social media

Four social media trends for 2020

It’s hard to believe another year is coming to its end. As we look back on this past year, it’s fun to look ahead and try to predict some social trends we expect to see in the coming here. Here are four: Influencer marketing is here to stay. Perhaps the ‘pay to play’ philosophy social... Read More

Benefits of Facebook Groups for your business

If you haven’t started a Facebook group for your business, now may be a good time to start. Facebook groups can help you build a strong community, build up credibility with your customer base and connect with people who want your goods and services. Facebook Groups are more important than ever, given the ongoing decline... Read More

Facebook upgrades video creation features

Facebook is building on the Video Creation Kit introduced last year to make creating videos even easier for business owners and marketers. New features released in June provide additional ways to customize and automate projects through the video Creation Kit, turning you into a videographer with a few simple clicks or taps. Here’s what the... Read More

Are you using the right platform?

With so many different social media platforms to choose from, it’s difficult to know the right one for your business. A study released by the Pew Research Center, this year can help you find your way. The study looked at social media use across all demographics–from age and ethnicity to income–to determine which platform was... Read More

Facebook page feature gives info on competitors

Efforts to promote transparency in advertising on Facebook have given business owners an additional tool to use to scope out the competition. You probably already know how important it is to do a competitive analysis of your business competition: you need to know how they are marketing themselves to consumers in order to do it... Read More

Facebook scraps ‘Explore’ feature

Not every new idea is a good idea. Facebook announced this week that it was pulling the plug on one of the experiments it initiated and tested in some locations last year: the explore feed. “We constantly try out new features, design changes and ranking updates to understand how we can make Facebook better for... Read More

Top blog sharing tools

A blog is still a great way to spread the word about your business, share your knowledge with a potential customer base and provide evergreen content for your social media channels. There are several apps out there that will help you share your blogs in different ways, allowing you to reach new people and expand... Read More

Social media predictions for 2018

The New Year will bring challenges to business owners, and the continued digital marketing revolution will be there to help—or hurt. Just like last year, we expect plenty of changes to impact your business’ social media channels. Here are some of the top trends we’re predicting: Shrinkage. You probably noticed last year that the number... Read More

2017: a year in change

When it comes to social media, 2017 was a year of change. Even if your business only dabbles in a few of the social media platforms available for businesses, it’s probably that you saw some changes throughout the year—both good and bad. Here’s a breakdown of what happened in social media during a year that... Read More

Four easy ways to perfect your pictures

Good graphics can make your post and a bad picture can break it. Most small business owners don’t have a regular photographer or the ability to hire one and, let’s face it, stock photos will only get you so far. Don’t worry, though. There are plenty of ways to fix your photos, even if they... Read More

Six mistakes that will make your website look unprofessional

You don’t have to be a scientist to avoid these unprofessional mistakes. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. It’s true in life, it’s (mostly) true in business and it’s true on the internet. As a small business owner, you can’t afford to make the mistakes that might drive away potential... Read More

Five great social media monitoring sites

Your social media channels won’t do you much good unless you’re paying attention to them. In order to use them effectively to build your brand, you have to know how effective they are, in the first place. That’s where social media monitoring comes in. There are a number of ways you can track how effective your content... Read More

A quick social media checklist

Social media has long been an important way to market your business. There are almost as many available channels today as there are channels on your television, but you don’t need to be active in all—or even most—of them. Here’s a quick checklist of the best ones and a couple questions you should ask yourself.... Read More

6 ways to persuade customers through social media

Your business’ social media pages are perfect places for you to persuade customers to visit your shop, use your services or buy your goods. It’s more of a soft sell that other forms of marketing, like direct advertising or cold-calling; you’re trying to foster a relationship to build up trust to bring customers into the... Read More

How to avoid social media burnout

Social media is a 24/7 proposition and creativity….isn’t. It’s easy to get burned out when you’re trying to come up with new content every day—or even more often. There are several things you can do, however, to produce good content even when your social media muse is quiet. Get our staff involved. When in doubt, farm it... Read More

Top 5 social media business trends for 2017

The social media industry can be difficult to predict, year in and year out. New platforms come and old platforms go–and the ones that stick around are almost constantly changing. Last year saw an increase in the use of video, the rise in the importance of telling stories and creating mobile content and the decline... Read More

How to organize your content calendar

Creating and keeping track of social media posts can be a daunting exercise for any business owner. It’s easy to let the needed tasks of running a business push this necessary task to the back of the line, leaving you (or your staff) to post content without a lot of thought behind it. It’s not... Read More

5 quick ways to boost your local reach–for free!

If you’re looking to build up your local Facebook audience for your business, you don’t necessarily have to promote content, boost posts or buy a Facebook ad. Yes, those tools will help—they are, probably, the quickest way to do it—but there are a few ways you can build your audience organically, using tools or tactics that are... Read More

Should you outsource your social media management?

When you think about your business’s social media presence, you probably keep coming back to one question: should I farm it out, or do it myself? Social media is a 24/7 proposition—and, for that matter, so is running a business. Who has time to do one, let alone both? There are advantages to outsourcing your... Read More

How to mix business with social media

When you have a business web site and a social media presence to back it up—and we’re assuming you do—it can be difficult to know how best to use them effectively. There are plenty of rules, or formulas, for the mixture of marketing messages to mix in with your content. You’ve probably heard about the... Read More