How to Use Small Business Saturday to Fuel Sales Into The New Year

Now is the time for you to engage your holiday shoppers especially if you are a small business owner. Yes, everyone puts a big emphasis on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but what about Small Business Saturday? Held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving annually since 2010, Small Business Saturday puts local, independent businesses in the spotlight and encourages consumers to include them in their holiday shopping destinations. The weeks leading up to the December holidays are important. How can the locally owned business gear up to boost sales and attract customers for the weeks ahead?

Here are 5 key Strategies to make your Small business Saturday a success this year:

1. Make sure to market unique holiday Items: This is where you, as an independently owned establishment, have a big advantage over the big business box stores. You can stock unique items all year round  that they don’t offer - use this to your advantage. This holiday season should be where you strive to capitalize on these specialty items. Getting your store’s name out there is rather easy especially within your local area. Using a local charity to advertise your unique gifts by word of mouth in your community is a great way to get people to come see what you have by giving away gift cards or gift certificates.This should bring in regular and new customers. Another way is to partner with locally  independent artists such as craftsmen, screen printers and other professionals in your local area. They tend to provide unique goods one cannot find anywhere else, which will help in stocking unique one of a kind gifts.   

2. Make sure you have engaging online content: Keeping up with your website content is very important. Making sure you have a lot of photos and holiday suggestions and blog talking about what you have and how to use the products in creative ways will keep the potential customers engaged and liking what they see. Use different types of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to allow the customers to see your holiday wares, but make sure to use these other effective methods as well: email marketing, mobile marketing and text messaging. Remember to be creative with your displays, pictures and layouts. This is a way of giving customers ideas for what you offer. This will also give them ideas for what they would like to do as far as seasonal entertainment, dining and decorating or gift ideas.

3. Make it personal: Personalizing offers are something you, as a small business, can offer that the big chains can’t compete with. Chain retailers tend to have the one size fits all mentality when it comes to holiday offers and sales. Local independent businesses can take advantage and customize their holiday marketing to include compelling, personalized offers during  the holiday that are tailored to the unique buying habits and preferences of their customers and other members of their target audiences.Know what you customers are already geared to buy towards is the most effective way to be prepared yes you tend to find new customers but it is always good to make sure to have staples that will keep customers coming back again and again.
4. Help your Customer through suggestions: Don’t automatically assume that your customers know what you have, or even what they want, during the holiday season. Remember to send them helpful reminders of what you offer. Let them know you enjoy and appreciate their company, as well as their loyalty. Send them a coupon and a holiday card let them know you offer gift cards or certificates to your store, and give them a preview of  what you have for regular items as well holiday gift ideas. Use online and offline marketing channels to make specific suggestions pairing what you have to sell for their co-workers, friends, family members, party hosts, teachers and others that might be on their gift list during the holidays.

5. Give them a reason to come back: Use different types of online marketing as well as customer contact information so you can send them a reason to come back. Offer a bounce back offer in the new year or even another one before the holiday. Either way, be sure to punctuate a reward that will be redeemable at their next visit, whether it be before the holiday or in the new year the idea is to keep yourself visible to them so they will keep coming back to see you.

Using these 5 key strategies will allow you to engage your customer as well as keep them interested in the unique gifts you can offer them this holiday season. Make sure to keep it personal by showing them that you appreciate their customer loyalty and allowing them to see that you give a personal touch to their experience, which will keep them coming back.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday getting ready for the season

Based on the data from last year’s holiday shopping, it’s easy to see how retailers will prepare for the 2013 holiday shopping season. Below are six key elements business owners should consider in order to optimize sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Be prepared for mobile: Mobile device use this year is going to be huge as far as purchasing. We saw a change from how people made their transactions during christmas from 2011 to 2012. There is an expected growth to be about 17% quoted by Forbes Magazine. Making sure your website is optimized for different kinds of mobile devices will make a difference in traffic and sales. Keep in mind that all mobile devices are different and need to be addressed individually (no one likes to go on your site on a 10 inch screen just to have the mobile experience). Remember a smartphone user’s experience is different than a tablet user’s experience. Either way, you should make sure your website optimizes to fit all mobile experiences.

Use your Facebook Business Page for exposure: Even though a lot of companies aren’t seeing a lot of sales on facebook, your Business Page can drive a lot of traffic to your ecommerce website. Facebook is the number one generator of traffic outside of the search engines. So if you want to gear people on social media toward retail this will help. The idea is to use your facebook business page and engage potential customers by using forms of media to create interest and discussions. The more interactions you engage in the more potential customers your ecommerce site will have.

