Social media offers a low-cost way to promote your business online. But if you don’t do it right, you could do more harm than good. Get professional graphics and custom content that fits your business. Learn some tips to keep from putting your foot in your mouth and stomping on your business reputation.

Facebook

One of the challenges of using Facebook for marketing is that Facebook keeps changing how things work. You might have spent time and money setting up a Facebook page that was beautiful and state-of-the-art a year ago. Some elements of that page may no longer work, and others may look strange, due to changes Facebook has made to its website. Does that mean you should not use Facebook to market your small business? No! It’s easy to make changes to your page, or set up a new one if you don’t have one already. Keep reading to find out some details and what it costs to hire my assistance.

Every Facebook business or organization page needs to have these things:

• A “Like” button (people “like” business pages; they don’t “friend” them).
• A wide “cover” photo or image at the top that communicates something about your brand.
• A square “profile picture” that is displayed on the main page and also next to any posts you create. A company logo works well in this location.
• Your “Timeline,” which can consist of any posts, events and interaction with your customers.
• Information about your business, including how to contact you, where you are located, and a link to your website.

If your Facebook page doesn’t have these, contact me. I can help.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a great way to direct traffic to your website if you have something visual to share. Some studies are saying that Pinterest refers more traffic to blogs and websites than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined. Pinterest users are ready to buy when they click through to your website, since they are truly excited about what they’ve seen there. But there is a right and a wrong way to use Pinterest, so you might want to learn all about it before you start using it.

Pinterest is all about sharing pictures. Not pictures of your grandchildren or your latest vacation, but pictures that are beautiful or pictures that are helpful, or pictures that make you laugh, or make you think.

There are some things that should be true about a picture before you share it on Pinterest:

• It should be a picture you have the right to share. That means I can’t share a photo if another photographer holds the copyright to it. It may mean I can’t share a picture containing a product or company logo — but then again, if I have a relationship with that company, they may want me to share it (such as, if I sell their products in my store).
• It should be a picture or image that others will like to look at and want to share. Often that means an interesting or beautiful product, a great idea, a source for helpful information or a beautiful location.
• You should credit the source if you are sharing a picture you got from someone else’s website. And likewise, you should expect others to credit you if they share your image. If you see your image being shared, politely contact the person who shared it and ask for a link or ask them to remove it if you really don’t want them to share it.
• It should be an image that stands on its own. You can post a caption (in fact, you have to post a caption, even if it’s a blank space or a “.” But you can’t be sure someone will share the caption when they “re-pin” your image, so it’s good to have your website address in the image, and any explanatory headline as well. Use as few words as possible.

The best way to learn how Pinterest works is to jump in and play. Set up a personal account and follow some boards that correspond to your interests. You’ll get the hang of it soon. If you want to see some really beautiful pictures, check out my Pinterest boards.

Important To Remember about Social Media in General

If you want to participate in social media, you need to keep the following things in mind:

• It’s not going to lead to a large increase in your audience or customer base overnight.
• The best practice is to engage regularly with your customers on social media; it’s not like a website that you can set up and leave alone for weeks or months — you need to show up and participate, update and add content regularly.
• You don’t have to use every social media site out there. Pick one or two that are best for your business, which might be different than someone else’s business. I can help you figure out a strategy if you don’t know where to start.
• You can hire someone to do social media for you, but it’s better if you do it yourself or have someone who is part of your company or organization do it. You want to communicate using your unique voice and it’s best if someone intimately familiar with your business be the one who posts content. But I can give you some ideas of how to go about it.

Services and Pricing

It’s hard to list exact prices, because each Facebook page can be different, just like websites. But here are some prices to give you an idea of my fees. If you don’t see what you need, just ask for a quote using the form below. I can also make Twitter backgrounds and custom headers for sites such as YouTube.

