3C Digital

Digital Marketing for Small Business

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3 Tips when using Instagram for your small business

Tips when using Instagram for your small business

  1. Be consistent
  2. Use your branding
  3. Use the Stories feature
  4. Plan your hashtags
  5. Segment your hashtags
  6. Invest in good visual assets

 

Instagram is the fastest growing social media platform today. With over 800 million monthly active users, it is one of the places to be for small businesses. But before you jump on the bandwagon, you need to know whether or not having an Instagram account will help your business. If you want to know which social media platform is the right one for your small business, check out our blog post.

Go ahead, we’ll wait.

Now if you’re sure Instagram is the way to go then good on you. In this post, we will tell you three tips when using Instagram for your small business.

Be consistent

With Instagram, you are not limited to just posting photos. You can also post things like artworks, quotes, inspirational sayings and videos. The best way to ensure that you are maximising your post on Instagram is by having consistent branding that is similar to what you have on your website and other social media channels. Use the same colours, the same fonts, the same style – and add your small business name or logo in there, even your site’s URL. If you don’t want others to copy your work, a watermark of your logo on the photo is worth doing. By doing this, your audience will immediately know your brand when they see it.

3C DIGITAL instagram

Use the Stories feature

The Stories feature on Instagram is the one that goes on top of the app and lasts only 24 hours. After that, the photos/videos go to your archive, which only you can see. If you want to keep your Stories on your Instagram account, you will need to highlight it and add it to a category you’ve created (see the picture). The categories need to be related to your small business. By using the Canva app on your phone, you can also make your Stories pretty. Again, make sure it’s consistent with your branding and contains things like your URL or logo.

Instagram stories

Plan your hashtags

Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post so make sure you know what is related to your business. To do this, look at other businesses similar to yours and check out what hashtags they are using. Also, by searching for the hashtag itself, you’ll know how many posts are out there with the same hashtag. You don’t have to keep typing 30 hashtags each post too. Planning is key. Make sure you create one already and save it on your phone. That way, all you’ll need to do is copy and paste it. One more thing, double check which hashtags have been banned by Instagram. Having a banned hashtag can affect how many people you reach so it’s worth doing your research beforehand.

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3 Tips before trying out Facebook advertising

Tips before trying out Facebook advertising

  1. Know your market
  2. Then narrow it down some more
  3. Laser focus your messages
  4. Segment the messages and your audience
  5. Always track your ads

Are you thinking of doing more Facebook advertising for your small business this year? Welcome to the world of social media, where all brands, big or small, can use the same avenue with no discrimination. But before you start your advertising plan, it’s good to know more about the whole process. In this post, we will give you three tips before trying out Facebook advertising.

Know your market well, really well

The beauty of Facebook advertising is that you can specify your target down to the last detail. Before you start, list all of your target market’s information. Things like age, sex, profession, income, area, hobbies and so on. Don’t limit it to one category as well. Categorising your target market will make it easier for you to create your ads. The more specific you can make it, the better you’re going to get the results you want.

Laser focus your messages

The story you tell should not only be authentic but also tailored to your specific target market. As a small business, you don’t have the budget to create heaps of different ads to figure out which one works. Try settling for two to three messages targeted to a specific audience. You can push the ads at the same time so you can measure which one works best. Your budget doesn’t have to be too expensive. Around $20 per message is enough for your testing phase.

Keep tracking, and track again

Do you know how to check the analytics of your Facebook advertising? If you go to the back end of your Business Manager, you will see how your ad is going from the moment you release it. Check out which message is getting a lot more engagement and double down on that one. The ones that are not getting the results you like might need to be taken down or reassessed. Track often so you change things quickly. That’s one of the benefits of Facebook advertising, the results are instantaneous so there’s no waiting around.

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Get your small business on Google

How to get your small business on Google

  1. Add your URL to Google
  2. Set up Google My Business
  3. Verify your small business on Google
  4. Set up Google Search Console

If you’re a small business, being found on Google is like winning the lotto multiple times. We’re not sure how exactly those mythical Google Crawlers can reach every nook and cranny of ALL the websites on the World Wide Web. There are algorithms and formulas and bots and more formulas involved. And to keep on top of it is a full-time job itself!

But there are simple ways that your small business can do right now to make sure that your website is found by potential customers. Here are three things you can start doing today to get your small business on Google.

Add your URL

Sound super basic, right? But super easy to overlook. Google adds new sites to their index, and updates existing ones, every time we crawl the web. One caveat though, Google doesn’t add all submitted URLs to their index, and they can’t make predictions or guarantees about when or if submitted URLs will appear in their index. Their words, not ours!

But we still highly recommend that you submit yours ASAP especially if you have a new URL. You can do it here now.

Google My Business

Take advantage of Google’s free business listing. Submit your site to Google My Business and start building visibility in Google Maps and Google Search in your local community. The process of being verified is a bit old world, Google will send you an actual postcard with your verification code on it. It normally takes about six days to get the postcard. How quaint!

Set up Google Search Console

This one is a bit of a doozy! Here’s a screengrab we’ve prepared earlier:

A bit full-on right? But trust us, you need to do it so Google can properly crawl and index your site. Here’s a tutorial, it’s almost five minutes or so but worth your while. We promise!

