Every year June 30 is celebrated as World Social Media Day to highlight how it has emerged as a key tool for communication. From connecting people from all corners of the world to helping influencers grow their brand and assisting journalists to cover important news events, social media has become a game changer. It has made it possible to connect people from every corner of the world and bring them just a click apart.

When your business goals align with your social goals you unlock social’s potential as a true driver for business growth. But first you need to understand your audience.

Winning customers is only half the battle. Once a brand has connected with a consumer, it needs to devote time and attention to keeping the emotional bond between itself and the customer alive.  Understanding why customers have become inactive is critical to devising the best-bet engagement and communication approach.

When was the last time you added to, updated or reviewed your website?  Your website is more often than not the digital face of your business, but does it reflect your business in its best light? As a living beast (so to speak), your website needs to be reviewed and updated regularly so that the potential customer you are trying to convert actually picks up the phone to talk to you rather than your competitor.

Businesses should assess the potential competitive benefits of social media themselves based on specific, actionable goals. Although the impact of the benefits above varies from brand to brand, there’s no denying the positive business implications of having a strong social presence.

As Managers and Leaders we are often taught that we are the “fixers”. Often we are allocated this mindset from our superiors who ascertain performance, procedures, or members of our team have flaws and vices that require “fixing” in order for the business to move forward and become successful. But what if you changed fix to an opportunity and grew your team's self-belief?

While social media is a fantastic marketing tool for small businesses (when used correctly), trusty email marketing is still an important ingredient in a marketing strategy.

2020 started as any other year in New Zealand and then life changed. It stopped, we stayed home and we didn’t know what was coming next. One year on, what are our reflections of the year that was.

You're thinking of running a social competition, but we want you to consider this, what is the outcome you are wanting? Is a competition going to achieve this or are you gaining unengaged followers who are only in it for the prize, not because they feel a connection to your business? The key to success on Social Media is to have an engaged audience, not having the largest number of followers, so don't let ego blur your vision.  

Being small doesn’t mean going unnoticed.  Think about David and Goliath.  Smaller in size, David strategically used his slingshot to attack Goliath’s weak spot.  And, just as in business, small businesses need to maximise their strategic strengths to enable their business to appear larger than it actually is while still celebrating their competitive advantages, such as agility, over their larger counterparts.

Before you can find success with content marketing, you need to start from the beginning. That means understanding your audience.

As a business owner or marketer, you don’t have infinite time and resources to be everything to everyone. You can’t afford to be on every social platform, but equally, you can’t afford to ignore social media either. It’s more important to choose the platforms that work for you, your business goals, and your customer needs - and then to engage on them well.  Let's take a look at the pick of the bunch, what social platform is right for you?

Oh hey there 2021! It sounds good doesn't it? But are you acting any differently in 2021 than you did at the start of any other year or are you going to take one of the key learnings from 2020 and this year put the customer at the heart of everything you do?

While all business owners now know that they must measure their results in order to know how effective their marketing efforts are, all too often many measure the wrong things. And before you figure out which metrics you should be tracking, you need to determine what your business objectives are.

After reading through our goals for last year, I had to chuckle at the title of the blog I wrote "2020, A Clear Vision Of The Year Ahead". That didn't age well! So as we gingerly step into 2021 it's hard to plan, but it's still important that you do. While the road may change, having your goals will keep you focused should Mother Nature decide we haven't yet been tested enough.