Tag Archives: facebook

Social Media Advantages To Small Businesses

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There are many factors to consider when setting up your own business. These factors are your product or service, price, location and also your promotions. If your business is new, promotions are usually done to make your business known to the public. Some do advertisements to introduce new products, discounted offerings or other seasonal promotions. These days, social media is an additional way businesses are getting the word out.

The use of social media is very widespread. Because of this, many entrepreneurs have grabbed the opportunity of it in promoting their businesses. Two of the most famous social media sites are Facebook and Twitter. The use of these social networks in business has been tremendous for business owners for a variety of reasons.

Cost efficiency is one of the many benefits of social media. For any entrepreneur, a huge income means a successful business. Of course, a great way to have a large income is to minimize expenses. Social media helps entrepreneurs minimize expenses because there are no fees involved. You just have to make your own site for your business, and make it public for everyone to see. There is no need to pay for suppliers to make you banners, flyers, business cards, etc. Social media networks can display your advertisement with no limited time unlike on other ad approach. Entrepreneurs who used social media for their marketing said that their business had an amazing result in terms of business operations and income.

Another benefit of social media is ease of use and efficiency. Since computers and internet are easily available nowadays, the use of social media for marketing is easier and more efficient. Entrepreneurs can be able to handle time management well because they can make and publish their marketing promotions at their own convenient time and place. This is especially effective if you are a computer literate who knows how to make advertisements for your business. Social media is not just advantageous for the entrepreneurs but for the customers also. Through this, they will learn about your business without having to go to your shop.

Google Plus Offers Businesses and Brands Their Own Pages

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After much demand, Google plus has finally added the ability for businesses and brands to create their own identity on the Google plus social network. This is a boon for those businesses looking to increase their presence online, but it is unclear how much it will dent Facebook’s current reach. It currently doesn’t have many of the useful features that are key to managing a company page. This is especially true for large businesses.

One such feature, multiple admins for company pages, is going to be necessary. Your average small entrepreneur or freelance worker may be able to get away with being the only ones administrating their own pages, but bigger companies or companies that pay to have their social presence managed, are going to have problems. Do they want other people to have access to their personal Google accounts? Do they want multiple people with password access to an account? Google needs to get that aspect fixed in a hurry.

When it comes to spending money with an online marketer, do people want to spend more money on an outlet that won’t give them as much of a return as Facebook right now? As short sighted as that may sound, many business owners have to think like that. The only thing that might give Google a leg up is whether these Plus pages factor into their search results. If so, then you could find the time and money investment to be more worthwhile. Of course, Google has been unclear on what ranking effect these pages may have.

Bottom line is the pages are certainly worth exploring, but you may want to avoid spending too much time working on them right now. It would be a good idea to wait and see how effective they are before you put the full weight of your online marketing department behind it.

Top 2 Things To Keep Your Kids Safe On Facebook

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As the technological age gets more and more extensive and encompassing, it seems that with each passing day social networking gets more and more widespread. It’s only a matter of time until your child will want to get a Facebook page of their own. Parents don’t freak out! It’s good that children today are eons more technologically savvy and interested than we ever were. The positives that come with expansive technology far outweigh the negatives. However, we need to be mindful of the potential danger that social networking can have on the impressionable minds of our kids. Here are 2 things that will keep your kids safe on Facebook.

1) Explain the importance of only “friending” kids that they know. Only classmates, those they play baseball or soccer with, kids who are within their proximity on a regular basis. Explain the dangers of adding people who they do not know and are not familiar with. This is just like anything else, parents. If you keep the lines of communication open with your children, they will be more likely to not only listen to you, but alert you if anything happens that makes them feel uneasy or uncomfortable.

2) Teach them the art of discretion and tact. There are far too many people who over share on Facebook. When things like this happen, people open up themselves for judgment and cruelty. Let your child know that Facebook is just a fun way to connect with friends and should never be used to tell secrets, spread lies or create gossip. When things like this start, it can quickly catapult into online bullying which, as recent news stories have told us, can be incredibly harmful, potentially leading to depression or anxiety.