The two things you have to focus on with your Facebook Business Page is:

1. Who is liking it: You need to make sure to add like buttons to your ecomerce store, so that people can like, share and comment on your products - exposing you to their Facebook “friends.” You also need to be part of the social discussion if someone comments on your Facebook posts, you should correspond with them. This simple interaction can build potential customers just like when people come to your store to look around.’

2. What kind of traffic is following to your store: Figuring out what kind of traffic your page is alluring is important. Using this as a test of what people are saying about your brand is a good way to get people to flow to your page and knowing what they are discussing about your product is important that way these comments aren’t going straight to your website.

I found this to be surprising fact, but did you know that in 2012, merchants experienced a 35% decrease in shoppers referred from social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube? According to VentureBeat, 22% of online shoppers and 21% of offline shoppers decided to make purchases after seeing a printed flyer or catalog. Facebook influenced a mere 15% of online purchases and 12% of offline purchases, while Twitter and Pinterest influenced 10% each.There is some value in going back to the basics, and there may be a growth in printed advertising for the  2013 shopping season. This traditional way to promote goods will always prove to be effective especially since children can easily circle the toys they want Santa to bring them for Christmas. However, keep in mind though, like my blogs in the past have stated,  multi-channel marketing is more important than ever this year with the increase of online shopping sales.

Make sure that you are visible during this season: While it is important to own your own website using companies like Amazon and ebay, as well as overstock.com, can help to optimize your visibility and boost sales. Remember, use any means possible to get your brand out there so  you are able to  reach as many customers as possible on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Most important thing to  remember is your mission is to  simply offer the best deals and make sure customers can find you.

Be prepared for Cyber Monday traffic. Don’t let your server give you a traffic jam: Cyber Monday is the biggest online shopping day of the year. Make sure you (and your server) are prepared for the increase in traffic to your site.  It’s a competitive market, out there and if your site fails, then you will have a lot of  frustrated customers that will simply go somewhere else to find what they need,  so don’t let them get impatient.  If the site is down for an extended period of time, or even just sluggish, this could  result in a lot of  potential sales being lost.

Make sure to have your QR codes ready for both your online as well as your offline: These are an important to both online catalogs as well as retail stores. These days there are so many customers that have mobile devices that can look up reviews and ratings, or view content from the retailers on the products and prices online. Customers Using mobile devices to get the best price is common since it  allows them to shop for items in a store and compare them to  prices online. Here is where QR Codes can help the retailer, they will allow the customer  to compare the best price online to your price which will allow you to match the price of the item to your online competitor and beat it.That way you don’t lose sales to online stores. What retailers need to understand is that you are competing with online sellers and using QR Codes are away to bridge the gap between losing sales to the online competition.

Don't forget the old standbys:

Email marketing: This is something that you don’t do last minute.  You need to be building a rapport with people with an email campaign all year round so they are receptive to your emails and are more likely to open them during the holiday season. This will let your customers know that you are sending valuable offers.

  

Shipping: Get your shipping policies determined early. this way customers know what to expect for costs. Letting customers know how much shipping will cost up to this day it will be this much. Then you will have to offer expedited price which will be this much up until the point where they will have to overnight it or two day air their purchase. When it is too close to christmas and you can no longer have it sent out and make it there before christmas you should still have a button that allows the customers to print a picture of the item they purchased so that the recipient of the gift can see what will be coming.

It is important to be prepared for two of the busiest shopping days of the year. Make sure your customers are aware of the benefits of shopping with you via email/direct marketing and social media. Provide a convenient shopping experience for your customers by optimizing your retail stores with QR codes, and ensuring your hardware is adequate to handle drastic spikes in the volume online traffic and in store sales. Making a lasting positive impression will not just help your sales during this notorious time of increased consumerism, but can also help you create and retain a larger base of loyal customers. Also, remember that the times when people are trying to shop the best deals are between December 10-24, so make them want to come back to your store.

