How To Use LinkedIn To Grow Your Business

February 6th, 2010
How To Use LinkedIn To Grow Your Business Online

How To Use LinkedIn To Grow Your Business Online

These past couple of weeks, we’ve been bombarded by clients asking us how they can best take advantage of LinkedIn and and other networking sites to grow their business. This has spurred us to write this post with a few tips on how to use LinkedIn to grow your business online.

LinkedIn is an online network of more than 8.5 million professionals from around the world representing 130 industries. People use LinkedIn as a tool to grow their database of contacts, find new ideas, partners, identifying the right people at as a customer or prospect  and opportunities for growing their business in their chosen industry.

So how can you use LinkedIn to grow your business:

  1. When you have significant news about changes in your business, new product/service lunchings etc, a good platform to announce such is to update your profile on LinkedIn with this information. This creates instant awareness to all persons you are connected to on LinkedIn.
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  3. You can use LinkedIn as a channel to connect with old colleagues and classmates who may now be prospects or potential customers of your products or services.
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  5. By joining specialized groups on LinkedIn, you are in a position to gain expert advice and gather a broader perspective on how others in the same industry are able to cope with different challenges in the industry and also about your competitors.
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  7. If you have a company website, you can place a link from your LinkedIn company profile to your company website and vice versa, just as we have done on our Mauco company profile on LinkedIn. This thereby helps to improve your visibility on search engines like Google. When people now search for you or your company online, they now have various channels from which get a proper understanding about you, your product and services.
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  9. By your meaningful contributions to in group and forum discussions on LinkedIn and answering questions raised by other LinkedIn users, you are able to position as a leader in your industry and hopefully by word of mouth, referrals, etc you would be able to increase your client base.
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These and many more are some of the benefits you derive from creating a profile on LinkedIn. Do you have a linkedin Profile? What other benefits have you got from having a LinkedIn profile? Feel free to comment below. You comments are welcome.

5 Benefits of Social Media Marketing for your Business

January 31st, 2010
social media marketing

social media

Here at Mauco Internet Consultants this past few weeks, we’ve been trying to sensitize our clients on the benefits of social media and the need to adopt some form of social media marketing into their marketing mix. We thought it would be nice to share with you some benefits of social media marketing for your business. So what is social media and how can it benefit your business?

Social media marketing is the process of promoting your website or business through social media channels like blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Today a rapidly growing number of small businesses are including social media ideas and strategies in their goals. The immense number of people who participate in social media websites has led to increased investment in the growing field of social media marketing.

If it isn’t already, social media marketing should be an integral part of your marketing mix. Social media marketing is a long term and time consuming investment and if done properly, can be very rewarding. This doesn’t mean that you have to jump on the bandwagon and launch an account on Facebook or Twitter for your business without giving some taught to the basics.

Often the social media channels you choose depends to a large extent on your product/service and your target audience. Let’s highlight just 5 benefits of social media makreting in your business.

Benefits:

  1. The natural nature of social media marketing means your brand is exposed to large groups of people in a spontaneous fashion. This differs from paid advertising which has overt commercial overtones.
  2. Social media marketing is defensible because once successfully mastered and implemented in your business, the social communities that you gather can be a great source of web traffic on top of any traffic you are already receiving from search engines.
  3. If done properly social media marketing guarantees low cost and high returns. If done by yourself, social media marketing costs are limited to only the time you spend on the site. But having your social media marketing campaign implemented by a professional is often better asthe benefits will often exceed the cost.
  4. It complements other efforts. Social media optimization and marketing is usually community-specific. It doesn’t interfere with any other methods of getting traffic to your website. It can and will fit perfectly with an advertising campaign targeting other websites or search engines.
  5. Social media marketing doesn’t directly make you money. Rather it helps you generate a community of fans who are interested in your website or brand and will help you advertise same through word of mouth. This in turn will eventually lead to the purchase of your brand.

The viral nature social media marketing is what makes it so interesting and worthwhile. A successful Social Media Marketing campaign leads to a lot more talk about your brand and website online. When your message works with your users, they will spread your message more effectively than tradition methods.

So, are you using social media marketing strategies in your small business? What has been your experience or challenges of using social media marketing in your business? What are your thoughts about using social media marketing in your business? Please share your comments below. Till next time….

How To Make Your Website Stand Out With Web Videos

January 21st, 2010
Web Videos

Web Videos

Does your business standout online? How can you make your business stand out from your competitors?

Professional web videos are the answer. There are different kind like:

  • Borderless video spokesperson (like this  borderless video here)
  • video headers
  • video banners
  • video presentations
  • video product demonstrations etc.

Any of these can bring your website to life with an online video person!

Incorporating video onto your existing website can provide one of the highest return-on-investment you can make in your online marketing campaign. With an Online Virtual Spokesperson on your website you can use it to:

  • Introduce your home page
  • Enhance your FAQ page
  • Create online tutorials
  • Drive call to action on lead forms
  • Guide your visitors to accomplish a certain task on your site etc.

