Changing Focus With Online Advertising

Online advertising has certainly changed over the years, and seems to be evolving at a quicker rate than ever before. The challenge that most marketers are now faced with, is how to deliver their message in the shortest amount of time and still create the same impact.

I can honestly say that most businesses owner cringe at the thought of social media, because they don’t believe that it works for them. However the reality is, that they were never given the rules, so they don’t understand how to use them to their advantage.

The first thing is to understand that with most of these platforms you only have 160 characters to make your first impression. For businesses the best thing to do here is to ask a lot of questions. This will keep the character count down, and will increase engagement because people will want to answer.

Tip* if your business will allow,  ask a very controversial question, and ask those closest to you to start the commenting. In no time, you’ll have a great conversation and probably some new followers, fans, etc.

The popular thought is to take the 80/20 rule when posting on these sites, in which you would only promote yourself or business 20 percent of the time and the other 80 you would post about industry related topics, current events that could effect your business, the weather, whatever it is as long as your not trying to sell.

Yes I know this is a lot to think about with only 160 characters, but understand that this is just the start of what you need to know. Most people have an audience that is following the updates of many other businesses, so it is very easy to get lost in the news feeds behind last nights dinner pictures, and this mornings selfies.

So before you send out another message on a social media channel take some time to think about your audience, and ask yourself if they are actually engaged. Also, when thinking about your local marketing strategies, consider creating a posting schedule. This will give you the ability to really think about what you want to say over a time period.