20th January 201929th January 2019

Which Social Media Platform should I use?

The question which social media platform I should use is said to me frequently, I get asked each time someone is needing training for their business.

My reply is simple, chose the platform that can give you the most for the effort you can put in.

There are so many varied businesses now and each type of business has different people buying or using their services.

I deal a lot with antique dealers in Petworth who need their existing and plenty of new customers to see what they have to sell in their shops.

It is vital to have good images and show off what their item is. With smartphones being as good as any digital camera, you can have your product on social media in an instant.

Instagram

The types of social media platforms I would recommend for businesses who have products to sell, I say Instagram is the one to use, it’s become so popular across all ages and it image based, so you will always pick up someone who will be interested in that image.

Twitter and Facebook are very popular for those who opened these accounts from a while ago, they are familiar in how they work and they can get the message to their followers if they are effective.

Twitter

Twitter works well for those wanting to get in with what is trending, react in an instant with or without using an image.

Facebook

Facebook allows you to write more, tag in others, post at schedule times to capture an audience through boost posts.

For those who are in the professional field of work, LinkedIn allows you to become connected with a whole heap of people who might be a worthwhile connections for jobs, improving your networking circle, building business relationships.

These are some of the few that I feel work for the types of business I tend to work with. Although beyond these social media platforms there is still Google+, Pinterest, Snapchat and many more.

If you need help with your social media, then get in touch with me. info@socialmedia-adviser.co.uk or call 07595499122

19th October 201829th January 2019

Social Media Adviser 6 years old.

Social Media Adviser 6 years old – My small social media business is celebrating is 6^th year of business. Since the start back in 2012, it was just something that started through a simply phone call about Twitter and Facebook, since then it has grown and continues too.

The Social Media business has now become very a competitive market and lots of people are working in this field. Plenty of people offer an excellent service and probably price it accordingly to what they feel they are worth.

The service I offer is based on us working together and then looking ahead on what I could provide for you.

It is often key for me to make sure that you understand the social media platforms you would like to use for your business.

Each of the platforms offer different elements and needs work in order to give you the results you require.

It is easy to just open accounts with all the different platforms and hope that the first post, tweet, video you add will bring followers to you, sadly this is not the case, instead what will happen is that nobody will see you, because you have not filled out the profiles on each account properly and also not finding the people or businesses you need to follow.

End result is that you have all these opened accounts and then soon forget the username and passwords which ultimately results in you not using the accounts for what you hoped too do.

Step in my help!

Lets sort out your username and password issue first, better to try and fix this problem before just opening new accounts with new email address, it might be a easy fix and probably get round the problem quickly but trust me, this can be a nightmare when two or more accounts are ‘Out There’ and people start to get confused which one to start liking or following. This can also drive people off what you are trying to say as the message is not reaching them.

So it is vital we fix this problem first, then move on to which social media platform works for your business. Let me know tell you about each one and then select the one or ones that would work best.

From here we move into setting up, filling out data content required, adding the correct imagery and contact details. Find friends and family to help populate your account, find businesses that you might want to keep an eye on or would like to follow. Either way you need to start finding people and business to connect with as the few you start with will make no impact on your account. The key number of certain social media platforms is 30.

If you would like social media training, then please get in touch and we can go from there.

A new line to my business which developed soon after the 1-2-1 and Group training was taking on the management of social media accounts. This is something that releases the stress or burden you might have with social media, knowing that someone who understands you and your business can help grow move it forward whilst you enjoy working at your business.

A management plan can be worked out to suit what you require. Depending on the business model, social media can work around it. This also applies to your budget and the type of content you require.

Fresh content can be gathered online, using your website is also another way to promote your business on social media and the odd fun content, brings the who package together.

This is what I can help you with when it comes to your business.

Other parts to my social media business is Apple Training, being a Mac, iPhone user now for a number of years I have learnt how they work and can help anyone who is transitioning from PC to Mac or to help set up your iPad’s/iPhones.

Step by step to get through what is required. Patience is key, if accounts have been created, passwords lost, questions and answers not matching up, it can feel like a nightmare, but one at a time, we can get through it and end up with a device that works for you and have all your notes filed so that they are accessible.

