10 Common Google+ Branding Mistakes

Missing-the-goal

One of the most surprising facts about Google+ branding mistakes is the number of people who still make them!

Here are ten of the most common – and most often repeated…

 

Posting sporadically

It doesn’t matter if you made twelve posts last week:  If this week you’re so busy that you forgot to update your company Google+ page completely you’re going to come off as unreliable. Worse, people who had been enjoying “the conversation” will feel suddenly let down.

Keep them waiting too long – or repeat “feast or famine” posting too many times – and you will actually lose followers.  And hurt your brand.

 

Not paying attention to search engine results

search-resultsIf you stop and run searches for your keywords and competitors, you may be surprised to realize how many top spots are held by those with Google+ Profiles and Pages – and how these show up. Besides, if you don’t take advantage of Google+ branding opportunities yourself, you are ignoring the power of graphics and photos in boosting credibility and capturing interest.

 

Posting empty links

What’s an empty link post? It’s one that does not include a comment and the title seems irrelevant to your followers. Provide your readers a reason why the link you are sharing is important or at least the topic of the article or the title of video.

 

Forgetting to include calls to action

targetThis is something you see time and time again – it’s not unique to Google+, but to all social media channels.  Nevertheless, it’s included here because so many companies seem to make this really inexplicable mistake.

Include calls to action:

  • In your Google+ Page posts
  • On your website and blog
  • With your Google+ badges and icons
  • In your Google+ ‘About’ section

Forgetting to install Google+ badges

This one is really inexcusable.  If you don’t make it easy for your followers, they won’t bother to share and engage – it’s as simple as that. Only slightly less understandable is installing a Google+ badge on your website – and not including a G+1 button so people can endorse your posts.

 

Copying your competitors

It’s great to analyze what works for them on Google+. Just make sure you put equal time into figuring out why. If you take those extra steps to get to the bottom of what seems to be obvious, it will be easier for you to apply critical thinking to your own brand strategies on Google+.  You’ll grow surprisingly good at knowing what you are doing, what your audience is craving – and why your strategies are going to work.  (And that’s most likely what your successful Google+ competitor actually did.)

 

Forgetting to test and track

Most people don’t actually forget this. The real excuse is usually ‘I’m just too busy!’ If you genuinely are – or you have trouble applying and understanding metrics – it’s worth outsourcing this to a social media expert. Just make sure you have regular meetings while they explain your results – and make recommendations that reap good results when later implemented.

 

Not having a clear Google+ strategy

5 - Strategy

You will get much stronger and better-branded results if you put preparation and study into what your strategies are going to be.  (Also give yourself a time frame in which to implement them.) Pick one area in Google+ and make it your central platform (but don’t neglect the others). For example, become known for your company’s amazing Hangouts; or brilliantly unique blog posts; or gorgeous, sumptuous original photographs that prompt spontaneous sharing.

Just make sure that whatever you decide to become known for, it is relevant to your business, your products or services, your company’s areas of service or expertise – and, above all, your followers.

 

Not making use of branding keywords or Google+ hashtags

You’d think people wouldn’t forget these two very basic essentials.  But apparently they do – all the time.

Hashtags (unlike comments) definitely increase your searchability and rank.  And keywords provide the foundation.  (Another big no-no:  Forgetting to use actual keywords in your hashtags!)

 

Forgetting to acknowledge, thank or just plain talk with your followers

commentsYes, this happens on other social networks too – but it’s never excusable.  And it’s a sure-fire way to ensure that people quickly stop trusting you.  They’ll simply lose interest.

Finally, remember that everything you do online affects your company brand.  If you are focused on your audience, know your business mission and goals, use the unique and exciting tools provided on Google+ and – most of all – have made a strong commitment to build your brand through excellent service – and content – you will be well on your way to Google+ branding success.

Getting the Most out of Facebook Ads

targetFacebook Ads are a great way to expand your audience. But, Facebook ads are also a great way to build relationships, sell a product or service, and drive awareness. The trick is knowing your purpose for running the Facebook ad, plus understanding who your target audience is.

