Business Growth Time

Nick is the owner of Tech Nick Creative, a web marketing company in Minneapolis, MN. At night, he dreams about social media, web design, blog strategy, and other ways to help small and medium companies grow using the web. Nick is a speaker and instructor on social media strategy, teaching a course on the topic at Century College, Argosy University, and North Hennepin Community College. He just release his new social media book called "Shout in the Right Direction."

What we cover in this interview with Nick:

• Connect with Nick on Twitter: @nickrosener
• New Book: Shout in the Right Direction
• Biggest Challenges - figuring out your segments
• Once you figure out your segment, think about where they hang out
• Each social network is like a different language
• Maybe you shouldn't be trying to use every platform
• Imaginary Sales Person Exercise
• Tracking Systems - Hootsuite
• Have everything come back to the marketing segments
• What is your core purpose for being in business?
• Campaign calendar (instead of an editorial calendar)
• Narrow campaign to a specific goal
• Different types of metrics to measure

Action Steps to take in the next 24 hours:

Make a campaign for 1 month. 1 basic thing. Write down a Smart Goal. Then write down the ACTION PLAN.

Implement this in the next month.

Reach out to Nick or his co-author Eric on Twitter: Use #shoutbook

Find this book on Amazon - Kindle or Paperback

Lisa and Janet discuss image ideas and why to use images in this post. If you are interested in all the slides from this show and the 1st part of the series, they are available at SocialMediaHangoutTime.com/Guide. You will also receive our Social Media Content Guide when you sign up, so lots of great information for you. Janet starts out by reading 5 stats for Marketers to Consider on using images from the book, The Power of Visual Storytelling by Ekaterina Walter and Jessica Gioglio.

5 Key Stats from the book:

1. 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed in the brain 60, 000 times faster than text.
2. 40% of people respond better to visual information than to plain text.
3. Studies have shown that the average modern adult attention span is somewhere between 2.8 seconds and 8 seconds.
4. The visual networks Tumblr, Pinterest, and Instagram all grew during 2012, dubbed the "the rise of the social web" by ComScore.
5. 94% more total views on average are attracted by content containing compelling images than content without images.

10 Image Tips Covered:

1. Ask your fans to share their photo moments.
2. Share a picture of management taking part in the day to day operations.
3. Offer a Series of Photographs. Focus on a specific subject or timeframe of importance to your audience.
4. Share an image to celebrate a milestone for your business or organization.
5. Word images aren't made for paragraphs of texts so edit the message and keep it to no more than a sentence or two.
6. Check text color that contrasts with the background you're going to place the text over.
7. Choose images with areas that lend themselves to have text added.
8. Turn the answers to your FAQ's into an Image.
9. Teach a lesson using an infographic.
10. In order to trace a word image back to your business, make sure that the last step you do when creating the image is to add a mention of your business somewhere on the image.

Looking for content ideas to post on your Social Media sites?  Then you will love our Guide!  You can Download the Ultimate Guide to Social Media Content Creation...and it is absolutely free. Ways to subscribe to the Social Media Hangout Time Show or Podcast:

Brian Horn and Jack Mize are interviewed in this show.  Brian is a best-selling author who has helped many top celebrity entrepreneurs in the world with the online branding, search engine optimization and internet marketing.  Jack is a speaker, author, trainer and one of the most respected and sought after Online Media Marketing Strategists for small business owners and and local marketing consultants.

They discuss how they teach people how to build authority.  They have a show called Authority Alchemy.

Core of an authority...start thinking of yourself as an educator and advocate for your customer's success.

