Queen Bee's blog

When I mention the word ‘blog’ to a small business owner, they usually cringe!  Why you ask? Well, it takes time and most small business owners wear many hats and spread thin already.  It takes inspiration, a little bit of creativity and a commitment.

When most small business owners are asked about social media, many have no idea how to use it in a practical way that can impact their business goals. Did you know that a blog is actually the cornerstone of an active online and social media presence for any business?

Every small business should consider a blog the central hub of their social media strategy.

An effective blog should only be an area of your website where you publish fresh content regularly, which could easily be called your News section. Read more »

It’s all the BUZZ and on March 30^th, 2012 Facebook rolls out Timeline for businesses.  Facebook’s goal is to make brand pages more engaging and social.  With Timeline, brands will have two main images to share. The profile picture is now smaller, almost like an icon, while the focus moves towards the much bigger cover image.

Facebook Timeline rolls out on March 30, 2012 Are you READY?

Visit Aerospace Turbine Rotables Facebook Timeline

  Read more »

1. You’re the Expert, Blog about it!

When you consistently write and share your professional knowledge, you position yourself as a thought leader in your industry, which brings instant credibility to you and your business.

2. Building Relationships

Blog posts that are focused on valuable information helps you share, answer questions, solve problems, educate and entertain. You are building human and honest relationships with the people who read your posts. 

3. Search Engine Optimization

When you update your blog often, search engines will rank your content higher.  Who wouldn't love that?

4. Instant Marketing Research

Blogs, like many other social media tools, allow you to start conversations where you can find out what your prospective consumers are interested in. Try out new ideas, ask their opinions and feedback….and don’t hesitate to ask them to do a quick survey. The result is instant feedback that is easy to use and plug instantly into your marketing and development strategy. Read more »

Did you know that New Facebook Pages are here?  The new Timeline for Brands is optional righ now, but on March 30, 2012, all Facebook Pages will get a new design.  

Have you previewed your page to see what it looks like? 

Much like with profiles, the new platform has the potential for real design beauty, but with the added bonus of multiple publicly-known storylines and angles to draw from. The cover photo can be especially powerful for its ability to display logos, products or personalities. The timeline itself showcases brands’ unique stories and identities. Facebook is also introducing some handy new admin capabilities, including the ability to sticky selected pieces of content for seven days.

Timeline for profiles was designed to make Facebook a better medium for individuals to tell the stories that create their identities, and the philosophy for brands is no different, according to Timeline product manager Sam Lessin. 

When you visit a brand Page in Timeline layout, the experience becomes more personal. A prominently displayed section on the landing page shows how many of your friends like the brand, as well as your friends’ public mentions of related topics. Read more »

Facebook introduced Graph Search in a limited preview for English audiences last week. 

So you may be saying what does this mean to you as the small business owner?

Well, it is now more important than ever to take your Facebook business page seriously. Businesses who play their cards right have a lot to gain.

Should your business be on Pinterest? The answer is simply…YES!  Pinterest is a great tool for small business owners as it is one of the fastest growing social media communities in the world. Pinterest is creating massive amounts of Internet referral traffic. Recently, the social network surpassed Yahoo to become the fourth largest driver of traffic in the world.

Is it going to be as big as Facebook?

Now, that's a lot of window shopping! According to a new survey from Bizrate Insights, 1/3 of online shoppers have made a purchase based on what they’ve seen on Pinterest and other image sharing sites. 

Pinterest allows users to share images of things they like on virtual boards, similar to a collage or scrapbook. Much like Twitter and Facebook, people can follow others’ boards and comment on images.

Consumers install a “Pin It” button on their computers so that they can pin images they find online to their boards. Business owners can install a similar button on their Web sites to facilitate sharing their images. 

Pinterest users are constantly looking to find content they love and want to share—this makes it a place where a lot of new people are going to be exposed to your business. Read more »

Why the ‘Buzz’?

If you already haven’t heard about Pinterest, then you just may have been hiding under a rock.  But seriously, let me clue you in on why Pinterest is a force to be reckoned with. Pinterest just became the third largest social network in the U.S.

This social network has been growing by leaps and bounds in traffic and new users.  According to AppData, Pinterest has 10.4 million registered users and are growing exponentially.

The largest demographic of Pinterest users are women, ages 25-34 reports Ignite and the average Pinterest user spends 98 minutes per month on the site, compared to 2.5 hours on Tumblr, and seven hours on Facebook, see more.

That's a lot of 'Pinning!'

Pinterest users have also increased by more than 145 percent says Mashable since the first of the year.

Pinterest allows users to “pin” images and video to a virtual bulletin board they can create. They can be photos they took and uploaded, images found on other websites, videos they find online or videos they have created themselves. Read more »

Social media is part of our daily lives.

We log-in, check-in, connect, tweet, post, message, pin and re-pin.  We share information, images and video to our followers, friends, fans and networks within seconds.  We connect with people whom we never would have met without social media.  It's truly amazing!

We are living in a social media explosion.

"In order for businesses to use social media effectively, they must leverage it by building it into their business processes to truly give them the competitive advantage", says Sandy Carter, Vice President of Social Business Evangelism at IBM.

Putting up a Facebook Page for your business and signing up for a Twitter account merely will not work if you are not going to incorporate it into your daily routine. 

Your business needs to become social.  You have to start thinking SOCIAL!

If you have not yet converted your Facebook fan page over to the new Timeline design, your page will automatically convert on March 30th, 2012 which is TODAY peeps! Read more »

My newest obsession is Pinterest, along with 12 million other users. Their monthly unique visitors passed 12 million and crossing the 10 million milestone faster than any previous independent site, according to comScore.

Pinning is fun, sparks a lot of inspiration and can become addictive and it's also great for brands. 

According to recent studies, the social bookmarking site Pinterest is now driving more traffic to company websites and blogs than YouTube, Google+, Reddit and LinkedIn combined. And it’s not just generating traffic, but also conversions, reports Social Media Today.

Five Ways Brands Can Leverage Pinterest Now

1. Add Pinterest Content to Your Facebook Presence

Images are more effective than text at encouraging engagement. It's also fun to see what people are pinning and their individual unique interests.

2. Optimize Your Web to Draw People to Your Pinterest Content.

You can always put a “Follow Me on Pinterest” button on your website. But remember, a user’s choice to “Follow” may not be brand-specific, but rather board-specific. Be specific of where you are driving followers.  Read more »