Professional web videos help you engage with your website visitors, retain visitors that come to your website, thereby increasing your chances of making more money via your website. Also when setup properly professional web videos help you gain higher ranks on search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing.

You can choose to host and broadcast the video on your own site – if your hosting provider allows it – or on popular online video sites like You Tube. In most cases your online video spokesperson provider will host the video whilst you place a tiny link from your website to it. It is best you contact an internet consultant to guide you. We can assist you in getting one!

What (if any) has been your experience with professional web videos? Fee free to share your comments below.

5 Ways To Develop New Customer Opportunities

January 14th, 2010
5 Ways To Develop New Customer Opportunities

5 Ways To Develop New Customer Opportunities

You are probably aware that one of the hardest tasks for most small businesses is getting new customers. Here are 5 ways to develop on your new customer opportunities:

Gather Testimonials

This is one of the most powerful ways to influence new prospects about the value of doing business with you. It is always better to have someone else sing your praises than to do it yourself.

You can feature your customer testimonials on your website, newsletter, brochure, flyers etc. Your sales team can also use these testimonials in presentations to introduce your business to prospective customers.

Ask for Referrals

Amongst your existing customers lie some of your greatest fans! Ask your best customers to refer you to potential clients. Since they are already crazy about your product/service they would have no qualms recommending you to their friends/associates.

Build Partnerships

Connect with other businesses in related industries or in your area and work together to promote both of your products or services. Your partners could help promote your product/services to their customers, whilst you in turn promote their product/services to your customers. In most cases its a win-win situation!

Supporting Local Charities/NGO’s

You can pick a particular charity/NGO and choose to sponsor their activities through proceeds from the sale of your product/service. By supporting a local charity/NGO, you will deepen your relationships with current customers and build trust with new customers.

Networking

Joining a networking group – online/offline – is another excellent way to build your business. It helps you gain visibility and meet business owners and prospective customers and you can learn how your colleagues are faring in the current economy and meet others who might want to partner with you.

You are likely facing many challenges in this economy and Mauco Internet Consultants can empower businesses like yours with internet business solutions to make you more successful. Feel free to contact Mauco Internet Consultants for assistance. We would be glad to help!

If you know of any other ways to develop new customer opportunities that we have left out, feel free to share your comments below.

Wishing you the very best in your efforts to develop new customer opportunities in 2010.

Risk Free Elearning Trial Offer

January 5th, 2010
Risk Free Elearning Trial Offer

Risk Free Elearning Trial Offer

Do you have an upcoming requirement for any of these?
Development of an application for your business needs
Development or Hosting of a website or portal
Any other IT project
Give us an opportunity to bid for any of your web solutions and we’ll provide you 1 free
license to Windows 7 – The All New Experience (Worth $49USD) on our learning portal TeachmeIT.
What’s more, if our proposal is accepted and we win the opportunity to work with you on the project, the offer gets even better. In addition to the free license for Elementary Computer Training (Worth $49USD), your organization will be eligible to receive 1 license of our MS Office 2007 Productivity pack (worth $149USD) for one whole year!
If these offers appeal to you, all you need to do is fill up our <a href=”">contact form</a> with your project details and include your GSM/mobile number to allow our representative to get in touch with you. We’ll review your needs at OUR time and cost and provide you a very competitive quote.
You will have access to these courses as soon as our representative gets in touch with you and establishes a valid requirement for which we will create a solution and proposal. You will have access to these courses for 3 months regardless of whether our proposal is accepted or not…No obligations!!!
OFFER VALID TILL JANUARY 31, 2010. LIMITED TO THE FIRST 3 BIDS WE RECEIVE. TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLY.

Do you have an upcoming requirement for any of these?

  • Development of an application for your business needs
  • Development or Hosting of a website or portal
  • Any other IT project

For the first 5 Nigerian-based businesses to respond, give us an opportunity to bid for any of your web solutions and we’ll provide you 1 free license to Windows 7 – The All New Experience (Worth $49USD) on our learning portal TeachmeIT.

What’s more, if our proposal is accepted and we win the opportunity to work with you on the project, the offer gets even better. In addition to the free license for Windows 7 – The All New Experience (Worth $49USD), your organization will be eligible to receive 1 license of our MS Office 2007 Productivity pack (worth $149USD) for one whole year!

If these offers appeal to you, all you need to do is fill up our Contact Form with your project details and include your GSM/mobile number to allow our representative to get in touch with you. We’ll review your needs at OUR time and cost and provide you a very competitive quote.

You will have access to these courses as soon as our representative gets in touch with you and establishes a valid requirement for which we will create a solution and proposal. You will have access to these courses for 3 months regardless of whether our proposal is accepted or not…No obligations!!!

OFFER VALID TILL JANUARY 31, 2010. LIMITED TO THE FIRST 5 BIDS WE RECEIVE. TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLY. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REJECT ANY APPLICATION.