Overall, just remind your child that it’s supposed to be a fun thing to take part in but to always be appropriate and safe with what they post. Like I mentioned earlier, if something goes wrong and the avenues of communication between the two of you are open, the likelihood that they will come to you is high. This is what you ideally want in all circumstances involving your children, not just with internet security.

Google Marketing vs. Social Media Marketing

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There seems to be this big debate over whether companies should be concentrating their marketing energy and resources on social media or good old fashioned organic search. This is a silly argument, because it assumes it is an either/or situation. Any marketer worth their salt will take the time to research the topic rather than just jump on a bandwagon. Think about it. We still have a decent sized section of the population that still uses the yellow pages. They are not going to skip Google and go straight to social media.

Google is the common denominator for everyone. Tech newbies all the way to veterans all use Google. Organic search marketing is still vital in today’s marketing world. People need to be able to find your company organically, because that is where they do cold searches first. Despite the surge of Twitter and Facebook, the front page of Google is still very important to your online presence.

This is not to put down social media. Services like Twitter can create a buzz for your company. So can Facebook and LinkedIn. Again, it must be done right and with your audience in mind. If your customer base happens to be ironic with how they approach the social media, putting a cheesy, earnest call to action is a mistake. However, being real and funny is more likely to attract people to your brand.

The title of this post is a misnomer. There really should not be a Google vs. Social Media mentality. It is not one or the other. It is one and the other. The sooner internet marketers do this, the better for their clients. Companies need to be seen in organic search in order to be found in the first place. Being found in social media creates a buzz around the brand.

Google+ Takes On Facebook

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In just around 3 weeks, Google+ has raked in over 30 million users. It is remarkable when you think about it, because there is already a dominant social network, Facebook. Facebook has destroyed all comers, and does not look like they are slowing down. However, that may be where Google has seen their opening. Maybe some people are not excited about the prospect of their parents being their “friends” on Facebook. As one post on Reddit put it, It gives people a chance at a “do-over”.

This is also where I think there is likely to be a coexistence. People may end up using Facebook and Google+ in the same way they have been using Facebook and Twitter. Essentially, they share different things with different networks. Now, I’m certain Google has no desire to be just another network. I am sure they want to dominate Facebook. However, I don’t know that Facebook is going to suffer the same fate as MySpace. It has been too widely adopted, and is ingrained in the way people communicate. That doesn’t mean that Google won’t make an impact.

One major impact on Facebook is hopefully the user interface. Frankly, Facebook’s UI is atrocious. It is hard to find anything, and they change the way everything works quite a bit. Google+, on the other hand, has a very clean UI, and the “way it works” just seems more obvious. The Circles function is definitely one of the handiest. Being able to filter through your friends streams in a way that is similar to Twitter’s Lists is a big plus. This give you the ability to quickly read the things you actually want to.

One potential outcome may just be social media fatigue. In fact, I think that has probably already set in. Regardless, it is a good thing to have someone push Facebook. Being the dominant player in one area leads to complacency. Just ask Microsoft.

We’re Back!

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I’m going to be blogging a lot about stuff related to technology, social media and the internet. Today, I’ll start off talking a little about social media and technology. Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are the 3 services I use. I don’t think social media services would have exploded in popularity without smartphones becoming so popular.

Smartphones used to be the domain of business users only. Blackberry, while popular, wasn’t very consumer friendly with it’s clunky interface. Microsoft was attempting to make inroads, but their choice to cram a desktop OS into a phone made Windows Mobile virtually unusable. Palm, the pioneer of PDA’s, hadn’t updated their Treo OS in years, and it’s age was showing.

Then came the iPhone. It changed everything. Suddenly, accessing the internet on a mobile phone was fun and easy. The iPhone’s OS was elegant and easy to master. Afterwards, a slew of copycats and so-called “iPhone Killers” were released. Google eventually entered the fray with their Android mobile OS.

These newer phones gave smartphones more mass appeal, and developers eagerly created applications for the mobile devices. This made it easy for people to connect via Facebook or Twitter wherever they happened to be. Those services have since seen exponential growth. I don’t think we would have seen that without recent technological innovation.