When you create an ad on Facebook you get a lot of choices. You can easily see how your ad looks in either the Newsfeed or the side bar. You can choose a destination URL and a photograph. Then you can create your attention grabbing headline, and text to grab the reader’s attention.

Then you get to choose exact demographics for your ad and the bid amount for each click. You can super target your ad to where they live and their age group. You can choose more targeting options in order to choose various interests of your target audience too. You can even choose based on who your audience is connected to, as well as on interests. For instance you can send your add to only to people who are not connected to your page already. 

calltoaction

When you create an ad, depending upon your goals for the ad, use the advanced targeting features that Facebook offers for best results. Remember to include a clear call to action on any advertisements. If you are just starting a Facebook page your ads should be directed at increasing awareness and getting more likes. Only later should you place focus elsewhere. Here are a few best practices for Facebook ads.

  • Have a Clear Objective — Know why you’re posting the advertisement. What is your goal in posting it? Do you want more likes, get newsletter sign ups, or sell something directly?
  • Use Personal Images — People respond more to people over logos. But, make sure the picture matches your text.
  • Be Consistent — Even if you create 20 ads to test, be sure that your overall message is consistent.
  • Track — Check your metrics to ensure that you are meeting your goals. 

It’s clear that using Facebook ads can speed up the process of the public gaining awareness of your business. Thus speeding up the time it takes you to reach your goals. Once your materials are created it will take you less than 10 minutes to create a Facebook Advertisement. Time well spent.

7 Tips for Encouraging Interaction and Participation on Facebook

audienceCall to Action — Ask your followers to do something such as: Click like if you agree, post if you disagree, etc. and always ask them to share. By including these statements in the blurb before you share any type of content you’ll get a lot more interaction from your fans.

Tagging — When you post something, especially if someone else inspired the action tag them. They and their friends will see the post depending on their privacy settings. Tagging helps get your message to even more people which is the point of sharing a message to start with.

Compel Discussions — Posting daily updates that include calls to action there will be a bigger chance that your fans will engage with you. Try questions, polls, images, quotes and news to see what gets the best results. In addition, you should also comment back when someone asks a question or makes a comment.

Reward Participation — Some of your fans will participate more, reward them for doing it. Offer the occasional freebie item to your fans only. It can be a percents off coupon, a free eBook, a free ecourse, something that only interests your target audience that will excite them to like, comment and share. People like feeling exclusive and special, by pointing out that only Facebook Fans are getting this offer you’ll feed into that fact.

Content Curation — After some testing you should know what your fans like. Do they like it when you share original images and content, or do they like it when you share other people’s information and explain it to them? By sharing a combination of your own content, and that of others, you can become the go-to expert.

Call Out Members — People love being featured for their actions. If you ask your fans to do something for you such as submit a video or image of them using your products and services, then you post them, and tag them, they’ll love it. Their own friends and family will see it when you tag them, and perhaps like your page too.

Poll Your Fans — Are you in the process of creating new products and services? If so, why not poll your current fans regarding what to name your new product or what features to include? They’ll love participating and they’ll be that much more likely to purchase the product after having participated in its creation.

By implementing these 7 tips to get more participation and interaction from your audience you’ll soon find that you’ve created more than a business page on Facebook. You’ve created an active social network that is ready to not only buy what you’re selling but to brag about it to their friends and family.

How to Set Up a Professional Website? Follow These 10 Steps to Get the Results You Want

website

Your website is the most important marketing tool in your arsenal. It’s what clients will use to determine your credibility. It’s what they’ll use to find out your rates. It’s what they’ll use to learn about you. It’s what they’ll use to learn about your services. In many cases, it’s the primary way your potential clients will interact with you before they actually try your service.

So how do you make sure your website is top notch? How do you use your website to inform and sell? These tips will help.

Tip #1: Use a Professional Theme or Template

1-Use-a-Professional-Theme

Choose a theme or design template that looks professional like Sticky Branding. Make sure you not only choose a professional theme but one that you can personalize. Choose one with a changeable banner or with customizable columns or colors.