What you Need Know: The Basics of Choosing your Ecommerce Solution

There are plenty of ecommerce vendors that can help you get started creating an eCommerce site. Last week, I wrote about only six of those solutions, but there are many more. If you missed my post last week, read it here. This week, we will cover the basic issues to consider when selecting the right ecommerce platform to suit your needs now, and your goals for the future. Finding the right solution for your business can be tricky and just know that doing it quickly and cheaply isn’t the way to go. Just as with any type of investment, you get what you pay for. The nicer your ecommerce store looks and functions, the longer people will want to stay on it, and the more they will come back.

How can I customize the look of my online store?

In most cases your company already has a website so your ecommerce site will reflect your existing online look including your logos and color schemes. If you don't have a business website you can use a template and customize it by choosing a  background and different fonts and colors for your ecommerce site that complement your logo.Most design templates from ecommerce vendors come with preset themes and settings that don't require HTML to customize. So, it should be relatively easy to upload your logo and product images and add banners, slideshows etc. However, if you plan to have your site highly customized, you will want to choose a solution that allows you to (either by an external or internal design staff) modify the HTML. Most drag and drop style site builders, like Shopify, Bigcommerce and Goodsie are built to be simple, and therefore have limitations when it comes to customizing. Just keep in mind, when budgeting for this project, you will want to make a decision on what solution will meet your design needs/budget now, and will grow with you into the future.

What type of payment system will I use?

Many online stores use  PayPal when they are first starting out, mainly because it is so widely known as a secure system for accepting online payments without a gateway. They also have no sign-up or fixed monthly charges. They offer a basic service, but use them with caution because  their sellers fees are 2.9% of total sale + $0.30 per transaction - that can add up quickly. Still, many shoppers prefer to pay for online purchases with their own credit cards rather than use PayPal. In order to cater to your customers preferences (which is a good idea, if you want them to recommend you to their friends, and buy more stuff from you) is to use a merchant processing service in conjunction with a payment gateway service. Some ecommerce vendors have integrated these service into their solutions. For example, NCR Retail Online processes credit cards through NCR Merchant Solutions (merchant processing) and payment information is routed through NCR SecurePay (the payment gateway). If you choose to accept multiple payment methods, I recommend you select an ecommerce solution that offers the payment processing and gateway because you will be able to get lower pricing on fees, and may even get discounts on other applications and services. You can choose to obtain a merchant account with each individual credit card company and utilize an independent payment gateway, like Authorize.net. This can become a hassle when it comes to card settlement, fees and subscriptions, so proceed with caution, and get rate comparisons, if choosing this option.

How will I handle returns?

Every store has to deal with returned items. Your online store will be no different. Make sure to check that your ecommerce vendor to see what they provide for a  built-in tools for this, they should be able to provide you the ability to  quickly and easily replace merchandise or refund items for purchased price as well as  restock your inventory and send emails to customers about the status of their return.

How will I handle customer service?

Do you plan to outsource your customer service to a call center, or will you handle it internally? The right solution for you will depend on the size of your staff and your order volume. There is no magic formula here, only you know what is best for your business. You will want to have access to a customer relationship manager (CRM) tool, whether fully integrated with your ecommerce solution, or as an external solution. You will want the ability to track order history, pending orders, contact and shipping information and feedback/complaints from your customers. Shopify does have an entry-level CRM, but is mostly used for reporting and marketing purposes, and does not appear to be designed to handle customer feedback.  I recommend using an ecommerce solution integrated with retail management software, as they have a built-in CRM.The best way for you to handle (CRM) in my opinion is to just do it yourself by  getting a toll-free number specifically dedicated to customer service. That way you can handle and manage your own reputation, and have a better overall customer satisfaction. Another option is to set up a live chat in your online store but only if you can operate it 24/7 because you have to remember that online shoppers have come to expect full service anytime.

How will I determine shipping costs?

It's often easier  to leave shipping cost calculations to your customer. The majority of carriers will calculate shipping costs for you for free, and most major ecommerce vendors allow you to integrate those costs into your store's checkout section.Most of the time companies tend to offer free shipping as a discount on purchase over a certain price.  You may want to consider offering this to your customers, but only if you can afford to.

How will I create appeal for the products on my site?

The best thing to do to create this appeal is to have a crisp, clear product image.This is not a place to cut corners or go cheap. Hire a photographer, or use someone who can produce high-quality images. You should use a 16-megapixel DSLR camera and make sure you have decent lighting via a light box ( A photo lightbox is a tent-like container with several light bulbs aimed at its interior that photography professionals often use to create well-illuminated images of objects). Always write a very short product description, but use powerful, rich descriptions that will pique customers’ interest. Make sure to use adjectives and phrases that evoke emotion, but don’t get too carried away. Here are things you must include: price, product uses, dimensions and some defining characteristics. Use relevant terms, as they will improve your SEO, increasing the chances people searching for your products will find them.

