A Different View On Twitter Marketing for Wedding Businesses

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Twitter marketing has never been easy for small businesses. The reason behind this is because selling something because of Twitter is extremely difficult and time consuming. That doesn’t mean that Twitter isn’t useful for marketing in its own way.

When you have a small wedding business you have to view Twitter as a way to build brand awareness and share information. In fact that really is what Twitter is about. Cooking companies use Twitter to share recipes, speakers use it to inform their followers of where they will be speaking, and coaching companies use it to inform followers of upcoming events and webinars. I’m sure right about now you’re thinking “that’s great, but how does it help my business?”

Michael Stelzner and Brian Solis talk about exactly this in their telecast. The most important thing of all is to realize the importance of brand exposure. Twitter is a great way to build an active community of brides and their friends where you can share advice. You may or may not make a sale directly through Twitter, but it will help build your SEO, build brand awareness, and a plugin on your website showing your Twitter stream will generate more interest from brides who visit your site directly. What do you think?

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Filed Under: Attracting Ideal Clients, Bridal Marketing, Social Media Tips, Website, Wedding Business, Wedding Business Technology, Wedding Websites Tagged With: , , , , ,

How To Avoid Your Wedding Business Past Biting You From Behind

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If you don’t want your wedding business past to come up and bite you from behind then it’s best to avoid the mistakes that create that kind of past. Cast in point; don’t post anything on your website or on social media sites when you are drunk. Remember that once something is online, it stays online. It doesn’t matter who you are or how large a cleanup crew you have, there is no way to guarantee that the information you posted is gone for good.

No one likes having mistakes in their past that can mess with their business future. But what you might not realize is that often it’s the small mistakes that create the biggest havoc. In their article The Young Entrepreneur Council on inc.com recommends making sure to always keep your information in the about me, and contact sections up to date. These places are often where people go first, and the last thing you want is for brides, or even worse those you are networking with to get outdated information. Not only does it look bad, it can lead to your having to honor problematic business practices that you have moved past. What do you think?

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Filed Under: Attracting Ideal Clients, Bridal Marketing, Networking, Personal Development, Social Media Tips Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Why You Must Use Good Marketing Strategy In Social Media

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We’ve spent the last year encouraging wedding businesses to get on the band wagon of social media. If you have done so you are probably in the same boat as many businesses today. The difference between businesses that make social media work for them, and those that give it a try and give up, comes down to strategy and hard work, or the lack there of.

Scott Bishop points out that using social media for marketing is at a point where you either use it the way it was designed to be used, or it becomes a waste of time and effort. In other words if you really want social media marketing to work for you, you need to find out how social media marketing works, what options are out there, and then create a marketing plan, and execute it on a daily or at least weekly basis.

Social media should not be the only place you are marketing, it is simply the newest, simplest and often least expensive and most effective (if done correctly) marketing option out there that helps you reach brides, connect with them on a more personal level, and ease them into your sales funnel. To learn more about the direction that social media marketing is going make sure to read Scotts great article.

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Filed Under: Bridal Marketing, Leads & Traffic, Mobile Marketing, Social Media Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

How SEO and Social Media Work Together For Online Marketing

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Marketing used to seem rather simple. You came up with billboards, TV and radio spots, and print ads. Now, if a wedding business wants’ to be successful they have to be just as focused on online marketing if not more so.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is critical on a website as any website that isn’t correctly optimized is going to ignored by the search engines. But Social Media is in some ways the other side of the coin to SEO. Social Media share buttons on your site tell search engines just as much as the SEO does.

If brides are interacting with you on the social media sites, and are sharing your information search engines see this as a good thing (which it is!) and recognize that if people are “talking” about your site and articles you are writing then it means you have great content, and are answering peoples questions. The more interaction you get on your site, even if that interaction is integrated with social media, the more the search engines will like you, the higher your site will show up in search results, and more brides will be able to find you. Make sure to read the article by Nick Stamoulis to learn more about how SEO and Social Media work together. What do you think?

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The 4 Keys to Business Success with Social Media

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Most wedding vendors agree that they ought to be using social media to market their wedding businesses. The problem is that most of us don’t know HOW to do it.The key to wedding business success

Check out this blog post to learn who Mashable readers identified as the top 5 businesses that excel in customer relations on social media. You can read the article here: “Best Social Media Customer Service” Finalists Discuss Their Success “

Here are my takeaways…

4 Keys for Social Media Success

  1. Go where your customers are. Don’t jump into social media just because everyone else is doing it; do it because it’s where the brides are and meet them there.
  2. Go a step beyond customer service and deliver customer care. Really help your brides by reaching out to them before and after they hire you and authentically caring about them.
  3. Participate in and build a community. People want to go online for answers to questions and get help from other people like them. By being a part of this community you will win fans and customers.
  4. Use customer response as a measurement of your success. Are brides responding to your posts and comments? If not, do something different.

What have you learned from the social media success of others inside and outside the wedding business?

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Filed Under: Free Wedding Business Tools, Home Page, Social Media Tips Tagged With: , , ,

26 Tips For a Kick Ass Facebook Page

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I had no idea what I’d gotten myself into when I started digging into social media.  No wonder wedding vendors have so many questions about it!  Facebook for the wedding business
There are so many amazing features and so many things you can do with it, so many different strategies…

Yeah, it can be overwhelming.

But I’m enjoying this exploration.  Because it’s really about making friends, helping people out and having fun.  At least, that’s my experience.

