Mistakes? What Mistakes?

Today's blog post is about common mistakes made by bloggers. Some of them should be fairly obvious but here they are anyway.

1. Bad writing- it doesn't matter if it is spelling, grammar, punctuation. Any of these mistakes could lead a reader to stop visiting your blog. If a reader is coming to your blog for the first time and is interested in your product or service, do you really think that they want to read a post or posts full of bad writing? Chances are if mistakes are repeated, you will lose that potential customer and reader, which let's be real here, would not be good.

Have someone edit your writing before you post or if there isn't anyone you can ask, then write your post, let it sit for a bit and then return to it and edit it yourself. Remember in school how the teachers always pushed the editing? Same deal here, because you want to come off professional and you want to have repeat clients and readers right?

2. Being too promotional- There's nothing wrong with promoting your business, but in some cases you want to be careful about how you approach it. If you write a blog post after blog post that is all about you and your business and how wonderful you are then there is a very good chance that readers will stop returning. You have to give your readers new information to read to keep them coming back.

3. Presenting instead of conversing- A good blog post is one that your readers will want to comment and share. Think of your blog posts as an opinion piece as opposed to an essay.  Keep it informative yet not too lengthy as your readers will lose interest.

4. Lack of direction or strategy- You need to be clear before you start writing what your direction or strategy is going to be and what your readers can expect  from you and your blog. You should try and have some variety in your topics and posts but don't stray too far too often from your strategy ideas.

5. Not utilizing your experience- You need to think about what makes you and your business different from all the others and why should your readers continue to come back to your blog? It is important not only to write or say what you want your readers to read, but also, to develop your own unique voice and brand.

Need help starting or writing for your blog? Contact Event Elements & Business Solutions and we can help!

What is A Blog?

What is a blog? That is unfortunately a question I hear a lot when networking. Basically a blog is type of website that is generally arranged in chronological order from the most recent ‘post’ (or entry) at the top of the main page to the older entries towards the bottom.

A personal blog is sometimes referred to as a type of journal and while a business blog is the same idea, it's obviously going to be more geared towards your business-what's going on, what's coming up, industry news, etc.

Got it? Hopefully!

Anyway in terms of blogging for small businesses, blogging is a great low-cost tool that can be used for improving your web traffic and overall web presence. It can be whatever topics you choose, it is updated on your terms, and best of all you can write a bunch of posts ahead of time and schedule them for whenever you want.

Blogging gives you a relatively easy way to share your expertise and knowledge in your industry, what your business is/does and it can be an inside look into you and your business, because you can take on a more informal tone than you would with your website.

Blogging can be a fun way to interact and engage with clients and potential clients, if you take the time to stick with it and find a way to make it fun for you.

Some places that you can host your blog include:

Blogger
Wordpress
Blog.com
Tumblr
Weebly

These are just a few ideas to get you started, but there are hundreds of places online where you can host a blog.

Need help getting started or just don't have the time or skill to keep your blog running? Contact Event Elements & Business Solutions and we can help

Facebook Pages & Small Businesses

Using Facebook Pages as a small business owner is really important. It's a relatively easy form of social media that is a great way to find an audience, engage and interact with them and keep them up-to-date on what you and your business are doing.

Using Facebook Pages for your business is different than just using your personal page. For your business page, having a clear, social strategy is important in order to engage your targeted audience and keep them coming back. Updating frequently is also important because it will again keep your audience engaged and coming back to see what is new with your business.

Some things to remember:

Send people to your page--network and tell them about it so they want to check it out and like it. People won't know about it if you don't tell them

Engage your audience--post questions or polls, post pictures or articles that relate to your business or industry

Make use of the scheduling tool--you can schedule content and status updates so if you will be unable to sit down and spend some time working on your page, it won't just sit there

Don't forget you can customize your Facebook Page URL. This can come in handy for talking to prospective clients about your business and page. For example, the Facebook URL for Event Elements & Business Solutions is www.facebook.com/EventElementsBusinessSolutions.

Learning to use Facebook Pages can be a learning experience, but it is well worth it. If used properly it can be a great way to stay in contact with your audience and prospective clients.

If you need help with your Facebook page or any other social media or small business tasks, contact us today! We can work with you to improve your social media image.

Social Media & Statistics

Did you know...

That 27% of small businesses use social media or that consumers/customers who use social media that receive excellent customer service from a business or brand will spend an average of 21% more?

On Twitter, only 44% of customer inquiries/question are answered within 24 hours and that 56% of customer tweets to a business are ignored?

Facebook is the #1 social media marketing took for businesses and brands at 83% and Twitter is second with 53%

Users spend on average 10.5 billion minutes daily using Facebook and 58% of users return more than once to Facebook

20% of Facebook users have purchased something because of an ad or comments they've seen on Facebook

Twitter has over 500 million registered users, but only 140 million users are active and 15% of these users are adults

More than half of the active users follow companies, brands or products

57% of all businesses that use social media use Twitter

Hopefully you have learned something from these stats and if you find yourself needing help with your social media please contact us and we can help.

Getting Results with Social Media

People want results! It's a given but when it comes to small business owners who are using social media to promote and market themselves and their business it is something I hear a lot. I have talked to people at networking events and in my everyday life who are not necessarily familiar with social media and/or what it takes to get results from using it.

Social media can be a great thing, however it is not just something you can start to use and not continue with. That won't get you anywhere. People want to see you and your business! That means you have to stick with your social media in order for it to work. If you use it once or twice, potential clients will see that and stop checking in. They stop checking in and you lose their potential business.

In an article posted on The Social Skinny entitled 216 Social Media and Internet Statistics in September 2012, 57% of marketers acquired customers via blogging (p.s. blogging is a form of social media) and 44% acquired customers via Twitter, which is just a small (and albeit slightly outdated) look at what social media can do for a business. 

It definitely can be a lot of work, however it can also be worth it!

If you need help with your social media, whether it's setting it up, learning it or you just don't have the time to stick to it, send Event Elements & Business Solutions an email and we can help.

Pushy Telemarketers and Small Businesses

Many small business owners has gotten a phone call from a pushy telemarketer. Well known companies are using telemarketers to cold call small business owners to try and sign them up for services that they could either do themselves or can get for a much more reasonable price through another small business that specializes in those services.

An example of these services is websites and SEO. Common practice for these telemarketers is to call you up and tell you that your website has poor placement on Google and that you are not easily found in web searches. They will tell you this and it can be true HOWEVER, it is generally only true because the searches they are doing for your business will be done using terms that have very little relevancy to your business and will include search terms that no one will actually use to look for your business.

Many telemarketers will try and make it sound as if they have the "magic formula" to fixing any website or SEO issues you may or may not be having, but the truth is there is no magic fix. If there are any issues regarding your website and/or SEO they can usually be fixed and you don't need to pay hundreds of dollars per page on your website to do it.

You definitely do not need to spend what will ultimately be thousands of dollars (especially when you are a small business) to set up or fix any SEO issues or to do basic website copy. Other small businesses such as Event Elements & Business Solutions are capable of doing this type of work without draining your bank account and we don't need to be pushy about it, unlike telemarketers because we aren't working off commission and we want to help other small businesses succeed. By helping you to succeed we succeed.

Give Event Elements & Business Solutions a call at 905-924-5687 or email us today to book a consultation or if you have any questions about our services.

Social Media Tip #1

Utilize Your Family and Friends

Ask your family and friends to support your business on various social media site. Such as "like" your page on Facebook, follow you on Twitter, etc.