Social media is my main like of work, but I have other facets and always happy to get an enquiry about what I could do for you. Get in touch and find out more. 07595499122 or email info@socialmedia-adviser.co.uk

1st July 201829th January 2019

How to post on Facebook as a business not from a personal account

It’s a common problem with Facebook – having multiple profiles and trying to juggle them as smoothly as possible isn’t always as easy as it seems to begin with. With the huge growth of the social network, more and more businesses are seeing the benefits of having their own business page and using it to promote their services and offering a variety of information. However, if you want to make a post on yours or someone else’s page as your business, you need to remember to switch between accounts. This is easy to overlook, so here we show in simple steps how to make this adjustment.
With the Facebook business page, you’ll need 2 profiles; your business page profile and your personal profile. They will both give you the opportunity to upload posts; however, you will appear as either your business or your personal self and not as both. Both profiles also have their news feeds. They are
• Your Page Profile News Feed: this is strictly made up of pages you have liked as your page.
• Your personal Profile News Feed: this is based on the updates of your Friends’ status as well as the pages you have liked personally.
If you wish to change your personal profile to business page profile, you will have to:
1. Log in as usual.
2. Locate the account dropdown at the top right corner of the page and click on it.
3. Choose the Page link that you wish from the drop down menu.
If you are an admin for several pages, this is where you toggle among these pages as well as your personal profile.

After you must have clicked on the link of your choice, you will be taken directly to the page selected. You will then be given admin privileges and the page will appear as your business page and not as your personal profile. It’s a good idea to try it out as the difference becomes clear.
When you are on the your page section, your page’s admin pane will contain Notifications, Messages, New Likes, Insight and page Tips.

It is likely that you are used to seeing news feeds on your personal account and you don’t think you will get such benefits from the business page profile. However, this isn’t a problem and you can get news feeds on any of the profiles. Your Page Profile News Feed is strictly based on the Pages you liked. To see them, click the Home link on the top right corner of the page.
It works just like that of your personal account, just that it’s filled with posts from other Pages that you have liked. Note that if you are yet to like any page, you will have nothing to see as news Feeds. Only page updates are visible because you can’t like a personal account as a Page.
If you are on the business page profile and wish to go back to your personal profile, you just have to:
1. Click the Account link on the top right part of the page.
2. Select Facebook as your personal account name from the dropdown.
This is how you can go back and forth with your profiles.
There’s another small observation you need to understand. When you are on your personal profile and you go to your business Page, you will see a notification bar at the top of the page and a link with the name, and voice on it, as well as a link asking you to change to your personal profile – even though you are already on your personal profile. Note that the voice is replacing what you used to see as Postng Preference and was a part of the editor dashboard. This was done to make it very clear to the user that he/she is on either a personal profile or on a business page profile.

Now that you are aware of the distinct profile and how to manage them, here are some tips for you:
• You cannot perform any admin task on any business page that you are an admin if you are viewing you Facebook with your page profile. You will have to change back to your personal profile first.

• You can post your page on another page, but you cannot post as your business Page on anyone’s personal Facebook Profile.

• You shouldn’t post as your business page always to avoid being too spammy. It may be a very good way to promote your page, but you don’t have to do this to the point where it becomes annoying. Facebook is still a social network and not a place to fill up with your business name.

If you need help with Social Media campaigns, training or increasing the rankings of your website, give me a call or fill in my contact form.

15th June 201829th January 2019

Save time by Outsourcing

You need to focus on your business making sure that everything is ticking over, don’t let the chore of social media be something that get’s pushed aside.

Instead consider outsourcing your social media to us, we can help ease this burden for you.

We are here to help you save time by outsourcing your social media to a budget that suits you.

Discussing what your needs are and working towards a goal. Working out how much to post and whether it is, hourly, daily or weekly.

Your budget is the largest factor on how you choose to outsource your social media. It can help save time by outsourcing but does the money you put towards it have an impact. This all depends on how often your content is on social media.

Personally having a couple of different social media platforms accounts can help, this can ease the load of what gets posted where and when you prefer, not just using one platform to feed the others all at the same time.

A recent client is happy to handle their twitter account, whilst we carry out their Facebook account, client seems happy with using twitter as it’s a quick option to fire something out and also they can be reactive to what is going on.

Whilst with Facebook it takes a bit more time, it is important to get the right image to go with the text, the correct tags to all the businesses you want to target, location marker, using hashtags is required, all of this can be a bit longer than just using twitter and hence why this has been outsourced to us.

