Month: May 2016

Tips for May

Marketing tips for the solopreneur

Summer’s here and I’ve gone from complaining about the cold to complaining about the heat, like any good Torontonian.
This month we’ve got an article about how to have plan 700 day shelf life – yes, that’s right, two years – for your blog post; that is, how to make it work for you for two years, rather than a week or two.
Next, we’ve got a brief post on cognitive psychology in user experience (UX in industry jargon), on how the important thing for conversions is to make it as simple as possible. (It sounds obvious, but it’s not always).
Finally, yet another video from Moz: this time, it’s about how google’s knowledge graph (that box on the right side of the search results) can actually help you market your business.
Enjoy!

 

This Marketing Profs article provides a pretty thorough guide on how to create a strategy for how to use a single blog post to promote your business multiple times over the course of two years. Yes, it is possible. As I say to my clients, just because a few people on the internet read your post doesn’t mean nobody else wants to read it…re-share!
Read the article.

User Testing is one of the premier UX resources for small business owners online, giving lots of free advice. In this brief piece, they discuss how to design your site to get more gut- or impulse-based conversions instead of requiring your users to think about what you offer. They also provide useful further reading resources.
Read the article.

I know there always seems to be a Moz Whiteboard Friday video in this newsletter. That’s because, in my mind, there are few more helpful discussions of SEO out there. Rand’s topics are usually for people with some degree of knowledge, but he is engaging and once you are over the hurdle, these are very useful.
This episode, Rand talks about gaining insights from Google’s knowledge graph which you can then apply to your site.
Watch the video.

Ask me a question any time at riley.haas@gmail.com or on skype at riley.haas

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Do I Need a Facebook Business Page?

If you’re a small business owner or solopreneur, whether or not you need a Facebook business page to market your business on Facebook depends upon why and how you use Facebook. Facebook business pages can be useful, but they’re quite limited in what you can do with them in terms of outreach. So, what do you use Facebook for?

  • If you have been on Facebook for years, you need a Facebook business page.
  • If you haven’t used Facebook personally, but intend to do so at any time in the future, you need a Facebook business page.
  • If you are not comfortable “being your brand,” then you need a Facebook business page.
  • However, if you have not used Facebook for social or personal reasons and you are comfortable being your own brand, you shouldn’t use a Facebook business page as your principal Facebook marketing strategy.

Facebook was originally intended as a social tool. It is still a social tool, but it is being used increasingly for business. If you have not put up photos, personal posts or expressed personal opinions on Facebook that you might not want associated with your business, then you can use your profile to promote your business, rather than a page. Why would you want to do that?

Well, because a Facebook page is limited in how it can interact with potential customers – someone has to interact with your page before you can contact them. Your profile page is not limited in this way: you can approach new people regardless of whether or not they’ve ever heard of you (or indicted to Facebook that they’re interested in your business). Mind you, you still have to respectful, follow good social media etiquette and not come across as hunting for profits but, provided you do those things, you’re in much better shape using your profile to perform outreach, rather than your business page. (Note: you should still have a business page!)

But, if you like Facebook for the connections it allows between your friends and family, or you want to give that a try, using your profile both for personal connections and your business is unwise and I would strongly recommend sticking to a business page if this is how you intend to use Facebook.

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