You want to make sure your site doesn’t look like a hundred other sites out there that share the same theme. But you also want to make sure that you have a professional theme that’s already proven its merits in the marketplace.

Tip #2: Use a High Quality Photography

Have a professional photographer take a photo of you. A great photographer will be able to get the lighting, the posture, the angle and everything else right to give you an image that really shines.

Nicole Munoz

Use this image on your website to demonstrate credibility. You can use it as part of your banner if you can make it look artistic, or use it on your “About Me” page or on your sidebar.

Marketing researchers have long known that showing a face builds trust and credibility. In fact, on Facebook Ads, pictures of someone’s face generates more clicks than just about any other kind of ad.

 

Tip #3: Get Their Email Address

3-Email-Signup

Get the email address of the people who land on your website. Not everyone’s going to buy on the first go around. They might come to your website, be very impressed with what they see – But intend to buy later.

If that’s the case, you’re much better off getting their email. That way, you can follow up with them again and again, even once they’ve already left your website and forgotten about your service.

Give them something in exchange for signing up for your emails. For example, entice people to sign up with a free gift or free report. I offer the Small Business Success Kit.

Tip #4: A Personality Driven “About Me” Page

Your “About Me” page should help people get to know you. Not only should it be factual and informational, but it should be personality driven. People should get a sense of who you are, what you stand for and hopefully for a sense of your personality.

Talk about your background. Talk about the results you get for your clients. Talk about your credentials and what qualifies you to do what you do. Try to write in a personal, free flowing way. Avoid writing in corporate language. The goal is for your potential clients to feel like they know you a little bit once they read your About Me page.

Marie Forleo has a great about me page that now only shows her personality, but is very focused on the visitor to the page.

 4-Personality-Driven-About-Me

 

Tip #5: A Crystal Clear Service Page

Your service page should have a crystal clear outline of all your services and product offerings.

If you’re just getting started, you should probably put prices for your services on your website. If you’re in a higher end market and you’ve been doing what you do for a while, you might ask people to contact you for a quote instead.

In either case, people should have no uncertainty about what you offer. If you’re a graphic designer for instance, you want to have packages for your logo design, your banner design, your website design and your flyer design services all clearly laid out on your website.

Tip #6: Have Samples

Your samples or are one of the most important parts of your online sales efforts. As great as your site is, as great as your testimonials may be, as great as your packages page may be, ultimately what clients will use to determine if they want to work with you is your past work.

Put up as many samples as you can on your website. Make sure you put your best foot forward by putting up samples that showcase the best of your capabilities.

If you don’t have any samples because you’re just getting started, consider doing some pro-bono work or just doing the samples for imaginary clients. The idea is that you want to have something to showcase, even if it’s not paid work yet.

Tip #7: Call to Action

call-to-actionOne big mistake that a lot of service providers make is not having a call to action. A call to action is simply a request for someone to take action.

If you’re selling a service that can be purchased on the spot, then you should have a purchase button right on your page. For example, if you sell 30 minute consultation calls for $100, then you should have a $100 buy button right on your services page.

On the other hand, if you do more custom work, your call to action might be a form. The form gives them the chance to tell you what they’re looking for and to give you their contact information.

Tip #8: Run a Quality Blog

blog2Having a high quality blog is a fantastic way to drive more traffic to your website, but don’t expect your blog to pay off for at least 3 to 6 months. In the beginning, it’s going to feel like a lot of effort.

But once you have a website that’s stuffed full of useful content, you’ll start to get a lot of traffic from search engines. That traffic will very quickly turn into more sales and more business.

Furthermore, having a high quality blog will help you build credibility. People who see your blog are going to immediately feel that you’re a credible person to work with.

 

Tip #9: Optimize for Search Engines

Put some energy into optimizing your website for search engines. Make it your goal to have your site come up in the search engines when people type in keywords related to your niche.

