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Featured Project of the Week: 8/23/16

The Sober World - September Issue

Featured Project of the Week: 8/15/16

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Go Riverwalk Magazine connects our readers with all facets of Fort Lauderdale life, including our flourishing downtown and Riverwalk arts & entertainment district happenings, our city-wide array of social, cultural and neighborhood events, our world-class business & professional community, trend-setting fashion & shopping, amazing dining and the many unique & diverse lifestyles found here that make Fort Lauderdale one of the best cities in the country to live, work and play!

Each month 15,000 magazines are distributed throughout Fort Lauderdale including 1500 to Riverwalk members and sponsors; banks, commercial businesses, education, government, hotels, realtors, residential buildings (condos and apartment rentals), restaurants/bars/clubs, retail as well as the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport.

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How to Build Your Personal Brand, According to Millionaire Gary Vaynerchuk

When Gary Vaynerchuk speaks about branding, everyone perks up and listens. And for good reason.

Vaynerchuk makes it his business to build businesses -- thriving, multi-million dollar companies. In his early days, Vaynerchuk grew his family wine business from a $3 million to $60 million business in just five years. His digital agency VaynerMedia represents brands such as Pepsi-Co, General Electric, and Anheuser-Busch. He’s an angel investor and venture capitalist, plus a three-time New York Timesbestselling author and a prolific public speaker. Vaynerchuk is a success story and an inspiration, and that’s why people want to hear what he has to say about entrepreneurship, marketing and branding.

Vaynerchuk has recently condensed his real-world knowledge into a course offered by Udemy called “Building a Personal Brand.” For aspiring thought leaders who want to escape the nine-to-five, the course helps define your passions and strengths, giving you a blueprint for establishing yourself as a brand in your specific interests.

According to Vaynerchuk, building a brand is a tough road to travel. But if you bring the grit and passion, he’ll bring the framework and motivation in this two-hour course, complete with practice exercises to help you make a name for yourself.

Vaynerchuk’s students walk away from his course knowing these five key ideas:

• How to uncover your strengths and go all in

• How to tell your story in a captivating way

• Understanding platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more

• Engaging with your audience

• Building brand awareness

For entrepreneurs wanting to effect change, Entrepreneur.com readers are being offered a special discount on this course now through the end of July. Enter promo code: ENTREPRENEUR30 to get an additional 30 percent discount. If you’re interested in escaping the nine-to-five, this course might be a good place to get started.

Udemy offers even more for entrepreneurs. Start your next course in coding, social media marketing, or business motivation today.

by Entrepreneur Partner Studio

Developing a Hardcore Social Media Content Strategy In 5 Steps

Social media is one of the most fickle tools at a brand's disposal. On one hand it is an open platform allowing for direct engagement the likes of which we have never seen before it. But on the other it is an over-saturated platform full of constant noise that can be difficult to cleave through. The trick is to build a loyal fan base that are part of a circular community within social media. You want to foster a sense of belonging that brings people back again and again. While direct interaction is one way of doing that, it should be combined with another strategy, namely a content strategy.

The Power Of Content

Whether you like the buzzword or not, content is important. It is what you give your followers in return for their support and interest. It is a way to impart information and entertain. But most of all, it is the most consistent and fail-proof method of building a brand, not only in substance, but in authority. Social media content isn't actually a different animal to what you would find elsewhere. It is just another strain of species, a form of equally valuable content presented for optimized for social sharing. You can build an unstoppable social media content strategy in five basic steps.

Step 1. Establish your audience.

I don't mean you should set about building your audience, that is what a social media content strategy is for in the first place. I am referring to establishing who that audience is, and what they want. How can you create good social content if you don't know your audience? Target audience research is most likely part of your overall digital marketing strategy, so you can get some insights from the website analytics software you are using (Google Analytics is probably the most widespread). Those insights will include basic demographics, acquisition channels, and content preferences. There are also social-media focused tools that will give you more information:

• BirdSong Analytics provides an indepth analysis of your competitor's Facebook page showing which content has been the most successful for them, which days of the week and time of the day trigger most interactions, which words are the most common in their posts and much more.
• BuzzSumo lets you compare Facebook pages and get insights into how their updates are being received by their fans
• Fanpage Karma allows you to identify your competitor's most engaged social media followers

Step 2. Invest in some (social) keyword research.

Keyword research is going to help really hone your content. Social keyword research is a more specified form of research that will give you a good foundation for catching the eye of social followers (or potential followers). I prefer a tool like Hootsuite for this, as it is a quick way to see what is regularly updating, and what is engaging. Of course, you can also just do a search on Twitter, Facebook, or your other chosen network to see which context your core terms usually appear. If you want a cheap alternative that will give you plenty of widgets to play with, including customizable social media features, you can check out Cyfe. They have some great social researching tools to use. For example, you can import, archive and analyze Twitter search results for any keyword or hashtag. Serpstat is another must-use tool here. One of its free features allows you to find all various questions your target users tend to search for when it comes to your core term. This is great information giving you tons of content inspiration to address your audience most specific needs.

Step 3. Begin testing networks to focus.