The point is save time when outsourcing knowing that your business is getting online and you don’t have to worry about getting it all together, leave that to the experts.

Get in touch

If outsourcing is something you would like to discuss or have for your business, then get in touch with us. We are here to help lighten your load.

Find us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, if you are not using them as yet, maybe consider how to via our social media training.

Email info@socialmedia-adviser.co.uk

7th October 201729th January 2019

How important is Facebook live video for my business?

One thing is certain, if you want to have the best representation of your brand or online business, you need to be “on the move”, knowing the latest trends and learning how new technologies work.
Facebook is constantly changing and analysing what types of content are most relevant for users. That is why Facebook Live – which is a live broadcast video on Facebook – will appear higher in the news feed.
Now that people watch videos in real time, live broadcasts consider this as being a fresh and vibrant new type of content.

• What is Facebook Live?

You can carry out video streaming live on Facebook from 3 places: your Facebook profile, your business page or from your groups and your events – all by using your iPhone or Android.
Thus, you can instantly share things. People can connect with you on those channels, see your transmissions, and not only that, they can comment and “react” as smileys to what you are transmitting.

• Making a connection

Facebook Live gives you the wonderful opportunity to establish a more personal and real connection with the people who have given “likes” to your page.
It is the connection we are always looking for and that can be difficult in the virtual world. Although you’re not meeting them face to face, you can greet them directly and call them by name as if they were in front of you, because you look at your comments. This way you have the opportunity to create a meaningful connection with them.

• How will Facebook Live benefit your business?

Using Facebook Live is a very powerful way to get the attention of your audience in what is often a saturated and competitive platform.
According to Facebook, it is 3 times more likely that people will watch a video if it is live and that it will rank higher in the newsfeed – you’ll be able to capture more attention than solely using a traditional video, images or text.
Why? The reason is simple: one of the objectives that pursue social networks is the participation or “engagement” of those who have connected with you.
One of the questions that is so often asked is, “How can I get the right people on Facebook who are interested in my product /service?”
Well, Facebook Live is a powerful way to show your unique value, through your proposition and experience. You can use the live video feeds to:
•   Conduct question and answer sessions.
•   Give breaking news in your industry or business.
•   Share Interviews
•   Show your business “Behind the scenes”
•   Demos
•   Tutorials
The list goes on!
Then as you get more confident with the feeds, you can start to polish the production values and include: Multiple camera angles, graphics and production values to TV style.

• Best practices for creating broadcasts that people want to see

# 1 Have a plan
Ask yourself if you have the time and resources to do so. Everything is perfect in your head, but have you outlined a detailed plan of action? Completing this planning will help you achieve your goals.

# 2 Be Inspired
Research is the main part of much of the process. There is where the inspiration comes from. Check what type of content you are creating in your industry.

# 3 Define your audience
One thing is certain, you cannot please everyone. Focus on what your followers are really looking forward to on your Facebook page.

# 4 Check the set
The environment in which you record should be clean, bright and presentable. Make sure you have a fantastic framework for people to focus on what you have to say, without distractions in the background.

# 5 Arm yourself with the right tools
Your phone + tripod + external microphone + good lighting need to become your new best friends. Take care of them!

# 6 Promote
Notify people in advance that you will have a live broadcast. You can give them something like a sneak preview while you’re preparing, through a text or an image.

# 7 Locate a place with strong internet connection
Check the app to make sure you have strong connection before transmitting. Wi-Fi tends to be better, but you can also use 4G, so check your connection in advance.

# 8 Create eye-catching titles
A good title better capture the attention of people who see your transmission. They should be short and sweet, from 55 to 60 characters.

# 9 Relax
Create rituals to feel calm enough to beginning the Live broadcast. Inhale and exhale slowly and smile before starting.

# 10 Click the button!
Get in on the broadcast! It is time to click. Arm yourself with courage. The more feeds you do, the easier and better you’ll become.

Used correctly, the live broadcasts on Facebook can be a great tool for your marketing mix and your social networking strategy. Because with greater participation, you’ll create more interaction with people who you want to serve, listen and gain feedback from.

20th August 2015

5 Social Media Tips To Remember

It is important to keep active on all your social media platforms, these tips will help ensure you can and guide you through, to be seen more effectively online.

