The sidebar occupies valuable real estate on your blog.  In fact, it’s the second most important space, which is why you should spend some time evaluating and tweaking it.

Your sidebar is the place where readers can subscribe to your newsletter, sign up for your webinar, or follow you on Twitter.  Here are five tips for improving your blog’s sidebar so your readers will do just that!

1.  Get readers to interact with your social media sites.

Using your sidebar to encourage blog readers to connect with you on Facebook and Twitter is an effective way to use this space.  Try posting the latest news and trends on social media–not just from you, but from your fans and the people you follow, too.  You can also ask readers to log into your site using Facebook, for example, to encourage interaction and content sharing directly from your blog.

2.  Use photos to instantly personalize your blog and build trust.

When you include photos of yourself or your employees, readers can immediately feel more connected to the writers responsible for your blog.  Photos offer a glimpse into the personalities behind your blog, and they build trust by showing the faces responsible for the words.  A bonus is that the eye is drawn to images of faces, so you can be sure to get more attention for whatever additional information the sidebar provides.

3.  Lead readers further into your site.

Sidebars are meant to get your readers to take action, which will help you make money.  Think about what you want readers to do.  Are you trying to build an email list, get people to purchase your webinar, or hire you for your web design services?  Use the sidebar to navigate readers toward these actions by including eye-catching graphics or inspiring copy with links to the places on your site that convert readers to customers or clients.  Just be sure to keep the sidebar content enticing, but not distracting – you don’t want to take away from your blog’s main content.

4.  Encourage users to sit and stay awhile. 

Your blog’s sidebar can be leveraged to make your site addictive to readers.  Think about how YouTube sucks users in by showing a continuous stream of related content in its sidebar.  You can use this tactic on your own blog by showcasing content readers might also enjoy in your sidebar.  As they click on links, continue showing them different articles, videos, and other components of your site so they will stay and explore everything you have to offer.

5.  Let your brand shine through your sidebar.

The look and feel of your sidebar can help to reinforce your brand, especially when blog articles, full of copy, begin to look the same.  If your brand is clean and modern, use graphic design elements in the sidebar to develop your persona.  Or, if you like to keep things quirky and fun, be sure the sidebar copy reflects these attributes.  I discussed using photos above, and a fitting image of you or your employees can go a long way to establishing your brand equity.

Have you seen any head-turning, hard-working sidebars lately?  What was it about them that made you sit up and take notice?

Image courtesy of creative design agency Arrae

Experiment.ly

An online ad campaign shouldn’t be planned with the attitude, “Let’s throw something out there and see what sticks.” Experiment.ly lets you test and measure the performance of many aspects of your ad campaign before you sink unnecessary dollars into your efforts. You can test anything–buttons, text or images–and there’s no need to get a designer or programmer involved. It’s easy to use, with drag and drop features, so you can quickly create different versions of an ad and see which version tests the best. A free version can get you up to 5,000 unique visitors a month. Other payment plans exist if you want a more extensive campaign.

Digital PR Guidebook

PR News Online has compiled more than 300 pages of social media ideas and tactics in a downloadable guide aimed to help anyone with a desire to improve their social media prowess and become an expert at today’s hottest marketing method. Learn how to master Facebook, integrate mobile into your marketing plan, use SEO to boost your press releases and more. Find out whether you need to add video to your marketing strategy and how Google + fits into the social media playing field. Chapters also include case studies, SEO and content curation. Downloadable and print versions are available for $399.

Just because you’re a small business doesn’t mean you can’t have a huge impact on Facebook.  The social network has enabled small businesses to stand side-by-side with large companies to grab customers’ attention and interact with them online.

Even if your marketing department is small, or even if you’re a company of one, you can still learn a lot from the big business approach to Facebook.  Try these four ideas for running Facebook campaigns get big results, regardless of your company’s size.

Plan for success       

One of the major reasons big companies succeed on Facebook is that they plan.  Don’t make the mistake many small businesses do and launch a Facebook page just because everyone else has one.  Do as the big companies do, and set goals and strategies for your efforts online.

Think about what you’d like to get from your Facebook activities.  Do you want to drive more traffic to your online store?  Are you hoping to build your newsletter list?  Or, maybe you want to encourage repeat business and brand loyalty?  Whatever your goals are, state them clearly, and create a strategy that will get you there.

Interact with your fans

Often, the most successful Facebook pages are those teeming with interaction.  This is where big companies have a major advantage, simply because they’re staffed to keep the community active.

To compete with larger businesses, you need to go beyond static content (bio, a couple of pictures, and links to your website), and fill your page with content that engages the community.  Creating a custom tab enables you to offer fun stuff on Facebook, such as contests and virtual gifts.

