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Why the 5 C’s are So Important to Your Business

Having your own business is tough, especially if you don’t know how to create a strategy that can show successful results. With Gloople, I used the 5 C’s to make sure I was marketing my business correctly online. Here are the 5 C’s and why they are so important to your business.

Coverage

By coverage I mean using all of the tools available to make sure you have a presence across all of the relevant Social Networks. Just having a Facebook page is no longer enough – you need to cover all routes. You never know where a potential customer may come from so make sure you have at least leveraged your business on the main 5 networks; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+.

Collection

The idea of Collection is simple; keep collecting your followers. By doing this you are not only online building a community, you are increasing your brand awareness and positioning your business as a company sector leader. Use the other 4 C’s to help you with this step. Collection is important because without the increase in followers on Social Media, your network will never grow which means no new brand advocates, customers, or sales.

Curation

To make sure you get the coverage you need to collect your followers, you need to allow your followers to curate your information. You may find your followers alter the information they are sharing to match their audience. Don’t let this bother you as they are still sharing YOUR content but matching it with what their audience wants to hear. Without curation, your information won’t be shared as much as you would like.

Context

The type of context you use to promote your business is very important as you don’t want to force your products on to your followers – hard selling does not work on social media. Money Supermarket created a Batman infographic around the time of the film released based on how much it costs to be Batman. They created something related to their brand (how much something costs) without selling their product and offering something fun for their community. This was shared over 25,000 times in just Facebook alone. This proves that sharing content that is interesting get picked up and curated.

Confidence

Finally, be confident about your business. If you don’t believe you can be successful, no one else will. Success on social media will not happen overnight, it will take time and you need to build trust and confidence within your community. I have over 13,000 followers on Twitter but I started at 0, just like everyone else.

I hope you will be able to use the 5 C’s to help you market your business online!

Why Google+ Means the World to Your Business

“We’re extremely happy with our progress so far, and one of our main goals is to transform the overall Google experience and make all of the services people already love faster, more relevant, and more reliable” - Google

It’s safe to say that Google owns the internet. Google accounts for 90% of online traffic and the second largest search engine is YouTube which, we all know, is owned by Google! With many layers to its empire including Google Docs, Google Alerts, gMail, Picasa and Google Shopping to name a select few, Google was always missing that one key element, a social layer.

With bad reviews, an archaic platform and many complaining users, Google’s social layer; Google+ didn’t have the best of starts. What was supposed to be the next best thing since Facebook (in Google’s eyes) clearly wasn’t performing and something had to change.

Do you remember Google Buzz or Google Wave? Probably not. Google+ was Google’s third time lucky when attempting to harness the power of Social. As it stands, Google+ is an extremely important platform for those who want to market their business online and here are a few reasons why;

  • SEO Benefits – With Google owning 90% of online traffic, you should reap the benefits Google+ can offer your business when it comes to search engine optimisation. Make sure your Google+ Business Page includes all of your keywords and is constantly updated with fresh and relevant content.

  • Google Hangouts – Google offers something unique in their social layer where you can actually hold a face to face meeting with a group of people, inside Google+ completely free of charge.

  • Google Circles – The ability to categorise those you are connected with via Circles is a great way to share the right information with the right people. Google Circles is a great way to target your sharing.

Google+ is more active than you are probably aware of. With over 260M active users, 60% of which log in everyday, Google+ is one of the fastest growing social networks ever boasting over 500M Google+ “enabled” users. Google+ also acts as an influencer, especially when it comes to shares of +1’s. Google sees this as a social recommendation and will rank you in search according to this.

Google+ is the same as Facebook and Twitter in the sense that it acts in real time but with an extra edge. Any status update on Google+ is immediately indexed and pushed into Google Search. When posting in Google+, make sure you use keywords and use “” to make sure they are being picked up by Google as being key search terms for your business.

Google+ isn’t going anywhere and I have a feeling it will become an influential networks inside of the social media space. From being able to create a community and using keyword rich content, linking straight back to your site, Google+ is not only a social advantage to a business selling online, its a Search advantage too.

Social Commerce – The Future of Connecting with your Online Consumer

In an ideal world for most people, the way we buy and sell as a business or consumer, would never change. I, however am not most people and believe that change is a great opportunity to learn more about the technology world and improve the way our businesses function. Two words that have been floating around the web for some time now have a purpose and meaning. Social Commerce is here, and it won’t be disappearing anytime soon.

Mark Zuckerberg was right when he said “If I had to guess, Social Commerce is next to blow up” back in 2011. Social Commerce is the combination of social media and digital technology to sell both products and services online.

Social Commerce will be a driving force for online sales because of the art of storytelling. What better way to connect with an online customer than giving them a reason to connect with YOUR business? Every business has a story and a personality trait which is social media worthy.  If you can connect with your customers on a personal level through story telling on social media, you will build your clientele which in essence will translate into a social commerce transaction.

There are 1 billion people on Facebook with around 75% of those users “liking” a brand’s Facebook page. The Facebook users that like a fan page are ultimately saying they will buy from that business IF that company engages with them in the right way. Did you know that a Facebook share (when someone see’s a post on your Facebook fan page, “shares” it with their community who then follows the link back to your page, visits your website and purchases from you) is worth £2.60? Even more surprisingly, Twitter can generate a massive £21.04 in sales through a share. Think Social Media is a waste of time? Think again.

When I hold a keynote seminar, I always ask the same question. When you are inside Facebook and see one of their advertisements down the side of the page, do YOU firstly click on it, and THEN purchase that product? 99% of the time, no more than three hands are raised out of around 50-60 people. Why? Because we no longer trust advertising more than we do peer to peer recommendations. Andrew Mason, Groupon founder said the following; “Middle-class people sit around, trying to think of how to spend money.  One of the most powerful ways to figure that out is looking at what your friends are buying – these are the people you trust”. This, I definitely agree with.