Start by making your website search engine friendly. Make sure you use relevant keywords in your title tags. Make sure your archives and category pages are noindexed and nofollowed. If you’re using WordPress, use a tool like All in One SEO to handle all your on site SEO.

Then build backlinks back to your website. Have other people in your industry link back to you. Ask past customers or fans of your site to link to you. Host contests, run classes or do publicity stunts that get a lot of people to link to you.

These two things – On site and off site SEO – Will quickly get your site to rank for relevant keywords in Google.

 9-SEO

Tip #10: Buy Paid PPC Traffic

PPCIf your average customer value is high enough, you should consider buying traffic for your services. For example, if you’re a child psychologist and on average a client is worth $1,500 to you, then it may very well make sense for you to buy paid traffic in your local area to bring in more clients. Even if each client is worth a few hundred dollars, you can likely recoup your investment.

If you offer a service locally, make sure you target geographically and not globally. Only buy keywords for extremely targeted keywords in the beginning to make sure you can get a positive ROI. Once you have a positive ROI, then broaden your keyword base to include higher volume keywords.

These tips will help you setup a great website that impresses clients. They’ll also help you generate new business through increased website traffic.

Top 10 Video Marketing Mistakes

video

Video marketing is an extremely powerful yet often overlooked channel of marketing. People often (mistakenly) think that succeeding in video marketing is a matter of luck. That you just put out a video and cross your fingers and hope that it “goes viral.” That’s not how video marketing works at all.

Just like any other marketing tactic, video marketing involves taking systematic steps to create a desired result. Video marketing, when done properly, can bring in thousands or even hundreds of thousands of visitors. This happens deliberately, not by accident.

Yet most people who try their hands on video marketing don’t ultimately succeed. Why is that? It’s because they make one of these ten traffic-destroying mistakes along the way.

Mistake #1: Relying on One-Hit Videos

If any part of your business plan relies on your videos “going viral,” you’re out of luck.

Yes, a small (miniscule) amount of videos do go viral every day. But the amount of videos that make this mark are so tiny that shooting for it at all is completely unrealistic. If you’re spending any amount of time or energy on trying to go viral, you’re running yourself in circles.

If you’re going to get into video marketing, expect to be in it for the long haul. Yes, you can and will drive a lot of traffic. But it’s not going to happen overnight and it’s not going to happen from one video.

Mistake #2: Not Developing a Channel

Having a YouTube channel allows anyone with a Google account to subscribe to your channel. It allows you to build your brand by customizing your background. It allows you to sequence your videos however you like. It allows you to lay out your page in many different formations.

Each of your videos should be a part of a larger plan for your entire channel. Don’t just publish standalone videos. It’s impossible to “follow” a standalone video. If you’re just publishing single video after single video, you’re not going to build an audience.

Work towards building a channel. Spend time perfecting your channel’s layout and design. Your channel’s followers are your core viewer base.

Nicole Munoz Youtube

 

Mistake #3: Focusing Too Much on Fancy Effects

Fancy special effects are a fantastic add on to your videos. If you want to add a flashy intro sequence, if you want to “blur in” your subtitles, if you want to “explode” out of your video at the end, that’s all great. But special effects should never become to focus of your video.

You should also never let special effects hold up the production of your video. If it’s going to take forever to get a special effect intro done and you’re ready to launch now, then you’re probably better off just saying “go” now.

Special effects, more often than not, are done primarily for the video creator’s ego. They don’t truly add any value to the end viewer’s experience. Focus on the content, not the effects. If you can get effects in without too much time or money, go for it. But don’t let your product get delayed special effects.

Mistake #4: Getting Hung Up Over Video Equipment

Video2The world of video equipment can be incredibly confusing. Should you get a wide lens camera or a long lens? What about telephoto? Should you get a condenser microphone or a dynamic microphone? What about wireless – Should you go with a lavaliere mic or an over ear mic? How do you avoid static? What about lighting? How many lights do you need and do you need to purchase a lighting kit?

The questions go on and on and on. You could literally spend days researching the perfect video setup and still have questions leftover.

