Recent Posts
Why users “Like” your Brand on Facebook, Do you have the right stuff?
You have created your Facebook Business page but you are seeing your “Like” base slow in growth or come to complete halt… you have exhausted your friend suggestions, you’ve tried using Facebook’s advertising and your numbers still aren’t going anywhere… Well let’s think about this for a minute. Why do people like Facebook business pages in the first place? What made you click “Like” on your list of Facebook business pages? The following is a list of the Top Reason users “Like” Facebook business pages:
- Latest news about the brand (useful blogs & status updates)
- New product information
- Contests & giveaways
- Sales, discounts, coupons, & special offers
- Allows the user to show brand loyalty (ie. Mac Users)
- Enjoy reading the brands & users thoughts & ideas
- Access to free downloads and virtual gifts
- They enjoy feeling like a part of the Brand community (ie. Mac Users)
- It gives users a sense of status (ie. Mac Users)
(List compiled from http://emarketer.com)
Is your Facebook business page supplying any of the above? If not this could be the reason your Facebook “Likes” are not increasing.
What else can you do?
- Do not use industry jargon; speak the language your users speak by writing from their point of view instead of your own.
- Know your target audience by researching and learning the habits of the users who are interested in your products or services.
- Interact with your users by posting topics that will generate conversation but don’t forget to be present for the conversation.
- Promote your page by adding a Facebook Badge to your website and tagging friends (who don’t mind) in your posts.
- Post to your wall regularly, it is important to keep your users engaged by posting to your Facebook wall at least once a day.
Lastly remember to keep it fun… no one wants to be bored to death so have fun with it. Facebook is a “social” platform… so be socialable.
Tami Highbaugh-Abdullah Creative Marketing Director Aries – Graphic Design & Internet Marketing
Finding your Target Audience
To ensure you are getting the most from your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts it is vital that you design your website for the group of people you are trying to reach (your target audience).
What factors define your Target Audience?
- Their age group
- Their nationality
- Their special interests
- Their income level
- Etc
Speak the same language as your Target Audience
Do you know the language your target audience is speaking? What I mean here is often companies get caught up in using industry jargon; words that mean nothing to the average everyday person. It is
important to use the words that your target audience is using and understands via your website and other online marketing communications to ensure you reach your buyers. If they don’t understand what you are talking about why would they buy from you, use your services, or even listen to you. Makes sense right? All you have to do is think about how frustrated you are when you are searching for something online and when you find it what you see is almost like reading a foreign language. You think… “What the heck are they talking about?” You don’t want your users to feel dumb… so dumb it down please… keep it simple.
Figuring out the best Keywords
To figure out what language your customers are using…. ask them. It’s just that simple; ask them what words and terms they use to describe the products or services you offer your clients. If asking them is out of the question, then try the Google Keyword Tool to help you figure out the best choices for your target audience. Go through the lists and determine which are the best keyword terms and phrases that match your company and your customers. You may find you are missing out on many terms and phrases users are searching to find companies like yours.
Knowing your Target Audience
Knowing your Target Audience will also allow you to communicate with them where they are. What does this mean? Basically if your customers spend a great deal of time on social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare) you need to be there as well. If they like gaming, golf, a specific tv show… that is where you need to market your customers. You also need to talk about their interests.
It is also important to understand what your audience likes to determine the best design for your website. For instance my company focuses its efforts on online branding, social media marketing, web design, website usability, and graphic design… Therefore creating a website that looks like a legal site probably would not fit the presence my demographic would expect my company to have. It is important to design your website around the expectations of your target audience. If you aren’t sure what they expect do a search online for companies that are in your industry. Check out the top ten organic listings (non paid search results) and see how their websites are designed and then take this into consideration for your own. If these companies come up in the top 10 in a web search they are on top of their Internet Marketing “A” Game so take heed.
Stay original
It is important to study your competition but don’t try to copy them. Your users will notice and it could possibly turn them off. Use what you have learned from your competition and keep your website and it’s content original. Yes this can be hard… but be sure not to copy… no one likes a copycat. Improve upon what you have researched and make it better, always keeping your end users in mind.
This is just the basics of SEO but it is the first step toward getting your company in the top 10 search engine results when users begin searching for your company online.
Tami Highbaugh-Abdullah Creative Marketing Director Aries – Graphic Design & Internet Marketing
Klout! What the Heck is Going On?
AriesGDIM Erroneous Klout Score
This morning I woke up, checked my blog and almost died. For some reason my Klout score had dropped from 64 to 31. My first thought was to remove the widget from my blog. I mean really how can a person like me who prides herself on sharing information about how to market via social media platforms have a Klout score that low? For those who know what a Klout score is… they would think I was a joke, a fake, a total phony.
What is a Klout score?
Your Klout score is a grade that measures your total influence online. The larger your Klout score the more influence you have, the larger your audience reach is, and the higher the probability that others will either act on or share your content. Basically if your have a high Klout score, it shows you are on top of your Internet Marketing “A” Game. Your Klout score allows you the ability to track your Internet Marketing success across several platforms in one place. Good idea right? We Internet Marketers love it. It tells us how we are doing and where we need to improve; therefore, when it dropped we all fell out of our chairs and wanted to know what the heck was going on.
So what’s going on with Klout?
So then what is going on with the Klout Scores and why did my score drop so drastically? Well after talking to a few people on Twitter… @anisesmith & @yashvir I found out that Klout was having some issues and they were in the process of fixing it but I needed to know more. I mean… what really happened and how long would it take for them to correct the issue? According to Klout’s blog, they were doing their normal morning updating of scores and “Due to the growing dataset size, scoring took longer than expected” and defaulted almost everyone’s score to 1. Talk about a big ouch. Klout has offered an apology to all of us who panicked this morning and has assured us they are working
AriesGDIM Current Klout Score
hard to correct the issues.
In the meantime if you want to see my 64 Klout score you will have to check me out directly on the Klout website where I have been recognized as a “Thought Leader”. I keep working on it and I’m sure before long I will be up there with @Mashable.
Tami Highbaugh-Abdullah Creative Marketing Director Aries – Graphic Design & Internet Marketing
