Tag Archives: facebook advertising

Top 10 Social Media Marketing Success Checklist

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Before you spend a single dime on marketing, check this list:

1 – Focus of “Thought Leadership?” That is, what key areas of your expertise could you blog about that people would be interested in about you and your solutions. That is, it will always be about content, content and content whether movies, products or services. And, if things go bad, respond quickly and with personal conviction to customer complaints, rumors or worse.

2 – Add More Keywords/tags/labels about your Expertise or Businesses. Examples would be: bicycle repair in Boulder, bicycle tours in Boulder, etc. The more tags/keywords/label are will generally increase you SEO traffic.

3 – Post Calls-To-Action on Social Media – Examples: Your life suffers because you . . . With xyz product, you will ….Our products have been proven to . .

4 – Push or Pull – Marketing for some is either inbound or outbound. The point is to do both. Newsletters, ads, tradeshows are examples of outbound. Ads are examples of inbound where customers come looking for you.

5 – Posting or Pinning – Blog posts are great to establish you as thought leadership. Pinning on Pinterest is a great way to create your own online catalog. Combine your blog posts with pictures and pin them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin and others.

6 – IP-Intellectual Property and Legal – We have always advised clients to focus their efforts on their website rather than letting Facebook control their brand and to protect their brand name a critical part of their intellectual property.

7 – Consumer Service Education – Probably the easiest and greatest ideas to blog and share is information on your products and solutions. As has been said, “can’t sell what you don’t know” also means that in a DIY-do it yourself world, educate both your sales and customers to everyone knows more about what you do whether it be about the thread in your clothes or the way you build products.

8 – Channels – Who are you networking with in your community, online and social groups. Supporting friends’ idea is often a great way to help you with your idea.

9 – Go Mobile – If you have read this far, one of the most important points we can suggest is begin redesigning your website for mobile access. For example Chanel.com has a mobile version of their website to be viewed by smartphones aka iPhone. There are many examples of great mobile websites. Then get going because 50% and growing number of viewers see your website on their smartphones.

10 – Vision – Remember to always look toward the future and keep your vision focused and evolve as customers and markets change and change you along the way or change will change you and often for the worse.

If you are located in Boulder, we will provide a Free one hour social media marketing evaluation – call 303-594-1694 or email cross@gocross.com

Selling via Facebook and Pinterest – Pros and Cons

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Social media venues have become an important part of business growth. The ability to communicate with potential clients and customers worldwide has brought great success to small, local businesses who would have never reached people beyond their city limits without venues such as Facebook or Pinterest. In addition to serving as an important part of an entrepreneur’s or small business’s marketing campaign, social media venues can also help boost sales.

Facebook is popular with many small businesses due to the exposure it can bring and Pinterest is currently the hottest social media venue out there. Knowing how and when to use each of these venues effectively can help you increase sales, as well as your customer base. But knowing which venue to use for what type of selling is an important part of the equation and it helps you avoid wasting time and effort. Read on to gain important information about each.
• Selling on Facebook. While Facebook allows the user to post both images and words, it still remains one of the primary places to tell people about what you’re selling. In the case of Facebook, a picture doesn’t speak a thousand words, it only tells part of the story. To really take advantage of the sales opportunities on Facebook you must combine your images with carefully crafted words. When words and images are used together on Facebook you can write as much as you want, although it’s in your best interest to not get too wordy and risk losing a customer’s attention.
The best things to sell on Facebook are your services. Are you a coach? Does your business offer landscaping services? Are you a freelance writer? Use Facebook to briefly describe your services and add an attention-getting image, if you like. Link your business blog or website to your Facebook post to draw potential customers directly to you.
• Selling on Pinterest. As the newest of social media venues, Pinterest is primarily an image-based social media venue. Users “pin” images to different pin boards with standard categories, such as Favorite Places and Spaces, or to the pin boards they’ve created. When pins are created, the user can add a comment or explanation about it. Although the explanation can be long, not many Pinterest users are there to read…they’re there to look at the pinned images.
Therefore, Pinterest is an effective place to sell items. Do you want to increase the sales of season-specific sports equipment? You can create a pin board titled “Baseball Season” and, each day, highlight a specific piece of equipment with a brief description, price and link back to your website. Tailor your use of Pinterest to fit your business’s specific sales needs.

A combination of Facebook and Pinterest gives you double exposure and allows you to connect with customers and clients regarding different facets of your business. Use these two social media venues to their full advantage by remembering which one is word-focused, which one is image-focused and tailoring your sales campaign appropriately. By linking both back to your business website you can add to the effectiveness of both of these social media venues and see an increase in your sales.

Facebook versus Pinterest – Pros and Cons

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Social media venues have become an important part of business growth. The ability to communicate with potential clients and customers worldwide has brought great success to small, local businesses who would have never reached people beyond their city limits without venues such as Facebook or Pinterest. In addition to serving as an important part of an entrepreneur’s or small business’s marketing campaign, social media venues can also help boost sales.
Facebook is popular with many small businesses due to the exposure it can bring and Pinterest is currently the hottest social media venue out there.  Knowing how and when to use each of these venues effectively can help you increase sales, as well as your customer base. But knowing which venue to use for what type of selling is an important part of the equation and it helps you avoid wasting time and effort. Read on to gain important information about each.