The reality is, for most people who’re doing their own video setup, a simple setup will do. You can go very far with just an iPhone 5 camera and a dynamic microphone. Your whole setup can be done for under $200.

Give yourself a deadline. If you’re setting up a studio from scratch, give yourself two days to do all your research and buy what you need to buy. No more. Don’t spend weeks and definitely don’t spend months figuring it out.

If you really want quality high enough to warrant months of setup, you’re better off hiring a professional to shoot for you than trying to set it up from scratch yourself.

Mistake #5: Not Knowing Your Audience

checklistThe kind of content you think your audience wants can be very different from the kind of content they actually want. For example, you might have a YouTube channel geared towards real estate agents. You might share some of your personal best tips for closing sales and feel great about sharing. But your audience’s main problem might not be closing sales – It might be getting leads in the first place.

If you don’t know where your audience is at, it’s very difficult to produce the kind of content they’re looking for. So how do you know where your audience is at?

Ask. Ask them what kind of content they want. Respond to their comments. Better yet, respond in the video itself. Acknowledge them by name, read their question then answer it for them.

Get to know your audience. Don’t just share what you want to share. Instead, aim to actually figure out what your audience wants and needs and give it to them.

Mistake #6: Expecting Results Too Quickly

It’s quite rare that a new channel starts up and instantly gets hundreds of millions of views. Instead, you’re more likely to start off with just tens or a couple hundred views. Then your second video will get a few more viewers. Your third will get even more.

As you publish more videos, more and more people will join your audience. Your reach will have a snowball effect. A few months or years down the line you’ll be able to publish a brand new video and have it get hundreds of thousands of views instantly. But that takes time.

Expect your video marketing efforts to take at least six months to pick up.

Mistake #7: No Call to Action

Does your video tell people what to do next, or does it just give them the content then leave them there?

When you create a high quality video, you create a lot of goodwill. But in order for that goodwill to translate into clicks, into leads and into sales, you have to have a call to action.

Your first call to action is probably going to be to “click here” or to direct people to an address on your website. Make your call to action as clear and as powerful as you can. Then use other call to actions to move people through your sales funnel.

 

Mistake #8: Being Afraid to Spend Money

money-fitnesIt’s very hard to create a high quality video without spending any money. Here are just some of the things you’ll probably want to invest in:

  • Getting a professional intro sequence done.
  • Video editing.
  • Having slides put in.
  • Editing software (if you’re doing it yourself)
  • Audio quality enhancement
  • Etc

Yes, it is possible to do it all yourself and not spend any money. But the result will probably be a lot of wasted time and an inferior video. Trying your best to spend as little as possible is a terrible way to create a video.

Instead, focus on how to intelligently invest your money. Invest in things that’ll really make a big difference.

Mistake #9: Not Tracking and Analyzing

analyzeYouTube offers a fairly comprehensive analytics package. It can tell you how far along people watch in your videos before leaving, it can tell you what your traffic sources are, it can tell you about who’s watching your video and more.

A lot of people completely ignore YouTube’s analytics. Even people who’re fanatical about website data for some reason seem to ignore YouTube data altogether. This is a huge mistake.

YouTube’s analytic package is a gold mine waiting to be explored. Using this data, you can hone in on exactly what’s working and what’s not. This will help you create more home run videos in the future.

Mistake #10: Not Promoting Your Videos Enough

Another mistake is thinking that you just put your videos up on YouTube and they’ll promote themselves. That’s not how it works.

In the early stages, most of the traffic that comes to your video is going to come from you and your existing audience. In time, your YouTube audience and YouTube’s traffic will bring you a lot of people But when you’re first building up your following, you have to be the driver of traffic.

Promote your video(s) on your website, on your list, on your Twitter feed, on your Facebook page and on anywhere else where your audience is. Get the word out about your video(s) and start driving those view numbers.

These are the top 10 video marketing mistakes people make. Video marketing can be an incredibly powerful marketing tool if you approach it right and give it the time and energy it needs to flourish.