KKom, Inc.

Serving Milwaukee's Web Marketing, Design, SEO, Social Media, Direct Mail and Color Printing needs for over 22 years

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Facebook Local Competing with Yelp?

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Facebook is at it again with a useful development!

The Facebook Local app was recently revamped (from what used to be the Events app) to become a real player in the fight to be the best local information provider. I think they stand a real chance at making this great since so many people already rely on Facebook to list not only their business, but also personal and professional events.

facebook events

And perhaps this is true about other places too, but at least for Milwaukee it can be difficult to find the best events going on, having to scan through multiple third-party event websites that may or may not be accurate and up-to-date. At least with Facebook, it seems there’s a better chance of seeing more of the good events in one place.

The features within the app can also be found on the desktop version of Facebook under Events. It’s nicely organized into what’s happening this week, popular event near you, adding in the ability to choose dates, and event categories. What’s more is the app will show you which of your friends have liked a location, or are planning to attend an event. You can set any location to be your “preferred place” for recommendations, whether you live there or not.

The map tab on the app defaults to showing events, but you can change this to any of the other categories, like food, dance, fitness, art, and more. And conveniently you can use the search bar if you know what you’re looking for!

An interesting idea comes to mind with the app permissions. Facebook Local will ask to track your location, and if you agree, they will effectively be able to see which businesses you’ve looked at in the app, and then see whether or not you actually went there. This may seem invasive, but also creates a great opportunity for marketers to see which of their marketing efforts are actually contributing to real-life store visits.

Currently Facebook has not commented on whether Local will feature paid ads. Perhaps they will first get the popularity up before introducing yet another great spot for small businesses to feature their offerings. And then they could potentially offer an option to retarget people who looked at their store(s) in the Local app.

Social Media for Business Part 1: How to Quickly Grow Your Business

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Using Social Media For Business

Let’s start with a social media definition:

Websites and apps allowing users to network socially for fun or professionally in the case of LinkedIn, and create and share content like articles, photos, videos, etc.

With the nature of these platforms, namely Facebook, users share all sorts of data about themselves – and not only basic demographic info, but daily struggles, likes, things about their lives, their friends, they join particular interest groups, etc. Whether you’re interested in networking for relevant leads or paying for ads to expose your product to thousands of people, all of this data creates an incredible opportunity for targeting the exact type of person you know (or think) will like your product / service and become a paying customer.

Which Social Media Platform Should We Choose?

So how do you know which platform to spend your limited time, energy and money? To start, it depends on your target audience and your industry.

Where do your future customers spend most of their time while online? If you know for a fact that Facebook is where a minority of your customers are, then maybe a professional network like LinkedIn will provide more value, or a slightly more news-oriented platform like Twitter. Choosing which platforms really should be decided on a case-by-case basis after some target market research, but for example, not many construction people spend time on Facebook – some do, but are they your customers?

For SEO purposes, it has become necessary to remain active on at least one if not two-three platforms, to show your legitimacy, increase trust for Google and potential buyers, and to show that you’re still in business.

How Much Time Do You Have?

As a business owner, you’re probably very busy handling all the other aspects of running your growing empire. This is where a professional social media manager comes into play. Let someone who focuses on social media on a daily basis help you achieve great results and grow you business using the newest and most cost-effective marketing platforms available today.

K-Kom Marketing can create these great results for you, so you can relax and know that your online growth is in great hands! Contact us today to learn more about a social media strategy, and other forms of internet marketing that your business can benefit from.

What Types of Marketing Does My Business Need? Part 2: Social Media

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Social Media Marketing

The following is a graph showing Google’s volume of searches for “social media marketing”, compared to “TV advertising” just as an example, over the last five years. Social media marketing has recently been increasing in popularity (minus the dips between Christmas and New Year’s), while TV advertising has slowly been losing ground. Google Trends. Not only are more people incorporating this social media marketing strategy into their businesses, but some of these people could be, and probably are, your own competitors.

Social Media Marketing with K-Kom Inc.Not all businesses have begun to take advantage of these opportunities; social media popped up suddenly and is thought by some to be an unprofitable, passing fad. However, after looking at some stats, more businesses might want to rethink this potential business-grower:

  • Average daily time spent online is about two hours, and one third of that time is used for messaging and social networking.
  • 97% of 16-64 year olds who use the internet say they’ve visited or used a social media platform within the last month.
  • More than half of these people use more than one platform between Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Facebook, the majority using Facebook.

Stats on individual platforms

  • Facebook has 1.23 billion daily active users
    • Posts with videos, photos, or links are the most successful
  • While Facebook has the most members, YouTube has slightly more visitors
  • Pinterest boasts two billion searches per month, the majority coming from women.
  • 25% of US adults use LinkedIn and 21% of US adults use Twitter

Ok, so plenty of people are using these platforms, but exactly which ones are the most relevant for your business? In some instances all of the popular ones can be used, depending on the various audiences a business might be targeting.

Facebook

The social of all socials, the crème de la crème. Young people use this more often, but older internet users are increasing in number – on up to 62% of online users that are 65 years old+! Facebook has been expanding their ad platform allowing for great audience targeting, where you can target nearly any industry out there and expect some sort of success. Visual or nonvisual, as long as you have something to talk about, something to offer that’s of value to someone out there, and you think you’ll have a better/cheaper reach than on Google’s ad platform, it’s worth at least an experiment.

Instagram

Widely used by the younger population (59% of online users age 18-29 vs 33% of online users age 30-40), and about 12% more women use the platform over men. This is mainly a visual platform, so your business may benefit if you have something visually exciting to share on a regular basis. Don’t be afraid to get creative – people love a good laugh. Take Denny’s Tumblr account for example.

Twitter

This has become a source for the most up-to-date breaking news, though continues to be more popular with the younger crowd (36% of internet users ages 18-29 use Twitter vs 10% of internet users who are 65+). More college graduates use this than those without degrees. Messaging here is limited in length to just a phrase or sentence, so if you have quick snippets to share, quotes, news, sales, try it out.

LinkedIn

This is a widely used professional network which attracts college graduates and higher income earners. Longer form content finds more success here than other platforms. This can be of use for B2B and B2C companies in a variety of ways, from attracting leads from relevant companies, to selling continuing education and skill-building programs.

Pinterest

This remains popular for visual content, but is used twice as much by women than men. If your business has products or services that benefit from being seen, it may be beneficial to start pinning some great photos for everyone to “ooo” and “ahh” and become a lead!

If you’d love to get started with your social media marketing and presence but don’t think you can devote the necessary time to learning each platform, creating content, posting, and networking, feel free to contact K-Kom and we will be happy to help your brand out!

“OK Google: social media marketing companies near me!”