In the past I would recommend people only focus on one or two social networks when they are building a campaign. That isn't really the rule anymore, as most brands have expanded beyond a single platform. For a smaller brand that doesn't have a team at their disposal, however, it is more likely that they will have multiple pages, but only really use one for major social growth. With that in mind, I would like to amend my past advice. Set up several social media profiles, and put equal effort into each one (in the beginning). See which yield the best results, testing out multiple forms of social content and tactics along the way. This is kind of like an A/B test, but a little less straightforward. You won't necessarily get rid of the under-performing networks, as you would with a design or feature. You will just discover what form of content and use works for each one, and then use the one that works best. So really, you are setting up several social media content campaigns individualized for the followers on each platform. This has the added benefit of allowing you to use each network for something for which it is suited.

Step 4. Develop a content calendar.

Once you know what goes on which platform, and who you are writing for, you should have a good idea of what content to plan for. I am a big believer in having an editorial calendar for every piece of work drafted, or that will be drafted in the future. Incorporating a social element into that calendar is a great idea. It will turn an incomplete strategy into one that is completely integrated. Here are some ideas to include in your social media calendar:

• Monthly holidays (including weird / unofficial holidays)
• Big entertaining or business events (especially those specific to your niche)
• Festivals, upcoming big movie releases and concerts (Find memes to cross-relate to your niche and gain attentions for exploiting long-awaited events)
• Your company plans and events (birthdays, anniversaries, company trips, etc)

Step 5. Double-check your site performance.

There's nothing worse than spending days planning a social media campaign and then watch your users land on a broken or slowly loading page. This is what too many viral content campaigns have ended up looking like. The beauty of having a social media calendar is that you can actually anticipate more traffic coming in, so do your due diligence to let your tech team know your plans and let them get properly prepared. Here are some additional tools and tips:

• Here's uptime stats tool that are being updated monthly to pick the most reliable host and keep an eye on its performance
• Make sure your site is mobile friendly (Here's Google's tool for that) and consider creating a native mobile app to build your content strategy into it. Here's an easy guide on how to make a mobile app.
• Use Monitority to get an email, a text message and a Tweet the moment your site goes down

Having a social media calendar makes sure your content and social strategy mesh and empower one another for better results.

by Ann Smarty

Founder of MyBlogU, Brand Manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas

Reach 114,700 People a Month Advertising in Go Riverwalk Magazine!

Check out the numbers!

15,000 Print Magazines Monthly
10,000+ Opt-In E-Mail Subscribers
46,500+ Facebook Fans
19,000+ Twitter Followers
18,200+ Instagram Followers
6000+ Snapchat
_____________________________
114,700+ TOTAL AUDIENCE

Check out our Go Riverwalk Media Kit online at

https://www.goriverwalk.com/goriverwalk-magazine/media-kit or call me for information at 954-523-1980 or Publisher@GoRiverwalk.com.

8 Tips for Creating an Awesome Brand

When creating your brand, it’s imperative that you think about everything from your logo to color scheme to to the tag line. You also have to have a memorable brand name, strong message, support system, and all of the necessary legalities, like getting trademarked, in place.

But, that’s only the beginning of your branding process. To help you complete creating your awesome brand, give these nine tips a spin as well.

1. How do people see you?

“The interesting thing about your personal brand is it’s never what you say it is, it’s actually what everyone else says it is,” writes founder and chairman of the award-winning matchmaking firm PCBA Paul C. Brunson. “Therefore, the first place to begin in the building and growth of your brand is to know what people think of you.”

Paul adds that you can find out how others view by: “googling yourself, holding a focus group (of close friends), or asking a life coach or business coach to conduct a 360 analysis on your behalf (we do this for all of our clients and it’s very effective).”

2. Build your online platform.

Blogger, author, digital strategist, and speaker Jeff Bullas recommends that you, “Build your own online platform such as a blog or website that you own, then amplify your content and engage with your audience on social networks.” Be adds, “Use LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter or even Pinterest and Instagram. You have options. Find what social network resonates with you.”

“The secret. Don’t wait to be perfect. Just start.”

Here are a couple of pointers to keep in mind when creating your brand;

• Be authentic.
• Have a unique voice.
• Build an email list.
• Have a memorable design.
• Create a memorable slogan that expresses your mission and purpose
• Empower your customers

Also don’t forget to harness the power of content marketing, guest blogging and networking.

3. Weave your brand into everything you do.

Personal branding should be a large part of everything you do. It should be weaved into your life. It shouldn't just be in the clothes you wear but in your every action with friends and business colleagues.

Your brand should show in how you blog online. For example, my personal brand always is helping entrepreneurs. When I attend networking events I try to have the same person you read about online, shine at networking events. If you try to be someone you're not, it will show.

4. Be consistent.

As a customer, think about the brands that you are most loyal to. Chances are that they’ve earned your trust because they are dependable. For example, Zappos is known for delivering superior customer service. Dropbox includes its signature hand drawn blue box logo on all of its messaging.

Bot examples prove at just just how important consistency is for brands. As Hannah Fleishman states on HubSpot, “All of your communications and marketing assets should tell your brand’s story.”

5. Don’t try to please everyone.

Years ago at a marketing conference, my friend Jonathan Long from Market Domination Media told me that "You're never going to please everyone, so don't try to be everything to everyone. Learn to be the best brand possible to specific set of users." This still sticks out to me as myself as a business owner really can't do everything. If I try and please everyone.... it's not even possible.

