annual Finance Survey shows that only 44 percent of businesses with fewer than 20 employees have a line of credit, whether drawn on their home or otherwise. Together these numbers suggest that just under half (47 percent) of micro business owners with homes and lines of credit made use of home equity to get the credit line.

In absolute terms, a lot of micro enterprises use home equity lines of credit for business purposes. The Internal Revenue Service estimates that there were approximately 25 million businesses with less than $100,000 in revenue in operation in the United States in 2008, the latest year data are available. Given Barlow Research's estimate of the fraction with home equity lines of credit used for business purposes, that translates to more than 4 million micro business owners.

These 4 million business owners have had a tough time with their financing strategy in recent years because of the declining home equity loan market. According to the Federal Reserve of New York's Quarterly Report on Household Credit, the number of home equity lines of credit fell from 23.9 to 18.7 million between the fourth quarter of 2007 and the fourth quarter of 2012. Moreover, the amount of credit available on home equity lines of credit declined 39.3, and the balance on these loans 24.1 percent, percent in inflation adjusted terms, over the same period.

As I have argued before, small business credit markets are linked with the housing market. During the housing market boom, micro business owners had an easier time getting credit for their companies because they could tap rising home equity levels. Since housing prices have deflated, however, and banks have cut back on home equity loans, microbusiness owners who used home equity to finance operations have found credit more difficult to get. If policy makers want to help ensure that microbusiness owners have access to sufficient credit, then they need to keep a careful watch on the housing market.

Home Loan Photo via Shutterstock

The post The Micro Business Home Equity Loan Crunch appeared first on Small Business Trends.