But don’t think you have to employ a pricey designer or know how to code to get the same eye-catching and interactive custom tabs big companies have.  A custom tab app, like the one offered by ShortStack, can help you create tabs with the same functionality for an affordable price.

Be there for your fans

Big businesses know that social media provides a direct connection with their individual customers, so they hire community managers to communicate with customers on a full-time basis.

Even if you can’t hire someone to tend to Facebook full-time, you still need to check in more than sporadically to build a community.  Try working social media interaction into your routine, being sure to respond to questions or comments on your page at least every day.  You can tag-team Facebook page management among several staff members to be sure you’re covered, and you can hire responsible interns to help with social media management.  Just be sure not to neglect your customers online – if you don’t answer their questions, someone else will!

Take advantage of your smaller size

Being a small company means you’re nimbler and more flexible than your larger competitors.  For example, smaller businesses have the advantage of moving quickly to gather information from their community.  If you want to know what customers think of your newest product, you can create a Facebook poll or simply ask them to post suggestions to your wall – and you can do this without the bureaucratic hierarchy that slows bigger companies down.

Or, maybe you want to scan Facebook for general feedback, responding to customer complaints and compliments.  Because you’re the owner, you can make decisions like this and reply in real time.

Another example of leveraging your smaller size is offering deals to your community when you need to.  If you need to clear inventory quickly, or you want to be sure your venue is filled tonight, you can offer great deals to your Facebook fans right now.  Being a small business means you can avoid the lethargic corporate decision-making process and do what’s right for your business in a flexible way.

Have you noticed other big-business Facebook tactics that can be scaled to fit a smaller company?  Talk to us in the comments section below!

Image courtesy of creative design agency Arrae

By Rieva Lesonsky

What are Americans doing—and buying—on their mobile phones and tablets? Increasingly, they’re buying products and services. Among smartphone owners, a December survey of a sample of TechBargains.com visitors found 32 percent of women and 25 percent of men made half or more of their holiday purchases via mobile phones, reports Internet Retailer.

iPhone users were most likely to use smartphones to shop. Overall, 34 percent of iPhone users and 20 percent of Android users who made purchases with their phones said they did half or more of their holiday shopping on the phones.

While tablets are relatively new to the party compared to smartphones, they’re already slightly ahead of smartphones as a shopping tool. Among tablet owners, 35 percent of women and 21 percent of men in the survey said that half or more of their holiday purchases were made using tablets. And overall, 75 percent of respondents had made purchases on a tablet, compared to 58 percent who had done so on smartphones and 94 percent who have done so on laptops.

For those who shop with their phone:

• 79 percent use the phone to research products,
• 77 percent to compare prices, and
• 73 percent to browse stores.

Of the 58 percent of shoppers who make purchases via their mobile devices:

• 69 percent use both the mobile browser and apps to buy products,
• 18 percent only use apps, and
• 13 percent only use a mobile browser.

What were users buying on mobile phones?

• 70 percent of shoppers purchased digital goods,
• 60 percent purchased physical merchandise,
• 46 percent purchased services, and
• 38 percent purchased consumable goods.

Of the 75 percent of tablet owners who use their devices to make purchases:

• 90 percent use tablets to browse stores,
• 89 percent research products, and
• 85 percent compare prices.

The iPad has the edge in mobile shopping with 86 percent of iPad 2 owners making purchases via their tablets. However, despite being brand new, the Kindle Fire is close behind, with 74 percent of users making purchases via their devices.

What about people who aren’t using their mobile phones to buy? Of those, 42 percent of men and 38 percent of women said security concerns kept them from buying on the device, while 54 percent of men and 59 percent of women cited problems in completing purchases. Want to capture shoppers’ mobile dollars? Make sure your security is airtight (and that you promote and explain this to users), and make sure your process is simple and easy to use.

Image by Flickr user Charantan Patnaik (Creative Commons)

By Rieva Lesonsky

The image of mom as an old-fashioned traditionalist needs to fall by the wayside—at least, if you’re hoping to market to her successfully. Today’s moms, especially those with very young children at home, are embracing the digital world and increasingly researching, shopping and sharing product information online.

eMarketer recently reported on two studies about moms’ online shopping behavior and here’s what they found. In an Eric Mower and Associates survey, more than half of new mothers said they now spend less time watching TV (59 percent) and reading magazines (55 percent); 59 percent also spent less time shopping in stores. The percentages didn’t change much among moms with more than one child or who had older children.

So where were moms spending more time? On the Internet, where 25 percent of moms said they are going online more. And what are they doing there? Shopping: 33 percent of moms said they spend more time on ecommerce than before having kids.