Don’t be afraid to be yourself - even if that means saying the things that no one else will. Remember, you’re not in business to please everyone. You're in business to grow a business, not please everyone.

6. Produce value.

You should be producing value with whatever you do. You don't have to be Apple to have an amazing product. Even lower end products like Ikea produce a lot of value to their customers. 

When thinking about the value that you can add, ask questions like;

• What sets your product, service and company apart from your competitors?
• What value do you provide and how does that value differ from that provided by your competitors?
• How do these benefits tap into your customer’s emotions?
• Is what I'm producing for my customer produce enough value for the price I'm charging?
• Is my brand in sync with how I'm marketing myself?

7. Associate yourself with strong brands.

“Your personal brand is strengthened or weakened by your connection to other brands,” said Shama Hyder is Founder and CEO of Marketing Zen. “Find and leverage strong brands which can elevate your own personal brand.”

You can begin by looking at the three C’s: company, college, colleagues. For example, you could contribute content to your alumni or company newsletter or blog.

8. Get sneaky with brand-building awareness.

Finally, you can start spreading brand awareness by using some outside-of-the-box techniques like;

• Setting up a referral program.
• Creating an infographic.
• Offering freemium content.
• Partnering with local businesses.
• Wrapping your car with ads.
• Giving away swag.
• Running a social media contest.
• Hosting a podcast.
• Setting up PPC ads and a remarketing campaign.

How have your created your awesome brand?

by John Rampton

Riverwalk Takes a New Direction With New Publisher S.MARK Graphics

Fort Lauderdale, FL – June 2, 2016 – Riverwalk Fort Lauderdale is delighted to welcome the new publisher of Go Riverwalk Magazine, Mark Budwig of S.MARK Graphics – a Fort Lauderdale-based graphic design and web design agency. The media relationship will commence with the release of an all-inclusive digital summer issue of Go Riverwalk Magazine. The amped up coverage will span June and July and will be released digitally on June 20, 2016. It will be complement by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Event Calendar, which Riverwalk Fort Lauderdale launched in December 2015. The Greater Fort Lauderdale Event Calendar is a more robust listing of events as compared to the magazine. Event managers can submit their events for e-publication here.

Be on the lookout for coverage of interesting topics in our amped summer issue. We will be walking you through a day in the life of a city employee to shed some light on how the city works. Learn about the mounted police unit in Fort Lauderdale and you won’t want to miss an article about the Fort Lauderdale Knights Ruby Football Club. We will also feature a profile on a local author and offer some suggestions to put on your grown up summer reading list. The first printed edition of the magazine from our new publisher will be the August 2016 issue of the magazine.

All Go Riverwalk Magazine ad inquiries should be directed publisher@goriverwalk.com or (954) 523-1980.

Companies Will Spend $65 Billion on SEO in 2016, Much of it Will Be Wasted

Do you know what snake oil is? It’s a term used to describe any product with questionable or unverifiable quality or benefit. If you read this Wikipedia article on the topic, you’ll see that real oil from snakes used to be prescribed as a cure for everything from small cuts on up to arthritis and skin diseases.

And a recent study came out touting that companies will be spending $65 Billion on SEO this year.

Now, as the title to this article would imply, I believe that the SEO industry, and the digital marketing industry in general is full of snake oil salespeople. Individuals who knowingly are selling a product that either will not work for the buyer or that they know is of inferior quality.

Let me explain. I run a marketing agency. I have to hear dozens of horror stories every week about wasted budgets, sites damaged beyond repair, digital campaigns that produce zero results and everything else business owners and marketers are terrified of. These stories are the grownup versions of the campfire stories we told each other as children. Except now, they end in the loss of millions of dollars. Terrifying, I know.

Now, I mentioned that I run an agency, as such you’d think that we’d have a pretty good grasp on marketing. But you wouldn’t guess that if you looked at my spam folder. I receive hundreds, yes hundreds of unsolicited emails every day from marketers promising to take my brand to the #1 spot in Google (total lie). Or to bring me thousands of visitors in a matter of weeks (liar liar pants on fire). They tell me that my site is breaking numerous rules set forth by the search engines and if I don’t fix them my company will die a fiery death (oh really?).

These are the Exhibit A’s in the snake oil industry of digital marketing and SEO.

To see the Exhibit B’s you’ll need to reach out to an agency of your choice and ask to speak with their sales team. Odds are you’ll end up talking with someone that will guarantee that your wildest dreams will be fulfilled by focusing on SEO. Or maybe they’re a social media agency. If that’s the case, their silver bullet will undoubtedly be social media. Either way, they’ve got the tonic that will cure your website’s disease. And if you act now, you’ll be guaranteed results!

Look, as someone who has worked in SEO and every other digital medium for the last decade or so, I can tell you that there are no silver bullets and that nothing is guaranteed. I also know that SEO doesn’t work for some companies. Just like PPC isn’t for everyone, nor is social media. After all, billboards and commercials don’t work for every industry, so why would digital marketing be any different?

But let’s examine what makes a lot of SEO services snake oil and give you the information you’ll need to protect yourself.

