small business owners

Social Media Automation Do’s and Don’ts [INFOGRAPHIC]

social media automationOne of the strategies I recommend that small business owners take advantage of is social media automation. Let’s face it. Social media can be a huge time-sucker. If you’re a solopreneuer, especially, you don’t have hours to spend every day monitoring and posting on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. The solution is to automate your social media marketing.

BUT… I don’t mean you should automate everything. There are specific do’s and don’ts when it comes to scheduling posts on social networking sites. This infographic from UK insurance company, Insurance Octopus (love that name!) spells out the things you should and should NOT automate on social media.

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How to Overcome Social Media Anxiety [INFOGRAPHIC]

sm anxietyMany small business owners and entrepreneurs struggle with social media. They don’t know what to post. They don’t know how much time to spend on it. And they don’t know how to deal with negative comments.

Here’s some good news! Website Magazine recently published an infographic with tips on how you can overcome social media anxiety. Some of the tips include how to manage your time, what content to share, and what social “blunders” to avoid.

You can view the entire infographic here:

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How to Schedule Posts with Hootsuite – Video Tutorial Part 2

How to Schedule on Hootsuite Last week, I shared a video tutorial on how to get started with Hootsuite, the social media management tool. In this week’s video, I explain how to schedule posts with Hootsuite using their manual and autoscheduling features. Being able to schedule posts ahead of time is probably the primary reason small business owners like myself use Hootsuite. It’s a terrific time-saver. I hope you get some value out of the video, and if you have any questions, please post them in the comments below. I’m happy to answer them!

If you’d like a FREE, 30-day trial to use Hootsuite’s pro features, (which I love!), click this link: . After the trial, if you agree to pay for the service, I will get a small commission. But I would not recommend Hootsuite, if I didn’t use it myself! 🙂

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Should Your Company be on Snapchat? [INFOGRAPHIC]

SnapchatIf you’re over 30, you may not have heard of Snapchat. I’m certainly in that age category, (darnnit!), but I learned about Snapchat from my 21-year-old daughter who has used it to talk with friends. This direct messaging app has been around since 2011, but it’s only been in the past year that marketers have started getting on board, thanks to Snapchat’s amazing growth. The company has 30 million users, most of whom are between 18 and 25 years old.

Mashable reports that Snapchat will start offering ads, TV and movie clips and news articles this fall. Brands like Taco Bell and McDonald’s have already launched accounts on Snapchat to reach the app’s young demographic. But does that mean you need to get on board too?

Small business owners in particular can get overwhelmed with social media, considering the many different platforms out there, like Facebook, Twitter, and lately, Instagram. If you’re not sure whether you should be on Snapchat, this handy infographic quiz from Flightpath should help.

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3 Reasons Why Good Quality Content Pays Off

quality content By Alvaro Bellido

1. Fresh content is a key ranking factor

We have heard many times how important updating your website with regular content is. However, your website structure should not be changed regularly because it would confuse your users, that’s the reason why blogs are the perfect tool for publishing regular content.

I have always wondered if the publishing frequency was actually an important factor, so I decided to test it myself. During a period of 2 months, I increased my publishing frequency from 1 to 3 articles a week in my blog. The result was a 1,000% increase in traffic coming from Google. A similar experiment carried out later by a fellow blogger under similar conditions confirmed that this is a key ranking factor and that blogging frequently is a great way to increase traffic to your blog.

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5 Ways to Repurpose Blog Articles to Get Leads

repurpose blog articles One of the first blog articles I ever wrote was called 4 Ways to Leverage Your Blog Content to Get More Leads. Since it’s been a number of years since that article was published, I thought it was high time for an update on how to repurpose blog articles!

I love blogging. It’s hands down one of the most effective marketing tools for a small business owner (besides email – but more on that later). The more often you blog, the more traffic your website gets, and the more potential leads you get too.

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Which Social Media Platform is Right for Your Small Business [INFOGRAPHIC]

small business social media
Does your head swim when you think about social media marketing? If you’re a small business owner, and in particular, a solopreneur, I suspect it does. There are so many social networking sites available: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube, and don’t forget about Vine! How can you be expected to maintain a presence on these sites and still run your business?

The short answer is, you can’t. Not well anyway! When I work with clients, I recommend that they focus on one social network first and master that one before starting a presence on another site. But not every business is suited for every social networking site.

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