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Why Your Business Needs To Do a Facebook Sweepstakes

March 26, 2013 By Leave a Comment
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Facebook Sweepstakes is an application that you can use through your business’ Facebook page. It’s a fun way to boost engagement with your Facebook page and increase the sense of community portrayed through your social media and social networking efforts.

Facebook Sweepstakes can help increase your likes and brand awareness for your small businessWith a Facebook Sweepstakes you are able to create a giveaway opportunity for your customers in exchange for some sort of interaction with your page. For instance, some sweepstakes will require the person to like the page before they can enter, or another option is to make people give your business a review before they are able to enter the giveaway. A special perk to creating these is that you get to call all of the shots on the design, offer, and limitations to your business’ sweepstakes.

The first and very obvious benefit to creating a sweepstakes is that it makes your customers happy! You are giving something away to your customers. With sites like Groupon and Living Social growing in popularity, everyone is looking for a good deal. With a sweepstakes, you can give your customers the type of deal they crave while helping your business at the same time. Thus the sweepstakes will not only give new customers an extra incentive to look at your page, but it will also get people that currently like your page to revisit and interact with your business.

What would you give away in YOUR Sweepstakes? …in exchange for what?

Filed Under: Small Business Marketing Tips, Social Media Minute Tagged With: , , ,

Social Media Minute: Separating Your Personal Page from your Business Page on Facebook

May 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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The WebPresence™ Marketing team loves to share our passion for social media and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and how we use it to make our clients successful every single day. Each week, we will post a blog about what’s going on in the WebPresence office and give you some helpful tips to help grow your business’ online presence.

In past posts, we have discussed the importance of having a Facebook page for your business, why it’s important to make your brand more human and how it’s a helpful tool to build solid relationships with your customers. It’s important to remember, however, that even though your business should certainly be an extension of your values and ethics, there should be a clear distinction between your personal and business pages on Facebook. In this week’s Social Media Minute, we’ll discuss the top three reasons it is so important to separate your business and personal pages on Facebook.

Your business page is about your customers…NOT about you

Your friends and family may care about your upcoming high school reunion, pictures from your Friday night bowling league, or what you had for lunch (well, maybe not that, but you get the drift)…but your customers do not. Your business page is an outlet to engage with your customers about things that matter to them, like problems they may have and how your business can help them. Remember to keep your business posts focused on engaging with customers in a professional and caring manner.

Your business page is NOT the place to share political or religious opinions and beliefs


Image courtesy of The Inquisitr

You may feel strongly about a certain political candidate or religious issue. However, sharing or promoting this sentiment on your business page is a sure-fire way to lose fans very quickly. Truth be told, if every single one of your customers shared your exact viewpoint when it comes to such hot-button issues, you probably would not have very many customers. Your business needs to remain neutral on touchy issues, and the best way to do this is to not mention them at all. If you’ve kept business and personal separate, it means that expressing your opinions on your personal page will only affect you and won’t detract from your business’ reputation.

Your business page always represents you…Your personal page does not always represent your business

Most likely, you would not go to work in your pajamas or hang pictures of your bachelor party on your waiting room walls. But you would share with your customers your favorite restaurant or a community program you support. It’s important to keep these same distinctions when posting information to your personal and business pages. Your business page will always be an extension of you and you want to make sure your posts reflect you in the most positive light.

Your personal page, however, does not always have to operate under the same professional guidelines that you run your business. It’s fully reasonable to share your own personal opinions and insights with your friends and family.

Does all of this seem a little overwhelming? Are you scared you might post something offensive on your business page that could cost you a customer — or worse, permanently damage your online reputation? As a business owner, you have a lot at stake every day, and it’s tempting to use every possible outlet to let people know about a political cause that you care about.  There is also a fine line between sharing your best qualities and sounding like you’re patting your own back — another turnoff for customers.

There is nothing wrong with letting an expert handle your business’ Facebook account.  HOWEVER, you should make sure that the company who handles your social networking understands your customers.  Unless they understand your customers and are willing to do the extensive research and analysis required to find stories that are interesting but inoffensive, you’re not just playing with fire…you’re playing with your reputation, your security and your future.

At the Automated Marketing Group, we extensively research every client’s market extensively for quality news sources, and we employ professional writers who understand just how important it is to communicate clearly and avoid taboos.  If you’re ready to get back to running your business without having to worry about who you might be offending on Facebook, give AMG a call at 1-866-520-3030 or drop us a line!

Filed Under: Repair Shop Marketing Tips, Small Business Marketing Tips, Social Media Minute Tagged With: , , , , ,

Social Media Minute: Building Relationships with Social Networking

April 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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The WebPresence™ Marketing team loves to share our passion for social media and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and how we use it to make our clients successful every single day. Each week, we will post a blog about what’s going on in the WebPresence office and give you some helpful tips to help grow your business’ online presence.

One of the most rewarding parts about working in the WebPresence™ office is the opportunity we have to get to know each one of our clients. We love to share happy news, celebrate successes, or hear about the general goings-on in the lives of our clients. Because we truly enjoy getting to know each client, it makes us want to work hard for them and gain and maintain their trust in us. This week’s Social Media Minute outlines how building solid relationships with customers by utilizing social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter effectively can go a long way in making them customers for life.

What’s your favorite place to grab a slice of pizza after work?

Is there a place in town where “everyone knows your name?” Most folks do, and would love to tell you about it.  Asking questions like this makes your Facebook page a place where people can connect, build relationships and bond over common likes.  The trick, of course, is to have a lot of these questions in your back pocket so that you’re not struggling to find something to talk about!  As you start to accumulate questions, also be sure you’re keeping track of what you’re asking.  You don’t want to sound like a broken record!

Where is your favorite place to volunteer your time?

The benefit of being a small business owner is that you are already an integral part of your community. You have a leg up on corporate competition because you live next door to your customers and have an opportunity to connect with them.

But there’s a trick here, too. If you’re not careful, you can come off like you’re seeking praise and recognition rather than trying to help folks in need. The advantage that a professional social marketer brings is the ability to walk that fine line; if you choose to do this yourself, be sure you don’t sound like you’re patting yourself on the back! (Be sure to make sure you’re not permanently damaging your online reputation!)

Does your business have a soul?

Facebook and Twitter pages that create a sense of community instead of being just another sales message is a very good thing…and is especially useful for cutting through the clutter of corporate-speak out there.  In fact, when done right, it shows that your business has a soul. So many businesses utilize Facebook and Twitter as a one-way channel to scream or repeat their sales message like a loud, broken record…and more often than not, this message falls on deaf ears. But creating a conversation with your customers and encouraging participation goes a long way towards building trusting relationships.  And those are the customers that will return time and time again.

Don’t know where to start? Can’t come up with questions, don’t know how to track and measure the benefits what you’ve done, or maybe you’d like some help with sounding like a caring, involved, pillar of your business and local communities – instead of sounding like you’re tooting your own horn? Give AMG a call at 1-866-520-3030 or drop us a line! We professionally manage our WebPresence clients’ social marketing in a way that creates relationship, builds trust, increases brand awareness, encourages participation…and we GET CUSTOMERS INTO YOUR BUSINESS!

Filed Under: Marketing Ideas, Repair Shop Marketing Tips, Small Business Marketing Tips, Social Media Minute Tagged With: , , , , , , ,