Ally Simpson

Social Media for your Ballymena Business

Posted by Ally Simpson | Aug 31, 2015 |

We find it incredible that businesses and business owners still need to be convinced of the power of social media. We have mentioned social media a lot over the past few years. [see more of our posts here] Our aim Ballymena Today will continue to share informative insights here on our blog but perhaps the most important thing we can say is, that you just need to sign up, set up your profile and get using some form of social media for your Ballymena business. Strategy is all well and good and statistics will certainly help you to see what works and what doesn’t but, sometimes you just need to get on with it. What you need to grasp right now is that using social media for your Ballymena business is as important as serving your customers and/or clients in person. How you speak to people, what information you share and how you react from one tweet/status/email to the next… is not rocket science. It does not need deep head scratching debate. Social media users are potential customers and brand advocates for you and your business. They are really important. That fact should inform how you think about and use social media today, tomorrow and the next day. Our Advice Here are our top ten social media tips for your Ballymena business. It’s your business/organisation, you should know what you...

Don’t Automate, find patterns

Posted by Ally Simpson | Aug 25, 2015 |

More and more social media strategies are employing auto-response, auto-retweet, auto-content generation, auto-whatever-possible tools. This goes against the grain of social media and is a recipe for getting out of touch with your constituents. [source] The tension of automating some of your content but not all of it is a challenge. Scheduling posts, auto-tweets and auto-posting to Facebook are the three that we see most used with clients… and, there are other automated actions that do marvellous things and make your life easier online. But if we automate everything then we can get lazy. We won’t engage with people,...

Google is now Alphabet

Posted by Ally Simpson | Aug 14, 2015 |

The name Google is now synonymous with search on the Internet. We don’t ‘use’ Google, we just Google! In the past week Sergey and Larry announced that Google is now Alphabet. [See their post here] What is Alphabet? Alphabet is mostly a collection of companies. The largest of which, of course, is Google. This newer Google is a bit slimmed down, with the companies that are pretty far afield of our main Internet products contained in Alphabet instead. This development won’t change how you and I use Google to search the Internet. Google won’t look any different on the...

Forget the top spot

Posted by Ally Simpson | Aug 7, 2015 |

If you own a small business and have used the Internet in any way at all, then I’m sure someone has tried to pitch you an SEO solution that will guarantee you a top spot on Google. That’s the dream right, to be on the first page of Google’s search findings. There are ways to get you to that top spot quickly but, they are often scams and will use tactics that Google does not approve of. Worse than that, if you are using methods that Google isn’t keen on, they will penalise you and your site. Seriously, forget the top spot Forget the top spot. Focus on the next step you need to take. You have lots to do before page one of Google should be a concern. The best way to get your site indexed higher in search results is to create content that is useful or entertaining, and use keywords and terms people are searching for. Inbound and outbound links will help within your content. Social media traffic plays an important role, as does how quickly your site loads, and how well it appears on mobile devices. Make sense, right? The above quote is from a really useful article on avoiding SEO scams – read the full article here. There is also a great infographic on that article but, we want to keep this post simple...

Customer Service done well

Posted by Ally Simpson | Aug 5, 2015 |

We all enjoy being treated well when we are the customer being served by a business. When we go to the supermarket, meet a friend for coffee, eat at a restaurant, go to the dentist, have our car repaired or go for a haircut… customer service done well makes us happy and keeps us coming back. Bad customer service can turn us off a business for years, maybe forever. It’s important. Ballymena Today top tips for customer service done well • Smile, it costs nothing • Approach people, ask if you can assist them • Give people space, don’t hover around them • The real person in front of you takes priority over phone-calls. Always • Customers don’t need to hear all about your personal life. Be wise with your words • Odd requests from customers should be met with effort to help, not an ‘I don’t know’ • Ask colleagues for help • Never talk about customers in front of other customers • Don’t criticise or blame colleagues in front of customers • Guys are men, don’t refer to female customers are ‘guys.’ Ever • Be confident, friendly, respectful and articulate… work on these a lot Customer service done well is an ever-present learning experience for anyone in business. We need to work hard every time we interact with customers and some people find some aspects easier than others. Working with people,...

Author: Ally Simpson

Customer Service done well

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