Help with Facebook & Social Targeting

Where is one of the largest chunks of time spent online during a typical person's day...on Facebook.  It accounts for 20% of our time online.

ReachLocal recently did a study on 500 businesses and we found that 75% of them are actively using Facebook to market their business.  There are many free resources on social media but many companies need to take the next step to aggressively target these users.  This is especially true now that Facebook limits the amount of post that people see from brands.

Below are three ways we are helping our advertisers with social marketing.

1. Drive Calls
   • Facebook has MANY options to help drive engagements.  Our software is here to help learn how to get more of those to happen.  See some of those ways here.
2. Increase Site Visits
   • The flow of traffic between social media, and your website, is key to growing the site's relevance online.  One of the many components of SEO ranking is that your websites is well connected to all of the social media sites.  We help to make sure that this pipeline is healthy and growing.
3. Grow Engagement with Your Business 
• Social media is meant to be social. Local businesses need to engage their followers and fans.

If you are interested in learning more about ReachLocal and Facebook, feel free to visit our Solutions Page.  You can also email or call me to discuss options.

The Digital Marketing Health Check can give you insight on how well you are positioned. 

5 Interesting New Social Media Features

The digital world is fast pace and always changing.  Below are a few key updates that everyone should be up to speed on.  The biggest news is focused on the verified badges on Facebook.  Make sure to go in and claim yours.

1. Twitter Polls
   • A new way to engage fans on your Twitter account
   • Read more on their blog.
2. Twitter Hearts
   • Followers will now heart (like) the content they are engaging with...not a big deal but something to be up to speed on so you are in the know.
3. Facebook Verified Badges
   • ***This one is important to local businesses***
   • Businesses can verify the authenticity and credibility of their page.
   • This can also help local ranking of your page
   • Go here to see how to verify your listing.
4. Facebook Reactions
   • Soon you'll be able to do more than just LIKE a post.  New reactions will enable you to love, laugh or cry at a post.
   • Watch this video if you are interested to see the future.
5. Pinterest Place Pins
   • This is good news for restaurants, bars, hotels and other like business.
   • This feature allows you to build a location based Pinterest board.

Final thought...make sure you verify your local business on Facebook!

Improving Your Social Brand

We've talked to many local Philadelphia businesses about the importance of Social on your organic SEO.  Many small local businesses need assistance with digital marketing here in Philly and I want to outline some key areas to focus on when developing your Social Media. 

• Platform
• There are many choices to engage your customers on Social Media.  You have Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube and much more coming out each month.
• Make sure you know your demographics and marry your brand to the right one(s).  That might include not going into the medium, as a whole, but I would guess this is rare.  Most everyone is tied into Social Media at some point so it is important to be where your clients are surfing.  You must pick the right one(s) and get to work.
• Engage
• Once you've determined the path, it's important to connect with your customers...and do so regularly.
• Offer help
• Give advice
• Join conversations
• Thank people for joining
• All of these things will show that you are here for your clients
• Creativity
• There are numerous examples of creativity on Social Media.  Here are a few examples to get your creative juices flowing:
• Nikon
• BWM
• Budweiser
• Balance
• You should never use Social Media as a way to sell, sell, sell and sell some more.  It's all about having balance in your approach.  You should lean more on offering free advice and then sprinkle in your paid services.  I like using the good ol' 80/20 rule. 

Have you been struggling in these areas?  Do you need help to drive a better brand?  That is where we help take your efforts to the next level.  ReachLocal's Social Media program, called ReachCast, is designed for small to medium sized businesses to launch off on what they are currently doing to achieve their next goal.  See more by visiting the image below...

ReachCast