But being smart consumers, moms aren’t just buying—they’re also using the Internet to do lots of research before they ever make a purchase. A separate survey by BabyCenter, reported by eMarketer, found that when it comes to comparing prices, searching for coupons or deals, comparing product features, getting product ideas and recommendations, deciding where to buy and actually finding a store, moms were more likely to use websites to do each of these things than they were to use retail stores, traditional media or their mobile phones.

Mobile phones are quickly picking up speed, however. For instance, 28 percent of moms used mobile phones to compare prices; by comparison, just 15 percent used traditional media like newspapers and magazines to do so. Sixteen percent used phones to figure out where to buy, and 29 percent used phones to find physical stores, compared to just 9 percent who used traditional media.

As moms’ kids get older and Mom is chauffeuring them to more activities, moms are even more likely to rely on mobile devices to get information, advice and directions. (That’s not from the survey, but just my own observation from knowing a lot of moms.) What does all this mean to your business?

First, digital clearly needs to become a bigger part of your marketing mix than traditional media, if it isn’t already. For many businesses, making sure your business comes up quickly in local search engines like Local.com or Google Places is becoming more important than having an ad in the Yellow Pages or local paper. Once you’ve got those basics down, consider offering your customers deals and discounts via mobile phone, whether that’s text messaging or sending your email newsletters and offers in a mobile-optimized format.

Moms’ adoption of digital and mobile shows no signs of slowing down, so your efforts to keep pace with them shouldn’t, either.

Image by Flickr user goodncrazy (Creative Commons)

Strutta

Starting a business page on Facebook is easy enough, but getting people to come back to it again and again is another story. One way to increase traffic is to offer promotions and hold contests on your Facebook site, and Strutta can make that happen. You can upload your own photos, videos, audios and text to create a promotion; then consumers can share your promotion and encourage others to participate. You can use the promotion on your website, too, and Strutta also includes an app that makes it easy to spread the word via Twitter or Facebook. Plus you can capture important data from the customers you’ve engaged.

From social media IPO activity to the entrance of several upstarts, the U.S. social networking market is strong – and exciting.  comScore recently released its report, “It’s a Social World: Top 10 Need-to-Knows About Social Networking and Where It’s Headed,” an in-depth look at the global social networking market.  Here are some highlights from the U.S. market:

Facebook on top

It’s no surprise that Facebook is still the top U.S. social networking site, boasting 166 million unique visitors in November.  And, how much time are we really spending on Facebook?  The average user spent 6.6 hours in November, up 37 percent in the past year.

We’re number two!

LinkedIn and Twitter have been vying for the number two spot in audience size for a while now.  Twitter took second place in November with 35.4 million unique visitors, only slightly ahead of LinkedIn with 35 million unique visitors.

MySpace still alive and kicking

Even though we don’t hear much about MySpace these days, the network is still holding its own.  MySpace is currently in fourth place with 25 million unique visitors; however, its audience has declined steadily over the past two years.

Upstarts worth mentioning

Three newish social networks are gaining prominence – and audience members – while introducing fresh engagement tactics.  Tumblr has increased its U.S. visits by 131 percent since November 2010, to 15.9 million.  Tumblr is also winning points for engagement and is second only to Facebook, as its average user spends 2.4 hours on the site each month.

Google+ has gotten plenty of attention this year, and it got plenty of traffic, too.  In November, the site received 15.2 million unique visits, just behind Tumblr.  What’s really exciting about Google+ is its future:  its integration with other Google products make it an important one to watch in 2012.

Finally, Pinterest, which I recently wrote about, deserves kudos for its quick rise in the social networking ranks.  Since May 2011, Pinterest has soared from 418,000 unique visitors to nearly 4.9 million in November.  Its engagement rates are impressive, too, with the average visitor spending nearly an hour and a half on the site each month.  Add to that the fact that users spend more than 15 minutes on Pinterest per visit, making the site third in consumer engagement.

Even though Facebook currently remains the clear leader in the U.S. social networking market, there is plenty of room for other players to shake up the industry with new innovations.  2012 looks to be equally exciting on the social media front, so be sure to watch for emerging trends.

Image courtesy of creative design agency Arrae

If you’re struggling with your small business’s social media strategy, turn to these tried-and-true tips for taking your strategy from stalled to stellar in no time at all.  Here are five tips that put your social media activities to work:

1.  Just Be Yourself

Plenty of marketers post multiple updates per day on places like Facebook, offering their followers links to their recent blog posts and tips for succeeding in business.  How can you stand out from the crowd?

