There’s 2 things every business owner must do in 2013. To talk about these important business trends, the guest on the Wednesday Edition of my Blog Talk Radio show is Rieva Lesonsky. Rieva is the CEO of GrowBiz Media, a media and custom content company focusing on small business and entrepreneurship. Rieva is a recognized authority on small business and is the publisher of SmallBizDaily. Thank you, Rieva, for being a guest on the radio show and for writing this guest blog post. -Howard-
2 Things Every Business Owner Must Do In 2013 by Rieva Lesonsky
There’s a lot business owners need to do to prepare for the promised increased business in 2013, but none are more important than perfecting their social media outreach and getting mobile-ready.
Social Media
We’ve talked about the importance of social media before, but many business owners, although using social media for marketing, still don’t feel they have a grasp on the medium. A recent poll showed that 56 percent of those surveyed were frustrated by how hard it was to calculate the ROI on their social media efforts.
Another struggle is how much time social media takes up. Thirty-nine percent complain that it’s “too time-consuming,” and 35 percent say the constant need for fresh content is “overwhelming.”
Where are marketers focusing their social media efforts? If you market your products or services to consumers, here’s where other business owners are concentrating their efforts:
- 94 percent—Facebook
- 78 percent—Twitter
- 39 percent—LinkedIn
Business-to-business companies put LinkedIn at the top of their lists, followed by Facebook, Twitter, video-sharing mediums like YouTube, and Pinterest.
If you really want to make social media work for you, you need to entice your customers to engage with you. That means offering coupons or discounts via social media channels.
Also you need to pay attention to basic social media demographics. The “2012 Connecting and Communicating Online: State of Social Media” study, conducted by Harris Interactive, shows there are gender differences when it comes to getting social. More women (95 percent) than men (86 percent) have Facebook accounts), and 67 percent of women log in on Facebook at least daily, compared to 54 percent of men.
When you post to social media also impacts its effectiveness. This study shows that for Twitter, the best times to tweet are right before and after lunch (10-11 a.m. and 12-2 p.m.) You should post to Facebook around lunchtime (11 a.m. to noon) and in the afternoon (3-5 p.m.) For LinkedIn, mornings (9-11 a.m.) and lunch hour (12-1 p.m.) are best.
Mobility
Making sure your website is optimized for mobile viewing is likely going to be one of the biggest 2013 business trends. A report from Google says 75 percent of consumers “prefer a mobile-friendly site,” and if they don’t find what they are looking for, 61 percent quickly move on to another website.
Small business owners cannot afford to ignore mobile marketing. An August report from comScore showed more than 13 percent of total Internet page views that month came from mobile phones and tablets—almost double the 2011 traffic numbers.
A new study by Gartner reports the most people use their mobile phones eight times a day, and they’re not just using them when they’re out and about. Nearly two-thirds of consumers use their phones at home or on the road, as well as at work.
Social + Mobile= 2013
More and more consumers are accessing social media while they’re on the go, so make sure your posts and promotions are mobile-friendly by keeping them short and simple.
Rieva Lesonsky is the CEO of GrowBiz Media, a media and custom content company with a focus on small business and entrepreneurship. A nationally known speaker, bestselling author and considered an authority on small business. Rieva has been covering America’s entrepreneurs for more than 30 years. Prior to GrowBiz Media, Rieva was the long time Editorial Director of Entrepreneur Magazine. She can regularly be seen on MSNBC’s Your Business. Check out Rieva’s SmallBizDaily.
Remember to join Rieva and me on Wednesday, December 19 at 11 AM/Eastern Time (8 AM/Pacific Time) as we talk about business trends for 2013. To listen to the live broadcast, click here. You can also bookmark this page and listen to the radio show replay which will be posted at the top of the page on Wednesday afternoon.