Here are five questions you MUST answer before beginning to use social media for your business:

1. What’s your goal in using social media?
This seems obvious, yes, but you’d be surprised how many of my clients don’t have an answer for this one. You must be specific. Are you trying to sell more widgets? Add addresses to your email newsletter list? You need to identify what the goal (or goals) are. You may want to use social media to reach multiple goals, but don’t muddy up the waters by making it too complicated. Three goals are the most I’d recommend. Here are a few examples, in addition to what I already mentioned: increase traffic to your website, engage customers, provide FAQs to help alleviate support, distribute more white papers, establish yourself as an expert, build a profile for public speaking, add names to your catalog list, build a community of followers.

2. How much time and resources do you want to devote to your social media marketing?
It’s really not that hard to launch a Facebook page or Twitter account. But, like a garden, if you don’t tend to it, it will fail to prosper. No one wants dead flowers. Identify how much time you can spend nurturing social media, because that will help you determine how to use it. If you have very little time, don’t try to provide support or build events via social media, just give people information they can use to find you and buy your products and services. If you have more time (and resources, like cash to fund some campaigns), you can plan more complicated strategies, like blogs, online chats, and tweetups. Research how much you can budget to place social media ads or hire a social media company to help you.

3. Who will manage your social media channels?
Whether it’s you, one of your employees, or a professional social marketing expert, you should figure out who will be handling the job of managing your social media profiles. If it’s you, brush up on how to mange your time as efficiently as possible. If you can possibly do so, hire a social media expert to help you set up systems that will enable you to schedule, plan, and track your social media campaign.

4. Who is my online audience?
This may seem simple to answer, because usually your online audience is the same as your offline (or brick-and-mortar) audience. But it may be different, markedly or slightly. Your online audience may be more interested in finding deals or locating customers like them for social events, whereas your offline audience may be older and more interested in finding your retail locations.

5. Who can help me reach my goals and audience?
Are you aware of who already influences your customers online? You probably are. What other brands fit well with yours? Find them and search for the social media channels and experts who influence people in that space. Mimic what they do, or better yet partner with them to reach your online audience. If you’re a health food specialist selling nutrition supplements, find a popular exercise guru who has a lot of followers, go where they are, establish yourself, and offer information that compliments there’s.

Contact Boone Digital for more information on Social Media >

This article is designed to explain a few of the ways to effectively use QR codes in a retail store window.

Create a destination for your QR code
A QR code can contain many different types of data. It can hold a simple text message, telephone number, email address, Google Maps location, wi-fi login details, a buy button for a product, even a photo or video.  

Many businesses are simply using QR codes to send people to their websites or Facebook pages. This is good idea, but there are mistakes you want to avoid. First, don’t send the user to your standard website homepage if you don’t have a mobile version of your site. Remember, the people reading your QR codes are doing so on a mobile device: an iPhone, a Blackberry, an Android phone or other smart phone. They will not be able to browse your website comfortably on those small devices. Make sure you create a mobile-friendly version of your website or create a unique landing page on your website that’s formatted for the express purpose of the QR code.

You may have a page on your website that contains a low-res image of your logo and your email newsletter signup form, which would be easily displayed on a mobile device. Or you could have a mobile version of your site that’s stripped down, showing only key sections, such as your product categories, contact information, and specials.

Whatever you decide to do, make sure you’re sending your QR code visitors to a unique place that engages them on their mobile device. Don’t make them squint and scroll through a web page that they can’t navigate or read well on their smart phone.

One of the best uses of QR codes is to use it to provide content that’s only available via the code. You may offer the visitor a chance to enter a drawing for a product you’re displaying in your window, or you may invite them to a special event taking place in your store. Or maybe you create a unique short video clip that excites them enough to step in from the sidewalk and into your store. Most people who have QR readers on their mobile devices are tech savvy and want to be engaged this way.

Create the Code and display it
There are several free resources for creating QR codes. One of them is QRStuff.com, which enables you to create the QR code online and then print it out either on paper or as stickers. You can also print your code onto business cards, coffee mugs, even tee-shirts! But for this tutorial we want a decal or sticker to display in your window. So, however you create your code, get it on a sticker so you can get it into your window.

Note: each QR code is unique and can only be used for the content you’ve attached to it.  A new QR code has to be created for every new URL or piece of content you want to promote.

Encourage customers to use the QR code
Once you have your QR code displayed in your window, make sure your staff knows about it and encourages your visitors to use it. Some people will not see it or understand what it means. Take the time to help newbies understand the codes and better yet, explain to them that they’re missing out on exclusive content only available via your QR code.

Track effectiveness of your QR code campaign
There are services that will allow you to create your QR code and also track the number of reads they get. Or you can use Google Analytics to track the unique landing page you’re sending the visitor to via the QR code. Either way, it’s critical to measure the effectiveness of your QR code campaign, so you can see what’s working and what isn’t

Adjust your QR code content and campaigns
Don’t set it and forget it! Having a QR code that allows the visitor to Like you on Facebook is a good idea and you should keep that in your window all the time, but you’ll also want to adjust and add new QR code stickers to your window. A QR code can contain an event, which users can add to their calendar via their smart phone. If you’re a coffee shop and you have entertainment every Friday night at 8PM, create a QR code for it and display it.

These are just some of the ways QR codes can be used in your retail store window. To find out how Boone Digital can help you get started with QR codes, contact us.

But who’s using Facebook and what do they look like? Using Facebook Insights, Boone Digital sifted through Facebook data for Northern Michigan to provide some data for business owners here in our backyard. First, a few general observations.

Of the Facebook users who are located in Traverse City or within 50 miles of Traverse City, Michigan:

• 80% are female
• Even when we eliminate the teens (whom many of you may not be marketing to because of their limited expendable income), 62% of Facebook users in and around Traverse City are women.
• The biggest block of users are women between the ages of 30 and 40.
• According to other studies, the fastest growing segment is women over the age of 50. These are the mom’s and grandmom’s, and they are “influencers.” Marketing to them is key because when they like your products, they will tell their friends on Facebook.

Demographic Info, by Age

Facebook users in and within 50 miles of Traverse City, Michigan:

Between 13-19:      24,720     18.8%
Between 20-29:     27,560     20.9%
Between 30-39:     25,340     19.2%
Between 40-49:     22,120     16.8%
Between 50-59:     19,100     14.5%
60 and over:          12,920       9.8%

Demographic Info, Women by Age

Facebook users in and within 50 miles of Traverse City, Michigan:

Women, 18-up:      37,900     34.3%
Women, 30-up:      28,680     26.0%
Women, 40-up:      21,180     19.2%
Women, 50-up:      14,680     13.3%
Women, 60-up:       8,040       7.3%

Demographic Info, Men by Age

Facebook users in and within 50 miles of Traverse City, Michigan:

Men, 18-up:      28,100     37.6%
Men, 30-up:      19,820     26.5%
Men, 40-up:      13,340     17.8%
Men, 50-up:        8,820     11.8%
Men, 60-up:        4,660      6.2%

Source: Research by Boone Digital, June 2011

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