Being yourself and allowing your personality to shine through your social media communications can help you get the attention and interaction that will boost marketing success.  Let your followers and fans know there’s a real, live person behind your posts by sprinkling in personal touches.

For example, posting pictures of your latest culinary masterpiece, or other creative endeavors, adds a fun element to an otherwise “just business” profile.  If you’re heading out to cheer on your favorite sports team, or you heard something hilarious (but PG-rated) on the subway that your followers might enjoy as well, share them with your online community.   These personal touches keep things fresh and are excellent conversation starters, so be sure to use them in addition to your regular wall posts.

2.  Find Your Place Online

As a small business, you know you have to prioritize your resources carefully, including which social networks you devote time and energy to.  Having your business on multiple social media profiles, but only giving them partial effort, won’t cut it.  You need to determine where your customers are, and then devote all your effort to that network.

Use Follower Wonk or Facebook’s advertising platform to find out where your target audience is most concentrated.  Then, invest all your resources building a loyal following there, and engage your community by giving it the attention it deserves.  Your good work here will help you build a case for expanding your reach (and the necessary resources) on additional sites as you grow.

3.  Generate Leads With Facebook

Once you’ve begun engaging your Facebook community, why not leverage your page to generate leads?  Facebook offers small businesses new ways of building their lists of qualified leads.  For example, you can offer an opt-in strategy directly on your page by using iFrames to create a custom welcome tab.  This tab should include a two-step process called a “reveal tab.”

Step 1:  Create a call to action to encourage new visitors to Like your page.

Step 2:  After visitors Like your page, offer them a giveaway for providing their name and email.

Following this simple two-step model will help you increase both your fan base and lead list–now, that’s efficient!

4.  Make the Most of Video

Using video is a creative and interactive way to get your small business to the top of search results, and social media can help.  Google and other search engines use video to decide which pages should be displayed first, but you must tag, title and publish your videos correctly to get their full SEO benefits.

One way to add video marketing to your social media strategy is by creating a custom channel on YouTube.  This is super easy to do.  Think about what problem your business solves for its customers, and create a series of short instructional videos related to this problem.  Use the videos to show how your business can help customers, and try adding testimonials from current customers as well.  For the best videos, use humor and graphics to communicate your messages, and keep it under three minutes.

5.  Do The Hard Work

To stand out in a sea of content, sometimes you have to get down and dirty.  What information do your customers really want to know?  If you’re willing to solve your customers’ hardest problems and answer their toughest questions, your content will be linked to and shared.  This activity will get you higher search rankings and more followers/fans on Twitter and Facebook.

Think about the most difficult and interesting customer questions, and create a list.  Every time you sit down to write, use one of these questions as a starting point.  Be honest, do the extra research required, and strive to help customers with their challenges.  Then, publish your content and promote it on all your social media platforms.  Doing this consistently will earn you significant results.

If you follow these five tips, you should start to see the payoff of your efforts rather quickly.  Do you have additional tips that have taken your small business social media strategy from mediocre to outstanding?  Share them with us by leaving a comment below.

Image courtesy of creative design firm Arrae

By Rieva Lesonsky

What consumers want when they engage with your brand on social media is often very different than what you think they want, according to a new study by The CMO Council and Lithium. The study, “Variance in the Social Brand Experience,” polled more than 1,300 consumers and more than 100 marketers and found that, by and large, businesses aren’t giving consumers what they want.

More than half (55 percent) of consumers say they interact with brands on social networks primarily to learn about new products. But the biggest group (65 percent) do so to enter promotions or contests or to play games. About one-third use social media to share positive experiences with a company, and 25 percent use social to connect with other fans of a brand.

Consumers have high expectations when they interact with businesses on social media. They expect to get answers to questions or complaints within 24 hours, with 22 percent of consumers seeking instant responses and 19 percent seeking a response within a few hours. As for what they expect to get in return for following or liking your business:

• Exclusive offers (67 percent)
• Games and contests (65 percent)
• Opportunity to interact with other customers (60 percent)

While consumers are focused on offers, games and chances to get a reward, marketers, in contrast, think consumers “like” their brands just because they like the content they find online, to get news and information about the brand, or to make their voices heard. Just 27 percent thought customers followed their brands in order to get special offers—and only 22 percent of marketers actually offer special promotions or deals via social media.

What’s the takeaway? Sure, your fans and followers want to learn more about your company, and they do want to connect with their fellow fans. But as the old advertising truism goes, their biggest concern when liking you on social media is “What’s in it for me?” Unless your social media strategy offers something of concrete value to them, you’re likely to find your fan base becoming less and less engaged, as they move to competitors who give them more of what they’re looking for.

Image by Flickr user birgerking (Creative Commons)