Should I allow customer reviews and social sharing?

YES! Giving customers the ability to comment on your products and leave rating of them will help build trust in you and your company. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out my previous posts on social media as a means to manage your reputation. Positive reviews and social media shares could lead to more sales and potential customers. There's also the risk of negative comments, which will allow you to show your customers how your shop deals with customer satisfaction. Several major ecommerce services offer customer review options that allow you to respond to, or remove undesirable comments but the best thing to do is not to remove a comment, but rather find a way to resolve it and allow other potential customers to see it not all old school ways are gone.

How will I attract shoppers?

After your store is up and running, spread the word both online and off. Placing links to your store's web address on your company's main website and in your email newsletter campaigns would be a good start. If you can regularly update several social media outlets, set up Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube accounts representing your online store. Updating your company's social media sites a few times a day can drive traffic to your store by drawing attention to daily deals and other promotions. You should give your customers the ability to attract new customers for you by enabling them to  "like", “share” and “pin” your products and descriptions on social media outlets like Facebook, Pinterest, etc. It's also advisable to choose an ecommerce vendor that optimizes your store's content for search engines.

The Significance of Bringing eCommerce to Your Small Business

Owning a successful business in today’s society is hard. You have to be prepared to compete in a global market, not just a local one. Gone are the days of the family-owned toy stores down the road, like you see in the movies. People just aren’t at home, waiting by the mailbox for the Sears catalog to come. These days everything comes with instant gratification: a couple clicks and your Christmas shopping is done, without even leaving your chair, let alone your house. This is what you, as a store owner, have to be ready to compete with in today’s market. So you need to think about how investing in ecommerce could increase your reach and your sales beyond your local market. I know it is hard to come to terms with the idea that we can’t just be the family store down the road that everyone knows and loves. We all want to live in a close-knit community where everyone knows their neighbors, but, let’s face it, we live in a society where most people socialize and purchase their goods online. Think about our grocery stores: most of our produce, eggs, milk, etc. come from other states, even when there are farms right down the road and in neighboring towns. Most of our electronics and other goods come from other countries. So why would you expect your customers to act any differently? The average consumer (which is who you want to appeal to, as they hold the largest share of the market) will, by nature, find the most convenient and least expensive method of procuring their needs and wants. This is why, as a shop owner, you should invest time into implementing an ecommerce site. There is no more big fish in a small pond today, you now are a small fish in a big pond. Allow yourself the chance to grow your business and take it to the next level.

In this two week series, we will uncover some common ecommerce options and their pros and cons, the importance of customization, and important options to consider regarding payment processing, customer service and product reviews. We’ll start with the important stuff first:

What’s out there?

Some popular stand-alone ecommerce solutions:

