Wondering how transform social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter into powerful marketing tools for your business?

If you're like most small-to-medium business owners, you know that your clients, customers, and prospects are already spending a significant amount of their day browsing through their social media feeds, but did you know exactly how much time?

​Recent studies reveal that the average American consumer spends about 5 hours per day on their mobile device, and half that screen time involves social media sites. This makes social media an obvious place to focus your marketing efforts, however, chances are good you either don't have the time or the know-how it takes to manage multiple social media feeds - that's where automation can help.

​Economic difficulties aside, this is an exciting time for businesses and marketing. No, really. It can be.
 
We've been forced to try innovations we may have only talked about previously. Some of these include allowing our employees to work from home, finding new ways to engage with our audience, creating new offerings and services that meet the needs of our audience while also adhering to social distancing rules. It’s been exhausting but there’s a bright side too if you can start to see it for that.
 
Yes, this has been a challenging time but you also have the opportunity to lay the groundwork for things that will continue to serve you and your customers in the future. One of those things is video and if you're not using it right now you're missing an opportunity.
 
Whether your business is open or you were forced to close, you can use video to continue to interact with your audience and potentially create new revenue streams. Here are a few video ideas to get you started.

​Have you been hesitant to pay Facebook for your content to appear in your audience’s streams? Maybe you still remember the days when you could get good reach through just normal, consistent posting.
 
Those days are long gone.
 
If you want your audience to see you--and you really need that especially now--then you're going to have to “pay to play.”
 
But just handing over the money to Facebook won't bring you the traffic and sales you want. You need to learn how to write effective social media ads. And during the pandemic, the most effective content has changed a little. Here's what you need to know in order to create ads that drive sales while most businesses are shut down.

​Are you still marketing your business in the same way you were prior to the virus? I'm not asking about the content you post or what's in your ads. What marketing channels are you using?
 
If your business is still open, and you want it to remain so, you may need to change your marketing channels. Or at least reassess them. The marketing channels that are most effective for you now might not have worked a few weeks ago and vice versa.  
 
It’s time to take a closer look as to whether your audience is still attuned to the same things they were in February. It’s likely their lives have changed drastically and that may have altered where they are and what they’re paying attention to.
 

​About a week ago the people in my county received a very different type of emergency communication. I'm in a popular hurricane area so those who signed up for emergency text messages are no stranger to them. However, even when we were evacuated due to Hurricane Irma we didn't receive anything like this.
 
The first line of the text message was “be kind.” That took me aback and caused me to laugh a little. Be kind sounded a little like what our parents might’ve said to us as we were going off to kindergarten or--more appropriately--middle school.
 
Most of us probably think of ourselves as nice people. Being told to be kind seemed like a no-brainer. But being kind is more than just being nice.

Be honest. Do you love or hate video conferencing?
There's nothing more awkward than dialing in to a conference call only to find out it's a video conference call and you haven't showered since the weekend.