It has been estimated that by 2015, Social Commerce sales will reach around $30 billion a year with 50% of online revenue coming from social media. We are seeing well known brands like Mercedes selling 666 cars in the space of 8 hours with their “Three Point Twitter” campaign and Adidas selling around £2,500 worth of products via in-stream Facebook and Twitter. Brands are making magic and it’s not just a myth anymore, there is a lot of money to be made if you utilise the tools available to combine social media and digital commerce.

The best way to sell on social media is to in fact, not sell at all. For your followers to really trust your business, you need to take a step back and realise why you are even a part of a social network. The intent is not always a purchase, it is to share great content and to engage with a community. Once you have built this foundation, you won’t need to force your products or services onto those who are connected to you, they will naturally, become brand advocates.

Social Commerce is here to stay and it’s time for you to look at the future of connecting with your online consumer.

U.K. To Get Its Own Version of Small Business Saturday

Small business owners; listen up! This year, the U.K. will be getting Small Business Saturday this year! In the United States alone, their version of this highly popular event say over $5 billion in sales for small businesses.

The Shadow Business Secretary Chukka Umunna spoke to The Independent regarding Small Business Saturday;

“The UK version will be launched against the backdrop of a traumatic time for many retailers in town centers  where an average of one in seven shops is empty after a series of failures over the past five years.” Mr Umunna said: “I want to make Small Business Saturday a reality in Britain to actively champion, celebrate and showcase small, independent businesses on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.”

My Umunna has been a huge supporter of this event that will take place on the 7th December 2013. Small business retailers in the U.K., like many in the U.S. have struggled during the tough economic time. This is the time to really celebrate the achievement many small businesses have managed despite all odds.

This event in the U.K. is being backed by several influential groups including the Chambers of Commerce, Federation of Small Businesses, British Independent Retailers Association, The Association of Convenience Stores, the National Federation of Retail Newsagents and the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association, to name a few.

We should expect to see other well known small business advocates celebrating the event. Startup Britain and Startup Loans are two leading organisations who will be marketing this great event to their audience.

The U.S. version of Small Business Saturday is held on the Saturday after Black Friday. The idea was first formed in 2010 by American Express who picked up on the growing trend that Small Businesses were succeeding in such harsh times. They then decided to promote it around the holiday season and now has hundreds of supporters including cities, states, chambers of commerce, small business advocacy groups, high profile public officials and large brands like American Express, FedEx and The Small Business Administration (SBA)..

The U.S. have managed to successfully tap into Social Media to promote the event. Not only has Small Business Saturday become a major movement, social media activity is constantly active throughout the year. With it’s own website (www.shopsmall.com), Twitter handle and Hashtag (@Shopmall / #Shopsmall) Small Business Saturday has proved its ability to impact Twitter but even more so on Facebook with over 3 million likes on it’s Facebook Page.

I am a huge advocate of Small Businesses as I am an owner of one myself so I will definitely be supporting this cause, even if it is on both my Sister’s birthdays! Voted as one of the UK’s top 100 Startup’s by Startups.co.uk, keep an eye out for Gloople’s name around the 7th December!

What will you be doing to support Small Business Saturday?

8 Reasons for YOU to Love Small Businesses

A recent study showed that 88% of online users have a favorable view of small businesses opposed to the 16% on large companies. Small businesses are making magic (as I always say) because they are proving that they can compete with the market leaders with a lot less resources. Here are 8 reasons for you to love and support small businesses.

1. Tireless Hours
I can definitely relate to this one as I am one of the business owners who sits with my cup of tea, typing away on my laptop on a Saturday morning. A lot of small business owners have a lot of responsibility and because of this, work tireless hours which should be commended.

2. UK Economy
Surprising statistics published by the Commons Library state that in 2012 there was 4.8 million businesses in the UK. Over 99% of these businesses were classed as small to medium sized with 96% having 0-9 employees. We, as small business owners are the heart of the UK economy and should be proud of this.

3. Gutsy
Just because 96% of UK’s businesses are small businesses, it doesn’t mean every single owner isn’t taking a risk because believe me when I say they are. You have to have the guts to make that jump and create a small business you can be proud of.

4. Determined
As well as being gutsy, small business are determined to succeed. We all get knocked back at some point and I have been in a place where I didn’t think Gloople would succeed. If you have people around you who are determined to keep you going, you will get to a place where you can enjoy coming into work everyday, knowing you created something worthy of success.

5. Contribute to 75% of new job openings
Not only do small businesses help the UK economy, they contribute to 75% of all new job openings. They also give young people the chance to learn business from a young age so that they become inspired and want to start their own business.

6. Build relationships from the ground up
One thing small businesses have over big corporations is that they are personable. When you are posting a tweet to a large business or writing on their Facebook page, you don’t know who is replying to you. When you are speaking to a small business on social media, you know that they are a part of the business and not just sat there giving generic answers. Small businesses are known to build relationships with their consumers from day one and because of this, we should embrace it.

7. Optimistic
You won’t find a more optimistic person than a successful small business owner. This is because of the hours spent and emotion put into their business. It is inspiring to see a small business grow to a large business.

8. SEIS Scheme
Something Gloople benefited from was the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme. Our investors were able to get back a significant amount of investment from the Government by investing in a small business. This is a great way to give small businesses a chance to really succeed and grow the business.

I want everyone reading this blog to appreciate small businesses as I know I do. I have put my heart and soul into Gloople and rarely take the time to sit back and see what I have created and be proud of the success.