Why is it snake oil?

Snake oil originated in the medical industry. It was used as a cure for ailments. It was easy for salespeople to pull the wool over they’re buyers’ eyes because back in the day, no one really knew what the heck was going on with their bodies. Medical information wasn’t as readily available. And since medical conditions are by nature quite scary, the sufferers were ready to believe anything that was thrown their way.

Well, guess what? The Internet is the new medical industry when it comes to snake oil. You see, the Internet is still not that old. It’s really only become prolific over the last 20 years or so. With that being the case, most people don’t understand the ins and outs of it. Yes, like a medical condition, they can tell when something is wrong. But they’re not really quite sure what the cause of the issue is. Enter the snake oil salespeople.

Whenever there are uninformed customers, there will always be predatory groups looking to take advantage of that situation. And with a 65 Billion dollar industry up for grabs, the streets are running wet with snake oil right now.

What I’ve seen.

While some snake oils can be rather harmless, when it comes to your digital marketing snake oil is anything but. For instance, I wrote an article a few years back about a large company that was removed from the Google search results due to their digital marketing activities. They had some sloppy marketing being done and it ended up making them disappear from the search results. Harmless, right? Wrong. You see, this company relied heavily on their search results for new leads to their call center. This call center was staffed by dozens of people. These people had families, mortgages, and relied on that income.

Well, when the phones just stop ringing one morning, it’s going to be very hard for a company to keep employing an entire sales floor. And while the company did their best to avoid the inevitable, they eventually had to face the facts and they ended up laying off the entire department.

So this one company that unfortunately trusted a snake oil salesperson, ended up having to lay off almost 50 people at a time when the economy wasn’t doing so well. I’m sure there was a lot of financial pain felt by these families.

So, yes, snake oil SEO can be extremely dangerous in today’s digital economy.

How do business owners avoid getting burned?

This is probably the most important part of this article. As I mentioned earlier, the reason these groups are able to prey on consumers is because of the lack of information. To this end, you need to gird yourself with knowledge. Do research on the topic you’ll be discussing with your potential agency partners. Have talking points and specific questions that you’d like answered. By doing this, you’ll be able to avoid the bottom-of-the-barrel snake oil salespeople that can’t even face mild scrutiny.

Once you’ve weeded those ones out, you’ll want to really do your research on the agencies that have made the first cut. Check the background of the founders, look for third party reviews. Ask them for case studies, testimonials, and references. Do not look at a slick sales deck and assume that because they can put together a decent PowerPoint that they can provide you with proper marketing services. I’ve seen hundreds of dreams crushed on the expectations set by a nice sales presentation. Any group you don’t feel 100 percent comfortable with should be cut after this.

Now that you’ve made it to your third round of choices, you’ll want to watch what they produce for you very closely. Don’t accept an agency that does not give you full visibility into what they’re doing. I can’t tell you how often I see shoddy work being done, and the business owner would have been able to identify that work as being shoddy, but because they weren’t aware it was being done, they had no way of stopping it.

Because of this you’ll want to make sure that the group you’re working with is willing to show you everything they’re doing and will actually take the time to explain and train you on what they’re doing. After all, an informed client is the best kind of client.

And if you follow these steps, you’ll be assured that you’ve probably weeded out all of the snake oil salespeople and you’ll be working with a reputable agency. Now, this doesn’t guarantee that you will get great results. As I mentioned above, sometimes SEO isn’t a solution for all industries and sometimes marketing campaigns don’t result in massive successes. But those are the chances you should be willing to take. If you know you’re working with the right group that does things the right way, then you’re in it together. And the engagement should feel like a partnership, rather then a vendor relationship.

So, as you’re out there trying to spend your marketing dollars wisely, watch for those shady characters that are touting the magical properties of their services. Odds are, there’s a lot of snake oil in their pitch.

by Mike Templeman

Top Marketing Trends for Small Businesses

Today’s competitive landscape continues to put more demand on small businesses than ever before. As trends inevitably come and go, how do small businesses identify the relevant trends at the right time to not only complement the brand, but also resonate with target audiences? Think about the challenges your brand faces this year and take a look at the top trends we’ve gathered to help inspire your small business marketing strategies in 2016.

1. Goodbye, B2B & B2C. Hello, H2H!

Brave brands have parted with segmenting audiences by B2B and B2C, and instead adopted a human-to-human approach. To creatively build meaningful relationships with audiences, brands must provide experiences that cultivate a deep emotional connection and harness brand love. Ultimately strive for communication that is personal, conversational, empathetic, inspirational, humorous and story-driven.

2. Brand community collaboration

Don’t be afraid to open up a dialogue and make audiences feel heard by encouraging them to actively spread your brand message on your behalf. Smart brands leverage the collaborative power of their communities through user-generated content and crowdsourcing campaigns. These efforts authentically engage the audience and allow them to develop a meaningful stake in the brand’s evolution and success. It can even lead to the emergence of transformational ideas that steer the brand in a new direction.

3. Technology with purpose

Technology continues to evolve, and it seems like every week, a new innovation is introduced. The best marketing strategies don’t just check boxes; they inspire attendees, leaving them energized and connected. Adding purposeful technologies and interactive elements can greatly support this idea. In the coming year, brands should take a more sophisticated and thoughtful approach when integrating digital technologies to best support their brand stories. Don’t just use technology for the sake of it; strategically select tactics that make the most sense for your message and audience.

