Making the decision to add social media to your marketing plan was a good one. There’s no question that it’s a smart, cost-efficient method for creating awareness, attracting a loyal following, building a solid customer base and boosting sales. Businesses everywhere are quick to attest to its success. But now that you’ve jumped into the social media pool with both feet, how do you keep from getting overwhelmed by the added responsibility of maintaining your calendar and keeping your content both current and effective?

Take a deep breath and discover these five ways to maintain your focus and keep from getting stressed out about your social media schedule.

1. Less is more. There are many social media networks out there and the numbers are growing all the time. Choose just a few based on your audience and your business goals. Managing a couple of networks on a regular basis is much more effective than spreading yourself too thin — or even worse — quitting because you simply can’t keep up.

2. Create a content calendar. Planning a social media calendar helps you feel better organized and more in control of your publishing efforts. Don’t try and plan months in advance. Every two weeks is more easily manageable and won’t force ideas that might be off-topic or bring no value to your audience.

3. Utilize the tools of the trade. Discover social marketing tools that allow you to manage multiple networks simultaneously. HootSuite and TweetDeck are just a couple of tools that were designed to help you create efficiencies and provide an analysis of the effectiveness of your efforts.

4. Get away from it all. Maintain a healthy social media balance by not becoming an online junkie. You’ll keep your message content fresh and more relevant when you take a few steps back and stay open to new ideas.

5. Have fun. Social media allows you to make an impression through your insights, connections and offerings. When you look like you’re having fun, people will gravitate to your message and success will follow.

Watch how your contemporaries are managing their social media presence, too. You may want to model your strategy and style after other businesses and organizations you admire. Just remember, not every message you deliver is going to result in a home run. But as you become more and more familiar with the medium, you won’t feel so overwhelmed by the process, and soon you’ll discover that being social is really a great way to do business.

If you have a comment about the article, or  your own tips  for avoiding social media overwhelm, I’d love to hear them! Feel free to post a comment below.

To your online success!

Email is one of the most personal advertising methods used today. Here are four of the many ways you can improve your email marketing results.

1. Spread the Word – Get others to sign up for your mailing lists with their consent.  Spread the word about your mailing list through word of mouth.  The beauty in this is that the list of emails will be self-screened and the database will only contain the people who are truly interested in your offers.  Practice permission-based email marketing and always, always, ask before you add someone to your list. If you don’t, you can damage your reputation and you may get SPAM penalties, which could lead to the shutdown of your account.

2. Persistence – Before the Internet, they used to say it took about 7 touches to make an impression with an ad.  Today, I would guess that number has at least doubled. Therefore, you need to reach out to your clients and prospects at least once a month. Keep in mind that just because you emailed a list of people and had little or no response, it does not mean that your audience isn’t interested in your product or service. They are reading your messages and mulling over the information that you are providing them. Also, experiment with different emails, get to know which email strategy works the best, and keep using it to reach out to your audience.

3. They Want Useful Information – Emails should contain something that the customer wants. It shouldn’t be just a summary of your company or just another sale. Focus on giving more than just what you sell. Specific content, messages, a personal experience, and other targeted information that interests your customers will be well-received. For example, if you were selling makeup, you may want to include general advice on how to apply makeup.

4. Email Deliverability – Graphics, Flash animations and logos are often blocked by email filters. Although they look impressive, they may lower your impression statistics. Check to see if your email marketing provider offers the option to use both an HTML and a plain text option for sending emails. I recommend using both so that if the HTML message is blocked, the plain text message will get through.

In summary, remember to spread the word, be persistent and add useful information and you will see an increased number of opened emails!

If you have a thought or a question relating to this post, leave a comment below – I’d love to hear from you!

Holly

Nice Job Firefox!

How FAST is your Internet?

I am VERY happy to say (er, type) that my Internet is super fast now — well, it’s fast for a DSL connection.

Since we cut our land-line a few weeks ago, I am now enjoying (and I mean ENJOYING) a download speed of 9-10 mb/s and an approximate upload speed of 1 mp/s. Now, I can upload/download/blog/schedule appointments/make VOIP calls/surf/research like never before. My speed prior to cutting the landline was turtle slow compared to this. It also helps that my 5-month-old Toshiba laptop has the Intel® Core™ i7-720QM processor.

Read more about how the processor speed affects surfing here:
“How Does Processor Speed Affect Surfing the Internet?”

Below is a screen shot of a recent speed test.
I believe the 13.62 MB was a fluke as I haven’t come close to that since but I have been maintaining an average of 9-10MB.

Speed Test Results

You can check your Internet speed at www.speedtest.net.

What were your results?

Thoughts? Feel free to leave a comment.

Your Partner on the Web,
Holly

I received a brochure yesterday from the USPS. They are promoting their “if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate – and your shipments arrive in just 2-3 days” program.
You can get a free Flat Rate Box Shipping Kit here. Even if you don’t want a kit, go to the site anyway; Al is pretty funny to watch.

Holly

That’s German for How to Translate a Website.

While doing research for a client, I came across a tool for translating websites. I’m sure there thousands available but of course, Google has one as well.

Here is the link Google Translate. My client asked if I would find the names and email addresses of the COO and CEO of a particular German company. Their website is completely in German. With Google’s translator tool, I was able to cut and paste the text from the site into the translator. I wasn’t able to find any information about the management of the company so I submitted a message via their online form. I typed my message in the translator and reversed the translation from English to German.

If you want to impress your international contacts, type a message in the translator and send an email to them in their native language.

Til din succes (Danish for “To Your Success”),

Holly

Have you come across a website where the text is nearly impossible to read?

To increase the font, hold down the cntl key and the + key. To decrease the font hold down the cntrl key and the – button. To return to the original font size, hold down the cntrl key and the 0 (zero) button.  Pretty cool huh?