How can social networking help my business?

Let's start with another question:

What do most people do first when they are looking for information?

Yes, you guessed it – they search the internet using sites such as Google, Yahoo and AOL. Using blogs, social networking sites, digital PR and e-marketing in your business will give you:

• More opportunities to be found on-line by potential customers when using search engines


• Additional links and entry points into your website


• The ability to give useful information that can be used in their decision making process


• The opportunity for third party recommendations and reviews


• The ability to engage and converse with customers throughout their buying process and life as a customer.

Social networking (using sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube) allow you to converse with people interested in the products and services you offer and help you to answer their questions, increase your brand awareness and build their trust in your company.

They can also help to boost your search engine rankings as you will be piggy-backing on the social networking sites’ search engine optimisation (SEO) activities.

For example, uploading a video onto YouTube, then embedding it onto your own site helps people to see what you do as a company as well as giving them more opportunities to find you (because YouTube is checked more regularly by Google than your own site will be).

A mention of a new video on your blog, Facebook page and Twitter feed will also encourage people to take a look.

Best of all, you will be able to see which social media sites are best at attracting business, by looking at your website’s analytics to see how people are accessing your site.

It is important to remember that for digital PR to be effective, it must be planned into your marketing mix, just like any other form of promotion. That way, your messages will be consistent and more effective as the traditional and new media promotions will boost and build upon each other.

Want to know more? Please feel free to call me on +44 (0)1283 808460 or email me for a copy of our Beginners’ Guide to Social Media.

The Write Solution provides digital PR packages, social media consultancy and training to help you identify which sites to use, how to plan social media into your marketing and enable it to work for you.

I look forward to speaking with you,

Hannah

Hannah Sookias The Write Solution Tel: 01283 808460

http://www.copywritingandpr.com/

Digital PR - Blog Writing - Social Media Training - Articles - Features - Public Relations

What’s the secret to a successful blog?

What’s the secret to a successful blog?
  
Is it:

• One that’s full of interesting information?
• Somewhere that is regularly updated?
• A place where there are tips and advice?
• Sites that give an insight into the company, their values and ideas?
• All of the above? 

The biggest blogging stumbling blocks for many companies are being able to:
(a) decide what to write
(b) finding the time to actually write it and
(c) keeping the momentum going (something even the best of us struggle with sometimes!)


So what's the solution? Well, blogging should be part of a promotional strategy; it should have a reason and can be planned in advance. Yes, changes can be made to adapt to news items or business circumstances, but on the whole there should be a plan of action and an idea of what to write and why.

The secret for many companies to achieve this is to have a ghost blogger i.e. employ someone else to help them plan and write their blogs for them!

Words of advice: Choosing someone to write your blog for you does contain a large element of trust, so it is wise to spend time with them, putting a strategy and plan together. Decide how often the blog will be written, the topics to be covered and any ground rules (e.g. making sure you see and approve the copy before it is posted).

Hannah Sookias, Founder - Sookias Media www.sookiasmedia.com

PS Sookias Media helps many clients with their blog writing and offers packages to graphic and web designers so they can offer additional services to their customers. Do contact me if you'd like more details!