Target Social Media Markets

Social media marketing is all the buzz now days. Small businesses, start ups and professionals are all jumping in together to get most benefits out of this new way of communication. However, most of them get soon tired and bored of it. You will often hear them complain that they didn't get any response from social groups they were posting. Why?

Because using everything that is labeled as social media is not marketing. This is not how smart businesses should approach their clients. This is actually spam to force your messages upon people who may not be willing or even considering for such a thing.

Social media marketing needs a strategy just like your other marketing campaigns. You need to find out what venues are good for your business. Identify your target markets and analyze what social web platforms your target audience is using. Focus on achieving your goals. Make good impression on people you interact with on social platforms. Instead of chasing every one else in a race to be the most influential on the social web, consider your goals and stay focused on achieving your goals. Be polite and kind and do not get involved into flame wars. Get yourself a logo design and a web design before even considering social media marketing. Redirect interactions to your website. Use your logo to create awareness about your brand, products or services and your business on the social networks.

HowTo Prepare a Social Media Marketing Plan

Small businesses are realizing the importance of online marketing and are exploring new ways to promote their business on social media platforms. Marketing on social media needs a lot more than just shouting on yours and other people’s wall or retweeting anything you get your hands on.

Without proper strategy online marketing could become ineffective and a waste of resources and time. But, what exactly is the proper strategy to promote business on social media and on the internet?
Social media and the World Wide Web are about interacting with each other. Unlike traditional media, web is not just listening, reading, watching and absorbing. It is about interacting with the content via hyperlinks, forms, images, and videos.

The first think that any social media marketer needs is a landing site. Where do you want to send people to? It is impossible for a social media marketer to make people leave their office seats and go buy something from the physical location. However, if there was a link to a place where people can go and make purchase with clicks then it is not that difficult. So, the first thing that any effective online marketing plan needs is a website design.

Secondly your website and your business should have proper branding. If you don’t know about brand identity go look up at it. For proper branding techniques you would need a logo design.
Then to promote your message on the social media you will need a lot more than just text. Text is less appealing and you can say a lot more if you use images or videos instead. Using banners and videos on your social media website can be very effective. Get some proper banner designs in all shapes and sizes to use on various social media platforms.

Small Businesses - Internet Marketing - Web Design

Gone are the days when only large corporations considered maintaining a web presence important. Today it is important for each business to not only have a web presence but to also make great use of internet for better marketing. Marketing over the internet is more effective, more target oriented and much cheaper. 

The first step to the Internet marketing is to launch a professional website. Launching a professional website could be cheaper but it could also be expansive, depending on your plans to expand it. Most small businesses start with a shared web hosting, they hire a web design company to design their website, and then they start using it as their marketing headquarter over the internet. 

The big question that all small businesses face is how to hire a professional web design company to do their website. The answer to this question is that you hire a web design company that fits your budget, has the expertise to do the job and offers other value added services such as graphic design, logo design, stationary design, etc. 

Hiring such a company would help you with your future marketing needs. Also a company capable of doing all that would fill your new website with beautiful logo design and graphics. You can use this logo as your brand identity. 

When searching for the right web design company for small and medium businesses, you should always check out their portfolios and read their client testimonials. While you are it, don’t forget to drop down email to other small businesses who have previously hired this company to do their web design. 

You not only need a web design, you would probably want to have a content management system so that you can update your website on your own without paying the web design company for that. 

The next step in your web and internet marketing strategy is to use the tools such as social media. We will talk about the importance of social media in the internet marketing in our upcoming posts.

Graphic Designers - From Hollywood to Uncle John's Flower shop

Graphic design is a multibillion dollar industry. You will find graphic designers everywhere.  From Hollywood studios to suburban concession stores, graphic designers work with almost each and every business you can think of.

Their work is diverse and there are many specialized categories of what a graphic designer can do. Some specialize in computer generated imagery (CGI used in Hollywood movies), some of them create graphics for TV and advertising industry, some of them design posters and banners, and some of them design logos and web or print graphics.

The skills required to do different graphic jobs have many levels. For example, a CGI expert would have a university degree and related experience in the research field to generate sophisticated visual effects. Designers working with Advertising firm might be college graduates with electives related to marketing. Designers working with small businesses designing websites or logos may not have a college degree but certification from some community college or specialized graphic design schools.

Working with graphic design is an artistic job, not only it requires knowledge to use advanced graphic tools, it also requires a certain creativity and innovation too. If a graphic designer is really talented then it matters very little what degree or certification he/she holds.

If you visit the websites of these graphic designers or the company’s they work for. You would see a section called portfolio there. This is where the company or the artist shows their talent by displaying the work they have previously done for the clients. Looking at the portfolio you can get an idea of how good they are and who their other customers are. You can then contact their other customers and ask them how they liked their services.

Graphic designers who work for small businesses should also have a little knowledge of marketing and brand identity. Artistic merits may sometime create a conflict of interest with the business interest of the clients they are working for. Most graphic designer realize the importance of this and keep themselves updated with the latest developments in the marketing. With the increasing competition faced from the graphic designers of other countries, these graphic designers also keep their prices lower and try very hard to satisfy the customer needs.

So even though it is a multibillion dollar industry, anyone can benefit from the services of a graphic designer. The real trouble is to find a good one.