4. The new ROI: return on innovation

It’s time for small businesses to think beyond ROI’s traditional definition and start measuring the return on innovation, which focuses on assessing the long-term impact of innovative marketing strategies. In addition to traditional ROI metrics, brands seeking a more effective way to build meaningful connections should measure memorability, engagement and brand perception.

5. Next level hashtags

Hashtags are undoubtedly a popular and powerful part of our communication culture. They are a resilient, effective way to classify information, streamline conversations and create memorable shared experiences across social platforms. In the coming year, brands will infuse new creativity to take their hashtag usage to the next level, enabling participation from both live and online audiences in highly interactive ways. Not only will such experiences help brands stay relevant in an increasingly competitive landscape, but it will also activate meaningful connections with an audience that will share messages on the brand’s behalf.

By Claire Holland, agencyEA     

Why 'Digital' Marketing Is the New Traditional Marketing

Has the word ‘digital’ become overdramatized and sensationalized by marketers? Yes, and that’s a bold statement to make coming from a CEO and founder of a digital marketing agency.

The sole purpose of marketing is to garner attention for a business selling a product or service. Several subsets of marketing (like content, social media, and digital) have emerged, changing the way organizations market their businesses. That said, they all have the same primary function: to garner attention.

Technology changes the way that marketers market, and even changes the look of a business’s marketing department. This technology shifts so rapidly that we see more of our time dedicated to 'digital' resources, so we've naturally adopted 'digital' marketing as our own.

Departmental changes

CMO’s and directors everywhere now have employees with titles like ‘social media manager,’ ‘content strategist,’ and ‘community manager.’ It’s very rare you’ll find a department with a ‘print manager,’ or even a media buyer dedicated only to purchases in magazines and newspapers.

Employers have made the shift within their organizations to reflect the wants and needs of their consumers. While traditional marketing (e.g. direct mail, print, and newspaper) has its place, most customers want access to information when they want it and how they want it.

In essence, what we used to think of as 'traditional marketing' has now become 'old school marketing.' And what we've coined 'digital marketing' has become the new 'traditional marketing.'

Ultimately it all comes down to experience marketing. It leaves the channel behind and focuses solely on the user and their unique experience.

Cohesive omnichannel experience

As more people adopt new technology, marketers need to implement an omnichannel strategy to orchestrate seamless interactions from device to device, from experience to experience. This ensures a cohesive marketing plan that follows users between the ‘real’ and the digital worlds.

Omnichannel marketing has started to blur the lines between print and digital marketing mediums. Print campaigns are still part of the overall omnichannel strategy, but they leverage QR codes, hashtags, websites, and social media icons to drive people back to an online experience.

Connected worlds

The holy grail of all marketers is to drive profitable growth and expand customer relationships. Digital marketing, by proxy, is the key to that success.

With access to more tools and platforms than ever before, marketers aid in attribution and engagement across all digital mediums. It's the context and basis for all marketing; we’re simply marketers living in a digital world.

Digital has become so tightly intertwined with everything we do that our online and offline worlds often interact and combine.

Dining out with friends has never been the same since the introduction of Instagram. Dating has become a matter of swiping right or swiping left. And if you thought you’d leave work behind at the end of the day, think again. You'll be retargeted by advertisements for items you searched during the day, or simply profiled based on your geographic location, job title, and more.

Marketers understand that to connect with experiences happening online or off, they need to be where customers are most. There’s nothing ‘digital’ about it. It’s simply finding the right people at the right time. The medium might be digital, but they share the common goal of connecting with the customers’ experiences.

Why 'Digital' Is the new 'Traditional'

Not too long ago, we lacked digital higher education. But that’s changing.

Programs like those found at the University of Connecticut School of Business are offering certificates in programs for Digital Advertising and Analytics. Employers are demanding students with a greater understanding of how digital drives results for businesses, not just likes for their lunchtime hamburger.

Do universities need to put this emphasis on digital marketing? Sure, it’s still new to them. For the rest of us marketing day in and day out, cut the fluff. ‘Digital’ is the new 'traditional.' Let's stop trying to pigeonhole ‘marketing’ from ‘digital marketing.’ Every effort amongst marketers has a digital impact. It’s redundant and quite unnecessary to stress ‘digital’ when quite frankly, we’re already there.

by PR Newswire’s Small Business PR Toolkit

How to Build Your Brand Name Through Social Media: A Primer

Your brand’s reputation online is more important than ever. The 2014Edelman Trust Barometer revealed that 65 percent of online users rely on web search to find information on people and companies. One of the tools that helps businesses with this purpose is social media. Scratch that; it’s currently THE tool for businesses.

Around 92 percent of the marketers surveyed for the 2015 Social Media Marketing Industry Report called this tool vital for their businesses. Moreover, 90 percent revealed that social media increases their exposure, whereas 69 percent praised it for its ability to develop loyal fans.

So, clearly, if you haven't already done so, you should begin branding yourself through social media. Here are four tips to get you started.