Cover image for Facebook, Twitter or Google+: $25

Coordinating cover image and profile picture for either Facebook, Twitter or Google+: $35

Coordinating cover image and profile picture for all 3 (Facebook, Twitter and Google+): $75

Profile picture and 4 seasonal cover images: $50 for one, $75 for all three Facebook, Twitter and Google+

Complete redesign or brand new Facebook page: $100

Social media marketing consulting: $20-30 per hour

Set up a Pinterest account: $25 – $95 per board, depending on the number of images and whether they need editing

Pinterest consulting and tutorials: $20-30 per hour

Company Logo

A logo is sometimes the first impression a potential customer has of your business. It should fit your personality and be attractive to your target market. The colors used are also important, for two reasons:

• Colors set a mood and convey a feeling or emotion.
• Your logo will be the starting point for the color schemes used in any marketing products you use: your website, business cards, stationary, brochures, signs, business displays, etc.

It can be expensive to hire a professional graphic designer to design a logo for your company. Or you can hire me. I don’t have a lot of experience designing logos, but I enjoy it and my clients have been pleased with my work. And I’ll keep making changes till you have the logo you want, at no extra charge.

Infographics

Infographics are a visual way to display data, either to communicate a message or to persuade people to take a certain action. They are also popular as images to be used on Pinterest or shared via Social Media. I can make a graphic that attractively conveys your message and catches the eye of potential customers.

Services

Logo design: $100

Infographic(s): $20-30 per hour or ask for a price quote

When the writer and designer are the same person, the entire product has a unified look. Many designers are not writers, and some writers have no sense of design.

Copywriting

Copywriting is often the one small businesses find most challenging. Business owners either don’t have the time or don’t have the talent to write content that will bring people to their website and keep them coming back.

I can give you some pointers when it comes to copywriting.

• Speak directly to your target audience, using second person singular tense. That means you imagine you’re speaking to one single person who is part of your target market.
• Don’t use jargon that your audience might not understand. This is not the place to impress them with your large vocabulary, but the time to communicate simply and clearly. Write as if you were talking to a customer in person.
• If you are marketing a product or service, focus on a problem it will solve for your audience, or a need it will fill.

Does your business need a blog? What would you do with a blog if you had one?

These are some common questions small businesses ask when it comes to blogs. And the answer to the first one is: No, your business does not need a blog. It is not a requirement, especially now that we have Facebook and Twitter and so many other ways to communicate with people. But a blog can be a very useful tool you can use to build a community and market to your customers. Blogs are a special kind of website that are set up so that average users who have no web design ability or technical knowledge can log in and write something that can then be posted on the Internet where it will look professional, and not like someone let a 5-year-old loose with web design software.

Here are some things to consider when deciding whether you want a blog for your small business:

• Do you have something to say, and a person on staff with enough time to write regular posts?
• Do you have a plan for how to handle negative comments on your blog? (If not, it doesn’t mean you can’t have a blog. But it might mean you should turn comments off in the blog settings.)
• Do you want to build a mailing list of names and email addresses you will communicate to on a regular basis? A blog is an excellent way to do that.
• Do you want to build a community where members can interact with you and with each other? A blog is an excellent way to do that, too.
• Do you have someone on staff who can write professional blog posts on a regular basis? If not, do you have a budget that allows for hiring a ghost blogger?

Services and Pricing

In the past few years I’ve set up many self-hosted WordPress blogs and assisted and consulted on others. I’ve written and edited posts for my own blogs and other blogs, and I’ve read many blogs so I have a good idea of what a blog should and can look like.

WordPress can be used to build a website for your business that you can easily edit yourself, whether or not you want a blog to be part of that. I can help you make a new WordPress site or add a blog to your existing site. And I can help you learn to use WordPress, or write posts for your blog.

Ghost blogging: $30 per post of approximately 300 – 450 words on a topic I am familiar with or for which you provide a list of relevant facts. Or $30 per hour for blogging that doesn’t fit these criteria ($20 per hour if you hire me to write for you on a regular basis).

Guest blog post on a topic related to one of my blogs: Free if you agree to write a guest post for one of my blogs as well and post a link back to my site. Topics I generally write about are Marketing, Design, Writing, Android and Graphic Arts/Digital Scrapbooking.

Setting up a WordPress blog: $200 for a simple WordPress blog (could be more, depending on features (this does not include writing posts)).

My fee for copywriting is an hourly fee, based on how long it takes me to write the copy. This applies both to web copy and copy for printed marketing products.

Copywriting: $20-30 per hour, depending on frequency.