A strong online presence will make your business stick to people's mind

Small business owners might not have the time or money to devote to online marketing. Yet having a strong online presence is a necessity in today’s world. If you are not on the web you will be left behind your competitors and won’t get visibility. In order for your business to grow you need to be seen. Remember the saying “out of sight out of mind?”. If your customers don’t see you online they may very well forget you. If you want to be always on their mind then you need to plan a great social media strategy which includes online marketing. I assume you already have at least a website, if not go and get one immediately.

Now, start writing interesting content, the kind that will keep people glued to your website. If they like it, you can be sure they will come back over and again. Write content regularly, don’t just write once and then forget about it. Disappearing is the surest way to make customers forget you. Make it a habit to write once or twice a week, or more, preferably. It depends on how desperate you are. If you want your business to grow in visibility, then write as if your life depended on it. If you’re nowhere near Charles Dickens, then pay a bit of money and hire a SEO expert. One of his duties includes writing content, so have him study your business and then write about it in a professional way, with all the right keywords so that your page might even get a high ranking. For that, your page needs to be optimized. Again, your SEO consultant will take care of that. Hire him on a short-term and see how it goes. If you are satisfied with the result you can always extend the contract.

So far, I’ve been talking about your website marketing. To have a real strong online presence, you need much more.

A good idea is to have a blog. Again, you need to post frequently and regularly. If your followers know you post each Wednesday, they will show up on Wednesday to see what you’re up to.

What do you need to do besides writing? You need to reciprocate the likes, shares and comments if you want to establish a good relationship with your followers, customers or would-be customers. You never know who’s out there so you better be nice. As an example, suppose I came to your page and left a comment.

 If I see that you liked my comment and came to my page to comment back, well, you can be sure I will keep coming to your blog. This is called loyalty building. A kind of mutual support. You know you can count on me and I know I can count on you. If, instead, you ignore me, I certainly will not bother with you. On the contrary, I will think you snotty and arrogant and I will all but tell you where to go and how to get there. This is the worst-case scenario, obviously. I hope we won’t get to that point.

You would be surprised, however, at the coldness and indifference of some people on the web. You follow them, like them, share them, send a few words…and what do you get in return? The cold shoulder. They are so full of hot air that they can’t even bend half an inch to acknowledge your presence. Well, if you’re like me, you will stay away from such stuck-ups.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting that you go around liking and commenting just to get something in return. No way! Real kindness is the one done with no ulterior motive. But what does it take to give back something as little as a “like”? It doesn’t cost anything, on the contrary, it will bring immense returns. You will earn in terms of popularity and reputation.

What I mentioned above can be applied….it MUST be applied, rather ….to all your social networks – Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, etc.

Remember that it is in giving that you will receive. So start liking, commenting, sharing and you will see a surge in the number of visitors to your page.

GET PERSONAL

 You have created your "page" on Facebook. Now what? Where do you go from here?

Well, first of all you need to promote your page. How do you do that? Share the link among your FB friends and relatives and ask them to "like" your page. Remember, these are "friends and relatives" not CUSTOMERS.

You are looking to SELL your product, not simply talk about it or share the information with your friends. You need people who will BUY!

So, next step is to join as many social networks as you can. Facebook and Instagram are ok, but you will always see the same faces there, you need to spread out, to reach NEW people, especially potential customers.

Create a Youtube channel and make a video of introduction. Talk about yourself first ....people love listening to personal stories. Tell them about your origin, your background, do you have children, dogs, cats....and anything you deem appropriate. Don't forget to talk about your BUSINESS. What it is about, how did you come up with this idea, why do you think your project will be good for people, how will it be useful to them, etc.

Once you upload the video on Youtube, share it on Twitter and your blog. Yes, blog. Be sure you also open a BLOG where you will talk about yourself and of course, about your business, with lots of attractive pictures to get people interested.

How to tell if you are suffering from social anxiety

It’s morning. You wake up and suddenly your heart starts beating a bit fast, you feel you have butterflies in your stomach. You are still sleepy and tired but you are too anxious to stay in bed. You feel you have a lump in your throat, you want to run away so you walk from room to room trying to calm down. It doesn’t help. Now you have palpitations so you head for the window, open it and hope that the fresh air will help calm you down. After several minutes you start to breathe normally but you are visibly shaken. What was that? Is something wrong with your heart, you wonder? You start to imagine all sorts of things.

What you experienced was actually what is called “morning anxiety”. If it happens frequently then it can be attributed to stress.

Stress has a way of showing up in various forms, in ways you wouldn’t imagine. It can cause illnesses and mental problems, like anxiety and panic attacks, and social withdrawal. A curious example, which actually happened: a friend of mine was attending a concert by the beach. Suddenly this strong wind came out of nowhere. The stage lights were blown off stage, music sheets were flying all over the place, as was sand. Chairs and tables were flown into the sea. My friend got the fright of his life. He thought a tsunami was coming, that’s it, he said, it’s the end. Fortunately, after a while the wind stopped and it was announced that what happened was that a small tornado had passed by. After several days my friend noticed big black spots flying around his right eye. He went to the eye doctor who told him what it was and explained that this kind of thing can be caused by a strong form of stress. There you have it! Stress was the culprit.

With the kind of lifestyle we lead today, where it’s all a rush-rush - rush to take the kids to school, rush to work, rush to the supermarket, rush to the gym, rush here and there -no wonder we suffer from stress. You can’t avoid being stressed out.

It’s worse if you are introverted or reserved. Going out and dealing with people can be plain torture. You get anxious, you get nervous just at the thought of going out. It can get so bad that you avoid going out altogether. You get a medical certificate for the office and lock yourself home. You don’t answer the phone, you don’t answer the doorbell. You’re not available for anyone. Will hiding from everyone cure your anxiety? Yes, as long as you stay secluded at home. You feel safe. You don’t have to confront yourself with others.

Just not to be bored, you log into Facebook. Here you see all your friends happy, smiling, having the time of their life. They don’t have problems, not a care in the world. How lucky they are! You feel miserable. Your anxiety gets worse. You feel your self-esteem going lower and lower. You feel inadequate,  you start thinking that you are such a loser. 

Before you lose your mind, find a life coach and enroll in a personal development course.