  • Selling on Facebook. While Facebook allows the user to post both images and words, it still remains one of the primary places to tell people about what you’re selling. In the case of Facebook, a picture doesn’t speak a thousand words, it only tells part of the story. To really take advantage of the sales opportunities on Facebook you must combine your images with carefully crafted words. When words and images are used together on Facebook you can write as much as you want, although it’s in your best interest to not get too wordy and risk losing a customer’s attention.

The best things to sell on Facebook are your services. Are you a coach? Does your business offer landscaping services? Are you a freelance writer? Use Facebook to briefly describe your services and add an attention-getting image, if you like. Link your business blog or website to your Facebook post to draw potential customers directly to you.

Selling on Pinterest. As the newest of social media venues, Pinterest is primarily an image-based social media venue. Users “pin” images to different pin boards with standard categories, such as Favorite Places and Spaces, or to the pin boards they’ve created. When pins are created, the user can add a comment or explanation about it. Although the explanation can be long, not many Pinterest users are there to read…they’re there to look at the pinned images.

Therefore, Pinterest is an effective place to sell items. Do you want to increase the sales of season-specific sports equipment? You can create a pin board titled “Baseball Season” and, each day, highlight a specific piece of equipment with a brief description, price and link back to your website. Tailor your use of Pinterest to fit your business’s specific sales needs.

A combination of Facebook and Pinterest gives you double exposure and allows you to connect with customers and clients regarding different facets of your business. Use these two social media venues to their full advantage by remembering which one is word-focused, which one is image-focused and tailoring your sales campaign appropriately. By linking both back to your business website you can add to the effectiveness of both of these social media venues and see an increase in your sales.

Seven Ways You Can Effectively Enhance Your Facebook Presence

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When you consider that there are more than 800,000,000+ people and businesses on Facebook it’s clear that as a realtor you need to have a presence – your competition does! It’s not enough to merely set up a Facebook page for your office or for your business, you need to effectively manage and market it.

Here are seven ways you can get into the media fray and make effective use of Facebook:

1.  Be found. It doesn’t make sense to set up a Facebook page if you don’t spread the word or look for followers and likers. Announce your Facebook presence through the use of a link in every email that you send. When you send out flyers or newsletters or real estate brochures, make certain there is something in there that lets the recipient know you have a Facebook page. Put your Facebook URL on your website.

2. Offer quality content. Your clients don’t want you to be constantly and only announcing new products, parties, ideas or topics. While you will want to announce new ideas, you also want to offer clients and potential clients news they can use. Provide tips on style, fashion, tech, and even reminders on attractions in your area (perfect for out-of-towners that are unfamiliar with your region), links to local restaurants, links to newspaper articles about your area.

3. Offer relevant information. Provide up-to-date info about events in the area, current business statistics, offer information about sales and product comparisons and buying options, update product listings for anyone who may be interested in your product or services.

4. Gather staff/agent input. If you run an office with colleagues, ask them for input for the posts. Ask colleagues or friends to be a guest blogger/poster once a week and make certain they are prepared to respond to the comments their status updates may garner. Remember that Facebook is called social media because those who post want the conversation.

5. Have a purpose in mind. Why do you want a Facebook page? Just because the competition has one is not a good enough reason. You should have a Facebook page because you’re committed to interacting with clients and potential clients. Your Facebook page is a way to set yourself apart from the competition and to become known as the leader in your industry.

6. Set up an editorial calendar for your Facebook postings. An editorial such as CrossPinPoints, iSportsCal, iComCal or iREcal could be as simple as: Monday – tip day – whether you’re offering a moving tip, a restaurant tip; Tuesday, highlight a product or sale; Wednesday, ask a question as a way to get conversation moving. Ask about tips your followers have, ask how often your followers have moved, ask why they’ve moved, ask what they look for when they’re buying a product or service, etc.; Thursday, offer a link to a newspaper article, a banking article about mortgages and refinancing or how to buy a car, etc.; Friday, home trends updates i.e., popular colors, designs, information on swimming pool trends, etc.

7. Be consistent, reliable and persistent. If you’re planning a Facebook page you need to be consistent even if you’re only updating the page once a day and only on weekdays. If customers or clients come to your page a couple of days in a row and there has been no activity, they will likely move onto another company in the area that is consistent in his or her status updates.  Bottom-line is that if you are not committed to doing this then DON’T, because nothing is more useless than old news or a site that is NOT updated often – very often.

Facebook and other social media platforms are a great way to spread the word about who you are, what you do, and what sets you apart from the other companies in the area. Additionally, other than the time spent on the status updates, Facebook and other social media are low-cost and even no-cost ways to enhance your current marketing. Keep in mind though that your social media should work hand in hand with your other marketing efforts.