Sunday, January 31, 2010

10 ways to use digital channels to grow your business

1. Create a blog
You can use easy tools like blogger or wordpress to create your blog. You should update your blog at least 3 times a week. Make sure that you have content that is not stale. To allow your blog to be searchable, make sure that you register your url with the main search engines (google, bing, yahoo).


2. Create a twitter
In today’s age, Twitting is a necessity to help build your brand, but as you have probably noticed, everybody is on Twitter. Since you only have 140 characters, use them wisely. For your links, substitute them with short links. Make sure that you maintain good list hygiene. Follow people who follow you back. Use tools like Huitter.com. Make sure that you are twitting daily several times a day. If you don’t have time to tweet daily, write the content ahead of time and then use tools like SocialOomph.com to post it for you throughout the day.

3. Create a fan page on facebook
You can use facebook to help with your online brand. The facebook page is a great channel to help tell your customers what’s new. The key thing to remember is to not overwhelm them with information. Use the same rule of thumb for status updates as you use for Twits. They should be short and sweet. Consumers do not like reading long messages

4. Business online channels
If you sell your products online, make sure that you use the social media channels to help build your online identity.

5. Measure your channels
I like to use google analytics. They allow you to see your online traffic to your site, blog, online channels. They aslo allow for you to see your traffic sources. If you receive any traffic from search, it allows you to see what search terms lead to your site. As you create new content, you can keep this information in mind.

6. Integration between channels
It’s imporatnt to connect the dots for your consumers. You can integrate your twitter with your facebook. Push your facebook to your business channel. Integrate up to date widgets on your blog. Channel integration allows the dots to be connected for the consumer, without them having to think too much about what you want them to do.

7. Don’t be lazy
The mistake a lot of people make is they don’t go the extra mile, and it shows. Don’t be lazy. For your blog page, buy the domain name and transfer it. For your twitter page, create your own background, it’s easy enough. You can use Twitbacks.com. These little things will make a difference.

8. Brand consistency
Many business fail in this area. They either have not thought about their overall brand identity, or they change their brand too often and thus confusing their consumer. Create one brand; keep it consistent cross all channels. Use the same naming convention, icons, and consistent images across all of your channels.

9. Online website
As part of your online identity, build a website. Who are you, what do you offer. This will help with building your online reputation. As your online brand grows, this will help with building you credibility in the community.

10. Keep your content up to date
Most important of in all of these areas, is keep your content up to date. As they say, out of sight, out of mind. Be consistent in what you are doing, than your audience will be looking for content that’s coming from you.

No comments:

Post a Comment