Name: Smart Cow Digital Marketing and Website Design
Price range: $$$

8 tips on setting up and running social media

12/12/2019 by scmarketing

With over 3.2 billion people using social media platforms globally (Source: awario), it’s not difficult to understand why incorporating it into your digital marketing strategy is another great way of reaching prospects.

Here’s our top tips to remember when setting up and running a social media channel for your business.

One size does not fit all: Before you a start any social media for your business it’s worth remembering that not all platforms will be relevant to target the audience you want to reach. Conduct some research first and see what platforms your competitors are using. See how frequently they post and what they’re talking about.
Know your audience: As with any digital marketing tool you adopt, you must know your target audience before you can even think about what you should be posting about or who you should be engaging with.
Complete as much information as possible: Sounds obvious but ensuring you’ve populated as much as possible, helps build brand trust. So, check your bio and company details – do they need updating? What about your company details and services – are they all present and correct?
Be a thought leader: Provide tips, advice and interesting comments that your target audience will be interested to hear about and would want to share themselves. When you post a blog to your website, if you have social channels you have the opportunity to share this news to your social audience with a link back to your website. This extends reach further and helps your search ranking.
Quality not quantity: Make your content relevant and tailor it for each platform. And,nowadays the focus is on quality followers not quantity. Gone are the days when you would conduct a ‘follow / unfollow’ campaign.
Images: They say a picture is worth a thousand words so use images and video in your social media. Tweets with video attract 10x more engagement (Source: Business Twitter)
What’s the story? Instagram and Facebook both have a story function which scrolls across the top of the feed and so due to this prominent visibility helps with views and engagement. It’s a great way to post live from exhibitions or about things of interest to your business. Instagram Stories posted a 220% increase in year-on-year ad spend (Our Social Times, 2018 – Source: Hubspot) – Its popularity is certainly on the rise.
Get Networking: 40% of LinkedIn members visit the social network platform each day (Source: Omnicore Agency, 2018 via Hubspot). As a B2B channel, networking is at its heart. LinkedIn helps boost your businesses brand and profile, which in turns help the company earn trust.

Digital Marketing Resources:

Here’s more blogs to help you with your social media marketing.

How LinkedIn can help you grow your business

10/25/201910/09/2019 by scmarketing

If you’re looking to grow your business then you’re likely to embark on joining some local networking groups, attend events and catch up with old acquaintances. This is you building on your network of contacts to help grow your business. And, LinkedIn is no different, it’s a place to network – it just happens to be a social media platform.

LinkedIn is a business2business (B2B) social channel with networking at its core allowing you to connect with other professionals, clients, colleagues, prospects and employers. It provides another touchpoint to promote who you are and your business which all helps build trust and brand awareness.

So, depending on your products or services, we would recommend LinkedIn to target more B2B focused customers.

LinkedIn company page

When you first create a company page, make it your own. Make sure your banner image and profile image is consistent with your brand. It’s a perfect place for a logo too.
Add your company contact details including your website URL.
When you post something be sure to use relevant hashtags to extend reach. So, for example an accountancy practice can add hashtags such as #accounting #BusinessOwner #Taxation #Taxadvice, to help target the audience it wants to provide a service to. But make sure it’s in context to your content you are referencing.
To help your inbound marketing strategy, use your posts on LinkedIn to insert links back to your website, preferably to fresh content like a blog. Add an image to help create stand out. Producing engaging content will encourage likes, shares and connections. If you’re new to the platform, get used to the channel first by sharing posts. Then start to build your connections, comment and share other connections posts.
If you are attending an event, review the list of attendees and see who you want to chat with when there. Then connect with them on LinkedIn. However, if you weren’t able to speak to the key connections you had hoped to, then why not send them that message via LinkedIn post event. The guest list has been shared with you for a reason so make the most of it.

Book a Practice Growth Session

If you feel you need some support from a social media consultant in getting your social media channels set up then get in touch with us today.

We also run Practice Growth Sessions which are tailored for businesses keen to grow and ready to invest in a digital marketing campaign to achieve their goals. You can book a session with us for £95.

People using Smartphones to get their businesses on Facebook

Get your business on Facebook

11/26/201910/07/2019 by scmarketing

With over 2.3 billion monthly active Facebook users, this social media platform is still one of the most popular out there. It’s therefore a good idea to have a Facebook page for your business. Depending on your type of business, this may dictate the level of activity, but suffice to say that a presence is a wise choice. People take comfort in seeing consistency of brand across different platforms, ads and literature.

Your basic page set up

With a Facebook page for your business you can get basic details showing straight away including website address, contact details, opening times. Also make sure you have a banner image and profile image uploaded. You page is now set and you can simply start posting. But before you do, you may want to continue reading to get some of our tips on what content you should posting.

Know your target audience

If you’ve been following our series of blogs, we think you’ll have got the message by know that before you start any digital marketing campaign that you know your target audience. For example, Smart cow’s audience could be businesses searching for digital marketers in Croydon. But if you’re not aware, in short make sure you define your target audience and their personality and then you’ll understand the way in which you should talk to them and what they’re interested to hear about. Read our blog on target audiences for more information.

What should you say?

Don’t forget the ‘social’ side when using Facebook or any social media channel. Avoid blatantly shouting about products or services over and over again, it’s about being respectful to others, speaking in the right language and tone of voice and chatting to them – or engaging!

Use images

Remember to be visual. After all a picture says a thousand words. To stand out on a news feed having eye-catching imagery will really help. If you’re taking your own pictures, make sure they aren’t blurry and crop them if necessary before posting. There are also stock photo services you can try but these generally come with a fee attached.

But a word of caution, do not use images that you do not have permission to use – that means anything you find online – everything generally comes with a copyright. But, with technology as it is on your phone today you can create great photos with filters and videos.

Book a Practice Growth Session

If you feel you need of some support from a social media consultant in getting your social media channels set up then get in touch with us today.

What to consider when embarking on your social media strategy

12/08/202009/20/2019 by scmarketing

With 3.48 billion people now using social media*, if you’re not yet using it for your business, there’s a potential market out there to build into your inbound marketing strategy.

Social media management

Whether you’re new to social media marketing or have let your business account lapse, now is a good time to review your social accounts and the channels appropriate to your business. With Q4 fast approaching, it’s a great time to get your business strategy and goals set for 2020 and work out how social media may fit into your business plan.

To help you, here’s a few points to consider about building your social media presence for your business, to help you decide if it’s the way forward for your marketing strategy.

Brand awareness: More than 40% of digital consumers use social networks to research new brands or products**. Coupled with a website and completion of your Google My Business page, having a social media platform is another way to be seen by other local businesses and customers, and by a wider audience.
Be a thought leader: Provide tips, advice and interesting comments that your target audience will be interested to hear about and would want to share themselves, linking this with your product and services.
Content is king: When you post a blog to your website, if you have social channels you have the opportunity to share this news to your social audience with a link back to your website. This extends reach further and helps with SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) and improving your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). But remember – think quality over quantity.
Get targeted: While you tailor your content for your audience to encourage organic leads, you may also want to invest in some paid for social ads. Here you can really drill down to a niche audience.

We help small businesses connect with potential clients and creating long term relationships using lead generation from social meda.

If you are looking to get started, then consider working with a social media consultant for either a one-off campaign or on a monthly retainer. A Croydon based digital marketing agency, you can get in touch with us today and we can talk you through our social media and digital marketing packages.

We also work closely within the Accountancy Market. Find out how we help accountancy firms grow their client base through social media for accountants.

Sources: *blog.hootsuite.com ; **globalwebindex