Some major points covered by Brian and Jack in this interview:

• Be an educator and advocate for your client's success
• Move how you introduce from 'I am...' to 'I help...'
• Be authentic, show flaws, not be afraid to be a real person
• Story lines - Brian's '90210 Formula' - 5 is the magic #
• Create anxiety and curiosity to your target market
• Using Profile on Facebook vs Page on Facebook - Brian explains how he uses his profile
• Use humor and use motivation in your posts
• Not using your profile to sell, but make people want to buy

Action Steps to take in the next 24 hours

1. Jack's Tip: Focus on your current customers and give them a reason to have them want to refer you to your family and friends.  Go to your 'About Me' on Facebook and other social sites.  Make sure it is reading 'I help...' vs 'I am...'
2. Brian's Tip: Head to become a contributor on CNN. Link is ireport.cnn.com.  Apply for an account.  Post a news story.  Post it.  Share link of story and now you have the authority of being on CNN.

The authority marketing really does work! Little things can

FUN NOTE:  Around the 8 minute mark in the video, Kimmy cracks a funny joke to Jack. ;)

Kimmy and Janet interview Nathan Latka, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of  Heyo.com.

Heyo helps businesses market on Facebook. We work with over 2,000 customers and brands on a monthly basis with over 100,000 total users. - 147% revenue growth from FY1 to FY2.  Named a top tech trend for small businesses by The Next Web and also Featured in Facebook Marketing for Dummies.

In this interview we cover:

• How Nathan came up with the idea of Heyo
• What does Heyo offer?  Who is it for?
• 1.2 Billion unique users logging into Facebook per month
• How to use Heyo to capture emails, drive engagement, drive sales via Facebook and other social sites
• Drag and drop campaigns that saves time and money
• New Contest Campaigns
• Is it mobile-friendly? Yes! Why that's so IMPORTANT!
• Goal is to convert into leads
• What are the best 3 apps (tabs) to set up for a small business?
• How simple Heyo is to use - No coding needed
• How Heyo can help a business stand out and be unique
• How a business got 17,000 impressions and collected 4,500 email addresses on a campaign that took less than 30 minutes to set up!  Conversion with no ads was 25%!

Action Step a Business should do to take action in the next 24 hours:

• Head over to Heyo.com and sign up for a FREE account.  Use the 1st contest you see on the upper right.  Set it an offer and test it out!

Want to run a Timeline contest?  Try Heyo's Timeline Contest Creator:  Timeline Contests Heyo App

 Head to Heyo.com to try it out for FREE today!  

 Why does Janet recommend and use Heyo herself?

• Simplicity
• Great customer care

Connect with Nathan:  On Twitter - @Nathanlatka  or @Heyo

Chat or Call them anytime at 1-800-884-8640 - Chris, Brooks, Wes or Nathan

Yes!  Grandma Mary came on our show and boy did we have a fun time of learning!  She had so much great advice to simplify your Facebook marketing strategies.

Who is Grandma Mary?  Here's a little secret...she is really Andrea Vahl.  (We discuss how this came about on our show)

Andrea is the co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies and was the Community Manager for Social Media Examiner, for over 2 years.  She specializes in teaching Facebook marketing and Facebook advertising to businesses all over the world.  She also uses her Improv comedy skills to blog as a slightly cranky character, Grandma Mary – Social Media Edutainer on her site at www.AndreaVahl.com.

Points discussed and taught by Grandma Mary:

• Don't be afraid to be different.  Have fun with what you like doing.
• How Andrea got started with Grandma Mary
• The drop in organic reach for Facebook Page owners
• Types of posts that help your page get seen - she talks about how she did a specific test putting Facebook, Twitter, Google+ up against each other
• Types of posts Grandma Mary suggests (Top 2 types) - #1: Photos #2: Link Posts
• Humor Posts work well - People are on Facebook to have fun
• Time to pay to play
• Her Facebook ad training program:  FBAdvertisingSecrets.com
• Ads Manager vs Power Editor - Blog Post: When you Need to Use Facebook Power Editor and When you Don't
• Budget with ads -  Blog Post: How to Set your Facebook Ads Budget
• Using ads to move people to your email list
• Tracking your ad conversions
• Offers to use on Facebook
• Test and Track