1. Carefully select the social media platform you’ll use.

There are many social media platforms for you to pick from to begin your branding journey. However, you need to carefully choose the right one to prevent yourself from being spread too thin. Opting for multiple platforms at one time will negatively impact your brand since you won’t be able to reach your potential audience. To help you decide on a platform, here’s a quick look at three big ones:

Facebook. Facebook is the biggest social network in terms of name recognition and number of users. Through this platform, you have access to more than 1.55 billion users as well as a range of tools that could boost your business. If you’re new to branding via social media, this is where to start. Not only can you share photos, videos and updates without worrying about limitations, but Facebook also allows you to advertise your business with a well-made platform.

Twitter. Despite the 140-character limitation, Twitter is a great platform for posting updates, videos, images, polls and much more. Though trickier, it’s one of the best social networks for interacting with other users, and has more than 320 million active users worldwide. As a result, it’s the best choice for marketing brands as well as for handling their customer service.

Pinterest. You may have expected to see LinkedIn in third place, but the truth is, Pinterest has risen to the top of social networking tools for branding. The platform offers digital bulletin boards that you can use to organize collections of pictures featuring your offerings, your work space and the people behind the company. However, Pinterest is more of a niche network, as a majority of its users are women and the most popular categories there are related to fashion, food, beauty and exercise.

2. Keep imagery consistent throughout your social media accounts

Branding is all about imagery. From your logo to your brand name, and all the way to your profile picture, everything should be instantly recognizable. You should also create a unique identity through your design. For instance, you can use the color palette and style of your logo to design your pages and establish your brand. For inspiration, check what the leaders of your industry are doing, and take a page from their books.

3. Create valuable and shareable content.

Most businesses make the mistake of producing content only they’d want to read, or else they simply meet the deadlines marked on their publishing calendars. What you should be focusing on is how to create useful content that your readers won’t think twice about sharing. You can find out what engages your audience by asking its members directly or by checking out what your competitors are doing. However, don’t share blindly or plagiarize, as these moves will affect your branding efforts. Instead, consider the following expert tips:

• Make sure that the content you share supports your brand image. One factor you should definitely try adding to your posts is humor. However, make sure that it goes down well with your audience.

• Take care that the tone and content you post is relevant to the brand. You cannot post a blog just because the topic is trending or you have personal interest in it. Everything you post should be relevant to your website. Consider: How would your visitors feel if you wrote about ghosts on a website dedicated to finance? Any post discussing an irrelevant topic will be met with criticism, no matter how well it is written. Even if your visitors have interest in knowing about ghosts, they would still consider the post irrelevant and spammy and might also decide your website to be unreliable.

• Find out which content will gain the most visibility on your social networks. Use analytics to figure out whether your audience prefers blogs to images for instance.

• Don’t shy from using visual content. Images guarantee up to 94 percent more views. Even Twitter content with images receives twice as many views as text-only posts.

4. Take part in the discussion.

One of the important ways of generating a fan base and building your audience is to socialize your content. So, first, you’ll need to get in touch with the social influencers in your field as they’ve already established their brand. Then you can mention their names in your posts, inspiring them to connect with you and, ultimately, share your content with their followers. You should also take part in the discussions to show off your expertise even as you create a bridge between you and your audience.

So, take heed and follow these tips. Because if you ignore social media marketing, your brand may well begin vanishing in no time. Get busy. Get your brand name out there.   

by Metei Gavril, President & CEO, PRMEDIAONLINE.com

Why Your Small Business Must Start a Blog

For those of you who have never visited a farm before, many of them have a large brick of salt for their animals, called a “salt lick.”

A salt lick is exactly what the name implies. It’s a salt deposit that animals keep coming back to—and licking -- in order to ingest nutrients they need. Now, whether or not you want your readers to lick their computer screens is up to you, but you definitely want them to look at your blog as a source of “nutrients” they need to return to and consume.

A small business blog is a marketing tool, but marketing is a nebulous term, especially if you’re an entrepreneur just starting out. You probably think of marketing and sales as synonyms, interchangeable in definition and in purpose. They’re not. Sales is the process of getting a customer to buy; marketing is how you position your product, find your customers, and decide how you’re going to reach them

Therefore, you shouldn’t start a blog simply to try to generate sales. It’s a place where you find your customers, feed them information, and position your value -- the equivalent of a digital salt lick.

Why do people go to the Internet?

Believe it or not, users don’t hop on the Internet for the sole purpose of buying your stuff. They go because they want information. A lot of advertising dollars are thrown away when blogs simply push a product, but offer no information. Or, worse yet, they get in the way of a web user’s search for information.

That tells us a lot about what a blog should offer, doesn’t it? First, it should offer relevant information that people want to consume. And second, it should pave the way to finding that information without obnoxious advertisements blocking the way.

You have to give, in order to get.

Why are you an entrepreneur? Because you want to be your own boss? Because you think you can do something better than anyone else? Because you’re the expert in your industry, and you decided to go rogue?

If you answered yes to any of these things, then, believe it or not, you are an expert. Maybe not on all of the above, but at least some part of it. Heck, even if you’re not an expert, you’re out there doing it--chasing a dream many other would-be entrepreneurs would like to chase. How you’re doing it and why you’re doing it are just as important as whether you’re any good at doing it! Give this information away for free.

