Learn From Your Competition: 4 Questions You Should Ask Yourself

Competition doesn't always have to be the enemy. Competition can also be a valuable learning tool.

In today’s social media age, it is easy to keep an eye on your competition. As mentioned in the “why all businesses should be on twitter” blog it’s a way to see what customers are saying about them. But there are a lot of other things you can learn from them throughout social media.

 Here are a few questions to ask yourself about how your competition interacts with their customers and also how their customers interact with them on Facebook.

         What type of posts get the most responses from their customers?

    What type of specials are running through their fan pages?

What type of information are they putting out there?

          How active are they and does it seem to be working?

New Years Resolutions Businesses Should Make in Social Media

Losing weight and getting in shape is a popular resolution for most individuals each year. However ; individual resolutions aren't the only ones that should be made in 2013. Businesses should have them as well to help jump start their New Year and get off on the right foot. Here are 3 social media resolutions businesses should make for 2013:

1. Create more social media focused specials: One of the main reasons customers become a fan of a business on Facebook or follow them on Twitter is to take advantage of special offers. If you haven't taken advantage of this outlet yet, start in 2013.

2. Interact more with your customers: As stated in the Twitter Numbers Game blog posted last week, it's not always about the quantity of people, but the quality. Social media is all about the networking. Start talking to your customers. Offer up surveys about new products and questions about current ones. Encourage them to share their experience with a testimonial and answer any questions they might have. Start building relationships and trust and you'll have customers for life.

3. Post more pictures: Current social media studies show that customers respond more to visuals than words. Show them your products in use or your employees hard at work. Anything that can make your customers get a feel for your culture and what you stand for will help you become more relatable to them.

What resolutions have you made for your business in 2013? We'd love to hear them!

Using Pinterest Wisely

There are times that Pinterest can seem intimidating to even the most veteran social media advocates, but once you take a minute to delve through its categories and format, you will find it’s not really as scary as it looks. In fact, it is quite beneficial for the individual and the business owner.

Pinterest is becoming a fast growing social media outlet for businesses to expand their reach. Pinterest users on average spend at least an hour each time they visit the site. Those using Pinterest follow 3% more retailers on Pinterest than on Facebook and 1% more than on Twitter. It has over 14 million users!

There is so much a business can do with Pinterest to be noticed by their target market and to gain followers.

·         Like and comment on other pinners pins. This will get you noticed and send traffic to your boards.
·         Make sure all of your boards description sections are filled out with relevant details
·         When re-pinning, don’t just leave whatever comment happens to be on their, make it unique to yourself, your customers and your brand.
·         Create boards relevant to your product and make sure the website the pin comes from works. Pinners get frustrated when they would like to see where the original post came from and find it doesn’t exist.
·         Pin beyond your product. 

• Here are a few companies who have mastered the use of Pinterest for their business. Study it and learn from them.

·         Contests. I bet you didn’t know you could do contests on Pinterest did you? This is a great way to get your name out there, but it is also a fun way for users to engage. If your customers are enjoying something, they are much more likely to not only join in, but stay involved even once the contest ends.

• Homes, a real estate company, created a very interactive and unique contest on Pinterest we wanted to share with out readers. Here is a description of it.

We hope all of these new ideas will get you motivated and your mind stirring with new ideas!