Tip #1 – Schedule your social media.

Using social media tools such as Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Tweetdeck can help you save plenty of time. Set aside time to carry out this work and then monitor incoming replies or comments so that you can be responsive.

Tip #2 – Targeting your audience.

In composing each tweet or post, it is vital to tag in another business, so that they can receive your information and share it even further. Tweets with no targeting can still work, but you will find that the reach won’t be as great. Do the same with your other social media accounts and notice the difference.

Tip #3 – Use URL Shorteners to track and measure your engagements.

Using Bilty or Google Shorteners can help you track and monitor when your link has been clicked on. The link drives users back to your website, where more information can be found. Overall the link shortener looks neater and collects data for you to check back through.

Tip #4 – Paid promotion for your social media campaign.

With now more people engaging in social media it is important to keep up to speed. Using the paid features on many of the social media platforms, it is a good way to share your content to a bigger audience. Gain new followers, likes. Paid promoting can be targeted by area you live in, age groups and gender, whilst working to a budget that suits you.

Tip #5 – The right place to use a Hash-tag.

All of the social media platforms allow hash-tags to be used, on some of the platforms over usage can start to look messy and off putting by those seeing your information. Use them in the correct accounts, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram, not so much on Facebook or LinkedIn. Not every word needs to be hash-tagged, chose the words that can give you the most impact and create ones that you wish others to start using.

For more information about Social media Training please contact us on info@socialmedia-adviser.co.uk or 07595499122.

Multiethnic Group of People with Social Media Concept

21st April 2015

Promote your Business using Social Media

Using Social Media to promote your business.

Businesses are familiar with the conventional wisdom about making first impression count but are you making the most out of the opportunity.

An owner of a business will use various ideas in keeping their business image intact and focus on new networking skills with potential new customers.

Top tips on how to promote using Social media for your business.

Tip #1: Have a better website – businesses rely on the Internet to connect with other businesses. Having a good website can be a real asset for you, it will drive customers to you, a bad one will turn them off and not want to spend any money with you. Have your website easy to navigate and informative so people can find exactly what they are looking for. This will keep them on your website and ideally make some orders with you.

Tip #2: Use the social media platforms that are available for your business, so many that you can chose from and having a few key platforms can help establish your business online.

Tip #3: A Facebook business page can provide customers with lots of information about what you do, where you are and give them some history about your business.

Tip #4: Twitter would allow you to share special promotions and events to all your followers.

Tip #5: Social media can be used to gain customer feedback, which can be used to ensure you are meeting with your customers needs. A business that actively engages with their customers is more likely to have a positive image than one that does not. Social media is the tool businesses can use with customers.

Tip #6: Social media is here to stay; it is becoming the fastest way to communicate with each other. Understanding it and learning how to use it for your business is key. The platforms allow you to gain insight in how it works for you in conjunction with your website.

Posting information on your Social Media Platforms.

People look on social media platforms for all sorts of things, so if your page is active and updated often then you will see engagement on your page.

Give useful information to your potential new customers, they have come onto your page either by searching for you or through a recommendation and in order to gain a new follower or ‘like’ give them some reason do to this. Make them feel valued. Special offers, promotions, tips, vouchers are some ideas on how you can track how your campaign is going.

Tip #7: Brand Consistency

Have all your branding consistent across all social media platforms and also on your website. Together they will broadcast whatever your feature is and give you a bigger presence overall.

Tip #8: Engage with your community.

Beyond just posting information actively, engage with your customers. Encourage them to share ideas with you, take on board their views and reply with a positive attitude. Blogging about your service, products offers is another way of engaging with your customers, replies to comments should be addressed to continue the active engagement.

Social Media Training.

All this is to ultimately help you improve your online presence. Remember first impressions really do matter so start off well and the rest will follow.

I can provide social media training, to help grow your business.

Follow on Twitter @HRDSocialMedia

Find me on Facebook

3rd February 2015

Social Media Sussex

Using Social Media to promote your business

The day has come when businesses are actively promoting their own business and events around the town that will impact their business today and hopefully for the future.

Saturday 7th December is also Small Business Saturday UK, showing support to all those small businesses up and down the country.