Share what you’re learning, and share regularly so the animals, err,your readers know when and where to easily find the information they want. Do this long enough, and you’ll develop a following of potential customers who are aware of your product or service. Even if they’re not ready to buy now, your brand will be strong in their minds, and they may be sharing your site to other people who are ready to buy now.

Search engines are grading you.

There is a lot of information out there on the Internet. There is a lot of information out there, period. In fact, every 18 months, the total amount of data made in the history of our world doubles, and that rate is speeding up. How then can you stand out in an expanding sea of information?

Search engines are smart. Shortly after you start a blog, the search engine robots (or just bots for short) put your written content through their algorithms. Your blog receives a higher grade if you use proper grammar and spelling, and if website visitors like, share, or comment about your articles.

Search engines also look for important keywords that searchers are looking for. Depending on how many of those words your website has, it will drive up your site’s relevancy, or weed you out of the running based on a lack of it. So before you start a blog, you should be mentally searching for the intersection of what your potential customers want to know, and any specific words or phrases that they might search for in order to find it.

What you’re giving away is supposed to be original, factual, unique, of high quality, interesting, and above all, relevant to what readers want. That’s a lot to balance. My best advice is, focus on offering relevant information that is well-written and engaging. You can sprinkle in keywords and popular search engine topics later, but if your content isn’t good, it won't matter how well you appeal to search engines. In fact, people may come to your site and dislike what you’re offering, which could do more damage to your brand than good.

Should you start a blog?

Since blogging isn’t that easy, and the search engines are policing your efforts, should a small business maintain a blog?  Yes. Your website is more likely to appear higher in the search engine result pages if you have a blog than if you don’t. And those results are important now that more and more people are turning to the Internet to get information and make purchases. 

Why is “appearing higher” in the search engine results important? Easy. Think about how you consume information now. Do you scroll through every search engine result you get when you do a search, or, do you choose from the results on the first page, with special attention to those results found at the top of the page?

If you stay at the top of the first page of results, you’re like 95 percent of Web users out there. In fact, people commonly joke that the best place to find a dead body is page 2 of the Google search results. So, where does your blog show up on a list of search results? Do you come in first place in the search results? Second? Third? 400th? This is called pagerank. The more traffic your blog receives, the more engaging its content it is, the more likes and shares it receives, the higher you will rank. And that means more people will find your website; blog, products, services -- everything! 

How often should you write blog articles?

Blogging is like exercise, and the best exercise is the one that you’ll actually do. My advice is blog when you can, and when you will.

Don’t stress yourself out over it, just start somewhere. Once a month is better than not doing it at all. Weekly is better than monthly, and daily is better than weekly. Just do what you can do. The more you write, the easier it will become -- not to mention the increased amount of leadsthat you will generate from doing so. However, the more time you put into the blogging, the less time you’ll have to spend on running your business. Yes, marketing is part of running your business, but you don’t want your last blog entry to be “How I Ruined my Business Because I Spent too Much Time Blogging.” Time is a currency more precious than money, especially for an entrepreneur. You only have so much, so spend it wisely.

What should you write about?

Once you start your blog, write about your business. Write about your customers. Write about your products.  Write about your successes, failures, and lessons learned. And, if you dare, write some interesting stories that pertain to how you decided to become an entrepreneur in the first place.

At my company, we make a point to do all of the above. I habitually inform my readers about the benefits of using payroll software solutions, recall my personal lessons for them, educate them about opportunities for growth (like blogging), and of course, outline the different ways that my team’s small business payroll software can help to improve their lives.

The small business value proposition is usually based on a personal and tailored level of care that a bigger business just can’t match. A blog can help you leverage that.

Personal stories about your business success, and how you did it, help your brand become relatable.That’s important. In today’s business world, a small business is just a few bad Yelps from oblivion. Alternatively, your business is a few great reviews from success.

As I said, people go to the Internet to find information. Some of that information is customer reviews about which products are best. If you have a relationship with your customer through your blog, you can leverage the power of the review. And you should!

Can you outsource the writing?

Yes, you can have professional bloggers do your writing for you. And, yes, you can pay them to invent content that would appeal to your readership. That process falls under content marketing.

However, content marketing can come off as disingenuous when executed poorly. If you do decide to start a blog and outsource, make sure you find someone that is excellent and transcribing your content in a tone and style similar to your own.

Consider speaking your own content into a voice recorder, or have your writer interview you. Regardless of how the two of you decide to work together, make sure that the content and writing style is yours.

How many blog articles should you have?

The quality of your articles matters greatly. But size also matters. In a perfect world, you want to blog more frequently than your competitors, and you want to have more articles in your blog than your competitors have. This way, the search engines will see that your website is more active and robust than your competitors’ sites. Plus, more blog articles means there are that many more chances for your website to be discovered when people run Internet searches.

Think of it this way, every time you add an article to your blog, you’re adding more salt for your “salt lick.”  The more salt there is, the more animals (i.e., prospective customers) will be able to find your website. Best of all, the blog articles that you write now will still attract prospective customers years from now. This is why I say, “blogging is the gift that keeps on giving!” 

by Mike Kappel, Serial Entrepreneur, Charis Holdings CEO, Patriot Software President and CEO

'Shark Tank' Star Robert Herjavec's Top 5 Small-Business Marketing Tips

When Robert Herjavec wanted to start his own company, people discouraged him. They said he couldn’t do it. He had zero experience, he didn’t have a business degree and he knew nothing about running a business.

