How many of you have actually visited the FTC website? Do you know what FTC stands for and what it means to your business? Well this short blog was created to help ensure your business is on the path to success.
The FTC stands for Federal Trades Commission. It is a federal agency protecting consumer rights but also, they are there for business owners too, helping to ensure that you manage your business ethically and legally. I highly, highly, highly recommend every business owner to stop by and spend some time on their website for extremely valuable information. I am putting this out there for all business owners but especially for those of you who do a lot of online marketing or have e-commerce businesses. I know a lot of people just create their business and have the mentality of I'll worry about it when it happens but knowing and understanding FTC regulations beforehand, just may save you from being shut down or worse, having a lawsuit against you. Below are some important links that I've pulled from their website, that I feel you need to click on and read as soon as you can, especially online marketers and e-commerce businesses. Click on the link above to visit their entire website. I hope this information helps you by making your business better than ever. Thanks for reading. Please feel free to comment and share. Valarie Harris Founder/President Varris Marketing I bet you've been told that marketing your business on social media is the way to go and I totally agree with that statement, in this day and age especially. You probably feel that you are doing all the right things on social media, to bring exposure, engagement, sales and profit to your business by either, managing it yourself or you've hired an expert to take care of it for you. Whatever avenue you decided to take with your social media marketing, something is wrong, nothing is happening, reach is nowhere to be found, engagement doesn't exist, there are no sales which means no profit for your business. What's wrong, what's going on and what can you do about it? I've done some research on the subject matter and also through testing and here is what I've discovered. No Selling On Social Media: First and foremost I want to remind everyone that your social media platform is not where the sale should be taking place. Your social media platform is where the connecting, engaging, relationship building and trust happens. If you are not getting any response from your platforms, it could be that you are selling to much. Nobody likes being constantly sold too. Remember the 80/20 Rule. 80% of your content should be informative, educational, entertaining and add value. The other 20% can be all about you, your product and/or the service you provide. Posting: There will probably always be an on going debate of when and how often to post. I stand by my philosophy of knowing and understanding your platforms analytics, to better understand optimal days, times and how often to post but on average 1-3 times a day 3-4 times a week seems to be a good start. If you are not getting any action on your platforms, it could be that you are over posting or under posting. Nobody wants their feeds filled with nothing but content from you but also the audience members that really like what you have to share would like to see more than 1 post a week from you. So really study and learn your analytics and post at the right times for your audience and your business. Platforms: If you are concerned about the lack of response you have on your platforms, it could also be the platform you are using. You do not need to be on every single platform. Deciding which platform is best for you will be decided by the type of business you have. You will also have to do some testing with different platforms to see where you get the most engagement. Stick to 1-3 platforms, don't spread yourself to thin. Focus on the ones giving your the best response. Your Business: The type of business you have will play a big role one how people respond to it on social media. Believe it or not, not every business should be on most social media platforms. I do believe that no matter what your business is, every business should at least have a Facebook Business Page why? Well, it being the #1 social media platform in the World with over 2-billion signed up and +1.8-million active users daily, why wouldn't you want to be a part of that. Even if you have very little to zero interaction on Facebook, you should still be on it and actively using it but in general, there are many businesses out there that people prefer to interact with, in a face-to-face manner. There are businesses out there that require that one-on-one touch and no matter how good you are at posting great content, your business just may be one that does better with traditional marketing versus social media marketing. Know your business, test social media against traditional marketing, ask your customers/clients in a poll and choose the right marketing path for your business. You, You, You: Finally, the problem with the lack of engagement might possibly be you. You may think that your content is great but really what's lacking in your content is you. For whatever reason, your personality doesn't shine through in the content you are sharing. Even if you are sharing an article you saw on another site, related to your product or service, all you do is post it. Where are your thoughts and feelings on the subject? Before posting, talk about why you are sharing this info, let your audience know how you feel about the subject, ask a question about it and get involved with it so that your audience will too. Another problem might be that you are really busy with your business so you hire a social media manager to take care of the posting for you and that's great not a problem with that at all except for the fact that nobody, I mean nobody knows your business like you do. Even though you have someone managing your platforms and posting for you, you have to get in there every now and then and show your audience that you are there, you are real. Share your thoughts and feelings, show pictures of your weekend family get-a-way, share your personal and business story. Remember your social media manager can't do that for you, they are there to assist you. It's your business get in there and make it happen. I want to Thank You all for reading. Please feel free to comment or share. Don't hesitate to ask a question if you have one. Take Care.
Valarie Harris Founder/President Varris Marketing Visually appealing is what we all want our content, pages, blogs and websites to be but if you are like me, graphic design may not be your forte. Thank goodness I have a ton of help or I would be in a World of trouble. Since starting my business in social media marketing, I have found some awesome websites, that help give me that visual edge and they can help you too. Most of these tools that I use come with little to no cost. Click on each heading to visit site. OK, let's get started.
FREE IMAGES ~ With Free Images, you have thousands upon thousands of quality professional images to use, right at your fingertips. While the free images are pretty darn Awesome and I have used many, for just a few dollars, you can get the really ultra-awesome images. Most of the image owners ask that you let them know where and how their photos are being used and some of the image owners, don't ask for anything and that's mainly with the free images. Free Images is a user friendly site with a variety of image sizes to download. I think you will like what you see. LUNA PIC ~ I love LunaPic. It is a great photo editing site. LunaPic is where I blend my logo onto my photos but you can do so much more and it's FREE to use. Turn yourself into a cartoon or a caricature. You have to play around with it but it's a lot of fun and very easy to use. PIC MONKEY ~ PicMonkey is my absolute most favorite photo editing site that I use on a daily basis. You can do so much with their FREE account but for just $33 a year, you get so much more. I love the airbrushing tool, the lettering and photo frames. You can make so many things with this site, that I really can't list them all, you have to check it out for yourself. Trust me, you are going to love it. TIMELINE COVER BANNER ~ Timeline Cover Banner is the place you go, to create your Facebook Cover Photo. It gives the perfect dimensions (851 x 315) for your personal and business pages. They also have a ton of images you can use for your cover photo but I like to use the images from Free Images and upload that to Time Line Cover Banner. You can write whatever you want on it and even place cute little graphics on it from their vast graphics library. It takes a minute to get used to but once you got it, you got it. This is just a list of my favorite tools to use, that I wanted to share with you. There are tons of other sites and software that can help you out as well. Below are some of the most popular photo editing sites. Try one or try them all to see which one fits you best. I hope this information has helped you and as always, if you have any questions or need help with anything, please don't hesitate to ask, it's what I do. Have A Fabulous Visual Day Valarie Harris Founder/President Varris Marketing |