Here today in Petworth we are expecting a large number of people to visit the town and show their support to all our small independent retailers. We will be having christmas carols, late night shopping, father christmas grotto and the all important Christmas lights switch on. The town will be alive and thriving.

Many residents are aware of this event today, through the large number of signs around the town and posters in shop windows, but the biggest way to broadcast the Petworth town christmas lights switch on, has to be through Social media, we are all tweeting, posting, connecting to each other around the town to help boost the presences of the Petworth to everyone who could and would like to visit Petworth at some point today.

Using the Hashtags, #Petworthlights and #Latenightshopping is working well. Encouraging businesses to use these two hashtags allows us to see how far the tweets are reaching and it give us some way of knowing who is interacting with Twitter. Between Dec 3rd and Dec 7th morning we are reaching over 10K accounts. #Latenightshopping has a much broader reach due to the key word that it is, but we are noticing tweets with many of the Petworth businesses.

Social media is always going to have positives and negatives, but when you can use it to boost your town presences and ultimately draw crowds to you, it is surely a positive. Using your social media accounts to promote your business is something I can train you in, or I can manage this for you.

Social Media Sussex offers social media training and social media managed services which will help your business grow and reach new audiences.

Call me on 01798 342188 or fill out my enquiry form.

2nd February 2015

Social Media Training

All year is a busy time of the year for any business and your aim is to make as many sales as possible, getting customers through that shop door. It is also a time of year that people do go out of there way to buy that something special for their loved one. I couldn’t think of a better present than having someone show me something that would enhance my skill sets and improve my knowledge all at the same time.

Social media for your business isn’t something you pick up for a while and put back down again when things get busy or when you get stuck, instead it should become a daily routine for you in promoting your business.

Social Media Training

Training with me will help you organise what type of social media platform can suit your business needs, it maybe you need all of them, from Twitter too LinkedIn and beyond, or we can start with one and get it mastered before moving and understanding the next platform.

It is vital that you keep on top of what you are posting and tweeting about, telling people all about your business that you couldn’t possible reach from just being at your desk.

We go through a step by step guide on how each platform works and what the benefits are from each social media platform.

It is easy to say that its not for you and its a fad, but social media is here to stay and will get more and more intense as platforms progress.

What you may think is a silly question and worried about asking it, isn’t a problem for me, I want to advise and help you so that you don’t run into problems with your social media or even your device that you use to run your platforms from.

My approach is friendly and my mission is simple. ‘Don’t get left behind with SOCIAL MEDIA’ its a tool you cannot do without for your business.

So whether its a Christmas present or any other special occasion for you, why not ask for Social media training. Gift for life!.

We provide social media training for 1-2-1 or small groups and we also offer outsourced services or social media management services, so call 01798 342188 or fill in my contact form and I’ll get back to you shortly.

29th January 2015

Social Media Branding

Now that you are using the various social media platforms it is important to keep them looking sharp. Focusing in on the overall look of how they all look when someone new or existing visits each of your social media platforms.

It’s a great way to keep your audience attention on your page so give it the attention it needs to keep people wanting to know more about your business brand.

Logos on your profiles should be consisted with each other, along with the banner image.

Mixing it all up can become confusing to the end user and show that you are not professional on each of your social media platforms.

This does mean that time is needed need on each social media platform, but once it has been set up it can look good and drive business to your pages.

Knowing that each platform has certain set sizes to create your brand, spend time in working out the dimensions needed in order to have the best looking image at the end.

Blurred pictures or logos that cannot be seen on phones will drive people away from your page, using personal images also wont do you any favours, people want to recognize you through your brand logo and it is vital that it looks good.

We associate logos with large companies and they have a team of people to get it right for them, but the with tools you have you can also have the same outcome.

It is a shame that not all social media platforms use the same size when creating your page layout, hence why when you do get round to creating it, some can look distorted when setting up pages in a rush, take your time and get it right before publishing your business page for all to see.

The set up sizes for each social media platform is shown online and can be easily worked out when using a image formatting program.

Along with the brand logo, use language across each platform that is also consisted, website information, contact details, location, whatever you need to get people to you.

Using these methods of branding will ultimately help drive business to you and keep your brand looking healthy and strong each time people visit your social media platforms.

If you need help in creating your brand logos, please let me know as I can help size your logos and banners to the appropriate size required. Contact me via 01798 342188 or email info@socialmedia-adviser.co.uk