The Social Media Marketing & Communications guide for Natural Health and Wellness insiders.

Different is Good: Lessons From Le Marche St. George

Baby Lola from Marche St George

True story:

The people who bought our building last year had a vision for the small commercial space attached. A year of work gave way to a much anticipated opening in November. Since then their little neighborhood coffee shop/grocery store has become a word of mouth phenomenon. No exaggeration. Check out the Google results on their name.

The ONE Thing Your Website, Blog or Facebook Page Absolutely MUST Have…

It’s not any particular function, plug-in or widget. It’s not a sign-up box or RSS feed. Those things don’t apply equally across the board. I’m suggesting that what virtually ALL websites (and web strategies) must have to be successful today is… flexibility.

Here’s why:

Social Media “Happy Surprises” – Share Your Story!

Social Media is full of happy surprises. Unexpected opportunities are a fringe benefit of participation. Sometimes these “Happy Surprises” and unexpected opportunities are truly remarkable.

I’m collecting a limited number of (short) stories from leading natural health and wellness businesses for a special upcoming feature in these pages.

The theme is… “Social Media Happy Surprises.”

I would love for you to share a short story (aprox 100-200 words) about a remarkable “Happy Surprise” you experienced on Twitter, Facebook or your Blog.

(see below for full details… and to see what’s in it for you)

Tuesday Tweaks: Put Keywords in Your Facebook, Blog, Twitter Titles

(There’s so much social media advice out there that it can be overwhelming! Tuesday Tweaks are the antidote… simple, one-step actions for improving your social media performance week by week.)

Do you know about Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? How would you like to get the benefits for free, just by tweaking what you’re (hopefully) already doing?

Your customers, prospects, partners, and the media all search the internet every day for the information they need. They use Google, Bing, Yahoo and other popular search engines. These search engines now include Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media content in their results.

Bottom line – When people search for information that relates to your business, you want them to find YOU.

Search Engine Optimization simply means that you optimize your online presence (your website and various social media sites) so that when people search the internet, your brand comes up on top. SEO is a crucial part of any successful website or online presence.

Until recently SEO was still a very complex (and expensive) proposition. You hired an SEO specialist to add keywords to your website meta-tags and do a bunch of coding and back-end stuff that most people don’t really understand. Many companies still pay big bucks for SEO consulting to improve their search rankings and get more website traffic.

There’s nothing wrong with that. Many SEO specialists provide very good value.

But I’m going to show you one single tool to drastically improve your SEO – to connect you to your target market – without spending a single extra cent or taking any more time out of your day…

Customer Retention Part 2: Social Media For Building Brand Loyalty (aka Likeability)

Do You Let Customers Get To Know You?

Brand Loyalty is a huge issue for many natural health businesses.

Recently I reported that 68% of customer loss is due to indifference. (ie – They don’t hate you. They’re not dissatisfied. They just don’t care about you enough to choose you over the competition. Painful but true.)

I also suggested that you could retain the majority of these disappearing customers simply by being likeable.

So how does a business demonstrate their like-ability?
Consider this: To KNOW you… is to LIKE you.

How well do you let your customers really get to KNOW you? Is the owner or CEO of your company blogging (or do you just have a generic company website)? Are your sales people encouraged to develop real, caring relationships with customers (or is it “strictly business”)? Are you interacting on your Facebook page (or just posting your latest sales offer)?

Tuesday Tweaks: Hotlink Your Company Website on Your Facebook Fan Page Profile

(There’s so much social media advice out there that it can be overwhelming! Tuesday Tweaks are the antidote… simple, one-step actions for improving your social media performance week by week.)

Today’s Tweak: Hotlink Your Website in Your Facebook Fan Page Profile Box

Part of the reason you have a Facebook Fan page for your business is to direct visitors to your company website right?

So make it easy for them! Many fan pages include a company website address (beginning with www. etc…) in the profile box that appears on their “wall” sidebar (beneath your profile picture).

But you can do better.