The headstrong Shark Tank star investor steamrolled ahead anyway. In 1990, he launched his first company, BRAK Systems, which he later sold to AT&T.

“I only knew that I loved what I do and how to work hard,” Herjavec told Entrepreneur. Today, Herjavec Group, his Toronto-based Internet security firm, has grown from three workers in 2003 to 220 employees strong, and it’s on pace to bank $150 million in revenue this year, according to the company.

Herjavec’s commitment to taking the risky entrepreneurial leap -- despite the naysayers, and he had plenty of them -- has more than paid off. So what if he didn’t have formal training? He also didn’t possess the needed marketing know-how, at least not at first and not all on his own. But that was fine by him.

“Like many entrepreneurs, we didn’t really know what to do at first,” he says. “As a startup, it’s almost overwhelming. I learned that’s where a third party comes in to help you. They take the marketing pressure off so you can do more of what you love to do -- your business.”

Countless marketing agencies the world over aim to do just that. One such company is Deluxe Corporation. Herjavec announced a new partnershipwith the Shoreview, Minn.-based firm last week. Together, they unveiled a series of small-business marketing videos. The short “Behind the Business” vignettes feature the multi-millionaire celebrity entrepreneur alongside a few of the companies he’s invested in on Shark Tank.

The videos share tips on how to best market your startup. We picked Herjavec’s brain for a few, too. Here are his top five:

1. Target your customers where they hang out on social media.  

Simply having several social-media accounts for your company isn’t enough. To fully leverage the potential for acquiring new customers on social media, you must also market to them where they live online.

“With Facebook and other social platforms, you can have highly targeted marketing campaigns to attract customers who are interested in the product or service that you have,” Herjavec says. “Find the user groups they meet up in on social and win them over there.”

As an example, he points to The Natural Grip, a fitness product startup he invests in. The company makes special gloves for people who do Crossfit, gymnastics or lift weights. “That community, athletes, really likes to hang out in certain places on Facebook and we went there to find and engage them,” he says.

Marketing direct to potential customers on active fan pages and buzzy user groups within the popular social-media mecca turned out to be a smart move. It gained the sporty startup a grip of new customers, according to Herjavec.

2. Don’t be afraid to sell direct online.

Even as the ecommerce economy continues to surge, many small businesses old and new still don’t have shopping carts on their websites. Herjavec says failing to sell directly online is “foolishly leaving money on the table.” He believes that if your customers trust and believe in your brand, they’ll buy what you sell on the Internet.

Of those that do offer online shopping, the feature is often set up so poorly that it frustrates and confuses customers. The result: Potential buyers end up abandoning their shopping carts altogether and the sale is dead on arrival. “It quickly becomes such a hassle to go through with the transaction that they say ‘forget it,’” he says. “Don’t let that happen.”

If you don’t know how to set up an online shopping cart, Herjavec suggests leaving it to the pros. “There are lots of great companies that can handle it for you.”

3. Use stunning imagery to grab customers' attention.

“People are very busy and the first thing that hits them in any marketing communication is a really pretty picture, not words,” he says, “and I know that sounds really trivial but that engages people and gets them to look at more of your outreach.”

Herjavec’s onto something here. Visual imagery is often more immediately engaging than monotonous walls of text, as the brain is widely believed to processes visuals thousands of times faster than text. Images transmit messages in an instant, not only making your marketing messages pop, but also rendering them more memorable, too.   

4. Market to your customers how they like to be marketed to.

“Your customers have a certain amount of information they’re willing to absorb about your brand and certain ways they like to receive that information in over a certain amount of time,” he says. It’s your job to pay attention and learn how they are best marketed to.

How much information can they handle with each outreach? How do they prefer to be communicated with (via social-media updates, e-newsletter, text notifications, etc.)? How much communication is too much and how much is not enough? If  marketing email subscribers start dropping off, find out why and adjust accordingly.

When it comes to Herjavec’s own contact preferences as a consumer, he feels being marketed to by email once every couple of weeks is more than enough. “I’m a big car guy, so a lot of the car companies market to me, but they’ve learned when enough information is enough for me and that’s once or twice a month," he says. "Once a day is too much.”

5. Hire a marketing agency so you can do more of what you love.

Outsourcing your marketing needs to an agency dedicated to taking your brand awareness to the next level frees you up to get back to business. If you don’t have the budget to hire a marketing firm, Herjavec suggests partnering with someone you trust who has successfully marketed their own business.

Whatever you do, he says, don’t take the whole job on yourself, not if you don’t have the experience to back it up.

“I always say, if you’re not a marketing person, you didn’t start the businesses to do marketing, so don’t do it,” he says. It’s crucial that you focus your energy as a small-business owner on the core reason you started up in the first place.

“You wanted to take on the world with the product or service you had, that did something better than anybody else. And that was what you were passionate about, that that’s what caused you to quit your job, get a second mortgage or whatever the reason was.”

by Kim Lachance Shandrow, Entrepreneur Staff