 

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Choosing the right social media platform for your small business

Choose the right social media platform for your small business

  1. Facebook is a must
  2. Instagram is for visual storytelling
  3. Twitter is for regular users

Choosing the right social media platform for your small business

Are you one of the many small business owners confused as to which social media platform suits you best? If you’re new at this, don’t fret. You are not alone. In this post, we will give some tips on how to choose between the top three biggest social media platforms available today.

You don’t need to go crazy and pick every single one available out there. One or two platforms are enough for your small business. Pick carefully so you don’t waste any of your precious time.

Facebook is a must

If you’re going to have just one social media platform for your small business, then pick Facebook. As we mentioned in our previous post, Facebook is King and it looks like it’s not changing anytime soon. You can do extreme audience targeting using this platform without busting your budget threshold. Aside from that, it is easy to use and has features that will allow you to create your own community. Building a community around your brand is one of the main reasons to be on social media.

Use Instagram for visual storytelling

Does your small business have a visual story to tell? Contrary to common misconception, Instagram is not only for small businesses that sell products. You can also use it if your business provides a service. Use Instagram when you’re showcasing your products, or the services that you provide. Stuff like works in progress or behind the scenes are really interesting for followers. One of the big advantages of Instagram is making the most of user generated content (USC). Reposting the posts of your fans/followers creates good vibes on your social media platform. But before opening an Instagram account decide the purpose of doing so and really think about whether or not you need to be on this platform.

Twitter is for the regular users

With Twitter, users need to post more than once a day, otherwise you will get buried in the noise. If you don’t think you can dedicate the time to interact on

Twitter several times a day then don’t open an account. These days, businesses use Twitter to interact directly with customers and followers. But small businesses can use it to find their customers too. According to Sprout, small business owners need to search for their audience and be proactive in order to use Twitter to its full advantage. Read up and decide for yourself whether Twitter is for you or not.

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Free resources for your small business

Free resources for your small business

 

We all know that being a small business owner means wearing a million hats. You’re the business administrator, bookkeeper, marketing guru, sales executive, social media ninja all rolled into one! Wearing all these hats can be exhausting on the limited resources you have as a small business owner. Our time is our most valuable resource so we’ve done the tedious research. We scoured the internet and discovered the hidden gems also known as FREE resources to make running your small business smooth as.

Business.gov.au

This site offers you simple and convenient access to all the government information, forms, and services you need. They provide essential information on planning, starting and growing your business. They have free templates on just about everything your small business heart desires.

Need to freshen up that dusty business plan? They have the template and guide for that! Need some whiz-bang marketing plan to impress a potential investor? Ask no more, they have that too.

How about an exit plan? Read that one especially if your goal is to hopefully sell your business in the future (so you can retire in Tropical Bali).

NSW Small Business Commissioner

Did you know that about half of us in NSW work for one of the state’s 680,000 small businesses? And those small businesses make up make up 96 percent of all businesses? Ninety-six percent! They’re the micro-engines that keep the economic wheels turning and churning.

In recognition of the crucial role that small businesses play, the NSW Government established the Office of the NSW Small Business Commissioner back in 2011.

Since then they have helped thousands of small businesses like ourselves operate as professionally, as efficiently and as successfully as they can. The NSW Small Business Commissioner help small business owners by:

  • Serving as a neutral party in mediation and dispute resolution between small businesses or between a small business and a larger one or between a small business and government
  • Providing high-quality business advice and advisors with access to world-class tools
  • Speaking up for small businesses within government

Check them out if you haven’t already. Make sure to follow them on social media too.

Inside Small Business 

Inside Small Business is a print and online magazine dedicated to small business stories and issues throughout Australia. We just love this site, their articles are always timely and relevant. Go visit their site and subscribe to their feed. You’ll thank us later.

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3 Common mistakes small business owners make when using social media

Common mistakes small business owners make when using social media

  1. Overpaying for set up
  2. Inconsistent branding
  3. Not following other social media pages
  4. Being on too many platforms
  5. Not being on Facebook

 

Small businesses today need an online presence whether they want to or not. According to a latest survey, 70% of small businesses said that using Facebook helps attract new customers. Around 56% also said that using social media as a business tool increased their sales.

But starting your online presence can be overwhelming especially if you’re not very tech savvy. In this post, we will discuss the three most common mistakes small business owners make when using social media.

Overpaying for set up

Like we said in our post, setting up a website these days don’t have to cost you thousands and thousands of dollars. Unless your website has super complicated functions, you can get away with just spending a couple of hundred of dollars for a professional one. If you’re tech savvy, you can set up a website yourself. There are a lot of drag-and-drop sites you can check out. If not, you can hire someone who can do it for you.

Inconsistent branding

Be aware of the colours, font styles and designs you are using across all your social media channels. If you’re using a certain avatar for your Facebook page, then you should use the same avatar for your other pages. This will create a consistency across all of your sites and will ensure that your customers remember you when they follow you on your other social media channels. If one social media site indicates a promo on your avatar, use it with the others as well. Remember, be consistent on all of them.

Being on too many platforms

You don’t have to be on every single social media platform out there. Pick one or two. We previously wrote a post on how you can choose the right social media platform for your business. Have a read and figure out which one you would like to use. You need Facebook, though. That’s one you can’t skip. But for the other platforms, consider what you want to do with your business then pick the best platform.