Get Your First 1000 Facebook Followers

Start out with a solid strategy and who’ll have a tonne of facebook followers.

It can seem like a daunting task when you first start out on facebook with a new business or page but you probably have access to a lot more facebook followers than you think. Build on this the right way and you’ll have a flood of fans coming in. It does take a bit of work at first but with a good strategy, you’ll build sustainable momentum. Quicksprout have made it super simple with this (admittedly long) infographic which you can follow along.

Create slick mockups with Freebbble

Freebbble is free and/or affordable, yet expensive-looking.

Images are your most powerful marketing tools but getting really slick shots of your products or services is time-consuming and often expensive. Luckily, there’s Freebbble – a resource for free or affordable images which are easily integrated with your own images to produce slick-looking mockups. There is also a large number of wallpapers and backgrounds, but the mockups are what really set this service apart.

It’s great for showing how your app would look on devices, demonstrating a brand on different products and even showing off your products in different environments.

Getting potential customers to imagine having your products or services in their lives is a HUGELY effective strategy – it’s the reason for test drives and it pays off.

Get a mobile office and free up your time

When you can work from anywhere, you gain A LOT of time.

A lot of people think that a mobile office just means that you’ll be working longer hours but the truth is that you’re vastly more able to set your own hours, get things done faster and have the lifestyle you choose (that’s not even counting the gaining the time normally spent commuting).

The trick is to focus on using technology to make tasks quicker and cut out distractions so that don’t end up in the same position as before.

The guys from Digital Samurai For Hire recently shared their preferred setup with DigitalShortcuts.net while they were interstate.

The online marketing advantage of being able to work from anywhere is that you can be immediately relevant, create interesting content and interact in real time.

 

How to get recommendations with LinkedIn

LinkedIn recommendations are easier than you think.

The power of referrals is well appreciated by everyone who’s had to claw their way to more clients so it goes without saying that any way you can generate more referrals is worth its weight in gold. That’s where LinkedIn comes in – and it’s free!

So what’s the secret?

Ask.

This probably seems overly simplistic but it’s an incredibly effective approach. It does require a methodical approach, however. Luckily, HubSpot has put together this detailed guide which includes an email template.

The basic idea is to target specific people with the skills to write a high-quality recommendation. You then approach this connection and ask them – making sure to offer some form of value. An added bonus of this approach is that it strengthens your relationship with the people you approach – leading to increased opportunities in the future.

 

The Dreaded Bad Review – How To Come Out Ahead

For online businesses, the time comes when someone eventually isn’t happy about something related to your services and they decide to make it publicly known. This moment can be harrowing, overwhelming, and discouraging – but it needn’t be. The truth is, every online business has to deal with unsatisfied customers in the public domain occasionally and the guys who do it best can even turn an apparent service fail into a huge customer service success and come out ahead.

This task is made even easier with the Online Marketing Dashboard’s “Brand Presence” tool which allows you to instantly track all mentions and reviews of your brand and respond immediately. How you respond, though can potentially have a huge impact on your brand. In this example from entrepreneur.com, you’ll find some great advice on dealing specifically with Yelp reviews.

“Unhappy zone in Three Oaks, Michigan” by Kevin Dooley is licensed under CC by 2.0.

Get ahead of the pack with Reddit

Reddit is famously known for breaking content several days before facebook. Don’t let the super basic interface fool you – some of the biggest players in the online community are heavily involved in this simple bulletin board system, which now boasts Snoop Dogg and Jared Leto as major stakeholders.

Viral posts start here.

It’s often as simple as going straight to reddit.com and skimming through the list of trending posts. Failing that, you can search for keywords more closely related to your area or search for subreddits (categories).

Check out this nifty guide to getting set up on Reddit

The 5 Critical Steps of Digital Marketing

Kim Jones interviews Ronnie Tsunami about the five critical steps of digital marketing, which help entrepreneurs to avoid being overwhelmed.

 

Intro to Market Research

Let’s dive into the basics of market research so that you have a better understanding of how to begin the process properly.