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Become a social media savvy entrepreneur

It’s online marketing focus week on Bdaily. Here, Katy Bernstein, Marketing & PR Manager at durhamlane, advises would-be entrepreneurs on their social media approach.

For this week’s post I will be focusing on the top three tools for entrepreneurs looking to take their online presence to the next level.

Any entrepreneur worth his (or her) salt knows how important the digital world is, whether it be creating brand awareness or generating online leads, the digital world gives us a global platform to interact with our market.

Everywhere you look companies are popping up online as digital marketing booms, but how can you set yourself apart from the rest? Top notch website, check. Social media profiles, check. Now we must ask where is the value? How do we measure, track and analyse our online presence? The following 3 tools have been handpicked to demonstrate how to make the most of your company’s digital footprint.

1. Google Analytics

At first glance Google Analytics is all about the traffic. Demographics, bounce rates and unique visitors are all easy to see upon a first glance at your google analytics dashboard, but how do we decipher this continuous stream of information? More importantly where do we find the real value?

Effective social media measurement comes under (albeit tricky to find) the referral traffic page. Here you can find where your referral traffic (people who have found your website from another website) are coming from. When it comes to your social networks you could take a wild guess and assume that the 10 tweets a day are working wonders for your personal brand (and that may be the case) but you will never know precisely where the value lies until you can see in black and white exactly where your followers are coming from.

Guesswork and effective social media strategies don’t mix!

This is why the referral traffic page on the Google Analytics site is so useful; we can see who has come from where - Twitter? LinkedIn? blog?. From here you can ascertain your number one source of social media referrals and improve upon the most popular referral links and re-think the ones that are not working out so well for you.

2. LinkedIn

LinkedIn AKA Facebook with a tie, is an excellent business tool, giving individuals and companies a detailed online profile, but where does the real value lie on this site designed for the business professional? We all know about groups, company pages and the inspiring influencer posts, but on a B2B level the number one effective tool would have to be the user’s professional network of LinkedIn connections.

When thinking of Global giant Virgin do you think of their broad product base? Or Richard Branson’s winning smile, cocktail in hand standing on a tropical island? Branding is everything and Richard’s strong ties with the brand are what make Virgin so unique and successful. This is why your appearance on LinkedIn matters most. Who is your main competitor in business? Visit their profile & take a look at who they are connected to, it’s very likely their connections are exactly who you’re looking to talk to. If they have a strong connection of good quality people then reach out to that network. Remember when inviting to connect always personalise your message!

3. Tweepdash

Tweepdash is a hidden gem for inbound marketers across the globe. This neat online tool allows it’s users to see who is following them, who isn’t and who follows them back. (without spamming your timeline!- a rare quality indeed.)

The site is separated into three columns; ‘Celebs’ (you follow them but they don’t follow you back) ‘fans’ (they follow you but you don’t follow them back) ‘friends’ (you follow eachother). Still with me? The site is very user friendly and excellent for making sure all of your followers on twitter are interested in what you have to say. You can also keep tabs on who is following you and follow them back. Warning: don’t use the ‘reminder’ button, if they aren’t following you then just let them go, no need for desperation! Remember social media does what it says on the tin; it’s all about being “social” so get cracking!

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by durhamlane .