• Shopify: the Pros to shopify: it has an easy to use template,  which you can optimize the design, you can easily add and organize product and create blog posts from a single administration dashboard. It has built-in mobile commerce that includes iPhone app and mobile storefront, marketing tools, coupon codes, integrates with Google Analytics which will allow you to automatically track customer purchases and shopping cart transactions, easily connects to Google Analytics data and has built-in features that can track your stores analytics and progress over time. The cons that I have found while researching Shopify is that not only do you have to pay merchant fees and PayPal fees, you also have to pay Shopify 2% of your total sales.That could total up to at least 5 ½ to 6% in fees. Another Con it has is that it doesn’t handle a full featured Multi-category store. If  your store deals with a lot of categories and sub-catagories Shopify isn’t the ecommerce platform for your needs.
• Bigcommerce: here are the pros to Bigcommerce platform: it is a good choice for any small business that wants to start an online store and maintain an eBay business. Bigcommerce offers features for hosting, store design, SEO, mobile commerce, marketing and inventory. Plus you can integrate your online stores with eBay listings from within the Bigcommerce platform. Bigcommerce offers easy-to-use wizards to create trackable coupons that give customers a dollar or percentage discount on their order. The cons of big commerce are there is no built in email marketing solution. Not really a problem if you prefer to use MailChimp or Aweber, but some people like to keep everything in one package. They have proven to have unreliable support at times, list all options and settings (even if you have disabled them), and they do not have an efficient method for creating wholesaler logins. If you need to support both retail and wholesale customers, Bigcommerce is not for you.
• Goodsie: Is really simple to use. New merchants who are able to use Google’s Gmail or Docs will have no problem with Goodsie. It’s easy to accept payments via PayPal, has basic reporting is abillity. It will get a new merchant with limited resources moving — and even profiting — until the store is a bit more grown up then you will see it’s limitations. So here are the downsides: the service lacks many of the onsite marketing tools and features that can take an ecommerce business from good to great. For example, every ecommerce store can benefit from a blog, which is not really available on Goodsie. So a merchant will need to open a blog on another platform and link to it from the Goodsie site.There was also nothing like wishlists, product comparisons, product reviews, or layered and faceted navigation. There was not even a site search that I could find.There are also a few non-merchandising parts of the service that could improve, including image support on pages. Design choices are limited too — as is often the case with “easy-to-use” platforms.Bottom line, if you want to open an ecommerce store on a shoestring budget, Goodsie is a good option.
• Volusion: Is a good platform for businesses that have recurring business and subscriptions type business such as coffee, vitamins and consumables. Cons to volusions that I found were complaints of cart timing out resulting in loss of orders as well as upset customers when your online store drops their order. Since Volusion started hosting their own websites, customers seem to be struggling with downtime with their sites.

Some popular ecommerce solutions that integrate into brick-and-mortar retail management software:

• NCR Retail Online: the fully integrated companion to NCR CounterPoint offers a full, robust solution. Here are all the add-ons and modifications that you are able to fully integrate to NCR Retail Online. The integration agent automatically transfers items, categories, customers, orders, and more between CounterPoint and your webstore. Data exchange occurs every 15 minutes from the website to CounterPoint, and from CounterPoint to the website every 30 minutes. Pros: items, categories, prices, inventory quantities, etc. come straight from CounterPoint, so you only have to enter the information once. Online orders download automatically, so you do not have to re-key orders. Inventory adjusts automatically, whether an order is placed online or in the store. Cons: higher upfront costs for implementation and setup than the stand-alone ecommerce solutions.

• UniteU: integrates with many retail management software solutions (CounterPoint and RetailPro v9, for example). Their Retail API boasts a robust feature sets for asset management, ratings & reviews, shopping cart and checkout. Cons: you may need to have an internal IT resource to manage the integration after initial implementation.

• Intuit: integrates with Homestead (formerly Intuit Websites) offers an easy site builder, customizable templates, royalty free images, product management, no start up fee and a free trial. Marketing tools and other features can be added on for an additional monthly fee. Cons: Only the Advanced Storefront Enterprise option is integratable with your existing back-end system. The pricing is not very transparent, and you may get locked into higher credit card processing fees.

Stand-alone Ecommerce vs. Integrated Ecommerce: Which is better?

It really depends on your business and its unique needs of which would be a better fit for your business. Both solutions have pros and cons. For instance, if you don’t have a brick and mortar store, and you aren’t in need for inventory control, and all you are running  is an ecommerce store site, I would highly recommend using a stand-alone solutions to fit all your business needs. However, if you are a brick and mortar retailer looking to expand your reach, and add convenience for your customers, then it would be wise to invest in an integrated ecommerce solution. Whatever you choose to do, make sure to review a few solutions and determine which one will best meet the needs of your business now, and will sustainable solution for your business in the future.

Establishing a Reputation Through Social Media

Reputation management for a business is one of those things that a lot of  businesses do not think about investing in but is very necessary. Most companies don’t even think of it when things are going well with your business, but  why would they? Who wants to think of what could happen scenarios? The sad reality is It only takes only one bad review or unsatisfied customer to affect your business and its reputation, especially these days with the rise of internet traffic. The one thing  you don’t want to have happen is a bad review coming  up first for a web result. This is why building a reputation through social media and other platforms is so important.  That is why you have to look at reputation management as an on going strategy that you need to invest in. Here are some easy ways to use the top online marketing strategies to put out good content about your business which will ensure that the best reviews and content  about your business always rise to the top of search engines.

Content Marketing to Build A Good  Reputation

Content marketing has become an essential part of any business these days. Most businesses have been taking advantage of blogging, infographics, podcasting, and videos to boost exposure for their business. The object is to produce quality content interest prospective clients.