Cutting to the Chase

Here’s what I’ve learned so far about promoting your wedding business in the social media jungle without getting eaten alive…

  • Start small.  Pick one social media site to begin with and don’t work on another until you have the hang of it.  Facebook seems to be the easiest for most of us to grasp.
  • Be likeable.  If you want people to “like” your page and retweet you, make sure your status updates and feeds are useful, relevant and interesting.  Don’t blatantly self-promote because no one likes a pitchy salesman.Make it easy to share your stuff.  Think about the action you want your friends and followers to take and make it easy for them.  Give them a little direction and install buttons that make the “like” and “tweet” one click easy.
  • Make new friends and be a part of the community.  Help others out, share cool stuff and share others’ cool stuff in return.  If you want someone to hook you up with a recommendation to their list of 1,000 fans, do nice things for them first.
  • Stick with it.  Social media doesn’t happen overnight.  Make it a habit and commit to doing it every day, even for 5-10 minutes.  It will pay off.

Now, some more advanced Facebooking tips…

From my new favorite social media blog, the Social Media Examiner, “26 Tips For Enhancing Your Facebook Page.”

Check it out.  These are some killer tips!

Social media…Like it or hate it?  What do you think?

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How to Tweet, Facebook or Blog Your Way to Booked Weddings in 5 Minutes a Day

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A diagram for using social media for your wedding business

“Will social media really work to bring me brides that will book my services?”

Excellent question!  I recently did a poll of wedding vendors and this came up quite a few times.  (In fact, all of the questions in this blog post are from real wedding professionals.)

It’s true: most of the “social networking” and blogging we’re doing is a colossal waste of time.

But that isn’t the whole story.  It can be tremendously effective at attracting brides who book…when you do it the right way.

Facts About Brides on the Internet

Brides are on the internet every day; a recent Wedding Report survey showed that 84% of them use the internet to plan their weddings.  

Brides love social media.  I just did a quick check…there are 1,459,740 engaged females aged 21-32 on Facebook in the US alone.  The average user spends minutes 55 minutes on Facebook each day.  

Twitter isn’t quite as popular, but it’s growing rapidly.  (See these revealing Twitter demographics.)  And 42% of users use Twitter to learn about products and services…like the ones you offer in your wedding business.

All of which proves that your brides are on the internet and using social media.  If you aren’t there, they’ll find your competitors who are…instead of you.

The good news (sort of) is that most wedding businesses aren’t using social media and blogging at all!  This is a huge opportunity for you to connect with brides for FREE.

“What is the most effective thing to say on Twitter, Facebook, etc. that will cause brides to want to book with me?”

It isn’t enough for you to simply be on the internet with a blog, Facebook or Twitter account.  You need brides to:

1)  Find you.

2)  Contact you.

3)  Book you.

Your blog, Twitter feed or Facebook page needs to be irresistibly attractive to them.  If you do this right, your posts will drive a flood of leads to you.

Give Brides What They Want

Where do brides spend their time online?  What information are they looking for?  What are they interested in?

Blog about that.  Tweet about that.  Facebook about that.  It will make you irresistible.

Not sure what brides like?  You better start learning fast!

Fortunately, it’s easy to figure out.  Check out the Top 100 Wedding Blogs for starters.    Read the forum posts on The Knot and Wedding Bee.  It won’t be long before you know exactly what brides want:

  • Inspiration and ideas.
  • How to information and advice.
  • Venue and vendor reviews.

Brides are addicted to this stuff!  That’s why they call it, “wedding porn.”

“Where do I get content for my blog, Twitter and Facebook?”

I can hear you now.  I don’t have time to write this stuff.  There’s no way I can come up with that many ideas!

Knowing what brides want isn’t enough.  You need an easy system for giving it to them.  (I adapted this system from social media genius Don Crowther.)

What if I could show you how to automatically…and legally…use someone else’s content, so that they do all the hard work for you?

Coming right up!

Automatic Bride Attracting Content in 5 Minutes a Day

  1. Find 10-50 wedding blogs that brides absolutely love.  Short cut: use this list of the Top 100 Wedding Blogs or add your own. 
  2. Copy the RSS feed of each blog.  You can find this by clicking the little orange box at the top of your browser or on the blog page.
  3. Import this RSS feed into Google reader or the feed reader of your choice.
  4. Next time you’re looking for bride attracting content for your blog, Twitter feed or Facebook page, go to Google reader, pick a cool blog post and copy the url into your page.  Voila!  Instant stuff brides love in less than 5 minutes.

*Yes, this takes more than 5 minutes to set up the first time.  But once you do it’s automatic.  It doesn’t get easier than that!

Check out this video below and I’ll walk you through the steps:

More Leads and Booked Weddings

Every once in a while (about 1 out of 8 tweets or Facebook posts) softly promote your wedding services by offering your help.  End each blog post with a “call to action,” such as, “Want to learn more about this?  Send me an email.”

The more you help out brides by giving them what they love, the more they love you.  They’ll find you, stay on your page and come back.  Then simply offer to help them, and they turn into booked weddings.

If you like to write, use your bride attracting content to inspire your blog posts.  If writing just isn’t your thing, just copy and paste the url from someone else’s cool blog into your Facebook or Twitter status and add a quick sentence of your own.

What do you think about this strategy?  Got a question?  I got such a terrific response on this topic that there will definitely be much more to come!  Leave me a comment to get your biggest questions answered.

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