Here are some key ways to make sure that your content works at protecting your reputation.

1. Google Authorship. If you’re working to protect your personal name, Google Authorship can be a big help to you and your business. If you have a Google+ profile, just simply follow the directions on how to link your profile to the content you create. This will help Google know that the content is yours and put your name, photo, and link back to your profile next to any pieces of content it can connect to you.
2. Make Sure to Get Your Name and Business in the Title of the content You Make. One of the best ways to make content come up quickly when people search your name or your business is to add it in the title. Consider naming your company after something that people will commonly search for, but is unique enough it will come to the top of the search.
3. Create separate domains. Companies who are actively working on their reputation management tend to create different domains for different purposes. For example: GoDaddy.com,  has separate domains for their Executive Chairman’s blog, charity work, tutorials, and a community for their business owners. That makes sense, they really don’t want to be associated with the site directly because their Executive Chairman’s blog and charity work are two totally separate divisions and types of content than what their main site’s reputation and content is.
4. Get mentioned in the media. Ever wonder how some people and businesses get mentioned in major media outlets? Well, stop wondering and start making it happen by subscribing to HARO. They offer varying levels of subscription from free on up.They send out emails with requests from reporters looking to get input for their upcoming articles, interviews and blog posts. Make sure to get mentioned on a big enough site and you are bound to show up in search results.
5. Do some guest blogging. Particularly look for sites that allow you to have a dedicated author page… Here are two free sites and their details to get you started.

• BloggerLinkUp: members receive e-mails three times a week that list host bloggers looking for expert sources, guest posts and product reviews. Interested writers then respond directly to the requestors with their proposed content. The website notes its intent is to provide leads and introductions, leaving the guest blogging matchmaking up to the writers and host bloggers via exchange of and sifting through e-mails.
• My Blog Guest :links guest bloggers and blog owners together with no costs for either party. Guest authors retain ownership of their content and agree not to publish the same content on any other blogs, to keep the writing provided to the hosting site unique and original. This site places an emphasis on guest blogging as a way to build your reputation and relationships in a particular subject area.

Social Media Marketing for Reputation

Next forum to help you to build your reputation is social media. This one is pretty simple and easy - if you want to use social media to build a positive reputation online you have to  create social media profiles for yourself and your business, but you need to keep them active and up to date. This means that you need to take the time to put in the effort to maintain them. Social media is useful only when it is relevant. So if you aren’t going to keep it up to date with by sharing content, then it’s not going to be an effective tool for your business.

Here are the Top social networks you need to consider for establishing a Reputation (most of these will allow you to have an idea of traffic to your site as well as analytics for your business)

1. Facebook – Personal Profiles, Business Pages, Groups, and Apps.
2. Twitter – Profiles for yourself and your business.
3. LinkedIn – Professional Profiles, Company Pages, and Groups.
4. Google+ – Personal Profiles, Business Pages, and Local Places.
5. Pinterest – Personal Profiles and the new Business Profiles.
6. YouTube – Profiles for yourself and your business.

The best part about having all of these social networks is that you can use them to promote the content you are creating. The more relevant the pieces of content are, the more likely it is to rank well in search for your name or your business.

Search Engine Marketing for Reputation Management

The whole idea behind using social media for building a reputation is to make sure your company ranks well in search results. It is also  to make sure positive information about you and your business top your results when prospective clients look you up. So you need to apply the same boosting strategies to your content and social profiles that you would to anything you want to rank well in a search like your company’s website. This includes the following.

1. Interlinking everything that is relevant to your business. Include social profile links on your blogs, internal links from one piece of content to another, links to your blogs from your main website, and so forth.
2. Building links to your content and social profiles is important and making sure they have relevant up to date information is essential. Look for opportunities to add links to your blogs and social profiles anywhere you can naturally. Networking to do guest posts or author bios, and group communities are good places to start putting out good content and create an interest for your company.
3. Encouraging others to link to your blogs and social profiles. By accepting requests from people on social media sites and blog post will help you to build closer community with your customers and allow you to answer questions and build interest with fellow communities and build your reputation with them as well.

In today’s marketplace you have to make a social presence  and the only way to do that is to establish a reputation through social media. Utilizing these different types of social media platforms will allow you to establish positive content that will make your business stick out and rise above your competition, and  It will also allow customers  to realize your business is a  legitimate one that has real people and a store not just a website and no employees.